First week of Lent - March 8, 2006

Pentecost 4 June 8, 2008– = Romans – Promises kept

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St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church, Bullhead City

Dr. Earl J. Pierce

Grace, mercy and peace - - -

We have talked about power. Last week we talked about righteousness. Now, our word for today turns our atten= tion to the word “promise” which we find at the heart of the word fa= ith. The word of the Lord for today is Romans 4:13-25

Romans 4:13̵= 1;25

¹³For the promise to Abraham and his offspring tha= t he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. ¹⁴For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. ¹⁵For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.<= o:p>

      16That 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, ¹⁷as it is written, R= 20;I have made you the father of many nations”—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. ¹⁸In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” ¹⁹He 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. ²⁰No distrust made him waver concerning the promis= e of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, ^{<=
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style=3D'font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.0pt'>21}fully convinced that G= od was able to do what he had promised. ²²That is why his faith = was “counted to him as righteousness.” 23But the words “i= t was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24but for ours also. It = will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord= , 25who was delivered up f= or our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Come, follow me! Have you heard those words before? Yes, of course, they are the words by which Jesus called his followers. But, you have probably heard in them in other contexts as we= ll, right? Those of you who served in the military are probably quite familiar = with them, come, follow me, men, women. But, I would like to take you back furth= er, back before your military service, back before Jesus called Matthew, all the way back to the first time this phrase was heard in the bible. Back to the = time of Abraham, and even a touch further back than that.

          Paul tells us that Abraham heard those words and followed the promise. But, even before Abraham, while we do not have these words spelled out, it seems that even Abraham’s father Terah heard them as well. That’s way back, way back to not long after the flood of Noah’s day. In Genesis we rea= d:

Terah took his son Abram, his grands= on Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram,= and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when th= ey came to Haran, they settled there.

Terah was on his way to Canaan,= the land of promise, long before Abraham made the trip. Did he have a vision? D= id the Lord call him with the words “follow me?” We don’t kn= ow, but that’s where he was headed when, it seems he got sidetracked and = put down roots in Haran. Now, I don’t want to make too much of an argument from silence. The Bible doesn’t say that Terah didn’t believe G= od, but something caused him to stop short of the promise land. Often we don’t stop to think how long lives were back then and how history was known because those who made it were still around. When Terah made the move= to Haran Shem was still living. Shem, yes, one of the sons of Noah. Terah and Abraham could have heard firsthand the description of the flood from one of= the participants, from one of the 8 saved through the water. But, still Terah failed to go on to Canaan. But at least he could have and probably did pass= on to his children the promises of God made to Adam and Eve of an eventual sav= ior, to Noah that he would not destroy the world by flood again. Abraham would h= ave known that his God was a God of promises and a God with the power, not only= to destroy the world, but to keep his promises.

          Abraham would have heard the stories of the righteousness of Noah, not because of t= he works and deeds of Noah, but because he walked with God and believed the promises of God. Most of us probably remember Bill Cosby’s descriptio= n of the conversation between God and Noah – Noah, I want you to build an = ark. Yeah, right. And so on. In reality, Noah didn’t answer Yeah, right. N= o, the Bible tells us “Noah did everything just as God commanded him.” No questions asked. No need for an explanation from G= od. Just simple trust. Just simple obedience to the one Noah knew was faithful = and would keep his promise.

          Abraham probably knew that story well, so well, that when he heard the voice of God= , he responded just like great-great – how many great grandpa Noah. We rea= d in Genesis 12 - So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. 75! – How many of you would pac= k it all up, not just for the winter, not just to escape the summer heat, just p= ack it all up and move over 600 miles because of a promise? =

          Even a promise that you would be heir of the world! And so time went on. He move= d to Canaan. No child. He followed his flocks. He grew in power and wealth. Stil= l no child. Remember, he started out at 75, 20 years later, still no child. But Abraham still trusted the promise because he trusted God.=

“He did not weaken in faith w= hen 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 w= omb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew stron= g in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do = what he had promised.”

          So, what does it take to believe a promise, even a promise like “follow me?” First off, we have to know who is making the promise. In Hosea we read

Come, let = us return to the Lord; = ^=
3Let us know; let us pr= ess on to know the Lord; his going= out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth . . .

          To follow the promise we have to know who it is that is promising. That what H= osea is saying – let us press on to know the Lord. And God does want us to know him – as Hosea goes on quoting God. “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.&#= 8221;

          How many promises have you heard, lately? Live, radio, TV. Especially during th= is political campaign season. I don’t doubt the sincerity of the promise= s, but you, like me, and many of the commentators, do question the person behi= nd the promises. Yes, it would be great to have $1 gallon gas, world-wide peac= e, everybody loving everybody else. Great promises, but can the person promisi= ng deliver?

          That’s where we really have to get down and get to know the person. Are they trustworthy first of all. Do they keep their promises? And then, just as important, Can they keep their promises? How can we answer those questions unless we get to know the person. Likewise with God.

          Throughout the Bible He challenges us to get to know him, get to know him better and b= etter. He calls us to take the challenge and find him faithful. Taste and see that= the Lord is God. Call upon me in the day of trouble. Come and see. Seek him where   .   .and . . while he may be found.

          We’ve started our Got Questions class this week to help those new to our church, = and those of us still wanting to draw closer to God in this promise. God does n= ot call us to obedience without question. It’s not like mom saying “Because I’m the mom, that’s why.” Although, He cer= tainly could. No, He wants us to come to the point where we too can say “I k= now in whom I believe.”

          When the Holy Spirit brings us to the point where we can say that, we also arriv= e at a point where we can believe the promises of God because we believe God. In= the first setting of the Divine service we tried last week at the Harbor we have the line “But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” That com= es from John’s first letter and points us to the assurance that to know = God is to know that he will keep his promises.

          So, as we come to know God, we next= have to ask “can He keep his promises?” Now, that’s different = that will he keep his promises. Will he keep his promises is about character. Ca= n he keep his promises is about ability.

          We read earlier that Abraham “was fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.” He knew the character of God and he knew the ability of God. And the ability of God we see so clearly in the one who cal= ls us, Come, follow me, our Lord and Savior, Jesus. Jesus is the ability of Go= d, the keeping of the promise made to Abraham long ago. Jesus says in John 8 -= Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.

          Abraham knew that God had the ability, the ability to make payment for our sins, to fulfill the promise, the ability to die. Only in Jesus we see that ability,= to die and rise from the death, keeping the promise to Abraham, keeping the promise to you and me. In Jesus we see not only the character of God but the ability of God, to turn water into wine, blindness into sight, deaf into so= und, and death into life.

          In Jesus the promise is made sure. Sure for Abraham, sure for you, sure for me. Holding on to the promise, in spite of all human evidence to the contrary is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the wo= rds “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, w= ho was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.<= /o:p>

          Ah, that word justification – hold onto that for next week. Amen