 recording. All right, recording just started. Yes, I see, I see Rosin's comment of the chat, the full chapter dedicated to one person. Amazing. Yeah, it's, it's amazing. But, but, you know, what the Holy Spirit is highlighting for us Abraham's life, the life of Abraham, pointing us to him as the father of faith. So, we pick up here in verse 17, Romans 4, Romans 4, 17. God had spoken, God pronounced his promise to Abraham, just as God would speak. You know, we want to personalize this, want to see how it applies to us. This is God would speak his promise into our hearts. And when God speaks his promise into our hearts, keep these two things in mind, that we are believing the one, or he's inviting us to believe in him, the one who gives life to the debt. That means that this debt is no problem to God. Again, we are speaking metaphorically here, although even literally that there's no problem to God. But we are speaking also metaphorically in the sense that regardless of the situation or the circumstance that may look so bleak, so hopeless and helpless, it's not a problem to God. That's one thing you must keep in mind when God gives us promise. The second thing here in verse 17, it says that God calls things that do not exist as though they did. It means it's not there, but God says it's there. We haven't become, but God says I have made you. So you look at yourself and say God, I still haven't become that. But God is saying I have made you. So we may look at ourselves and we say God I'm weak. God says I have made you strong. He's calling what doesn't exist as though it did. God, I'm not a conqueror. God says I've made you more than a conqueror. He's calling things that doesn't exist as though it did. You are more than a conqueror. You know, whatever God's assignment for our lives is, you know. We see it and we say Lord, I don't think I can become that. I have not yet become that. But God says I've made you that. So as far as God is concerned, He says I've made you and you and I look at ourselves and say God, I haven't become. God says I've made you that. I've made you the father of many nations. He says God, I don't even have one child. I haven't even become a father. God says I've made you a father. So God calls things that do not exist as though they did. One of the things we can learn from Abraham's life is and we are familiar with Genesis 17 where God comes to Abraham and says, you know, says Abraham, I want you to start calling yourself what I have made you. That means from today your name is changed from Abraham to Abraham. Your wife's name is changed from Sarai to Sarah. Start calling yourself what I have made you. So I have not yet become that. God says I have made you. So what must we do? Start declaring that over our lives. That's true. You call yourself that. So Abraham changes his name to Abraham, father of many nations. Sarai means princely. Sarah means mother of many princes. So change the name. Start calling yourself what God has made you. So in the spiritual realm, it's done. God has made you. Start calling yourself that. So when God gives us a promise, remember these two things. God gives life to the dead. God calls things that do not exist as though they were. So when he calls and he speaks this promise to your life, he's calling something into existence that doesn't exist. He says, look, that's what I made you. It's not there, but it'll be there. And we join together in faith with God. So how did Abraham journey into that? I have made you a father of many nations. That was what God spoke. How did Abraham journey into becoming that verse 18? First of all, we see the Holy Spirit telling us, look, this is what Abraham did. Contrary to hope, in hope believed. So that he became the father of many nations according to what was spoken. So shall your descendants be. So first thing Abraham did. Against all hope, in hope, he believed. In other words, when there was no reason for him to have hope, he had hope and he just didn't have hope. He believed. Now, there's this, there's hope is important, but hope and believing are not the same things. Hope is having a, hope is having a desire for something, but hope is out in the future. I will become, it's there, but believing is now. Faith is now. I believe it settled in my heart. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. That means I'm hoping for something. Sorry, but my faith is the substance of that. So my faith, substance means, you know, okay, this book, this book is a substance. Yeah, it's a physical thing. I can, it's substance. So faith is the reality, the substance of what I'm hoping for. Hope is out in the future. It's not, I can't see it, but my faith is a substance of it. My faith is saying, look, I got it. It's yeah, where? In my heart. So my faith is a reality. It's a substance of what I hope for. So against all hope, when there was no reason that Abraham could have such hope, he believed. Now, the word faith and believe come from the same root word. So it's, we could use it interchangeably. Abraham believed, Abraham had faith. So that's the first thing. And God speaks a word in our lives. Even if there is no reason to have hope, we must believe against all hope he believed. And that's how he became the father of many nations. So first step in the steps of Abraham's faith. And there's no reason to have hope. You still have, you still believe because God has spoken. Second thing we see here, verse 19, it says, and being not, not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead since he was about a hundred years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb. So second thing is this, he did not let his faith be weakened by considering the natural. So the natural was there. You can't deny it. His body was a hundred years old. Sarah, her body also was, you know, old and she was better. That's natural because of facts. Yet it says here that he didn't let his faith weaken by focusing on the natural, by considering. He did not consider. He did not take into account. He didn't focus on this. So it teaches us a secret here. If we focus on the natural, our faith tends to get weakened. But we can prevent our faith from being weakened by not focusing on the natural, but focus on the promise of God. And this is what God did, you know, in Genesis 15, when Abraham was having one of his low times, we mentioned, you know, Abraham was talking to God, Genesis 15, I said, God, you know, you said somebody born in my house. So I've not had a son yet. So, you know, is it okay? Somebody else is born in my family. That's the person you're going to work through. You know, so he's having one of those low points. And so what's happening there? He's considering the natural. You know, he must be thinking, God, I'm old right now. You know, you gave him the promise to me when I was 75. That's pretty old. I'm 19 now, already even older. And you know, you must have been considering all the circumstances. So he's really down in his faith. What does God do? Because Abraham come outside your tent, come out. He comes out. And it's, this is, this is at night. So God says, Abraham look up in the sky. And Abraham looks up and he sees all the stars. And God says, can he count the stars? No. That's, and God says, that's how many your descendants are going to be. So what God did in that whole process or the conversation is, he helped Abraham take his eyes off the natural and helped him put his eyes on the promise of God. And that's what verse 19 is, is, you know, it's telling us he didn't let his faith weaken by considering, you know, what was there in the natural. So that's a lesson for us. If you feel like your faith is being weakened, check out what you're considering. You're, you're focusing, is it focusing on the natural or is it focusing on the promise? And very likely the reason we have been weakened in our faith is because we've been just focusing on the natural. I'm not saying don't recognize the natural. Yeah, you know, Abraham, sure he knew that he was old, Sarah was old. And that's a fact. You're not denying it. But we have the promise of God. So then verse 20, he did not wave at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. So he did not let unbelief come in. And so we always have a choice. I have the promise of God and I have the option to not believe that's unbelief. So it says he didn't wave at the promise of God. So what is focused on the promise of God and say no to unbelief. So that's what we must do. And he was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. So he was giving praise to God, glory, praise in this context. He was giving praise to God, praising God, and that helped strengthen his faith. And so we praise him. Thank him. So the scriptures don't record this for us, but I can just imagine based on this part of verse 20. Abraham also said, Father, I praise you that you have made me a father of many nations. Father, I thank you that the seed you promised is mine, that the seed you promised, Sarah and me, is ours. That you are faithful to keep your promise. Thank you, God. I praise you in advance for the son that will be born to us in this household. And thank you in advance, Lord, that I will have descendants as numerous as the stars and the sky and sand and the sea shore. So I can just imagine, because the Bible is saying he was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. What is giving glory to God, giving praise to God, glorifying God. So as he's glorifying God, he's being strengthened in faith. So I can just imagine how he would have done it. He may not have used the same words, but essentially he was glorifying God. This was all done before the promise actually happened. So this is his steps of faith. This is his journey of faith. He was strengthened in his faith, giving glory to God, and then verse 21, and being fully convinced that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. So he came to this place of fully convinced faith. We call it mature faith, perfect faith, fully convinced, meaning nothing's going to shake me now. I'm in this place where I'm 100% convinced Abraham came to that place of being fully convinced of the promise of God, that what God had promised, he'll perform. So nothing's going to shake me. So just to recap those steps of Abraham's faith, when God spoke to him in the presence of God, Abraham believed, he recognized God gives life to the dead, and God calls what does not exist as though they existed. Against all hope, he believed. Then he didn't let his faith weaken by looking at the natural, or we could put it like this. He let his faith being strengthened by looking at the promise. Then verse 20, he did not let unbelief cause them to waver on the promise. So unbelief would have come knocking many times. I want to come in. I want to come in. Sorry, I'm focusing on the promise. I'm not wavering on the promise. Then he was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. So he glorified God, he praised God, which enabled him to become strong in faith. And he came to this place where he was fully convinced of what God had promised, he'll perform. So these verses here till verse 21, it's a beautiful verse 17, 21. It's a beautiful summary of how Abraham journeyed in faith. One of the key things he did, and the Holy Spirit is summarizing this for us. So it is something that you and I can follow, that you and I can go back to and remind ourselves, this is how I am to walk in faith. This is how I'm going to come to this place of mature, perfect faith. And then it says, verse 23 on verse 23 to 25. Now it was not written just for his sake, but for us also. So all of this, the story of Abraham, it's not just for him, it's for us also. Because even God is giving us righteousness through faith. And then it points us to Jesus. It is Jesus who's been raised up. And verse 25 is very interesting. He was delivered up because of our offenses. That means he was crucified for our sins. You know, so because of our wrongdoing, he was crucified and was raised because of our justification. That means when God said, I'm declaring people justified, everyone believes in Jesus, I'm declaring them justified. He was raised up. Okay, notice that he was raised because of our justification. Or he was raised because we had been justified. That means the resurrection of Jesus is, I'm going to use the right word here, is a pronouncement of our justification. He was raised because of our justification. Or the resurrection of Jesus is attesting to the fact that we have been justified. That means with the resurrection of Christ, the case is closed. We have been acquitted. We have been declared not guilty. So you can imagine, you know, in a court, there's a criminal there. He's the one who's done all the wrong. There are charges brought against him. And then this the court, you know, whatever the sentence is, okay, you have to maybe let's example, you can just use money as an example. The judge as well, you have to pay 50,000 because of whatever the wrong you've done. Somebody walks in with a receipt that says 50,000 paid for this person. The judge has no option but to say you are now free. Case is closed. Because the charges were against you against the criminal. He had to pay 50,000. But 50,000 is paid. So the only thing the judge can do is ban his case dismissed. Person is free. So that's what he's saying here, was 25. He was raised up when that was done. So when we were pronounced free, Christ's Resurrections took place. Or we could say Christ's Resurrection is the announcement of our justification. It was raised because of our justification. Or when we were justified, it was all done. So that means the resurrection is an announcement of our justification. No more, you know, having to worry about charges being leveled against us, because Christ has been raised from the dead. Okay. So having spoken about faith, Abraham's faith, he's now changing his attention to Jesus. And he's changing the focus to what Christ did in order to justify us. And then from chapter five onwards, the focus is on Christ, what he did, the grace of God, and righteousness by faith. So he's putting all this together in the person of Christ. Faith, righteousness, grace in the light of what Jesus Christ has done for us. That's in chapter five. Okay. So we'll get started with chapter five. I'm sure we are not going to be able to finish it today, but we will just get started with chapter five. Let's read. Okay, let me pause here. Any questions so far on Romans four before we get started with chapter five? Any questions? Any thoughts? So you've understood, you know, what Paul has been teaching here about faith and righteousness and pointing to Abraham as our example of faith. Any questions? Okay. So he's now focused, changed the focus to Christ. Okay. Start of the Abraham, righteousness by faith, Abraham's walk of faith. Now he's said, okay, we receive righteousness by faith, but that righteousness by faith or justification by faith is possible because Christ was delivered for our offenses and raised up for our justification. So righteousness by faith is possible because of Jesus. Now that's focused. Now he's going focusing on Jesus, righteousness, faith, grace. Okay. That's the focus. Let's go to chapter five. Let's read verses one through five. Please, somebody could read that for us. Romans chapter five verses one through five. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through all our Jesus Christ through whom we have gained access by faith into this place in which we now stand. And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God, not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character of hope. And hope does not disappoint us because God has brought out his love into us by holy spirit whom he has given us. Thank you. Thank you. So we've been justified by faith verse chapter five verse one. So this is the main conclusion. We have been justified by faith justified by faith. That's what he's been showing. You know, just remember the word justification and righteousness. They come from the same word, same Greek word. So they mean the same thing to be justified means to be made righteous. They mean the same thing. It means you're faultless. You have been made just as if you never sinned. So he says we have been justified by faith. So what does it mean to be justified by faith or what are the outcomes of being justified by faith? He says there in verse one of chapter five. So we've been justified by faith. So what do we have now? We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have peace with God. We are at one with God, atonement at one. We have peace with God. That means I'm not in a, you know, in a, in a fighting mode with God. No, you and I are at peace with God. We have friends with God. We have a good relationship with God because we've been justified by faith. Now, I know sometimes we use the phrase, you know, I'm wrestling with God and we use it to talk about prayer. But I think, you know, we're using it to say that, look, I'm really engaging with God intensely. But even when we are quote unquote wrestling with God, remember, you actually have peace with God. You know, you're not wrestling with God because you're fighting with him. No, that phrase wrestling with God, you know, in prayer, people use that. You're engaging with God intensely, but on the basis of this peace you have with God, this close friendship that you have with God. Okay. So never think in your mind that God is against you. God is, you know, upset with you, angry with you. No, no, no, no. The Bible says we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Worse too, through whom also that is through Jesus. We have access. That means we have come into this place by faith into this grace in which we stand. So second thing, we have come into a place of grace in which we stand. That means that's where we are right now. To be justified by faith means we have peace with God. We have a good relationship with God. Second, it means we're in a place of grace before God. What does it mean a place of grace? It means we're in a place where God favors us. He favors us. And this has happened by faith, by faith. We've come into this place of grace. I remember to be justified, to be made righteous simply means God has given to us what he has. This is something we have. It's really heavy. It's really understanding. God has given to you what he has. His righteousness has been put on you. To make it very plain, you are as righteous as God himself, not because of your own doing, but because he gave his righteousness to you. And that's the only way you and I could be in his presence. So when you see yourself, you see yourself as somebody who, you know, God is delighted that you're in his presence because he gave you his righteousness and he's not going to reject that. So he's just so happy that you're around him. And he qualified you and me to be around him. Outside of that, we have no way to get into the presence of God. So imagine yourself. You are in the presence of God. You're in God's company. And you could be completely relaxed. Why? Because he made you fit to be in his presence by giving you his righteousness. So therefore you have peace with God and you're in a place where God highly favors you. You're in this place of grace and we access to that or we came into that by faith. So we have peace with God. We are in place of grace where we are highly feared of God. God is looking to say, Hey, I'm just so glad you're with me today. You're with me. And he's looking at you with favor, with grace. And therefore Paul continues in verse two, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. So we have peace with God. We are in a place of grace and we're in a place of rejoicing. So what do you mean? We are rejoicing because we are hoping that when you're looking forward to the glory of God, the good things that God has planned for us, which he's going to release upon us, the glory that he has kept for us, of course there are things that we already enjoy. We're already in, we have peace with God. We already are in a place of grace, but there is more that God has kept for us. And so we are rejoicing in hope of that as well. So we have plenty to rejoice right now for what we already have. We have peace with God. We have the grace of God, but we're also rejoicing for what is coming up in hope of the glory of God. And because of that, he says verse three, and we can glory in tribulations. I mean, you know, when we go through hard times, we can still glory. We can still be happy. We glory in tribulation. We glory in tribulation. So when things are tough, things are difficult, we, you know, we are, you know, we are not down, depressed, dejected. No, we glory in tribulations because we understand this. What do we understand? Knowing. So knowing is a very important thing. That means we need to know this. Knowing verse three, that tribulation develops endurance and endurance verse four develops character and character increases hope. So think about this. You're going through hard times and you can glory in those difficult difficulties because you and I understand going through those difficulties is developing endurance, our ability to stay the course. And as we stay the course, our character is being developed. Who we are as people is becoming better. And then characters develop, we become people of hope. That means we can look at the positive side of things, even though we're going through difficult tribulations. So hope really, the ability to look at the positive side of things, hope is an expression of you being a person of strong character. That means you are a person who has been tried, approved. So even in difficult situations, you can still have hope. So we go through that sequence again. We glory in tribulations because tribulation develops endurance. As we continue with endurance, it develops our character. And through that, as we become stronger in our character, we become stronger we increase in hope, even in difficult situations. It says hope and we know that this hope that we have will not be disappointed. That means we will not be disappointed. This hope will become substance. Verse five, and he says, because right now the love of God is poured into our hearts. We are experiencing the love of God. So it's two ways. The context is, in tribulation, I am ultimately a person full of hope because God's love is in my heart. I experienced the love of God. Keep this thought about the love of God in your mind because later on, he's going to come back to it in Romans 8 and says, who can separate us from the love of God? Same context. Can nakedness or sore or famine or distress or persecution, what can separate us from the love of God? But he has already told us, hey, the love of God is poured into our hearts. And we are people who have an experiential, you know, we have an experience of the love of God. We have received God's love in our hearts. We know we are loved by God. The love of God is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit was been given to us. So by the Holy Spirit, we know the love of God. We experience the love of God. And because of that love, we know Romans 8, we are more than conquerors through anything we go through. God will bring us out victorious because nothing can separate us from the love of God, love that God has for us in Christ. That love, which tells us nothing can separate us from God. That love is poured into our hearts and also means Romans 5-5, that we are not able to love others with that same love. Because if the love is poured into my heart, not only do I experience that love, but I'm able to turn around and say, hey, if God so loved me, I could love somebody else. To the measure that I experience the love of God, to that measure I can extend the love of God. So if I have, I'm really, wow, my God loves me so much. What will I do? I will extend that same love to somebody else. Say, I love you. If God could love me so much, in spite of my faults and my weaknesses, I will love you. So we are able to, that same love that's poured into our hearts, which we experience personally, which makes us more than conquerors in difficult situations, which gives us the conviction that nothing can separate us from God's love, that same love we extend to other people. And hopefully they will also feel the same thing, that they are more than conquerors because of the support of our love, that they are, that nothing will separate them from the support of love that we extend to them, and they will also feel the same thing. But all of this has been possible by being justified by faith. So verses one to five, just to recap, they've been justified by faith. So we are peace with God, we are in a place of grace, and we are full of joy, because of all the good, the hope we have. How do we come to that place of hope? He says, well, you see, we can rejoice in tribulation, difficulties, because we know that, we know this, the difficulties is only making, giving us the ability to endure, and endurance develops a character, and character makes us full of hope. And this hope will never be disappointed, because right now, we know the love of God, we know the love of God. And love of God has made us such people of hope. Okay? Any questions? Everyone's clear? Okay. So Romans chapter five till verse five. Okay. So maybe I think we will stop here. It was fine. And then we will get it to the next part. So having spoken to us about what being justified by faith has done for us or makes possible for us, he now goes into talking about Christ, the fact that he died for us, to make us justified. And then he contrasts Christ and Adam. And it's very interesting, because he says, actually, the logic is very simple. Adam sinned. And because of that, all this happened to us. Christ came, he died and rose again. And because of him, all this came to us. So, you know, so in this chapter in Romans five, the remaining part of this chapter, he says, look, through Adam, all this has come upon us. But through Christ, all this has come upon us. And he says, this is who we are, whether it is what we have received through Christ, that's what we have. That's what we should live by. Okay. Adam brought all this upon us. But Christ came. He literally reversed everything that came upon us through Adam. That's what he brings out in the rest of Romans chapter five. We will pause here. We'll pray and close. We'll pick up from verse six, or next class. I've given you the full notes for Romans five as well. So if you want to read it, you know, just have a look ahead. That's fine. And we'll continue this next class. Okay. Let's wrap up in prayer. Just in any one of us could just pray and we'll wrap things up. We want to pray. Thomas, do you want to pray? We'll pray first. Okay, go ahead. Father and Jesus, we thank you, Daddy. We praise you. We bless your holy name. Thank you for the revelations from the book of Romans, Father. Thank you for justified by through faith. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Dad. By faith we are creditors. We are righteous. Thank you, Dad, for paid the price on the cross of Canvary through your Son, Jesus Christ. As we understanding this, Father, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Father, we thank you for your mercy and grace. We love you. We praise you, Father. Let the teachings, our bids, and us. Let we pass on to the next generation and the people who are listening to us, Daddy. We thank you for this wonderful time. We love you. We praise you. We give you glory and honor in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for being part of the class. We'll have a quick break and we will head to the next class. Thank you, everyone. God bless. See you again.