Happy Mother’s Day to all of our mothers. Today, I want to use Romans chapter 3 verses 27 through 31 as the basis of my message for Mother’s Day.

This was spotted on a church sign; “If evolution is true, how come mothers still have only two hands?”

There is the story of a mother who while putting her her son to bed on the eve of

his fifth birthday was trying to communicate that birthday idea to him.

“Kevin,” she said, “this is the last night of your fourth year. Do you

understand that?” Kevin was ready to communicate with his hands. For a full

year, he had shown people four fingers for his four years, and now he was ready

to add a thumb. Seeing his four fingers, his mother nodded, and said: “When you

go to sleep tonight, you’ll still be 4-years-old. But do you know how old you’ll

be in the morning, when you wake up?” Kevin nodded enthusiastically, added his

thumb to his four little fingers and said, “Tomorrow, I’ll be a handful!”

For all the mothers who have had their hands full, we celebrate You on this special day, Mother’s Day.

Romans 3:27-31; Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. 29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, 30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.

BOASTFULNESS WAS A JEWISH NATIONAL CHARACTERISTIC of a peculiar species, for it took the form of religious conceit. Says the Jewish New Testament Commentary. Israel and the Jews have always used the fact that they were God’s chosen people as some sort banner to boast about how special they were. The Apostle Paul in verses 21 through 26 talked about how God’s righteousness was obtained through faith. Here in verses 27 through 31 he adds a bit of an exclamation by saying that there is no room for boasting, that the only justification by God is through faith whether Jew or Gentile.

Faith is the key as far as God is concerned. Paul has shown us how important our faith is regardless of who we are. Scripture also shows us how strong a mother’s faith can be. How about Sarah and Abraham? God says that you are going to have a child and Sarah initially had her doubts since she was very old. But overall, she believed and had faith that God would give her a son which He did.

Remember Tamar? Genesis 38:6-7… Then Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7 But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord killed him.”

As was the custom back then, Judah told his second son to have a relationship with Tamar in order to raise up an heir. But the son did not do as he was supposed to and God killed him according to Scripture. So Judah tells Tamar to return to her family and wait until Judah’s youngest son grows into a man. Time goes by and Judah apparently forgets his promise, his youngest son marries someone else, and Judah’s wife dies. After waiting and discovering that Judah had forgotten his promise, she dressed as a harlot and Judah had relations with her. He finds out and realizes that he was the one who forgot his promise.

Well Tamar has twins, one of which is named Perez. Matthew 1:3-5… Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram. 4 Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon. 5 Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab,

You might recall Rahab, she was the woman from Jericho who helped the two men that Joshua sent to spy out the city. They promised her safety for here help and she believed, she had faith that their word would be kept. Not only was she saved, as we see in Matthew, she married a guy named Salmon and had a son named Boaz.

Mothers never relinquish their title. A mother is a mother once she becomes one. Mothers are not perfect, but they often seem to be possessed of superhuman strength. To prove my point, all you have to do is watch a mother traveling with a couple of children under the age of five, or managing her kids while trying to do the shopping. Certainly none of the mothers in the Scripture were perfect. Eve certainly had her flaws, for which all women continue to pay the price. Sarah was flawed; remember her plan to help God along with His promise of a son? But what became of Rehab’s son Boaz?

Ruth 1:1-5 Now it came to pass, in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2 The name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion — Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to the country of Moab and remained there. 3 Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died; and she was left, and her two sons. 4 Now they took wives of the women of Moab: the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. And they dwelt there about ten years. 5 Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died; so the woman survived her two sons and her husband.

Three women related by law and all three are widows. Naomi tells her two daughters in law to go back to their home, one does and the other, Ruth refuses and returns with Naomi to Bethlehem. Ruth meets a man named Boaz who is related to Naomi’s late husband. How does this happen? Remember that Early on when Israel was in the desert, some of the laws that they were given had to do with treating the fatherless, poor, widow and foreigner with compassion. One of the things that this meant was during the harvest; you left some of it in the field for the needy to get for themselves.

This is what Ruth is doing, gathering corn for herself and Naomi. She just happens to be gleaning from a field owned by Boaz. Naomi tells Ruth who Boaz is, and then tells Ruth what she should do. Ruth follows the instructions with humility and faith. Boaz takes Ruth as his wife and has a son named Obed who would in turn have a son named Jesse. Jesse would have several sons who would be Ruth’s great-grandsons. One of those great-grandsons would turn out to be David the King of Israel. WOW, who knew?

Sarah, Rahab and Ruth had no idea what their faith would bring or how they fit into God’s plan for the salvation of the earth. But through their faith, they lived and worked in the moment. Faith for us is believing in Scripture. Faith for a mother is that all of her suffering and hard work will produce children that are productive. No mother while pregnant says to themselves that I hope my child grows up to be a criminal, killer or some other negative type of person. But sometimes things just do not work out. Why then you might say do children turn out negative? That’s a whole series of messages, but I believe that the base reason is the same reason why not everyone chooses to believe in Christ. God gave us the ability to choose and as imperfect humans we do not always exercise our choices wisely.

There is a story about a teacher who gave her class of second graders a lesson on the magnet and what it does. The next day in a written test, she included this question: "My full name has six letters. The first one is M. I pick up things. What am I?" When the test papers were turned in, the teacher was astonished to find that almost 50 percent of the students answered the question with the word Mother. So magnet or mother, they all got it right.

Dr. Benjamin Carson, renowned surgeon at Johns Hopkins, tells a moving story about his mother. Mrs. Carson insisted that Ben and his brother Curtis write a book report every couple of weeks. This wasn't for school – this was for their mom. Ben and Curtis dutifully obeyed .About the time he was in junior high, Ben finally realized something quite shocking. His mom couldn't read. For years Ben had read books and scratched out reports, assuming that his mom was checking every word. But she didn't have a clue what he was saying. Now consider this: raised by an illiterate mother, Ben grew up to be a world-famous surgeon who was featured in many articles and was the author of several books. His illiterate mom didn't twist her hands over her lack of learning and give up hope of raising intelligent boys. Instead, she gave her boys what she had – interest, accountability, and the courage to demand extra work. Dr. Carson is currently the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

Mothers do those little things like picking up after the kids, to feeding the kids and if necessary, they are willing to die for their children. One such woman was the mother of Moses, Jochebed. Following the time of Joseph and Israel in Egypt, there eventually came another Pharaoh. This Pharaoh grew to believe that Israel was a threat and decided on an extreme way to reduce that threat.

Exodus 1:22; So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, "Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive."

Exodus 2:1-10; And a man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi. 2 So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months. 3 But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank. 4 And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him.

5 Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. And her maidens walked along the riverside; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it. 6 And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby wept. So she had compassion on him, and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children." 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?" 8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Go." So the maiden went and called the child's mother. 9 Then Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed him. 10 And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. So she called his name Moses, saying, "Because I drew him out of the water."

It is an interesting aside that the Hebrew word for Moses’ “ark” in verse 3 pronounced “tay-baw” in the same word used in Genesis chapter six for Noah’s Ark.

Remember, Pharaoh had ordered what for the Hebrew male children? That they be cast into the river. So technically I guess you could say that Jochebed was obeying Pharaoh’s edict, just in a different way. What a tremendous act of faith Jochebed displayed in setting her son adrift on the Nile. She had no idea what would happen, but she trusted in God to save her son if that was His will. She had no idea or forewarning of what God intended for Moses. She acted in faith for that moment.

God honored that faith, just as He honors our faith today. Mothers, I know that for some this day brings some sadness, for others it brings joy. But as we honor all of you who chose to be mothers, know that God honors you as well. When the Lord created women, He created in them the ability to grow every member of humanity that would be born from the time of Adam and Eve to today and through tomorrow until Jesus the Creator once again reigns upon the earth.