Sermons 2026

Text: Romans 4:13–25 

Theme: Believing Against Hope
 

Outline:
1.    Abraham, as good as dead, believed God’s promise, even though world says cannot happen
2.    We likewise trust God’s promises to us, though world says cannot happen.

Sermon
 

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
 

My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation is the Epistle of Saint Paul sent to the church in Rome the fourth chapter verses thirteen through twenty-five.
Beloved Lambs, I pray that you are doing well today. Why do you have the things that you have? Is it because of what you have done? Is it because you are such a good brother or sister?  It is not because of what you have done but because your moms and dads show their love to you. You have to trust that they do love you. That trust is called faith. Moms and dads show their love for you in their words. They say, “I really love you.” They show their love through their actions by providing clothing, shoes, food and drink. They provide a roof over your heads. They shower you with lots of gifts. They give you these constant reminders of their love so that your trust grows in them. You know that they love you, no matter what happens upon this earth. In our text for today, we see Abraham trusting God’s promises. What promise does God give Abraham? How does Abraham show his faith in God? How does God help us to trust His promises today? Ponder these questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.

1.    Abraham Righeous?
 

Most things that we do in this world happen because of our works and actions rather than by faith. If you have a final in Math, you prepare for it by studying math, the facts of two plus two equaling four, and memorizing a myriad of equations and formulas, not by trusting that a mystical understanding of the subject will just come to you as soon as you start to take the test. You can believe that the lawn is mowed all you want; but unless you go outside with a trimmer and mower, you can bet that the tall grass will still be waiting for you. If you need to clean your room, you can hope that the laundry fairies come out and put your clothes in the hamper; but quite likely you’re going to have to do it yourself. That’s how life works. Just about everything depends on work. 

Saint Paul makes the argument in our text that this fact is true, except for when it comes to our salvation. He uses the example of the great Patriarch Abraham, the one whom all Jews pointed to as the most righteous of men upon the earth, to show how salvation is given by ones faith rather than by the works done.

If you remember the story, Abraham was a hundred years old and his wife Sarah was 99. Sarah was barren. Her womb had never been able to have children. She was well past the time of having children. To the century-old childless Abraham, the Lord promised, “I have made you the father of many nations.” The promise was made. It was a done deal. Abraham believed the promise because it came from God Himself. God is faithful to Himself. He cannot lie. Abraham believed in faith in what he did not see. 

What’s more, Abraham believed in spite of what he did see: he and Sarah, after all, were no spring chickens. They were as good as dead. Imagine, someone having a baby at one hundred years old today. It is an impossibility even with all of our advancements in technology and science. But Abraham believed the promise. Abraham and Sarah were given a son, Isaac was born—a miracle baby. Isaac, named laughter because they laughed for joy and surprise at the Lord’s great blessings to them. Isaac became the father of Jacob. Jacob fathered twelve sons, the start of the nation of Israel. 

This happened not because of Abraham’s works. Remember what Abraham was. When God calls Abraham, he was in the heathen land of the Ur of the Chaldees. No doubt he worshipped the gods of the land, the moon god especially. We are told that the God of glory appeared to him and called him out of this idolatry. When a famine came upon the land, Abrahm and Sarah traveled to Egypt. There, Abraham lied and said that Sarah was his sister rather than his wife, because he feared dying because of her beauty at the hand of Pharoh. It is true that Abraham did great works in service to his neighbors. When His nephew Lot needed help, Abraham mustered an army and went out to save him. When Abraham camped, the first thing he did was build an altar in worship to God. These were the result of faith, not the cause. God showed His love, grace, and mercy towards Abraham by giving Him faith.

Faith is always a gift and always clings to what God has done. Rather than looking at the bare reality of the world. Abraham clings to the promise that God has made. No doubt, Abraham was tempted to doubt the promise for the reasons given above—God was promising a child to an old barren couple well past having a child. If the promise depended on the work of Abraham and Sarah, it would be doubtful. It would be uncertain at best, since it depended upon the labors of a very elderly, weakening couple living under the wrath of the Law. But the promise depended on the Lord, and the Lord can do anything He wants. Thus, the promise was sure, because the Lord always keeps His promises. The Lord kept His promise to Abraham and gave Isaac. Eventually, from Abraham’s seed, through His line generations later, another miracle baby was born—conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ. The Son of God became flesh to be the Savior—not just of the people of Israel, but of all nations. Thus, Abraham became the father of many nations and a blessing to all the nations of the earth. God kept His promise, in spite of Abraham’s doubt and the reality of what Abraham saw.

2.    Our Faith hopes in spite of what we see.

The same is true still for us today. As Saint Paul writes, “But the words ‘it was counted to him’ were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also.”

God has made the same promise to you that He made to Abraham: the promise of the Savior. To Abraham, God promised the Savior who was coming; to you, the Savior who has come. To both, God declares Jesus Christ and His work for you. Jesus “who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” He was “delivered up” as a lamb to the slaughter. He was “delivered up” for our transgressions. He was “delivered up” by Judas. He was “delivered up” by Pontius Pilate. Faith believes that. It does not doubt. Because Jesus was delivered up, God promises that your sins are forgiven. 

Your sins are forgiven not because of your works done under the Law. If it was because of your work, then your hope would be doubtful at best. It is not because God looked ahead and saw how great of a person you were going to be as the reason for your salvation. As Isaiah writes, your best works are the same as filthy dirty rags.  If we should offer our own work, it would be like offering filthy rags for a debt so big that all the money in the world cannot cancel it. The banker to whom you might owe a sum of money would be offended if you offered him filthy rags in payment of your debt. How much more will our Father in Heaven be offended if we should offer Him our works, when He will accept nothing les than the precious blood of Christ as payment. We are cleansed. Our debt of sin has been cleared from our account because Jesus paid it all on your behalf. God does not merely overlook our sins as though we had never done any wrong. We have indeed sinned greatly in thought, word, and deed. Rather, our sins are covered by Jesus’ precious blood. We are saved solely by Jesus’ death and resurrection for you.

There’s more: as God declares that promise to you, He also gives you the faith to believe it. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Faith is God’s work, just like grace. And now that God has promised you grace and given you faith to believe the promise, He says, “You believe in My Son, who died for you! Therefore, I count your faith as righteousness. You are My beloved child.”

Just like Abraham was promised Isaac and God gave him the faith to believe in that promise. God does the same for you. God promised you salvation in and through Jesus Christ. God also gives you faith to believe that promise. Because you have faith. You believe in the promise, God declares you are righteous for the sake of Jesus. 

Remember: faith is trusting in what you do not see, often in spite of what you do see.

For Abraham, it was the temptation to doubt because of their ages and because they’d never had children before. For you, it may be the temptation to doubt because the promises of salvation seem too miraculous, and you’ve never been raised from the dead before. You may be tempted to doubt because the worries or sicknesses of this life make eternal life hard to believe. You may be tempted because science, God’s great gift for understanding this world, only addresses what you can see and measure; and since science can’t confirm God’s favor in Christ, you’re tempted to believe it’s just a fairy tale. Prosperity and temporary pleasure will tempt you from heavenly treasure to come; poverty and pain may tempt you to doubt God’s presence or love. 

This is what we see in our Gospel lesson, Jesus rebukes the Pharisees because they have fallen into he temptation that they did not need God’s love. Jesus promises that He is there to promise salvation and give faith to believe the promise. He is there for the sick and the weak who need the doctor the most. The Pharisees are so full of their own good works that they say, “We have no need or room for forgiveness or faith because we’re so good.” The tax collectors and sinners, however, say, “We’re beggars with empty sacks. We’ve no good works to impress God, so we’ll be happy to keep the forgiveness and faith that Jesus has given us today.” As Luther penned before his death, “We are beggers this is true.” We see this every time we pray. Notice my posture when we do the collect of the day or the prayers of the church.  Standing with open hands, blessing God even before He has answered our prayers, waiting for the blessings that He alone can provide because of His goodness and mercy towards us.

Forgiveness of our sins, the salvation of our souls, and faith are entirely good gifts of God. God gives them to you; and because He gives them to you, He counts you as righteous forever in and though His beloved Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep, your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.