Abraham – The Father of All Who Believe

About this sermon

Introduction: What Paul does with the story of Abraham is amazing. At the end of chapter 3, Paul asks a series of questions that test our understanding of the gospel. Those 6 questions demonstrate three important points. 1. There’s no room for boasting because salvation is not by works. 2. There’s no other gospel, because God is one and all human beings are united in their sinfulness. 3. The gospel does not overthrow the law, it establishes it. He then comes to chapter four and he takes Abraham as his test case. And as Paul explains Abraham’s relationship with God, he illustrates IN ORDER the points that he made with those six questions. He doesn’t announce that he’s doing this. He simply does it, and it’s easy to track. *He said at the end of chapter three that salvation is by grace alone and by faith alone, so that there is no room for any human boasting. (Vs.27-28) So, he begins with Abraham and David and demonstrates that these men were justified by believing God. He says specifically that Abraham had nothing to boast of before God. (4:2) So, in the first 8 verses of chapter 4, Paul has illustrated his first point that ended chapter 3. Now he comes to a second point beginning at verse 9. And if you did not pay attention to the end of chapter three, it would be easy to misunderstand Paul’s emphasis here. -Because he begins with the issue of circumcision some people believe that this is his main focus. To show, specifically that people are made right with God on the basis of faith, not circumcision. There is no doubt, as we will see, that he makes clear that people are not made right with God on the basis of the sign of the covenant. But remembering chapter 3 we will recognize that this is not really his main focus. What does he deal with in 3:29-30? He deals with the fact that there is only one God; only one way of salvation and that God has purposed to save Gentiles just as surely as He has purposed to save Jews. Paul’s main focus is not circumcision, per se, but the UNITY OF MANKIND IN ITS SINFULNESS AND NEED FOR THE GRACE OF GOD, AND UNITY IN TERMS OF BEING OBJECTS OF THE GRACIOUS SAVING CHOICE OF GOD. This is what he is addressing in these verses. Now, before we look at these verses, just a couple of points of observation. Martin Lloyd-Jones perceptively mentioned these two things. He just mentioned them but I’d like to drill down on them a bit. The very way that Paul is teaching us speaks to us about human beings in general and about Paul as a teacher. 1. DO YOU SEE THE STUBBORNNESS OF SINFUL UNBELIEF? Do you notice how persistent and stubborn man is in the blindness of his sin? Isn’t it amazing that Paul knows he must answer objection after objection? He is preparing THE CHURCH with the knowledge of the gospel, and with the objections that the church will hear as it engages in its witness. Do you notice, even in your own experience with witnessing how people will raise the same objections over and over again? And you will answer them, and answer them sufficiently with the scriptures, but then they will bring them up again as if you never even answered them? And isn’t it an amazing testimony to the truthfulness of the gospel and the unity of men in sin, that people who have never talked to one another, who have no knowledge of other people’s answers, will raise the exact objections, and in many cases WHEN THEY HAVE NEVER EVEN HEARD THE EVIDENCE?

Topics

• Faith
• Parenting