WEBVTT 00:00:01.939 --> 00:00:04.759 Welcome to Life Group. We invite you to join 00:00:04.759 --> 00:00:07.400 us in this verse -by -verse study through the 00:00:07.400 --> 00:00:10.740 Word of God. In this study, we're going to be 00:00:10.740 --> 00:00:14.480 looking at Romans chapter 4, starting with verse 00:00:14.480 --> 00:00:18.800 1. Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:22.859 of our Jewish nation. What did he discover about 00:00:22.859 --> 00:00:26.739 being made right with God? If his good deeds 00:00:26.739 --> 00:00:30.039 made him acceptable to God. He would have had 00:00:30.039 --> 00:00:33.780 something to boast about. But that was not God's 00:00:33.780 --> 00:00:38.179 way. For the scriptures tell us Abraham believed 00:00:38.179 --> 00:00:42.619 God and God counted him as righteous because 00:00:42.619 --> 00:00:46.679 of his faith. Now let's take a look at these 00:00:46.679 --> 00:00:50.119 three verses and get it back into the foundation 00:00:50.119 --> 00:00:54.780 of history. Jewish rabbis during this time taught 00:00:54.780 --> 00:00:59.000 that Abraham was righteous. because he kept the 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:04.599 law before the law was even given. Now, this 00:01:04.599 --> 00:01:08.719 verse tells us that Abraham did not become righteous 00:01:08.719 --> 00:01:12.739 by his good deeds. I mean, that would be considered 00:01:12.739 --> 00:01:16.560 works righteousness, and righteousness is unattainable 00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:20.599 by good deeds. We just can't be good enough to 00:01:20.599 --> 00:01:24.760 be righteous. But this says that Abraham received. 00:01:25.640 --> 00:01:29.219 righteousness the gift of righteousness from 00:01:29.219 --> 00:01:34.260 god because of his faith now when it says that 00:01:34.260 --> 00:01:38.400 his righteousness was counted to him or other 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:42.000 english versions say accounted to him the greek 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:45.480 word there is actually like an accounting term 00:01:45.480 --> 00:01:50.420 see he was counted or accounted righteousness 00:01:50.420 --> 00:01:54.519 because of his faith We can look at it this way. 00:01:54.780 --> 00:02:00.500 Righteousness was put onto his account beforehand. 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:05.079 It was supplied or posted in advance to his account. 00:02:06.620 --> 00:02:10.000 See, God put to Abraham's account, placed on 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:14.379 deposit for him, credited to him righteousness 00:02:14.379 --> 00:02:18.639 because of his faith. Now, when we talk about 00:02:18.639 --> 00:02:21.020 righteousness, we... Need to understand that 00:02:21.020 --> 00:02:24.300 it's more than the absence of evil in someone's 00:02:24.300 --> 00:02:27.439 life or the absence of guilt in someone's life. 00:02:28.020 --> 00:02:32.560 It's actually a positive good, meaning that God 00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:37.520 does not just declare us innocent. He also declares 00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:42.340 us righteous. Let's pick back up with verse four. 00:02:42.979 --> 00:02:47.219 When people work, their wages are not a gift. 00:02:48.139 --> 00:02:51.319 but something they have earned. But people are 00:02:51.319 --> 00:02:56.039 counted as righteous, not because of their work, 00:02:56.099 --> 00:03:00.560 but because of their faith in God who forgives 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:06.319 sinners. See, the idea of grace is opposite to 00:03:06.319 --> 00:03:10.560 the principle of works. Grace has to do with 00:03:10.560 --> 00:03:14.539 receiving a free gift from God. And works has 00:03:14.539 --> 00:03:19.580 to do with earning our merit before God. I mean, 00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:22.599 when we work for a paycheck at the end of the 00:03:22.599 --> 00:03:26.139 week, after we put in the work, we feel that 00:03:26.139 --> 00:03:31.460 our employer owes us the paycheck. In the same 00:03:31.460 --> 00:03:35.439 way as the text tells us, if we think that we're 00:03:35.439 --> 00:03:37.900 righteous because of our good works, all of a 00:03:37.900 --> 00:03:40.860 sudden we can come to the point where we feel 00:03:40.860 --> 00:03:46.349 like, God owes us because of our good works. 00:03:47.490 --> 00:03:51.389 Grace is a favor done out of the spontaneous 00:03:51.389 --> 00:03:56.370 generosity of the heart without any expectation 00:03:56.370 --> 00:04:01.270 or return. And my definition of grace is this, 00:04:01.289 --> 00:04:05.129 is God's actions of kindness and favor towards 00:04:05.129 --> 00:04:09.289 us, towards you, towards me, that we don't deserve. 00:04:09.370 --> 00:04:11.960 We haven't earned it. And we don't deserve it. 00:04:13.300 --> 00:04:16.720 Like I said, a system of works seeks to put God 00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:22.899 in debt to us. And it makes God owe us his favor 00:04:22.899 --> 00:04:28.300 because of our supposedly good behavior. In works 00:04:28.300 --> 00:04:33.579 thinking, God owes us salvation or blessing because 00:04:33.579 --> 00:04:37.879 of our good works. We need to understand that 00:04:37.879 --> 00:04:43.160 there are not two ways. to salvation some people 00:04:43.160 --> 00:04:46.720 think there is and like one way is being saved 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:49.259 by works through keeping the law described in 00:04:49.259 --> 00:04:52.040 the old testament and then there's another way 00:04:52.040 --> 00:04:55.199 to be saved is by grace through faith that's 00:04:55.199 --> 00:04:59.040 revealed in the new testament but the fact is 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:03.639 everyone who has ever been saved old our new 00:05:03.639 --> 00:05:08.540 testament has been saved by grace through faith 00:05:09.310 --> 00:05:14.850 God. There are not two ways of salvation. Let's 00:05:14.850 --> 00:05:19.509 pick up with verse 6. David also spoke of this 00:05:19.509 --> 00:05:22.730 when he described the happiness of those who 00:05:22.730 --> 00:05:25.689 are declared righteous without working for it. 00:05:26.410 --> 00:05:29.970 Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is 00:05:29.970 --> 00:05:34.269 forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight. Yes, 00:05:34.310 --> 00:05:38.500 what joy for those. whose record the Lord has 00:05:38.500 --> 00:05:44.399 cleared of sin. Now this is quoting King David 00:05:44.399 --> 00:05:48.480 from the Old Testament. See, David knew what 00:05:48.480 --> 00:05:52.939 it was like to be guilty of adultery and murder. 00:05:53.740 --> 00:05:59.100 He knew the seriousness of sin. If David were 00:05:59.100 --> 00:06:04.660 judged on works alone, a righteous and holy and 00:06:04.660 --> 00:06:10.459 just God, would definitely condemn him. But David 00:06:10.459 --> 00:06:14.959 came to understand through experience how wonderful 00:06:14.959 --> 00:06:20.180 it was to be forgiven. When our text read, oh, 00:06:20.180 --> 00:06:24.220 what joy, when we look at the Greek word coming 00:06:24.220 --> 00:06:27.339 out of Romans, it's the same word that we use 00:06:27.339 --> 00:06:31.560 for blessed in most occasions in the New Testament. 00:06:32.399 --> 00:06:35.379 And that word blessed, to remind us of the definition, 00:06:35.379 --> 00:06:40.160 means supremely blessed. Not just regularly blessed, 00:06:40.259 --> 00:06:43.459 but supremely blessed. It means fortunate. It 00:06:43.459 --> 00:06:48.439 means well off. And it does mean happy. And this 00:06:48.439 --> 00:06:54.100 is a result of God extending his benefits, his 00:06:54.100 --> 00:07:00.100 grace to us, puts us in the position. of being 00:07:00.100 --> 00:07:03.100 supremely blessed, fortunate, well -off, and 00:07:03.100 --> 00:07:08.800 happy. Also, in other translations, it uses the 00:07:08.800 --> 00:07:11.939 word impute. And in our translation that we're 00:07:11.939 --> 00:07:14.759 looking at today, it's like declared righteous 00:07:14.759 --> 00:07:21.120 or record cleared. This same Greek word that 00:07:21.120 --> 00:07:25.060 is translated often as imputed righteousness. 00:07:26.730 --> 00:07:29.790 It actually appears, this Greek word does, 10 00:07:29.790 --> 00:07:34.410 times just in chapter 4. And it's where we get 00:07:34.410 --> 00:07:40.350 our words logic or logical. To compute, to take 00:07:40.350 --> 00:07:44.490 account, to reckon, to come to a bottom line, 00:07:44.689 --> 00:07:50.170 to reason to a logical conclusion or a decision. 00:07:51.810 --> 00:07:54.629 And like I said, the Holy Spirit through Paul 00:07:54.629 --> 00:07:59.670 uses this concept. 10 times just in chapter 4, 00:07:59.829 --> 00:08:05.170 talking about righteousness being imputed. Now, 00:08:05.170 --> 00:08:09.110 just last week on social media, I saw a post 00:08:09.110 --> 00:08:12.470 by someone that I don't know. It just came up 00:08:12.470 --> 00:08:16.029 because I look at a lot of scriptural things, 00:08:16.089 --> 00:08:19.850 biblical things, I guess. It came up and someone 00:08:19.850 --> 00:08:24.129 was saying that imputed righteousness is false 00:08:24.129 --> 00:08:28.850 doctrine. If I could get in touch with that person 00:08:28.850 --> 00:08:31.569 or anyone else who believes that, I would tell 00:08:31.569 --> 00:08:36.710 them to read Romans chapter 4. It's hard to understand 00:08:36.710 --> 00:08:40.049 why so many religious people speak out against 00:08:40.049 --> 00:08:46.110 imputed righteousness. That Christ replaces our 00:08:46.110 --> 00:08:49.570 unrighteousness with his perfect righteousness 00:08:49.570 --> 00:08:55.009 at salvation. As a matter of fact, without imputed 00:08:55.009 --> 00:08:59.529 righteousness, no one would be born again because 00:08:59.529 --> 00:09:02.669 imputed righteousness is actually the only way 00:09:02.669 --> 00:09:08.309 to salvation because we've all sinned and fallen 00:09:08.309 --> 00:09:13.929 short. Verse 9. Now, is this blessing only for 00:09:13.929 --> 00:09:17.830 the Jews or is it also for uncircumcised Gentiles? 00:09:18.759 --> 00:09:21.639 Well, we have been saying that Abraham was counted 00:09:21.639 --> 00:09:25.259 as righteous by God because of his faith. But 00:09:25.259 --> 00:09:28.320 how did this happen? Was he counted as righteous 00:09:28.320 --> 00:09:31.919 only after he was circumcised? Or was it before 00:09:31.919 --> 00:09:36.019 he was circumcised? Clearly, God accepted Abraham 00:09:36.019 --> 00:09:40.000 before he was circumcised. Circumcision was a 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:42.600 sign that Abraham had already had faith and that 00:09:42.600 --> 00:09:45.399 God had already accepted and declared him to 00:09:45.399 --> 00:09:48.539 be righteous, even before he was circumcised. 00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:52.399 So Abraham is the spiritual father of those who 00:09:52.399 --> 00:09:56.120 have faith but have not been circumcised. They 00:09:56.120 --> 00:09:58.700 are counted as righteous because of their faith, 00:09:58.860 --> 00:10:01.980 and Abraham is also the spiritual father of those 00:10:01.980 --> 00:10:05.169 who have been circumcised. but only if they have 00:10:05.169 --> 00:10:07.809 the same kind of faith Abraham had before he 00:10:07.809 --> 00:10:12.289 was circumcised. You see, for the Jewish people 00:10:12.289 --> 00:10:15.409 of Paul's day, the significance of circumcision 00:10:15.409 --> 00:10:18.789 was more than just social. It was the entry point 00:10:18.789 --> 00:10:22.309 for a life lived under the law of Moses. And 00:10:22.309 --> 00:10:24.789 most Jews believed that Gentiles had to convert 00:10:24.789 --> 00:10:28.370 to Judaism to be Christians, since God's plan 00:10:28.370 --> 00:10:30.350 of salvation came through to the descendants 00:10:30.350 --> 00:10:33.759 of Abraham. But Paul here, he's refuting that 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:37.379 idea, since Abraham was declared righteous at 00:10:37.379 --> 00:10:40.139 least 14 years before the mark of circumcision 00:10:40.139 --> 00:10:45.860 began. The term Our Father Abraham was a cherished 00:10:45.860 --> 00:10:51.000 saying of the Jews, and Gentiles converting to 00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:53.600 Judaism, though, were not allowed to say it. 00:10:53.779 --> 00:10:56.740 They could only say Your Father Abraham in the 00:10:56.740 --> 00:11:00.889 synagogue. But here, Paul calls Abraham the spiritual 00:11:00.889 --> 00:11:04.330 father of not just the Jews, but the Gentiles 00:11:04.330 --> 00:11:09.710 also. And this opened up the door for the blessings 00:11:09.710 --> 00:11:13.330 and all the blessings of Abraham are now not 00:11:13.330 --> 00:11:16.149 just for the Jews, but they're for the Gentiles 00:11:16.149 --> 00:11:19.710 too, meaning that Abraham's blessing was that 00:11:19.710 --> 00:11:22.590 God blesses us and God blesses others through 00:11:22.590 --> 00:11:26.889 us. God protects us. God rewards us and he increases 00:11:26.889 --> 00:11:29.570 us. That was not just a promise then for the 00:11:29.570 --> 00:11:35.649 Jews by saying that the Gentiles now can experience 00:11:35.649 --> 00:11:39.580 this, the blessing of Abraham too. So picking 00:11:39.580 --> 00:11:43.179 up in verse 13, clearly God's promise to give 00:11:43.179 --> 00:11:45.379 the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants 00:11:45.379 --> 00:11:48.379 was not based on his obedience to God's law, 00:11:48.600 --> 00:11:51.820 but on a right relationship with God that comes 00:11:51.820 --> 00:11:55.720 by faith. If God's promise is only for those 00:11:55.720 --> 00:11:58.779 who obey the law, then faith is not necessary 00:11:58.779 --> 00:12:03.139 and the promise is pointless. For the law always 00:12:03.139 --> 00:12:06.299 brings punishment on those who try to obey it. 00:12:06.759 --> 00:12:09.620 The only way to avoid breaking the law is to 00:12:09.620 --> 00:12:13.620 have no law to break. So the promise is received 00:12:13.620 --> 00:12:18.019 by faith. It is given as a free gift, and we 00:12:18.019 --> 00:12:20.620 are all certain to receive it, whether or not 00:12:20.620 --> 00:12:24.039 we live according to the law of Moses, if we 00:12:24.039 --> 00:12:27.580 have faith like Abraham's. For Abraham is the 00:12:27.580 --> 00:12:31.100 father of all who believe. That is what the scriptures 00:12:31.100 --> 00:12:35.279 mean when God told him, I have made you the father 00:12:35.279 --> 00:12:38.379 of many nations. This happened because Abraham 00:12:38.379 --> 00:12:40.899 believed in the God who brings the dead back 00:12:40.899 --> 00:12:44.879 to life and who creates new things out of nothing. 00:12:46.759 --> 00:12:50.240 So what this is saying is since all God's dealings 00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:52.700 with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob happened before 00:12:52.700 --> 00:12:56.460 the giving of the Mosaic law, we can't say that 00:12:56.460 --> 00:12:59.419 they were based on the law. Instead, they are 00:12:59.419 --> 00:13:02.139 based on God's declaration of Abraham's righteousness, 00:13:02.399 --> 00:13:04.840 that imputed righteousness we were talking about, 00:13:05.019 --> 00:13:09.200 through faith. And faith is the link to Abraham 00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:12.519 and God's promised blessings to his spiritual 00:13:12.519 --> 00:13:17.080 descendants, whether you're Jew or Gentile. There 00:13:17.080 --> 00:13:20.460 are sins that do not cross the line of the law 00:13:20.460 --> 00:13:24.419 of Moses. The root of sin isn't in breaking the 00:13:24.419 --> 00:13:28.019 law, but in breaking trust with God. with denying 00:13:28.019 --> 00:13:31.080 his loving, caring purpose in every command he 00:13:31.080 --> 00:13:35.940 gives. Before Adam sinned, he broke trust with 00:13:35.940 --> 00:13:39.440 God. And God's plan of redemption is centered 00:13:39.440 --> 00:13:43.000 on the relationship of trusting. It's centered 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:46.080 on the relationship of love and faith instead 00:13:46.080 --> 00:13:49.820 of just law keeping. Picking back up with verse 00:13:49.820 --> 00:13:56.460 17. This happened. Because Abraham believed in 00:13:56.460 --> 00:14:01.159 the God who brings the dead back to life and 00:14:01.159 --> 00:14:06.940 who creates new things out of nothing. Now, this 00:14:06.940 --> 00:14:11.399 is a powerful verse when it comes to faith. And 00:14:11.399 --> 00:14:14.580 we know from previous study that without faith, 00:14:14.600 --> 00:14:17.639 it's impossible to please God. And we talk about 00:14:17.639 --> 00:14:22.870 faith a lot at Eglation Church. In other translations, 00:14:23.049 --> 00:14:30.710 it says he believed in the God who calls those 00:14:30.710 --> 00:14:37.070 things which do not exist as if they did. Now, 00:14:37.110 --> 00:14:42.909 this is telling us that God calls things that 00:14:42.909 --> 00:14:49.509 are not. He calls for things that don't exist 00:14:49.509 --> 00:14:54.100 yet. See, God is a faith God. This word calls 00:14:54.100 --> 00:14:58.899 comes from this idea. This is the Greek word. 00:14:59.340 --> 00:15:03.200 Translated, it means to call forth or to invite. 00:15:04.440 --> 00:15:08.820 It means instructing someone or something to 00:15:08.820 --> 00:15:13.620 step forward. It means to cause something to 00:15:13.620 --> 00:15:19.259 come into action or existence. That's the meaning 00:15:19.259 --> 00:15:22.470 behind the words that are translated here. And 00:15:22.470 --> 00:15:27.129 this is a key principle of faith that Abraham 00:15:27.129 --> 00:15:31.529 believed in the God who causes something to come 00:15:31.529 --> 00:15:34.950 into action or existence that does not exist 00:15:34.950 --> 00:15:38.230 at that point. And the Bible encourages us to 00:15:38.230 --> 00:15:42.429 have the God kind of faith. I mean, looking through 00:15:42.429 --> 00:15:45.250 scripture, we see even more than this, but just 00:15:45.250 --> 00:15:49.129 for example, God called light out of darkness. 00:15:50.440 --> 00:15:55.860 God called forth order out of chaos and creation. 00:15:57.240 --> 00:16:03.639 In Gideon's example, God called out a hero from 00:16:03.639 --> 00:16:08.980 a coward. Jesus, at the storm, when he's on the 00:16:08.980 --> 00:16:11.960 boat with his disciples, God called out peace 00:16:11.960 --> 00:16:19.159 out of a storm. Jesus called out healing out 00:16:19.159 --> 00:16:26.649 of... sickness. He called out by faith. And words 00:16:26.649 --> 00:16:30.370 are an important part to us living our lives 00:16:30.370 --> 00:16:32.950 as faith. We talk about that. Yeah, we have to 00:16:32.950 --> 00:16:35.549 hear the Word of God. We have to wholeheartedly 00:16:35.549 --> 00:16:41.100 believe it. We have to... put our words in agreement 00:16:41.100 --> 00:16:43.639 with it, and then we have to act on it. Those 00:16:43.639 --> 00:16:48.220 are the steps of faith, of taking hold of all 00:16:48.220 --> 00:16:53.220 of God's grace gifts. I want you to think about 00:16:53.220 --> 00:16:57.220 a thermostat on the wall. If your house is 80 00:16:57.220 --> 00:17:03.620 degrees and you would like for it to be 72, You 00:17:03.620 --> 00:17:05.900 can't just say, well, I'm going to set it for 00:17:05.900 --> 00:17:09.140 80 degrees. I'm going to call for 80 degrees 00:17:09.140 --> 00:17:11.920 because that's what it is. That's what I see. 00:17:12.140 --> 00:17:15.759 That's what I feel. No, you have to call for 00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:20.700 what you want. So you set the thermostat to 72 00:17:20.700 --> 00:17:23.519 degrees if that's your preferred temperature 00:17:23.519 --> 00:17:26.640 because you're calling for something that is 00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:29.759 not. You're calling it to come into existence. 00:17:32.970 --> 00:17:36.089 This verse is teaching us and it's showing us 00:17:36.089 --> 00:17:39.849 that Abraham believed in that concept. And then 00:17:39.849 --> 00:17:43.250 we can see in Abraham's life that he lived by 00:17:43.250 --> 00:17:46.490 that concept when he began agreeing with God 00:17:46.490 --> 00:17:51.329 and calling himself the father of many nations. 00:17:51.329 --> 00:17:56.190 Even before he had a son, God led him to call 00:17:56.190 --> 00:18:00.440 forth, call things that are not as though. They 00:18:00.440 --> 00:18:05.759 will be speaking God's truth before he saw it. 00:18:06.680 --> 00:18:09.420 Like I said, that's an important concept of faith 00:18:09.420 --> 00:18:13.640 that we need to put our words in agreement with 00:18:13.640 --> 00:18:18.940 God's promises. See, in context of what we're 00:18:18.940 --> 00:18:22.799 talking about now, God speaks about you and me 00:18:22.799 --> 00:18:26.700 as this is what God says about us, that we're 00:18:26.700 --> 00:18:29.789 righteous. When we're in Christ, we're righteous. 00:18:29.849 --> 00:18:33.190 We're justified. We're glorified. We're holy. 00:18:33.410 --> 00:18:39.609 We're pure. We're saintly. God speaks those things 00:18:39.609 --> 00:18:43.970 through his word about us. And to be honest, 00:18:44.069 --> 00:18:46.589 if we look in the mirror, we don't always see 00:18:46.589 --> 00:18:50.609 those things in our actions. But that's what 00:18:50.609 --> 00:18:55.970 God has called us. God talks about such things 00:18:55.970 --> 00:18:59.670 before they exist because he calls them into 00:18:59.670 --> 00:19:04.890 existence. Let's pick up with verse 18. Even 00:19:04.890 --> 00:19:09.509 when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept 00:19:09.509 --> 00:19:13.849 hoping, believing that he would become the father 00:19:13.849 --> 00:19:18.670 of many nations. For God had said to him, that's 00:19:18.670 --> 00:19:23.049 how many descendants you will have. And Abraham's 00:19:23.049 --> 00:19:27.470 faith did not weaken, even though at about 100 00:19:27.470 --> 00:19:30.549 years of age, he figured his body was as good 00:19:30.549 --> 00:19:36.430 as dead. And so was Sarah's womb. Abraham never 00:19:36.430 --> 00:19:41.210 wavered in believing God's promise. In fact, 00:19:41.349 --> 00:19:46.529 his faith grew stronger. And in this, he brought 00:19:46.529 --> 00:19:51.720 glory to God. He was fully convinced. that God 00:19:51.720 --> 00:19:58.319 is able to do whatever he promises. Wow, what 00:19:58.319 --> 00:20:03.579 a statement concerning Abraham's faith. And he 00:20:03.579 --> 00:20:07.440 is our example. He helps us to understand the 00:20:07.440 --> 00:20:13.119 nature of faith that pleases God. Common sense 00:20:13.119 --> 00:20:16.799 says that it will not happen. Human reasoning 00:20:16.799 --> 00:20:22.390 says it cannot happen. And faith says it can 00:20:22.390 --> 00:20:26.349 happen and it will be because I have a promise 00:20:26.349 --> 00:20:31.970 from God. Hebrews 11 .1, this verse that we just 00:20:31.970 --> 00:20:35.170 read was talking about him having hope. Well, 00:20:35.210 --> 00:20:38.289 faith is a substance of things hoped for, Hebrews 00:20:38.289 --> 00:20:44.230 11 .1. The evidence of things not seen. Just 00:20:44.230 --> 00:20:48.410 like Abraham. There was no wavering, no doubting, 00:20:48.410 --> 00:20:52.150 no... putting human reasoning above God's promises, 00:20:52.390 --> 00:20:58.549 not walking by sight, but walking by faith. Hope 00:20:58.549 --> 00:21:02.490 is seeing it with your imagination before you 00:21:02.490 --> 00:21:07.329 see it. And in hope, we hold on to the promises 00:21:07.329 --> 00:21:11.069 of God, just like Abraham did. Even though he 00:21:11.069 --> 00:21:13.869 was 100 years old, his wife was 90 years old, 00:21:14.109 --> 00:21:18.150 he didn't waver, he didn't doubt, he didn't laugh. 00:21:18.569 --> 00:21:22.789 allow his human reasoning to go above God's promises. 00:21:22.930 --> 00:21:27.309 He wasn't walking by sight. He saw it with his 00:21:27.309 --> 00:21:31.710 imagination that he would become the father of 00:21:31.710 --> 00:21:36.589 nations. He focused on the promise and faithfulness 00:21:36.589 --> 00:21:41.150 of God instead of the circumstances and seeming 00:21:41.150 --> 00:21:46.569 impossibilities that he was facing. Verse 22. 00:21:47.470 --> 00:21:51.029 And because of Abraham's faith, God counted him 00:21:51.029 --> 00:21:54.390 as righteous. And when God counted him as righteous, 00:21:54.690 --> 00:21:58.190 it wasn't just for Abraham's benefit. It was 00:21:58.190 --> 00:22:02.809 recorded for our benefit too, assuring us that 00:22:02.809 --> 00:22:05.829 God will also count us as righteous if we believe 00:22:05.829 --> 00:22:09.150 in him, the one who raised Jesus, our Lord, from 00:22:09.150 --> 00:22:13.049 the dead. He was handed over to die because of 00:22:13.049 --> 00:22:16.440 our sins, and he was raised to life. to make 00:22:16.440 --> 00:22:20.660 us right with god you see it wasn't only for 00:22:20.660 --> 00:22:23.000 abraham's benefit that god declared him righteous 00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:27.279 through faith he is an example that we are invited 00:22:27.279 --> 00:22:33.079 to follow it is for us only faith in what jesus 00:22:33.079 --> 00:22:35.619 accomplished on the cross and through the empty 00:22:35.619 --> 00:22:39.759 tomb can save us and in this chapter paul clearly 00:22:39.759 --> 00:22:42.960 demonstrated that the old testament does not 00:22:42.960 --> 00:22:45.700 contradict the New Testament gospel of salvation 00:22:45.700 --> 00:22:50.400 by grace through faith. Instead, the gospel is 00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:53.740 the fulfillment of the Old Testament. And Abraham 00:22:53.740 --> 00:22:57.559 being justified through faith is our pattern. 00:22:58.480 --> 00:23:01.480 Thank you for joining us for Life Group. Allow 00:23:01.480 --> 00:23:04.339 God's Word to build your faith and transform 00:23:04.339 --> 00:23:05.000 your life.