You may be seated. Good morning. My name is Matthew Capone and I'm one of the pastors here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church.
! It's my joy to bring God's word to you today. This morning we're continuing our series in the book of Romans and you'll remember that the book of Romans is a letter.
It's a letter written by the Apostle Paul in the 50s AD and it's called Romans for a very simple reason, which is that it's written to the churches in the city of Rome.
And it is about the gospel. It's about the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection.
Now if you've been with us for a while, you know that maybe a couple times every year I pull out the quote by Samuel Johnson,
an English writer from the 18th century who said people need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.
People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.
I looked back in my notes and the last time I said that was February 2nd, so we're doing great.
I haven't run into my limit yet. And I say that because this Sunday is another reminder Sunday.
We are finishing this long stretch we have had with the figure of Abraham.
And we're going to see Abraham one last time. We will not see him again until Romans chapter 9.
So you'll remember back in the month of May, we started in Genesis chapter 11.
We went through Genesis chapter 25. Then we started in Romans 4.
And now Paul is going to remind us of everything we've seen.
So the question is this.
What is the most important lesson from Abraham?
What is it above everything else that we are meant to learn from him?
So with that question, I invite you to turn with me now to Romans chapter 4, starting at verse 16.
You'll find it on page 7 of your worship guide.
Remember as we turn here that this is God's word.
Jeremiah chapter 23 tells us that God's word is a hammer that breaks a rock into pieces,
which means there is nothing that can stand against the power of God's word.
So that's why we read now Romans chapter 4, starting at verse 16.
That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring.
Not only to the adherent of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham,
who is the father of us all.
As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations.
In the presence of God, in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead,
and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
Verse 18.
In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations.
As he had been told, so shall your offspring be.
He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead,
since he was about a hundred years old,
or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.
No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God.
But he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,
fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness.
But the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone,
but for ours also.
It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead,
Jesus our Lord,
who was delivered up for our trespasses,
and raised for our justification.
I invite you to pray with me as we come to this portion of God's word.
Our Father in heaven, we do praise you and thank you again for drawing us together as your people.
We thank you again for coming and speaking to us in your word.
We ask that you would do that again this morning.
That you'd honor your promise in Isaiah chapter 55,
that your word does not return to you empty,
but accomplishes all your purposes for it.
And so we ask that that would be true this morning,
that you would use your word to accomplish great things
in our hearts and our minds and our lives.
Most importantly, we ask that you would show us Jesus,
that we would see him,
that he would be more beautiful
than we've realized ever before.
And we ask these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Do you guys need me to do something different before I...
No? Okay.
Let's keep rolling.
One of the most boring events in politics every four years
is the vice presidential debates,
and they are boring primarily because vice presidents do not matter.
But the 1988 vice presidential debate made history
for a grand total of four sentences
that became famous sentences that are still remembered today.
Senator Dan Quayle, who was the Republican,
was coming up against Senator Lloyd Benson, the Democrat.
And Dan Quayle, Bush 1's running mate,
had come under a lot of criticism.
He was widely viewed as insufficient and unqualified.
So the press had a heyday going after him.
And so Quayle's strategy was to compare himself
to John F. Kennedy, the 35th president,
because there's the logic.
JFK did not have much experience.
He was still a great president.
I don't have much experience.
I will be a great vice president.
And so he would repeat this on the campaign trail.
His opponent, Senator Lloyd Benson,
then began to practice in his debate prep
a destructive killer line.
He was waiting for Dan Quayle to bring this up
in the vice presidential debates.
Dan Quayle did not disappoint.
And so when, once again, he compared himself to JFK,
Lloyd Benson said this,
Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy.
I knew Jack Kennedy.
Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine.
Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy.
And the point was this.
Do not compare yourself to the greats.
Yeah, that's fine that Jack Kennedy
didn't have a little bit of experience,
but he was a great man, right?
He's the exception that proves the rule.
You, Dan Quayle, are in fact not.
And still today, this phrase is used.
If you want to cut someone down to size,
all you have to say is,
you, sir, are no Jack Kennedy.
Paul, the entire chapter, chapter four of Romans,
has been focused on Abraham
because Abraham is one of the greats.
Right, remember, a couple weeks ago,
he pulled out Abraham as an example,
and then he pulled out David to prove his point.
Hey, if this is true of the greatest figures
of Israel's history,
it can be true of you as well.
In fact, that's Paul's point here
as he comes to the very end of chapter four.
He's saying actually the opposite of Senator Benson.
He doesn't say,
Christian, you are no Abraham.
No, he actually says the opposite.
That's his point here.
Christian, you can be like Abraham.
Christian, Abraham was one of the greats.
You can be too.
That's why our sermon title,
you'll see this on page seven,
is this, Abraham's faith, our faith.
You, Christian, can be like Abraham
no matter how great he was.
And that's where we jump into this passage.
He gives us the first reason in verse 16.
You can be like Abraham
because Abraham was in his salvation,
in his life,
based on faith rather than works.
That's why we see verse 16.
It depends on faith
in order that the promise may rest on grace
and be guaranteed to all his offspring,
not only to the adherent of the law,
but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham.
Paul here is saying,
look, you can be a child of Abraham
whether you're a Jew or a Gentile.
If you believe in God,
you are Abraham's child.
That's why he says there,
who is the father of us all.
In other words, Paul's saying,
look, because Abraham's life
was resting on faith and not on works,
you, if you rest on faith and not on works,
are his child.
In fact, that's the only way.
That's the only way
that the blessings of Abraham
can be guaranteed to his offspring.
If it were based on works,
then we'd have to see every generation,
will this generation be good enough
will this generation measure up?
Will they be able to do the great things
that Abraham did?
That's not the question, though.
The question is not whether they can do
the great things Abraham did.
The question is whether we believe
in the great God that Abraham believed in.
And so then, after verse 16,
he jumps into it.
What does it look like
for us to be like Abraham?
What does it look like for us to have
that Abraham sort of faith?
Verse 17, he tells us about Abraham.
Abraham was the one who believed in God.
It doesn't just tell us that he believed in God,
though he tells us the type of God
that Abraham believed in.
In the presence of the God in whom he believed,
who gives life to the dead
and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
That's one of the great themes of Scripture, by the way,
that God creates something out of nothing
by the power of his word.
God's word is so powerful that,
as I mentioned in my prayer in Isaiah 55,
he makes this promise,
my word will accomplish whatever I want it to accomplish.
God speaks and it is done.
And so how is it that we're supposed to be like Abraham?
Well, the first answer is this.
We are like Abraham when we believe in Abraham's God.
Believe in the God who is powerful.
Being like Abraham is not like trying to be like JFK.
Being like Abraham is not trying to be great.
Being like Abraham is believing in the God who is great.
Believing in the God gives life to the dead
and calls to existence the things that do not exist.
Abraham believed in the all-powerful God.
Christian, you believe in the all-powerful God as well.
Paul then tells us what exactly that belief looks like.
Okay, we see that Abraham believed in this powerful God.
What does it look like to have faith in that powerful God?
He goes on from telling us about the type of God
that Abraham believes in to the type of faith
that Abraham had.
That takes us to verse 18.
Abraham believed in the impossible.
That's what had hope against hope means.
Now that's a confusing phrase.
In English we might say this.
Abraham had hope against all odds.
Abraham believed God despite the evidence.
And what was it that he believed God to do?
Verse 18 also tells us that.
Abraham believed against all odds
that he would be the father of many nations.
It's a simple logic here that Paul's following.
So verse 18, he believes the impossible.
The impossible is that he'd be the father of many nations.
Verse 19 tells us why exactly that's impossible.
It's impossible because Abraham is impotent
and Sarah is infertile.
Abraham's belief was against all odds
because humanly it was impossible.
So again, we're talking about the type of faith Abraham had.
It takes us to verse 20 which tells us
despite these things being impossible,
impossible, Abraham's faith is growing in hope.
And then finally, verse 21.
What is it that Abraham believed?
Remember I said this was a review Sunday.
Abraham believed that God would do
what God said he would do.
The faith of Abraham is believing
in the almighty and all-powerful God.
The faith of Abraham is believing
that that God will do exactly what he said he would do
even when and especially it is impossible.
Abraham's faith, our faith.
And then verse 22.
What happens?
That faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.
Abraham was made right with God
not by works but by faith.
There you have it.
Now if you're a cynic, you might be thinking,
man, we just spent four plus months
in the story of Abraham in Genesis.
And now we're spending a month
in Romans chapter 4
and at the very end,
Paul has nothing new to say.
He's telling us the same thing
that we have reviewed again and again and again.
He's telling us
that God's a promise keeping God.
He's telling us the same thing
that we should believe those promises.
He's telling us that justification
is by grace through faith alone.
And so is it not
that as we end the story of Abraham,
we end not with a triumph
but with a whimper?
Is it not that we're ending
merely with a review?
If you're a cynic
and you think you've heard this all before,
you are in one sense correct.
Right?
We already know this.
If you've been with us,
you know that God made great promises to Abraham.
If you've been with us,
you know that God honored
and kept those promises against all odds.
You know that God did what he said
he would do.
We have talked about this over and over.
But, in another sense,
you are dead wrong.
Remember I asked you,
I told you the question was this.
What is the most important lesson from Abraham?
And what's new about this passage is this.
As we come to the very end,
Paul tells us
why it matters more than anything else.
Paul tells us the main point
of the Abraham story.
And he does it in verses 23 and 24.
Paul finally points back to us.
Points the finger straight at the reader.
Notice we shift here finally
to the first person plural.
The words it was counted to him
were not written for his sake alone,
but for ours also.
It will be counted to us
who believe in him
who raised from the dead
Jesus our Lord.
And so the point is this.
Not just Abraham.
You, sir,
you, ma'am,
can be like Abraham.
That's the point.
That's what we've been driving to now
for about five months.
For Paul to say this.
All the stories of Abraham,
everything we've seen
of his great trust
and confidence in God,
the ways that he put it all on the line,
the ways he risked it,
all of that's been driving
to this question.
What about you?
Do you believe
that God raised Jesus Christ
from the dead?
Do you?
I'm so serious.
Do you believe
that God raised Jesus Christ
from the dead?
That is what the point
of the story of Abraham is
that we've been driving at
for five months now.
There are so many reasons
that people come to church.
People come to church
because it's a great place
to meet other people.
People come to church
because they're lifted up
by the message
and the music.
They want principles
and ways to live
and they want to learn
about the Christian worldview
and what it is that we do
as we move forward together
in God's mission.
But none of that matters
unless we can answer
that question.
Did Jesus rise from the dead?
Do you know why
we worship on Sunday
and not Monday or Tuesday?
We worship on Sunday
because Jesus rose from the dead
on the first day of the week.
And so we celebrate
Jesus' resurrection
every week on the first day.
In other words,
happy Easter.
Every Sunday is Easter Sunday.
Christian,
if you believe
that God raised Jesus Christ
from the dead
and you stake your life on it,
you live your life
as if the resurrection is true
because it is.
and you take all the aspects
of your life
and orient them around that.
You stake your life,
you set as your north star,
whether it is in your finances,
your friendship,
your family,
your work,
your play,
your vocation,
that Jesus died
and was risen from the dead.
If you do that,
then you are like Abraham.
Abraham.
The words it was counted to him
were not written for his sake alone
but for ours also.
Paul is turning the mirror
on the reader for the first time.
Abraham had great faith.
That's wonderful.
What about you?
Will you also believe
the impossible?
Will you also believe
that God will do
what no human can do?
Do you believe God has done
what no human can do?
Has Jesus Christ
been raised from the dead
or has he not?
Do you believe in verse 17?
Do you believe in the God
who gives life to the dead
and calls into existence
things that do not exist?
Do you believe that?
Do you believe that
as you navigate
the mess
of family
and relationships
and work
and community
and government
and nations?
Do you believe that
as you come up against disease?
Do you believe
that what you do
in this life
is greater than
the sum of its parts
and it's greater
than the sum of its parts
because what God
tells us through
the apostle Paul
in Ephesians chapter 1
is true
that the very same power
that raised Jesus Christ
from the dead
is at work
in you?
Do you?
Do you believe it?
If you do
you are like
Abraham.
Do you believe
that God
keeps his promises?
Do you believe
that no matter
what happens
in history
in this world
in time
and space
in nations
in geopolitics
in families
in generations
that no matter what
the end of history
is a great
wedding feast
between God
and his people?
Do you believe
that no matter
what happens
that will happen?
If you do
you are like
Abraham.
You like Abraham
hope
against hope.
You like Abraham
hope
against all odds.
You like Abraham
believe
in something
that is not
humanly possible.
You like Abraham
believe what's true.
You like Abraham
will see
the reward.
Do you believe
that God
raised Jesus Christ
from the dead?
Do you hope
against hope?
Do you believe
that all the promises
of God
are yes
and amen
in Christ?
Is that
your north
star?
Paul says
don't just talk
about Abraham.
Don't just remember
the stories
about Abraham.
Don't just rehearse
how great
Abraham was
be like
Abraham.
And be like
Abraham
in this sense
that Abraham
believed
in a great
God.
Abraham
believed
in the impossible.
Abraham
believed
in the God
who gives
life to the dead
and calls
into existence
things
that do
not
exist.
that's the
point.
That's the
point of
Abraham's
life.
The final
analysis
we're reminded
of what
Paul later
says in
Romans
chapter 10.
If you
confess
with your
mouth
that Jesus
is Lord
and believe
in your
heart
that God
raised him
from the
dead
you
will
be saved.
Do you
believe
that God
raised
Jesus
Christ
from
the
dead?
Paul
makes
one more
point.
Not just
is it
that we
are meant
to be
like
Abraham
that
these
things
were not
written
for his
sake
alone
but
for
ours
also.
it is
also
easier
for us
to be
like
Abraham
than
it was
for
Abraham
to be
like
Abraham.
I'll
say that
again.
It is
easier
for us
to be
like
Abraham
than
it was
for
Abraham
to be
like
Abraham
and
it's
easier
for us
for this
one
reason.
Abraham
looked
forward.
Christian
you
look
backward.
Abraham's
hope
and
belief
was
in
something
that
had
not
yet
happened.
Your
hope
and
belief
is
in
something
that
has.
The
death
and
the
resurrection
of
Jesus
Christ.
That's
what Paul
says here
in this
last
verse.
Who
was
delivered
up
for
our
trespasses
and
raised
for
our
justification.
given
up for
our
trespasses
he's
just
saying
what
we've
talked
about
many
times
Jesus
paid
the
penalty
that
we
deserve.
Jesus
took
God's
punishment
so that
we
would
not.
But then
he doesn't
just talk
about
that
he talks
about
Jesus
resurrection
raised
for our
justification.
Wait I
thought
Jesus
death
was for
our
sins.
Why
is it
the
resurrection
that's
given
with our
justification?
Jesus
resurrection
proves
once
and
for
all
that
he
lived
the
perfect
life
that
we
should
have
lived.
If
Jesus
did
not
rise
from
the
dead
if
he
was
only
handed
over
for
our
trespasses
then
his
death
was
not
for
our
sins.
If
Jesus
did
not
rise
from
the
dead
then
Jesus
death
was
for
Jesus.
The
resurrection
proves
once
and
for
all
Jesus
died
for
our
sins
was
raised
for
our
justification.
It
is
the
confirmation
that
everything
God
promised
to
Abraham
was
true.
The
resurrection
is the
confirmation
that
Jesus
did
in
fact
die
for
our
sins
and
live
for
our
righteousness.
What
is the
most
important
part
of the
Abraham
story?
What
should
we
learn
take
away
more
than
anything
else?
It's
this.
Abraham
believed
the
impossible
would
happen
in the
future.
we
know
the
impossible
has
already
happened
in
the
past.
No
unbelief
made him
waver
concerning
the
promise
of
God,
but he
grew
strong
in his
faith
as he
gave
glory
to
God,
fully
convinced
that God
was able
to do
what he
had
promised.
that is
why his
faith
was
counted
to him
as
righteousness.
Has
Jesus
risen
from
the
dead?
Yes,
yes,
he has.
Let's
pray.
Our
Father in
heaven,
we do
praise you
and thank
you again
for your
word.
We thank
you for
the example
of Abraham,
not that he
was great,
but he
believed in
a great
God.
We ask
that you
would make
that true
of us,
that we
would see
clearly
that you
are the
God who
brings life
from the
dead and
calls into
existence
things that
do not
exist.
We ask
all of
these things
in the
mighty name
of Jesus
Christ.
Amen.