Assurance of Inheritance: Faith, Grace, and Promise

"Father, we're aware from this text and from our own experience that apart from the kind of power that was exerted on Abraham's behalf, in order to bear Isaac, we would be dead spiritually lifeless insensitive to all the movings of the holy spirit in the world without Joy without hope without faith and so we reckon ourselves utterly dependent on you in this moment because our desire in being here is to see you and love you and praise you and Savor you and Delight in you enjoy you and Bank Our Hope on you and walk out of here A friend of yours conscious of your sweet Grace in our lives all of which is beyond us and is Supernatural." [00:77:15]

"Now it only gets better this week because Paul is is so serious about your banking your Hope on being an heir of the world and so having your life turned into the kind of crazy life that makes the world sit up and say give us the reason for the hope that is in you because you're not acting the way ordinary people act who only hope in this life you must have something Beyond this life tell me about it he is so eager for you to have that kind of hope and produce that kind of light shining life that he works and labors with all his might in this text to put underneath that promise a guarantee a certainty a rock an assurance that we will see in this text and that's what I want you to have this morning." [00:267:08]

"Since trying to keep the Commandments of the law in order to get right with God brings wrath and nullifies Promises therefore that righteousness and the promise built on it is by faith what's the new reason given in verse 16 for why we should want righteousness and the promise by faith alone what's the new reason and it's in the next phrase the new reason is because Faith Accords with Grace let's read it for this reason it is by faith in order that it may be in accordance with Grace now why is that important why is it important that the way we pursue righteousness and promise Accord with Grace and the answer is given in the next phrase next clause in verse 16 so that the promise will be guaranteed certified sure to all the descendants both kinds Jewish Believers Gentile Believers because Abraham is the father of both it's the guarantee that makes it so important." [00:563:39]

"Grace guarantees the promise now we see what Paul is up to it is by faith which Accords with Grace so that the promise will be certain or guaranteed Faith Grace certainty now we see what he's up to he's up to blessing you with the gift of assurance this morning sometimes I'm sure you must ask if you're a typical pragmatic get it done quick don't bother me with long Tangled arguments kind of American you would say why in the world does he write a book like this why does he write like this why does he write in such a way that it gets so involved what practical use is this and his answer here is do you want to be be sure that last week's promise that you will be an heir of the world will happen in your life is that practical if you could have guarantee if you could have certainty if you could have shity that you would be an heir of the world would that not be practical." [00:662:92]

"The people whose certainty about the promise of inheriting the world is the strongest in the midst of all kind of sensuality and suffering and secularism the people whose confidence that they're going to be Hees of the world and whose lives therefore break out into radical kinds of loving and risk-taking those are the people who have taken the time to meditate their way down deep into the fabric of Romans 4 and other texts like it don't be in such a hurry in this life that you don't become like a tree planted by streams of water that brings forth its fruit in its season whose leaves don't wither and in everything they do they Prosper those people linger over the word of God and meditate on it day and night and all my preaching is is an extended drawn out out loud meditation over the Bible to model for you how to do it that's what preaching is for me in many ways." [00:780:88]

"Grace for this reason it is by faith in order that may Accord with Grace so that the promise may be guaranteed now meditate with me for a moment on the connection between grace and guarantee Grace and guarantee and why it is that only faith of all the states of the human heart that are possible only Faith Accords with Grace which is the foundation of the guarantee of the promise your faith is essential when I say that Grace is the foundation I don't mean your faith isn't essential it is is essential but the reason it's essential is because faith is the only condition of the human heart that Accords with that phrase is so crucial it Accords with Grace no other state of the human heart Accords with Sovereign Grace besides faith and it's Grace that guarantees the promise." [00:854:88]

"Grace is the free and undeserved work of God to bring his people to Glory Grace is God's purpose to use all his undeserved might to do for you what you cannot do for yourself in order to bring you to the Airship of the world that's what Grace is and it's the ground of our guarantee and only Faith Accords with this work of God faith is that condition I want you to taste this taste how wonderful this grace is this morning Grace is so sweet so powerful so wonderful underneath that promise that you can put it there from last week now go with me back up your chapter to chapter 4 verse 4 now to the one who works his wage is not credited now here I wish we had in any English version a literal translation because the only other place in all the New Testament where the phrase in accordance with Grace found in verse 16 the only other place and all the Testament where that phrase occurs is right here in the next phrase and nobody translates it like it's translated in verse 16 and so you don't see it but let me translate it so you can see it now to the one who works his wage is not credited in accordance with Grace same phrase is verse 16 It Is by faith in order that it might be in accordance with Grace so he says to the one who works works if you want to work for God you will get a wage and that wage will not be credited in accordance with Grace well what will it be in accordance with what's the opposite of Grace in this verse answer do debt due not do verse at the end of the verse but as what is due if you work for God you will get a wage and it will not be in accordance with Grace it will be in accordance with debt so if you want to put God in your debt you work for him and the debt you get is what you deserve he now owes you and you will die because the wages of sin which is all you can do in trying to put God in your debt is sin but verse five what's the opposite what's the alternative but to the one who does not work but believes now here's Faith here's what does accord with Grace Works does not Accord with Grace Faith Accords with Grace but to him who believes in him who justifies the ungodly his faith is credited Graciously credited as righteousness so he's talking about how to get Justified get right with God here and he's talking about the opposite of grace and the opposite of Faith the opposite of Grace is debt and the opposite of faith is work so you can either choose the work debt wrath pattern or the faith Grace promise pattern those are your options you either take the law and use it as a law of Commandments to try to perform for God and say now pay me and he does with hell because you always fail or you say no I'm not going to use the law that way and I'm not going to try to work for God I'm going to go straight to God and I'm going to say I trust Grace to grant me your righteousness on which my promise will be given and the reward is Everlasting inheritance of the world." [00:930:95]

"Grace is the guarantee of the promise here it is the override of our demerit it's the override of our demerit we come to God and all we bring him is demerit sin we've never done a pure act in our lives apart from Grace we have nothing to offer God but demerit so you can go to God and in presumption put that demerit on the table of the universe and say pay if you want judgment or you can put it there and then plead for the override which is called Grace so he overrides demerit and that's why the promise is guaranteed the promise is guaranteed firstly because Grace is the foundation of it and Grace overrides your demerit so that in the presence of the Living God a sinner can still have hope that he can be an heir of the world now that's going back in the text to verses four and 5 and seeing the nature of Grace and now we want to go forward a little bit but let me before we go forward let me stress something Faith according to verse 16 is what Accords with this Grace only one condition of the human heart only one Accords with the work of God in overriding the demerit that I bring to him and that is Faith anything else that you try to insert there do an in run around your demerit or say I had a little bit of Merit besides my demerit anything you do there besides trust Grace does not Accord with Grace and will nullify promises so it's very crucial that you see the connection Faith Grace guarantee of Promise faith is the only thing that Accords with this massive reality called called Grace which overrides our demerit and thus secures for us as Sinners the promise." [00:1216:55]