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In the name of Jesus. The question in light of tonight's epistle reading is what was gained by Abraham? Did he gain righteousness because of works he accomplished in the flesh? Or was he justified according to faith? If we want to know how faith justifies us or makes us righteous before God, then we must be ready to ask the right questions. There may be no stupid questions, but you can ask the wrong question. So what questions should we be asking ourselves? What questions fill our minds as we read St. Paul's letter to the Roman Church? Should we be asking ourselves, do I have the right kind of faith? Or if I have faith, how much faith do I need to have? These questions are the wrong questions. They only leave you turned inward, looking at yourself for the answers. You are neither the source of your faith nor the maintainer of your faith. Your faith does not begin with you, nor can you make your faith greater. But faith is created by the faithful one. Faith is created by the one who is faithful to you. If you have faith in something, then faith is created by the one who faithfully kept his word given to you. The object of your faith delivered the guarantee it promises. If we are justified by faith apart from works, then what reassurance do we have to know that we are justified? Again, this is not a good question. Rather, it would be better for us to ask, how do we know we are justified by faith? We know that we are made right before God by what the Holy Spirit has declared is true into our ears and into our hearts. For faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. For what did we hear Saint Paul say tonight? But that God justifies and makes righteous the ungodly, not by what you've done, your works, but by faith in what God in Christ has done for you. Indeed, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. Indeed, you, the baptized children of God, are the ones blessed, whom God counts righteousness apart from works. For it is, for if it is by adhering to the law that we are made Abraham's heirs, well then faith is null and the promises void, just like St. Paul says. The law demands our works, but the gospel delivers to us faith in Christ Jesus. Both Saint Paul and King David reassure us of this. No matter how deep we look, there is no works righteousness in the Old Testament. There is only righteousness on account of faith. For God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. What other does Saint Paul's point make to remind us of this evening than that the promise of Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. The law demands works. But faith is created in the hearts of men when the Holy Spirit of God declares to you that Christ died for you, that all your sins are covered for Jesus' sake. So if you want the faith of Abraham, well then you must be about receiving the gift of faith the way Abraham did. If you want to work for your righteousness, then you'll only get as far as your works take you, and that's not very far. For everyone falls short of God's glory, and no one can fulfill God's holy law without the taint of sin. If we attempt to justify ourselves by what we do or what we've done, well then we'll never measure up to God's holy standard. But if you want to be justified, if you want to be made right in the eyes of the Lord, well then you must be made righteous the way Abraham was. If you want to be made right by the one who justifies the ungodly, well then you must be about receiving the promise that Abraham did. If you want righteousness to be counted to you, well then you must believe what Abraham believed. And what was it that Abraham believed? He believed the promises of God were for him when they were proclaimed into his ears. And what was the promise of God? But that through Abraham's offspring all the nations, all the families of the earth would be blessed. And if you find yourself asking, Am I then righteous before God because I have faith? Well, then you fixed your eyes again on yourself and not what Abraham did. What was it that made Abraham righteous? The fact that he had faith? Or was it what he actually had faith in? If we say because he simply had faith, well then we've missed the point of St. Paul's text tonight. If you leave here tonight believing you simply need faith, well then you lack what is necessary to make you righteous. Belief in believing gets you nowhere. You cannot have faith in faith. Faith must have an object to attach itself to. If we want to live by faith, then we must let our Lord open our hearts to understand what it has to do with Jesus. If you want a faith that is counted to you as righteousness, then you must be about believing what Abraham did. And you must be about having a faith in what Abraham had faith in, which is Jesus, the one through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. So what was it that Abraham believed in? Well, he believed in the promise of God that delivered Jesus as the Savior. And that belief was counted to him as righteousness. That is the faith Abraham had, after all. He had not a righteousness all of his own, but one that was founded on the one he expected to come. He believed in Jesus. This is why Jesus, by the way, told the Pharisees, Your father Abraham, rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. Faith is the evidence of things unseen. That's what the writer of Hebrews tells us. And that's why St. Paul says, 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. As the writer of Hebrews again points out, Jesus is the author and the perfecter of our faith. And Christ our Lord sends his Holy Spirit to deliver to you the promises of God into your ears and into your hearts through his word and his sacraments. In this way, the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies you with the whole Christian church on earth. Only faith produced in you by the Spirit of the living God can receive what Jesus is giving out. Only faith takes hold of the promises of Jesus, where he delivers them into your ears and into your mouths and into your hearts. So, dear baptized, if you want to have a faith that is considered to you as righteousness, then you believe in what Jesus accomplished for you on the cross, for the forgiveness of all your sins. If you want certainty that forgiveness is yours, well then you have faith in where your Lord delivers that forgiveness to you. For there, where there is forgiveness, there is also life and salvation. Jesus was the object of Abraham's faith. Jesus is the object of your faith. Therefore, you are sons of Abraham and heirs of the very same promise. So then, my dear beloved, blood-bought, baptized saints, let the Holy Spirit create faith in your heart this very night as he declares the promises of God to all of you. I tell you, you are forgiven of all your sins for Jesus' sake. Amen. In the name of Jesus.