Faith Like Abraham
Romans Series
CCCAG June 29th, 2020
Scripture- Romans 4 (Chris Reading)
Today we're going to be looking at Romans chapter 4 as part of our series on the book of Romans. These chapters we are in really nail down the idea of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, and as Paul is using a legal argument, it is building on itself using multiple examples.
In Romans chapter 4, the focus and example used is a man that we talked about in 2016 when we went through our heroes of the Old Testament series. His name is Abraham.
In it we discussed what made Abraham so special that God would use him to be the spiritual father of roughly ½ to 2/3 of the people on earth today.
Three of the world's largest religions look back to this man and call him the father that launched their religion or faith system.
Islam looks back to Abraham but counts Ishmael, his first-born son through his wife's slave Hagar, as their link back to him.
Judaism counts their link back to Abraham through Isaac being the son of the promise that God had given to Abram and Sarai before they decided to take matters into their own hands and did the Hagar thing.
Christianity of course is the natural progression of Judaism and that we believe that the Messiah has already come in the person of Jesus the Christ . Therefore, we also trace Abraham back through Isaac.
Just for clarity, in this message I may refer to Abraham as Abram, and Sarah as Sarai. The reason for that is that Abram and Sarai were their names before God’s promise was fully manifested in their lives in Genesis 17, and is significant so please don’t be confused as we look at this couple.
So who was this man? What made him so special that so many people today follow his example of what it means to be a person who God is pleased with?
Most importantly for us- why did Paul use one of the oldest examples in the Old Testament to demonstrate the New Testament’s Gospel’s message to this new group of believers, and to us today?
That’s some of what we will be looking at this morning, and how this man who lived 4000 years ago is still one of the most influential men who has ever lived.
Before we do that, we are going to have (Chris) read our section of scripture this morning-
Rom 4
What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about — but not before God. 3 What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."
4 Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 5 However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7 "Blessed are they
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the man
whose sin the Lord will never count against him."
9 Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness. 10 Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! 11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 12 And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
13 It was not through 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. 14 For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, 15 because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.
16 Therefore, 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 but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: "I have made you a 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 things that are not as though they were.
18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be." 19 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. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness." 23 The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness — for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
NIV
Prayer
I. Why Paul uses Abraham from the Old Testament to Demonstrate truth in the New Testament
Who was Abraham and why he is so important?
Abraham was born Abram in 1996 BC in a place called Ur of the Chaldeans.
Does anybody know where Ur of the Chaldeans would be located today?
Southern east Iraq, near Nasiriyah. Ironically, very near to where the garden of Eden was thought to have existed.
In 2000 BC, It is very unlikely that anyone in that region knew the God of the Bible as God had not revealed himself to humanity past that of being the creator.
Apparently, and I say apparently because the bible implies this but does not specifically say this- God supernaturally reveals himself to Abram’s father Terah. Terah is so moved by the experience that he packs up the whole family and follows God's command to travel 700 miles to Canaan.
However, upon reaching another one of his sons, Haran, Terah stops the journey and settles there.
We don’t know why. Maybe it was grandchildren, or he was getting near death and couldn’t complete the trip. Perhaps God was using Terah to get Abram closer to Caanan.
God then reveals Himself to Abram, and Abram continues the journey into what will eventually be Israel- the promised land.
The entirety of Abraham’s life is found in Genesis 12 to Genesis 25
Abram’s wife Sarai is childless. Why does that matter?
The American dream is a successful marriage, your own home, 2 ½ kids, and a great retirement.
In ancient Israel- giant families were their dream.
In that day, if you did not have children it was a huge. You were considered accursed if you had no children.
Now if you are God, would you choose a couple that everyone considers to be accursed to launch salvation history?
God’s ways are different
Abram is now about 80 years old, and Sarai is 70 when God makes this promise.
Abram and Sarai are subject to the same limitation we are today. Without huge medical interventions, woman don’t have children when they are 70.
Now, one of the most important verses of the bible when it comes to understanding what God wants from each one of us is found in Genesis 15
This is physically, logically, and medically impossible for them to have a child at this point.
Yet the bible says
Gen 15:6
Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. NIV
Why is this so important? Why is belief and faith so important to God?
Most of you know I just finished college Chemistry. I say chemistry, you think beakers and bubbles, Bunsen burners and periodic tables.
Do you really want to know what Chemistry is, particularly in the later part of the semester.
This horrid word called stoichiometry. A chemical math problem that would ask you to take 4 moles of sodium and combine it with 2.1 grams of chloride and calculate the number of grams of sodium chloride, the left over reactants, and the energy released by the reaction.
Math problems that can take multiple pages to figure out.
Does anyone remember doing math in school, and canceling similar things on either side of an equation to make it easier to solve?
Example- negative 10 on one side of the equation, and a positive 10 on the other cancel out.
On the spiritual level, This is exactly what Abram did here-
Remember, this whole fallen humanity thing started with Adam and Eve doubting God’s word to them, and casting all of creation into sin’s curse.
That was the negative 10 on the right side of the equation
Abram believed God’s word, and started humanity on a course that would culminate at the cross of Jesus the Christ.
That was the positive 10 on the other side of the equation- sins curse was was on it’s way to being canceled.
In fact, God is so impressed with Abram, He decides to show off a little.
How did God do that?
Well, it would have been something for an 80-year-old man and a 70 year old woman to have a child.
But, God waits about 20 more years before he brings this promise to fruition- Abram’s 99, and Sarai is 89.
Generally speaking, I think we can all agree that men who are 99 years old, and women who are 89 years old, are not building nursery’s. I don’t want to be too graphic, but in general their bodies have gotten to the point that even doing the act to produce a child is difficult at best. That, and Sarai has now old enough that she has more years of being in menopause than she had being fertile.
But then God.
He visits them, tells them to build a nursery, because the baby is coming.
And God changes their names- from Abram meaning exalted father to Abraham- father of multitudes, and Saria meaning princesses to Sarah, meaning she is who blessed.
Paul uses Abraham to show us the power of faith.
One of the things so appreciate about God’s word is that it doesn’t whitewash over the mistakes of the people God uses.
God also uses Abraham to show the opposite of faith-
The next point-
II. Your own effort to bring about God’s will is useless and usually destructive
20 years.
That's about how long it was from God's promise to God bringing that promise to pass.
20 years. 20 years.
Now Abraham is 99 and Sarah is 89 and God says build the nursery.
That's why I said God was showing off a little.
No they didn't come through these 20 years unscathed.
They made a pretty big mistake in trying to help God out in fulfilling his promises.
That mistake was named Ishmael.
About 10 years into the promise, Sarah is getting a little impatient.
Can you blame her? We often look at biblical figures and say well they were being dumb but come on she's not getting any younger.
She’s now 79 years old. That’s not a 2020 79 years old where medical science can keep you up and mobile longer, this is Canaan 2000 years before Jesus is born. She has already lived well beyond her life expectancy much less her childbearing years.
I’ll pause for a moment to give a little perspective about what happens next.
What Abraham and Sarah did was completely acceptable in her culture.
If we look at it from a lens of 2020, we think that they are just a bunch of primitive Barbarians but this was the normal practice then.
Sarah has a servant woman named Hagar. In ancient biblical times, servants were about ½ slave and ½ paid servant and generally considered members of the family.
She gives her servant to her husband as a concubine so that Abraham can have a son through Hagar, and Sarah will call it her own.
Again, in their time, this was a completely acceptable practice. Remember, the bible is part history book and records events without necessarily approving of the events it records.
So don’t go out there and try to create a sister wife situation and point to this as your biblical justification because you need to keep reading- this did not end well.
A son is born and his name is Ishmael. This starts some drama within the household. Now that Hagar has produced a son for Abraham she is actually correct within their culture in asserting a certain dominance over Sarah.
Well Sarah’s not having any of that, so she starts treating Hagar very poorly and Hagar grabs Ismael and runs away.
God finds Hagar tells her to return and assures her that Ishmael will also live under God’s promise to Abraham and be the progenitor of a great many people.
This was largely the birth of the Arab people, and most of them are Muslim- who trace their ancestry through Ishmael.
Let’s bring this back to Roman’s. Paul is using Abrahams life to show the futility of works verses faith.
We define faith as simply believing that God’s word is true.
Works is us trying to assume God’s role in bringing about God’s blessing and promises. It never ends well.
Why does that matter here?
God’s promise came through Isaac and was the reward of faith. The entire world was blessed through him in that eventually through Isaac’s family came Jesus the savior.
Consider Ismael’s family- How many people have died (millions upon millions) because of wars started by Islam, the eventual product of a desperate couple trying to help God.
That’s the danger of works and trying to bring about God’s will in your way.
Paul shows us the better way-
III. Justification through Faith
Wholly and completely dependent upon God for your salvation.
When it comes to faith, we often look at Hebrews 11
Heb 11:1-2 (Living Bible)
What is faith? It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead.
That’s not a bad definition, but there is an easier one-
Faith is believing God’s word, and that God’s word means what it says- both logos word (bible) and Rhema word (spoken). Rhema is a bit more tricky but for now we will just use that
There is a subtle difference between the description of faith given in Hebrews and what it means throughout the rest of the bible.
The dangerous modern way many interpret this as –
People use the Hebrews definition to say that God will give them what they want if they can exercise enough faith.
That’s a dangerous position because it puts God under the control of your will. It reduces the God of creation to a genie in the bottle that if you rub the bottle the right way, that somehow he HAS to bend to your will and give you what you want.
That belief strips God Almighty of His sovereignty and says My will be done, not thy will be done.
Many people, pastors, and churches, and some within our own fellowship, practice this error and deception.
I don’t want to be one of them.
My way of seeing God is this-
My thought about this-
If God never does anything for me ever again other than grant me salvation through Jesus Christ, He has already blessed me beyond measure and is worthy of my worship and my obedience in this life.
Paul shows us how to avoid this error using the example of circumcision.
Circumcision was an act of obedience that permanently identified a man as a follower of God.
As Christians we are not obligated to do that, but we are to baptize a person when they come into saving faith in Jesus and experience God’s wonderful justification.
Key word for you to know- justification means that justice has been done. Your sin has been punished and received its due reward- death. The difference between everyone else and the Christian is our punishment was taken by Jesus and he suffered and died in our place.
That’s why when we see that word justify in the bible, we can think of it as meaning “Just if I had never sinned”
How does obedience factor in?
Obedience is the natural reaction to the love shown to you.
A quick example before we close.
I’m the kind of person that always has 3 or 4 thought tracks running at the same time. It creates a nervous energy that usually manifests as me doing an unconscious moving of something that causes noise.
An example- our TV remote has a loose battery cover that I’ll click back and forth. Or my keyring as a carabiner that I click open and close. Flicking my knife open and closed.
It drives Tammie crazy. Because I love Tammie, I try not to do it, and will stop it if she points it out that I’m doing it.
Sin drives God crazy. We call that God’s wrath.
If we say we love God, and yet willfully continue to do that which drives Him to wrath, do we really love Him? If you have problems with obedience, I would ask you- have you really received a new nature through being born again through belief in Jesus Christ.
A second application this morning about obedience-
Obedience opens and enables God’s blessing.
An example
Do you hand the car keys to a 6-year-old and tell them to drive themselves to school?
Why not?
Not old enough, mature enough, or trained enough to handle that amount of responsibility and blessing.
What about a 17-year-old? Probably
In the same way, obedience opens God’s blessing to you.
You’ve shown you can handle it
You’ve shown you can be responsible with it
And it shows you will use it according to the rules that surround its use.
Now to be careful, this isn’t works based salvation- that’s free.
Often God blesses us despite our lack of obedience as an act of fatherly divine love.
How much more could he release the coffers of heaven if we simply believed His Word is true and we obeyed it?
Prayer
Altar Call
