1. "This is not distant history. Such times shake people's trust in words and promises, even of the most powerful people."

2. "In a city on the very hill where so much of the sausage of such speech is made, why should we believe great promises? Why should we believe great promises? What gives us more interest in hearing, more interest in understanding, more interest in believing and trusting the promises of the Bible than of our governmental leaders?"

3. "Even as they're building the inaugural platform for yet another consequential American presidential inaugural address, let's spend our time this morning giving attention to the more certain, more consequential, more enduring promises of the Word of God."

4. "If there is no word from God, Abram remains an idolater in Ur. If there's no word from God, Abram receives no promise to believe. So he has no promise of being the father of many nations. If there's no word from God, there is nothing for Abram to believe."

5. "So when we face the infinitely just Judge upon his great white throne, what hope do we have if there is no promise of God to believe, no promise from God? But praise God, there is. That's why we've experienced the exchange we've experienced. That's why we've come together as we have."

6. "Some of you sitting here are not very religious, and while you may have no animus against the Bible, you have little interest in it. I would simply ask you one question: why have you come to that conclusion? There is more to the Bible than you may have considered. There is a reason so many people around the world and down through history have found in this book what they find no place else."

7. "Now, in the original language, it's emphatic that the Lord's promise to Abraham was not written only for him. So Paul says this is not merely an academic discussion; it's personal. The Scriptures here are about our salvation from the just wrath of God against us because of our sins."

8. "This is one of those times where it's like we find a gigantic photograph of a huge group of the faithful over the centuries depicted, and all of a sudden we find down there in the corner our own face is there. Oh, we're in the picture. We're actually there."

9. "There is so much that's on the Internet and social media that is not for your good. And how much time do you spend just chugging it all in, really? You have to look at all the pictures? You have to read all the comments?"

10. "Again today, if you're here, friend, and you're not a Christian, the greatest trouble that you have today is not some political threat. It's not a military situation somewhere around the world. It's not the latest success of your opponent or rival or growing threats of some dictator's weapons. Your greatest problem is the sin in your own heart and the fact that you have offended a good and holy and sovereign God who made you and will judge you."

Observation Questions

1. Read Romans 4:18–19. What specific circumstances made it humanly impossible for Abraham to have the “offspring” God promised, and how are those circumstances described?
2. According to Romans 4:20–21, how did Abraham respond to God’s promise, and what two things are said about God that Abraham was “fully convinced” of?
3. In Romans 4:22, what is the direct result of Abraham’s faith, and to whom is that result attributed?
4. In Romans 4:23, what exact words does Paul say “were not written for his sake alone,” and who is the “him” in that verse?
5. In Romans 4:24, who are the “ours” for whose sake these words were written, and how does Paul describe them?
6. According to Romans 4:24–25, who is the One in whom we believe, and what two key events in Jesus’ ministry are highlighted as central to our justification?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why does Paul emphasize in Romans 4:23 that the words “it was counted to him” were not written only for Abraham, and what does this teach us about how to read the Old Testament?
2. How does the description of Abraham’s faith in Romans 4:18–21 help explain why faith—not works—is the means by which righteousness is “counted” to us?
3. In what way does Romans 4:24–25 connect Abraham’s experience of believing God’s promise to our experience of believing in the God who raised Jesus from the dead?
4. How does understanding that Scripture was “written for our sake” (Romans 4:23–24) support the sermon’s claim that the Bible is not just ancient history but God’s living word directed to us?
5. In light of Romans 4 and the sermon, why is it significant that God’s promise rests on His character and power rather than on our circumstances or performance?

Application Questions

1. Where do you most feel the temptation to trust human words and promises (political, financial, relational) more readily than God’s Word, and how does Romans 4:23–25 call you to reorder that trust?
2. What is one specific promise of God from Scripture that you need to cling to in a current “crook in your lot” (disappointment, loss, delay), and how could you practically keep that promise before you this week?
3. How could you reshape a regular family meal or gathering (such as Sunday lunch or an upcoming holiday) to reflect the sermon’s encouragement to bring Scripture and thanksgiving into your home life?
4. Thinking of Paul’s sense of obligation to others (Romans 1:14–15, discussed in the sermon), who are one or two people in your life with whom you could intentionally share God’s promises in the coming weeks?
5. What concrete step could you take to build a more Scripture-centered rhythm in your daily or weekly life (e.g., a reading plan, memorizing one verse, sharing a passage with a friend), and what might make it hard to follow through?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Genesis 15:1–6 — The original account of God’s promise to Abram and the statement “he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness,” which Paul quotes in Romans 4.
2. Romans 3:21–26 — Paul’s explanation of how God justifies sinners through the righteousness of Christ, providing the doctrinal foundation that Romans 4 illustrates through Abraham.
3. Romans 1:14–17 — Paul’s sense of obligation to all people and his summary that “the righteous shall live by faith,” themes picked up in the sermon under “Scriptures are to everyone.”
4. 2 Timothy 3:14–17 — A clear teaching that all Scripture is “breathed out by God” and given for our good, supporting the sermon’s emphasis that the Scriptures are from God and for us.
5. Isaiah 46:8–13 — God declares that His counsel will stand and He will accomplish all His purpose, reinforcing the contrast between fragile human promises and God’s certain, enduring word.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Contrast Between Human Promises and God's Word

II. The Scriptures Are From God

III. The Scriptures Are For Us

IV. The Scriptures Are To Everyone

V. The Eternal Reliability of God's Promises Compared to Human Limitations

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Detailed Sermon Outline

My countrymen, this occasion is not alone the administration of the most sacred oath, which can be assumed by an American citizen. It is a dedication and consecration under God to the highest office in service of our people. I assume this trust in the humility of knowledge that only through the guidance of Almighty Providence can I hope to discharge its ever-increasing burdens.

Some time later, he concluded, ours is a land rich in resources, stimulating in its glorious beauty, filled with millions of happy homes, blessed with comfort and opportunity. In no nation are the institutions of progress more advanced. In no nation are the fruits of accomplishment more secure. In no nation is the government more worthy of respect. No country is more loved by its people.

I have an abiding faith in their capacity, integrity, and high purpose. I have no fears for the future of our country. It is bright with hope. In the presence of my countrymen, mindful of the solemnity of this occasion, knowing what the task means and the responsibility which it involves, I beg your tolerance, your aid, and your cooperation. I ask the help of Almighty God in this service to my country to which you have called me.

So ended the inaugural address of Herbert Hoover, delivered 96 years ago in pouring rain on a specially built covered platform just down where East Capitol Street terminates into the steps of the U.S. Capitol. There, for 150 years, American presidents gave their first inaugural speech.

As President. These speeches were changing. President Coolidge, who was President until he took the oath of office there, four years earlier, earlier had been the first of the inaugural addresses to be nationally broadcast on radio. And in the intervening years, television took its first steps. In between those two, when he was Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover became the first man to have his face broadcast on television over telephone wires from Washington DC to New York City.

And now in 1929, Hoover's own inaugural address was the first to be recorded with a sound newsreel. Despite the rain, Hoover went on and on. His address totaled 3,800 words. Which is more than the last two we've heard put together. President Biden's in 2021 and President Trump's in 2017.

Even though his was so long, there were two men sitting there that day who had themselves given presidential inaugural addresses, and theirs were even longer.

Silent Cal, as Coolidge was known, had actually given his inaugural address four years earlier of over 4,000 words. And 20 years earlier, William Howard Taft, who as the Chief Justice of the United States had just administered the oath of office to Hoover, had given him the second longest presidential inaugural address in American history, over 5,600 words. Since that day for the last century these addresses have tended to be only about half as long or less. Why the change? Well we can speculate.

Part of it could be that Hoover's was the last inaugural address actually written by the man himself. Starting with the next one, FDR, speechwriters became the first people to write the speech that then would be edited by the man giving it. Presidents seemed more willing to cut others' words than they were able to tear down their own.

Hoover's was optimistic. I have no fears for the future of our country. It is bright with hope. And his words were greeted with hope around the world. In 1928, in the U.S. Presidential election, Hoover, the Secretary of Commerce for the last two administrations, had just defeated Al Smith, the beloved governor of New York, our most populous state at the time.

The election results seemed clear enough, 21 million to 15 million. Hoover's 58.2% of the vote to Smith's 40.8% in electoral votes it was 444 to 87. Hoover even won Smith's home state of New York. But regardless of how popular and celebrated Hoover's words may have been that day, backed as they were by the power of the presidency and summoning even the hopes and dreams of the American people, That very year, events were to betray and belie them. Less than eight months later, the stock market crashed.

Within months, millions lost their jobs. Industry ground to a halt. Banks failed as small businesses folded. The cascade of tragedies continued As foreclosures on family farms and family homes affected both rural and urban populations, homelessness and hunger reached unprecedented levels. Friends, when I became the pastor of this church, the congregation that I originally preached to, for most of the people there, that was within their living memory.

This is not distant history. Such times shake people's trust in words and promises, even of the most powerful people. Many of you are involved in the industry of governing or electing those who do, or of crafting their positions or their promises in words and phrases of speeches and letters. In a city on the very hill where so much of the sausage of such speech is made, Why should we believe great promises?

Why should we believe great promises? What gives us more interest in hearing, more interest in understanding, more interest in believing and trusting the promises of the Bible than of our governmental leaders? Why should I, why should you, Trust what is in the Bible. The Apostle Paul summarizes something that he's been doing throughout the fourth chapter of Romans that has been our long study this year. In our verse, chapter 4, verse 23, in the first few words of verse 24, we find the reason.

So please turn there now. Romans chapter 4, verse 23, and the beginning of verse 24. The Bible's provided, you'll find that on page 900. And 42, page 942.

Here's what we read, Romans chapter 4, verse 23.

But the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. What Paul is doing there, he's alluding to, he's quoting for the fourth time in this chapter the words of God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 15:6. The promise that we considered again last week really in summary of Paul's argument here in chapter 4. We've seen in this chapter Paul explain the idea that Christ's own goodness, His righteousness is counted or credited or reckoned or imputed all different words for the same idea. To us by God, and that the means of our so receiving this goodness that alone will rectify and restore our relationship with God is faith.

Why faith? We thought about that last week. Because faith points to our emptiness, to Christ's righteousness, to God's grace, God's power, the great extent of His mercy, and that it is therefore uniquely positioned to glorify God. This morning, as we look at this sentence before us, we wanna ask why we should follow the apostle Paul in giving such careful attention to these words. In this city, we know the truth about words.

What's different about these? Why should we pay such attention to these? And I see three reasons here in these words below. Number one, because the Scriptures are from God. Number two, because the Scriptures are for us.

And number three, because the Scriptures are to everyone. I'll give you those again. Number one, because the Scriptures are from God. Number two, because the Scriptures are for us. And number three, because the Scriptures are to everyone.

Even as they're building the inaugural platform for yet another consequential American presidential inaugural address. Let's spend our time this morning giving attention to the more certain, more consequential, more enduring promises of the Word of God. I pray that He help us do just that here today.

So why should we give such careful attention to these words? Number one, the Scriptures are from God. Look at our verse again. But the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. So Paul is quoting the promise of God to Abraham recorded in Genesis 15:6.

Now to be exact in the narrative, if you go back and look at it, these words were not written. They were spoken to Abraham by the Lord. When Paul mentions they're having been written, he is combining they're initially being spoken by the Lord to Abram with Moses writing down of the same. The first five books of the Bible are referred to as the books of Moses because he is the one in these books themselves mentioned as writing down various portions of them. And when these books are quoted in the New Testament, they are regularly referred to as being of Moses.

So Moses, in combination with some other unnamed writers, wrote down what God commanded him to.

When it comes to the material in Genesis, like the accounts of Abraham's life and God's promises to him in Genesis, that's Genesis chapters 12 to 25, our simplest and best assumption is that Moses took these truths, whether they were handed down orally by memory or were directly revealed to him by God, he took them and he wrote them down. And that the written that Paul would be combining here in verse 23 with the initial verbal promise to Abram. And what that means is that the promise that was specifically to Abram in Genesis 15 had a purpose in other people's lives as well.

So when God inspired them being written down by Moses, there was another purpose consistent with the first that he was pursuing. Even as Abraham's faith in God's promise of numberless offspring was approved, so would this be a model for the Israelites Israelites at the time when Moses was leading them out of Egypt in the Exodus to the Promised Land, Moses was teaching them that this promise-making God should be trusted. And now they had a promise of their own, this land before them that they were to be able to take by the power of God. Let's pause to consider that this Word of God was not Abram's guess at an unlikely but desired future.

If you read things like the Joyce Meyer Study Bible, which I may sometimes do in preparation for these sermons, you will find that faith is often mispresented as your own cherished desire kind of sanctified and dressed up, and then you're not to believe that what you want won't happen. Friends, that's gonna be a satanic confusion of God's truth with your own desires. Look at what faith is according to the Bible. Faith according to the Bible is what we see in God's promise to Abraham. That's the object.

It's what God has actually said. When God gave this promise to Abraham verbally, he set the pattern for communicating verbally to his people his character along with his specific actions and intentions and therefore his expectations of those who would follow him.

So Paul would later write to Pastor Timothy in Ephesus, All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. The Scriptures, and first of all these five books of Moses, are from God because they are by God. They are every bit the Word of God as if they had been dictated. So sometimes you may have heard in some Bible college class about the dictation theory of inspiration. That's a clumsy term.

It's taken in part from Warfield and before him, Gaussen, who said that not that God actually used a method of dictation, but that the results of God's inspiration of the writer were as certain as if the words had been dictated. Not really addressing the method by which it happened. But friends, what we see here is that these are every bit as much the Word of God as if they had been dictated. The result is surely that God's words are here. And that means that when we say in our church's statement of faith that we believe that the Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is a perfect treasure of heavenly instruction, that it has God for its author, that's what we mean.

It's what Peter would write, Men spoke from God. As they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Again, note the prepositions. From God, there in 1 Peter, by God in 2 Timothy. Peter and Paul were simply following the way that Jesus taught Scripture.

For example, in John 10, when Jesus is thinking through the Scripture's teaching on a matter, he simply said, As an aside, in verse 35, the Scripture cannot be broken. That was one of the assumptions of Jesus. Scripture cannot be broken because it is God's Word and God is Himself a God of truth. And therefore what He speaks is true, so we can rely on it. Some of you sitting here are not very religious and while you may have no animus against the Bible, you have little interest in it.

I would simply ask you one question: why have you come to that conclusion? Have you really given much time thinking about it? I think it would bear more inspection than you might consider. Maybe you think there's some people just born religious. We'll let religion have those people.

Hopefully it won't hurt me. You're here because somebody invited you. You're here with a family member. I would just tell you as one former agnostic who's ended up as a Baptist preacher, There's more to the Bible than you may have considered. There is a reason so many people around the world and down through history have found in this book what they find no place else.

At least give some time to consider it.

Look up in Romans 4:3.

Paul posed the question, For what does the Scripture say? And back on June 16th of this year, I preached a whole sermon just on that first question. Before I went on to the quotation, and what I did there was to try to look specifically at the reason Paul turned to the Bible and treated it as entirely trustworthy and true. So if you would like to consider more of that, perhaps find some time, go to the church's website and learn and listen to that message again about the Word of God. Friend, we have God's Word here today.

These Scriptures have been accurately translated. In their original languages they have been carefully transmitted down to us from the time of their writing. At the time we trusted they were accurately transcribing what was happening, like the Lord's promise to Abram that we consider in Romans chapter 4. And most importantly, these well-translated, carefully transmitted, accurately transcribed promises of God, here's the cash value of it all, are true.

That's what it all comes down to. God spoke His ancient promise to Abram. He had reasons for having it sat down and recorded for His people in the days of ancient Israel and to be preserved and read by His people and through to the time of Christ and the Apostles. Because of this, Abraham has always been an example of faith. And so we read of this promise and the rest of God's Word because we know that Knowing and remembering the Bible is the seed and soil of faith.

We read and study and meditate on and memorize the Bible because we know that it is God's Word and it is always to be believed. Brothers and sisters, that's why our church's life is arranged as it is. Have you noticed that? Maybe all churches are like this. Well, I know that's not true because they go on vacation, but certainly, Our church is, if you were to look through the bulletin, you'll find at least six Scripture passages referenced.

We read an entire Psalm out loud. We read a portion of a gospel. We're hearing a sermon here for the largest single portion of the service on a sentence from the Bible. We structure our times together around God's Word, and we do this because we know that, like Abraham of old, if there is no Word from God, Abram remains an idolater in Ur. If there's no word from God, Abram receives no promise to believe, so he has no promise of being the father of many nations.

If there's no word from God, there is nothing for Abram to believe, so to be counted or imputed as righteousness and so be justified before God.

And in fact, Abraham would have been lost and condemned in the life beyond, like so much of the mass of humanity without God and without hope in this world and the next. So when we face the infinitely just Judge upon His great white throne, what hope do we have if there is no promise of God to believe, no promise from God. But praise God there is. That's why we've experienced the exchange we've experienced. That's why we've come together as we have.

That's what we find in the Bible. So we give careful attention to the words of the Bible because they are from God.

Second reason. Why should we give such careful attention to these words? Because number two, the Scriptures are for us. So they're from God, they're for us. Look again at our verse.

But the words that was counted to him were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. Now in the original language it's emphatic that the Lord's promise to Abram was not written only for him. You see those crucial words there at the beginning of verse 24, but also for us, or but also for ours. So Paul says, this is not merely an academic discussion, it's personal. The Scriptures here are about our salvation from the just wrath of God against us because of our sins.

Well, seeing in just a little while in the third stanza of and Can It Be about Adam's helpless race and long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's night. And there Charles Wesley was using biblical images to explain his own lost condition before God's Spirit gave him new birth and made him a new creation. And that happens by faith in the promise of God and especially by believing in Jesus Christ as Paul has written about so clearly in Romans chapter 3 just before this. We know this about the Scriptures Generally, they are written for our salvation about the God who saves. Psalm 79:9, Help us, O God, of our salvation.

For the glory of your name, deliver us and atone for our sins for your name's sake. Isaiah 25:9, It will be said on that day, Behold, this is our God, we have waited on him that he might save us. This is the Lord, we have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. So here the Scriptures are not just about Abraham's being counted righteous, but about us being counted righteous, about us being saved.

Friends, I don't know if you've noticed it, as we've been reading through chapter 4, it is full of third person indicative statements about God and Abraham and David and Scripture. But here in verse 24, there is a dramatic shift from all these third person indicatives to the first person, ours.

It's like Paul had been turning his back on the Roman Christians and explaining on some big board the vast program of God, what he'd been doing in history, and then all of a sudden here he turns and he locks eyes with the Roman Christians and he talks about what God has done for us. This is how we are involved. The words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone, but for ours. Also. You see the excitement that Paul would feel in saying that after this chapter of indicative information.

A few times in chapter 4, Abraham had been called our father. But now here, this is the clearest we we've come to view so far in Paul's letter. The Old Testament promise was spoken to Abraham and then was later written down for the use of Moses with the Israelites. But now here, Paul clearly understood it as applying to himself and to the Roman Christians. The Jewish and Gentile believers he was writing to, and by extension we believe that it's true for us here today too in 2024.

Paul has recounted all this to apply Abraham's example to us. Our justification, our being made right with God comes not by our own works, but by our faith in God's promise. God promised Abraham that he would give him a son. God has promised us that He has given us His only Son as our Savior and Substitute. Abraham was called to believe that God would bring life out of death and barrenness.

We are called to believe that God has and will give us new life through the life and death of His Son, Jesus Christ. Friends, this is one of those times where it's like we find a gigantic photograph of a huge group of the faithful over the centuries depicted in all the sudden we find down there in the corner, our own face is there. Well, we're in the picture. We're actually there. I remember as a young Christian, the first time I was reading John 17 with this understanding and I came to verse 20 and I almost fell out of my chair.

When Jesus prayed in John 17:20, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. And I realized that Jesus Jesus prayed for me. It was just extraordinary. Jesus prayed for me. My Christian friend, have you ever noticed that?

Have you ever noticed how God has included you in the promises recorded in His Word? Dear friends, do not miss the message of this portion of God's Word, saving faith is in the God who has come in Jesus, who was delivered over for our sins and raised for our justification. The faith of Abraham points to Jesus. Paul tells us here that Genesis 15:6 was written down in part for us.

So when Moses in the desert of Sinai is scribbling down these words literally physically, part of the reason why, It's because of you. God is so sovereign, but the words that was counted to him were not written down for his sake alone. Genesis 15:6 was not just written concerning Abraham. And what is Paul going to say, verse 24, but for our sake also, not just for us, but for all who will trust in Jesus. That's what we're gonna hear about in just a few more minutes from the testimonies by Tucker and Audrey.

That they've come to see this promise is for them. And oh, my non-Christian friend, we are praying that you will see it can be for you if you will trust in Jesus. If you want to think more about that this afternoon, just go back and read Romans chapter 3, the chapter right before this in Romans. He talks about it so clearly there.

Kids, if I can speak to you for a second. You realize that your Creator is still speaking to you by means of His Word, the Bible.

So find some promises in it that you really like and write them down. I know one young man who writes them on cards, makes a stack of them. Make stickers of them. Put them on your desk, or put them up on your wall next to posters of things that you like. I remember when I was a teenager, when I went off to college my freshman year, my room was on the first floor of the dorm and just down from the dorm was the lounge.

If you go out my door, to the left is the lounge, and to the right is the bathroom. What that meant is the epicenter of the parties were on the left-hand side in the dorm. Lounge, and to the right-hand side is where everybody went. So I made my own handwritten poster of Psalm chapter 4 verse 7 and put it on the door right there so when my door was closed, that verse would be there big. You know Psalm 4:7?

You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.

I always had a way with people.

That's why some people call me a turkey.

Brothers and sisters, how are you making this the preeminent promise in your view?

There is so much that's on the internet in social media that is not for your good? And how much time do you spend just chugging it all in? Really, you have to look at all the pictures? You have to read all the comments?

In this fallen world, our paths are filled with twists and turns of hopes dashed, or at least delayed. How will we get through it unless we go for something that is written for our good? That's the Scriptures. Friends, the Scriptures are written for our good. Many of you have read Thomas Bosson's Crook in the Lot.

He talks about crook as those things that happen in our lives that we wouldn't choose. And our lives are full of them. Discouragement at work, as you're passed by for a job you'd love. Many of us have good friends who we know are headed down to Texas because of a friend's son. Who suddenly died.

Friends, life is filled with things like this. Some of you have serious concerns about your health and the doctor's visit only confirms those concerns. Worries about marriage never happening as the years pass by. Wondering, would I be better off just to marry an unbeliever?

Trying to rejoice with another couple who have announced they're engaged or they're pregnant. When you're not and would love to be, hugging one more friend in the parade as they head off with smiles facing toward their new home across the river or across the nation or across the world, trying to remember that this world is not our home, that our family in Christ is with us wherever we are and will be with us forever when He assembles us all around the throne soon enough. Soon enough, struggling for faith to believe that God will provide for you in the loneliness of your singleness or in the loneliness of your marriage.

Jobs feeling stale or even being lost, health failing, loved ones lost. Brothers and sisters, I know that these crooks fall in all our lots, and they can shake and rock the most solid among us. But I thank God for the many examples you supply daily of putting your hope in God, of continuing to trust in Him, even when all the circumstances don't line up as you would wish, despite your heart being broken, when good desires are unfulfilled. And unsettling fears confirmed, okay, I will have to go through this thing that I was fearing.

Don't be fooled by all the things God hasn't promised you. That's why that Joyce Meyer kind of thing is so dangerous. It tricks you and then you get disappointed. But that's not really God you're disappointed in. It's real disappointments.

But keep your eyes on what you what you have been promised by God and what He has already given you in Christ. Store the Scriptures in your heart. It is full of promises for you in your situation. Pay attention to the Scriptures because they are for us.

Why should we give such careful attention to these words? Because, number three, the Scriptures are to everyone. The Scriptures are from God for us, and they're to everyone.

See how that's there implied in our verse? Look at our verse again. But the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. The very clarity of Scripture obliges us to share God's promises with others. The Scriptures are, Paul's been arguing, not just for the adherence of the law, as he says up in verse 16, but there to all.

Verse 16, that 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 adherence of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. The fact that Abram was counted righteous by God in Genesis 15 because not of his circumcision, but because of his believing God and His promise to him, His taking God at His Word, then implies that God's promise of salvation, the gift of Christ's righteousness, is accessible to all who will believe, all who will believe. What the Scriptures teach is good news for those who believe and are circumcised, and for those who believe and are not circumcised, is what this letter to the Romans is all about. It's the message about faith in God and His promises. As Paul began by quoting the prophet Habakkuk, the just shall live by faith.

Turn back to chapter 1 of Romans. Just turn over one page. Look at chapter 1.

Look at Paul's own sense of obligation with this message. Verse 14, I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. I think this is part of the same passion that Paul's going to share with them later in chapter 15 when he says that I make it my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ has never been named. So what is this obligation that Paul understood himself to be under?

He had contracted it by being personally called by the risen Christ to be a herald to the nations, to the Gentiles. We know that from Acts. But I'm asking a little more simply: how can we understand what that obligation was like? What did Paul mean when he wrote about that obligation? Well let's say two different ways you could owe $20 or I could owe $20 to you.

That'll be a better illustration. You'll pay more attention to that one. I could have borrowed $20 from Jenny, you know? And so then I owed Jenny $20. So I gotta pay her back.

But you know, there could be another way to you know, Leanna could be like headed out of town and had $20 was supposed to go to Jenny and Leanna could give it to me and say, Hey, can you give this $20 to Jenny? Ah, there I would also be under an obligation to give Jenny the $20. It's that second one that what Paul is talking about here in Romans 1 that we Christians have with the gospel. We are under obligation. We have been given something for someone else.

So it's for us. But it's also for us, for others. It's been given to us specifically to give to others. That's what Paul is talking about, the obligation that he has. If nothing else, the spiritual richness of the provision we've been given in Christ would demand that we share with those in spiritual need, in spiritual trouble, especially if God had made such provision for others, Jews and non-Jews, whoever would believe.

And friends, none of us has received the apostles' call on the road to Damascus. The gospel's provision is so and our Lord's commands are so clear to all of his disciples, but we cannot but feel the obligation that we have to those who are lost and in need. Again, today, if you're here, friend, and you're not a Christian, the greatest trouble that you have today is not some political threat, it's not a military situation somewhere around the world, it's not the latest success of your opponent or rival, or growing threats of some dictator's weapons, your greatest problem is the sin in your own heart and the fact that you have offended a good and holy and sovereign God who made you and will judge you. Even Abraham, the father of the faithful, needed to be justified before God. He could not be justified by his own actions, his own life.

It was only Paul argues here in chapter 4 by his faith in God, by his believing in Jesus Christ. Oh friend, you want to understand what that means for you. What would it mean for you to believe in Jesus Christ? That's what you should do, to be forgiven by God. Dads, I wonder how you're planning on holding out God's promises to those who join you this Thanksgiving.

For many years Connie and I had the joy of welcoming not only our own children, but other friends, neighbors, relatives to a Thanksgiving meal. And at that time we would always include other elements before the food. I would read an old account of the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth Plantation with the local Indians. I would read a psalm. We would sing a hymn around the table with words and music provided.

Either Now Thank We All Our God or We Gather Together. I would read select presidential proclamations because we wouldn't have Thanksgiving in the U.S. without a presidential proclamation. I'd read one by Washington, I'd read one by Lincoln, and then I'd read one by whoever the current president was for that year. So we read them by Washington and by Lincoln, by Reagan and by Clinton, by Bush and by Obama. Prayers to God and sharing with each other things we were thankful for would complete the household service around the table.

Such annual times of household worship could be a model for what you do even today when you go home and have lunch. Dads, when you go home, hold out God's promises to those at your table. As you review today's message, it's only got three points. See if anyone can remember the sermon's three points. See if one of the children can recount the story in their own words of Abraham.

And is believing God's promise. Or grab a Bible, get everybody a copy of the Bible, Psalm 136. Just write down Psalm 136.

And have them watch, look at it. You read the first part of each verse and then let everyone say together the repeated refrain, for his steadfast love endures forever, all 26 times. This will be a great responsive reading at your dinner table. And what a great thing to underline, that His steadfast love endures forever. Now that is a reason for Thanksgiving.

His steadfast love endures forever. Friends, evangelism and missions start at the dinner table with family and guests and then work out from there. Thank God for the good opportunity our church has, like the upcoming Christmas tea coming up. So ladies, if you've not thought of hosting a table or inviting some friends, to come along and hear a good evangelistic testimony, or the Carols on the Hill service on the evening of December the 8th, or other seasonal gatherings that you may cook up for your own friends or neighborhood. Use those for spreading the gospel, because the Scriptures are not only from God and for us, they're also to everyone.

So we want to use every opportunity we have. The obligation that is on us to everyone is so great. Because the need is so great, and so great is God's provision in Christ. So you see the difference between the Word of God and the words of even the most powerful people. Consider this presidential pronouncement.

We hope to achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of peace on earth, goodwill toward men. That must always be our goal and the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength.

Those were the words of President John F. Kennedy that he had planned to give at the trademark in Dallas 61 years ago this past Friday, but never did. Because even the great strength he alluded to had found its limits in the assassin's bullet that felled him on his way to give that very speech.

Don't misunderstand me, I in no way relish such a painful example of our own mortal limitations. My young mother screaming at the TV screen as that event was announced form what I think may be my own earliest memory as a child playing on the floor of our living room. But friends, the sharpness of the contrast between the promises of man and even the strength of men that make them, President Hoover couldn't foresee the future, even with decades of public service and a true landslide victory behind him. And President Kennedy's youth and popularity could likewise assured not one word he would speak, or even that he would live to speak them at all.

How different is the word of the Lord that we have considered this morning. The Lord's love and righteousness, the Lord's power and promise endure forever. Again, turn to Psalm 136. Read it at the dinner table. Host, read the main part and then have everybody read together the refrain, For His steadfast love endures forever.

Or consider the end of Isaiah 46, Remember this and stand firm. Recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done. Saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.

I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed, and I will do it. Listen to me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far from righteousness. I bring near my righteousness. It is not far off.

Praise the Lord. Friends, that's Isaiah 46, if you want to look at it later. Does the promise of the saving righteousness of Christ seem far off to you this morning?

Friends, it's not.

I love how one minister of the church in Leith, Scotland said it years ago, Let secure sinners consider that every sermon addressed to them is a summons put into their hands to answer for their innumerable sins at the bar of that omniscient God, whose eyes are as a flame of fire. What consternation will seize you, O condemned and impenitent sinner, when you shall see an infinitely just Judge upon his great white throne, when you shall find a strict law before you, and an accusing conscience within.

Be persuaded that you cannot be justified but on the ground of a perfect righteousness, and you have no such righteousness of your own. Rely then for the justification of life on the surety righteousness of the Lord Jesus freely offered in the gospel to you. Oh friend, will you take God at His word?

Will you rely on Him?

Let's pray together.

Lord God, we thank youk for every example youe've given us in youn Word of youf merciful and gracious initiative that yout take toward us.

We pray, Lord, that you would help us to hear and to heed your warnings and your full provision in Christ. We pray in his name. Amen.