Romans 4:9–25 "The Gospel and True Yearnings"

Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah.

! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah,

either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us

that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?

The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian,

we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the

Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do

what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian,

checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us

questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things

that you're really struggling with. So God bless.

Let's just bow our heads in prayer. Father, gosh, your Word is hard to understand sometimes, and

Father, we often don't want to just acknowledge before you that that's the case, but it is. We

have trouble sometimes, Father. And so we ask that your Holy Spirit would lead us and guide us into all

truth, that your Holy Spirit would draw us into your presence, that we might know Jesus and what He did

for us on the cross, that we might know Him ever more deeply as our Savior and as our Lord, and that we

might live, Father, out of that knowledge. And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

So I have several hats. I'm the rector or the senior pastor of this church. I'm also, a year and a half ago,

the bishop of the diocese, like our movement in Canada, asked me if I would take over the

lead role to try to mobilize and initiate more church planting across the country. So I've been in that

role for a year and a half, trying to get something going. But anyway, once a year, there's people like

me scattered around the states, and they bring us all together for a couple of days for prayer,

for discussion, community building, networking, all of that type of stuff. And this year,

they decided to have it in Tucson, Arizona, at a redemptorist retreat center on the edge of a very

large national park in the Sonora Desert. Sonoma? Sonora? I can't remember which one of those two names

for it. Desert. It's very hard to get to Tucson from Ottawa. Not a very easy flight. Anyway,

on my way there on Tuesday, and on my way back on Friday, I had the trips from hell.

Or maybe just a very, very bad case of purgatory.

I almost said something about a particular airport, which I probably shouldn't say. I might get

sued for slander or something. I'll just say this. I spent two and three quarter,

I got up at four o'clock in the morning to catch a flight. Two and three quarter hours,

the flight was delayed. Most of that is spent sitting on a plane on the runway,

always being told we had another 15 minutes. Then we make it to the O'Hare airport. I of course missed

my flight. I now have, I am not making this up, an eight-hour layover in Chicago's O'Hare airport.

And let me guarantee you, being in the O'Hare airport in Chicago is far more like hell than it is like

heaven. And then, even when we're leaving, the flight's delayed another hour. So rather than

getting to Tucson at 11.15 on Tuesday afternoon, I pull in at 11.30 at night, 2.30 in my body's time,

and that's when I finally arrive in Tucson. Coming back, I think it can't be worse. Well, it wasn't worse.

But, delayed in Denver, missed my transfer in Toronto, in Ottawa, and rather than getting home at 9.15

on Friday evening, I pull into my house 2.30 in the morning because of delays to flights.

As I said, more like hell than it is like heaven. But in the middle, I had a series of remarkable

experiences. I mean, obviously there's work and all of that type of stuff, but the retreat center was on

the edge of the desert. And it wasn't perfectly still. There was a road that was clear and nearby. But

the first morning when I woke up, I woke up early because even though I'm jet lagged, it's still,

I'm still on Ottawa time, not the three-hour time difference in Tucson. And I have to have a cup

of coffee when I wake up. And I go in, I get my cup of coffee, no breakfast for a while, but I have a

a cashy bar and a protein bar. And I sit, I stand and drink my coffee and eat those two bars.

And it's silent and it's still. And you look over a plane and there's mountains all around you.

And it was just glorious.

You can see the mountains in the east in shadow. You can see the mountains in the west with the sun

fully shining on them. And there's several times while I was there, there was another time I was

talking to my wife. We had a bit of a team building exercise by going for a two and three-quarter hour

hike in the desert. And I come back from that and I'm having a coffee and I'm in the shade

and it's beautiful temperature. And I'm looking out over the mountains. I'm talking to my wife.

And there's another time I had just before I'm coming back. And I've just had a really,

really nice meal. And the temperature's perfect. And the sky is blue. And there's mountains all around.

And you just have one of those transcendent types of moments.

Like maybe some of you have had it maybe going canoeing. Maybe it's around a fire. Maybe it's a

good meal with really, really good friends. And you just have this sense of that things are right.

It's like you're taken out of yourself, but you're still yourself. And there's beauty. And it's just

so good. And you have a longing and a yearning that there would be more of this. And yet at the

same time, you know that what you're, like, even the desire to know that there must be something more

is in and of itself a type of pleasure. It's you're experiencing, I'm experiencing a type of yearning for,

well, in our secular world, we don't know what to say. And in fact, one of the things about the

secular world is what is really real in our secular world. My experience after having a really, really

wonderful meal in the desert, surrounded by the mountains with beautiful temperature and beautiful

sky and just really feeling at peace and at home with the universe, is that the most real?

Or is the O'Hare airport the most real?

And you know, from outside the Christian faith, there's no way to even try to figure that out.

But one of the things which is so wonderful is that the Bible, in just one little word,

it introduces a brand new category. And for us as Christians, we understand that that moment,

I mean, on one level, of course, the O'Hare experience of breaking down and not things working,

and nobody takes any type of responsibility for it, or offers to help you. Customer service

sucks. Like, all of that part of that experience, right? That's obviously real.

But for Christians, we understand that those senses, that type of longing or yearning for something more,

and as I said, it could be in different ways. Maybe, you know, I've also had that in a little

bit in a small way, singing in a certain type of context. I can well imagine that athletes have it

when things are just working perfectly. Maybe creatives get it too when the dance just works

perfectly, or the recital just works perfectly, and there's just something fitting and right.

And you have a sense that it opens up into something transcendent and big and real,

and that is in the background, the foreground in just one word, but in the background of what all

this text is trying to get at. And all I'll be able to do is just not, this isn't a, like a commentary

exercise where I'll try to explain every phrase, but just to try to get that aspect of the argument

as it flows through the text. So if you're with me, the Bible says something very profound about this,

and very hopeful. So if you take your Bibles, actually, I forgot to ask Claire, we're going

to begin at verse 7 of Romans chapter 4. If you have your own Bibles, please follow along.

Romans 4 · chapter mention

And this is how it goes in Romans chapter 4, verse 7, and then we'll get to what Owen just read.

Romans 4:7

And he's quoting from Psalm 32, and he says,

Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man or woman

against whom the Lord will not count his sin. And this is this idea that, you know, if you think

about it for a second, you can't have that experience. If there is, in fact, a blessedness,

and there is something more, I can't be in that if I am the same person with my sin and selfishness

and the bad things I do. Something has to take that away for me to fully enter into whatever that big

reality is that's transcendent and just big and beautiful. And when you're in it, you have a sense

that I was made for this. I was designed and created for this. And if that is to be at all my experience,

then this whole notion, which is bringing to a close what we looked at last week, this idea that

somehow or another that the wrong things you've done are all been forgiven. When it says the sins are

covered, it doesn't mean that they're covered up. It's like if you go out to a really, really nice

bill and then a meal in it, and then you see to your horror how much money you've spent, and somebody

says, I'll cover that. That's the meaning there. I'll cover that. I got it covered. And then once again,

this whole idea of the God's not even going to count them against us. There's something else which

is going on. And then it goes here in verse 9, and here's where the translation isn't very accurate.

You get a sort of a hint at it, but it's missing something more foundational. In verse 9, it said,

is this, not blessing, is this blessedness? Is this blessedness? Then only for the circumcised or

also for the uncircumcised? I'll just read it, and then I'll go back. Why on earth does he go from

blessedness to circumcised? Like, what? If you're wondering that, that's good. You know, if you don't

have honest intellectual reactions and emotional reactions to the text, you'll never grow. Like,

go ahead and say, what? You go from blessedness to circumcision? Like, who in their right mind would

go like that? Go ahead and say that. But then let's pause with the text and see that actually, Paul,

the scriptures are in their most profoundly right mind because it's talking about something profoundly

human that makes us miss what God desires to give us. So I'll just read it. So is this blessedness

only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that the faith was,

that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. I'll explain this in a moment. How then was it

counted to him? Was it before or after he was circumcised? It was not after, but before he was

circumcised. Abraham received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith

while he was still uncircumcised. And the word righteousness there, I'll talk about it more in a

moment. It means right with God. Just think of right with God. Not that you're perfect, but that you're

right with God. Then it continues, the purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without

being circumcised, so that being right with God 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. Okay, this is all pretty crazy.

So why on earth is he talking about circumcision? So on one hand, here I have to bridge two worlds.

On one hand, of course, there's this whole biblical argument that's going on, and one of my big points,

one of the big points of this text is that the heart of faith is believing, taking God at his word.

You take God at his word and you believe what he said. That's what faith is. That growing into faith

is just taking him at his word. So on one hand, we're going to take him at his word and look at this,

but he's also talking about a human problem that Christians share. You know why Christians share human

problems? Because we're humans. That's sort of a little bit of a no-brainer, right? We don't change

our species when we give our lives to Christ. And so here, what is the problem with it? The problem is

that people will choose appearances over reality. They'll choose image management over actually being

real. We choose the surface rather than authentic and substance. It's a constant problem. It's a problem

for Jewish people, for Christians, and for every single person who's trying to manage their image

rather than actually be something. And on one hand, we all know that we would rather be authentic

and be than merely appear. A lot of our interpersonal problems is because we're so worried about image

management that we can't and we don't trust the reality of who we are. We know that the reality,

we're embarrassed and ashamed about the reality of who we are, so we keep things at an arm's distance

and we're terrified and worried that people will pierce through that and we'll discover that,

well, we're not as good as we talked as if we were, that we're not as whole or holy, that there's

things shameful and bad and evil about us that we don't want people to touch. And so there's this

profound human tendency. And so what's going on here is that Paul goes through a biblical argument to show

that God makes a promise to Abraham and that he will provide this offspring that will be life for the

whole world and a blessing for the whole world. And when Abraham believes God and believes what God said,

God brings him into blessedness, a right relationship with him. And circumcision is used rather than the

word Jewish because that's something external to show that what Abraham has already got by faith.

And that's why he uses the word circumcision and all of the things around it. Because you see,

it becomes very easy for the Jewish people to focus on those external things and not actually say why

the external things are there. It's as if, you know, I want to go to Tucson, I want to get back to the

retreat center, and there's a sign saying the retreat center is that way, and I stop at the sign rather than

actually going to the retreat center. Like, don't stop at the sign. You go to where the sign is

pointing. Like, what is the sign promising? That's where you go. That's where the reality is. That's

where the substance and the authenticity is. And so, you know, just for people outside the Christian

faith and within, that's why, you know, most people spend more time trying to make themselves look good

in the morning than actually working on their attitudes and their thought life and their plans

and actually being good. Right? Sorry, that's maybe too pointed, but that's true. It can happen with

Christians, you know? You're more concerned with being in the right type of church that's either

completely not hip and progressive or just sufficiently hip or progressive or that has the right type of

walk and the right type of lingo. And, you know, they look at me and say, George, you're the world's

worst Christian. Look at that. This is a tiny, wimpy, little brown leather Bible. Like, real Christians

have big, black, floppy Bibles that open up and walk in a particular way. And we all have it.

And so, Paul is saying here in the Bible, there is this possibility of blessedness.

And blessedness is something that only the triune God can bring you into. Only the triune God can

bring you into blessedness. And blessedness is what this longing and yearning is for. Because,

you see, when we have a longing and yearning for the, when we have those times, you know, where the dance

is just perfect, the music is perfect, the acting is perfect, the math is perfect, the fire is good,

the canoe is good, the meal is good, whatever it is. And we enter into something that we realize is

bigger than us and we touch us. And we know that on one hand, it's more than us, yet it's somehow

another inside of us. And we hope and long that it's not that we have this sense that we're touching

something transcendent and eternal and good and beautiful and true, yet also something deeply

personal. We have this sense of it. And Paul is going to say time and time and time again,

if such a world exists, only God can bring you into it.

The idea that you can somehow manufacture and make that all on your own by your own actions,

the more you think about it, the more ridiculous you realize that is, the more laughable you think

it is. Only God can bring you into that. You see, the word right with God might make us feel a certain

type of way, but at the end of the day, it would be a little bit like me saying, I'm right with the

Air Canada agent who really tried very hard when I was in Toronto to get me on an earlier flight.

And there was nothing she could do because all the flights were full, except this last one that was

supposed to leave at 12.30 after midnight, but didn't leave until after one, because once again,

that was my day. And I could say I'm right with her, but I don't even know her name. I don't really

care about her. And that's how most people might think about God. And that's why Paul introduces this

other concept, to say that in a sense, to be right with God, to be truly right with God, is to be in

blessedness. And you cannot be in blessedness without being right with God. And so Paul is saying that

when you only, if you understand that only God, only the triune God can bring you into blessedness,

then the question is, why do you and I time and time and time and time again choose image management

over reality, lies over truth, appearance over substance, external over depth, the inauthentic

over the authentic? Why do we stop at that? Why is that such a human problem? And when we realize

that that's such a human problem, that emphasizes even more that only God can bring you in to that

which our yearnings and longings point to, which is a blessedness in the triune life of God that is

transcendent and imminent and eternal and good and beautiful and true.

The next bit, once again, I'm not going to be talking about everything in the text. I'm going

to try to trace this argument through it. Like, why...

This next bit tries to get at the fact that we don't want to just trust that only God can do it.

There's still something within us that crazily thinks that even though we are so prone to image

management rather than reality and all of those problems, that somehow we can still get to that by

ourselves. So Paul looks at that in the next few verses. Look at verse 13.

For the promise... Now here's... That's going to be the key word here. The promise.

It's a promise from God. For the promise to Abraham and his offspring, that's ultimately referring to

Jesus, that he would be heir of the world, did not come through the law, that is doing religious good

deeds or religious rituals or your moral performance, but through the righteousness of faith, through having

faith in Christ and in God that makes you right with him. And if you're right with him truly, you're in

blessedness, and if you're in blessedness, you are right with God. For is... If it is the adherence of the

law that is doing the right things and the right rituals and the right religion, who are to be heirs,

then that means that faith... And here the word null and promised is void. It's actually a verb in the

original language. It means it's nullified. Every time you turn away from just trusting in God,

that only God can bring you into blessedness, and that it all depends on him promising to do it,

every time you turn away from that, you're completely and utterly moving away from faith and moving away

from promise. You're saying those things are irrelevant. And then when it says, for the law brings wrath,

but where there is no law, there is no transgression, I'm not going to talk about that. You can ask me about it at a coffee

hour, because it will take five minutes to try to explain, and this is already going to be a pretty big sermon.

What's going on here is this.

And this, you see, and the reason we begin with the Bible, but also bring it back to human experience,

is because Christians are human beings, and so we have this inbuilt tendency to misread

and mishear what God actually says to us. And so we have this tendency of reading the Bible as if it says,

obey the law, and I will bless you. Be good, and I will bless you. Do the right rituals, and I will bless you.

Learn mindfulness, and I will bless you. Learn how to pray like Allah tells you, and I will bless you.

Learn to meditate, and I will bless you. Learn yoga, and I will bless you. Become beautiful, and I will bless you.

All of these different versions, and that's the normal way, and Christians often slide into reading

the Bible in this way, but what God actually says here is this to Abraham. I will bless you.

Believe my promise. Whoa, that's so different. I will bless you. Only I can bring you into blessedness.

I want to bring you into blessedness. I have provided the way to bring you into blessedness.

Believe my word. Believe my promise. Believe my guarantee.

It begins with, I will bless you. I will bring you into blessedness. That's how it begins. Believe my

promise. And if you go the other way, I'm not going to believe your promise, God. I'm not going to

believe you're the one who can bring me into this. No, no. I'm going to work at image management. I'm going

to work at the right type of rituals, and I'm going to do all those things, because then you have to

bless me. The way you do that, all you're doing is walking away from what God desires to give you.

So why about all this talk about faith and belief? And then is it like trying to say that there's some

type of superpower? And is it just believing the right couple of words or having the right type of

experience? Well, let's look at verses 16 to 19. That is why it depends on faith. That is this being in

blessedness, being right with God. That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest

on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring. You see, when you are made right with God and enter into

blessedness, one of the images that is used is that it is as if I become God's child by adoption and grace.

I mean, one of the great truths, one of the takeaways from this sermon for us is that you can face any

situation you're in, both maybe a job interview or some other type of thing or a performance, or you can

look at any type of thing in your life, and you can know that because you put your faith and trust in

the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is God's provision for you to be brought into blessedness by him,

that you know that you can pray to your Father in heaven who is almighty God, and you are his precious

child.

with all your words, with all your problems, with all your shame, with all your weakness, with all your

doubts. I have all of those things. And part of the reason I so desperately need you and I desperately

need times of worship is to be reminded once again with all of you that I have a Father in heaven

who loves me, who is the God of the entire earth, and he is the almighty, everlasting, eternal God,

and he has made me his beloved child by adoption and grace.

I could not accomplish that. If you knew what I was really like, I could never make that happen.

And if you think you can make it happen for yourself, you are deluding yourself.

You are deluding yourself.

You see, faith

is losing delusions about yourself

to take God at his word

and believe his promises and guarantees.

I hope you want to leave your delusions behind

and take God at his word.

I'll continue reading.

Search 16 again.

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.

It is written,

I have made you the father of many people groups.

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, in other words, against all appearances,

against all optimism,

against all types of self-confidence,

against all of his self-assessments,

if he's an optimist against all of his optimism,

if he's a pessimist against all of his pessimism,

if he's arrogant against all of his arrogance,

if he suffers from the world's worst self-identity and feels completely ashamed against all shame,

in hope against all of those other things he believed,

that he should become the father of many nations,

even though, 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.

You see, here's the other thing about faith,

is faith is never against reason,

but it's often against our feelings and appearances.

Faith is always against our delusions,

but it's never against being thoughtful and reflective and thinking.

And the image, so you see, in a sense,

to be, you know,

faith is taking God at his word

and believing him and his promise.

Faith is taking God at his word

and believing in him and his promise.

And so, in a sense,

we have to put to death

our own optimism,

our own pessimism,

our own self-trust,

and all of those types of things.

And it's not that we don't look at the world.

Blessedness,

why do we still look at the world?

Because at the end of the day,

we believe there is a God who does exist,

who's created all things out of nothing,

that is the author

and the giver of all life,

who has raised Jesus from the dead,

which we're going to get to in a moment,

and that's the real world.

That's the real God.

Scientists have never been able to show

how inorganic, lifeless matter

can create life.

What is more reasonable,

to think that a whole pile of chemicals

under a rock gives life,

or that God gives life?

What story is more reasonable?

Sorry.

Really?

Life comes from some chemicals

under a rock?

In a swamp?

Or life comes from God?

Think.

Reflect on him.

Blessedness is something

that only God can bring us into.

Only the true God can do this.

This is the real world.

And so you don't look at the world.

What we learn in faith

is to look at the world,

but do not let the world

circumscribe and limit

who the triune God is,

but let our knowledge

and our understanding

of the triune God

and his promises

and his great love,

that he desires you and me,

despite knowing perfectly

who we are,

that he would make us his child

by adoption and grace,

that he would take away

everything I've done wrong,

everything I'm ashamed of,

all would be laid on Christ

when he died on the cross,

and that the perfect relationship

of Jesus to the Father

and the Holy Spirit,

that that would somehow

be bestowed upon me

and clothe me,

not just in my externals,

but all the way through me.

It would clothe my mind,

my will,

my affections,

my creativity,

my desires,

my longings,

my yearnings,

my body,

my past,

my present,

my future,

all the way through.

Don't let the world

circumscribe what God can do,

but take God at his word

and believe that his promise,

and if the triune God

has made a promise

and guarantees it,

he has guaranteed it.

Why will I stand before God

one day

and be entered into his kingdom?

Not because I have lived

a good life,

not because I am a minister,

but purely and utterly

because I believed God

at his word

and I believe him

and the promise he has made

to bring me into that blessedness

and right relationship with him

when I put my faith and trust

in what God has done

to bring me into that,

and that is what will...

That's it.

The next part,

it's easier to understand

the next little bit

if you think of the Bible story

about Peter walking on the water,

but I'll read the text

and then I'll show you

how it's easier to understand

if you remember that story.

Look at verse 20,

and in verse 20 it says,

no unbelief

made Abraham 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.

So what this is sort of getting

and going back with the hope

and everything like that

against hope,

it's a little bit like

when Peter was walking on the water,

he saw the storms

and he saw the waves

and he saw the wind,

and he's very aware of that,

and he's a fisherman,

and he knows roughly

how deep the water is,

and he knows all of those problems,

but he hears Jesus promise,

ask him to come over to him,

and he believes Jesus at his word,

and so he steps out of the boat

and walks on the water,

and at some point in time,

looking at the water,

he takes his eyes off of Jesus

and looks at the water,

and then he sinks,

but he does not drown

because Jesus has called him

to himself,

and even when Peter's faith is weak

and his eyes waver and wander,

it is the strong word

and promise of Jesus

which is our guarantee

so that even as Peter sinks,

the strong arm of Jesus

reaches out and grabs him

and brings him into the boat.

Jesus brings him into the boat.

That's so beautiful.

That is the Christian hope.

So why all this language of counting?

I talked about this more last week

because the fundamental way

that we tend to think of

how we're going to be made right with God

is that, you know,

I went to church these many times,

and I read my Bible.

As a Christian,

I read my Bible these many times,

and I repented of these sins

these many times,

and I'm making all of these things

over here,

and that's sort of how I think,

and then over here

is the bad things I've done,

but you're pretty confident

at the end of the day

when you die,

the good things in your life

all get added up,

and the bad things get added up,

but the good things outweigh the bad,

and now God has some type of obligation

to get you in,

to allow you into heaven,

and then, of course,

I said last week

we used the analogy

that God doesn't even think

in those categories.

He says if you put your faith

and trust in Jesus,

and in a sense,

it's like a person

who's completely and utterly impoverished

and is being chased

by all sorts of people

marrying a billionaire,

and all those debts are covered,

and here there's a different,

you know,

a different type of,

and the problem with all of that

type of language

is that we think we can control

and obligate God

by our good deeds.

I haven't told this story in a while,

but back when we were still

in the building

and we were taking a stand

on certain issues

of biblical faithfulness

and the guy was opposed to it,

and he said to me,

would you change what you do

if I told you

I'm going to stop giving money

to the church?

And as soon as he said that,

his wife,

who was drinking coffee,

had one of those experiences

where the coffee went the wrong way

and she snorted it out her nostrils,

and she laughed and said,

honey,

you're going to have to give

a lot more money

if you think

that's going to have

any impact on him.

I mean,

he probably gave $20

every four months

when he showed up

and thinks he was giving us

a big deal.

But we're like that with God.

Really?

Oh, wow,

I am so impressed.

You went to church 25 times

like in 2016.

Like, really?

Really?

How's that going to give me

blessedness?

That doesn't make any sense.

Only God can bring me

into blessedness.

And all he asks

is that I believe,

take him at his word

and believe him

and believe what he promised.

And look again

at what he promised.

It can be seen

in the last verses,

23 to 25.

This is now us.

Oh, sorry,

I'm looking at the wrong here.

23 to 25.

But the words,

it was counted to him,

were not written

for his sake alone.

In other words,

when we just believe God,

so the normal human way

is to think of,

you know,

he's adding up the good and bad

and all of that.

But no, no, no, no.

What we need to understand

is this.

It's when you put your faith

and trust in Jesus

and you believe,

because God has promised

that if you put your faith

and trust in Jesus

who died the death

that you deserve

and lived the life

you cannot live

and suffered death

and tasted all there is

to taste of death

and then rose from the dead,

and if you believe

that that is God's provision

for you to enter

into blessedness,

then he takes you.

Only he can bring you

into blessedness,

and all that counting

doesn't matter.

What matters

is that God has brought you

into blessedness.

That's what matters.

But the words,

verse 23,

it was counted to him,

were not written

for his sake alone,

that's in Genesis 15,

but for ours,

yours and mine.

It will be counted to us

who believe into God,

who raised from the dead,

Jesus our Lord,

who was delivered up

for our trespasses

and raised for our justification.

And that's the image

that I was trying to get,

is that when we believe

that God has provided this way

and we believe him,

we believe his promise,

and we accept that

that's the way

by trusting Jesus

as our Savior and Lord,

and he guarantees

bringing us into blessedness,

it begins on this side

of the grave

in little tiny seeds,

and on the other side

of the grave,

it will be seen

in all of its fullness,

and as I go through

the trials

and the problems

and then temptations

of this world,

I am invited time

and time and time again

in the midst of it

to remember

that I have to

take God at his word,

there's nothing I can do

other than take God

at his word

and believe his promise

and live out of his promise,

and when I live

out of his promise

in gratitude,

I will start to live

in very, very, very

different ways,

even to the point

of every time

I had those experiences

while I was in Tucson,

I just said,

God, you are such

a good God,

and I'm not saying this

because I am

particularly holy,

but because we live

out of the promise

of God to us,

and when you live

out of that promise,

you begin to live

out of gratitude

and see the world

in a different way,

you begin to live

in the real world,

and this image

of the death

means that everything

bad has been covered,

has been dealt with

in a way that is just,

we'll talk about that

more in coming weeks,

and this idea

of being justified,

it's the same word

as rightness,

the rightness of Jesus

comes upon me

and into every level

and part

and nuance

and crack

of me

and all my depths

and in all my future

and all my breadth

and all my width

and all my height

and my lower,

it comes

and clothes

all of me.

All of me

is his,

I belong

to him

when I take him

at his word

and believe his promise.

Just want to say

one other thing

before we close.

If you just look

at verse 20 again,

yeah,

20

of chapter 4,

there's a really

good lesson here

about how to grow

in our faith.

Look what it says.

It says here,

no unbelief

made him waver

concerning the promise

of God.

So part of it

is just remembering

the promise of God.

But here,

look at the main thing.

He grew strong

in his faith

as he gave glory

to God.

He grew strong

in his faith

as he gave glory

to God.

Give him glory.

Give him glory.

Think about

who he is.

Think about

his attributes.

As you read

the Bible,

look at

what the truth

he wants us to know,

the promises

he wants us to believe,

the wisdom

he wants to share,

and ask him

to make it more real

in your heart

and the heart

of your loved ones

and thank him.

Give him glory

for the precious promises

and his wisdom

and the truth

and for who he is.

And in all things,

just say,

Father,

I do not deserve

your favor,

but you are so kind

and so loving

and so good

and so gentle

that you would call

me to hear

your promise

and that you,

by your Holy Spirit,

would enable me

to take you

at your word

and believe

your promise

to believe

in Jesus

as the way

that you

will bring me

at the end

into blessedness.

I invite you

to stand.

Thank you.

bow our heads

in prayer.

Father,

I give you

thanks and praise

that you know

each one of us

so perfectly.

You know

each

false front

that we have,

each illusion

and delusion

that we

wrap our minds

around

or we hide

behind

and to hide

from ourselves

and hide

from other people

and you know

everyone that we've

ever used

and everyone

that we will use

and you see

through all of those

things,

knowing them all

to see us

as we really are

and you loved us.

You love us.

and you did not

turn your face

away from us

when you see

all the false

identities

and idols

and arrogance

and wounds

and our excellence.

Father,

you don't turn

your eyes away

from us

but still you love us

and sent your son

and promised

that when we put

our faith and trust,

when we take you

at your word

and believe

in your promise

and put our faith

in Jesus

that Father,

you may

make us right

with you

in a way

which means

that we will dwell

and be in blessedness

for all eternity,

blessedness

of new resurrection bodies,

the blessedness

of a renewed

earth and heavens

and you do

all of that

for us

and so Father,

we ask that you

would promise

that we would

help us

to believe

that promise

and then live

out of that promise

day by day.

And so Father,

we thank you

and we ask

that you would

do this work

in our lives

and we ask

all of this

in the name

of Jesus,

your son

and our savior

and all God's

people said,

amen.