©2000 Larry Huntsperger
Peninsula Bible Fellowship
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9/10/00
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Isaacs and Ishmaels
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Romans 4
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9/10/00 Isaacs and Ishmaels
It's good to be back with you after two weeks away.
We had a wonderful time vacationing in the Pacific
Northwest
and helped Joni get situated for her third year in
college.
The last Sunday I was with you
we finished our study
of the 3rd chapter of Romans.
It took us eight weeks to study our way
through the last 11 verses of Romans 3,
and now this morning we're going to pick up
the pace again
and move through the whole 4th chapter.
The chapter we're going to look at during the next
few minutes
is one that requires us to step back
into Old Testament history.
To understand and appreciate what is going on here
we need to remind ourselves
of the strong Jewish basis
of the 1st century church.
For those of us who have come to Christ
from a non-Jewish background,
hearing what Paul was saying to us
in those last 11 verses of Romans 3
certainly raises some questions
about what God is saying
and what it means to us.
But they would most likely
not be questions about Abraham
or David
or some other Old Testament personality.
But for the first century Jew
it would have been a very different matter
indeed.
The first century Jew
brought to God's message of Good News
a strong heritage of life with God
under what we now call the Old
Covenant or Old Testament -
the agreement that God made with Israel
when He freed them from slavery in Egypt
and began to form them into a nation.
At that time
God made a covenant
or an agreement with them
that said simply,
If you obey Me and My Law
I will accept you,
and bless you.
If you break My Law,
I will reject you
and bring pain and misfortune on you.
Deut. 11:26 ¶ "See, I am setting before
you today a blessing and a curse:
Deut. 11:27 the blessing, if you listen to
the commandments of the Lord your God,
which I am commanding you today;
Deut. 11:28 and the curse, if you do not
listen to the commandments of the Lord
your God, but turn aside from the way
which I am commanding you today, by
following other gods which you have not
known.
If you would like to read
God's presentation of this agreement
in its expanded form,
spelling out in detail
exactly what the blessing would be
and what the curses would be,
you can find it in Leviticus 26.
It could not have been more clear.
The promise part of the agreement
told them that the greatest problems they
would face in life
would be how to manage all the surplus bounty
God would poor out on them.
The curse part of the agreement
told them that they would face famine and
starvation so severe
that they would be eating their own children
to survive.
Now, those first century Jews
knew that there were also certain men in their
history
who pleased God,
men who were accepted by God
and obviously blessed by Him.
The two names at the top of that list
were Abraham
and David.
And the full weight of their law-based heritage told
them
that those men were accepted by God
on the basis of their performance under that
Old Covenant.
They had somehow managed to obey God
and produce a performance
that motivated God to accept them.
And so, what we have here in Romans 4
is Paul taking us back to the life of Abraham,
and to his relationship with God,
and revealing to us
what was really happening and why.
Let me say, too,
before we get into this study,
that even though the specific answers Paul
offers us here
may not seem as crucial to us as they did
to the 1st century Jew,
yet we are going to find
that the application of those principles hit us
right where we live.
OK,
let me begin by showing you
where Paul goes in this chapter.
Paul takes the life of Abraham
and makes 3 major statements
on the basis of his life.
And for those of you who want to study this on your
own in more detail,
I'll give you a 3 statement outline for the chapter.
1. In Romans 4:1-8 Paul shows us
that both Abraham and David
prove that salvation is by faith, not works.
2. In Romans 4:9-16
Paul uses the life of Abraham to prove
that salvation by faith
is for both Jews and non-Jews.
3. Then, in Romans 4:17-25
Paul uses Abraham to show us
that salvation by faith
has the power to bring life from death.
Now, lets look more closely at that first section.
Rom. 4:1 What then shall we say that
Abraham, our forefather according to the
flesh, has found?
Rom. 4:2 For if Abraham was justified by
works, he has something to boast about,
but not before God.
Rom. 4:3 For what does the Scripture say?
" Abraham believed God, and it was
credited to him as righteousness."
Rom. 4:4 Now to the one who works, his
wage is not credited as a favor, but as
what is due.
Rom. 4:5 But to the one who does not
work, but believes in Him who justifies
the ungodly, his faith is credited as
righteousness,
Rom. 4:6 just as David also speaks of the
blessing on the man to whom God credits
righteousness apart from works:
Rom. 4:7 " Blessed are those whose
lawless deeds have been forgiven, And
whose sins have been covered.
Rom. 4:8 " Blessed is the man whose sin
the Lord will not take into account."
In this passage
Paul takes 2 quotations from the Old Testament,
one from Genesis 15:6 concerning
Abraham,
and the other from Ps. 32:1-2
concerning David.
He uses these to show us
that it was not their works,
their performance that brought God's
blessing to these two men,
but rather it was their faith,
their simple belief in the truth of what God had said
to them.
I want us to look a little more closely
at this Genesis 15:6 quotation,
and we'll need a little more background to
do this.
As most of you probably realize,
Abraham was the man
that God selected to start the Nation of Israel.
Genesis 12 records for us
how God simply stepped into Abraham's life
and said,
"I have chosen to bless you and make a mighty
nation of you."
God went on to tell Abraham,
Gen. 12:3 And 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. "
This was undoubtedly a real high point in Abraham's
life.
Here he is,
suddenly singled out by God Himself
to begin God's special nation.
And God kept the blessing part of His promise to
Abraham beginning immediately.
Abraham prospered incredibly
until he held the position of being
one of the richest men in the world.
But there was a major problem
with that "becoming-a-nation" part of God's
promise...
Sarah, Abraham's wife was as barren as a stick!
She could not have children.
Now, after God had been busy blessing Abraham
for some considerable time
we come to the event recorded for us
in Genesis 15.
Gen. 15:1 After these things the word of
the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying,
"Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you;
Your reward shall be very great."
Gen. 15:2 Abram said, "O Lord God, what
will You give me, since I am childless, and
the heir of my house is Eliezer of
Damascus?"
Gen. 15:3 And Abram said, "Since You
have given no offspring to me, one born in
my house is my heir."
Gen. 15:4 Then behold, the word of the
Lord came to him, saying, "This man will
not be your heir; but one who will come
forth from your own body, he shall be
your heir."
Gen. 15:5 And He took him outside and
said, "Now look toward the heavens, and
count the stars, if you are able to count
them." And He said to him, "So shall your
descendants be."
Gen. 15:6 Then he believed in the Lord;
and He reckoned it to him as
righteousness.
Let me explain to you
exactly what's happening here.
God communicates to Abraham again
and reconfirms His special protection and
blessing of Abraham.
Abraham responds by saying,
"Lord, you are doing fine on the protection and
blessing part,
but if I could be so bold...
I think there is one detail You've overlooked...
how can I become a great nation
when I don't even have one child?"
At that point God did two things -
first, He told Abraham very specifically,
"you will father a child,
one from your own body will be your heir."
Second, He took Abraham outside at night
and told him to look up at the stars.
Then he told him - "If you can count the stars,
then maybe you'll be able to count your
descendants."
OK, now that brings us to Genesis 15:6
and Abraham's crucial Response to God
and then God's response to Him.
In the face of what appeared to be
overwhelming evidence to the contrary,
Abraham chose to believe God -
both to believe He was telling the truth,
and to believe He was able to pull it off.
But then came that one phrase
that seemed to be completely out of context-
...and He reckoned it to him as
righteousness...
God said to Abraham,
"Abe, because you have chosen to trust what I say at
this one point,
I hereby declare you RIGHTEOUS!"
For several thousand years
that statement went unexplained,
and probably even unnoticed,
until God turned His spotlight on it
through Paul here in Romans 4.
Now, at first glance,
Abraham's situation
and our situation
seem to be totally different.
Abe's big issue was whether or not he would have a
son.
Our big issue
is how can we be free from the wrath of God
and the heavy load of our own sins?
Yet in reality
exactly the same issue
is involved in both cases -
will we believe and trust what God has said to us?
Abraham was asked by God
to believe that God would give him a son.
WE are asked to believe
that Christ's death was an adequate
and complete payment for our sins.
But the crucial issue in both cases is -
will we believe God?
Let me see if I can show you
why I think this is so crucial
both to us and to God.
How did man's rebellion against God begin?
Do you remember -
God asked Adam and Eve
to trust Him at just on point -
He placed that one tree in the garden,
and then He said,
"Trust Me! Believe Me when I tell you
that eating this fruit
will be bad for you."
Now listen!
If you would have told Adam and Eve
that their one act of untrust
would result endless hurt
and misery
and suffering
for hundreds of millions of people
for thousands of years to come,
they would have probably responded,
"Oh! come on!...I don't think so!"
But then look at how our God balances His scales -
He says, "You left Me by disbelieving Me at one
point,
and you can now return to Me
by believing Me at just one point.
All I ask is that you simply believe
and trust Me when I tell you
that the death of My Son
restores you to an eternal,
righteous standing with Me"
And look at this!
When we tell a new Christian
that their simple faith in Christ's sacrifice for
them
will result in them
1. being perfectly recreated in righteousness at the
heart level,
2. and becoming a future world ruler with Christ,
3. and in their becoming an ambassador of God
Himself on this earth,
4. and in their becoming a kingdom priest of God,
5. and in their being literally indwelt by the Spirit of
God Himself,
6. and in Christ Himself living His life through
them,
7. and in God displaying the riches of His kindness
to them in the endless ages to come,
they would probably say,
"Oh, come on now! All of that for just one act of
trust in God?"
But, you see,
that is what Paul is seeking to illustrate for us
here with the life of Abraham.
God does not ask for our total commitment
to a complete and perfect theological
and doctrinal system
before He brings us into His family.
Rather, he sets one single, clear point of trust -
with Abraham it was,
"Believe I will give you a son."
with us it is,
"Recognize your own rebellion against Me,
and believe that Christ's death
has paid for that rebellion in full forever."
And God responds to that belief
by declaring the believer righteous.
There are two other points I want us to see here with
Abraham
before we move on.
First, Abraham struggled with trying to fulfill the
promise FOR God
just as we do today.
And let me show you what I mean.
In Genesis 15 God promises Abraham a son.
It is impossible to read God's promise to Abraham
without seeing
that God was promising Abraham
a legitimate son
through his only wife, Sarah.
But by the time we get to Genesis 16
10 years have passed,
Sarah is just as barren as ever,
and now not just barren
but certainly through menopause as well,
and Abraham decides maybe he had better rethink the
whole thing.
And look what he does...
He continues to believe the promise
that he will have a son,
but he now assumes that,
since God has not yet, after 10 years,
fulfilled the promise,
it must then be God's intent
that Abraham fulfill the promise FOR God.
So He takes Sarah's maid,
has relations with her,
and she gives birth to Ishmael.
At this point God again steps in and says,
"No Abraham!
This is not the son of My promise,
and you do not have to fulfill My promises for
Me.
I am very capable of fulfilling them Myself.
All you have to do is trust Me."
And we so often repeat the same pattern
in our own lives.
God begins His life with us
by assuring us that He can and will
recreate us in righteousness,
and fill our lives
with purpose and fruitfulness.
And we wait a few months,
or a few years,
or 10 years,
and our lives still look
just as barren to us as ever.
So we, like Abraham,
assume that we must have misunderstood,
and we decide that
what God really promised us
was that we would be able to make ourselves
righteous,
and we would be able to perform great
works for Him.
So we summon all of our fleshly energy
and give it all we've got for God.
And all we do is to produce an endless stream of
little Ishmaels
that harass and irritate
the real son of promise -
all sorts of man-made projects and techniques
that conflict with the true work of God within
us.
And every Christian knows at some point in his life
what it is like to have an Ishmael running around
-
those projects born out of the flesh
that drain us of our time,
and our energy,
and produce nothing of lasting value,
and deprive us of our ability
to see and appreciate
the true work of the Spirit of God within us.
And the second thing I want us to see in this Romans
4 passage
is that God only remembers and records our
right choices.
Did you notice that there is no mention of Ishmael
anywhere in this 4th chapter of Romans?
Certainly Ishmael harassed Father Abraham
and his descendants throughout history.
(Do you know what people group Ishmael started? -
The Arabs!)
But God does not remember our Ishmaels
or hold them against us.
He records only
that Abraham believed God
and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.
For those of us who are in Christ
our God has a highly selective memory.
I want to read you a statement our God makes to us
from the last chapter of Revelation
to show you what I mean.
In Revelation 22:12 Christ says,
"Behold, I am coming quickly..."
and many of us here those words
and take them as a threat!
We hear our father saying,
"I'm going to be home in two hours
and those chores had better be done!"
But listen to the rest of that verse -
"Behold, I am coming quickly, ...
and My reward is with Me, to render to
every man according to what he has done.
The only thing He's bringing back to His people
is His reward
for all those things we did right.
But how about all our Ishmaels?
They, like all our other blunders,
are dumped onto Christ
Who then removes them from us forever.
The rest of this 4th chapter
then goes on to show that,
because Abraham believed God
and was declared righteous by God
before he himself was circumcised,
it was God's way of showing
that this offer of righteousness
in exchange for our belief
is offered to both Jews and Gentiles
alike,
since Abraham was at that time
a Gentile himself.
Then, in 4:17-25,
Paul uses Abraham and Sarah
to illustrate that our faith in God
has the power to bring life from death,
since Abe and Sarah were both "as good as
dead"
at the time Isaac was born.
His point is that our faith in Christ
has the power to bring us into new life
from our death in sin.