back to index2016-05-01 Life Promised Not Negotiated pt2
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All right, if you can turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 4, 00:00:11.000 |
it's going to be part 2 of last week's sermon, 00:00:16.000 |
"That Salvation is Promised and Not Negotiated," part 2. 00:00:21.000 |
I'm going to be reading from verse 16 and on. 00:02:22.000 |
Again, so the first four chapters of Romans, we've been talking about 00:02:27.000 |
the foundation of the Gospel. And again, every part of what we are talking about 00:02:32.000 |
is a different element of the Gospel that is being pounded over and over again. 00:02:37.000 |
Why this is so essential to our faith. And I think out of all the Bible study 00:02:42.000 |
materials that I've ever gone through to lead somebody to Christ, and then once they 00:02:47.000 |
become a Christian, like what material do we go through? What are some of the first 00:02:51.000 |
things that we need to talk about? And I would say probably most of the materials 00:02:55.000 |
that I've seen usually goes through assurance of salvation. Whether it's from 00:03:00.000 |
Navigators or CCC or Southern Baptist or whatever Bible study material, one of the 00:03:05.000 |
first things that every group that comes at us, what is the first thing that we need 00:03:11.000 |
to make sure that the brand new Christian is assured of is his salvation. So you go 00:03:16.000 |
through the Gospel message and why we can have assurance. We talked about last week 00:03:20.000 |
what is unique about our Christian faith is that we are able to have this assurance. 00:03:25.000 |
Where John says in 1 John 5, "I write these things to you so that you may know that you 00:03:30.000 |
have eternal life." That we have assurance that when we die we are not rolling the dice 00:03:35.000 |
standing before God saying, "Hopefully that I've done enough good. Hopefully that my 00:03:41.000 |
good outweigh the bad and then hopefully that we'll be able to get to Heaven." But we 00:03:45.000 |
are assured by the blood of Christ. And the reason why we are assured, we talked about 00:03:49.000 |
last week, the first of the three points that we talked about, is that it is based 00:03:54.000 |
upon His promise and not by our works. So He said, one, why it has to be promised is 00:04:00.000 |
because we are promised to be heirs of the world. That that's not something that you 00:04:05.000 |
and I can add to. You can't just wake up one day and say, "I want to be a child of 00:04:09.000 |
Bill Gates." You can't add to that. You can't one day decide by your own will, "I'm 00:04:16.000 |
going to be a child of God and this is the way I'm going to do it." So the very nature 00:04:20.000 |
of our salvation requires that it is salvation completely by grace. And then He says, "If 00:04:28.000 |
you try in any other way to merit your salvation, it actually nullifies the promise. It is 00:04:35.000 |
either by grace or it is by your works. But it can't be both." Thirdly, He says, 00:04:41.000 |
"Because it is based upon promise, it is absolutely guaranteed." It is guaranteed. 00:04:47.000 |
It is not contingent upon you. It is not contingent upon your deeds. It is contingent upon 00:04:52.000 |
His promise. And He says, "Because it is by grace that we are guaranteed to have this 00:04:58.000 |
assurance." If our salvation is by faith and by faith alone, how can we be assured 00:05:06.000 |
that we have that faith? How can we be assured that your faith is actually genuine? 00:05:12.000 |
That it's not just wishful thinking? Years ago, there was a movement, and I think that 00:05:18.000 |
movement is still around today, but there was a movement called the Word Faith Movement. 00:05:23.000 |
Another way that they described this movement was Name It and Claim It Movement. That same 00:05:30.000 |
movement today is called the Health and Wealth Gospel Movement. And basically what that 00:05:37.000 |
movement teaches is that if you have faith, that faith is able to get you whatever you 00:05:43.000 |
want. So there was actually a book that I read years ago called The Fifth Dimension. 00:05:48.000 |
And in that book, it basically says that whatever it is that you desire, you want a Lamborghini 00:05:53.000 |
or you want a beautiful wife or you want to have a million dollars, whatever it is, that 00:05:58.000 |
if you have enough faith and you put it in an incubator of prayer, so some of the stuff 00:06:05.000 |
that you desire requires more incubation time. So you pray longer than other things, right? 00:06:10.000 |
And some of the things are not as difficult, so you put it in there, and then it's a little 00:06:16.000 |
bit of faith, a little bit of prayer, and then it works. But at the core of what that 00:06:22.000 |
movement is, is you have faith in faith. See, the only reason why faith is powerful is not 00:06:28.000 |
because of faith itself. It's because of the object of our faith. It is what we have faith 00:06:35.000 |
in. See, if you look at scripture, faith and hope is used almost interchangeably. In Hebrews 00:06:43.000 |
chapter 11, it says, "Now faith is the assurance of the things hoped for, the conviction of 00:06:49.000 |
things not seen." What do we hope for? What are the things that you desire? Faith is not 00:06:57.000 |
just some intangible thing that lays in your heart that you can't read. It's deep in here. 00:07:02.000 |
Faith is very tangible, because whatever it is that you are hoping for will affect your 00:07:08.000 |
decision. Whatever it is that you're hoping for will affect the path that you take. Let 00:07:14.000 |
me give you an example. Sometimes, the way we look at faith, the things that we hope 00:07:20.000 |
for, we hope for things that have nothing to do with Christ, and the way that we approach 00:07:25.000 |
Christ is, Christ is a helper to get us to things that we hope for. Okay? And let me 00:07:31.000 |
explain what that means. Sometimes, our hope is money. We want to have more money, and 00:07:38.000 |
we think that if we have more money that we're going to have, you know, it's going to solve 00:07:42.000 |
our problems. So we come to Christ, hoping that Christ will help us to get more money. 00:07:50.000 |
Or sometimes we think our hope is in friendships or relationships. So we come to Christ hoping 00:07:56.000 |
that Christ will help us to have better relationships. And what we're really hoping for is something 00:08:03.000 |
else. And then we're using Christ, hoping that He'll help us to get us to what we're 00:08:08.000 |
really hoping for. Does that make sense? But what the Scripture is telling about when we 00:08:12.000 |
have faith is that faith causes us to hope in Christ. That hope is our, Christ is our 00:08:19.000 |
hope. Not just an avenue to get to the hope that we have. And that is why it's extremely 00:08:25.000 |
important that we understand why is Abraham the ultimate example of this faith? Why is 00:08:33.000 |
he called the father of faith? Because in verse 18 it says, "In hope he believed against 00:08:39.000 |
hope." Basically, what he was saying is that he had nothing else to hope for. He had nothing 00:08:45.000 |
else that he could hold onto, and his only hope was God and God alone. And that's what 00:08:50.000 |
revealed his genuine faith. What was revealed, again, a lot of times you can come to church 00:08:56.000 |
and where Christ is not your hope, and then you're kind of using Him to get to what you 00:09:00.000 |
really want, and then when God doesn't help you to get to what you're really hoping for, 00:09:04.000 |
you're done with Him. You move on to something else. "Well, I prayed to Him, it didn't 00:09:09.000 |
work. So I'm going to try something else." Well, what we want to look at today is not 00:09:16.000 |
a placebo of faith, just wishful thinking, hoping that if I just do the right thing that 00:09:23.000 |
somehow things are going to go well. We talked about last week, again, the promise, why we're 00:09:29.000 |
able to have assurance because it's based upon promise. Today we're going to do the 00:09:33.000 |
other two parts where we're able to have assurance because this covenant that God made 00:09:38.000 |
was based upon God's power and not man's. Based upon God's power, not man's. And then 00:09:43.000 |
the third and final point is the covenant was based on God's faithfulness and not man's. 00:09:48.000 |
So let's look at verse 17, the second point. The covenant, meaning the gospel and our 00:09:56.000 |
salvation, is based on God's power and not man's. Verse 17, it says, "I have made you 00:10:01.000 |
the father of many nations in the presence of the God in whom He believed, who gives 00:10:06.000 |
life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist." Think about 00:10:12.000 |
the calling of Abraham. Abraham, it says, he believed in God simply because God said, 00:10:21.000 |
"I will do it." There's no negotiating. He said, he didn't come before God. He said, 00:10:26.000 |
"Well, give me about four years. Let me see what you have." God said, "Follow me and 00:10:33.000 |
I will make you a great nation." He just believed. I mean, it's crazy. It wasn't like 00:10:39.000 |
he was homeless and he had no money. Most scholars believe that Moses was probably a 00:10:46.000 |
rich man already at the War of Chaldeans. I mean, if you look at what he left the War 00:10:49.000 |
of Chaldeans with, he already was a pretty wealthy man. But all God said was, "Leave 00:10:56.000 |
all of that, pack it up, and go out into the desert where it's dangerous. You might 00:11:00.000 |
actually die because of all these bandits and greater nations surrounding you." And 00:11:05.000 |
he said, "The reason why he did that is because he believed. He believed that God 00:11:10.000 |
is able to bring people from the dead and to create things out of nothing." See, God 00:11:18.000 |
himself is the only creator. No human being ever creates anything. All we do is we're 00:11:26.000 |
creative with creation. Think about the magicians, especially the real good ones. David Blaine, 00:11:34.000 |
he's actually the only guy I know. But David Blaine, right? Think about these great 00:11:40.000 |
magicians and the reason why they make all kinds of money and why even somebody like 00:11:44.000 |
me knows his name is because he's good at his trade. He kind of takes crazy stuff. 00:11:51.000 |
He takes coins, he throws it out the window, and that coin that was marked goes to the 00:11:55.000 |
window and lands on the sidewalk on the other side. Wow, that's crazy. He would take 00:12:01.000 |
things and they would just boom, it just disappears and he makes it appear. So if you're a great 00:12:05.000 |
magician, you're good at presenting, you know, basically tricking people. But nobody 00:12:15.000 |
believes that he actually creates cars. Nobody actually believes that. You'd be crazy. 00:12:20.000 |
It's like, "Wow, how did you do that?" And when we say, when we ask the question, 00:12:24.000 |
"How did you do that?" We're not saying, "How did you put all the little pieces together 00:12:29.000 |
just like that in three seconds?" Right? What kind of trickery did you use? Is it a 00:12:34.000 |
mirror? Is it a camera? What is it? Because we understand that only God can create from 00:12:41.000 |
nothing. He's the only creator. The theologians call that ex nihilo, out of nothing. 00:12:48.000 |
He creates from nothing. Psalm 33, verse 6, it says, "By the word of the Lord the 00:12:52.000 |
heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their hosts." He's the only one 00:12:57.000 |
who actually creates anything. Psalm 33, 9, "For He spoke and He came to be. He 00:13:03.000 |
commanded and it stood firm." Years ago, there was a book called, "Why do bad 00:13:10.000 |
things happen to good people?" And the Rabbi Kushner tried to answer the question 00:13:14.000 |
of why the question of evil in the world. Why is there evil in the world? His 00:13:19.000 |
conclusion was twofold. One, either God is not good and He doesn't care. And He 00:13:26.000 |
actually enjoys seeing people suffer. And so maybe that's the reason why there is 00:13:31.000 |
evil in the world. And again, as a Rabbi, that is unacceptable. How can God be 00:13:36.000 |
evil? If God was evil, we would all, you know, we'd be all in danger. Like we 00:13:41.000 |
wouldn't be able to survive the next day if that was the case. So he said, "But 00:13:46.000 |
that may be an answer." But he said, "Obviously, that's not the correct answer." 00:13:49.000 |
And so he gave the second solution. The second solution is God is not powerful. 00:13:54.000 |
And so what he was, what he was trying to present as an answer is that all the 00:14:00.000 |
evil is happening in the world because God does not have control. He doesn't have 00:14:04.000 |
the power to do anything about it. Obviously, it is absolutely unbiblical. 00:14:10.000 |
It is absolutely blasphemous to even think that. God who created the universe 00:14:18.000 |
is absolutely powerful. And that's why in verse 18 when it says, "In hope he 00:14:24.000 |
believed against hope." Why? Because in Romans 4.21 he says, "He was fully 00:14:30.000 |
convinced that God was able to do what He had promised." He's able. Again, in 00:14:36.000 |
Ephesians 3.20, he says, "Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than 00:14:41.000 |
all we ask or think according to the power at work within us." He is able. 00:14:47.000 |
The first and foremost, the thing that everybody wrestles with is, is he able? 00:14:54.000 |
Can he do it? Can he? And he says clearly the reason why Abraham was able to 00:15:02.000 |
leave behind all this thing, walk into danger, is because God was able to 00:15:06.000 |
fulfill His promise. I can make promises to you. I'm going to make you all 00:15:11.000 |
millionaires. Right? I'm going to make you all millionaires. Now no one's going to 00:15:15.000 |
trust me because you know I don't have that. And you know that I don't have the 00:15:20.000 |
capability. So I can make all the promises in the world, but if I'm not 00:15:23.000 |
able to carry it out, it means absolutely nothing. It means absolutely nothing. 00:15:28.000 |
Right? But he says, first and foremost, God Himself. He can create. He's a 00:15:35.000 |
creator. And you're able to have confidence in Him because He's able to 00:15:40.000 |
do all things. Not only is He the creator, He says He is the recreator. He gives 00:15:45.000 |
life to the dead. And that's why at the end of Abraham's, at the end of Abraham's 00:15:52.000 |
life, where he is asked to give Isaac, the only possible way that God could 00:15:58.000 |
fulfill this promise was through Isaac. At least in our mind, Abraham was willing 00:16:03.000 |
to give it up. And the reason why he was able to give it up is because it says in 00:16:07.000 |
Hebrews 11 19, he considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead 00:16:12.000 |
from which figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. So his faith wasn't 00:16:18.000 |
simply about faith. It was faith based upon God's ability. That even in death, 00:16:24.000 |
even in death, that he can still have hope. Remember the disciples? You know, 00:16:32.000 |
the whole reason why they follow Jesus, why they left behind their comfort, their 00:16:36.000 |
businesses to follow Jesus, is because they knew that life was found in Christ. 00:16:41.000 |
But even they had a difficult understanding because to them death was 00:16:46.000 |
final. As long as they didn't die, they knew that they would benefit from 00:16:50.000 |
walking with Christ. And Jesus made it very clear, "If you follow Me, I'm going 00:16:55.000 |
to the cross. You're going to have to pick up your cross too." And He made it 00:16:59.000 |
very clear that, "I'm going to Jerusalem. I'm going to be crucified. And I'm going 00:17:03.000 |
to be raised on the third day." Over and over again He tells them that. But they 00:17:07.000 |
hear it, but they don't hear it. Right? Because they don't understand. Because 00:17:12.000 |
death is final. In human experience, the worst thing that could happen to anybody 00:17:17.000 |
is death. So how can, if we're following Jesus to live, and He's telling us we're 00:17:22.000 |
going to die, and He's going to die, it makes no sense. So He was hearing them, 00:17:27.000 |
but not hearing them. It wasn't until He is crucified and He's resurrected from 00:17:32.000 |
the dead, He comes back from life, that He realized this man has power even over 00:17:38.000 |
death. You know years ago I was out evangelizing out on campus and this guy 00:17:44.000 |
came and said, "You know what? Jesus never claimed to be God. The Son of God, maybe 00:17:48.000 |
a God or a prophet, but He never claimed to be God." And this was when I was I 00:17:52.000 |
think a second or third year Bible student at Biola. And so he definitely 00:17:58.000 |
knew the Bible better than I did. And so he just rocked me. I was like, "Uh, duh." 00:18:03.000 |
You know like I didn't have any answer for what he was saying. And so I took a 00:18:07.000 |
bunch of youth group students out with me. And I remember this one particular 00:18:11.000 |
student after that encounter, he looked at me and he's like, "Dude, he rocked you." 00:18:16.000 |
You know? Because he did. And so I was so discouraged. I went back to school and I 00:18:22.000 |
talked to my professors and I asked all my professors the questions that came up. 00:18:26.000 |
And he had very simple like quick answers. It wasn't like deep complicated. 00:18:30.000 |
It's like, "Oh, okay." And this guy was perverting Scripture. But through the 00:18:34.000 |
years one of the things that he said was, "Jesus never claimed to be God." And you 00:18:38.000 |
know we can have a whole year coming through Scripture where He does claim to 00:18:43.000 |
be God. But one of the greatest things that Jesus says, absolute confirmation of 00:18:47.000 |
His deity, John 5:21 He says, "For as the Father raises the dead and gives Him 00:18:52.000 |
life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will." Jesus basically said, "As the 00:18:59.000 |
Father has the author of life, so does the Son." So if we hear that and say, "Did 00:19:07.000 |
He actually just say that?" See the Jews at that time heard exactly what Jesus was 00:19:12.000 |
saying. Right after this, they pick up stones and they try to stone Him. He said, 00:19:17.000 |
"We're stoning you not because of the works that you've done. We're stoning you 00:19:21.000 |
because you being a mere man claim to be God." He never came out and said, "I am 00:19:26.000 |
God." But they clearly understood that what He was claiming can only be from 00:19:31.000 |
God. Again in John 10, 18, "No one takes it up from Me, but I lay it down of My own 00:19:37.000 |
accord." I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. 00:19:42.000 |
Only God has that authority. Now why is this so important? Because if we don't, if 00:19:49.000 |
we're not convinced that He is able, that these are empty promises and all it is 00:19:55.000 |
is just a placebo, then Christianity is only about this life. Like if you 00:20:03.000 |
follow Jesus and you become healthy, and if you follow Jesus and you become 00:20:08.000 |
wealthy, then yeah, okay, this is worth it. But if God, if God is God and He's a 00:20:16.000 |
Creator of the universe, then what causes us to persevere and to put our hope in 00:20:21.000 |
Him is absolute belief that He is able. He is able. But here's the third and final 00:20:30.000 |
point that I think is where the rubber meets the road, right? My guess is that 00:20:36.000 |
most of us in this room believe that He is able. I don't think you'd be a 00:20:40.000 |
Christian if you said, "You know what? God created the universe, but I don't know if 00:20:43.000 |
He can pay my bills, you know. God created the universe, but I don't know if He's 00:20:47.000 |
going to fulfill His promises, right? He gave His only begotten Son, but I'm not 00:20:50.000 |
sure if He's going to give us the other stuff, right?" I think most of us, if not 00:20:55.000 |
all of us, believe that He is able because we worship the Creator, right? Not 00:21:00.000 |
the creation. The struggle that we have, where the rubber meets the road, is this 00:21:05.000 |
God who is able, is He faithful? Is He faithful? Will He keep His promise? Now 00:21:14.000 |
that goes up and down, depending on sometimes where you are, right? Like 00:21:21.000 |
sometimes you feel like, "Oh, God's going to fulfill His promise if you do your 00:21:25.000 |
part." So when you've done your part, you're like, "Yes, you know, I'm convinced." 00:21:28.000 |
But as soon as you feel that there's some sin in your life that you're having a 00:21:33.000 |
hard time conquering, that question comes up. It's like, "I know He's able, right? 00:21:38.000 |
I know He's able, but will He keep His promise to me? Will He be faithful to me?" 00:21:45.000 |
See, again, the reason why Abraham is a father of faith, and the perfect example 00:21:50.000 |
of this faith, he says he had hope against hope. He believed that he is able, 00:21:56.000 |
but not only was he able, but he is faithful. Look at verse 19 and 20. "He did 00:22:02.000 |
not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead, 00:22:06.000 |
since he was about a hundred years old, when he considered the barrenness of 00:22:10.000 |
Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he 00:22:15.000 |
grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God." Do you remember Abraham's 00:22:20.000 |
name before he met God was Abram. What does that mean, Abram? Like glorified 00:22:29.000 |
father, right? And he's like the great father. That's what that means, right? 00:22:33.000 |
You ever wonder why his father may have named him that, Abram? Like today, you 00:22:39.000 |
know, when we name our children, you know, some people name their children 00:22:42.000 |
because some Disney movie, or you know what I mean? It just sounds nice, but you 00:22:47.000 |
know, like, but some of you guys, you know, put some thought into it, and it's 00:22:50.000 |
like, oh, we like a child of God, or prophet of God, or something, right? But 00:22:56.000 |
we give names sometimes because we are hoping that God will be faithful, and 00:23:01.000 |
that maybe the meaning of His name is we are hoping and praying that God will 00:23:04.000 |
fulfill that in their life. And in the Old Testament, in the biblical times, no 00:23:08.000 |
name was given flippantly. They gave with some purpose. Why was Abram named 00:23:14.000 |
Abram? This is my guess. He comes from a pretty wealthy family, or Chaldeans. So, 00:23:22.000 |
my guess is his father, maybe grandfather, was thinking, well, now you 00:23:26.000 |
have a really good start, and we have all this wealth that we can kind of get 00:23:31.000 |
behind you. And so, our hope and desire is that you would be a great father. At 00:23:38.000 |
that time, you could have all the wealth in the world, but if you don't have 00:23:41.000 |
descendants, it dies with you, right? So, today, you know, we say, oh, you can't 00:23:47.000 |
take it with you, but the way they thought was, well, you can't take it with 00:23:50.000 |
you, but you can leave it all behind to your descendants, right? So, if you don't 00:23:53.000 |
have descendants, all of that would have been it. That's where it would end. So, I 00:24:00.000 |
believe that his parents probably named him Abram, hoping that all the things 00:24:04.000 |
that his maybe father and grandfather accumulated, that all these great 00:24:10.000 |
descendants of Abram will be a beneficiary of this. And that's why they 00:24:15.000 |
named him this. By the time God shows up in his life, he's already 70, and he has 00:24:20.000 |
no children. And his wife is barren. And so, God calls this guy who maybe already 00:24:27.000 |
have given up. All his life, Abram, glorified father, great father, you know. 00:24:35.000 |
And by the time God shows up, he probably already has given up. So, imagine, you 00:24:39.000 |
know, being called great father with no children. You know, it's almost like 00:24:44.000 |
calling somebody a small stature, big guy. "Hey, big guy." You know what I mean? 00:24:49.000 |
It's almost mocking him. Or sometimes you do something really foolish, and then 00:24:53.000 |
they say, "Hey, genius." Right? "Hey, genius." Right? So, it's almost like calling 00:24:59.000 |
Abram a glorified father, every time he probably heard his name, as a reminder of 00:25:05.000 |
the position that he was in. So, God calls him, and he says, "Follow me. I will 00:25:10.000 |
make your descendants multiply. You can't even count them." So, I think for Abram, 00:25:17.000 |
it was a very personal promise. It wasn't just a kind of generic promise. This is 00:25:23.000 |
something that he's been hoping and praying for. And God said, "If you follow 00:25:28.000 |
me." And he just goes out. Right? Because he believed. He believed that he is able 00:25:34.000 |
to fulfill this promise. But the thing is, God made this promise, but for the first 00:25:40.000 |
25 years. For the first 25 years, it doesn't happen. In fact, it's almost 00:25:46.000 |
comical. If you read verse 19, he said, "He did not weaken in faith when he 00:25:49.000 |
considered his own body, which was as good as dead." Right? That's pretty harsh. 00:25:56.000 |
He's old, but he's not dead yet. But he said, "As good as dead." In other words, 00:26:00.000 |
there's no possible hope for him. Not only is there no hope for him, because 00:26:05.000 |
he's so old, he's as good as dead. Right? He said, "But since about, he was 100 00:26:10.000 |
years old, but also consider his wife. She was also as good as dead. Her womb has 00:26:17.000 |
been closed." And so, God waits until there's absolutely no hope to fulfill 00:26:27.000 |
this. And then, that's when he steps in. And if you notice, you know, God names 00:26:34.000 |
him. Here's a guy, he's like all his life, he's like, "Hey, Abram." You know? What does 00:26:38.000 |
he change his name to? "Abraham." And what does the name Abraham mean? "Father of 00:26:44.000 |
multitudes." Right? I mean, it's like, "Hey, genius." And he said, you know, "Hey, 00:26:50.000 |
Einstein." You know what I mean? Like, you're taking a difficult name, and you're 00:26:54.000 |
making it impossible now. It's almost mocking. Right? But God tells him, "Your 00:27:01.000 |
name is going to be Abraham, when he has no descendants, and there's no hope 00:27:06.000 |
whatsoever. And then it isn't until there's absolutely no hope, nothing that 00:27:12.000 |
they can cling to, and God shows up, and he fulfills his promise." Isn't that 00:27:19.000 |
exactly the way God works? In verse 19, he says, "He did not weaken in faith when he 00:27:27.000 |
considered his own body." He was just as good as dead. He had absolutely no hope. 00:27:31.000 |
And then God comes in, and he gives him a child. Isn't that what the Scripture says, 00:27:38.000 |
of what he was doing in the Old Testament? Think about Israel's history. 00:27:41.000 |
Like, why did God give the law? If the law wasn't going to fulfill God's promise of 00:27:46.000 |
salvation, why did He give the law in the first place? He says, "So that the law 00:27:50.000 |
would make sin utterly sinful." Now, I want you to understand the fulfillment of 00:27:55.000 |
this in Israel's history. If you look at Israel's history, it's a constant cycle 00:27:59.000 |
of rebelling against God, God bringing judgment, they repent, and then God 00:28:05.000 |
restores them. And then when they get restored, they forget God, and then they 00:28:09.000 |
rebel, God judges them, He forgives them, and then they get restored. It is a 00:28:14.000 |
constant cycle, over and over again. But every time that judgment comes and they 00:28:19.000 |
get restored, they go back to the same determination, right? Over and over again. 00:28:25.000 |
"We won't fail you." You know, I know, we learned our lesson. We learned our 00:28:32.000 |
lesson. And we're not going to do this. I know why the Babylonians came. I know why 00:28:36.000 |
the Assyrians came. I know why the Midianites came. I know why the Philistines 00:28:40.000 |
came. I know why judgment came over and over and over again. But every time they 00:28:44.000 |
get restored, what was their conviction? "We won't fail you." As their whole 00:28:50.000 |
history was about their determination to keep the law. And that's the reason why 00:28:56.000 |
the Pharisees were so committed to keeping the law. They weren't going to 00:29:00.000 |
make the same mistakes as their forefathers. They went into captivity 00:29:04.000 |
because they refused to obey the law. They said, "No, we're not going to make that 00:29:07.000 |
same mistake." And that's why they wanted to get rid of Jesus. This guy's telling 00:29:12.000 |
people to not to obey the Sabbath law. It's better to get rid of one 00:29:17.000 |
troublemaker than to bring the wrath of Rome and God upon us again. So each time 00:29:23.000 |
God restores them, they're determined. "We're not going to fail you." And so each 00:29:31.000 |
time, each time they were determined, and each time they fell, sin became 00:29:36.000 |
utterly sinful, absolutely hopeless. See the whole purpose of Israel's history is 00:29:44.000 |
to allow them to get to a point where they realize they have absolutely no 00:29:49.000 |
hope. There was no hope. There was no hope for their government. There was no hope 00:29:57.000 |
for somebody to come and save. There was no hope for power. They tried everything 00:30:02.000 |
and nothing worked. And God was waiting for them to get to that point, as God was 00:30:07.000 |
waiting for Abraham to get to a point where he said he was good as dead. 00:30:13.000 |
She was already barren before they met him, and 30 years later it was even worse. 00:30:20.000 |
But he said faith. He had faith. When there was no faith, there was nothing to 00:30:26.000 |
cling on, because the only thing that they were able to hope for was God himself. 00:30:33.000 |
In fact, if you look at 1 Corinthians 1, 26-29, he says, "Here's this Corinthians 00:30:40.000 |
church thinking that somehow God may have chosen them because some of them were 00:30:43.000 |
more prominent than others." And he says, "Do you not know that God chose you 00:30:47.000 |
because you were of no repute? Because you have nothing that man could say, 'Oh, 00:30:55.000 |
that's why God chose you.'" God chose you because when the world looks at you 00:31:01.000 |
and says, "That? God chose you?" 1 Corinthians 1, 26-29. "But God chose what 00:31:07.000 |
is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world 00:31:10.000 |
to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even 00:31:14.000 |
things that are not, to bring nothing, the things that are, so that no human being 00:31:18.000 |
might boast in the presence of God." The promise of God is not about you. 00:31:28.000 |
It is not about me. It's not a display to put you on a pedestal and say, "Look how 00:31:35.000 |
precious they are! Look what I—how I made them!" God's promise was a display of 00:31:43.000 |
His own glory. Because it was the glory of God that we missed. It was the glory 00:31:49.000 |
of God that we'd fallen short of. So if it was the glory of God that we'd fallen 00:31:54.000 |
short of, it was the glory of God that has to be restored. So He displayed His 00:32:00.000 |
mercy to glorify Himself. Psalm 106 verse 7, "Yet He saved them for His 00:32:08.000 |
namesake, that He might make known His mighty power." His power. Isaiah 48 verse 00:32:15.000 |
9, "For My namesake I defer My anger; for the sake of My praise I restrain it for 00:32:20.000 |
you, that I may not cut you off." It was to display His mercy and His glory. 00:32:29.000 |
That's why God waited. When it said the perfect time came, it was when Israel had 00:32:34.000 |
absolutely nothing to hold on to. They're utterly helpless. And even during Jesus' 00:32:42.000 |
ministry, even during Jesus' ministry, He spent most of His time—remember when we 00:32:48.000 |
were going through the Gospel?—most of His time in the three cities. And at the 00:32:51.000 |
end of three years of ministry in the cities, what happened? They reject Him. 00:32:55.000 |
Right? John chapter 6, 66, remember that? 666. Is when all the people, the miracles 00:33:02.000 |
that He performed, the miraculous food that He gave to them, and their end result? 00:33:07.000 |
We don't want it. And then how was He crucified? The very people that He loved 00:33:13.000 |
and cherished, He died in their hands. I mean you think about hopelessness. When 00:33:23.000 |
Jesus went to that cross, yes He went voluntarily, but His own people, His own 00:33:29.000 |
people, leaders of His own people who were created to glorify Him, put Him on 00:33:34.000 |
that cross. We talk about hope, like having no hope. If there was any period 00:33:41.000 |
when Israel had absolutely no hope, was when Jesus was being led to the cross. It 00:33:47.000 |
was as dark as you can possibly be. And it was in that, it was in that darkness, 00:33:53.000 |
God's glory was at display. He said it was for His glory. And that's why we have 00:34:01.000 |
assurance. Because it was never about you. It was never about me. We are the 00:34:08.000 |
benefactors. We benefit from Him glorifying Himself, from Him displaying 00:34:13.000 |
His grace. But He is faithful to Himself. Number 2319, God is not a man that He 00:34:21.000 |
should lie, or the Son of Man that He should change His mind. Has He said and 00:34:25.000 |
will He not do it, or has He spoken and will He not fulfill it? That God fulfills 00:34:31.000 |
His promise for His namesake. But look at what He says in verse 20, "But no 00:34:38.000 |
distrust made Him waver," Abraham, "concerning the promise of God, but grew 00:34:42.000 |
strong in his faith as he gave glory to God." Fully convinced that God was able 00:34:47.000 |
to do what He had promised. So let's stop right here, okay? He said, "Abraham did 00:34:52.000 |
not have distrust and he did not waver concerning his promise." And I want you 00:34:55.000 |
to think carefully about Abraham's life. Did he ever waver? Think carefully, okay? 00:35:02.000 |
Don't give a knee-jerk answer because, "No, he didn't." That's what it says here, 00:35:06.000 |
right? But I want you to, I want you to think carefully. Like, did he ever waver? 00:35:14.000 |
Humanly speaking. I can think of a few instances, right? Both times when he was 00:35:21.000 |
out in the desert and he was so afraid that somehow the higher powers are going 00:35:26.000 |
to basically take his life because his wife was so beautiful. So he had this 00:35:30.000 |
great plan that, "Throw her under the bus," right? And say, "This is my sister, 00:35:35.000 |
and do whatever you want with her, but please save me," all right? Man of faith. 00:35:41.000 |
Never waver. And this happens twice. You know what I mean? This happens twice. 00:35:47.000 |
And then, why is his son named Isaac? What does Isaac mean? Laughter. Now, did 00:35:56.000 |
God name him Laughter because God said, "I'm going to give you a son." Ishmael 00:36:02.000 |
is not. That was your, that was in the flesh. That was not fulfilling a promise. 00:36:05.000 |
I'm going to do it, right? But a real descendant, and his name is going to be 00:36:10.000 |
Isaac. But why did he name him Isaac? He named him Laughter. It wasn't because 00:36:13.000 |
Isaac and Sarah heard this like, "Oh, thank you, Lord." Okay, we're going to name 00:36:19.000 |
him son Laughter. Is that what that laughter meant? When God finally promised, 00:36:26.000 |
He said he was as good as dead. He was completely barren. He said, "I mean, we 00:36:29.000 |
had no hope when we were 70. Now we're 100. We had absolutely no chance whatsoever." 00:36:33.000 |
So when God said, "It's not Ishmael. You're going to have a true descendant," 00:36:36.000 |
remember the response? Like, "God's crazy." God saw that, and He said, "I will name 00:36:45.000 |
your son Laughter because you didn't believe Me." Right? That's why their son 00:36:52.000 |
was named Laughter. As a constant reminder to them, "You didn't believe Me." 00:36:56.000 |
So when he said, "He didn't waver concerning the promise of God." Is that a 00:37:02.000 |
contradiction? That Paul forgot about Israel's history and Abraham's history? 00:37:08.000 |
Is that what he means? I hope you didn't say yes because then you have a problem 00:37:15.000 |
with inerrancy. All right? So, of course, it's not a contradiction. But what does 00:37:20.000 |
he mean then? If Abraham didn't waver in unbelief, I think he means the exact same 00:37:26.000 |
thing when Jesus says to Peter in Luke chapter 22, He says, "I pray for you so 00:37:32.000 |
that your faith would not fail you because Satan has asked permission to 00:37:36.000 |
sift you like wheat." Peter says, "I will not fail you. Even if everybody else 00:37:42.000 |
fails you, I will not fail you." Remember what Jesus says? "Oh, you're going to 00:37:45.000 |
fail Me. And you're going to fail Me three times. The rooster's not going to crow 00:37:50.000 |
until you deny Me three times to My face." Wait a second. He just prayed for 00:37:55.000 |
him. He just prayed that his faith would not fail him. And then he just said, 00:37:59.000 |
"You're going to fail." And then he said, "But when you get back up, feed my 00:38:06.000 |
sheep. Feed my sheep." So what did it mean for Peter not to fail? That he would get 00:38:14.000 |
back up. He would get back up and continue. You see what he says to Abraham? 00:38:21.000 |
Abraham didn't waver in unbelief, but he grew strong in his faith. He grew strong 00:38:26.000 |
in his faith. His faith became stronger and stronger as he continued to follow 00:38:30.000 |
God. And he didn't turn back because his hope was firmly placed on God. He didn't 00:38:36.000 |
quit because he trusted in Him. Isn't that our experience? We believe that He is 00:38:44.000 |
able. But our problem is, I know He is capable, but will He be faithful to the 00:38:53.000 |
promise to me? And the reason why we wrestle with that is because week after 00:38:58.000 |
week, we see our own struggles. And we can't discipline ourselves. The goals 00:39:06.000 |
that we've met, we've made, we've achieved some, but there's a bunch of stuff that 00:39:10.000 |
we weren't able to achieve. We're not where we thought that we would be at the 00:39:15.000 |
age that we're at. We don't know the Scripture as much as we hoped that we 00:39:19.000 |
would. We didn't evangelize to as many people as we were hoping for. And so we 00:39:25.000 |
have this burden on us. I know He is capable, but maybe I didn't earn His 00:39:32.000 |
grace. And that question causes you to question His faithfulness to you. I know 00:39:41.000 |
He is capable, but is He faithful to me? And the answer is emphatic yes, because 00:39:50.000 |
His faithfulness is to His own glory. It is to His own glory. It is to display His 00:39:57.000 |
mercy. It is to display His grace, so that when we look upon the cross, we see 00:40:03.000 |
Him. He fulfills His promise, and that's why He says He guarantees it. He 00:40:09.000 |
guarantees it. His purpose, and His nature, and His promise never changes. And if we 00:40:20.000 |
believe this, if we truly believe this, we will change. We will change. That's why 00:40:30.000 |
it says in Romans chapter 4, 20 to 25, "That is why His faith was counted to Him 00:40:35.000 |
as righteousness. But the words it was counted to Him were not written for His 00:40:40.000 |
sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in Him, who 00:40:45.000 |
raised Him from the dead, Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses 00:40:49.000 |
and raised for our justification." This is why we have assurance of salvation. 00:40:55.000 |
This is why we have assurance of salvation. We became followers of Christ 00:41:02.000 |
because we knew He was able. But we persevere because we know He is faithful. 00:41:07.000 |
He's faithful. God does not make promises that He does not fulfill. Our salvation 00:41:15.000 |
is firmly in His grasp. His grasp, not ours. Yes, we ought to be better Christians. 00:41:22.000 |
Yes, we ought to read our Bible more. We ought to pray more. We ought to evangelize 00:41:27.000 |
more. But our assurance of salvation is not shaken, as long as our hope is in 00:41:33.000 |
Christ and Christ alone. Let's take a few minutes to pray, coming before God. And I 00:41:39.000 |
know sometimes it can sound like semantics, but it's a world of difference 00:41:43.000 |
between somebody who's living by faith and living by the flesh. A person who 00:41:47.000 |
lives by faith is a person who's constantly responding and thanksgiving 00:41:51.000 |
for what he has done. And so everything that we do is an expression of thank you. 00:41:57.000 |
Thank you for loving a sinner like me. Thank you for putting up with me. 00:42:02.000 |
Even despite all the distractions, even though I've been praying and asking for 00:42:08.000 |
repentance for the same thing for the last 10 years. Despite all of that, thank 00:42:15.000 |
you. Thank you for being faithful to your own promises, for showing your love 00:42:21.000 |
toward me while I was yet a sinner. So I want to encourage you this morning, as 00:42:27.000 |
you come before the Lord, if you've been weighed down by your sins, come before 00:42:32.000 |
the Lord in repentance. Ask the Lord for forgiveness. He is faithful and just to 00:42:38.000 |
forgive you of all your unrighteousness. Then once you're forgiven, live your life 00:42:44.000 |
in thanksgiving. Offer your body as a living sacrifice, reasonable response to 00:42:49.000 |
the grace of God. Let's take some time as we ask the worship team to come up. And 00:42:54.000 |
again, I want to remind you, you know, prayer, the most effective prayer is the 00:42:59.000 |
most honest prayer. Not the most theologically rich, not because you have 00:43:03.000 |
the most Bible verses in your prayer, but the most honest prayer. I believe, help 00:43:09.000 |
my unbelief. I believe, help my unbelief. Let's take some time to come before the 00:43:15.000 |
Lord and to connect with the only God that we have any hope in.