Romans Chapter 4:13-17

The Lord said, you're going to have kids.

Abraham said, he believed God. Literally in the Hebrew he said, amen. Amen. You're going to be the father of many nations.

Amen. He was 84. He grew to be 100 before he saw the fruition of these promises. And he still was like, amen. He wasn't talking about trusting in your abilities or God's abilities.

Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. Abraham didn't weigh the promises of God based on his own ability. Instead, he based the promises off of God's ability. Today, Pastor David encourages us with these words as he continues in the book of Romans chapter 4 with his teaching, Faith. Let's go now to David. Let's look at verse 13.

For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. Maybe this will help add clarity. Imagine the scene. A few years ago, Christmas, gifts. Walk in the living room, kids are opening stuff. Maybe Ashley gets a keyboard or something. Maybe JD gets something for his guitar and Ben gets something for his drums or something. They walk in there and Ashley goes, well, this is a really nice keyboard, dad.

This is awesome. I'll give you 100 bucks for it. What? I'll give you 100 bucks for it. No, no, honey, I'm giving that to you. Okay, 120. No, honey, I'm, I'm, I'm giving that to you. That's a gift.

125 and that's my final offer. No, no, honey, that is a gift to you. Maybe you're saying, well, I'm never trying to buy salvation.

He put a little difference in. Oh, dad, that's a great keyboard. You know what I'm going to do? I'll go out and mow the yard eight times so I own it. Well, no, no, honey, you, you already own it. Okay, I'll mow the yard nine times so I own it. No, no, honey, it's a gift that I'm giving to you.

You don't have to do anything. It's already yours. That moment I would probably be a little frustrated with my daughter because I'd be like, honey, I'm trying to give you a gift as an expression of my love for you and you're trying to buy it and you're trying to earn it and you can't buy it. You can't earn it. It has to be given to you.

Think of the frustration we cause in the heart of God when we do exactly that with the greatest gift that mankind has ever known. Oh God, I want to buy. We can't buy. I want to earn it. Can't earn it. It's a gift. I want to give it to you.

All you have to do is open it and it's yours. The grace of God. Verse 14, for sin shall not have dominion over you. Oh, wait a minute. That's a different chapter.

We'll be there in a few months. I was like, golly, where'd that go? Chapter four, verse 14. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect. So the Jewish people were made heirs through their works. Then it's not faith.

It is works. That's why we spent time with David talking about David. David was declared righteous as soon as he confessed before God with Nathan. Not after he'd make sacrifices, not after he made offerings.

Right then, right there. Of sin before the Lord. Nathan said, your sins are put away.

They're put away. Grace indeed does lead to works and we'll balance this out as we go through the bubble. But it all starts with grace.

The law points out the problem. The law points out that we need salvation. A few weeks ago, and even if you're not taking notes, I would encourage you if you're a follower of Jesus, believer in Jesus, you don't already have these verses.

I would encourage you. It's called the Roman road. I'm going to give them to you again, to jot them down somewhere in your Bible or carry them with you somewhere. Romans 3 10, 3 23, 5 8, 5 12, 6 23, Romans 10, 9 and 10. If you know nothing about the Bible, if you jot these verses down and somebody comes up and says, what's the problem? What's the solution? You can simply read them these verses and lead them to the Lord and pray that prayer with them. So I encourage everybody to have these in your Bible, have these handy. Wouldn't it be a tragedy if tomorrow somebody goes, hey, what's the spiritual problem?

What's the spiritual solution? And you had sat in here this morning. I'm not writing that down.

It's a sad day. Heirs through grace were adopted. Verse 15 says, because the law brings about wrath for where there is no law, there is no transgression.

Where there is no law, there is no transgression. A while back, I went over a missions trip, spoke at a Bible college in Germany. My graduation was really cool and ministering some other places down there and they have the autobahn over there, which there's section of it that have they have speed limits and then there are sections of it that don't.

And there's like big, wide roads, 10 lane roads that are just flat for like five miles. The guys are going, yeah, yeah, Pastor Dave. And OK, well, OK, so to be honest, you know, I was in this audio, this rental rental car. And and, you know, I got I went kind of fast and but, you know, Nora was a little freaked out. But then later on, me and a guy from the Bible college professor teacher, he was in the car beside me.

Nora was in the back so I could really couldn't see her white knuckles or her face. And so and this guy's going to this is an audience, the autobahn God is trying to bless you. So I opened it up.

I opened it up. You know, it was awesome. I mean, it was again, it was this is not 40.

The roads weren't wet. I mean, it was I understood why they have high performance vehicles at that point. It was in kilometers. So Nora wasn't really sure how fast we were going. I did the math.

I was fairly impressed. I had never been 147 miles an hour before. There was no law. Now, before you think you should go out and do this on 40, there's a law on 40. Don't you dare go out there.

And then when you get pulled by David, he said it'd be OK. Give you his number. No, there's a law out there. So was the law tell you? Well, the law says it's wrong to go over this certain speed limit.

You know, it's interesting, though. You ever notice that whatever the speed limit is, everybody goes like five or 10 miles an hour faster. If the speed limit is 65, most people are going between 70 and 75. If it's 55, most people are going between 60 and 65. We just like to push the envelope. What's how fast you're supposed to go?

Well, I want to go a little bit faster. What's the law? Well, you know, they won't pull you for less than 10 miles an hour over.

I heard. But then you know what happens. You got your little group, you're going 63 and a 55. Law comes, the state trooper. What happens? Everybody slows down.

All of a sudden, 55 seems like a good idea. It's just how to get there without hitting them brakes. There is something in us, gang, where our hearts want to wander. We want to push the edge. Where's the edge?

I want to push it a little bit further than that. You know, as I go through my life, I don't go around touching every door or every park bench. But you know what? There's something that can create in me the need to feel like I got to touch every door or every park bench. Wet paint sticking on something and you're like, yeah, doesn't look wet. Or even more of it says wet paint do not touch.

I think it's dry. Oh, man. See, when you see that wet paint sign and you want to touch it, something's wrong with you. That's the reality. You want to break the law. You want to bend the law.

You want to push it just right to the edge. And the law points us out. Life lesson here. The law was not given to save us, but that we might know we need saving. We're given the law. Can't say, well, there was no law. No, we were given the law. We know the law.

We know it. And it points out our need for grace, our need for salvation. Verse 16. Therefore, it is a faith that it might be according to grace so that the promise might be sure to all the sea, not only those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. So, again, it's faith. It's grace.

It's not works. And it's based upon God's faithfulness, upon his faithfulness. Now, friend, the roots of this are not simply New Testament. That's what Paul's pointing out.

He's going, you know what? This goes all the way back to Genesis. A lot of times we think, well, you know, everybody got saved by works. No, they didn't in the Hebrew Scriptures. Well, everybody got saved through the sacrifice. No, they didn't. How did they get saved?

Through faith, through grace, forgiveness, if you will, on credit. Thank you for listening to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. We'll return to David's teaching in just a moment. The tragedy in Benghazi, the bombings in Boston, and the current unrest in Egypt are all vivid accounts of terrorism. Each time an event like this occurs, it often causes us to respond with fear. But it doesn't have to, because God knows your future, and you can too. With David McGee's teaching entitled, Know Your Future, Be Immune to Terrorism, you'll come to understand the realities of radical Islam while rejoicing in God's promises for your future.

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To help support Cross the Bridge and receive your CD or DVD copy of Know Your Future, call 877-458-5508 or go online to CrossTheBridge.com. Friend, do you have a heart for the lost? I invite you to send us the first names of your lost loved ones, and we will have hundreds of people praying for them. Just go to CrossTheBridge.com and click on the prayer button, and you'll enter their name. And if you put your name and email address in there, I'll send you free resources to equip you to pray and teach you how to reach your lost loved ones. Please, don't wait.

This is so important. So please, again, go to CrossTheBridge.com and click on the prayer button and send us the first names of lost loved ones. We'll send you some free information, and together we can partner to deliver the good news of Jesus Christ to the whole world, the whole book for the whole world. And now let's return to Pastor David's verse-by-verse teaching in the book of Romans. Verse 17, as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations, in the presence of God whom he believed, God who gives life to the dead, and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.

It was an incredible verse, and God called those things which do not exist as though they did. There's an incredible power in our words. Words can devastate people. You know, we had that little thing when you were, you know, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. I found that wasn't true, because along the lines, just like yourself, things got said that were very painful, that hurt.

There was a power. There was sometimes a viciousness, a negative aspect to these words that people would say. Chances are every one of us has had those said to us, and we've said them to others. That's the bad part of the words. But there's another side to saying things that are encouraging. Think about it. Romans 10, 9, and 10 says that we are saved through confession, speaking.

It's important. If somebody ever can say the words to the prayer, they should say it. They should speak them out loud. I'm going to pray them in my heart. I'm going to confess them. I'm supposed to say them out loud.

So that's what we should do. Years ago, it was kind of interesting, I was traveling, I think it was in Omaha, somewhere, and got ready to close the service, and the Lord just kind of spoke in my heart to close this song. It talks about a train. It talks about, you know, riding the train, getting on the train with Jesus, you know, and sang the song, got finished, and the pastor was just weeping in tears.

I hadn't planned on doing that song, to be honest. But when I got finished, I was like, man, are you okay? He said, yeah, yeah. He goes, I'm really blessed.

I said, what's going on? He goes, well, my father passed away about six months ago, and he had a stroke, and he couldn't speak. And he said, I kept ministering to him, kept talking to him about salvation, but he couldn't speak. I told him what he should pray and what he should say. He said, but when he passed away, I was really not sure if he knew the Lord.

I said, man, that is tough. And he said, no, you don't understand. He goes, the last few weeks, I keep having these dreams of my father waving to me from a train.

And I kept having them. I kept thinking, why do I keep having these weird dreams about my dad on a train? And he goes, and this morning, when you sat there and you sang about getting on the train with Jesus and Jesus calling us on board, he said, I'll see him again.

I'll see him again. Power of words to encourage somebody. God called me as a pastor, if you will. He called me a pastor long before I was one.

God called you to him and understanding that you would respond, called you and saw you, if you will, beyond time, beyond space, as blessed. James talks about this power of words when he says, hey, you know, how can blessings and cursings flow out of the same mouth? It shouldn't be.

It shouldn't be. So these blessings of Abraham can be, and for many of us here this morning, they're on us. We're blessed. We are so blessed.

The more you travel, the more you understand that we are so blessed here. We're blessed. The question is, blessings are supposed to flow not only to you, they're supposed to flow through you. It's not just about you being a sponge and soaking up the blessings of God, but then you turn around and blessing others.

See, Abraham was blessed by God, and then what did he do? He turned around and blessed others, many, many others. So when you serve other people, you're being a blessing to them. When you encourage them with your words, you're being a blessing to them. When you pray for people, you're being a blessing to them. When you support a ministry or a church, you're being a blessing. Blessings are flowing through you. The blessings of Abraham are upon you.

It's a powerful prayer to pray for lost loved ones and just believe that God is going to save them. Certainly we can get imbalanced with that, and some people have gotten imbalanced with this verse, but you know what? I think a lot of times we're afraid to stand on the faith of God. We're afraid to believe that God might do something incredible in our lives or through us.

Part of the reason we do that is we think of our abilities. The next life lesson here is Abraham did not weigh the promises by his abilities, but by God's ability to keep them, and Abraham praised God before the evidence was there. Abraham did not weigh the promises by his abilities, but by God's ability to keep them. Abraham praised God before the evidence was there. The Lord said, you're going to have kids. Abraham said he believed God literally in the Hebrew. He said, amen, amen.

You're going to be the father of many nations, amen. He was 84. He grew to be 100 before he saw the fruition of these promises, and he still was like, amen.

He wouldn't talk about trusting in your abilities or God's ability. It would seem to be fairly remarkable at 100 years old to father children. Sarah was 90.

Do you get that picture? My grandparents didn't live that long, and if they would have come to me and said, hey, we're going to have a baby, grandma, grandpa, stop that. Quit. Now don't be, that's don't. That's not their ability, God's ability. I think a lot of times we're afraid to believe God for something incredible because we're going, oh, no, no, no.

That just couldn't be. I tell you what, I've lived such an adventure in my life of faith. Seeing God come through over and over and over and over and over again, that God has placed within me through the past, through these experiences, I'll just believe God for anything. I remember early on in ministry when we were traveling, God said, hey, you know what? I'm going to use this ministry to bring 100 people into the kingdom next year. I was like, no way, 100 people, that's a lot. I really struggled with that. As a matter of fact, we got part of the way, two-thirds of the way through the year, and we had follow-up stuff that we did, and I was like, how many 30, 40 people, something been saved?

We're just getting started. But I was still praying, Lord, I'm believing you can do this, not by my abilities but by your abilities. I know you can do this. I know you can do this.

I know you can do this. I sat and there was a youth rally. Everything that could go wrong seemed to be going wrong that evening. There was like 200 kids, and the opening band got on late, so I got on late, and by the time I was getting to the gospel, it was just a mess. There were parents that were coming in the back and trying to find their kids, Jolie, Jolie, you know, yelling in the middle of the congregation. I was like, I got to stay focused. Got to the gospel and said, hey, if you want to receive Jesus as your Savior, raise your hand. Man, hands flew up all over the room, I thought. They misunderstood the question.

So I got more detail, and if that applies to you, then come forward. All doors filled. We had 65 follow-up packs. We gave away every one of them that night. What was interesting is many of the kids came and said, you know, we've never heard this before. Broke my heart.

Interesting. Got into the next year, I was like, okay, God, how many? How many this year? I'm going to bring 1,000 people in the kingdom through your ministry this year. I said, praise God, praise God. I believed him for it. I struggled with the 100, believed him for 1,000. Why? Because he had a track record.

I knew I could trust him. Now, just to expose my humanity, I was somewhere in Arizona. People were getting saved, and I'm sorry, but I found myself going, one, two, three. I said, what are you doing? I'm counting them for you.

In case you lose track or something. The Lord said, stop that and don't do that again. I learned a lesson. I don't do that anymore because one person, man, one person, the angels in heaven are rejoicing. One person coming to him saying, Lord, forgive me. Salvation is a miracle.

It's an amazing thing. From Abraham, and the Bible talks about this from Abraham's physically as far as reproducing. His body was gone. It's dead.

He couldn't do it. It talks about Sarah's wound being barren. Dead. But from the death came life in the tomb of Jesus. Death. It's a graveyard.

It was a burial place. His own disciples, whom he had told repeatedly that he would be raised from the dead, thought it was done and over. So much so that when people came to him and said, hey, he's not there.

They were like, hey, somebody's lying. But from that place of death came life. It has to be God. It has to be God. It had to be God that Abraham and Sarah had children. It had to be God that he came out of that tomb. It had to be God that we, dead in our sins, can have life through grace. Salvation is a gift.

You don't have to buy it. It's plain through scripture. You can't earn it. It's a gift.

How do you open it? The Bible's very plain about that. You call on the name of the Lord. You confess that he died for your sins. Tell him you're sorry, simply.

Tell him you're sorry. God, I'm sorry. I've messed up. Please forgive me.

Give me the power to live for you. And the Lord doesn't say, well, OK, well, if you behave yourself for the next week or two, I'll give you this forgiveness you're asking for right now. No, in that instant, God says, done. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned, and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things.

Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name, amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If this was your first time praying that prayer with Pastor David, we would love to hear from you. You can call us toll free at 877-458-5508 to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. Also, if you've been blessed by Cross the Bridge Ministries, would you consider supporting us with a financial gift? When you call with your gift, make sure to ask them about this month's special offer entitled Know Your Future, Be Immune to Terrorism.

This insightful teaching will fill you with hope and also help you understand the truth about Islam. Donate today and we'll send you a CD or DVD copy right away as a way of saying thank you for your support. Our number is 877-458-5508. That's 877-458-5508. Or go online to crossabridge.com. While there, take a moment to sign up for David's free email devotional or browse our large library of teachings. Again, our website is crossthebridge.com. Thank you for listening, and we hope you'll join us again next time as we continue to Cross the Bridge.