Bible Guys Classics: Romans 4

Hey, everybody, we're the Bibble guys. And if you're just tuning in recently, just know that we are showing a little bit of reruns for a few months and then we'll be back bigger and better than ever on August thirty first, because behind the scenes we're taking a hiatus to do some very important things. Yeah, we're building building out a new studio and we've got some new structure. Super excited about it. So August thirty first, brand new content. But in the meantime, enjoy some of our greatest hits. Hey, Chris, I've got a song for you, man I love if you know it, maybe just sing along with me. It goes like this, Father Abraham sons. Many sons had Father Abraham. I'm one of them, and so are you, and so are you. So let's just praise the Lord. Right, that's right, good enough. Hey, By the way, if you grew up in church, everybody knows that's right right. But if you didn't grow up in church, just know that today we're talking about Abraham's faith and how he is justified. That's we're in Roman chapter four today today. Because Jeff is in India, he's Kyle, I'm Chris, and today we are the Bible guys. Well, Kyle, yes, sir, today we have a segment that has been handed to us that I have not read a single syllable of it. Yes, but it is the dad jokes. Yes, And honestly I lovedad jokes because I'm a dad and I got two daughters, and I used to think I was a cool dad. And I'm getting older and trying to realize I'm not a cool dad. By the way. I was in church a couple of days ago, obviously with you, and you know, a lot of times the people who attend our church that listen to the Bible guys, and you know, out of all the segments that we do, I usually get feedback on segments, you know, and I hardly ever hear my dad jokes. And some guy who passed me just on Sunday and he goes, hey, I said what, and he goes, I love dead jokes and I said really, and he goes, They're so great. I thought, wow, So you know who you are. So this segment is for you. It's great. All right, here's our first one. All right, you ready for this for sure? Okay, first dad joke, do trees poop. Oh my word, the answer is this. Of course they do. That's how we get number two pencils. Oh my goodness. That was actually really good. I liked it. Right now, I'm gonna just kind of scroll down and see. Okay, here we go. Here's the next one. Today I started an argument with my wife while I was riding in an elevator. I was wrong on so many levels. That's good. That's actually really good. That's good. Actually, way to go, man, that's actually that's great. She's wrong on so many levels. I have to use that one for my wife. That's good, all right. Third one, here we go. What do you call a snake that's exactly three point one four meters long? Oh meters? I don't know. I was gonna try to guess, but I can't guess. Okay, I'm gonna repeat this. What do you call a snake that's exactly three point one four meters long? It's a pie thon? Oh pie three point one for Yeah, du that's a bad math joke, dude. Well, if I would have just remembered that, yeah, it's so random. It's really random. Okay, here's here's the third one, or another fourth one. Here we go. Ready, Today I found out that Dwayne Johnson lives in the apartment above mine. I can't believe that. For years I've been living under a rock. Oh jeez, dang, that wasn't as good. But hey, we're these pretty punny. We're like it. We're good. All right, here you go. Fifth one ye fun fact, sugar is the only word in the English language where sue means sound. At least, I'm pretty sure that's correct. I don't know if I get it because she's wrong, because she's saying sure, oh, okay, okay, okay, oh yeah, sure, that's really fun good all right, so uh this is the last one, apparently ready, all right. My first computer dates back to Adam and Eve. It was an Apple with limited just one bite and then everything crash. Okay, that's pretty good. Yeah, that's pretty good. That's good. You're not used to hearing computer computer humor. Yeah, and then it crashed and then it crashed. I'd just say it all crash or it crashed. That's pretty good. It says everything crashed. I like that. That's a good one. Good Apple joke, Apple computers trendy. Hey, Actually, one thing I would love for people to do. Anybody who's watching this, maybe who hasn't started following us on Facebook. Just a few weeks ago, I know we were over a thousand Facebook followers on the page. Is really cool. Cool, but also one of the things you may not know about. Maybe you're listening to this podcast or you're watching us, but one of the things we do on our Facebook page is we give a bunch of daily encouragement. We'll share other Bible verses, we may share highlight from the messages, a lot of those different ways to stay connected. So make sure if you can, if you have not already, go ahead and like follow our page and maybe even share it because I know we have a lot of people out there. There's one hundred people that listen every single day. They have hundreds, if not thousands people following them. It'd be cool if we got some more followers since people paying attention to the Bible guy. So yeah, hopefully it's beneficial. That's right. Well, listen, let me set the context before please Kyle reads it, and that is again Paul's writing to the Church of Rome that he's never been to, and he's just really giving his resume, introducing himself. But he's also laying out the theology. And so what he's about to do. Is he just finished up in chapter three talking about Jesus Christ paying for our sins. He's a substitution. And today he's going to basically link all the. Way back to Father Abrahraham, right, And it's because most of the people in the church are of Jewish descent. And they all love Abraham. And we all know that the promise was given to Abraham, and we all connect ourselves to him. In fact, most. World religions that even are different than ours, they all recognize Abraham. Abraham is the common denominator and in a lot of world religions. But anyway, so that's what he's about to do. He's about to basically talk about, Hey, this Abraham that you revere so much, there's a truth about him, and then we're going to lay it out. It's good. So chapter four verse starting in verse one, says us Abraham was humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What did he discover about being made right with God? If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God's way. For the Scripture tells us Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith. When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned. But people are counted as righteous not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners. David also spoke of this when he described the happiness of those who had declared righteous without working for it. Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight? Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin. Now is this blessing only for the Jews or is it also for uncircumcised gentiles. Well, we have been saying that Abraham was counted as righteous by God because of his faith, But how did this happen? Was he counted as righteous only after he was circumcised circumcised or was it before? Clearly, God accepted Abraham before he was circumcised. Circumcision was a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him, and it declared him to be righteous even before he was circumcised. So Abraham is a spiritual father father Abraham of those who have faith, but have not been circumcised. They are counted as. Righteous because of their faith, and Abraham is also the spiritual father of those who have been circumcised, but only if they have the same kind of faith Abraham had before he was circumcised. Clearly, God's promise is to give the whole earth to Abraham. I'm just laughing about Jesus least man. It's a lot here, Yeah, yeah, yeah, Abraham and his descendants who based not on his obedience to God's law, but on a right relationship with God that comes by faith. If God's promise is only for those who obey the law, then faith is not necessary and the promise is pointless, for the law always brings punishment on those who try to disobey it, and then it says the only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break. So the promise is received by faith. It is given as a free gift, and we are all certain to receive it whether or not we live according to the Law of Moses, if we have faith like Abraham's. For Abraham is the father of all who believe. That is what the scripture means when God told him I have made you the Father of many nations. This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing. Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping, believing that he would become the father of many nations, for God had said to him, that's how many descendants you will have. In Abraham's faith and not weakened, even though at about one hundred years of age he figured his body was as good as dead, and so is Sarah's womb. Wild one hundred years of. Age, Abraham never wavered in believing God's promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises, and because of Abraham's faith, God counted him as righteous. And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn't just for Abraham's benefit, It courted for our benefit, to assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if you believe in him. The one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised a life to make us right with God. Wow, there's a lot there, man. Yeah, it is. That's good. So all of chapter four he covers Abraham. He never wavers, and so let's go back to the very beginning. So he starts off by saying, you know, he's the father of our Jewish nation, and he asks the question right away, what did he discover. About being made right with God? Now, it's interesting if you think about that question. He's introducing the Abraham's the idea of Abraham, and then he's asking a foundational question to answer the question himself. And what he's really trying to say is. He's trying to prove that the Old Testament itself, the Old Testament that the Jewish people love, supports what Jesus has done with the law. Because people misunderstand. It's that same thing we talked about yesterday's podcast. People think, oh, you have to obey God and you have to obey the law. You have to do good deeds in order get to heaven. And Paul is saying, no, no, no, you know you don't get to heaven by that. You're made righteous through Christ. Christ took the pitnished punishment, everything else. But then he says, hey, let's talk about Abraham. This aligns your faith, your reverence of Abraham, if you really think about it. He said, what did he discover by beingre with God? Because Abraham was a man who got circumcised. Abraham was a man who was very famous for obeying God. God said, go, and Abraham went. God said, don't be afraid to sacrifice your only son, which is a whole. Other sermon altogether. Right, Abraham obeyed, and the Book of Hebrews the Hall of Faith talks about, you know, Abraham's actions right, and how they proved his faith right. But yet he wasn't made righteousness righteous by his actions. He was made righteous before he was circumcised. So Abraham actually was called when he was seventy five years old. Genna says, I don't know, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, somewhere around there. It's crazy. He was seventy five years old, right, Well they lived longer, right, yeah, still then, but then he wasn't actually circumcised until he was ninety nine, which is why the Bible actually says about one hundred. But he was ninety nine, So think about it. That's twenty four years later, you know, So you can't really necessarily look at the obedience of Abraham, because all you have to do is look at the fact that you know, again, it goes over and over, and it says he. Believed in God, and God counted. It for him as righteousness because of his faith, because of his belief. Right. So that's sort of what Paul is establishing. And I love that, by the way, because like you mentioned yesterday, Paul is an expert in the law right. So Paul's grew up as a pharisee. Paul is uniquely qualified to having known the law so well that he can just quote verses. Which, by the way, he does well. Abraham was probably a kid his like legend, right, I mean, like, yeah, Abraham. Was the guy that he would go to, you know, his go to guy. Yeah. And I imagine that when Paul quoted right at the beginning of verse seven, he quoted Psalm chapter thirty two, verses one and two, I would imagine that, you know, he probably didn't have a Bible next to him, right, and he quoted that because. He knows it. It was written on his heart. He knows the law, right. That's really cool. The one thing that stands out to me is like I think it is mentioned in here, but the joy of forgiveness, and I just love that that's saying the joy of forgiveness that Paul is talking about, but also he experienced, he experienced by the transformation that Jesus had done in his life, and it's completely the opposite of condemnation and guilt and shame. And you know, just reading through this and just seeing the fact that we find no condemnation in Jesus right, like he could have take that upon he took that upon himself. He could have given us. We could have been guilty as we are right, but instead he saw us as guilt free. He sees us and puts the shame on himself and the guilt on himself. But it makes me think, you know, this past week or a few weeks ago, actually Chris here was speaking at our church were part of Heritage, And it's interesting because you talked a lot about this idea of people feeling like, uh, you know, just to idea like they've messed up, right, which is kind of this This concept is a lot in Romans. Sure Where's God when I've messed up? And they don't want to share for anybody who doesn't go to Heritage's great message, go back and check that out. But I ended finding out after there's a lot of guys, which by the way, it's Heritage Church dourch dot com. Yes, great message from January, check it out with Chris here. But a lot of guys actually really resonated with the service. And I think what it was is you shared something personal that you had gone through in your life, some overcoming, some obstacles, some sin struggles, that sort of thing, and I think so many men that a lot of men struggle with, right, and so you know, it's really easy to live in the shame, live in the guilt, live and the pain from the past. And then talking about aout pornography. Yeah, and then the quote would close with the song and the song is called come Out of Hiding, Yeah, and it's by Stephanie Gretting or anyways, it just made me think of this idea of like condemnation, we're stot to come out of hiding, We're still come away and just like walk in the light that that Jesus gives us. And so reading over this I kind of was really resonating you with that song that we shared at Heritage a few weeks back, and that message you gave and the fact that so many people they seemed to see themselves through the lens of condemnation. They see this, seem to see themselves through the lens of shame, and that's not what God wants to see us. As that's great in the uh. And by the way, it's because you know, I feel like I have to unpack that, at least for a sentence. So when I first got married, I had decided to come out of hiding and come clean with my wife because I grew up with pornography in my home and and it was basically an every day part. Of my house. So so it was so bad that actually every person who came to visit my house would say, Hey, I'm gonna use the restroom, and then they would go in the restroom. They'd been there for like an hour, and it's because they were just you know, looking through magazines that were just unapologetically just stacked and you know, under the sink, and it was just there for everybody, And so everybody sort of knew that that was our household. And I grew up with that, and so my wife grew up in a household that is entirely different. She grew up in a nice Christian household, you know, and and and so you know. She didn't want to contrast. Well, she was not exposed to it. In fact, she was just blown away even the thought that, you know, when I said, oh, these magazines are under the saying. She's like, what are you talking about? Like how could that even be a thing. So anyway, what had happening was I can clean. I just said I don't want to enter into ministry because I was graduating from Baba College, you know, with this, with this hanging over me as a secret. I want you to know that I'm trying to overcome this and I'm trying to you know, not be a person that's like this. And she didn't understand because back then. She she didn't even know that men are attracted by sight and women are primarily not you know which. By the way, that's a thing. Yeah right, And she didn't even know that. And so it took us like an entire year, our first year of marriage, we didn't even talk to each other. So anyway, now we're thirty one years in the marriage. Good job, and so yeah, it's really. But I mean, I know pologies for bringing up that can of words, but I really think that this idea like for so many people, just like really was great. And hearing so many people, especially get men just coming out and saying wow, like I maybe have been living with a shame and living under a rock. As we talked about the dead jokes, you. Know, of the shame, I say, comfort of them to come forward and just see that they're the way God sees them is just really cool. Well, I think it's I think it's important to share that on the podcast. I think it's worth it because I think that there are a lot of people who you know, obviously the majority don't attend heritage who listen so to hear that, to hear like, can a pastor admit that the answer is yes? You know why because of what Paul is saying here. Yes, exactly, Paul is saying every one of us are sinners, every one of us falls short. You know, Uh, did you have something else? Because I was just going to comment on this circumcision. You Paul talks a lot about circumcision, and the reason why is because if you think about it, you know, if you're wondering about that, you're reading it and you're like, what is this, Why does Paul talk about that so much? Excuse me, Holy Christmas. Well, for a lot of our listeners who are children, you know, circumcision is a is an operation. We know it as an operation that babies get when they're born, right, and they do it just out of health reasons, and it's and that's exactly what it is. It's an operation for for males, for boys. And now think about it this way. So if you're in the Old Testament, and let's just say, you know, before Jesus walked the earth, and you are a person who decided to convert to Judaism, you had to do several things, several rituals. And the first ritual was a self cleansing ritual, which, by the way, is connected to our idea of baptism. But back in the Old Testament, it was a self. Cleansing one person ritual and you would actually have to you know, wash yourself, right. That's that's actually where the origin of baptism has come from. And since then it's been converted. You know, Jesus the idea that you know, Jesus died went under the earth, and that's why we get immersed. But anyway back. Then, that's what you would do, and then you have an operation, and in this operation would distinguish you. And so therefore it was an active obedience. It was by far the most difficult active obedience, right, absolutely, And so if you think about it, was it was one of these things where if you're a Jewish person, you're like, hey, listen, Number one, this differentiates us from the rest of the Heathens who don't believe in God. And number two, you know, it's an active commitment. And so it really did symbolize like. How committed you were, because after all, the more committed you are, the more you're willing to do. Let me say it this way. We were both youth pastors, right. I remember one of the highlights of my youth ministry is I had a three on three basketball tournament at stockbridg High School, Nice and I had three hundred students come out. Now that we're keep in mind, my. Whole church was the size of one hundred and eighty people. Wow on a Sunday morning. Yes, three hundred students. Wow. So three hundred students come out, very very big response for a three and three basketball tournament. And then the very next week, for some reason, I had another activity and I called it the Homeless Awareness Activity, and where we all spent the night in cardboard. Boxes in a plant in January. Okay, so but it was till January and uh and then we got up and served in a super kitchen. And I guess how many people flocked to that event? Oh dude, I fifteen twenty eighteen. Wow, yeah, you're right on the money. Yeah. So it's like there before, right, So the Jewish people are like, hey, how committed are you right to do this? Can you show up to play basketball? But you didn't show up for the homeless Awareness activity, and so I think you ought to show you know, you're not really committed. You're not really a Christian. You're not really going to be a part of our faith until you show up. For the homeless Awareness activity. Yeah. See what I'm doing there, right, And that and that's what that's what they're really saying. Yeah, and how committed are you? And that's the thing is, like Paul talks, You're right, he does talk a lot of body talks about circum decision in Galatians. It was a huge debate going out with the Jews. The Gentiles were like that, what do I have to do to have to go back and be circuled? Like what is going on right now? And he's saying that particular active commitment is no different than any other law that you feel like you have to obey. Yeah, because Abraham didn't do that till twenty four years later after he was called and he was considered righteous by his belief and that didn't come until later, and so it's it's it's really interesting how he was able to lay down, you know, the the. Abraham's life, even even down to the year. And I think that that's all it's funny because you read it and that you don't I mean, because he talks about it so much, Paul, there had to have been people must have This was clearly a debate of the time. And it almost like makes you wonder about how many things even Christians that we nowadays maybe debate about that we that are just trivial conversations and trivia arguments where we're almost missing the point right in a lot of ways. And that's kind of I mean, as we go in Galatians five, he talks about circumcision and you know the importance of that and it's love and all like all these different things, and it's it's so interesting that you know, Paul was constantly trying to just remind them what matters most. Well, you know, it's it's it's no different than what we do today. I remember calling uh Tom Blount as our pastor at another campus at Heritage, and we had this lyric in the in the song just on Sunday and uh, and it was actually uh it says it says if I were Jesus, I would say to hell with you. That was the lyric. But but the the person who wrote the song was quite literally talking about hell with like the physical hell. But it was but it was it was. Written very cleverly because it was actually written in a way that we would say to somebody flippantly, right. But he was talking about it literally. So it was in this song and so it was sort of edgy. And so he had called me up and he says, now, are we gonna address the fact that we're saying this in a song on Sunday morning? And it was so interesting, is here's what he said. He goes, because I remember one time Dwight Moody said the word hell in a sentence. And that's that's that's what this debate is. Here they're saying like, hey, let's talk about circumcision, and but Paul was saying, like, wait, let's talk about Abraham. Right. Everybody knows Abraham, right. I mean, he's he's no Dwight L. Moody, but he's he's better. He's Abraham. So that's what he's doing. He's saying, he's trying to he's trying to say, let's look at him, even even even he did not have to have these or hoops to jump through in order to be justified. Would you say the big takeaway would be for this particular chapter here, Yeah, I think that. What Paul is trying to say is it doesn't matter who you are, whether you're a spiritual giant, and whether you're known for these incredible deeds, that your righteousness is not earned, right, Your righteousness is actually given, It is gifted. Your righteousness is gifted to you, right, And so it doesn't matter whether you're comparing to yourself, to Mother Teresa, you know, an whether you consider yourself a dirty, rotten sinner, because you know, Paul equates those things being the same. All sins are not the same on earth, you know, in terms of like consequential, but all sins qualify us to be sinners. And so what Paul is saying is like, it doesn't matter whether you're Abraham or whether you're a brand new gentile Christian in Rome. Your righteousness does not depend on your actions. That it's great. So if you're listening here today, just know that you don't have to be a Bible guy, g pastor, or a staff member or father Abraham to be righteous. That's right. You start where you're at. You are righteous because it is gifted to you good good like that awesome. So that's a good place to end, and we will see you next time on the Bible guys,