Romans 4:18-25 • Hope Against Hope
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Beautiful worship and music this day. Thank you musicians and congregation because you've joined in as well. Let me ask you to join me in looking at Romans chapter 4 this morning. Romans chapter 4, as we've been moving toward that 500th anniversary of the Reformation, which is at the end of October, we've been looking at the book of Romans, so influential in the life of Martin Luther.
And Luther looked at the chapter we covered last week and he said, "This is the point on which everything turns.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by grace as a gift
through faith in Jesus."
Not through earning, not through deserving, not through qualifying, not by your family background, by grace through faith.
Now in the great words of that immortal prophet, Ricky Ricardo, we've got to ask Paul, "Paul,
you got some explaining to do."
If it's by grace through faith, to whom does it apply?
I mean, you've been talking about this grace that has come through Jesus Christ, but wasn't He a Jewish rabbi?
Is this grace just for Jews?
What if I'm not from your family?
What if I'm not from your faith?
For that we need Romans chapter 4. Now just a little preview of what's coming. There are more questions in the splanen.
What if I'm from a bad background?
Chapter 5.
What if I've done really bad things?
Chapter 6.
What if I don't do the very things that I want to do?
Chapter 7.
What are we all to conclude?
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, chapter 8.
And we'll dig in there and go all the way to Christmas in chapter 8. But for now, no more appropriate chapter for this church than Romans chapter 4, considering what happened in this place earlier this week. Do you remember?
Sixty-nine people from eleven, twelve nations, I'm told now, who came through these doors to this place, and you must know as they come in different dress with different language, different family backgrounds, different faith backgrounds, some bearing the scars of war and terrorism.
Their question is, is there a place for me here?
Will you receive me? Will you help me? Will you love me? Will you care about me?
Can I be part of this family if I'm not part of your past family?
Which is precisely the question that the Apostle is answering in Romans chapter 4. After all, he is ultimately answering the essential question that he is asked in verse nine already, "What if I'm not a Jew?
What if I'm not from that family?"
And to answer, the Apostle Paul says, "Well, let's consider what got people into that family. Let's talk about Abraham. What made him part of the Jewish family as the father of all Jews?" It wasn't his family background.
He was something else entirely that made him a part of this family that's your hope
if you wonder if you can be part of the family of God. Let's read about it. We'll stand to honor God's Word. And Paul begins to describe the background and the hope of Abraham in verse 18.
He writes, "In hope, he that is Abraham believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations.
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. No unbelief made him 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, that is Abraham's faith, was counted to him as righteousness. But the words, "It was counted to him," were not written for his sake alone.
But for ours also, "It," that is the righteousness, "will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification."
Let's pray together.
Father, you have given this church, these people, wonderful ministry opportunities, but even as we touch other people, there are those among us who will say, "Wait, is there a place for me here?"
Help our understanding of what you have done through the Father of faith be the message that we would take to the new children of faith.
There is a place for you here because no one is a part of this but by faith in what God has done.
If you believe that, there's a place for you here. Make it our joy to repeat we pray and teach us how. In this time we ask, in Jesus' name, amen.
Please be seated.
Never lose faith in the end of the story.
Some of you will recognize the words from Admiral Jim Stockdale, quoted in the now classic business book, Good to Great by Jim Collins.
Admiral Stockdale was the highest ranking naval officer in the Hanoi Hilton, the ironically named and incredibly cruel prisoner of war camp in Hanoi during the Vietnam War. Stockdale was held though being wounded, beaten, and tortured for eight years before he was finally released. As Jim Collins was interviewing him, he said, "How did you survive?"
Collins answered, "I never," excuse me, "Admiral Stockdale's answer, "I never lost faith in the end of the story.
I never doubted not only that I would get out, but that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life."
Collins asked then, "Who did not make it out of the Hanoi Hilton?"
Stockdale's famous answer, "Oh, that's easy.
It's the optimists who did not get out, the ones who said, "We'll be out by Christmas,"
but then Christmas would come and go, and they would say, "We'll be out by Easter,"
but then Easter would come and go, and they'd say, "We'll be out by Thanksgiving," and then Thanksgiving would come and go. Said Stockdale, "They died without hope and with a broken heart."
How did he try to correct their thinking? How did he try to correct his own thinking? To such optimists, Stockdale would say, "We are not getting out by Christmas.
Deal with it."
Him saying, "You now must never lose faith that you will prevail in the end.
You have to have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they may be, and still believe that you will prevail."
Now, they are inspiring words. I even used them in our Route 66 talk to talk about what it meant as a church to deal with the fact of depleting resources and aging church and increasingly homogenized culture that in many ways that we never intended appeared as a barrier to people outside this church. As we talked about facing the brutal facts to be a church that would prevail at the end for all generations and all peoples perceiving that this is a place where the family of God could welcome them and where they can be a part of the future that God intends for this place.
But even though I might cite the importance of facing the brutal facts, with the hope that you will prevail in the end, you and I as believers should recognize some serious flaws in Admiral Stockdale's thought.
He said, "You should not just believe that you'll be out by Christmas, but you should believe that you will get out, that you will prevail in the end.
And if you're just a realist, what you recognize is that's just the substitution of one form of optimism for another form of optimism.
It's long-term optimism I'll eventually get out as opposed to short-term optimism I'll get out by Christmas. The reality for realists is you may not get out.
You may die. That may be the most brutal fact of all.
Facing that brutal fact means that you ultimately are not putting faith in a human ultimate prevailing.
If human faith is not what you put it in, what are you going to put faith in?
Ultimately, being a member of the family of God means I am not putting faith in the fact that I will prevail, but in the fact that God will prevail.
That He will be faithful to His promises, that He will accomplish His purposes. That is my faith.
Ultimately, what it means to be a member of the family of God is to recognize the family of God is made up of all who put faith in a faithful God.
Not in themselves, not in their accomplishments, not in their ability to endure, not in anything in us. Our faith is in another. And we learn that and understand that from the message of the Father of faith who was Abraham. What was his hope? What did he hope would happen?
If you say that hope that would prevail to the end for him, it was simply that his name would be true.
Verse 18, "Remember, in hope that is he Abraham believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations. As he had been told, so shall your offspring be." His name was not originally Abraham, was it? It was Abraham, which simply means exalted father. That was his original name. And one night God took him out to look at the stars and said, "Look at the stars of the heavens.
So shall your offspring be.
And no longer will your name be Abraham, exalted father. It will be father of a multitude, Abraham, father even of nations."
What Abraham hopes, what he hopes is the ultimate end is that his name will be true, that he will be a father of nations. But what are the brutal facts that are warring against that hope? Verse 19, "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."
The words are not sensitive, they're not pleasant, they're not politically correct, they are just brutal facts. The promise that he would become a father of a multitude came when he was 75 years old.
And now 25 years have passed and there has not even been the first child.
He is at age 99 when the Lord reappears to him and says, "I'm going to fulfill the promise. You are going to have a son."
That is such shocking news that Abraham dealing with the Lord laughs and faints.
He fell on his face, the Bible says, because that just seemed utterly impossible.
But there's a message, the message that God is making clear by the inability of Abraham to fulfill the hope for end as he has to be completely dependent on God to accomplish anything. It is the message that those who have faith, who are part of the family of God are not made so by their abilities, but by the ability of another, even their God, the early message of the gospel of grace working its way even into the history of Abraham. And of course it wasn't just Abraham who was going to struggle when Sarah first got the promise that she was going to be a mother of nations, a princess of nations is what her name means.
She was 65 and 25 years will pass before God comes back to say, "Now is the time."
Well if she couldn't have children at 19 and she couldn't have children at 29, it sure seems unlikely she's going to have children at 90.
There is no hope to be put in her ability. The message, the promise of God in which we put faith is not based on our ability, nor is it based on our worthiness.
Oh yeah, it says in verse 20 of Romans 4, "No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God." It's the promise of God he's believing in, but that's just the bare essence of a promise. God's going to give us a son. I don't know how. I don't know how He's going to do that. I better help Him out.
So I'll sleep with my wife's maid.
Now when Sarah got a little upset about that, Abraham's response was to take the fruit of that union, his own biological son, and his mistress and put them in the desert to die of exposure.
We think of Abraham the great man of faith, and he did leave Ur the Chaldees and traveled all the way to the Promised Land, abandoned family and home and familiarity, and he went to the Promised Land. And of course on that journey, he only gave away his wife twice to other men to save his hide and then betrays his wife and then seeks the murder of his son and his mistress.
What kind of faith is this?
We're beginning to learn more and more. It's not a faith that's based on our ability. It's not a faith based on human worthiness either. And the same could be true of Sarah.
You may remember that when the messengers from God came the second time and told her, "You are going to have the child." She, unlike Abraham, didn't laugh and faint.
She laughed and lied about it.
I'm going to have a child at 90? You got to be kidding. And she laughed in her tent.
And when the messengers of God later said to her, "Sarah, why did you laugh?" She said, "I didn't laugh."
They knew she had.
Now you might wonder why she was willing to lie to the messengers of God.
But think about it for a moment.
If your husband has given you away twice to other men and slept with your maid and plotted the murder of his own biological child, you might have a few questions about the faithfulness of his God.
And so when you have his messengers, that God's messenger, saying, "Are you laughing at us?" You might question whether or not you should tell the truth. Now we can blame Abraham and Sarah for their lack of worthiness and ability, but we might really try to understand what we're being taught.
Ray Pritchard, the preacher, explains the laughter and the fainting and the lying this way.
At age 76, after the promises come, Abraham and Sarah buy a crib.
At 77, they pick colors and paint the baby's room.
At 78, they lengthen the list of baby names. After all, it's been three years. It's getting to be a long list of possibilities.
At age 80 in faith, they sign up for diaper service.
At age 82, they subscribe to New Parent magazine.
At age 85, they resubscribe to New Parent magazine.
At 95, they repaint the baby's room, which may sound humorous unless you've done it,
and you recognize the waiting, the waiting, and the wondering hurt so much.
And they have waited and wondered for 25 years.
At age 99, Sarah attends Lamaze classes at Palestine General Hospital, and Abraham, who helps her breathe, wonders inside.
Was God just kidding?
When Abraham laughs and falls on his face, it may not just be little faith. It may be absolute emotional release.
Hurt so long, hurt so much, and now God says it's going to happen. Oh, can it really? And he faints away.
As he does so, you recognize that emotional release is just kind of acknowledging everything that's working against the hope that he has. His abilities will not rescue him from the problem that he's in of needing a child, of wanting a child. In a culture you recognize that having children is part of having a labor force, as well as legacy and reputation. He's got none of it.
And he not only has to recognize he has little reason for hope based on his ability, but on his worthiness. He questions God. Even Moses points that out. He begins to wonder internally as though God doesn't know. Can God fulfill his promise? Even Moses records that. Can Sarah really at this age have a child as though God doesn't know his own thoughts?
And finally you begin to recognize all he's got left is the character of God to hope in. God has promised a son.
And while he can't depend on his family, his worthiness, his ability, nothing else. All he's got left is God's going to provide a son. God's going to provide a son. That's all that's left to him. His hope is just the barest of hopes. The skin of his teeth, the frayed edges of his fingernails just holding on. I still think God's going to provide a son. It must be so hard, so difficult. And you see that in all the measures he takes to answer the promise.
But he still somehow believes.
It's teaching us what our hope is to be as well. For we recognize the promises to us the provision of a son also, right? But it was the son that was promised and came in our behalf.
It is the fact that God has provided a son when we don't trust our abilities, when we don't trust our character, when we have no reason to believe that we deserve what God is providing, that God is saying, "I will still make a way." And that littlest of faith is what we hold on to.
I've told you before because it made such an impact upon me where I felt the weight of it as I was at a conference. I was picked up at the airport by a friend of mine that I've known for years. And as he picked me up at the airport and drove me to the conference center, he began to detail the aspects of his life.
A son in prison, a business in trouble, a church in conflict, and all of those things weighing upon him. He said to me in the car, "Brian, how can I trust God when all this is happening?" Now I don't know what happens to you when people ask those kind of questions. I just panic inside, you know. I don't know how to answer.
Somehow as the Holy Spirit gave words, the words that came to me were simply, "My friend,
if you consider your circumstances alone, I have no idea why you ought to trust God."
In this broken and fallen world with all you're going through, if you just look at the character of your circumstances, I have no idea why you ought to trust God.
But we don't trust God because of the character of our circumstances. We trust God because of the character of his heart that was revealed at the cross when he gave us his son.
That is why I trust him, because he has told me that he would provide the son. Why did Abraham ultimately trust God? Because God said, "I'll give a son."
And when we say, "God did do it," we are not just looking forward to what God might do. We are looking backward. This is what God did. And because God provided his son, I, when I don't trust my abilities anymore, when I know I'm not worthy of anything from God, I still have a hope of a future with God because he provided away from me. He gave his son for me. I'm not trusting that anything will work out because of hoping who I am or what I can do or what kind of accomplishment, what I paid for, what can I do. No, that's not it. My hope is entirely in the provision of God who gave his son.
And because I see such great love in heart there, I trust God. My hope is in what he will do.
What's the nature of that trust? If my hope is that God will simply be true to his word, that we'll ultimately prevail in his purposes for my life, for his church, for his people around the world, that's my hope. How do I receive that hope?
What faith is God actually requiring of me? Abraham's teaching us that too. His hope for end would be that he would be a father of many nations, but the faith that he is expressing, my, it is not the faith of a perfect man.
It says in verse 20 right at the beginning, "No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God."
Somehow, someway, God will still do this. That's certainly true, but the words of the rest of the verse are carefully chosen.
But he that is Abraham grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God.
He grew in his faith. If he's growing in his faith, that means at some point it's more than it was.
And when it was just infant, when it was just small, I must tell you, it is quite a seed
in its flaw and minimal nature. What do you know about this great man of faith? Yes, he accepted the name. I will be a father of nations.
But he abandoned his wife multiple times.
He betrayed his wife.
He abandoned his mistress and his biological son. He dishonored God by wondering if God could even do what he promised to do.
His faith is not in him, nothing in him. Ultimately, his faith is in an able God. Verse 21, "He was fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised." Not that Abraham was able, that's being stripped away. Over and over again, God is taking away, taking away, taking away any basis for my human qualification, my worthiness, my accomplishment, anything I'm...that's being taken away.
Pastor Bob Flayhart just kind of expresses it in a way to make us feel it. Can you imagine at age 74, one of those caravans that's going from Assyria in the north down to Egypt on the great trade routes that ran through Israel on the corner of the Mediterranean there, that the caravan stops by Abram's tent there in Israel?
Hey, old man.
Where are you from?
Ur of the Chaldees.
Really? What's your name?
Abram?
Really?
Exalted father?
Where are the kids?
Still coming.
Twenty-five years later.
Caravan passes that way again.
Same camel driver says, "Hey, aren't you Abram?"
That's not my name anymore.
Really?
What's your name now?
Abraham.
Father of a multitude.
Where are they?
Still coming.
And then as the camel driver rides away, he says to a friend, "What a loser."
Surely Abraham felt it. I have trusted this God. I have hoped he would accomplish something. But all I have been stripped of is self-respect and the ability to claim anything before that God of my goodness, my ability, anything. It's all being stripped away. Why?
C.S. Lewis in the voyage of the dawn treader introduces again to Eustace, the not-so-nice kid that was among the kids in the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe that so many of you have read. At this point, Eustace is older and he has taken a trip to an island, and on that island discovers a vast treasure. And as he begins to think of what he can do with the great gifts that have just come to him out of this discovery, he begins to think of how he might hurt and get back at those who he thinks have taken advantage of him or not respected him. And so at night he lies down on his treasure, not knowing that on this island your dreams
form who you are, which by the way is not just true of that island, it is true of this life.
Our dreams ultimately form who we are. And as Eustace lies on the treasure and thinks how he can use it to hurt other people, he wakes up in the day as a dragon, mean and ugly, even to himself.
Aslan, the rescuing lion who is not safe but very good, remember, says to Aslan, "Take off the dragon skin."
And Eustace begins trying to take off the dragon skin and he tears at it and he gnaws at it and he tries to get it off. Every bit of his effort to get off this thing that he himself even doesn't want to characterize who he is, but he can't get it off. Even as he begins to tear off some, he finds more layers beneath. And finally Aslan says, "Eustace, you are going to have to let me go down deeper."
Eustace knows what that will mean.
He resists and finally wanting to be rid of the thing that he himself hates, this character on display of his own heart's evil. He allows it and he says, "The first tear from Aslan went so deep it went down to my very heart."
Which is precisely what Jesus does for anyone who wants to be free of, "I'm going to be okay with God. I'm going to be okay with this world by what I do or my worthiness or my accomplishment." Jesus is saying to every single one of us, "You are going to have to let me go down deeper."
Because to be rid of what you yourself don't want to characterize you, you need to change in the very heart.
And that's not something from your past that is not something of your ability, that's not something of your background, that's not something of your worthiness. Somebody else has to do this in your behalf.
It's the very thing that Abraham is learning and we are meant to learn.
He grew in his faith as he gave glory to God. Not glory to me, not my accomplishment, not my doing, not my worthiness. I said, "God, you have to have all the glory. This is you who has to fix this. I can't produce a son. I'm not worthy to have a son.
But I believe that you can do as you promised."
Which ultimately is why it was counted to him as righteousness.
Because what he's done is he's turned his back on himself and he's simply saying, "My hope is purely in what God provides. I am giving just by turning to God the praise, the honor, the glory that God deserves as I turn away from any claim of myself to ability, to deserving, to earning, to worthiness.
I simply look to God." It's what God is doing to so many of us as we go through our hard times, our difficulties, and we wonder at times, "Is this a God that I should trust if I'm going through this?" And we forget at times God is stripping away the things that we depend upon, the things that we say make us worthy, able, willing to go through this life and say, "No, listen.
God is wanting you to say you have to depend upon him and him alone.
And when your heart becomes his because you've given glory to God, you've given him rule and sway in your life, he is saying, "That's what I was waiting for.
Faith in me, not in you."
And it creates the great blessing in our life of a soul that is right with him, an eternity that will be with him. The great blessings that are being described in this passage are of a gift that comes not based upon ability or worthiness, but is received by faith as we simply think, "God's got to do this."
And ultimately we are saying, "What is the nature of that grace that we are going to receive from God?" It's being explained here too, verse 24.
"It will be counted to us who believe in him who will raise Jesus from the dead, raised from the dead, Jesus our Lord, who is delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification."
Grace is coming. He was in the past. It was righteousness was counted past tense to Abraham for his belief in God.
I hear people say sometimes, "Well, I believe in God."
They forget the words of James. Even the devils believe. That's not the point.
The point is, have you given up on you and given glory to God? Are you living for him now? Is your faith in what he provides, not what you provide? Is that where you're going? Because ultimately that kind of faith is opening the door to this great grace to pour into your life.
Verse 22, "His faith was counted to him as righteousness." But that's not the best thing. The best thing is verse 23, "The words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also."
The very thing that Abraham was learning was meant to teach us so that if your question is, "Is there a place for me here?
Can I be part of a family that I was not originally part of?"
We are learning from Abraham that what makes us part of God's family is not ability and not background and not worthiness, but belief that God makes you part of his family by the work of Christ. What is that work?
Verse 25, "He was delivered up for our trespasses."
He was perfect. He was without sin. And yet God made him a perfect sacrifice for us. He said there's a penalty to be paid. And Jesus was delivered up and sacrificed to pay that penalty. But that's not the end of the story. We believe not only that he was delivered up for our trespasses. In verse 25, "Raised for our justification that the penalty was paid in full." And so it's penalty, the wrong that was meant to come upon all who turn away from God, which is ultimately death without God. That's been taken away. We are not just made right with God by this faith that's saying, "God, you have to provide the Son. You have to provide the way. I can't provide it." So God, I'm trusting you. I'm believing you do it. And I don't believe I'm worthy of it. I don't believe I can accomplish it. I don't believe I can hold on to it apart from your grace in my life. But here's just the grace. I believe Jesus has to provide what I can't provide. And when that's done and we believe that God raised Jesus from the dead because the debt was fully paid, then God says, "You have all that's needed.
You will now want to live with me and walk with me because you believe so profoundly
that God who blessed you did not bless you because of your worthiness, did not bless you because of your ability, but blessed you entirely because you put your faith in Him. And that means you're part of the family. By faith in His grace, not in anything in you."
Why is that important? Why is it important? This week, I could not help but rejoice in my own study this week as I recognize this after Tuesday and Wednesday in which we saw so many internationals coming through our doors, different dress, different language, afraid in some ways to come into this building. And you know the question they all have is, is there a place for us here?
Do you really want us here? And I think I turn in my sermon text months ahead of time. No idea that this text would be on this Sunday when it just seems so apt. And as Pastor Greg and Pastor Kerry and I were standing at the door watching people come in and their hijabs and their sorrys and different languages, some of them coming with war wounds, do you know that? Some coming with terrorism just having driven them from their countries and they're coming in our doors. Of course they're afraid.
And because of that, you don't know this, but last week they sent a scout ahead, somebody who spoke English well to come and be among us to find out, "Can there be a place for us here?" And the scout went back and said, "I think we can go to that place."
And as I was talking to that woman who had been the scout and she was explaining to me all the women who had come this week, she said, "You don't understand how difficult it is for us to be in this culture. Our husbands go off to work. We raise kids. We do the shopping in a language we do not know. We see foods we do not understand. We go to the doctor's office and we cannot explain to the doctors what our children are experiencing and we cannot understand from the doctors what they're telling us to do." She said, "Some of my friends go to the doctor. They don't know what to do, but go to the office and cry."
But she said, "As we have come into your church, you have treated us with dignity and respect.
This feels like home.
You have treated us like family.
And I think this is what we dreamed about. This is what we prayed for. This is what we hoped and God is doing it in our midst for the people, the nations that He's bringing to our very doorstep. It's the great blessing of the gospel as we recognize once it was all our questions, is there a place for me here? And now it's the question of people who are coming among us. And we want to say so clearly, not because of your earning, not because of your accomplishing, because of your dress, because of your language, because of your family.
If you have faith that God made a way for you through His Son, Jesus Christ, there is a place for you here.
You can be part of this family. We want you to be part of this family. It is the blessing of the gospel and the privilege of serving you as a pastor to be a church where people can come here and feel that it's home.
May God so keep us clearly understanding what the gospel is, that more people may be family
because of the witness and the welcome you have given. Father, would you again teach us the wonder and the goodness of the gospel, not just so that it becomes our claim, so that it becomes our message and our privilege to share. Grant us the glory and the goodness of the gospel that other people may know there's a place for them not just here, but in your own heart because of what you're doing to show us the gospel and teach us what it means to be part of your family by faith in the hope of the gospel. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.
Romans 19, Romans 3 verses 19 through 26.
Next month the entire world will be celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
In parts of the world celebrating for different reasons, there will be nations and governments that acknowledge that as a result of Martin Luther nailing those 95 theses on the Wittenberg door, that movements began that among other things released nations from church rule and also spoke of the equality of all humanity in such a way that the democratizing principles that we enjoy were given new force, energy, effort, and standard by what the Reformation did. Economists will acknowledge the importance of the Reformation because they will talk about the Protestant work ethic, that once you talk about the dignity of every human being and the holiness of every profession, then you elevate the dignity of what everyone does in every walk of life. And people begin to recognize, "I'm serving God in what I do every day if I'm thinking of my witness, my efforts to glorify Him in what I do." Of course tour companies will celebrate the Reformation because they'll take lots of people to Luther sites and to the sites historically of other early reformers.
But why do Bible-believing Christians celebrate the Reformation because of what's in Romans 3?
It wasn't about government, it wasn't about economy, it wasn't even about tours that Martin Luther staked his life on the principles of Scripture. It was for what is in this passage. He said, "Everything turns on this point."
Romans chapter 3 verses 19 through 26, what turns on this point? Let's stand as we honor God's Word. The Apostle Paul writes, "Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith."
This was to show God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, marvelous words, though all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, yet by faith in Jesus we are made right with You.
How can it be?
How does it change us?
How do we claim it? Teach us by Your Word the wonders and the goodness of the gospel we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.
Please be seated.
Preachers have told the story for centuries, you'll probably recognize it, a child panicked by a bee.
Her father tries to calm her, the child will not be calmed, and so finally the father grabs the bee and to calm his child shows the pulsing stinger in his own hand.
That's the story that's been told. I've told the story. I've told the story here.
But at some point I had to recognize the story had to become my own.
Why? Because we were heading home for a vacation. That means all the kids are packed into the van, they're seat belted, they can't move, not just because of the seat belt, but because the luggage is packed around them, and suddenly we get an unwelcome visitor in the van.
A bee. And for my fair-skinned, blonde, allergic-prone kids, now everybody's in a panic. The youngest girl is screaming.
The older boys are swatting for all their worth. None of this is calming the bee, who's only getting more angry and dangerous. Finally I recognize what I've got to do. I've got to listen to my own sermon.
I grab the bee and then to calm my youngest daughter, I show the screamer the stinger
in my own hand.
Now that's the story.
You be the preacher.
How do we turn that account into a parable if we're going to explain the gospel? Maybe the way you would do at lunch today with a child or a grandchild as a friend. If you're going to use that story to explain the gospel, whom does the father in the parable represent? Who's the father represent? Who's trying to calm the children down? Who's the father represent?
God the father? All right. What does…who are the children who are panicked? Who the children represent?
That's us.
A little harder.
What does the stinger represent which panics us and creates fright in us? What does that represent?
The consequences of our sin so that when we read in a passage like Romans from a couple of weeks ago, "The wrath of God is poured out against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men," we recognize that the van that we are all in is one in which we are captured by our own sin's threat.
We want to be free of that sin. We want to be free of the danger that is coming upon us, what ultimately is going to calm our fears, recognizing the father has taken the stinger in Scripture in his right hand. What does the right hand represent? Now Jesus, who not only sits at God's right hand but is the instrument of His mercy. God provided His own right hand, what was precious to Him, to take the penalty we deserve in order for us to be made right with God. Now, what is going to calm your fears?
Knowing the stinger has been taken and it threatens you no more.
That's the parable.
It's the truth the Apostle Paul is teaching here. And we need that truth because of what he's already explained. If the wrath of God is poured out against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of humanity, then who stands guilty before God?
Paul will say in verse 10 of chapter 3, "There is none righteous, no not one." We are all in this van of life recognizing the consequences of sin will come upon us. And the question that comes upon us then is, how do I find safety in this situation? And Paul's simpler answer is this, you are not your solution.
God is.
Why can you not be your solution? Because your righteousness says the Apostle will not save you, not righteous excuses and not righteous claims. What is in you is not going to keep you safe from the consequences of your own sin. That's verse 19. "Now we know," says the Apostle Paul in chapter 3, "that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God."
The law of God is rendering useless every excuse that this consequence of sin should not be attached to me.
Any single one of us, of course, if on a particular day we get caught going 50 in the school zone, has something we want to say to the policeman. We want to say what?
I didn't know. I wasn't aware.
And what does the policeman say? Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
But you have to see people objecting, even people in Paul's time. Well, yes, some of the people in our church in Rome are Jews. They had the law. They know the law. But we didn't know the law, so why do we stand condemned by the law? The Apostle has already answered that question. We looked at it last week in chapter 2 and verse 14. In Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires.
They are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Yes, it's true. You may not have a Bible to give you the standards of God. But the Apostle Paul says not only is ignorance of the law no excuse, you're not really ignorant of the law.
It's written on your heart, proof.
In the world in which we live, you think of those groups that may be identified as ISIS,
or Boko Haram, or Colombian warlords, or human traffickers, or a group of evil men in Philadelphia suburbs who kidnap and assault and murder and hurt in terrible ways. There is not a single one of us here who says, "Oh, they just didn't know.
They didn't go to church. They didn't have our Bible.
Their culture thinks other things."
We believe profoundly. The law is written on their hearts.
We know what is fair and just and loving and merciful. And we, to examine our own hearts, recognize that we do not live as people who are always fair and merciful and kind and selfless and indifferent.
We live as though we are indifferent to God's law. Everyone who claims, "I just don't know. I just don't have the Word of God," we have to say that just isn't true. The law of God written on your heart makes you know that immorality and vulgarity and drunkenness and infidelity and racism and materialism and indifference to the needs and the hurts of others. We know that is wrong.
And we don't somehow have to be sitting in a Sunday school to be aware of that. God says we are aware of what hurts people, what hurts us, what hurts our families. We know. And for that reason, every excuse is rendered null and void. The whole world, says Paul, will be held accountable to God whether or not they have the law of Moses in their background. Well, people will say, "All right, if I know the law, maybe what will make me right is I claim not to have an excuse. That's not it. I just claim that I'm righteous, that I'm not a bad person."
Verse 20, chapter 3, Paul says, "By the works of the law, no human being will be justified in his that is God's sight." Through the law comes knowledge of sin. If I really think of what I know, either from the Word of God or from my own conscience, I recognize I do not live up to the standards of righteousness even I know.
I recognize what is required and yet at the same time I know if I am honest with myself
that a holy God does not recognize holiness in me.
Mark Cahill is a former basketball player, became a Christian, began to witness to his teammates and friends, and talks about a conversation he had with one on a particular day where self-justification was going on. Cahill said to his friend, "When you die, what do you think is on the other side?"
The friend replied, "There's a heaven, there's a hell.
When I die, I'm going to heaven because I keep the Ten Commandments."
"Okay," said Cahill, "let's just see how well you're doing."
"Have you ever told a lie?" said the friend, "No."
Cahill said, "Well, that was an obvious lie." So he said, "What do you mean no?" The friend said, "Well, I've just stretched the truth a bit."
Said Cahill, "How far do you have to stretch the truth before it's a lie?" Said the friend, "Okay, I lied."
Said Cahill, "Then when you stand before God, what will you have to confess?"
"I'm a liar."
"Have you ever stolen anything?"
"Yes."
"What does that make you?"
"A thief."
"Have you ever lusted in your heart after someone else?"
"No."
But the friend's girlfriend was standing beside him, and she said, "You've lusted after me."
That caused him to swear and take the Lord's name in vain.
Said Cahill, "We've only been through four of the commandments so far, and you are all for four.
So when you stand before God, are you going to be innocent or guilty?"
Said the friend, "Guilty."
Now I told it was some humor, and I meant to, but I hope you recognize that when you stand before God and the wrath of God is poured out against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of humanity, that to stand before God and say, "I am guilty," will be no laughing matter. That we would stand before God and say, "God, I have no claim," is actually to put us in panic is to recognize that when the Apostle Paul has already said, "Because of your heart and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. For God will judge every person according to their works, that every single one of us should feel this absolute terror. How am I going to get out of this situation?" Now we may try to minimize the sin. We all want to do that. We don't just claim ignorance. We claim, "Well, I haven't done that bad of stuff."
Some of us have been trained to think about what claim that means. When the Bible talks about our sin, it says that we sin against God in thought, word, and deed. It's not just that we have murdered people. It's not just that we've committed awful assaults. We recognize that even the thoughts that go through our heads are often selfish, that guide our actions, that are bitter, that hurt our families as unforgiveness begins to characterize us. We recognize that selfishness and arrogance and bitterness and unforgiveness and just plain indifference to people who are hurting characterizes our thoughts and actions. And if you were just to kind of say, "Do you have three uncaring, indifferent, bitter, angry thoughts per day?"
Then what would that accumulate to be in a year?
Well, that's a thousand a year.
Multiply that times your age.
Five thousand?
If you're a teen, fifteen thousand?
Middle age, thirty thousand? Or is it fifty thousand? Or is it sixty thousand? Or seventy thousand?
And when you stand before God, will you be innocent or guilty?
The Scriptures tell us precisely what we will be. Chapter three in verse ten, "None is righteous, no not one."
Our situation before God renders us desperate before God. And when we recognize that, we have to say, as the Apostle wants us to say, "You are not your answer. Your righteousness will not save you. God's will."
It's actually the righteousness of God that is the solution to our own sin problem. And that righteousness of God is intended to save us. Now when I say that, you must recognize that even for those in the church in Rome many years ago, that would have been a startling thing to hear. The righteousness of God saves. I thought the righteousness of God was what made me feel guilty. I understand He's righteous, He's good. I see in the mirror of God's great righteousness, my own sin, my flaws, my failings. I thought the righteousness of God was what would condemn me, not what would save me.
But the Apostle Paul is trying to make it clear to us, the righteousness of God must not only reveal good standards, but a good heart.
And it is the good heart of God that's also on display as the Apostle Paul is explaining the righteousness of God. Verse 21, "But now," he says, "the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it." Now these words are a little difficult for us. They would have just been earth shattering to the Jews of Paul's time. God is revealing Himself to us apart from the law. I thought the law doing good stuff was how you made yourself right with God because it says here's who God is. So if you want to be with God, you want to be like God, you have to do this good stuff too. And when you don't, you're just plain guilty. And now the Apostle Paul says, "No, the righteousness of God is being revealed apart from the law." How do you get righteousness of God understood apart from the law? It's like saying, "I'm going to explain Starbucks to you and I'm not going to mention coffee.
I'm going to talk about Apple and never mention Steve Jobs." No, these things are integral to the understanding. How can you say the righteousness of God is being revealed apart from the law? We have to know that because it goes so much against what most people think even when they come to the church.
Actually, many people who've been in the church a long time think that what we're here for is just to learn to be good.
So that we will qualify to be with God.
I can't help but remember some years ago when I was jogging on one of those paths I told you I jogged for about 30 years and meeting different people at different times and jogging along with a man at some point and then him discovering he's jogging next to this weird creature known as a preacher, right? And so, you know, he's suddenly, you know, inside, "Oh no, oh no, oh no, you know, how do I make conversation? How do I look good with a preacher who's jogging beside me?" And so he says, "You know, I know I ought to go to church more because I know church is supposed to talk to us and teach us about how to be good so we'll get to heaven."
And I startled him a little bit. I said, "Actually, what our church teaches is that good people don't go to heaven."
What do you mean good people don't go to heaven? Well, that's right. Good people don't go to heaven. How could that be? Because there aren't any of those people.
There is none righteous, no, not one.
It's not the good people who go to heaven because only sinners can go to heaven because that's all we are. That's no distinction in the economy of the apostles as he begins to think about who we are. So our righteousness isn't going to be the basis of our being right with God, but God is revealing a righteousness apart from the law. And yet he says, remember, verse 21, "The law and the prophets bear witness to whatever it is that God is displaying to reveal His righteousness." So it's not the law that's comprehensively revealing the law that's going to be the righteousness of God, but the law and the prophets are revealing the righteousness that's apart from the law.
How does the law reveal our righteousness apart from the law?
Okay, well, I just think, in the Old Testament, what was that law revealing to people? It was revealing what God requires, but it was also revealing the rescue we require.
You're not going to do this. You are not righteous enough to be right with the holy God. And so the Apostle Paul actually says in Galatians 3 and verse 24, "The law was our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ."
That the very law that was revealing all of God's standards was saying, yes, this is what God requires, but it's also revealing you require a rescue because you're not going to be made right by what you do according to this law. But that wasn't all that was in this Old Testament.
The law was not all that was being revealed back here, the law and the prophets.
The law is revealing the need for rescue.
The prophets are predicting the rescuer.
Isaiah in chapter 7 says, "There will come one who will be born of a virgin." That is, the lineage and the legacy of sin will be cut off from him so that he would have a perfect start in the world. And not only would he have a perfect start, Isaiah in the 54th chapter says that he would be the holy one of Israel who would redeem. He would live a righteous life. He would have no sin in his heritage. He would have no sense in his own doing, no sin in his own doings.
And as a consequence, he would be a perfect sacrifice for the sins of others. Isaiah would say, "All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way by thought, word, and deed.
But the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all that he would ultimately pay a price that we could not pay, that he would be the one who would suffer in our behalf." God is revealing this great rescuer who would be the perfect substitute for my sin and your sin. He would pay the penalty that we deserve. And the question, of course, all of us have now is, "Well, if he's going to pay the penalty, how do I get in the van with him?"
And Paul says it over and over and over again. Verse 22, "It is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe."
He's actually quoting the Old Testament. He's actually quoting the prophet Habakkuk. Remember the just, those who are made right with God, shall live by faith.
It's not trusting what you do. You are not your answer. It's trusting in the God who by his righteousness, his standards that are showing you need him and his heart that is providing for you. Trusting in that God is your ultimate hope. Now if you are a Jew in the church in Rome, or if you're a new Gentile coming into the church, I must tell you, this is just not making sense.
I have lived as a Jew all of my life trying to follow the law of God. And now Paul, you're saying there's a righteousness of God that's not based on the law. And I'm coming into the church, and maybe I'm coming to the church through immorality or some sort of anger or bitterness or broken family, and now I'm coming to church because you're promising that you're going to help me here. And now I get in the church and you are telling me that I'm not made right with God by being a good person.
Paul, you've got to make more sense than that.
You're going to have to slow down. You're going to have to make this more clear.
And as the Apostle Paul writes the next words, I sometimes wonder, was he just smiling?
Or were there tears of joy dropping on the page as he said? All right, I'll slow down.
I'll make it clear.
What does he say?
Verse 23, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
Well, I don't like hearing that, Paul. Well, all I'm saying says Paul is, listen, there are plenty of sinners.
There's no distinction. Whether you had the law or didn't have the law. Whether you're in church, out of the church. Whether you know the Bible, nobody meets their own standards, much less God's standards. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There's just plenty of sinners.
And there's plenty of grace for sinners like us. That's the beautiful message that the Apostle Paul is making clear. He has to make it clear because it wasn't just back then. It's even today, people come through these doors. They may sit in these pews for years. And what they think is, you know what, I've got to qualify for God's grace. I've got to do enough, think enough, pay enough, appear to be good enough that God's going to accept me.
And if that's what you think, if that's what you're going through, Paul just has to undermine all of that. And he starts out by saying, listen, everybody's a sinner.
Before God, before their own standards, they are a sinner. So what's going to help them? And he gives three analogies to help. A courtroom analogy of what that means, then a marketplace, and then a temple. What about the courtroom? He says in verse 24, do you remember, that we who are sinners are justified by God's grace as a gift. To be justified means you are declared righteous or just, either because you're not guilty
or because the penalty for your crime has been paid. Now, folks, which are we going to be? Not guilty?
No, that's not us.
But we are declared just because the penalty for our crime has been paid.
And the reason that we can stand before God justified is because He provided for that penalty to be paid. It has to be that way. Or else we don't really understand the righteousness of God. Ravi Zacharias talks about talking to a Palestinian in a restaurant in Jerusalem years ago, and that Palestinian had actually been privy to a conversation between a Christian missionary
and a Muslim sheikh who in Palestine had just ordered the murder of eight Israelis because four Palestinians had been killed by Israeli troops.
As the missionary was talking to the sheikh, he asked this question, "Who appointed you, judge and jury?"
The sheikh replied, "I'm not judge and jury.
I am just an instrument of God's justice."
There was a moment of silence, and then the missionary asked, "What place is there then for forgiveness?"
Said the sheikh, "Forgiveness is only for those who earn it."
If you earn it, folks, it's not forgiveness.
Forgiveness is what is given as a gift.
And it's precisely what the Apostle Paul is saying over and over again with increasing clarity, verse 24, "We are justified by His grace as a gift." Do you recognize the Greek word for grace is just gift?
We are justified by a gift as a gift. And so I have to make you understand this is not something you purchase. This is not something you earn, that there is a just judge, and in His justice He justifies. But the way in which He does that is by a gift, not by your earning, not by your qualifying, not by you're getting good enough. If what you're doing here today is that I'm here, so I get good enough for God to help me, you have to understand you are trying to earn something that God intends to give.
It's a gift. How do we understand that? Verse 24 at the end, having talked about the courtroom where there's a justification by a gift, he says, it's through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
The words are odd to us, but not to the people of Paul's day, because he's now talking about a market scene, but it is a slave market, where people are redeemed from slavery or from indentured relationships, or being captives, now being sold as slaves, because someone pays the price and sets them free.
They are compensated, the one who could hold them, could punish them, could hurt them, has been compensated by a redemption that sets free from the penalty, free from the slavery.
Mindy Bells is the editor of World Magazine that some of you read, and she talks about beginning to understand the redemption that is ours and the wonderful magnitude of it by being in the Sudan, where she was dealing with a Christian father whose son had been kidnapped, and he had to come up with a ransom price to redeem his son from the hostage captivity.
Some of the prices to release children has gone as high as $30,000, as those who were taking the money were using it for weapons and more terror.
And her knowing that, she talked to the Christian father, she said, "What was the price that you paid for your son?"
And she said, "He looked down in embarrassment."
I paid $750, which means that was all his son was worth to those captors.
What are you worth to God?
The redemption that purchased you was Jesus Christ, God's own precious son, as He gave his son, his blood, his life, to purchase your redemption. It is the one who is saying, "I am justifying you because the penalty has been paid." But how was the penalty paid? It was paid by blood, verse 25, "This Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith." This was to show God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance, He had passed over a former sense. God had passed over people who deserved His wrath for so long. And why did He… All that Old Testament, all this prophecy, He did not bring to bear the ultimate wrath of God. Why? Because He was preparing for the propitiation, the sacrifice of His own son. This is temple language. We're not accustomed to it anymore. The only time we hear the word "propitious" is when, you know, a mayor or a city councilman is opening the new mall or a new store or something. Well, this is a propitious occasion, right? And what do we mean? This is something that has favor for the future.
And when there's a propitiation, something has been paid to provide the favor that is needed. And God says, "The very one against whom the wrath of God, the very one who has wrath poured out against all ungodliness and unrighteousness…" That person has provided the propitiation, the sacrifice of atonement that was needed. He has made things right by Himself paying what was needed.
I saw it happen in a circumstance that my son would not like me telling you about.
I was in traffic court.
It was his ticket, not mine.
But as the father is with his teenage son, we're waiting for our case to be handled. And as some of you have been in traffic court, you know, this line of people that are being handled before we have to go face the judge.
One woman was found guilty and the judge says, "This is your fine," gabbles the fine.
She said, "Judge, I cannot pay the fine."
He said, "If you cannot pay the fine, you will forfeit your license."
She said, "If I lose my license, I cannot work." "If I cannot work, I cannot keep my apartment. I cannot feed my children.
I have to keep my license."
The judge was stern for a little bit, and then his heart was touched.
And I watched the judge reach into his wallet and pay the fine that he himself had imposed.
He was just, and at the same time he was justifying the one who was asking his help in need.
Did you see that in verse 26? All that God has done in providing his own Son for us, it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier at the same moment.
He's paying the fine and releasing us from the penalty. He's just and justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
He's taken the stinger in his own hand by letting his Son, his own right hand, accept the penalty that we deserved.
He paid the cost, our Heavenly Father, by giving the Son in our behalf. And now we say, "If that's the case, if the penalty has been paid, if I could be made right with God and it's not by my work, how do I get in the van that's safe? How do I get on the good side of this God?" Paul has made no mystery of that. He said it four times in this passage. Verse 22, "The righteousness of God is by faith in Jesus Christ." Then again in the same verse, "For all who believe." Verse 25, "God put Jesus forward as a propitiation, as this sacrifice of atonement, to be received by faith." Verse 26, "All this was so that God might be just and justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."
We see the rescue. We say, "What's the rope that connects me? It is faith to God." But now we start doing these crazy things even though we've been told over and over again that it's not what you do, it's what God has done. We begin to say, "All right, how much do I got to pay for this faith?
How much of this faith do I have to pump up in me? What are the five things I have to do to get this faith?" Say, "No, no, no. It's faith in what He has done. It's not faith in your resolve. It's not faith in your faith. It's not faith in doing enough good stuff. It's faith in Him. If you can just perceive it, it's my daughter opening her eyes and seeing the stinger in my hand.
It's not believing she's done anything. It's believing I have taken the pain. I have taken the load. I am the one providing."
That's the faith. It's understanding that when we come before God, you and I are not going to stand before God and He says, "Why should I let you into my heaven?" He says, "Well, what I got to do, I have enough faith and it's really, really good faith."
No, not the point. Is it what you do or what He's done? Where is your faith? Is it in all that He has accomplished, all that He's done in your behalf? Faith is always the catcher's mitt, never the pitch, right? It's receiving. It's accepting the gift, not trying to purchase the gift. It's saying, "Jesus, I'm leaning on you and I'm not going to get credit for the leaning.
It's you. It's you that is my hope." In just a few moments, folks, we're going to have opportunity to think, "Does this make sense to you that you're not trying to earn God's affection? You're not trying to be good enough for Him, but to say, "I'm just going to stand before God someday and I'm not going to say I was good enough or my faith was good enough. I'm just going to say, I believe Jesus did what I had to do. He provided for me and that's all I believe. I believe there's no good in me, no good in my faith, no good in my works, no good in my righteous. No, I just believe Jesus made a way for me."
And when you believe that, God says, "You're in the van.
Now let's go to some good places because you're now in the van with the one who loves you beyond all eternity.
It's a wondrous place to be.
And when you recognize He took the penalty, the screaming of guilt and shame and hurt and wonder and fear stops.
He took the penalty.
Praise God.
I believe in Him. I believe in Him."
Father, teach us the gospel again that hearts that are at peace might be filled with the joy of knowing that this good, good God, this wondrous Father has provided His Son to take the penalty that we deserved so that we would never claim our righteousness, but would just say this, "I believe that Jesus paid the penalty for my sin and now I'm right with God because I'm trusting Him." Folks, can you do that? Some of you here just say, "I believe I'm a sinner."
Is that in your heart? You know it's true.
I believe I'm a sinner.
I believe that God sent Jesus to pay for my sin and I'm going to trust Him now and forever.
If that's your prayer, raise your eyes and know the hope of the gospel, it's yours. Let's rejoice in it as we sing.