The Promise Before The Paperwork (Romans Week 9) by Zach White

In Romans 4 the Apostle Paul begins to use Abraham as a picture of the promises of God coming, not by good works but by faith. This week, Pastor Zach is sharing on the basis of our faith and how we too can trust in the promises of God. 

Transcript

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Alright, good morning, New Albany Fellowship. That was pretty weak. Let's try it again. Good morning, New Albany Fellowship. How y'all doing? Isn't Michael doing an incredible job? And Hannah and Eric, you guys have some great leaders here. You're very blessed. And so I just uh wanted to call that out. And I want to begin today with just asking a question. What keeps a marriage together? Single folk, hold with me for a minute. But what actually keeps a marriage together? Is it a piece of paper that you sign at a courthouse or is it a promise or something deeper that you commit to? Because every marriage actually has both. There was a show that was filmed recently here in Columbus called, it was last year, just got premiered called Love is Blind. And the idea is simple that 16 men and 16 women start dating through a wall. It works sometimes, okay. But it rarely, I use the word rarely works. But the show actually raises an important question. It raises a question that says, what actually makes love last? Like what actually lets us endure? And I started thinking about uh my wife and I, Marisa, who you just heard a moment ago. Uh we've been married nine years, and I began thinking about like what makes us like faithful to one another? Like what makes us actually last? And and I remember I pulled out this old uh certificate that we signed nine years ago, and uh our names are on it, and we made a commitment to it. And most of you, if you're married, you have one of these, it's it's probably in a filing cabinet or tucked away in your closet behind some old life insurance policies or some old batteries, but you never really pull this thing out when you're in an argument and go, you sign this. Look, your name's on it. Forgive me. Let me get my way. You never do that. When you're married, you actually commit something deeper, like like vows on your wedding day, like promises to one another, letting you know, you know, through every hard moment I'm gonna stick with you. I'm gonna walk by you in sickness and in hell through good times, through bad, when we're wealthy and when we're broke. There's promises attached to the ceremony that actually means something deeper. And I remember when my wife and I getting prepared for our wedding day, uh, she asked me, like, honey, I would love it if you would just write me a love letter that you can share on our wedding day. And I was like, I think I can do that. And what she didn't know is that four years prior, before I even met my wife, I was praying for her, whoever that person was gonna be before I met her, and the Lord put on my heart to start a journal where I write things to her. So I began writing when I was lonely, when I missed her, what God was doing in my life, and then I started writing promises about how I promised to treat her, how I promised to love her. I started praying for our future kids, God willing. And then on her wedding day, she read her letter, and then I got to pull out a book. And I just want to read you a brief excerpt from my actual wedding day. Because here's what I asked her. I asked her to promise me something that day. And I wrote this. I said, I want to ask that you love me in the hard moments and try to see my heart in every situation. I said, There will be times where I will say and do the wrong thing. Please do your best to forgive me. If I have had a long day, or perhaps just out of kindness, surprise uh you with cooking dinner, or maybe you could uh do the laundry for us without me asking. If I seem bored or dull or burned out with life, remind me how short and fragile life truly is. I said, remind me of all that God has done for me. When I grow old and I can't move like I used to, help me out. When I'm old and my mind starts to slip, remember how much I love you. When death comes knocking on my door and the good Lord calls me home, do not weep, but remember to thank God for the time we had with one another. I said, I love you, Marisa. And I thank God every chance I get for allowing me to be the blessing of being your husband. That was the promise that I asked her on that day. And so, as I think about the hard times that we go through, when I think about life and what it comes down to, I ask, what carries more weight? The ritual? The ceremony? The document at the court office, or were we actually said to one another that we were gonna walk through the hard thing together? Many Christians they treat their relationship with God that way. They see faith as following rules or rituals or attendance rather than the heart of the ritual, which is based on relationship. And in today's text, Paul says our relationship with God is not based on a contract we keep, but it's based on a promise that he keeps. I titled my message today, The Promise Before the Paperwork. And today we're gonna be going through Romans 4, which is about the promise that came before the law or before circumcision. And Scripture says Abraham believed God and was credited with righteousness. So let's pray before we dive in today, and then we'll open the text together. And I'd also like to pray for a missionary team that I know is dear to my heart that's arriving in El Salvador yesterday, but I just want to pray for them as their luggage has been lost. And so, God, I just pray, Father, as this medical mission team arrives, Lord, could you allow their luggage to come? Could you allow them to see miracles in El Salvador, God? Let your presence break it. We pray for everyone on the team that have good health. Lord, I lift up this word as I get ready to preach today, God, that you would hide me behind the shadow of your cross. God, that you would be the one that gets the glory. Pour out your spirit in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So uh we're picking up today in Romans 4. Um, and so I just want to go ahead and start by reading Romans 4, 6 through 17. And if you have your Bible, you can follow along. I think it'll be on the screens beside me. But it says, David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them. Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or is it also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness. Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised or before? It was not after, but before. And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then he is the father of all who believe, but not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised, but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. Verse 13 goes on to say, It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing, and the promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath, and where there is no law, there is no transgression. Therefore the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring. Not only to those who are of the law, but of those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations. He is our father in the sight of God in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls into the beings. It's the word of the Lord. Paul's argument is about justification by faith, not by works or the law. And he uses Abraham as a prime example. And I'm going to go back to verse 9 where it says, Is this blessedness only for the circumcised or is or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness. In other words, the promise goes beyond the people's privilege. Paul asks whether the blessing of being counted righteousness comes from the circumcised, meaning the Jews, or the uncircumcised, meaning the Gentiles. And if you have your Bibles, I want you to underline a specific word, the word credited. Or some translations might be the word counted. And the word credited in this verse refers to an account, meaning it's a calculation. And what Paul is saying is that faith was credited to his account. Meaning Abraham did not earn righteousness. God credited righteousness to Abraham's account. Now I want you to let that sink in for just a moment. The most important thing about what you is not about what you have done, but the most important thing about is what God has done. Many of us say we believe in grace, but we live like we still need to earn it. Like we still work our way closer to God. And Paul wants us to understand something life-changing here. God is not grading you on your performance, He has credited you with Christ's righteousness. That means we obey God from acceptance, not for acceptance. Our relationship with God is built on grace, not our performance, not our achievements, not the things that we always do. But when we sin, we often feel like our spiritual bank account goes in the negative. Like we assume God must be disappointed in us or distant from us. Maybe you've felt like that way before. You have thoughts like, uh, I should have shared my faith more. Maybe uh I should have read my Bible, or I should have prayed more, and why did I lose patience with my kids again? Or why did I go off on my spouse again? Or some of you feel like you're maybe failing God and you're just trying to keep your head above water. You struggle with temptation, lust, or gossip. And you compare your spiritual world and spiritual life to other people. But Paul says that the righteousness in your account isn't yours. It's Christ. And what does that mean? It means that because of Christ and what he's done, we can confess quickly. It means we can boldly go back to the Father and return to him. It means our standing with God doesn't rise or fall with our behavior, with who with our performance. Your righteousness is not based on your last week. It was finished on the cross because of Jesus. And the work that he did, not because of you. And so, how many of you came in today feeling like that? Like you failed this week. Maybe this month, maybe this year hasn't been the way that you thought it was going to be. Romans 4 reminds us that our standing with God was never based on us in the first place. If God credited righteousness to Abraham before he saw the results, then we can trust God's promise before we see the outcome. The Christian life is learning to trust God, learning to trust what God says before we even see it happen. That means we can trust him in the midst of suffering. We can trust him in the midst of unanswered prayers. We can trust him with our future when it isn't turning out the way that we want or hoped. Faith means trusting what God says about you is truer than what you feel about yourself. And this leads us to the next point that Paul tells us. That promise precedes physical practice. And verses 10 and 11, here's what it says. It says, Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised or before? It was not after, but before. He received circumcision as a sign, a seal of righteousness that he had held by faith while he was uncircumcised. So then he is the father of all who believe but not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to him. Now what's interesting about this text, and then Paul using Abraham as an example is that Abraham was counted righteous all the way back in Genesis 12. Circumcision didn't happen until Genesis 17, five chapters later. Abraham was 75 when he was called out of Mesopotamia and he was found righteous. And yet he wasn't circumcised until he was 99 years old. This shows that righteousness came before faith, not by sign. The Jews believed circumcision and the law made someone righteous before God. But Paul had already explained in Romans 2 that what God really wants is a change in the heart, a circumcision of the heart. The conclusion is clear that circumcision had nothing to do with Abraham's justification. The sign came before the salvation. Well, I don't know about you, but when I read that text, I'm like, so why get circumcised? That's a pretty painful surgery. I'll show you a picture of what that looks like. I'm just kidding. I would not do that in church or ever. Please don't go Google it either, saying Pastor Zach told me to look this up. Alright, and moving on. But it says Abraham's circumcision was a sign of his righteousness. The word seal here, if you have your Bible, I want you to underline that it's used to authenticate a document or to put ownership or a royal mark on something. In the ancient world, the seal, a guaranteed authenticity. It said, This is mine. We see stories in the Bible all the time about seals of authority. We see it in Daniel's lion's den. The stone was sealed with the king's signet ring so that no one could change the decree. We see it with Jesus' tomb when they killed him and put him in the tomb and sealed it with the Roman's signature to let them know that they authenticated his death and that it was secure that the Romans were masterful at killing, and they succeeded. Believers in the Holy Spirit. It says in Ephesians 1 that God seals us with the Holy Spirit as a mark that we belong to him. And when God's promise takes hold of a person's life, he seals your name in the book of life. And it produces a new people. God's promise produces new people, and that's what it says in verse 12. It says, and he is then also the father of the circumcised, who not only are circumcised, but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. Circumcision was a sign to others as a personal seal or a certification for the Jews that they were God's chosen people. They wore it as a badge of honor, but God was really trying to say something different than I'm setting you apart. And Paul's point here is that circumcision was a sign, but it was a substance of faith. And therefore, Abraham becomes the spiritual fathers of anyone who believes in him, whether they're Jew or whether they're Gentile. And there's an important phrase, I don't want you to miss this. If you have your Bibles underlined it twice, it says, follow in the footsteps. Follow in the footsteps, or walk in the footsteps of the faith. What Paul is showing us is a powerful picture here. That believers are walking in Abraham's tracks, following the faith that he left. Friends, faith is not just believing in Abraham's story, it's following his path. John Stott, the famous theologian, put it this way: said, Abraham is the father of all who believe. The true children of Abraham are those who share his faith, not merely those who share his bloodline. Stott is emphasizing that faith creates the true covenant family of God. Faith is not merely an ethnicity or a ritual or a race, but a marks of God's people. The promise of Abraham always intended to be a worldwide family. No matter where you go, you can find a church of believers, and guess what? They are your family. Not through bloodline, but through faith, through belief that you have something deeper than this world can even offer, as thick as blood. You're covered by the blood of Jesus. And that is your bloodline when you step into the faith as a Christian, that you become one. And as I thought about this, I thought about even my own children. We recently just went on a trip to Puerto Rico and we would walk through the sand, and I'd often look behind me and I'd see my little two-year-old's feet trying to walk in daddy's footsteps. And it got me thinking, you know, regardless of whatever vocation my children take on, whether they want to be a dentist or an office manager at a Home Depot or wherever, whether they want to dominate the line at Chick-fil-A, taking orders. I don't care what vocation they have as long as they follow the footsteps of faith. That's the important thing for me. My family and I just want to say that that is the blessing of the people you get to follow on the faith. Whether you have a grandparent or a mama dad or an aunt or uncle that followed in the faith, it's the truest thing you can do is say, I want to follow in their footsteps. I want to follow the way they followed Christ. And Abraham is not just the father of the Jews, he's the father of everyone who walks in the footprints behind him. Faith is not just believing Abraham's story, it's it's walking where he walked. And sometimes faith means putting one foot in front of the other. And I once heard a good preacher say that. Right foot, left foot. Right foot, I can't remember who it was, but it'll come to me. And this means that all of our journeys will look different. But like footprints, they are all heading in the same direction towards Christ. Which brings me to my next point that promise prevails past performance. And here's what it says in verses 13 through 15. It says, It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing, and the promise is worthless. Because the law brings wrath, and where there is no law, there is no transgressions. Now I want to point out one specific word in that phrase, the word wrath here, because I think it can trip many of us up. And what Paul is basically doing when he uses the word wrath is he's saying there's a clear line, there's a clear distinction, a boundary that you can cross. And the law doesn't define sin, it draws the boundary. And before the law, there was still sin. Sin was real. And after the law, sin became transgressions because the line had been clearly drawn of what you can cross. And most of us treat the laws of Moses like the standard. We look at the Ten Commandments and we say, well, I haven't murdered anyone, I'm doing pretty good. I haven't stolen anything recently. I'm doing really well, actually. I haven't, uh I write my mom a birthday card every year. I've honored her well. Like we all look at this as being the standard, but that was never the point of the law. The law was given to us to be a mirror, to look at ourselves, not a ladder to work our way towards God. And when you look into a mirror, you don't just judge yourself based on how the mirror is, it reflects something back to you. This is why Jesus often told The Pharisees, you uphold the law, but you're whitewashed tombs. You obey your laws, but you're dead on the inside. You think you know me, but you don't care. You just want to follow rules and care about how you look. Have you ever noticed that when Jesus showed up, he uh he always elevated the law. He always brought it a little higher. He raised the bar of what righteousness actually meant. Like, well, I haven't murdered anyone. I was like, well, if you have anger against your brother, you will be judged. You may not have slept with someone physically, but if you lusted with your own eyes, you're already committing adultery. Jesus raises the bar because he cares about the circumcision of the heart. The law exposed our sinful nature not by following rules, but by taking a look at the mirror. And if we're honest, most of us want to know what's the bare minimum of holiness I need to enter the presence of God? Like, what's the minimum I need to do to remain righteous, but still do what I want? Like, what's the what's the boundary here? What's the line here? And internally we ask, like, what do we, what is that measure for me? The highlight is that, you know, sometimes we think that ends up in works based righteousness, work-based righteousness. But if salvation depended on the law, it wouldn't be, it would be uncertain. But grace makes the promises secured and not fragile. And I want you to notice what Paul says. He says, Therefore the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all of Abraham's offspring. Notice he used the word guarantee, meaning it's firm, it's stable. In other words, a promise is not a contract. Paul is saying the promise is legally secure because it rests on grace. It rests on me. The gospel is not shaky, it's unbreakable. And there's nothing more unbreakable or sure in this life than the promises of God. There's not. And let's read verse 16 and 17 again as I close it says, Therefore the promise comes by faith. So that if it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all of Abraham's offspring, not only to those who are of the law, but also those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the Father of us all. As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations. He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed. The God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. The question Paul is asking us, Are you standing on the promises of God? God promised Abraham that he would be a great nation. He promised him a land. He promised him more descendants, numerous than the stars. He promised him personal blessing and protection. God made many promises to Abraham that he fulfilled. But what other promises does God give in his word? They're hundreds. But let me share a few guarantees from God. In other words, you can take this to the bank. First one I want to start with is the promise of salvation. John 3.16 reminds us of the central promise of the gospel is that God will forgive your sins if you put your faith in Jesus Christ. The promise of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1 13 through 14. And you also were included in Christ, wherein you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, when you believed you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise. That's another promise by God. How about the promise of God's presence? In Hebrews 13, 5, it says, I will never leave you or forsake you. That's a promise by God. God promises that you'll never be alone. What about the promises of a new life? 2 Corinthians 5.17 reminds us if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come and you will be made new. God says, you don't have to be living in your past. I actually want to make you something new. Something holy, something better, like my son Jesus. You can be made new. How about the promise of provision? Matthew 6.33 tells us, seek first the kingdom, and all these things will be added to you. There's a promise that God will actually take care of you. The question is, do you trust him to it? Do you lean on that promise that God is all-knowing, all-worthy, Father that actually wants to care for me? If you're trying to make a hard decision, God promises wisdom and guidance. It says in James 1:5, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God, and it will be given. How many of us lean on the promise of God to give us wisdom? We're trying to make a hard decision, we're going to talk to everybody and their brother, we're going to put it in chat GPT. What does God say? Lean on the promise of God. He promises to strengthen you. Isaiah 40, 31, those who uh those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. When you're tired, when you're weary, when you feel like your back is in the corner, God is saying, Seek me and I will give you the strength to endure. I'm the one that will give you all you need to get from one moment to the next. And the one I've really wrestled with lately. The promise that God will work all things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Because God promises to redeem every situation. Even the pain you suffer for the things that you have to walk through. Even when people hurt you, even when people leave you, even when things don't turn out the way you thought, God is sitting here saying, I promise you, seek me and I will turn this into good. I will be the one to carry you and bring you to a place where you'll be able to look back and say, Thank you, God, that you carried me and carried a purpose for what I went through. That's what God promises. It's the right foot, left foot. We keep our eyes on Him, and God promises it will work for good. And here's the last thing I'll say before I close that I've been wrapping my mind on as a follower of Jesus. That Scripture promises through the faithfulness. And as we go through these seasons of grief and mourn and pain, that God always tells us the best is yet to come. Like regardless of what we go through here on earth, because of the gospel, because of Christ dying for our sins and raising from the dead, regardless of every situation, every fear, everything that happens in this world, the end result is that the best is yet to come. Because regardless of whether you're healed here in this life, you'll be healed in eternity. Regardless of whether you felt lonely here and you're struggling with pain, God is saying, at the end result, you'll be in my kingdom worshiping me and you will never feel like that again. Regardless of the suffering you've had to do through poverty, God is saying, I have riches for you in my kingdom. Regardless of where you're at in this world, the best is always yet to come as a follower of Jesus. Because God has told us how this ends. God has told us what his kingdom will be like. God has led us down the path of knowing that we are fighting from victory, not for it. Because we serve a God who overcame even death. So death should not even scare us because Christ has conquered all. Can I at least get an amen for that? And the reality is when we read these promises of God, these aren't just stories about Abraham or letters from Paul. What God is showing us through Scripture is this is our inheritance. When you step into the faith family and say yes to Jesus Christ, he says, You inherit all of these promises. This is what I have for you. Many of us live like we're not inheriting the promises of God. And I'm here to remind you today that God was true back then to Abraham. God was true to many people in the Bible, and He's going to be true to you. The same God who raised Jesus from the dead is the same God who's writing your story today. And if God kept his promise then, he can keep his promise now to you. Because the promise came before the paperwork. And the promise still stands on what Christ has done. Now, here's what I'd like to do. I want to end by just inviting some of those who've never received that promise.