Faith Alone. Really.

Faith alone, really?

Faith alone, really?

Really, really?

Faith alone.

When Alice Walton inherited the Walmart business empire in the States, she inherited around $60 billion.

Not a bad inheritance, hey?

When Prince Charles became King Charles, he inherited the Crown of England, the monarch of the Commonwealth.

But both pale into insignificance compared with the inheritance promise to every believing Christian.

Really?

For Christians are heirs to more than $60 billion.

We're heirs to the world.

By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, we are heirs of the world for all eternity.

It's the promise of God the Father.

It's what we'll read in a sec, but I'll read to you now.

Romans 4.13 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.

By faith, we who believe, Christians, we who believe are Abraham's offspring, and we're heirs to the world.

Beyond the grave, we will be, as Christians, we will be given resurrected bodies, which is an amazing truth.

We don't just float around in heaven forever.

We're given bodies like Jesus had a new resurrected body, Humanity 2.0, and there's got to be somewhere to go to live out life with that new body, and it's the new perfected, redeemed earth, and it's our inheritance.

That's the Christian hope.

That's the promise God has made to us, that by faith in Christ, through His grace, we are heirs to the world.

I think many of us probably would say we know this, but I have a sense that if you're anything like me, you don't live in this truth every day.

It's easy to forget.

The promise to every believing Christian is that, we are heirs of the world, soul of Fide, through faith alone.

That's that Latin from the Reformation, soul of Fide, that Ben was talking about last week.

We're studying the Book of Romans.

If you're part of church, you'll know that.

We're in the third message in a series.

We're going to go all the way up to chapter 12, and we're in chapter four.

Today, Paul has been over the first three chapters, unpacking the puzzle pieces of the meaning of life.

There are characters that we've looked at, like God and humanity, and certainly Jesus and Paul the Apostle, and there are Jews and Gentiles, and there are other characters like Rome, who are very important, and concepts like sin and grace and hope and faith.

Last week, Ben drew it all together from chapter 1, 2 and 3, and he said that Paul told us, we are all shut up under the judgment of God on sin, that every mouth may be silenced.

Anyone remember that little...

No one gets to say, but, but, but God, I was pretty good.

No, no, no one gets to make any excuse.

We are all shut up under the problem of sin, because all of sin didn't fall short of the glory of God.

And then there was a but in chapter 3.

But now God has acted, 2000 years ago, He acted in Christ and made a way for justice to be served and promises kept, which is what the righteousness of God is all about.

Jesus, God's only son, has died in our place, and His blood shed on the cross is enough.

It's enough to satisfy God's righteous requirements regarding judgment on sin in our place.

And accessing this forgiveness, this reconciled relationship with our Creator is through faith alone.

Really, faith alone.

Now, Paul is really keen to connect with the Jews in Rome.

He's writing from Corinth to a church at Rome that he's never visited before, but he wants the church in Rome to be strong and unified.

Because he wants to use it as a launching pad to take the Gospel further west to Spain.

But there are some problems between the Jews and the Gentiles.

When Emperor Claudius was in power, there were some problems with the Jewish people in Rome, and so they were exiled for five years.

Five years, the Jews are taken out of the church, the Gentiles take all the leadership roles.

Five years later, the Jews have come back.

It's a bit of argy-bargy going on.

And Paul knows that, and so he's writing the Book of Romans a lot about explaining the Gospel and pointing these Jews and Gentiles to unity found in Christ.

So, he's a Jew.

How do you connect with Jews if you want to get them on side?

You start with Father Abraham.

Good place to start, right?

Father Abraham.

And that's the common ground.

That's what I want to read from Chapter 4, Verse 1.

What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh, discovered in this matter?

Now, this is coming after the first three chapters that Ben was preaching on.

He's pulling together Chapter 2 and 3.

And it's all about righteousness is found in Christ alone by grace through faith.

So, what do we know in the light of being Jews and from Father Abraham?

Well, he says, if, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God.

What does Scripture say?

Paul says, Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.

The good news of the gospel is that forgiveness is found through faith alone.

Soul of Fide.

So Genesis 15, 6 is the origin of Paul's statement that we just read out in chapter 4, verse 3.

Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.

Back in Genesis 15, God had told Abram in chapter 12, Genesis 12, that he would be blessed.

He's going to have heaps of descendants.

And then in chapter 15, God comes to Abram again, and he says, I'll read from Genesis 15, look up at the sky and count the stars, if indeed you can count them.

Then he said to him, so shall your offspring be.

Abram believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Has anyone ever read this in Genesis and sort of come to it and thought, yeah, whatever, moving along.

I've often found that, like I'm reading through Genesis and I come to this and I go, oh, wait on, that's one of the most important verses in all the Bible.

That point was where God spoke and Abraham believed.

And something happened in the heavenly realms.

In that moment, there was a transaction to Abraham's righteousness account, if you will.

Right standing with God was credited to his account.

And it was by faith alone, Abraham just believed.

Solafide, faith alone.

Really?

I've told you, some of you, about my scripture teaching days at Carringbar High School down south where I was a pastor for 19 years.

And way back, I used to teach high school scripture.

And I'll never forget this one time that I had a $2 coin in my pocket.

And I don't think I showed them actually that I had it.

But I said, look, I've got $2.

I'm happy.

I just love to give it away to someone here.

It's a class of maybe year eight, year nine people.

And everyone was looking away, not really interested.

I said, no, seriously, I've got $2.

And someone said, I'll take it.

And so I took the $2 out and I threw it to them.

You should have seen the class.

Oh, that's not fair.

That's not fair.

You should have told us that you were going to give $2 away.

I said, I just said, I'm going to give you $2.

Who wants $2?

And therein lies the meaning of life.

The gospel is a free gift.

People are going to get to the end and go, someone should have told me it was a gift.

I would have received it if it was a gift.

Well, it is.

Hallelujah.

It's a gift.

Like the gospel is a gift.

It is received by faith.

It is not earned.

Paul tells us here that Abraham just believed and it was credited to him as righteousness.

That's right standing with God.

Paul goes on to unpack a bit of this idea of a gift for his Gentile and Jewish friends.

I'm going to read from verse 4.

Paul writes, Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift, but as an obligation.

We know that makes sense.

Workers get paid wages.

However, to the one who does not work, but trusts God, who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.

David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works.

David says, verse 7, blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.

Both Abraham and David both understand that God's love, blessings and forgiveness are a gift.

They did not earn it.

I wonder if you've noticed that a completely free lunch is pretty unusual in life.

It's quite unusual to get a free lunch.

You get things that are free online every now and then, but who's discovered it's not free?

They're like, here's something free.

And then it says, oh, as you receive it and enjoy it, could we just have your name and your date of birth and your address and your email and your phone number?

And that's because they want our information.

It's not free.

We're familiar also with quid pro quo, the non-cash trade system that happens in business.

I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine happens in politics.

It happens often in friendships.

And this idea that you don't get anything for free infects our understanding of the gospel, don't you reckon?

We can hear that salvation is by grace alone, but we think, oh, where's the catch?

Where's the catch?

Faith alone in Christ alone.

And I find it weird.

And I just make this statement as an observation.

It's not as a judgment.

It's just an observation.

I have found over the last many decades in Christian ministry, multiple, multiple times, observation, multiple times, someone who knows this stuff, they're a Christian.

They know that you're saved by faith in Christ alone, by His grace.

They will have a loved one or a friend who dies and you'll be chatting and they'll say, you know, they weren't a Christian.

They're a good person.

I think they'll be fine.

And I always feel like you don't get to give a reference for someone who goes before Jesus when they die.

There's no reference.

It's by faith in Christ because you can't earn it.

Because remember, that's what we saw in chapters 1, 2, 3 of Romans.

There's no one who says, wait, excuse me, Lord.

Have you seen me?

Have you seen my record?

No one is good enough.

No one's good enough.

But we find it hard to actually accept that no one is getting to that new earth via heaven through death with a new body who earns it themselves.

It's by grace through faith alone, really.

And we can do this ourselves as we live out our daily lives as Christians.

We think, yeah, I get it.

It's by faith alone that I can come before a holy God, faith in Christ.

But have you ever had a good couple of days of doing some private reading, some devotions, some worship, and maybe some good works, helping a few people across the road, you know, you give some tithes.

Has anyone felt this?

And when you do that, that's the throne of grace.

And you go, whoa, yeah, come on in, come on in the land.

And it's like there's a sense of confidence in me.

But that's a little bit vomitous.

That's not the way it works.

I can't come.

I'm never going to come before a holy God in any other way than clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

Amen.

How do I access that faith?

By grace.

Through faith alone.

Plus nothing.

Plus nothing.

It is a blessed state to be accepted by God through faith alone.

By the work of his son, Jesus, says Paul.

Is this only for the Jews, he wonders, who after all have that physical mark, they've been very religiously circumcised, at least the men have, and that sets them apart.

And Paul's like in verse 9, is this blessed state of being in relationship with God only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised?

We've been saying that Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness.

Under what circumstance was it credited?

Was it after or before he was circumcised?

It's making a good logical argument, isn't it?

Was Abraham accepted, Paul's argument goes, was he accepted by God after he did something really spiritual and religious like circumcision?

And the answer?

No, it was before.

And we are not accepted after we start coming to church, after we clean up our act, after we start giving some money in the offering plate, after we drink some holy water or get baptized or do anything religious.

Let that sink into your heart and mind.

It's not after, it's when we believe with faith in the finished work of Christ.

Amen?

Soul of Fide.

Really.

It was not after, Paul writes, but before, verse 11.

And he received circumcision as a sign.

It wasn't as though that was a bad thing.

That's a good thing and we get baptized in a similar way.

The wedding ring is a sign of the wedding.

But next week when Courtney and Ben get married, they're going to stand before God and family and friends, and they're going to make vows to each other, covenant commitments that will make them married.

And they're also going to have rings.

And circumcision is like a bit like a ring and so is baptism.

It is a sign of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.

Are you with Paul?

So then he's the father, Abraham, is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them.

And he's 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.

So he's reaching out to Jews and Gentiles.

It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, that is through the Ten Commandments, through Deuteronomy, through all the teachings.

It wasn't that, but through the righteousness that comes by faith that he'd be heir of the world and so would his descendants.

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.

Heir of the world was and is.

God's promised the descendants of Abraham.

They were promised a holy land, the promised land, but that was always more than that space around Palestine there.

It was the world.

Heir of the world, the whole globe redeemed through faith alone.

Now, this, what Paul says here, I think is a real deal breaker for any of us who are thinking that all roads lead to God.

It's a common thought, like it sort of seems to make sense when we're wondering, we think, oh, there's probably one powerful God, powerful being, and there's lots of ideas, world religions.

I guess they all must lead to the same place.

All roads lead to God.

You might be sitting here believing that.

I would push back on that and say, I don't think it is logical.

Like if you think of roads, they don't always lead to the same place.

They lead all over the place.

But more importantly than just logic, it's contrary to what Jesus himself says.

Completely contrary.

John 14 verse 6 says, Jesus' words, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

It is only through faith in Christ that a person can be forgiven and live forever with God.

No other way.

And this is good news.

Christianity is completely unique.

I don't know if you've studied world religions, but do it.

It's worth it.

He is unique.

Christianity says it has all been done for you.

Religion of the world says you have to do stuff.

You do stuff to earn salvation.

Christianity is unique in that it says it's all been done.

And what do we have to do?

We believe.

We put our faith in the finished work of Christ.

And by faith alone, really, really.

Paul writes verse 16, Therefore the promise comes by faith.

What is the promise?

You get to be heir of the world.

You get to know God.

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, that is the Jews, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham, he is the father of us all.

21st century.

As it is written, I have made you 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 Gentiles were not the people of God, but they were made the people of God.

1 Peter 2.9.

Ben read it out this morning.

We have been called by grace through faith into a relationship with God, and now we are called the people of God, even though we're not the Jews.

That's what he's saying.

Do you like that phrase?

Our God is the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

I've always loved that.

Am I the only one?

Anyone else got that marked in your Bibles?

It's just a great verse.

It's a great truth.

Our God is a God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

Our God gives life to dead dreams.

It's a picture of the father, the creator taking a lump of clay and breathing ruach into it.

And there's a human that comes out.

He takes lumps of clay, dreams, people who don't feel like much.

And he turns us into something.

Our God calls things that are not into things that are.

Has their health diagnosis, let me ask you a few questions.

Has their health diagnosis made you feel like part of you is not?

Has the trajectory of your life, someone told me this exact statement less than a week ago.

Has the trajectory of your life at this stage of your journey convinced you that you are a failure?

You are a loser.

That's the words I was told.

I am a loser.

I am not.

Because of the way things have worked out.

Has the voice of the bully, and we've had them, told you, you are not?

Has the relentless inner voice of negativity told you, you are not?

Has social media reinforced a message to you that you are not?

Has the evil one been able to convince you that you are not?

Well, hear this.

If any of that is true for you, we serve a God who is in the business of taking things that are not and making them as though they are.

Praise God.

That's what he does.

It's easy.

In my life, at different times, I've felt like I am not.

And it's crappy, excuse the word.

It doesn't feel good to feel like you are not, like you are invisible, like you are that loser.

But we are not losers when we are found in Christ.

He takes things that are not and breeds life into them.

And he does this by faith alone.

Against all hope, verse 18.

Abraham in hope believed.

Another fantastic verse to highlight in your Bibles.

Against all hope, backed against the wall.

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations.

Just as it has been said to him, so shall your offspring be.

Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old and that Sarah's womb was also dead.

Not a nice thing to say, but that's what he says.

Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

This is why it was credited to him as righteousness.

Interestingly, on the chat, Karen mentioned the other day when we were looking at this with the Bible loop.

Really?

He looks like he wavers in faith, Abram, if you know the story.

But I think that's a beautiful insight into, it's not sort of legendary heroic as though Abraham is something super special.

He just believed.

And even in the midst of his believing, he questioned along the way, but he held on.

And we can be encouraged by that, I think.

Against all hope, Abraham in hope, believed.

When we believe, we can, like Abraham, see the impossible become possible.

Apparently, apparently.

Isn't it amazing to think that Jesus came from a barren womb?

Ever thought about that?

Like, if we put faith in Christ, if we put our faith in Christ, Jesus, Messiah, the promise of God who finally came, his lineage goes back to Sarah's barren womb.

Barren womb.

And she's, she's an old lady, and the father's a hundred years old.

It's crazy, but it's what God does.

He is able to do the impossible.

He's in the business of creating generational legacies to his glory.

Can I say that again?

He's in the business of creating generational legacies to his glory.

In our men's ministry, we've been talking about the wounds we carry as men, because, you know what?

Exodus 34 says it, there's pain that's handed down third and fourth generation.

There's hard stuff that we get without asking for it.

It's just sort of part of our family of origin, and it's part of...

I read a book, a great book today, the other day.

I was reading this section that said, Jesus lives in our heart and grandpa lives in our bones.

Sort of true.

Kerry's going, what do you mean?

Grandpa?

What are you doing there?

Jesus lives in our heart, but our family of origin is real.

Grandma and grandma can live in our bones.

We need to bring them under the grace of God.

Bring your family dream to the one who has the power to do what he has promised, to bless the thousandth generation.

That's what this is about.

Abraham believes.

Paul explains what this means, is that Abraham was, verse 21, fully persuaded.

Fully persuaded.

Are you fully persuaded?

That Jesus is your Lord and Saviour.

Are you fully persuaded that God is real and is good?

He's good for his promises.

Fully persuaded that God will lead you home like that song, Amazing Grace.

He's gonna bring me home to my inheritance.

Heir of the world, with God and for the glory of God.

Fully persuaded that all things are actually working together for my good and God's glory.

Because I've been called according to his purpose, and I wanna love him and I'm doing it by his grace.

Fully persuaded that you cannot add anything to what Christ has already done for you in the gospel.

Are you fully persuaded?

Have I said faith alone really enough in this message?

It's faith alone.

Really.

It's faith alone.

Are you fully persuaded?

Because I'm telling you this changes the way you wake up tomorrow.

Because if you wake up tomorrow thinking, oh, what do I have to do today to earn your favor, to get the monkey off my back of guilt and shame?

But if you can wake up going, thank you, God, I'm not perfect.

Abraham wasn't either.

And there's nobody else on this planet that is perfect.

I'm clothed in the one who is perfect, the righteousness of Jesus.

And that makes me a son or a daughter that makes you happy, God.

And I'm going to live as though that's the truth.

I'm going to live as though I'm a pilgrim in pilgrim's progress.

That you've taken some of that burden, you've pulled it off and you've given me a job to do and you've set me on a path and you've said, if the sun sets you free, you'll be free indeed.

Fully persuaded, what we heard last week, the line of the reformers, that scripture alone, by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, is the truth I want to live my life by.

The words, it was credited to him, verse 23, were written not for him alone, but also for us.

To whom God will credit righteousness.

Credit righteousness to your account.

Oh, look at this, Jonathan Shanks, righteous.

Credited to my account.

How?

Not because I've done anything to earn it, but because I am fully persuaded that Jesus is the one who did it all for me.

Also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness.

For us who believe in him, who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead.

This is the gospel.

He died for us and he rose again.

He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

So imagine tomorrow you get a letter in the mail, and it sort of looks formal, but your immediate reaction when it says that you have a rich uncle, who has, you didn't know you had, his name was Uncle Fester.

I don't know if you guys know, but I thought if I got that, I'd be sus.

Uncle Fester.

Really?

This is a joke.

And then I'd read further on, I go, it's a scam from Nigeria.

You know, they want my number, my credit card details.

But you find out tomorrow, you find out it's legit.

Who would have thought?

You do have an Uncle Fester, and he's a rich man, he just died during his will, and $5 million lands in your account.

They're just numbers, but it turns up.

It turns up tomorrow.

So Monday night, how are you feeling?

Like a warm blanket of peace.

Oh, yeah.

I'm just gonna think about what I'm gonna spend that on, who I'm gonna give it to, what good I'm gonna do.

I mean, life's good, right?

I just got me $5 million bucks.

I wanna put it to you to think about that until you feel the peace, and then think that's nothing compared to the inheritance you have, that you are heirs of the world, and you're free from your sin, and you know the God who created you through Jesus, and we get to serve him, be part of his plan, and live forever.

Like, it's real when we're doing these ones, praising God when we're about to sing, like it's real when you're like, wow, really?

Faith alone?

I don't get to, no, you don't earn it.

It is a gift.

But when we receive the gift, what happens?

The Spirit of God comes in our life and starts changing us, and helps us live the way that God would want us to live.

And that involves change.

We talk a lot about that.

There's some effort in that, but it all starts and remains that we're living in a gift.

By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, you're heir to the world.

Praise God.

As the hymn says, and we're going to sing it just in a minute.

I think maybe the band could come up.

Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come.

The old hymn says, Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home to my inheritance with Jesus.

My inheritance, and if you are a person of faith in Christ, your inheritance is the world.

Throughout the week, I thought to myself, after this sermon, I'd like to stand in front of an empty cross and look up, and have a pen, and write a cross on my hand.

When I finished the sermon, I was like, that's what I'd like to do.

I'd just like to stand there like that, in front of an empty cross, and say, it's nothing that I bring.

It's just an empty cross.

The blood of Christ is enough.

And so, when we came in, I was in here at 6.30 this morning, having a prayer, and go through the message and stuff.

So, I pulled the cross down, and I stood in front of it, and I had a pen there, and I went, thank you, Lord.

And it did something in my heart.

I appreciate it.

And this rubbed off, so I had to redo it.

The start of the service.

But some people that came and did that this morning, now, well, we sang.

And so I just want to invite you to, and for you, it might be, oh, I'm not into that at all, but I found it helpful.

It was good to stand in front of that cross.

It's just a simple cross, but it represents, it's symbolic of the cross of Jesus.

They couldn't keep him in the grave.

He rose again.

Because he died for our sin and rose again, we can come and just say, I am fully persuaded.

There's nothing up my sleeve, God.

There's nothing.

I can't add anything to this.

That's how I'm going to live my life.

This is a gift.

And if you want, grab a pen and do a fish on your hand or do a cross.

I just, I found it helpful.

Thank you, Jesus.

We give you all the praise and the glory.

You're worthy of this.

Our praise, you're worthy of this, our life.

Lord, I pray for those online and those here, who have never received by faith the gift of salvation, I pray that you would seek and save.

I pray that you would lead some to repentance, to turn from their sin and put all their faith in you.

We know your word says, repent and believe.

And I think of my brothers and sisters, who are struggling, always thinking they need to add stuff, add some sort of good religious thing.

I pray we could be set free from that.

And we could live open-handedly every day, receiving freshly your grace, which is enough, by faith alone.

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