Treasure For All

Introduction

This morning you can turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 4. If you didn’t bring a Bible we have one for you up here. Romans 4 is on page (number here). You can also open your Bible App and follow along with us by going to the events page and clicking on Covenant Life Church.

As we start into chapter 4 Paul is continuing to make his case about righteousness, salvation and where our hope for peace with God lies.

And as we think about the text today I want to frame it in the context of a treasure hunt.

In Matthew 13:44 Jesus tells a parable about a great treasure in a field that is worth everything a person owns.

Imagine that someone came to you and said, “I know about a treasure that is worth more than anyone owns. And anyone can have it—I can tell you where it is and how you can get it!”

Would you be interested to know more? Would you take that trip to obtain it?

Our text is about this very same treasure.

And as we prepare for the expedition Paul helps us think through some helpful questions: I. How do you obtain it? (1-4) II. What is it? (7-8) III. Who can obtain it? (9-16)

Let’s read the passage and then we’ll answer these questions.

Romans 4:1–16 ESV

What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, 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 due. 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 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 adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,

Takeaway: There is a treasure that is worth all of your life.

I. How Do You Obtain the Treasure? (1-4)

As Paul starts to make his arguments regarding this treasure he brings up Abraham and asks the question:

Romans4:1 “What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?”

And Paul does this because when it comes to the treasure and the truth of it—Abraham was key.

For the person of faith Abraham is very important—our text says “he is the father of us all”

And the Jews that Paul is writing to Abraham was the model of what they should be. He had a righteous life before God—God chose Abraham because of his righteousness.

The Jews would put their hope and their promise in the fact that they were the descendants of Abraham—they believed the promises given to Abraham were for him and his “physical seed” “his physical descendants”. They, in one sense were untouchable in their right to YHWH. We see this confidence and John the Baptists response to it in...

Luke 3:7-9 “He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.”

John the Baptist is saying, “Don’t have confidence in the fact that you are physical descendants of Abraham.”

And Paul has been making the case that Abraham and the sign of circumcision is not what saves the Jew or anyone else.

And what we may fail to understand how mind blowing this is for them!

Friday on the way to school chaos erupted in the van because my oldest son said that “Orvilee and Wilbur Wright were not the first to invent manned flight.”

Why did Chaos ensue? Because he was taking a well known “fact” and he was challenging it!

“Everybody know North Carolina was ‘First in Flight’ It’s right there on the license plate!

Plus I was already hurting. We already lost the National Championship to Kansas—and now you are trying to take flight from us!

Take any “well known fact” and challenge it and you’ll understand how the Jews in Rome were feeling.

“Paul, everyone knows that salvation belongs to the Jews. Everyone knows that we have peace with God because we are his people.”

But Paul has been saying shocking things—and using Scripture to say them. Things like:

The Jew has no advantage over the gentile.

The law cannot save a person.

When it comes to earning salvation everybody is doomed.

And so this leads Paul to anticipate the question we see in verse one of our passage.

Q. What did Abraham gain by the flesh then?

And the answer is nothing. He gained nothing by the flesh. This is clear as we continue

Romans 4:2 “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.”

IF Abraham was justified—made righteous—declared innocent—by his works he could boast about this.

Last week Mark Lindsey made it clear to us that boasting that salvation has come to us by our effort is excluded.

Romans 3:27 “Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.”

Romans 4:3 “For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.””

Genesis 15:6 “And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”

If Abraham was going to boast he couldn’t do it before God because scripture is clear righteousness was counted to Abraham not because of his works, but because of his faith.

Paul brings his listeners face to face with Genesis—to an explicit text—and then he expounds further on it.

Romans 4:4 “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.”

Just prior to this Paul says in Romans 3:24 “and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,”

Salvation is a gift that is give by grace. If it was earned through works it wouldn’t be a gift, but it would be owed.

When you work a job and get your check—that’s not a gift, your employers isn’t giving you a gift—they are giving you what is owed to you.

But Paul’s point when it comes to this great treasure is that we cannnot earn it. It comes to us as a gift of grace. We obtain the treasure through faith in God’s promise. (We are gonnna come back and touch on this before the morning is up)

Transition: So now we have answered the question: How do we obtain the treasure. Now let’s keep moving and answer...

II. What is the Treasure? (5-8)

Paul wants it to be very clear what the treasure is. Because the Jews were thinking that the peace with God was earned through works—through the law—through keeping themselves pure.

But that’s fools gold. It has a false luster. It can look nice, but it has no ability to save. It has power in appearance, but no power to deliver a person from judgment.

Jesus warns us against this in Matthew 6. He says don’t practice your righteousness for all to see. If your goal is to be seen being “good” then you get your reward when people see you. But you won’t receive a reward from God. Because your works are false.

It’s like giving money to a person who needs it and taking an instagram selfie while you do it!” Or taking a picture of your Bible study and coffee and putting it out there. Don’t worry about what others see, know that God sees and be content.

I know it’s a good picture—I’ve been guilty of it too.

Jesus continues in Matthew 6 and says don’t pray out loud with lots of words trying to sound smart, don’t fast with ashes on your head so everyone can see it.

The point is that works that are pleasing to God are works that are a result of faith.

The Apostle James, speaking about the works of Abraham says, in James 2:22 “You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;”

Works that flow from faith are what matters and faith is validated by our good works.

But we must know that the treasure we are seeking is not a peace with God wrought by good works. As we continue in the text Paul wants this to be clear:

Romans 4:5–8 ESV

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.”

To the one who does not look to his works to save him, but to the one who believes in God’s promise to justify, to make innocent the ungodly—it is to this person who looks not to himself, but to God for salvation—they are made righteous.

Paul quotes David—the greatest king in Israel—First Abraham, now David—and he’s saying to his brothers— “I know this seems counterintuitive to you, but Abraham’s righteousness wasn’t his works, it was his faith. And brothers, David agrees!”

“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven...”

Paul has covered this ground, but it bears repeating.

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

All people are people who have lawless deeds. All people are those who need forgiveness. And when we receive that forgiveness it is a great and unmatched blessing. It is the the greatest treasure in the world.

Paul continues. “Those whose sins are covered. Blessed is the person whose sins are not counted against them by God.”

Hebrews 4:13 “And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

We all stand dripping with the guilt of sin, we all have worked hard in sin and Romans 6:23 says “For the wages of sin is death...”

What is the treasure? It’s not that your works will save you, it’s that despite what you’ve earned with your works you’ll receive life.

In Jesus—God covers your unrighteousness with righteousness.

Jesus our sacrifice covers us with his righteous blood and washes away our sin and guilt.

This is the treasure that is worth all that anyone has.

Everything you have is worth this treasure. All of your life.

Q. If you have this treasure are you living in a manner worthy of it? Does this treasure define you? Or have you added to your shelf of other “treasures”?

I want to encourage you to clean off the shelf in your life—take all the things that you hold as “treasures” and trash them—place this gospel—this good news of Jesus there and treause it. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be.

Transition: Okay, now we know that treasure is obtained through faith in Jesus. We know that the treasure is the righteousness of Christ covering us. Our next question is...

III. Who Can Obtain this Treasure? (9-12)

Now to us this may seem fairly obvious, but to the original audience of Paul it was anything but.

That’s why Paul repeats it over and over again. Salvation is for all who believe.

In Acts when the Gentiles are being saved the Jews are shocked!

Acts 10: 44-45 “While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles.”

Let’s talk about presuppositions for a minute.

The Jews had powerful presuppositions. And sometimes were hard on them because we are looking back through redemptive history with a complete canon of Scripture and we say, “How could they have missed Jesus!”

A presupposition is something that we pre- suppose before hand. As the Jews in Jesus day looked at the Scriptures they pre supposed that the messiah would come in power as a conquering king and overthrow Rome. Their presupposition colored the Scriptures and influenced them.

This happens to Nicodemus in John 3.

Nicodemus is talking to Jesus and is trying to recruit him to his side. And Jesus starts to teach Nicodemus about what it takes to be part of his kingdom—Jesus’ kingdom.

And he says, John 3:3 “Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.””

And Nicodemus is flustered here. Jesus says, “Nicodemus, you have to be born of water—that is “natural birth” and you have to be born of the Spirit. Nicodemus says, “how can this be!”

And Jesus responds to him, John 3:10 “Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?”

Jesus seems to think that what he is saying should not be shocking news to Nicodemus. Why? Because Nicodemus is a teacher of the law, a Pharisee—a teacher of teachers.

By the time Nicodemus was 10 he would have memorized the first 5 books of the law. And as he continued his career he would be intimately familiar with the writings and the prophets. He was an expert of God’s word.

And yet—what Jesus is saying is shocking to him and Jesus thinks that it should be plain. And Jesus isn’t being sarcastic.

Look at Ezekiel 36:25-27 with me...

God gives a promise through the prophet Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 36:25–27 ESV

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

And then in Ezekiel 37 God gives an object lesson. He tells Ezekiel to prophesy over dry bones and flesh and sinews come on them and the Spirit of God enters them giving them life.

Jesus says that Nicodemus should know that one must be born of the Spirit because the prophet Ezekiel already said it!

What happened?

Nicodemus had some presuppositions that didn’t include being born again.

The thing about presuppositions is that everyone has them. We get them from where we were raised, from our friends, the church we grew up in or didn’t grow up in. These things shape our worldview and they shape our worldview. And when it comes to Scripture they’ll rob us of seeing what is in the text—seeing what is clear there.

Point of Application: When you come to the text of Scripture don’t come reading into it what you already believe. Let scripture speak to you and then shape your belief around what it says. If you’ve been taught well often times you’ll find that Scripture says what you’ve been taught, but we should always be willing to drop our presuppositions and replace them with the teaching of Scritpure. Amen?

The Jews that Paul was writing to had presuppositions about who salvation was for. They believed that unless you were an Israelite that you could not have peace with God. Salvation is for the Jews.

In Acts they were shocked that the Gentiles were receiving the Holy Spirit just as they had.

How could the Gentiles who were not in covenant with God—How could the gentiles who had not received circumcision the sign of their special covenant be receiving the same Spirit of God that they were? Paul is answering this question in our text.

Romans 4:9-10 “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.”

What’s the point? The sign devoid of faith is useless. It’s the faith by which righteousness comes.

Romans 4:11a “He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.

Circumcision was a seal of the righteousness that is obtained by faith. Circumcision without faith was useless.

There is no salvific power in the sign. The physical sign is a grace from God to us as a reminder of what is spiritually true.

Does Baptism save? No. Otherwise Jesus couldn’t say to the thief of the cross that he would see him in paradise.

Does the Lord’s Supper save? No.

The sign is a seal of the righteousness had by faith.

What signifies us as the Lord’s is faith and the sign we receive, then circumcision, now baptism, is a seal of that faith that we have.

As Paul continues in Romans 4:11 he says...

Romans 4:11-12 “The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, 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 who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.”

Abraham is not just the Father of the Jews—he is the Father of the Faithful!

Abraham is not the father of those who adhere to the law only. He is the Father of the faithful who live out God’s law from their status as saved children of God who have been covered by the blood of Jesus!

This is what Paul states outright to the Jews in

Romans 4:13–16 ESV

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,

Who can obtain this treasure? All those who have the faith of Abraham!

What is the faith of Abraham?

Believing that God will do what he promised—it’s believing God.

God the Son came to earth and took on flesh. Jesus is the God man who is fully God and fully man.

Jesus says in John 14:6 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Peace with God is through Jesus. The truth is that Jesus is the way that we have peace and eternal life with God.

Earlier we quoted Romans 6:23. “For the wages of sin is death.”

Does anyone know the rest of the verse? Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Matthew 17:5 and Mark 9:7 record the same thing. Jesus is transfigured on the top of the mountain into his glory and Moses and Elijah appear there before him and the disciples see all of this and God speaks, “This is my son in whom I am well pleased, listen to him.

The Bottom Line

Every single one of us have the offer this morning of a great treasure that is worth giving away all that we have and are.

What is this treasure? It is the complete forgiveness of your sins, past, present, and future. It is going from being dead in sin to alive in Christ. It’s being given the Spirit of God—it’s having God the Holy Spirit reside within you. It’s being adopted as a son or a daughter of God.

This treasure changes your entire eternity.

How do you obtain it? Through faith. You can’t earn it—you have to receive it.

Who can obtain it? You. If you are hearing this message this morning and you have not placed your faith in Christ—God is calling you to do that today. This morning!

If you already obtain this treasure: What do we do with it?—make it the premier treasure of your life! Walk in a manner that is worthy of it. Share this treasure. Let others know how they too can have it.

What will you do with this treasure this morning?

Let’s pray.

Discussion Question: What is God calling you to do with the treasure of the gospel?