Sunday, August 15, 2010: Faith of Abraham

Faith of Abraham
Romans 4: 1 – 17.


I. Introduction.

About once a week during the summertime, I remember a conversation I had with a church member about ten years ago. This man was driving his truck down the street his pastor lived on. When he came to the pastor’s house, he noticed the pastor was outside mowing his yard. He pulled to the side of the road and rolled down his window. The pastor stopped the mower and walked over to the truck. The church member said, “Preacher, you have two teenage sons living in your house. Can’t you get one of those boys to mow the yard for you?” The pastor replied, “Wilson, in my line of work, mowing the yard is the only thing I do all week that at the end of the day I can feel that I have accomplished something.”

I first thought that was just a funny story. But, now that I have been a pastor for over ten years, I recognize it is funny because it is true. (I don’t mean this as a complaint in any way. I feel called to be a pastor, and this is what I want to do—even on my most difficult days.)

It is hard to measure success in the church. I suppose the most common way to measure success for a church is to look at the three B’s—Budgets, Buildings and Bodies in the pews on Sunday morning. At this particular moment in time, our church does not seem to be doing so well in the three B’s.

Budget…I have recently finished my fourth year as pastor at Lufkin’s First Baptist Church. I started in June 2006. Since our budget year runs from January through December each year, I have been here for the end of four budget years: 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. We celebrated at the end of 2006, because we ended the year with a budget surplus. We celebrated in 2007, because we had another budget surplus. We REALLY celebrated in 2008, because we had the largest budget surplus any of us could remember. We didn’t celebrate very much in 2009, because we squeaked by with just enough money to replace our operating reserve. I’m worried about 2010! At the end of July, we have a budget deficit of $160,000—roughly 10% of our ANNUAL budget. We are facing some very difficult financial decisions in the Fall.

Buildings…We are probably in denial about our church buildings. Our oldest building was built in 1927. Our newest building was built in 1986. We are constantly having to do maintenance on our equipment and replace air conditioning or heating units.

Bodies in church…This is the statistic most people notice. You see who is here every week, and you notice who is not here. Since I came here 4 years ago, our attendance has been flat (at best) or slightly declining (at worse). My first two years were growth years. It seemed like someone was joining our church nearly every Sunday. Then, our town was hit with changes at Temple-Inland, Lufkin Industries and Citation Corporation. I have gone back and looked at the number of people who have joined our church in the past ten years. In the past four years, we have had over 200 people join our church by baptism or transfer. If you factor in the number of people who left our church through death or transfer, we have grown by a total of 7 new members. (The vast majority of those who left our church went to churches out of town.) Over the past ten years, we have had over 400 people join our church, but we have a net LOSS of 70 members.

If you just look at the three B’s, we are not doing so well as a church. However, that is not the only measure of success. There are intangible factors to consider like the spirit of unity in the church…there is the commitment to preach the Gospel and spread the Good News to our friends and neighbors…there is the importance placed on spiritual growth… There are tangible factors to measure as well. We have started three mission churches—Cross Timbers Cowboy Church has an average attendance of 190; La Casa del Alfarero has an average attendance of 115; and New Beginnings Baptist Church has an average attendance of 80. (That means 385 people are in church today who did not have a church home five years ago. The vast majority of those people joined our mission churches through evangelism and professions of faith.) We also have a missions partnership with Buckner International in Ethiopia. About ten of our members have gone to Ethiopia on mission trips in the past three years. And, don’t forget the work we did the week of On Mission Lufkin—160 people painted school classrooms and did demolition work at a different school campus. At least 70 of those people came from Lufkin’s First Baptist Church.

It’s hard to measure success in the church. Budgets, Buildings and Bodies in church are important measurements…But they don’t tell the whole story. (Please make sure you are up to date on your tithing and be faithful through the Fall.)

What about in the Christian life? In many ways, I think it is hard to measure success in the church, because it is hard to measure success in the Christian life.

The Christian faith is not like other world religions. The religions of the world have a method for measuring how their adherents are doing. Take for example the Five Pillars of Islam. All Muslims can measure how well they are doing by comparing their lives to the Five Pillars. These are the five things all Muslims are required to do: Profession of Faith (Allah is the one true god and Muhammad is his prophet), Daily Prayers, Fasting, Giving Alms (specifically during Ramadan), and a Pilgrimage to Mecca. Another example is the emphasis the Jews place on the Old Testament Law. For the Jews, the Law contains everything God expects of his people. Uphold the Law and you know you are being successful in your religion. Break the Law, and you know you have failed.

The Christian faith is not so easy. We don’t have a checklist. There is no scorecard for us. As a result, we sometimes find ourselves wondering about how well we are doing. Sometimes we feel close to God. Other times we feel like our spiritual life is empty or at least going no where. How can we know? How can we measure our success or failure in the Christian life?


Read Romans 4: 1 – 17.


In this passage, the Apostle Paul holds up Abraham as our example in the Christian life. Paul had a background in Judaism. So, he knew the story of Abraham from the Old Testament. He also knew that most Jews recognized Abraham as a hero of faith. It comes as no surprise to us that Paul chooses Abraham for his argument. It doesn’t surprise us, and it doesn’t surprise the Jews. However, Paul does surprise us in the way he uses Abraham as his example.


II. Righteousness.

Take for example Paul’s unique understanding of the word “Righteousness.” Most people think that Righteousness is something we do for God. That is certainly what the Jews thought in Paul’s day. That is even what Paul himself thought…At least he thought that until the day he met Jesus face to face. Meeting Jesus changed everything for Paul. He went from being a Pharisee who thought he could earn God’s favor by being good enough, to a man who was broken over his own sinfulness. He went from being a prideful man, boasting of all the good things he could do in his life, to a man who felt utterly inadequate to stand before a pure and holy God.

After Paul met Jesus, he realized that he could NEVER become good enough to enter into the presence of God. We don’t talk about this very often, but it is important. God is pure and holy. In order for human beings to enter into the presence of God, something has to change.

On one hand, God could compromise his standards and allow sinful, impure and unholy human beings to enter into God’s presence in Heaven. But there are at least two problems with this. First, everyone would be saved. Everyone would enter into Heaven after death. And, Heaven would be no different from earth—sinful people doing sinful things. Second, if God compromises his character, God will cease to be God. God’s purity and holiness are essential aspects of his character. Without God’s purity, God could not be trusted to do the right thing or to lead us in the right direction. God would be frightful and vengeful and angry all the time. Without God’s holiness, God would be just like us. After all, that is what the word “holy” means. It means “set apart” or “different.” God is not like us. God can be trusted. God is not like the pantheon of Greek and Roman gods, who were capable of sin and usually acted more like spoiled, human children than a pure and holy God.

On the other hand, if God does not compromise his character, then human beings must change. In order for a human to be “saved,” to be forgiven of sin and welcomed into God’s presence in Heaven, that human must be changed.

This is what sets apart the Christian faith from all world religions. Paul teaches us that we cannot change ourselves. There is no checklist of Laws or Pillars to check off in order eventually to be changed. Paul teaches us that Righteousness is not what you “Do” for God. Righteousness is what God has “Done” for you. It is the difference between “Do” and “Done.”

Abraham is our example. In Genesis 12, God spoke to Abraham while he was living in Ur. God called Abraham to go to a new land away from his support network of family and friends. God told Abraham that he would use Abraham to become a blessing for all nations of people. What did Abraham “DO” to deserve this calling from God? You might say, “We don’t know what Abraham did while living in Ur, because the Bible doesn’t tell us.” You are partly right about that…

However, look at Abraham’s life AFTER God’s call on his life. Almost immediately after hearing God’s call, Abraham fled the Promised Land to Egypt because of a famine. In Egypt, Abraham lied about his wife and placed all God’s promises in jeopardy. God intervened and rescued Abraham from himself God renewed his covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15. Again, almost immediately Abraham placed all God’s promises in jeopardy by taking a second wife and having a son that was not the promised child. Again, God intervened and rescued Abraham from himself.

If you think Abraham DESERVED God’s promises, you are going to have to say that Abraham was a better person before God called him than he was after. No. Abraham did NOT deserve God’s promises. God’s promises were a gift—a Grace from God. Abraham believed God…And, God CREDITED him as righteous.


III. Circumcision.

Paul proves his point about Abraham by reminding us of the distinctively Jewish practice of circumcision. Circumcision was the sign of Judaism in the ancient world. Only Jewish males were circumcised. The rest of the world thought this was a despicable practice and ridiculed the Jews for practicing it. As a result, the Jews took a lot of pride in their circumcision. It set them apart from the rest of the world and marked them as God’s people.

But, Paul reminds us of Abraham’s story. In Genesis 15, we read that Abraham believed God and it was CREDITED to him as righteousness. Then, in Genesis 17, we find the story of the first circumcision. That doesn’t sound like a very long time—Genesis 15 to Genesis 17, only two chapters of the Bible. But, some scholars tell us that there were as many as 29 years in between these chapters. God changed Abraham and CREDITED him as righteous at least 29 years before Abraham was circumcised.

By using circumcision as an example, Paul has accomplished a couple of things.

First, he has given us a timeline that places faith BEFORE circumcision. In the Book of Galatians, Paul says Abraham’s faith came 430 years before Moses received the Law from God on Mount Sinai. Faith takes priority over circumcision. Faith takes priority over the Law.

Second, Paul has just shown us that God’s Grace is universal. If Abraham was CREDITED as righteous without circumcision or Law, then anyone can be CREDITED righteous without circumcision or Law!

It reminds us of God’s original promise to Abraham. God did not tell Abraham that he would be a blessing to the Jews or even to the nation of Israel. God said Abraham would be a blessing to ALL NATIONS / ALL PEOPLES. This is where we ought to think about Abraham’s most famous descendant—Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus descended biologically from Abraham. Jesus was a Jew. Jesus was of the nation of Israel. But, Jesus did not come to be the savior of the Jews alone. Jesus came to be the savior of Jews and Gentiles alike.

This has been God’s plan from the very beginning of time. Because you and I could never be good enough to change our lives and enter into God’s presence. God provided a way to change us. God’s plan does NOT depend on either circumcision or the Law. God’s plan depends on faith…Faith like that of Abraham.


IV. Conclusion: Grace Guarantee.

Paul uses a great word in verse 16… “Guaranteed.” Salvation is guaranteed!

There is only one way salvation can be guaranteed. It must be through Grace. If salvation is based on the Law, we are going to fail…And even if we could succeed, we would eventually lose our salvation. If salvation is based on Pillars, we are going to fail…And even if we could succeed, we would stumble or forget and lose our salvation.

But salvation is a Grace gift from God. You did not earn it. You cannot deserve it. You cannot accomplish it by sheer strength, willpower or goodness. God must CREDIT it into your account.

Success in the Christian life is not like any world religion. It is not about how good you are. It’s about TRUST. God is pure and holy. God can be trusted. Are you willing to trust him? I’m talking about a lifestyle of trust. In the good times and the bad. In the certainty and the uncertainty. Whether you find yourself in the sunshine or the rain. If you only trust yourself, the bad times can be devastating. If you trust in God, he will lead you through the valley of the shadow of death.