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Grace Notes Sermon Ministry:
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The Gospel According to Abraham
Romans 4:1-8
3:31 asked if the OT was
void because of saving faith?
God forbid! Now look at how he
illustrates that saving faith is in the OT.
vv. 1-8
Paul spends a lot of time
on justification because our nature tries to clothe ourselves with
righteousness in the form of fig leaves, but we are not truly clothed with
righteousness until God does the clothing.
ill.--Naaman the leper
wanted to do something to be healed, not just trust.
Illustrations help us
understand. They are tools.
They are windows thru which truth can shine into our hearts.
They are tacks that help nail truths down solidly into our
foundation. Watch Paul
illustrate Justification.
People in the OT were saved
by faith just as we are. They
looked forward to the cross, and we look back to it.
Hebrews 11 uses the term
'by faith' 21 times in reference to how OT saints were saved.
ill.--H. A. Ironside was
traveling and dropped in on a s.s. class.
The unprepared teacher asked how OT saints were saved and somebody
said, by keeping the law. The
teacher said, correct! Ironside
raised his hand and said, Rom. 3:28 says it's not by the law.
The teacher said, oh, that's right, sorry.
So how were OT saints saved?
Somebody else said, by making sacrifices.
Correct! Ironside raised
his hand and said, Hebrews says the blood of bulls and goats is not
sufficient. Oh yeah...why don't
you just tell us how! "The same
way we are today, by faith!"
Abraham and David are our
illustrations now...
Abe was before the law, and
David was under the law, and we are after the law, but in all 3 periods,
God's requirement is faith.
Paul wants to make it very
clear that this is not some strange new doctrine that will leave his Jewish
friends adrift on the sea of life holding onto an anchor instead of a life
vest.
To talk to Jews, you have
to mention Abraham, their father of virtue.
Justified by grace thru
faith.
v. 1 What did Abraham find?
Every Jew knew the answer:
Righteousness, an inheritance, a posterity.
v. 2 If it was by his own self effort he has bragging rights before
man, but not before God.
v. 3 Notice where Paul gets the answer.
[first 5 words] The Bible
is our only and absolute authority, not what we heard or want to repeat.
v. 3b This is a quote.
Genesis 15:6
6
And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for
righteousness.
The word believed means
'amen'. God said look at the
stars...you're not just gonna have the one son you've been praying for, but
a multitudes of them, more than the stars in number...and Abe said, Amen!
In simple childlike trust and faith he believed God, and that's when
he was saved.
God 'COUNTED' it for
righteousness - from the Greek, logizomai, which is used 11 times in Romans
4 - it is an accounting term.
God credits our account!
This is positional
righteousness, not practical righteousness.
This is the one time event
where God declared Abe to be righteous.
But did he always live righteously in a practical sense?
No, he got impatient and took Hagar and fathered Ishmael, father of
Islam. Then he treated Hagar
shamefully. And he lied about
his wife Sarah twice...all of this was after God declared him righteous.
When we become a Christian,
we don't become perfect, just forgiven.
Does that mean we can live any way we want?
No. Look...
vv. 6-8
Why does he leave Abraham and talk about David?
To have a second witness for starters.
Plus, he lived later, under the law.
He sinned wilfully, adultery, murder, deceit...and yet he found
forgiveness. And it was by
grace, thru faith, not by works or penance.
So, why is it that
salvation has to come this way, by faith?
1. v. 4
If there was anything we could do to save ourselves then God would be
obligated to give it to us. He
would be in debt to us...duty bound to save us.
But God will not be in debt to any man.
2. Man is incapable of reaching God's standard
of righteousness which is absolute perfection.
3. No matter how good our works might be, they
don't pay the sin debt, which the Bible says is death.
The wages of sin is not baptism, offerings, church membership or good
deeds...it is death!
4. Christ's sacrifice on the cross would be in
vain. If there is any other way to be saved, then God should have used that
plan, and His Son died in vain.
It would have been foolish to come and die.
But He did because there was no other way.
5. God's glory would be eclipsed by man's glory.
The primary purpose of the
gospel is not for man's benefit, and to keep us out of hell.
That's a great purpose, but the primary purpose was to glorify God.
Oh, how man centered our gospel presentation has become. "Come to Jesus w/ your problems and let Him solve them." "Feel empty, let Him fill you up." "Let Jesus save you from hell." All of these are true and very, very good, but we should be able to say to people - "You were created by God for His glory, you've turned from Him and need to be saved, and if you do, it will bring glory to Him as your creator and redeemer, and you should do it because it's the right thing to do, not just for you, but for Him who offers it to you!"
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