God's Promise is Fulfilled Through Faith
Romans: Unashamed - Building the Church through the Gospel • Sermon • Submitted
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Review Sermon Theme - Unashamed - Building the Church through the Gospel
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Review last weeks sermon in a sentence - Abraham Became our Spiritual Father So God Could be our Heavenly Father!
ENGAGE
Grab attention to set the stage for the encounter of the text -
What’s next? Look at the text!
ENCOUNTER
I know of a two young men who’s parents got divorced when he was twelve and ten years old. This devastated them. They did their best to move on through this new normal but it got worse for them.
Their dad would promise to stop by and pick the boys up from their mom’s on a specific time on a specific day. Of course as the time rolled around the boys would be staring out the front picture window craning their necks to see if their dad driving down the road to pick them up.
He never came. Promise broken.
This happened on many occasions and it not only broke their hearts, is ushered in years of challenge for these boys. Especially the older son.
Alcohol numbed the pain of this twelve year old boy. It took the place of a promise breaking father.
Do you think our God keeps His promises?
Do you think there are any times where God say, “I’ll let this promise go because I have something more important to do?”
Do you think God ever breaks His Word?
The answer is a resounding, NO!
In fact you can stake your eternal life on God keeping His Word.
Today we are looking at three verses from Romans 4 that help us to understand this one truth...
Big Idea - Faith in God’s Promise Nullifies the Wrath of God’s Law
Unlike the father of those two boys who broke his promise to them over and over. We have a God who NEVER breaks His word.
And our Faith in God’s promise nullifies the wrath that comes by breaking God’s Law!
As we walk through this passage together, this should begin to make more sense.
First, let’s take a look at the kind of promise God makes. Romans 4:13
One Mind-Blowing Promise!
Thirty years ago, Angie Veltman promised to be my wife for the rest of her life. “Until death do us part.” If you know me well, you know that’s a pretty huge promise to make! She is a gracious woman for sure. Perhaps she didn’t fully understand what she was getting into?!
God understands His promises well. And this promise to Abraham and his descendants is breathtaking!!! Look at verse 13 with me...
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.
Do you see the Mind-Blowing promise here?
In Genesis 12:7, God promises the land of Israel to Abram and his descendants.
7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
God promised Abram the Promised Land in chapter 12! Not simply to Abram but to his σπέρματι! His offspring, his descendants!
But you’ll notice in verse 13, Paul words do not limit this promise to the land of Israel. Paul declares that Abraham and his descendants will inherit the world! Where does he get this idea from?
First we see an expansion of the promise in chapter 15...
1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
His offspring will number like the innumerable stars in the heavens. Certainly more than the little chunk of land, Israel, can hold. God isn’t thinking about Abraham’s space and time. He is thinking well beyond it.
But then we see a further expansion in Genesis 17!
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
God’s promise to the newly minted Abraham is that he would not simply be the father of one nation but of a multitude of nations!
Ultimately he and his offspring “would be heir of the world.”
How can this be? How can Abraham be the father of a multitude of nations?
Because through the one man, Abraham came the Nation of Israel and through the Nation of Israel came the One Man, Jesus Christ who is the SAVIOR of all Nations - to them that BELIEVE!
“The covenant established with Abraham had far reaching consequences and became the controlling covenant throughout history. The Davidic (2 Sam 7:8-16; Ps 89) and the New covenants (Jer 31:31-33; Luke 22:15-20) are organically related to the Abrahamic as developments of the seed and blessing aspects, respectively. The establishment of the millennial kingdom at Christ’s second advent is the final great fulfillment of this covenant in human history. At that time (and indeed on into the eternal state), one will be able to say that our father Abraham has become the heir of the world.” https://bible.org/print/book/export/html/2342
How is this possible? FAITH! Faith counted Abraham Righteous before God and so it is with anyone who exercises Faith in Christ!
Friends - here’s the deal! Here’s the mind blowing promise to Abraham - he is an heir to the COSMOS! And so are you if you are in Christ!
Everything that is Jesus’ is yours! What?!
Question for you - Do you believe this Mind-Blowing Promise?
Transition - Faith in God’s Promise Nullifies the Wrath of God’s Law
One Mind-Blowing Promise!
Do you believe God?
Next...
One Horrifying Problem!
Have you ever believed something - I mean really believed something - only to find out it wasn’t true after all?
I did - I always believed and my church taught me that I needed to be a good person to go to heaven. And that my work for God helped make me a good person.
And when I finally realized what I believed wasn’t so, I was angry for a while. God’s grace helped me overcome the anger, but man! I had a huge paradigm-shift in my thinking. It was profound too because my former way of thinking would have sent me to Hell.
Similarly, the Jews believed because of the Mosiac Law (the Law that God gave to Moses in Gen-Deut = 613 laws) had been given to them, they had a special “in” with God. They thought that the law made them right with God. They missed the point that the mosaic law was never meant to save.
In fact, the Law cannot save at all, but there is something that it can do and it does it very well - condemn. Look at what Paul says in verses 14-15a...
14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
Who are the “adherents of the law?” The Jews - the ones who took great pride in their relationship with the law. The ones known for their law-keeping and their affinity for their (exclusive) relationship with Abraham. Remember they thought Abraham was justified by his work of circumcision.
Jesus had some rather strong words for the Jewish leadership that were particularly prideful of their position.
37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.” 39 They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, 40 but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. 41 You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.”
28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
Paul, to destroy the argument of those Jews who believed it was the Mosiac law that saves, uses a powerful hypothetical question. And it goes like this...
If the promise of God is only for those who obey the law of Moses, then faith is not necessary at all and the promise of God to Abraham and ALL of his descendants that we see in Genesis chapter 12-17 are null and void.
Oops! The Jews that loved and revered Abraham so much just got schooled on the fact that if they hold to the Law, God’s personal promise to Abraham is no good! Mic drop for the Apostle Paul!
To top it all off, Paul reminds the church at Rome what the Law does deliver in spades. God’s wrath.
What do I mean?
Well, the law does have a job to do and that job is to point out that no Jew could ever live up to it’s exacting, perfect, and holy standards.
10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
The law points everyone to the only one who keeps it!
21 Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
We are sons and daughters of God, not by working to appease God, but by faith in God the Son, Jesus Christ.
If we insist on living by the law, all we have to look forward to is the wrath of God being poured on us for all eternity in Hell.
My friend. I’m certain there is at least one person within the sound of my voice that doesn’t fully understand the Gospel - and today is the day that God might open your heart to understand this profound truth.
You cannot get into a relationship with God or get into His heaven by your own merits. You are spiritually bankrupt. You have nothing to offer but the sin that qualifies you for salvation.
You are adrift in the see of sin and lostness. No hope to save yourself from drowning. There is only one that can rescue you - Christ Jesus the Lord.
Will you, in faith reach out to Him? Will you call out to Him to save you? Even now in you heart? Ask Him to save you and trust that He is a God who keeps his promises?
“If you call upon the name of the Lord you WILL be saved.”
Do not continue to sit in your sin and pride. Be rescued by the only one who can, God Himself - Jesus Christ!
Following the Law. Living a good life. Being a good person cannot and will not save you. Jesus Can and will! In faith, the same faith that Abraham exercised so long ago, call upon the name of Jesus.
Because, you know what? There is no other name that has the power to save like the powerful and strong name of Jesus!
If you don’t, you continue to live with One Horrifying Problem.
Transition - Faith in God’s Promise Nullifies the Wrath of God’s Law
One Mind-Blowing Promise!
One Horrifying Problem!
Do you believe God?
One last thought...
One Astonishing Blessing!
I love the simplicity of the Gospel. It is an either or choice. In the paraphrased words of God from the book of Deuteronomy.
If you obey me, I will bless you. If you don’t, I will curse you.
It is God’s law that WILL bring ETERNAL Judgement for all who try to live by it.
or
God has a better plan. Look at the end of verse 15...
15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
What does Paul mean “where there is no law?”
The Jewish Christians need not depend on the law - because the Mosaic Law for the Christian is gone.
How do I know the Law is gone?
Because Jesus said so.
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
When Christ hung on the cross, He satisfied the Wrath of God.
The wrath that comes from breaking God law - which we have all done ad infinitum, ad nausium.
But Jesus did what you couldn’t do, fulfill the Law and He did it on your behalf.
If you are in Christ you are free! Free from sin. Free from the consequence of sin. Free from the penalty of sin!
Your sin has been removed as far as the east is from the west.
The law brings condemnation. In Jesus there is therefore now no condemnation.
John Bunyan, the tinkerer turned author of many books, the most famous being “Pilgrim’s Progress.” Every Christian should read this book.
John Bunyan said these beautiful words to demonstrate the difference between the Law and the Gospel.
“‘Run, John, run.’ The Law commands but gives neither feet nor hands. Better news the Gospel brings; it bids me fly and gives me wings.”
The law will kill you if you try to live up to it.
The law will point you to the One who can save you from the wrath of God.
You, my friend, can stop running endlessly in your attempt to please God.
You, my friend, can be free in Christ!
EMPOWER
Combination of Exhortation, Animation, and ultimately Application of the preacher’s words to make space for God’s power to flow.
Faith in God’s Promise Nullifies the Wrath of God’s Law
One Mind-Blowing Promise! - Do you believe God?
One Horrifying Problem! - Do you believe God?
One Astonishing Blessing! - Do you believe God?
You don’t tell them about a truth: you give an experience of it.
Don’t turn into powerless moralism
In the life of Jesus, those hypotheticals become actuals
Jesus becomes the stories he tells
The message becomes about Jesus
Connection Group Reflection Questions
1. What do these verses teach me about our character?
2. What do these verses teach me about God and his character?
3. Because these words are from God, they are TRUTH! What truth is he asking me to believe?
4. What do I need to do to obey him?
5. With whom can I share these truths?