All right, this is what it says. So I'm going to start with Romans 4, verse 16 to 25, and we're going to really focus in on 23 to 25. This is what it says. As it is written, a father of many nations have I made you in the presence of him who he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. In hope against hope, he believed so as to, he might become the father of many nations, according to that which has been spoken, so shall your descendants be. Without becoming weak in faith, he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead, since he was about 100 years old, and also the deadness of Sarah's womb. Yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, he was able also to perform. Therefore, it was also credited to him as righteousness. Now, not only for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited as those who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He who was delivered over because of our transgressions and was raised because of our justification. Now last week I had mentioned that the country of Israel is often in the news with stories of conflict between Jews and Muslims, but recently a conflict arose between Jews and Christians. An organization at the center of this controversy is a broadcasting company known as God TV, and they air programs in a number of countries around the world. Well, several months ago, the owners of the TV station signed a seven-year contract with an Israeli cable channel, which allows them to broadcast to Israelis in the Hebrew language. Now, when this news got out, it caused a great uproar. It's one thing to try to reach Christians with a gospel message, but it's something quite different when you start targeting Jews as your audience. In an opinion piece done for Al Jaminer website, Israeli columnist Fred McNachem wrote this, while there's no reason a Christian TV station can't come into Israel broadcast if they are solely focused on Christians in Israel, they have no right to come into the Jewish country and try to convert us. As Jews, we don't attempt to convert Christians or anyone else for that matter, and they should have the same respect for us. We've had enough persecution in our history, enough forced conversions. God TV should have no place in Israel. Now, surprising, at least to me, one evangelical leader agreed. Lori Cardoza Moore is the founder of a pro-Israel group called Proclaiming Justice to the Nations. She's called on the Israeli government to ban God TV from broadcasting programs aimed at converting Jews. She wrote this, God TV should be encouraging Christians to repent of the history of Christian arrogance and ignorance that has incited some of the worst anti-Semitic incidents in history, including the Pogroms, the Inquisition, and more recently, the Holocaust. Instead, they should ask their Jewish brethren to teach them the Torah as stated in the prophets. She then went on to say this. In recent decades, millions of Christians have felt the call to stand with the state of Israel and the Jewish people with no hidden agenda. Our only mandate to the Jewish people is to love and support them because they're God's chosen people. Any attempt to convert Jews or downgrade their religion will not only so undo hatred, or will so undo hatred at a time when we should unite in the face of darkness. Now, that an Israeli Jew would want to keep the gospel away from his fellow countrymen is understandable, but that an American evangelical would agree is shocking. The word evangelical comes from the word evangel, which means good news. Evangelicals are those who believe that the gospel is to be preached to all people, Jews and Gentiles both. But what I was intrigued by was Cardozo Morris' statement that instead of giving the Israelis the gospel, Christians should, quote, ask their Jewish brethren to teach them the Torah as stated by the prophets. Her statement assumes that it's the Jewish rabbis rather than the Christian scholars who are the correct interpreters of the Old Testament. And of course, if they are, then Christians are the ones who need to repent and turn away from Christ rather than Jews needing to repent and turn to Christ. Well, who's correct? Who's correct about the understanding of the Torah, that is what we call the Old Testament, as to how a person is saved? Is it the rabbis who maintain that it's by keeping the law of Moses so as to establish our own righteousness? Or is it Paul when he claims that we can only be righteous by faith by receiving Christ's righteousness as a gift? Well, from the example of Abraham, Paul showed that the doctrine of justification by faith is not a Christian invention. Rather, it's the way that God has always saved people. That's what we saw in chapter four, one to 17. And in verses 18 to 22, Paul examines the nature of Abraham's faith. I mean, if we're saved by faith, we better make sure the faith that we have is a genuine saving one. Here in this last section, in verses 23 to 25, Paul shows how the Christian faith connects to and compares with the faith of Abraham. Well, and so today we want to consider again the nature and the focus of the Christian faith as we look at this portion of God's word. So why don't we pray and then get into the text. Father God, I do pray for grace and mercy. Help us to understand what this says and then apply it to our hearts because there's going to be nothing more important on the day of judgment than that we understood and embraced the truth that we have here. So bless us now we ask in Jesus name. Amen. Well, today I have two points for my sermon that I've kind of taken from the title. And the first point, you can just simply label it Abraham's faith, Abraham's faith. And here we're just going to do a short review of what we learned last week about the faith of Abraham. And then for the second point, I want you to go on to look at the Christian's faith. And this is as described by Paul in verses 23 to 25. So the first point is Abraham's faith or the faith of Abraham. You know, I have to say, I don't have this problem here because if you look out my lawn there, there's just like a few scraggly things coming up. But if you have a lawn that's really well watered and well fertilized, that's what it feels like when you're going through the book of Romans to me, trying to mow that. I mean, it's so deep and it's so thick here that sometimes you have to go over verses several times before you can get a clean cut, clear understanding of what Paul is saying. Peter was right when he said of Paul that his letters contain some things that are hard to understand. Now, my daughter, when she was living in one of the cities where she was at, her and her husband were looking for a church. And so they wanted to find one where they do expository preaching. That's preaching verse by verse through entire books of the Bible. And they looked around and read in the paper and the ads and stuff. And finally they found one that said that they did expository preaching. And they were thrilled when they got there to find out they were going through the book of Romans. But they were not thrilled when they found out that they were going to do it in 16 weeks. One chapter per week. Well, to go through Romans one chapter per week is like going over a lake on a fan boat. You're just skimming the surface. There's no way you can dive down deep to bring up the treasures that are buried there. Now, the reason I want to run the mower over the nature and focus of Abraham's faith again is because Paul is not pulling out Abraham as some curious historical artifact for us to look at. Rather, what he's arguing is that Abraham's faith is the prototype, the model, the example of all-saving faith for the people of God. In other words, there's something in the nature of his faith that has to be in all faith. Otherwise, it's not a faith that saves. And so as we're looking at this, especially this first section, I want you to ask yourself, is the faith that I have a genuine saving faith like Abraham had? Or is it something less, less genuine and less saving? And I have to tell you this, 2.3 billion people in the world claim to be followers of Christ. What percentage of those do you think are genuine believers? And what percentage of them have deceived themselves into thinking they're Christians? Jesus said, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demon, and in your name perform many mighty miracles? You can even perform miracles. And Jesus said, then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice wickedness. There's gonna be a lot of professed Christians on judgment day who are gonna be shocked to find out their faith wasn't genuine saving faith. Well, I don't wanna spend all of our time with Abraham's faith, so we're gonna give this to you in kind of bullet point and summaries of what we learned last week about the nature and focus of Abraham's faith. So I'm just gonna give them to you, one, two, three, four, five, six, and here's the first one. Abraham's faith, genuine faith, comes as a response to God's call. It always comes as a response to God's call. Do you remember where that call came to him in Genesis 15, it's recorded, when God said, Go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to a land which I will show you, and I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and so you shall be a blessing. Faith is always a response, a trusting response to God's call. Hebrews 11.8 says this, By faith Abraham, who was called, obeyed by going out to a place that he was to receive for an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. Now, the call to us doesn't come from an audible voice like it did to Abraham. The call to you today comes from the preaching and teaching of God's word as you listen and you respond. But it always starts first, that act of faith from a prior call on the part of God. The second thing that's true of genuine faith is that it's focused on God's promises. It's focused on God's promises. For Abraham, the promise was that God would give him a son, and that through that son, he would have many descendants, and that Abraham and those descendants would be the heir of the world, the heirs of the world, as it says in verse 13. Now, Peter, in his first chapter of his second letter, tells us how God has, in his divine powerlessness, has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these, he has given us his very great and precious promises. Why? So that through them, you maybe participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption of the world caused by evil desires. It's in knowing and holding onto the promises of God that we keep from selling out to the world. We believe that God has something better to offer us than the bottles and the trinkets this present age affords. Well, here's the third thing that's true of genuine faith. Genuine faith keeps hoping even when everything looks hopeless. even when everything looks hopeless. That's what Paul means when he says in verse 18, in hope against hope, he, meaning Abraham, believes so that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall your descendants be. You know, the sign for our church, as you go down the highway, it says living hope, and underneath it says, in Christ, you're never beyond hope. Years ago, when Jesse Jackson was running for president, that was the theme of his campaign. Keep hope alive, keep hope alive. I don't know what he meant by that, but I know what I mean by that. Years ago, we had a foreign exchange student that came from East Germany, which was a communist country. This was shortly after communism had fallen in that nation. And she came, I remember when she first sang, well, she could sing, so we asked her to sing a song and she sang a song in German. Beautiful song, we all loved it. Found out later on it was about some doodle bug or something weird like that. And I remember thinking and praying at the time, I hope that by the time she leaves, she wants to sing a song about Jesus. And by the grace of God, God saved her before she went back. Well, she went back to Germany. She came back about two years later. I wanted to eat with her. And when I was talking to her, she was telling me about how hard it was in Germany to be a Christian. She said, I don't know a single other Christian, and there's no church to go to. And I asked her, I said, are you tempted to give up your faith? I hold my head and she said, what? I said, are you tempted to give up your faith? And she said, no, I want to go to heaven. What sustained her faith? It was her hope. Well, it focuses on the promises of God and it keeps looking to God even when the situation looks hopeless. Now, faith is the assurance of things, hope for the conviction of things not seen. The fourth thing, though, is genuine faith looks away from self and looks to God. Verse 19, I mean, you can trust in yourself, or you can trust in God. Genuine faith turns away from self and trust in God. I like the way Ray Comfort always explains this, because he's witnessing to people and you ask them how they think to get to heaven, and they always give an answer of something that they're doing. And he says, you're like a person who's in a plane, who's getting ready to jump out. But instead of taking the parachute, you jump out thinking if you flap your arms enough, you're gonna land lightly on the ground. He said, take your faith and transfer it from your arms, from yourself to Christ as the parachute. Well, that's what genuine faith does. It turns away from itself. And so that means the more you grow in faith, the more you will grow in distrust of yourself. Self-confidence and God-confidence is incompatible. The Bible says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. Proverbs 3, five to six. Here's a fifth one. Genuine faith, listen carefully, endures to the end. Genuine faith endures to the end. Peter tells us in his first epistle in the first chapter, he says that we're kept by the power of God, listen to the next line, through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last days. How are we kept until the end? By God's power, but how does he keep, what does he employ that power in? keeping us trusting him no matter what. And you remember Jesus told a parable. I'm so glad he told this because otherwise the disappointments would be too great. He told a parable about a man who went out scattering seed and he said some of it fell on hard soil and some of it fell on the shallow soil and some of it fell among the weeds and some fell on good soil and it produced a crop 160, 40 fold. And you remember as he explained those, he said the first one, that's the person who hears the word of God, but when they hear the word of God, their heart's as hard as rock. And it said the devil comes and snatches the seed away so that it never takes root, just like the birds snatch away the seed that lands on the ground like that. And then he said the second one, that represents the person who hears the word of God and immediately responds with joy. We've had that happen, haven't we? Excited about it, forgiveness, oh, that's wonderful. But it says, then the sun came up, and because the plant had no root, it started to wither. And finally, it died. And we've seen people like that. They go on for a time, and they look like they love the Lord, and they look like they're serving the Lord, they look like they're excited about the Lord, and all of a sudden, one minute, they don't want it anymore. It may be because there's pressure. I knew a girl who came from a very strong religious background, where when she converted to Christ, there was a lot of pressure against her. And I used to talk to her at work and stuff and about the difficulties she was going through. And I said, you know, stick with it, you know, trust Lord, keep praying and all this kind of stuff. But eventually she gave it up. And I remember years later seeing her daughter at a, like a family reunion or something. And my heart just sunk because she gave it up and went back to her false church. And I thought this daughter is never going to know anything about the gospel because her mom gave up her faith. Genuine faith sticks with it to the end. If it doesn't stick with it to the end, it was never genuine. Well, the last thing, though, is genuine faith gives glory to God. It says, Abraham, verse 20, did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God and being fully assured that what God had promised, he was able to perform. The psalmist cried out. He said, not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name, give glory. Psalm 115, verse one. Abraham gave glory to God by believing that because God was good and faithful and powerful, he could and he would come through on his promise. Abraham's faith was a genuine faith, and that's why this section ends with the words, therefore, it was also credited to him as righteousness. Well, that brings us to the next section, the Christian's faith. It starts in verse 23. Paul says this, now, not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him for righteousness, but for our sake also. See, Abraham's faith was not just a personal issue, but a public example of what all true saving faith entails. This God-given faith of Abraham, which allowed him to keep hoping, keep trusting, despite the setbacks, the disappointments, and the difficulties. But his story was not recorded merely to inspire, but also to inform us what genuine faith is. The faith that makes us acceptable to God. To whom it will be credited as those who believe in him. Well, what's credited? When will that be credited? And to whom? What will be credited is the righteousness of God. That's what this whole section's been about, which comes through Christ. Christ's perfect record of law-keeping is credited to the sinner so that when God looks at the sinner, he sees Christ's righteousness, not your sin. That's the gospel. When will it be credited though? Here it's interesting because almost all the other places, when it says you've been justified, it's in the past tense, the moment you believe you're justified. But here, notice the crediting of righteousness is put in a future tense. Paul's speaking here about the day of judgment. The day that you're gonna stand before God and give an account for everything you ever said, did, thought, failed to say, do, or think. On that day, for those who trust in Christ, that righteousness, when they come to stand before God, is credited to their account. So imagine a company CEO standing before a bankruptcy judge. Think of the Hertz rental car. If you're looking for a car, this fall is going to be a good time to buy one. They're about to liquidate the company and sell off the remaining assets. And just at the last moment, the chief financial officer comes in to the court, and he whispers something to the CEO, who then talks to his lawyer. And his lawyer stands up and says, your honor, we would like to withdraw our chapter seven bankruptcy motion. There is an investment company that's offered to purchase Hertz and pay off all of our debts, and they've extended us a line of credit sufficient to continue our operating expenses. Now on judgment day, when you stand before God, in and of yourself, you're gonna be bankrupt in your sins. But if you've trusted in Christ's death on the cross, your debts will have been paid and a line of righteousness will be credited to your account that will allow you to continue operating for eternity. To whom was it credited? The Bible says to those who believe in him. Now, most of the time, Paul, when he speaks of the object of our faith, has Christ in mind. But here, the focus is on God the Father. Did you see that? We're told of him that he raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 1 Peter 1.20-21 says this, Now notice that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. We believe God. and it's credited to us as righteousness. It's the same faith in the same God resulting in the same righteousness credited to our account. But I want you to see something here, though. There is a difference in the focus. Abraham's focus was on a promised son who was to come. Our focus is on God's son who has already come. Abraham believed that God could bring life out of Sarah's dead womb. We believe that God has brought Christ alive out of the tomb. You know, when you read through the sermons, the early sermons in the book of Acts, you'll find that the apostles' preaching made much of the resurrection of Christ. I mean, speaking to his countrymen in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given, Peter said this, But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. For David says of him, I saw the Lord always in my presence, for he is at my right hand, so that I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue exalted. Moreover, my flesh also will live in hope, because you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor allow your Holy One to undergo decay. You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence." Then he goes on to say this, So if the promise was that your body will never undergo a decay, what Peter is saying is that David couldn't have been speaking of himself. He had to be speaking about someone else. He said, he looked forward, he said, and so he was, since he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him on an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that he was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh suffer decay. This Jesus, God raised up again, to which we're all witnesses. Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured forth that which you both see and hear. For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ. It's Jesus that you've crucified. You know, occasionally you'll find people who claim to be Christians who say they don't really believe that Jesus rose bodily from the grave. The Bible has a term for people like that, Christians like that. They're called unbelievers. Paul tells us here that those who have Christ's righteousness credited to them are those who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. And one of the books I'm reading right now is entitled God's Funeral. It's the decline of faith in Western culture. It's by a man named A.N. Wilson. Now many scholars, they'll trace the decline of faith in the West back to Darwin with his origin of species. But Wilson argues that there were numerous thinkers before him that helped bring about this erosion of faith. David Hume, Edward Gibbon, John Stuart Mill, Hegel, Marx, Carlyle, all played major roles in what was called the death of God. But you know, when you think about it, it's not God who's died. It's us who are dying. When you look on the news and you see people rioting and looting, one black man dies as a result of police brutality and 10 other black people die as a result of rioting. What you're seeing and hearing is the death throes of a decaying culture. Konrad Adenauer was the Chancellor of Germany from 1949 to 1963. He headed the government during the rebuilding years for Germany after the war. Billy Graham tells of a conversation that he had with him shortly before he left office. Graham wrote this, he said, After the greeting, the chancellor suddenly turned to me and said, Mr. Graham, what is the most important thing in the world? Before I could answer, he answered his own question. He said, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ is alive, then there's hope for the world. If Jesus Christ is in the grave, then I don't see the slightest glimmer of hope on the horizon. Graham says this, then he amazed me by saying that he believed that the resurrection of Christ was one of the best attested facts in history. He said this, when I leave office, I intend to spend the rest of my life gathering scientific proof for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Graham went on to say this. You see, our message, our gospel message, is what Paul ends with in this chapter. For in that last verse, in verse 25, he sums up the gospel in two simple sentences. Look what he says. Speaking of Jesus, he said, Now, when you read through the Gospels, you'll find that Judas is charged with delivering up Jesus to the religious leaders. The religious leaders delivered Jesus over to Pilate, and Pilate handed him over to the guards who took him to Golgotha and crucified him. But here Paul tells us the one who delivered him over was none other than God the Father. Later in Romans 8, 31 to 33, Paul says this. Jesus understood that it was God's will that he go to the cross. And that's why as the day was drawing near, he said, now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. For this very purpose, I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. And a voice came out of heaven saying, I have glorified it. And I'll glorify it again, John 12, 27 to 28. You see, everything Jesus had done up to that point had glorified God, but all of it would pale in comparison to that day that he went to the cross. For he was crucified, as a criminal, but not for his crimes, but for ours. I recall reading an article for the Jesus Film Project, and they were in Africa, and they showed the film to a tribe of people who had never heard about Jesus before. And they weren't really into it. They hadn't even seen films before. But as they were watching, when they got to the part where Jesus was actually nailed to the cross and hung, one of the guys who was sitting down bolted up to the front of the screen and started yelling, come down from that cross. I deserve to be on it. there was a man who understood the gospel. Jesus didn't die as a martyr for a cause, but as a sacrifice for our sins. But how do we know that sacrifice was accepted? How do we know his death really brings justification? We know it because God raised him from the dead, and in so doing, God placed a stamp of approval on Jesus' payment for our sins. so that across the debt of your sins, if you've trusted in Christ, God writes with the blood of Christ, paid in full. Has that happened to you yet? Have you placed your faith in the God who raised Jesus from the dead? Has Jesus' blood covered your sins? Has Christ's righteousness been credited to your account? If not, it can be if you'd simply turn from your sins and turn to God through faith in Jesus. At the beginning of my sermon, I mentioned that Laurie Cardoza Moore, I watched a video of her being interviewed, And she spoke very passionately, and I have no doubt that she sincerely wants to be a friend to the people of Israel. But I want you to think about it. Could there be any greater form of anti-Semitism than to withhold the gospel from a Jewish person who needs it? Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Well, none of us are Jews, and none of us are Greeks, but I can tell you this, you need the gospel just as much as they do. This is the only hope there is. It's the only message we have. It's the only way for anyone to be saved. Would you pray with me? Our Father in God, we do need your grace and mercy. Who hasn't heard this message? And yet, strangely enough, I see sometimes when Ray Comfort goes out and witnesses to people and he explains the gospel, he says, you know, do you know what God did for sinners so that they could be saved? No. A lot of people have never heard. But even for those who have, they don't always grasp it and understand what it's all about. So Father in God, we do pray for clarity, for understanding. We pray for anyone who hears this sermon, either here in this room, Lord, or over the internet, that you would grant them understanding of the gospel. But more than that, that you'd grant them hearts to believe it. And so find eternal life and the joy that comes as a result of being reconciled to our creator. So bless us to that end. Give us the grace that we need. For we ask now in Jesus' name.