Fatherly Wisdom

Fatherly Wisdom. That’s our title
this morning for the sermon, and that sounds like a really
good subject to consider on Father’s Day. I actually didn’t plan this
message as a Father’s Day message at all. I’m not that creative. subject matter before us really
falls to us, not coincidentally but providentially, as a matter
of course in our flyover of Romans. We find ourselves still in the
second major section of this great epistle, having concluded
Paul’s treatment of the first major section, sin, in chapters
one through three. Happily, now we find ourselves
in the midst of his discussion on salvation. The subject of
salvation is first introduced, as we saw last Lord’s Day, in
chapter 3 verse 21, and there we heard of Paul’s announcement
of salvation. The righteousness of God has
been manifested. Righteousness is God’s virtuous
perfection, His moral standard. It’s the very thing that we as
humans lack, and that righteousness has been provided in full. It’s
God’s righteousness. Paul proceeds to tell us that
of the breadth of salvation, verse 22, that this righteousness
is for all who believe, whether Gentile or Jewish, And if that
isn’t an astounding enough truth, Paul explains the means of salvation
in verses 24 and 25, that the believer is justified, he or
she is declared righteous through Christ’s invaluable redemption. The price that he paid on the
cross Because we are redeemed, Paul
says, God declares the believer righteous, justified before him. Well, Paul concludes that fantastic
paragraph in verses 25 and 26. This is where we were last week. He details the intricacies of
salvation. He tells his readers that, first
of all, Christ’s redemption of sinners is in his blood. It is
by his death on the cross, his sacrificial death, that we are
saved. And he tells us, secondly, that
it is through faith. It is only by believing in Christ’s
finished work on the cross that any are saved. And then thirdly,
he told us that salvation is a declaration of God’s own righteousness. That makes him both just, fair,
righteous, and the justifier, the one who saves sinners. All
told, this passage is one of the apostles’ clearest and most
thorough declarations of the gospel. The good news to humanity,
chapter three, verses 21 through 26. Well, even with all of that,
this incredible paragraph of Scripture, Paul has not exhausted
his treatment of the grand subject of salvation, and he proceeds
to illustrate it here in chapter 4. As his powerful example, he
puts forth a man named Abraham, the father of a multitude of
nations, the forefather not just of the Jewish people, but of
all people. Abraham was held in high esteem by the Jewish
people as a righteous man, one of the patriarchs of the Jewish
nation, but Jewish scholars eventually began to teach that Abraham was
justified by the keeping of the law of God, that salvation was
a system of merit. This is the very error that Paul
was challenging in the previous chapter. It’s only one chapter
back. If you would flip to the end
of chapter 3 and look at verse 27, these are the verses immediately
following that paragraph that we considered last Sunday. Look at verse 27. Where then
is boasting? If salvation is by faith in Christ,
where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind
of law of works do we earn our salvation? By law keeping? No,
but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is
justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Or is God
the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles
also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since
indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the
uncircumcised through faith is one. Same God, same salvation,
different means. Now, if you’re not Jewish, as
is the case with most of us here this morning, this is really
good news. Salvation is open to all, but
this salvation is only available by faith. Faith in Christ’s redemptive
sacrifice on the cross. And Abraham, as Paul begins to
illustrate, was actually an example of this very kind of salvation. A man who was justified by faith,
not by his works. And so, in order to drive home
this point that salvation was by faith and not law-keeping,
that it was not a national salvation as Israel held it to be, and
that it was not bestowed through some ritual, Paul employs the
perfect example, Abraham. Having laid the foundation of
salvation by means of justification by faith in chapter 3, Paul here
illustrates this great doctrine by means of Abraham’s life of
faith. And we can observe here in this
chapter five lessons about salvation that we can learn from Abraham,
the father of nations. Now, normally, as you know, we
would pause and read the passage in full, but as we’re going to
consider the entire chapter this morning, we will take this chapter
in paragraph by paragraph as we come to it. So if you would,
begin here. look at chapter 4 verse 1, we’re
considering fatherly wisdom, Abraham’s example of salvation
by faith, and specifically we’re looking at spiritual lessons
from the father of nations. And the first lesson that we
can glean here is in verses 1 through 8, the ground of Abraham’s justification. beginning in verse 1 of chapter
4. What should we say then that
Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For
if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about,
but not before God. But what does Scripture say?
And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Now, to the one who works, his
wage is not reckoned as a favor, but what is due. but to the one
who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly,
his faith is reckoned as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of
the blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness
apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless
deeds have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered.
Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account. Paul introduces Abraham here
by referring to him as our father, forefather, according to the
flesh. In other words, our physical forefather for those Jewish readers. What Paul, pardon me, what, Paul
asks, has he found? What was his experience with
regard to this idea of justification? How was he saved? Verse 2 and
3, Paul draws the focus even clearer. If Abraham was justified
by works, he has something to boast about before God. Abraham
was indeed a righteous man. His instructions to Isaac, Genesis
26, The Lord acknowledges that Abraham kept God’s charge, his
commandments, his statutes, and his laws. He was an obedient
man. No wonder in Isaiah 41.8, God
himself declares Abraham to be his friend. But even his righteous
works did not give Abraham the right to boast before the Lord.
The real question is, how is it that Abraham came to be righteous
or be considered righteous? And Paul explains it in verse
three. Glance down there. And Abraham believed God and
it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Abraham, Paul says, was justified
by his faith, not by his works, not by his church attendance,
not by his giving, not by his generosity, Not by his denomination,
not by keeping some ritual. He was justified by his faith. That’s a direct quote from Genesis
15. And since we have all the time
in the world today, would you turn just for a moment there
to Genesis 15? I’m just gonna kind of tiptoe
through this verse. in rapid fashion, mind you. Abraham
has shown himself to be a faithful man, a man who trusted and obeyed
the Lord. And in this chapter, the Lord
is conversing with Abraham, expressing magnificent promises to him.
Look at verse one. Do not fear, Abram. I am a shield
to you. Your reward shall be very great. But Abram wonders about his childless
state. How am I going to have any kind
of a ministry without some kind of heritage? To which God responds
in verse 4 with the promise of a child, he says, who will come
forth from your own body as an heir. To graphically illustrate
this promise, look at verse five. The Lord took him outside to
look at the countless stars of the sky. So shall your descendants be.
The Lord says to Abram, that’s God’s promise. And as astounding
as it was for a man who was then in his mid-80s, it says in verse
six, then he believed the Lord. He took him at his word. He believed
the Lord and God reckoned it to him as righteousness. He justified
him on the spot by his faith. That’s the verse that Paul quotes
to show that it wasn’t Abraham’s good works that saved him, it
was his faith in God. Please, if you would, back to
Romans 4. Now, to further explain this point, Paul introduces a
little piece of reasoning in verse four and following. Would you glance at verse four
there, Romans four, verse four. To the one who works, his wage
is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. This is a simple
but important point. When a person has a job, puts
in eight hours a day, 40 hours a week, sometimes a whole lot
more, come payday, the boss doesn’t come around flaunting the paycheck
as if it’s some kind of magnanimous gift to his employee. The worker
has earned it. It’s as good as his or hers.
Paul’s point here is that if Abraham really earned his salvation
by law-keeping, by his good works, then he deserves that salvation,
and he has something to boast about. But Abram wasn’t justified
by his works, and this is Paul’s point in verse five, but to the
one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly. His faith is reckoned as righteousness.
That is the means of salvation. We don’t have anything good to
commend to God. It is only by our faith in Christ
and His finished work that we are ever saved. God justifies
the ungodly. God can save anyone. We’re living proof of that, aren’t
we? Abraham didn’t earn his justification by his good works, by keeping
God’s commands. It was his faith that God recognized,
and because of his faith, God declared Abraham as righteous. And so the first lesson that
we observe here in this passage is that it was Abraham’s faith
that served as the ground of his justification, not his works. There’s a second point. not only
the ground of Abraham’s justification, but the means of Abraham’s justification. If you would pick up with me
in verse nine. Isn’t this blessing then upon
the circumcised or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say faith was reckoned
to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it reckoned? While
he was circumcised or uncircumcised? not while he was circumcised,
but while uncircumcised, and he received the sign of circumcision,
a seal of the righteousness of faith, which he had while uncircumcised,
that he might be the father of all who believe without being
circumcised. that the righteousness might
be reckoned to them and the father of circumcision to those who
are not only of the circumcision but also to those who follow
in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had
while uncircumcised. For the promise to Abraham or
to his descendants that he would be an heir of the world was not
through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For
those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and
the promise is nullified. For the law brings about wrath,
but where there is no law, neither is there violation. Now for this
second lesson, Paul dives right in, doesn’t he? He quite abruptly
brings up the very delicate subject of circumcision. Circumcision,
as you know, was the Jewish rite, R-I-T-E, that served as a symbol
of alignment with God’s covenant. It’s a physical sign of that
covenant. It was first prescribed by God
to Abraham when he enacted that covenant with him. In time, however,
the Jewish people began to see the symbol as their salvation
rather than their faith in God. We correct people all the time
that baptism, water baptism, does not save anybody. It’s a
symbol of a work that God’s already done. Well, the Jews turned this
into something meritorious, something that it was never intended to
be. In their minds, it became the means of salvation. But if a person trusts in anything
other than Christ’s work of redemption to make themselves right with
God, they nullify that work. And so what Paul says here is
that salvation is not by means of the Jewish rite of circumcision. Abraham himself wasn’t saved
by it, nor is anyone else. So Paul poses a very direct question
here. Is this blessing, this salvation,
this justification before God, is it for Jews only? Is it for
only those who receive circumcision or are the uncircumcised, that
is the Gentiles, also eligible? Well, Paul answers his own question
and he does so in verses 10 and 11. Glance there if you would. Because he takes us to the moment
of Abraham’s justification. The great father of faith was
reckoned as righteousness, justified before he was circumcised. God declared Abraham righteous
and circumcision was a sign of that. No rite or ritual confers
God’s blessings on Abraham or anyone else. And in verse 11,
Paul refers to this rite as a sign and a seal. It was not the means
of salvation. Circumcision was only symbolic
of what God had already done in Abraham’s life, just like
Christian baptism is for us. It pointed to that reality. And
this is important for the non-Jewish world because Paul makes the
point that Abram was the father of all who believe, Jews and
Gentiles. You would glance down at verse
13, where Paul kind of summarizes this whole thing. For the promise
to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the
world was not through the law, but through the righteousness
of faith. God’s promise, while expressed to Abraham, was not
just for Abraham, not Abraham alone, but it was for all of
his descendants, whether Jews or Gentiles. And this promise
to Abraham was not to be realized through the law, the law of Moses. Rather, it was by means of the
righteousness of faith, the righteousness of God bestowed upon all who
believe. God’s promise to Abraham was
not tied to law-keeping. The law of Moses, in fact, hadn’t
even been given by God. But faith, trust in God’s promises
was in play for Abraham, and Abraham had numerous promises
for which he needed to take God at his word. We could comb through
a mountain of verses, jot this one down, I’m not gonna take
the time to turn, but jot down Genesis 12, two through three. There are many verses, many different
promises to look at, but this one lists about seven specific
promises. And I will make you a great nation,
and I will bless you. I will make your name great,
so you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless
you, and the one who curses you, I will curse. And in you, all
the families of the earth will be blessed. Those were some of
the promises that God made to Abraham. All in all, the promises
of Abraham included land, all the land of Canaan, nations,
a numberless family tree, and God’s own blessing. But Abraham
had to receive all of those promises in faith, and he did. Paul’s conclusive argument here
in verses 14 and 15 is essentially this. What’s the point of faith
if people can earn their salvation by law-keeping? Faith is made
void and the promise is nullified. Fact is, people aren’t saved
by their works. They never have been. No one
has ever been saved by earning their salvation. It’s impossible. The standard of saving ourselves
by law-keeping is impossible. So point two. the means of Abraham’s
justification before God was that he was righteous. He was
declared to be righteous. The ground of Abraham’s justification
was his faith. The means of Abraham’s justification
was his righteousness. Third, the third observation
that we can make of Abraham’s example of salvation, we find
in verses 16 and 17, and this is the gift of Abraham’s justification. The ground, the means, and the
gift. Look at verse 16 and 17, if you
would, for this reason. It is by faith that it might
be in accordance with grace, in order that the promise may
be certain to all the descendants, not only those who are of the
law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. who
is the father of us all, as it is written, the father of many
nations I have made you in the sight of him whom he believed,
even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that
which does not exist. There’s a lot there, and we don’t
have time for it all. Here in verse 16, Paul makes
the important point that faith is inextricably tied to God’s
salvation of a sinner. It’s only by God’s grace. Paul
has already hinted at this observation. Here he states it explicitly.
Let me show you this. Look back, if you would, to verse
four. In verse four, Paul makes the point, remember, about the
worker earning his paycheck. His wage, Paul says, is not reckoned
as a favor. Rather, he earns it. He deserves
it. But as soon as we take that mindset,
the idea of grace is canceled out. It’s no longer a favor. We’ve
earned it. This simply is not the case with
salvation. It cannot be earned even by a
lifetime of good works. The grace of God then is completely
undeserved. It is unmerited favor, as we
so often describe it. We cannot earn it, nor could
we ever repay God for it. I love the way one faithful man
of God summarized it. Unless we are saved by grace, We cannot be saved at all. That’s
the truth. It’s salvation by grace through
faith. Salvation can only be granted
by God. Paul referred to it in verse
four as favor. But Paul uses that same exact
word here in verse 16, except that this time by our translators,
it’s translated as grace. Abraham’s salvation, God declaring
him righteous, was an act of God’s grace, undeserved favor. And this salvation, Paul tells
us, is available to all, certainly to all of Abraham’s descendants,
and therefore it must be by faith. This is because the Gentile nations,
they didn’t even have the Mosaic law to guide them. They couldn’t
attempt salvation by law-keeping. They were not, as Paul says here,
of the law. Their only hope for salvation
was salvation by the faith, the faith that Abraham modeled. As
Paul says in verse 16, the only way that salvation can be in
accordance with God’s magnanimous grace is if it is by faith alone. Faith and grace go hand in hand.
We do nothing. We add nothing. It is purely
and simply by God’s grace that anyone is ever saved. Paul underscores
this point with a brief citation from Genesis 17.5, a father of
many nations I have made you. You see, Abraham was not just
the father, the forefather of the Jews, the father of many
nations, he was the spiritual father of the non-Jews as well. Abraham’s trust in God was exclusive. It was in God and only in God.
Abraham believed him to be the God of miracles, the God of creation. And faith is, as we’ve already
seen, it is the one ground of salvation. And though the Gentiles
did not have the law of God, they did receive the gift of
faith. And this brings us to the fourth
discoverable lesson that we can glean from observing Abraham’s
justification. We find it in verses 18 through
22. The inspiration of Abraham’s
justification. The ground, the means, the gift,
and now the inspiration of Abraham’s justification. It was against
all odds. Would you pick up with me in
verse 18? Paul writes, in hope against
hope, he believed in order that he might become the father of
many nations, according to that which has been spoken, so shall
your descendants be. And without becoming weak in
faith, he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead, since
he was about 100 years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
Yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief. but grew strong in his faith,
giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what he had
promised, he was able to perform. Therefore, also it was reckoned
to him as righteousness.” The fourth lesson that we draw from
Abraham’s justification here is the inspiration that it provides
us as believers. You see, every one of us has
context. Every one of us endures trials.
Every one of us is steeped in sin. It looks very hopeless. Every one of us experiences temptation
to doubt, temptation to disregard God’s promises by placing our
faith in Him. So did Abraham. And yet, as Paul
says at the outset of this paragraph, in hope, against hope, he believed. That’s a unique way of saying
that Abraham had his hopes. He had his dreams and desires.
He had his expectations of the fulfillment of God’s promises.
He hoped. Let me just say that the biblical
version of hope is not like our version, wishful thinking, right? The biblical version of hope, what scripture presents is a
settled confidence. in what God has promised, and
realization and expectation of those promises. And when Paul
says, in hope against hope, he points to the bleakness of such
a fulfillment. It’s an extremely unlikely situation
to which Paul alludes here. And we know that the particular
situation Paul has in mind here is no other than the promise
that God had made to Abraham In Genesis 15, a son. Approximately
15 years later, God reiterates that promise in Genesis 17. And
now Abraham is nearly 99 years old. Almost 100. What God promises
to him seems impossible. At least from a human standpoint. It was indeed a process, but
ultimately Abraham took God at his word. Look at the way Paul
says it in verses 20 and 21. With respect to the promise of
God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving
glory to God, and being fully assured that what he had promised,
a son, he was able to perform. As impossible as God’s promise
seemed on a human level, Abraham believed that God could fulfill
that promise. He pondered some doubtful thoughts,
assuredly. He struggled, for sure. But he
knew the nature of God. He knew that God would uphold
his promises. He knew that he could take God
at his word. And he did not dwell on his circumstances,
but on his all-powerful God. He took it in faith. And at the
end of it all, he believed. And because of his faith, verse
22 reiterates this promise once again, therefore it was reckoned
to him as righteousness. God not only recognized Abraham’s
faith, but rewarded him accordingly, reckoning, considering him as
righteous. Abraham’s great faith, even in
the face of seemingly impossible odds, ought to be a great inspiration
to us as God’s children. We think of our own sin. We know
better than anyone how wretched our heart is. How desperate we
are. How much in need of a Savior
we are. And the most common retort from
the average sinner is, not me. There’s no hope for me. There’s hope for every sinner.
There was hope for Abraham. Finally, the fifth. Lesson from
Abraham’s salvation is justification by faith. We see in the final
three verses of chapter four, verses 23 and 25, we have the
ground of Abraham’s justification, the means of Abraham’s justification,
the gift of Abraham’s justification, the inspiration of Abraham’s
justification, and finally, the pattern of Abraham’s justification. The pattern of Abraham’s justification
is that it was for all who would believe. If you look at verse 23, now, not
for his sake only was it written that it was reckoned to him,
but for our sake also to whom it will be reckoned as those
who believe in him who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead. He who was delivered up for our
transgressions was raised for our justification. And now perhaps
for anyone outside of the Jewish faith, this is the most hopeful
lesson of all. These verses serve really as
a summary of Paul’s teaching thus far from 321 all the way
to 422. It wraps up all of that, and
the good news is that the biblical accounts of Abraham and his justification
by God was not just for Abraham. It wasn’t just for his sake. Nor was it an empty history lesson. Oh, that was a nice little story.
Nor was the account of Abraham’s justification only for the Jewish
people. All of scripture we know was
written for our instruction. And here, God’s plan of redemption,
witnessed in the account of Abraham’s life, Paul says, is for us. It was written for our sake.
Justification by faith was the pattern, the means of salvation,
established by God for all. the Jew first, and also to the
Greek, the Gentile, you and I. Paul says that it wasn’t only
for his sake that God reckoned Abraham’s faith as righteousness.
It’s for our sake also. So that for all who believe in
him, that is, in God the Father, who raised Jesus our Lord from
the dead, They too will be reckoned as righteousness. This is the
means of salvation, people. This is a reiteration of exactly
what Paul says when he introduced the subject of salvation in 322. The righteousness of God through
faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. Here in verse 25,
we basically have the gospel in brief. Speaking of Jesus our
Lord, he describes him as he who was delivered up for our
transgressions and was raised because of our justification.
Jesus Christ went to the cross, suffered, died, and was buried
to atone for our sin. That was not the end. He was
raised for our justification. Christ’s resurrection was the
necessary counterpart for his death for sinners. It was God’s
declaration that Christ’s sacrifice was fully accepted. Jesus was,
as Paul says in 1-4 of this very letter, Jesus Christ was declared
the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.
Isn’t that an amazing statement? Believing that Jesus died for
sinners, was buried, and that he was raised from the dead is
the substance of our faith. And the substance that he is
the Son of God that God promised, the Savior of the world. Would
you humble yourself before him? Our merciful God, we rejoiced
to hear the gospel proclaimed last week in that incredible
sentence, one sentence of nearly 100 words that proclaimed that
salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone, and that in it,
the sinner is declared to be righteous, not immediately made
righteous, but declared to be such. Father, we thank you for
this illustration of that salvation that Abraham’s justification,
Paul says, was by faith and not by works. There was nothing that
Abraham could do to earn his salvation. There’s nothing that
any of us could ever do. No human could ever earn salvation
by their good deeds, good works. Father, we thank you for the
report of the means of God’s of Abraham’s justification that
you declared him to be righteous not actually righteous but declared
so Lord we thank you for the reminder of the gift of this
salvation that it was by grace and only by grace it could never
be earned We thank you for the inspiration of Abraham’s justification
that even against impossible odds, even knowing, as we do,
the depth of our sinfulness and wretchedness, that we don’t deserve
a Savior. The truer words were never spoken.
We don’t deserve it. And that’s what makes our Lord
Jesus Christ so remarkable. Father, the pattern of justification
is the same. What Abraham experienced, we
too are called to experience. It is for all who believe. Father,
we pray that if there are any in this room who do not know
the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, that today, today could
be the day of salvation. Is it a matter of taking God
at His word? in what he has done through the
Lord Jesus Christ in sending him as payment for sinners. Lord, faith alone, God will receive
and declare such sinners as righteous before him, forgiven. Lord, we thank you for this promise.
For all who know it, we rejoice before you in your goodness and
grace. This example of Abraham is our experience as well. Father, we lay these things before
you in gratitude. We thank you for putting these
things down for our sake as well. We pray all of these things in
Jesus’ name. Amen.