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,