Introduction
This has been an incredibly sad and tragic week in American history. I’ve found myself at times feeling overwhelmed with sadness, with grief, and at times anger. And some of you have expressed those same things to me. And many of you have asked, “What now? In light of such darkness, what do we do now? How do we change things? How do we save this country? How do we save this world?”
Some of you were raised and taught to think that we aren’t supposed to even try to save this world. You’ve been taught that this world is simply a sinking ship, and that we should seek to get as many people as possible off the ship into a lifeboat before it all comes crashing down. But that is not what God’s Word truly teaches.
God’s Word teaches us that we are on a takeover mission, not a mere rescue mission. Scripture says that at one time we were darkness, but now we are light in the Lord, and therefore we are to walk as children of light (Ephesians 5:8). Jesus is the True Light of the world, and we, the bride of Christ, are in Christ, and therefore we too are the light of the world. And the light of Christ, the light of the world, shines into the darkness, and the darkness has not and will not overcome it (John 1:5). Indeed, the darkness is passing away, and the light is slowly but surely overtaking the world (1 John 2:8).
We are commanded and commissioned by Jesus, not merely to make disciples, but to disciple the nations. We are commanded to take all things captive for Christ. We are commanded not to hide the light under a basket, but to shine out the light of Christ so that all may see, advancing and applying God’s Word to every area of life. And we are to do so through the power and the Truth of God’s Word and God’s gospel. We are to seek to live out and bring about the obedience of faith among all nations. We are to seek to bring every area of life into joyful submission—by grace—by the power of the Spirit of God—through faith in the Son of God by advancing the gospel of God.
So, what do we do now? How do we win? How do we save this country? How do we save this world? Well, the answer to those questions hasn’t changed. The answer is faithfulness. As God’s Word says in 1 John 5:4, “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” Faith. True faith is how we overcome the world. And as Sinclair Ferguson has said, “Faith is the whole life that we live in response to the God that we have and the promises that He makes.” And this is what we’ll see in God’s Word today. God’s gracious promises to Abraham, and His life of faith and hope in them led to, and are still leading to the very salvation of the world. And so shall it be for us. So if you would, look with me at Romans 4:18-25.
Context
If there’s anything this week has taught us it’s that words have power. This week a man was gunned down simply for speaking the Truth. But the Truth cannot be silenced. Indeed, as Paul said in Romans 1:16, the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes… Which is why Paul was preaching it and seeking to advance it out to the world, in order to bring about the obedience of faith among the nations. And that’s really what the whole of Romans is about.
Romans is about the gospel—what the gospel is, and what the mission of the gospel is. And the gospel is power… Power to save and transform. And I must say, it’s been amazing to see a beautiful Genesis 50:20/Romans 8:28 moment play out in front of us Friday night as the White House posted the gospel on social media to honor the memory of Charlie Kirk. Who knows how many people will be saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone because of what happened this week. And that’s the same basic context of our passage today. Through the life of Abraham, Paul has been illustrating the faith we are to have in the gospel, and the hope that comes from the gospel.
Romans 4:18-25
Faith and hope are distinct but inseparable graces. Faith is a firm and certain trust in God’s promises, taking Him at His Word here and now. Hope is a sure expectation that flows from faith and looks forward, patiently and joyfully anticipating the fulfillment of those promises. Faith anchors us in Christ today, uniting us to Him and receiving His gifts, while hope fuels our courage to persevere and live faithfully as we await the full consummation of His Kingdom. Faith receives; hope expects. Faith embraces the reality of what God has said; hope presses on toward the future He has promised, giving us resilience in suffering and motivating us to live with confidence and joy as His Kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven.
This faith and hope connection is exactly what we see in our passage when Paul tells us in verse 18 that, “In hope [Abraham] believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, ‘So shall your offspring be.’” Abraham believed… He had faith… From God’s first call on his life Abraham had faith. Indeed, as Paul has been beating into our heads, his faith was counted to him as righteousness. And that started the moment God called Abram to leave the known and head out into the unknown. But here in verse 18 Paul is stressing that Abraham continued in faith because of his hope.
God gave Abraham covenant promises… gospel promises… And he believed them by faith, and he lived in light of them, looking to attain them in hope. Now when it says that he believed against hope, the idea is that he believed against the false hopes of the world. The world, the flesh, and the devil are constantly lying to us and seeking to fill us with all sorts of false hope. Hope that sin will satisfy. That the ways of the world are better than God’s ways. And that apart from Christ we can be like God… indeed, that we can be God… That the lusts of the flesh and sexual conquests, that money and stuff, pride, fame, and renown, that independence, individualism, and trusting and following our feelings will lead to contentment. That doing things our way will work out far better than doing things God’s way. But there is no hope in such things because none of these things can make good on their promises.
The false hope offered to us by the world, the flesh, and the devil is really just a scheme to strip us of hope altogether. Again, there is no hope there because they cannot make good on their promises. But God always makes good on His promises. And He promised Abraham a son, offspring as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. He promised Abraham that he would be a blessing to the nations, that he would be the father of a multitude of nations. In short, as Paul said in Romans 4:13, He promised Abraham the world. And though the odds were stacked against Abraham, and he had no cause for hope in and of himself… in God, in Christ he had a sure expectation that God can and God will keep His promises.
In verses 19-21 Paul says, “19 [Abraham] did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.” As Abraham looked in the mirror, he had no cause for hope. As I said, the odds were stacked against him. He and his wife, in and of themselves were barren and hopeless… But they were not in and of themselves. They were in Christ. The very reason Abraham’s faith was counted to him as righteousness is because by faith he was united to Christ and was therefore clothed in Jesus’ perfect righteousness. This is how the gospel works. Our confidence, our faith, our hope is not in what we can see, but in God and His perfections, and His perfect gospel promises.
Paul says that no unbelief made Abraham waver concerning the promise of God. And though that’s true, that doesn’t mean that Abraham was perfect, or that he and Sarah didn’t still make a mess of things from time to time. As you know, once they sought to make the promises of God come about in and of themselves by trampling on the covenant of marriage. It wasn’t so much that they wavered on God’s promise, they just tried to fulfill God’s promise in their own way instead of God’s way. But as we have seen, God responded to their sin with a rebuke and a further confirmation that He would indeed keep His promises. Through the covenant sign and seal of circumcision and the grace of God’s covenant renewal, Abraham’s faith grew strong. In a moment of weakness he listened to his wife’s sinful suggestions and did the wrong thing. But God in His grace forgave them and set them back on the right path, strengthening their faith, and upholding their hope.
Since Adam and Eve, unbelief has always been the root cause of all of our sin. The main issue in the Garden was not that they ate the forbidden fruit, but that they did not believe God and take Him at His Word. They did not trust and obey God’s Word, and so they did what was right in their own eyes, and this lead to death and destruction. Which is what always happens in one way or another. The choice is Christ or chaos. God’s way, or death and destruction.
But God, in His grace, doesn’t leave humanity in the chaos of their sin. As God restored covenant with Adam and Eve with the promises of a Savior and a sacrifice for sin, so He did with Abraham and Sarah. And through these trials Abraham’s faith grew strong. And in and through that strong faith Abraham gave glory to God. As Charles Spurgeon once said, “God is never more glorified than He is by the believing confidence of His people [even] when difficulties seem to come in the way.” And though Abraham went through many difficulties: infertility, war, the loss of loved ones, his own disobedience and the consequences of it, and all the ups and downs of life, he continued to grow in his faith and give glory to God.
Now, just as the root of all sin is unbelief, so the root of all obedience is belief. In Romans 3:23 Paul said that we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And later in Romans 14:23 Paul will say that whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. So putting those two verses together we see that we can only glorify God by faith. And this makes sense given the false hope of the world, the flesh, and the devil. When we live by faith, hoping in God’s promises, we show that God and what He has promised is more to be trusted and more to be treasured than anything the world, the flesh, or the devil could give us or take away from us. Abraham so trusted and treasured God and His promises that His faith displayed and magnified God’s glory. And so does our faith as we live not by lies, but by faith in the Truth of God’s Word… As we choose Christ over chaos.
Though Abraham was a sinner, he didn’t waver in unbelief, he had true faith, and this true faith led to true hope. He was fully convinced; he had true conviction and thus true hope that God was able to do what He had promised. Again, it’s not that he never had moments of weakness. As we have seen, that’s how circumcision came about. Which is why Paul has been stressing that it’s ridiculous to look to circumcision, or baptism, or anything in and of itself as cause for assurance or hope. All of those things were meant to point to the weakness of our flesh and the strength of our Savior. They all point to Jesus. And Abraham got that. Though he was weak in and of himself, his eyes were not on himself. And that’s where we need to be… That’s what we need to get. To constantly examine whether we have enough faith, or whether our faith is strong enough, is to turn faith into its opposite. Faith is not looking at yourself at all. It’s looking to and trusting in Jesus.
Beloved, this is such a needed word for us today. This week has been full of suffering and sorrow. Not only was it the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but our brother, Charlie Kirk was murdered, along with others in Dallas and all around the world… And along with that there were school shootings, as well countless other tragedies that didn’t even make the headlines… Not to mention all of the suffering, conflict, grief, and pain that each of us have had to walk through because of the stuff going on in our own lives and the lives of our families. All of these tragedies, all of this suffering, and all of our earthly circumstances make us all the more prone to wander. Our faith is so easily shaken by such things. But here God’s Word is calling us not to look to self, not to look to circumstance, not to look to the chaos of the world, but to look to God by faith and to be filled with hope, because we, like Abraham, are fully convinced that God is able, and thus He can and He will keep His promises. And we know on a level that Abraham didn’t, that God has kept His promises.
God not only gave Abraham Issac, but He gave Abraham, and all the true children of Abraham, the true promised Son, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. So as Hebrews 10:23 says, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” Our faith and faithfulness may waver, but God’s never does. So when the lies of the world, the flesh, or the devil entice and tempt you, and when the chaos of the world—the suffering, the grief, the hate, and the pain that so often comes from and floods this broken world overwhelms you, hope in God. Trust in Jesus. Live not by lies but by faith in Christ and hope in the promises of God. God’s Word assures us, “For all the promises of God find their Yes in Him. That is why it is through Him that we utter our Amen to God for His glory” (2 Corinthians 1:20).
The hate and hopelessness, the chaos of the world must not overtake us. They did not overtake Abraham. And so Paul says in verse 22, “That is why his faith was ‘counted to him as righteousness.’” We are to be overtaken by Christ and His promises… And it is through our faith and hope in these that we will actually overtake the world. In the rest of our passage, in verses 23-25 Paul says, “23 But the words ‘it was counted to him’ were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”
Notice that pronoun “ours.” The promises given to Abraham… God’s dealings with Abraham…. God’s covenant with Abraham were just as much for us as they were for Abraham. And that’s because Abraham was promised the world, and we are a part of that world and therefore a part of that promise. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, just like Abraham. But with that salvation, with Christ, comes the promise of the world, of the nations, of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covering the earth as the waters cover the sea.
Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses. After living a perfectly obedient life, He was falsely tried and condemned in our place, nailed to our cross, and suffered the wrath we deserve for our sin. Then He died our death. But on the third Day He rose from the grave in victory, justifying, freely forever all those who will look to Him by faith… We see that all in Christ are justified because God raised Him from the dead. Jesus wrote a check for our redemption with His life and death… And we see that the check cleared in and through His resurrection. In and through His resurrection and ascension, as Philippians 2:10-11 says, “God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” The Father accepted the sacrifice of the Son and exalted Him as the risen Lord, and therefore we who share the faith of Abraham, we who walk in the footsteps of our father, Abraham, are justified in Christ. But as 1 John 2:2 says, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” Or as John 3:16 says so well, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Jesus died and rose again to redeem the nations… the world… to make all things new. Paul said in Romans 4:13 that Abraham was promised the world. And what the gospel tells us is that the world is given to Abraham, and all who share the faith of Abraham, in and through Christ. Again, as I quoted from 2 Corinthians 1:20 earlier, “all the promises of God find their Yes in [Christ].” Christ has redeemed the world with His own blood. Through His life, death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus has overcome the world. And we get in on all of that by faith, and therefore by faith we overcome the world as well.
Our enemies, even our own flesh, would have us think that the world is too far gone to be saved. But Christ would have us remember that He lived, died, and rose again to redeem the world. Indeed He ascended to the right hand of the Father where He now rules and reigns. He is sovereign over the world, and slowly but surely bringing all of His enemies under His feet. It may not always look like it, but as Herbert Schlossberg once noted, “The kingdom of God advances from triumph to triumph, with all of them disguised as disasters.” Or as Chesterton put it, “Christendom has had a series of revolutions and in each one of them Christianity has died. Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.”
No doubt, this world is filled with devils, disaster, disease, death, and decay… with hate, murder, immorality, idolatry, pride, and any and every kind of sin you can think of… Chaos! But things are not what they seem. Indeed, it is Christ or chaos… But Christ will overcome the chaos! This is our Father’s world. And He has given the nations, and all things to Jesus, His perfect Child, as His inheritance. But as those who are in Christ, as children of God in Christ, we are “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:17). What’s true of Jesus becomes true of us, His bride, the church. Which means we will most definitely suffer like our crucified Savior in so many ways, but that we will also walk in the victory of our Savior in so many ways. Paul will even say later in Romans 16:20, that the God of peace will soon crush Satan under our feet, applying what’s true of our serpent crushing Savior directly to His bride, because we are in Christ, and all of the promises of God become yes and amen for us in Christ. For that is how the gospel works. It is power. And by faith we get in on it.
Abraham was counted righteous by faith. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promises of God, but he grew strong in his faith and gave glory to God. And in and through that, in and through Abraham’s faithfulness and the legacy of faithfulness that he left, God brought Jesus into the world, and therefore brought about the salvation of the world. The whole of Abraham’s life and faithfulness are a part of that story. And so it is with us. We are counted righteous by faith, and as 1 John 5:4 says, through our faith we will overcome the world. The promises given to Abraham are for you. His God is your God. His story is your story. And just as God used Abraham’s faith to bring Christ into the world, so He is using our faith to bring the Kingdom of Christ to bear in the world today.
Again, I get it… There is so much darkness and evil in the world, so much chaos that it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. But we must not abandon our faith. We must not lose our hope. And we must not try to force God’s promises to come about in our own sinful ways as Abraham and Sarah once did. We must be patient and faithful. We must keep our hands to the plow and remember that God plays the long game. Christ is risen. Christ is reigning. And He is subduing all His enemies under His feet—which means ours as well—even when the headlines look like defeat. Abraham and Sarah were old before God gave them Issac. And consider how many more hundreds of years passed before the true promised Son, Jesus was given… So church, our perspective matters. And we are to have an eternal perspective. As Christopher Dawson has said, “The Christian church lives in the light of eternity and can afford to be patient.” God is able. He can and He will crush the chaos. Indeed, little by little, He already is, for the blow of defeat happened at the cross.
Conclusion
Abraham did not waver in unbelief concerning the promises of God, but he grew strong in his faith and gave glory to God… And this is exactly what I want you to take with you today. This is exactly what I want you to do. This is exactly what I want you to see. Do not waver in unbelief concerning the promises of God, but seek to grow strong in your faith and give glory to God… This is how we change the world. Are you angry because of what happened this week? Are you sad? Are you overwhelmed? Do you want to see things change and get better? Then, do not waver in unbelief concerning the promises of God, but seek to grow strong in your faith and give glory to God… We change things through faith and hope. We stop wavering in unbelief, and instead we bank everything on, indeed, we build our lives on the promises of God.
Given that you are all here this morning, I’m assuming that you have not given in completely to unbelief, that you have not abandoned the faith… But every single one of us waver in unbelief in one way or another time and time again, because as we have seen, the root of all sin is unbelief. So if our faith is how we will overcome the world… If our faithfulness is, in part, what God will use to save the world… Then what we need to do is stop wavering. So many of us act as though we are ready and willing to do some grand gesture in order to make a difference in the world, yet we seem to be unwilling to walk out ordinary everyday faithfulness.
So if you want to change the world stop making excuses for your sin and start making make war on your sin. We waver in so many ways: sin of all kinds, especially pet sins like pornography, laziness, gluttony, being a slob, gossip, slander, being a drunkard and abusing drugs and alcohol… Do you not see that these things these things are tools of the enemy to keep us weak, distracted, and ineffective? Looking at a TV screen, a phone, or a computer all day, sitting around high playing video games or whatever… these are tools of the enemy to pacify the church. Lazy, distracted people are not a threat to darkness. Flee such things and be strong and effective for the Lord.
But understand, it’s not only our pet sins that we must make war on, but also the sins of the world. We waver when we allow empathy to get the better of us, living by, embracing, or coddling the lies of the world instead of unapologetically living by the Truth of God. To hell with the nuance of the world. Speaking Truth is not hate speech, and living in obedience to Truth is not violence. It’s how we love God and love people. The ways of the world are chaos. Christ knows best. Christ is best. And His ways are good and good for us. Don’t apologize for that, and don’t tiptoe around it. Don’t embrace the lies of the world.
One of the big lies we’ve embraced is the lie of individualism. All too often we think of ourselves as, or simply live like we are mere independent autonomous individuals who need no one… as atoms instead of molecules. That is a lie from Satan, who, like a lion seeking someone to devour, is trying to keep you separated from the heard so that you can stay swallowed up by lies. Satan loves lone sheep—they are the easiest to devour. So seek to be and stay connected. Give yourself to the community of the local church. Seek to work, live, play, get involved with, worship, to live all of life in the same general area among the same general people, especially godly people. All of life for all of us Christ, and all of Christ for all of life. And be consistent. Gather with the church weekly. Consistently showing up goes a long way. But don’t just be content to show up. Keep Christ and His church at the center of your life, and live life with God’s people. We need God, His Word, and His people for all of life. And that goes for your children too. Don’t let the world educate you or your kids. Seek and give Christian education. As Doug Wilson once said, “After worship, education is the most religious thing we do.” Christ must be at the center of it.
Don’t believe the lie of neutrality. There are no neutral areas in this world. Things are either for Christ or against Him. Again, as this week has displayed, it is either Christ or chaos. And this world is filled with chaos. But don’t lose heart. Don’t waver. Keep the faith, and seek to grow in your faith. And that means above all, and in and through it all, keep looking to Christ. Faith is not staring at yourself and wondering whether your faith is strong enough—it is looking to Jesus and trusting Him. Faith looks away from self and fixes its eyes on Christ, fully convinced that God is able to do what He promised. So be filled with hope, and give glory to God.
Let me close by quoting the late Charlie Kirk. He said, “The Great Martin Luther said, “‘Even if the world was ending today, I’d plant an apple tree.’ My main message to every church, every campus, every believer is that you could be disgusted, depressed, disgruntled at the macro, but you have zero excuse to not act boldly and courageously in the micro. You must continue to pour in, to build big families, to build strong churches, to expand businesses. The enemy would love nothing more than to create a sense of paralysis amongst believers. The last, best hope for liberty, because things look really bleak on the outside. [So] What are you going to do?”
Chesterton once said, “The one perfectly divine thing, the one glimpse of God’s paradise given on earth, is to fight a losing battle—and not lose it.” This world is not what it seems. It seems too far gone to be saved, and as though we who wish to save it are in a losing battle. But our faith will overcome the world because this is our Father’s world, bought with the blood of Christ. So stand in faith and do not waver. Holdfast in Christ and fight the good fight come what may, leaning on the promises of God in hope, seeking to glorify Him in all things, knowing that Christ will overcome the chaos. And therefore, we’ll be alright because the Lord is on our side.