4 and I'll be reading from verse 1 all the way down to verse 8 Romans chapter 4 verses 1 through 8. Again reading out of the ESV. What then shall we say was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works he has something to boast about but not before God.

For what does the scripture say Abraham believed God and he was continued he was counted to him as righteousness. Now to him who works his wages are not counted as gift but as at his due and to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly his faith is counted as righteousness.

Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. Let's pray. Precious and loving Father we thank you so much for this morning we thank you for every morning Lord that we're able to rise and to breathe and have our being we know Father God that all things are created by you and for you so that our worship Lord God that we give to you may simply be a reasonable response to all that you've done and given to us.

We pray that your word would speak to us it would convict it would encourage and strengthen your church Lord God that we may truly live a life worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Give us humble hearts moldable open ears Lord God that we may hear your voice and follow you in Jesus name we pray amen.

You know I think many of you guys who are maybe bicultural maybe tricultural know that there are certain things maybe you know both languages well enough there are certain words that kind of symbolizes what that culture represents right I mean obviously you can't you can't contain a whole culture in one word but there are certain words that kind of gives you the heart of the culture and you know all these years that we've been coming in and out of China when I asked the Chinese students or the people in China you know what is a word that kind of captures your culture and the word that they use is guanxi and some of you guys may know that word and guanxi basically means relationship or connection and and so what it means is that in that culture they value connection and relationship so they invest so much time in that word in that relationship in guanxi.

In India I asked them the same question is a what is a word that captures your culture I forgot the word but I remember the meaning very clearly the meaning of the word that they told me basically means it doesn't matter so initially I thought well what doesn't matter of course it matters that's why I'm asking you and I say well it doesn't matter right and it really does that more time I go and spend time in the Indian culture it really like they're not hurried about anything there's no sense of urgency just kind of doesn't matter you know they shake their heads back and forth left and right and it doesn't matter and it really does capture the heart of you know maybe the Hindu culture like everything says can I add these a time for everything if something bad happens you're gonna come back at something else and you know whatever the case it captures the culture you know I come from a Korean you know culture cultural background and if you ask Koreans what's a Korean word that captures the culture is the word Han Han and it's not Han Guk it's it's the Han is a different word Han and the word Han basically means a deep-rooted negatively put it means bitterness it means unfulfilled desire now you kind of understand why the Koreans are the way the Koreans are the word kind of you know in some sense it's like frustration longing that's basically if you ask again people in the Korean culture like I don't know second third generation may not know but the previous generation they'll tell you that word Han captures the culture when you understand the history behind the Korean culture you can understand why that word Han represents culture so if you ever watch Korean drama you ever noticed that it a lot of times it just doesn't end on a good note don't have like struggle to this guy and a girl try to get together and then at the end they get sick and they die you know like why why do they do that it's like well it's kind of like a Korean culture they're not used to in America you know you struggle and at the end you defeat everybody you're on the top in Korea you struggle you struggle and then the end you know if you look at the Korean culture you know like historically they've been you know dominated by bigger nations all throughout especially this generation the previous generation that lived through the Japanese occupation and the Korean War you know it was hard for me to understand growing up in the United States even though I was born in Korea growing up in the United States and working in a Korean church culture there's so many things that I didn't understand and one of the things I didn't understand was they never thought about the future like what we do today and how is that gonna affect tomorrow and again and I'm not talking about those in their 40s and 50s maybe not even 60 but my parents generation like 70s and 80s like their their mindset was just today take care of today as long as everything's taking care of today and I understood more I understood the culture the whole generation of people who were old enough to remember the Korean War basically got the whole culture flipped upside down you know we're not just talking about one city we're talking about the whole country for all the way from from the the tip of North Korea to the tip of South Korea all got mixed back and forth everybody had to back grab their bags rich and poor had to move up and down and then just arbitrarily one day we're gonna stop this war and drew a line right in the middle and if you happen to be caught on the left side you can't ever come back down and if you happen to be caught on the right side and you're separated from your mom or dad or uncle or whoever it was you can never see them again so we're not just talking about a small group of people we're talking about a whole country filled of people who've experienced this and so education their hospital system you know their their economy everything was flipped upside down and so everything that you see in South Korea if you've ever visited South Korea it was all within the last 30 years so prior to that it was probably one of the one of the poorest countries in the world so I began to understand how much of that impacted the Korean culture at least in the previous generation now the reason why I share all of this with you is because when something traumatic happens and it could be something good or it can be something negative you know that that has made an impact and that's something that's in their psyches permanently at least during their life some of you may have experienced something like that in your life positive or negative and every time something happens you revert back to that particular event right what a good or bad and you know how that affects you I bring all this up again not to talk about the Korean culture not not even to talk about you or me when we think about God we typically think about God as a being as a thing as a force he's omnipotent he's omnipresent he's immutable and we talk about all these theological things about his attributes but one thing that we forget about who he is that he is a being that created us to be like him we have emotions because he has emotions and oftentimes the Bible describes him as grieving sometimes sad right broken over the sins of his people we look at Jesus who is the exact imprint of God actually even crying at times fatigue standing in front of the grave weeping a lot of times you know we read about that but we don't know what to do with that because we oftentimes think of God as a force so when we think about God who is emotional you know you think about the pain that we have the things that we've experienced and and how it affected us what to really understand the heart of God like heart of God not just not just kind of like oh he is this is who he is theologically but really know the heart of God what is something revealed to us in Scripture that would have made that kind of impact that that kind of like is an overarching thing that may be in the back of his mind if we can even say that at all times I can think of two particular events the first one is a fall of Satan in Ezekiel chapter 28 13 to 17 he says you were in Eden the Garden of God every precious stone was your covering Sardis topaz diamond barrel oinks Jasper sapphire emerald carbonicle whatever whatever that is crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings on the day that you were created they were prepared so in other words he said all of these precious stones were created to celebrate the creation of Satan you were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till unrighteousness was found in you your heart was proud because of your beauty you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor I cast you to the ground now we read that and we think of what that must be a tremendous event that took place in history but we often forget that the scripture says that God created him and loved him and created all this precious stone to celebrate him and yet imagine that he would challenge God because he wanted to be like him and as a result of that not only did he fall he brought corruption to third of the angels and then he brought crush him to mankind and ever since then he's been leading this rebellion against God so that they can be like God again in Isaiah 14 12 it says how you are fallen from heaven all day star son of dawn how you are cut down to the ground you who laid the nation's low you said in your heart I will send to heaven above the stars of God I will set my throne on high I will sit on the Mount of Assembly in the far reaches of north I will ascend above the heights of the clouds I will make myself like the most high some of your translations translated that word son of dawn as Lucifer where we commonly refer to Satan as Lucifer and he says his primary rebellion was he wanted to exalt himself now how much of that has affected what we understand in the presentation of the gospel the other traumatic event that took place in redemptive history is that that's the one the fall of Satan that affected all of his creation but the other event is Jesus on the cross can you possibly imagine anybody who has a child that you would send your only begotten son to be crucified to be taunted to be beaten stripped naked put on the cross and then not only did he allow this to happen that he himself had to draw near and he didn't need to punish his son put the sins of mankind past present and future upon this child his only begotten child so that you and I can be saved if you look at these two events that made an impact in human history and you consider that this this is probably overarching thing in God's mind here's this one event that desires to exalt himself and extend is leading the rebellion against God wanting to exalt themselves to be like God and here's Christ that he presented to exact to counter that rebellion and his path to life was the exact opposite of the rebellion of Satan so if you want to follow me if you want to live you must first learn to die he who seeks his life shall lose and he loses his life for my sake shall find it repentance isn't simply identifying certain sins in our lives and say you know what I lied here I cheated there and I did this I should have done that I had lustful thoughts justification by faith first and foremost is to recognize not only particular things that we've done but their whole life trajectory is a rebellion against God you may not have done anything to deserve life sentence you may not have done anything to for the police to pull you over and be sentenced to jail but our whole rebellion against God led by Satan himself is to be like God is to exalt ourselves how much of our energy and time and sacrifice and planning has to do with making ourselves better sometimes even in the church to exalt ourselves to make more money to be better than our neighbors and our friends to go to the better school to be more educated in and of itself it sounds innocent but when you look deep at the core of what Satan's rebellion is so much of the temptation in the world is in the context of this rebellion against God so therefore when Jesus Christ came he says if you want to follow me if you want to live you pick up your cross and you also follow me that's why when you look at the beginning of salvation justification by faith that our righteousness only given to us he said over and over again in chapter 3 in chapter 4 he says that no one can boast nobody the beginning of life is the death of our former life that's why every time we get baptized we are baptized into his death in order that we may live in the resurrected life of Christ so beginning of life is death of our old life recognizing that we are no longer living in a bit rebellion against God but now we humble ourselves now we add nothing to our life we surrender so it is no mistake that Paul spends three four five six chapters laying the foundation of why you must first die why you must no longer strive to be somebody why there is no boasting in this new life because it is this rebellion that Satan is leading this world in which is causing the curse of mankind chapter 4 Paul is going to present Abraham as a prime example of why justification by faith makes sense and there's three things I don't want to cover this this morning of why Paul presents Abraham and again Abraham is not unique to this particular passage Abraham as an example is given to us over and over again in the New Testament but I want to talk about three particular reasons why Abraham is given to us in this text to confirm justification by faith why salvation is by works and not by by faith and not by works right so the passage Romans chapter 4 3 is that for what does the scripture say Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness that specific verse is a direct quote from Genesis chapter 15 5 and 6 and that verse is repeated again in Galatians chapter 3 verse 6 and James chapter 2 23 so the first thing that we want to look at is that even Abraham even Abraham the father of Israel could only be made righteous by faith and not by works now why even Abraham because the rabbis at that time of some of them were teaching that Abraham had no need for repentance if there was anybody that could come before God by his own merit it would be Abraham and they would actually disseminate and teach this was a common understanding in this Jewish community now they weren't saying that they were without sin but they were saying that if we continue to obey the law and keep it perfectly we can be like Abraham one day and that we would also be able to earn our righteousness so what Paul is doing in chapter 4 that even Abraham that you are looking up to even he can only be justified by faith and not by his works I mean he was a perfect example of man of obedience he was a rich man you know it wasn't like he was a poor man he had nothing to lose and God said follow me into the into the wilderness into the desert no he said the context of Genesis 15 5 and 6 whereas he was already a rich man not only was he rich his father was rich so when God called him out he was simply because God believed or Abraham believed God he left everything walked out into the desert where it was unsafe there were bandits there were other kings mightier than he was and and we see in his Abraham's life journey there several times he could have been completely crushed why would a rich man leave all of that and walk on to the desert simply because God said to come follow me and he said he believed him and it was said he said it was his belief not at the end of his life after he's proven everything he says no at the very beginning because he believed what God said so what Paul is saying here is from the very beginning that even Abraham even Abraham in our culture if we were talking about who's the most moral person that you say you know what that person if anybody could be saved it should be that person you know all the times the term or mother Teresa term comes around that anybody does any good works like oh he's mother Teresa you know I mean you feed the poor always mother Teresa because she has a reputation gave up everything walked into Calcutta and given her life to feed the poor you know when I was younger the man's name that constantly came up in that concept was Albert Schweitzer so some of you guys may have heard his name may not have heard his name but Albert Schweitzer was a philosopher he was a renowned musician he was to some degree a theologian and then at some point he became a physician now and he was an expert in all of these fields and that's why we know about him that's why the world knew about him he could have been famous in every one of those situations he decided to become a medical doctor because he wanted to serve the poor in Africa he got his medical degree again this he was already a renowned musician we were now a philosopher and he decided to give up all that become a doctor specifically to serve the poor in Africa he lived there for 40 years and he died there serving the poor in Africa he died sometime in 1960s and the huge debate at that time was because he was a liberal theologian he denied the resurrection of Jesus Christ he denied the deity of Jesus and in doing so he denied the atonement of Christ he saw Jesus as a powerful historical figure kind of like the way Gandhi described Jesus and so there was a there was a discussion within the Christian community that if anybody has worked enough to earn salvation before God wouldn't it be Albert Schweitzer who left everything to do good in this world and the answer was clearly no because when the scripture says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God that includes Albert Schweitzer that includes mother Teresa and that includes even Abraham that the only hope for mankind is Christ crucified the salvation by faith and by faith alone is not simply for those few people so that's what Paul has been presenting for three chapters all have sinned all have sinned the rich the poor the educated the moral and the immoral the educated than and educated uneducated talented the untalented people of significance people of insignificance all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God you know when I was younger I first became a Christian this first thing that one of the first things that I wrestled with because if I was to think about somebody who was moral you know really upright this is person that I remember my dad was used to work in this medical you know packaging company and I worked there for a little bit when I was younger and he would always bring his Bible and he was always upright everybody knew it's like that guy was just upright man he was always I always see him praying always evangelizing and doing all this stuff so when I became a Christian the first guy that I thought about was him you know that guy is a he that guy's a serious Christian and then when I told him and I was in a conversation with him I realized he was a Jehovah Witness you know growing up in a Christian home automatically it's like oh he's a Jehovah Witness you know I didn't know a whole lot about Jehovah Witnesses all I knew was they were wrong I didn't know why they were wrong but they were wrong but it really caused me to question here's a guy that to me seems like he's taking his faith seriously he's evangelizing and then I see all these people at church in my eyes are hypocrites so you're telling me here's this guy who's who's like dedicating his life doing this thing but because he has the wrong theology he's gonna go to hell and here are these people is like oh one saved always saved and that church and always like fighting in the church it was like they're gonna be saved I just didn't make any sense to me right and really shook me up and I wanted to just you know study the scripture see what it says and and in the end the answer is crystal clear just like the greatest of the Pharisees just like Abraham Isaac and Jacob there is not a single one that can stand before this Holy God and say look what I have done see that's the beginning of the gospel and that was a problem with the early church because the Judaizers didn't understand it either for hundreds of years they've been trying to obey the law for hundreds of years they wouldn't do anything on the Sabbath they wouldn't eat before even if they were poor they wouldn't work on the Sabbath because they were trying to keep the law the Pharisees or the ones who were fasting every Tuesday and Thursday how many people do you know that fast regularly like that they gave to the to the temple they even did missions to proselyte to convert people to Judaism they were doing this for hundreds of years and the Pharisees were doing this excellently in the human eyes and yet here comes Jesus and here comes Apostle Paul and the Apostles and said no all of that is worthless all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God so if you look in the early church Paul had to constantly deal with this Judaizers that your good works in the presence of God is nothing in fact Paul says in Philippians 3 3 to 7 for we are the real circumcision basically what he's doing is he's Judaizers saying like no we have all these good works and Paul says no way that is not the right way that is not the way of salvation but if you want to go toe-to-toe if you think that maybe I'm holding on to the grace of God because I can't earn it my way like like the way you're doing it let's go right so he's comparing he says though I myself a reason to have confidence in the flesh also if anyone thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh I have more circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel the tribe of Benjamin Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law a Pharisee as to the zeal persecutor of the church as to righteousness under the law blameless now we've we dance a that's an exaggeration really blameless now if he was really blameless he wouldn't need Jesus right but when he said blameless he's saying in comparison to you I did everything I was supposed to do in fact I even murder because I thought that somehow that was what God wanted me to do and yet he says I gained nothing I counted as loss for the sake of Christ see Paul realized not only could he not be saved by his own righteousness he realized that he was chosen because of his sin in first Timothy 1 15 through 17 Paul describes himself as a chief of sinners he says the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost and I initially think like is exaggerating I mean he's the foremost but if you really think about who Paul was before he met Christ he really was he was a murderer right he was willing to kill and beat and drag people into prison who was proclaiming the gospel so he says I was chosen because I was the foremost of sinners and the reason why that Jesus Christ may display his perfect patience as an example of those who are to believe in him for eternal life he was chosen because of his sin it wasn't because he had status you would think like Oh Paul he converted he's so well connected he can go into these cities and have the protection of the Sanhedrin let's let's take advantage of that Paul's a Roman citizen he can go anywhere he wants he has money so you don't have to worry about money his parents are well connected but none of that he says no I wasn't chosen for that reason I was chosen for the exact opposite because I was a chief of sinners reason why for 17 to the king of ages immortal invisible the only God be honor and glory forever and ever amen beginning of salvation and understanding of the gospel is recognizing that everything that we have is worthless until we first die until we are first crucified with Christ our experience our education can be the greatest hindrance in coming to Christ because it makes us proud your talents your money even your age all of this can be a hindrance in coming to Christ if we don't first and foremost recognize that we have nothing to add does he really need my money does God not have enough experience is he not talented enough is he not smart enough for us to think that somehow if the right people with right talent and right experience if they convert somehow somehow they're gonna make a huge impact in the kingdom no first and foremost it humbles us until it humbles us we will not truly repent you know when I was a third grader in Philadelphia I was asked to join this play that was gonna be given in front of the whole community not just our school but all the parents were gonna come and I was so proud of that you know and I have no idea why they chose me I thought oh they they're finally recognizing my talent you know so yeah I didn't know if they asked me to join and then I was able to take a certain part of the day off so that I can go to the assembly and then you know so that was a benefit I didn't have to be in class so I said great I don't know what it is but they must have seen something in me right and then as they were practicing I started to dawn on me the reason why they chose me was because I was Asian because the play was the king and I I don't know if you guys know that thing is you know but so you know they basically had three choices they had my younger brother Philip which was too young my older brother Paul who was too old so the only other Asian that qualified was me I was a third grader so all of a sudden when I realized the reason the only reason why they chose me is because I was a little bit more tinted than the other children you know what I mean so I looked a little bit I looked apart and that's why they chose me and I remember that day when I found that out I went from like yes you chose me you finally recognized me and then all of a sudden that was the only criteria you because you're Asian and you look different you kind of look that part and then you know what's interesting was I remember who was on the stage and the other children and I was the only Asian I was the only agent so all the day couldn't find the other Asians I was the only Asian on that thing I mean as goofy as that story may be you know the gospel first and foremost humbles all of us and if it doesn't humble us the very thing that you hold on to thinking that somehow you can add to the kingdom of God because you have this is going to be the very thing that stumbles you from that moment moment on it's a very thing that causes you to not be able to see who Jesus is it's the very things that you are good at that becomes your greatest stumbling block see to the early church the Pharisees their greatest stumbling block is their morality because they kept the law so vigorously and so they couldn't understand how can that not add anything to my salvation so the first and foremost he takes an example of Abraham because Abraham was at the pinnacle of what they believed to be a righteous person he says no not even Abraham the second thing that we learn about Abraham and justification by faith is Abraham's righteousness by salvation teaches us that God's salvation plan was not new it's always been Hebrews chapter 13 8 it says of Jesus Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever justification by faith was not something brand new that that God was introducing you he didn't have plans to you know if these guys just obey my law that somehow I'm able to save them and everything could be restored and then these guys keep failing so I have to have another plan let's go to plan B Jesus Christ crucified was never plan B he didn't have a plan B from the very beginning in Genesis chapter 15 5 & 6 before he went out into the desert this is what it says and he brought him outside and said look toward heaven this is God speaking to Abraham and number the stars if you are able to number them then he said to them you shall so shall your offering be and he believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness see he was counted righteous before he went not after right before so from the very beginning he says no salvation and righteousness is by faith but it didn't start with Abraham either if you look at scripture you'll see that from the very beginning as soon as they fall the proto evangelium in Genesis chapter 3 15 God says he's going to bring the seed of the woman he's gonna crush the head of the serpent and it was it was the pre gospel and all of the Old Testament is a fulfillment of that promise so again you know you think about like why are there so many genealogies in the Old Testament it was not because they're trying to fill in time you know like your pages you know have so many pages so hey is a good place for genealogy sometimes we read genealogies like like what is this I'm not related to these people I don't care about this genealogy the genealogies are important because genealogies connect us to that promise and it was a it was a precise record of how that promise of the seed was going to come and how that's connected to Jesus and that's why the very first page of the New Testament begins with the genealogy Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise so his plan of salvation was always Christ crucified and it never changed in Habakkuk verse chapter 2 verse 4 said but the righteous shall live by faith that's in the Old Testament not the New Testament that passage is is talked to us repeated in Romans 1 17 Galatians 3 11 Hebrews 10 38 and Psalm 49 7 through 9 it says truly no man can ransom another or give to God a price of his life this is in the Old Testament a man cannot redeem himself and he cannot redeem another it is not possible for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice that he should live on forever and never see the pit and so there by your righteousness by your sacrifice you cannot be saved a lot of times we read the Old Testament as if it's disconnected with a New Testament you know and I and I saw that when I was younger when I first became a Christian I read the Old Testament it's like what God seems very different you know Old Testament there's judgment you know like they come he wipes out nations and then we come to the New Testament it seems like Jesus was crucified and he loves us unconditionally at least that's how I saw it you know and I saw a different picture you know people again say that a lot of times you know I've been hearing more and more how people are scared of me you know because I have a genetic disorder right here where there's like a I got a permanent scowl on my face so if I'm not laughing I look mad you know I remember a good friend that became a friend of mine you know he's the missions director of Southern Baptists in this area this guy is 6 feet 3 he's almost 300 pounds I mean intimidating big guy and the first time I went to India he said he was intimidated by me I like what and he said the reason why he said it's like I my countenance is very serious that's what he said that's exactly the words he my countenance is very serious I've never heard that phrase like that way before basically what he means is like you look angry that's what he means so you know sometimes they people perceive me a certain way because of certain things and then you know even Esther said that because she knew me as a pastor before we had any kind of relationship so she thought I was serious all the time and then once we started dating so you're the biggest goofball I've ever met my life and then so my perception was very different right a lot of times people see the Old Testament in a kind of superficial way and they don't see the connection to the New Testament and then if you talk to the you know the secular historians they'll say oh you know Judaism was like this and then the New Testament started in the time of Christ not realizing the connection between Judaism and Christianity that Christianity was simply a fulfillment of Judaism and it is clearly stated in Scripture that God's plan of salvation from the very get-go in Ephesians chapter 1 it says before the creation of the world this is what God had planned it never changed the only difference was at the dispensation of how he was carrying it out in the Old Testament he was preparing for the coming of Christ in a New Testament we're talking about the Christ who came but it is the same and there is a clear connection that Abraham not only the Jews not only Paul not only us but even Abraham and all the forefathers before him and after him are saved the same way by the blood of Christ you know we have children being born in our church seems like every other day right that's that seems like right and it's it's always great when we see the baby for the first time and the first thing that we see when we look at children is who do they look like right so we saw man Hannah's baby recently and the first thing we were oh we see that nose looks like Matt or you know the years or Hannah or you know that smell definitely is Matt or whatever like we we look at that and we kind of like certain things remind us of of the parents right now my children are a little bit older and so they behave a certain way and and so you know I I remember you know I don't remember when I was 2 or 3 or whatever but I remember when I was 14 or 15 or 16 and and you know there are certain things that because Zachary kind of had my second child it's kind of like my temperament you know everyone wants to know Esther we frustrated I don't know why he does that and I'm just sitting in the back it's like I know exactly why he's doing that because I remember I remember what I was like at that time you know you kind of you can kind of see the connection with the parents you know and I remember now that I'm 48 that I don't remember what my parents are 16 or 15 but I remember when they were this age because I was older and there's certain things about my dad's mannerism my dad was a pastor too so I remember very distinctly when he preached in his mannerisms and there are certain things that he does that I just unconsciously do like right here let's just hand in my pants right here like it just happens naturally it's genetic I didn't realize this was genetically passed down and and there are certain things that he does like the way he pulls his pants up when he was alive he used to pull his pants up and the way he was to go around his belly I catch myself doing the same thing I put my pants up and as I'm doing is I my dad used to do the same thing and then you know I remember when I was younger when my dad was a little bit older and he was being to have bad eyesight he would take his glasses off and he was squinting like this you know and I remember very distinctly going to my grandmother's house my dad's mother and my grandmother would do the same thing she would take her glass off and she would like that before she would talk and I would remember watching my dad and watching my grandma and saying like they're related you know that's where he gets it and there's a connection even with my nephews you know because there's blood relationship and there's some things that I noticed with their parents and my brothers and all this stuff you can't fool blood you can't fool blood because it's passed down see Jesus says to these Pharisees the reason why you don't understand me is because you don't understand my father I say nothing of my own accord I only say what he told me to say and Jesus says that he came and he's an exact representation the God that you've been supposedly worshipping from a distance has drawn near to you and you don't recognize him and the reason why you don't recognize him is because you were never worshipping my father he says in John chapter 8 39 to 43 they answered him Abraham is our father Jesus said to them if you were Abraham's children you would have you would be doing what Abraham did but now you seek to kill me a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God this is not what Abraham did you are doing what your father did they said to him we were not born of sexual immorality we have one father even God Jesus said to them if God were your father you would love me for I came from God and I am here I came not on my own accord but he sent me in other words if you knew my father you would know that what I am saying is not new if you knew my father you would be able to recognize that I am from him but because you don't know him you have nothing to do with Abraham you don't recognize me either see this justification by faith was not new God didn't change his plan his nature his character they were all perfectly represented in Christ and so the reason why Paul brings up Abraham is that these people were clinging to Abraham for their hope and he says no not even Abraham he's he is of the same Romans chapter four six three not only Abraham but he says of David David also speaks of the blessing of the one whom God counts righteousness apart from works blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin not only Abraham but even the greatest king of Israel understood this Isaiah chapter 118 come now let us reason together says the Lord though your sins are like scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they are red like crimson they shall become like wool those of you who've been studying Isaiah with us you know that this passage is in the context of chapter after chapter after chapter of warning of judgment coming upon Israel because of their sin yet even in the context of judgment that he is proclaiming he's pleading with his people come now let us reason together because God's desire even in judgment is to forgive them is to bring them to himself and this is the same God of the cross this is the same message of salvation see Jonah Jonah you guys know the story of Jonah Jonah hated the Assyrians and rightfully so it kind of like today you have the Assyrians you know the the Isis were going around there beheading people women children burning down churches just so that they can intimidate other people force them to convert or to just dominate them so when we think about the terrorists we think of yet if anybody deserves judgments these people Assyrians were exactly the same the Syrians would crucify people burn them cut off their limbs and they would do it publicly so that everybody was walking around say if you mess with us this is what happens to you so they were known as a terrorist of that time so when God told Jonah to go to Syria we don't understand that he didn't want to go he didn't want them to repent so he goes reluctantly he preaches the warning the whole city comes to repentance and the response of Jonah in chapter 4 of 1 and 2 it says but it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was angry and he prayed to the Lord and said O Lord is not this what I said when I was yet in my country that is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful slow to anger abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster Jonah knew Jonah knew this God that he knew that if they would just repent even the Assyrians even these decapitators these terrorists that he would even forgive them see Jonah knew this the other prophets knew this Abraham knew this Moses news this see this salvation by faith alone was not a new product of the New Testament it wasn't plan B or C that was his plan from the very beginning and that's why he bringing in Abraham that this is not new third and finally Abraham's righteousness by faith teaches that works comes as a result of faith not faith as a result of righteousness okay so I'm gonna go through this last part but briefly now if Abraham is saved by faith now today when we say saved by faith is like well say by faith in what right we'll say okay Jesus Christ Son of God came emptied himself he was crucified for our sin he would no sin became sin that we might become the righteousness of God and so we memorize these scriptures he was crucified resurrected in the third day that we may also live with him eternity so we know the gospel what did Abraham confess if we're saved by the same faith and we were to ask the Old Testament Saints how are you saved he said well they're saved by faith faith in what because they never confessed Jesus they I don't remember any one of them saying that he's resurrected on the third day so that we may have resurrected life right if you look at Genesis 15 5 and 6 what did he believe God said come with me right come with me and I will make your descendants outnumber the stars Genesis 12 says I will bless you and many other nations will be blessed through you and he left everything and followed God and he said because of that it was credited to him as righteousness so faith of Abraham and the Saints was a broader belief in God that I trust God that even as I offer up my son I knew that even if he died if he wanted to he can resurrect him from the dead so I would even give my son and so he believed God and because he believed God he followed God he obeyed God and so when the scripture says in the Old Testament that their faith made them righteous it is a much bigger picture so does that negate the atonement of Christ obviously not because part of that faith was the belief that if you sacrificed that God would atone for your sins we come to the New Testament and we have narrowed our faith to a few theological statements that if we believe that Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross he was resurrected the third day in a tomb for my sin and I believe that then you are saved and all this other stuff doesn't really matter too much so we have narrowed faith to that and if you confess that one saved always saved right now let me take that and expand it because this is an extremely extremely important point how easy was it for you to believe that God of the universe sent his only begotten son right to die for undeserving sinners like you and me and we say I believe that yes I believe that and then we just raise our hand and just just receive it and then we say Jesus follow me follow me if you want to live follow me hmm not sure seek his funder first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you hmm it's hard to believe right hard to believe really if I give up everything and follow you you're gonna provide everything that's hard to believe right so Romans chapter 8 it says he who do not spare his own son how will he not along with him give him all things which is harder to believe which is harder to believe that Jesus Christ the Son of God died for sinners like you and me or that the God that we proclaim created the universe can take care of us if we follow him why is it so easy and so convenient to say I believe that I believe that I believe that's why I'm saved but when it comes to this tiny little thing that this God said follow me I mean if I gave you my son do you think I would withhold anything I give you a billion dollars you think I'm gonna be concerned about ten bucks I gave you a billion bucks you see why faith that does not produce works doesn't make sense it is inconsistent if it is genuine faith that we were able to believe this and says yes you died for me and have such a hard time believing that if we follow him that he has the best for us and then to say I don't know if I can believe that can that be true faith can that be true faith see Abraham believed and so he left everything follow even his only son I trust you and within that trust he provided a way of salvation in the blood of Christ so for us we look at it this way yes believing in God is much bigger than just a statement a few statement because if you really believe in that statement how will he not how will we not believe all the little things that come along with that does that make sense it is inconsistent to profess Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior who died for me unconditionally saved and my faith is justified by faith alone and then not to follow him see that's what faith in Abraham that's why Abraham is brought because Abraham is the perfect picture perfect example of salvation by faith let me invite I want to invite you guys to come and take take some time to pray with me and again you know the things that we're talking about Sunday morning may not be anything particularly new to you sometimes we know bits and pieces but but we don't have it all together and that's why we thought it was important for us to go through the book of Romans and we're not done yet there's so many things that we think about our faith that just have holes in it but we've never been challenged to think through these things right and maybe some of you guys are sitting here today and he said you know you've been living years thinking like as long as I hold on to this this particular statement of faith you know and not realizing that along with that comes all these other things but guess what all these other things if you really understand what they were is a path to freedom it is it's a path to freedom when you lose your life for the sake of Christ and you lose your competition for your reputation and you give up on this rat race and surrender your life to Christ then you can live you really can live think about how much of heartache and anxiety frustration merit of discord problems at work friendship raising children how much of that is produced because we are following the pattern of the God of this age Jesus says come to me if you want to be my disciples take up your cross deny yourself and follow me because that's the path to life would you take some time to pray with me as our team comes up again take a few minutes to come before the Lord and I think any prayer that's going to be sincere before you think about theological correctness and is it biblical be honest just like the psalmist when they were hurting they say God where are you why aren't you answering my prayers best prayer is the most honest prayer come before God wherever you are you know before you cry out to your friends before you cry out and seeking counselors come before God wherever you are I believe help my unbelief if you believe that answer is in Christ Christ is where we should be running to let's take some time to come for the Lord and seek him together.