Title: Faith Is
Text: Romans 4: 17-25
Date: September 9,
2018
Place: SGBC, NJ
After declaring that
believers establish the law through faith in God and his promise, the Holy
Spirit gives us a glimpse of Abraham’s faith.
Our subject is: Faith
Is
Using verses 17-25, I
want to show you seven things faith is.
FAITH IS BELIEVING GOD
Romans 4: 16…Abraham;…is the father of us all, 17: (As it
is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he
believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be
not as though they were…
The God that true
faith believes is the God who is the Father of all his people. When our text speaks of Abraham as the father
of all believers—the margin says “like him whom he believed.” God is the Everlasting Father of all who end
up believing on Christ. It means God is
the reason we end up believing on Christ.
Every true believer’s faith began with God our Father electing us unto
salvation.
Ephesians 1: 3: Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4 According as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love: 5 Having predestinated us
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good
pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of
the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
True faith believes
the God who quickens the dead—to quicken is to give life, to make alive, to
create anew. Every true believer began in this world dead in trespasses and in
sins. We are born unable and unwilling
to do anything to save ourselves with hearts enmity against God. But the true and living God is able to
quicken the dead sinner. The true God
can breathe life into dry bones by “the
exceeding greatness of his power.” It took the same exceeding great power
to quicken you and I, as it did to raise Christ from the grave.
Ephesians 1: 19: And
what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according
to the working of his mighty power, 20: Which he wrought in Christ, when he
raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places…
True faith believes
God who by his calls makes things to exist that are not. Our text says, “God…calleth those things which be not as though they were.” It does not mean that God pretends things are
one way even though they are not. When
you are all-powerful, all-knowing and eternal you do not have to pretend. Scripture never says it is “as though” we
were crucified in Christ but "I AM
crucified in Christ.” God never says
it is “as though” our old man of sin is destroyed before God’s law, it IS
destroyed when Christ died. Scripture never
says it is “as though” we are righteous before God, before God we ARE made the
righteousness of God in him. God does not
say it is “as though” we are seated with Christ at God’s right hand, before God
we already ARE.
This is for our
comfort. Our comfort is that when God
purposes a thing, before him, it is done, even when it is not yet done in time.
“The works were finished from the
foundation of the world.” As
creatures of time, everything has a beginning and an end. With God everything is eternally now! When
eternal God foreknew and predestinated his people, “them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and
whom he justified, them he also glorified.”
It was all done before him in Christ, though we were not yet called in
time.
Be sure to understand.
It does not mean that God does not
fulfill his purpose in time or that it is unnecessary for God to do so. It means when he has called us, before God it
is done and there is no remote possibility he will not do it in time.
God told Abraham, “I HAVE MADE thee a father of many nations,)…“before [God] whom he believed.” When God called Abraham a father of many
nations, before God he WAS MADE a father of many nations. All Abraham’s seed were in him right then just
as all God’s elect were in Christ and blessed with all spiritual blessings when
God called us in Christ in divine election.
There was no possibility that God would not quicken Sara’s womb and
produce a child from nothing and there was no possibility that God would not
send Christ and redeem us and make us experience all those spiritual blessing. When God purposed to save a people in Christ,
he was our Father even though the world was not even made yet, much less a
single child created. Likewise when Christ
raised from the dead, all his people were quickened and raised and sat down at
God’s right hand in him.
Ephesians 2:1: And
you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
That speaks of our
experience of God’s quickening. But Paul
also says when Christ was raised we were raised right then in him.
Eph 2: 5: Even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are
saved;) 6: And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus: 7: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding
riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Likewise, when God
chose us in Christ and made Christ our Everlasting Father, in eternity it was
done then “that in the ages to come he
might shew us the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us
through Christ Jesus.” See if we can
wrap our feeble little mind around this eternal statement:
Ecclesiastes 1: 9:
The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is
that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. 10: Is there
any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old
time, which was before us.
In time, Christ was
slain on a cross for his people, but he was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” In the end, we will be perfectly holy but God
says before him in Christ “as he is, so
are we in this world.” (1 Jn 4: 17)
Sinner, the take away
is that this is reason to believe God.
True faith believes God who quickens and calls things that are not—that
he might bring to nothing things that are. When we truly believe, “We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are
not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are
not seen are eternal.” Seeing how
great God is and how few believe on God, it shows the depth of our depravity.
FAITH IS BELIEVING GOD’S WORD
Romans 4: 18: Who against hope believed in hope, that he
might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So
shall thy seed be.
People will ask us,
“What is your proof for believing God?”
Our answer is “we have the word of God.”
The Bible is God’s word. The big
bang is a theory of man who is full of lies.
This is the word of God who cannot lie.
Arthur Pink said, “Imagine
forty persons of different nationalities, possessing various degrees of musical
culture, visiting the organ of some great cathedral and at long intervals of
time, and without any collusion whatever, striking sixty-six different notes,
which when combined yielded the theme of the grandest oratorio ever heard; would
it not show that behind these forty different men there was one presiding mind,
one great Tone-Master?”
When a believer reads
the Bible and beholds all these different men over great periods of time, some
educated, some uneducated, none of which knew each other, yet all 66 books are
the exact same message of Christ’s victorious salvation of God’s elect then we
know and believe that behind all these writers is God the Holy Spirit giving
the message. Faith believes God’s word.
FAITH IS NOT CONSIDERING CARNAL INABILITIES
Romans 4: 19: And being not weak in faith, he considered
not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet
the deadness of Sara’s womb:…
God promised to use
Abraham to produce a child in Sara’s womb—and God waited until he was 100. Natural reason, natural sense, were against
him. Nothing natural could give him hope. It was all against hope. But it says of Abraham, “But being not weak in faith.”
Weakness of faith comes from looking at carnal impossibilities. But Abraham considered not his own body, nor
the deadness of Sarah’s womb. Therefore, against hope, he had hope because he
believed God.
When God promises a
blessing for his people, he does it in such a way to make us know that God
alone did it. He makes all ways
impossible for us to bring it to pass. God
said Joseph would reign over his brothers.
But Joseph was first enslaved and imprisoned then God raised him to
greatness in Egypt. God declared he
would deliver Israel using Moses. But Moses
is first thrown in the river to die then God uses Pharaoh’s daughter to save
him, Pharaoh’s riches to raise him and his own mother to nurse him. Then God used Moses to deliver his people and
destroy Pharaoh. God promised redemption
for his people in Christ. But Christ is
first despised and rejected of men, crucified on a cursed tree and buried in a
tomb. Then he arises declaring he has
justified his people from all our sins and made us righteous in him and God is
well-pleased for his righteousness sake.
Faith does not
believe only when evidence is brought forth to the natural eye. Faith is itself “the substance of things hoped” and “the evidence of things not seen” because faith believes God.
FAITH IS GIVING GOD ALL THE GLORY
Romans 4: 20: He staggered not at the promise of God
through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
This is a description
of Abraham in Christ before God. In
Christ before God there was no unbelief in Abraham. But looking at Abraham himself we see that
the strength of faith is of God. God
called Abraham out of idolatry and gave him faith otherwise Abraham would have
remained there. Abraham produced a child
in unbelief thinking it was God’s way of fulfilling his promise but God turned
him and strengthened his faith by repeating his promise, otherwise he would
have remained in unbelief. True faith is
strong by God. Therefore, when we
believe God—with weak or strong faith—we give God all the glory, we praise and
honor God.
Do you realize,
brethren, whatever we believe in, we glorify.
If we believe man will stop God from working his promised salvation then
we glorify man. But if we believe God
then we glorify God.
When my children
trust my promise, they honor me. And I
honor them for honoring me because we hear Christ repeatedly give honor to
faith. The reason Christ honored faith is
because faith honors him. That is why God says do not be as the rest of mankind
but sanctify the LORD above all by believing on him.
Isaiah 8: 12: Say ye
not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy;
neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. 13: Sanctify the LORD of hosts
himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. 14: And he shall
be for a sanctuary;
FAITH IS BEING FULLY PERSUADED THAT GOD IS ABLE
Romans 4: 21: And being fully persuaded that, what he had
promised, he was able also to perform.
Are you persuaded? The
apostle Paul said,
Romans 8: 38: I am
persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come,…shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 1: 12:…I
know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which
I have committed unto him against that day.
Hebrews 11: 13: These
all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar
off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they
were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
What is faith
persuaded of? That God is able to bring
to pass all that he has promised us. When
Sarah laughed—the messenger said,
Genesis 18: 14: Is
any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee,
according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
He did! Believers
know God is able because at the time appointed, Christ came and created life in
us.
Abraham even offered
up Isaac on an altar because he believed God. He offered that very son through whom God said
he would make him a father of many nations.
Abraham drew back the knife to slay Isaac and God saw his heart, and before
God Isaac died. Why did Abraham do that?
Hebrews 11: 19:
Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence
also he received him in a figure.
Christ summed it up: “With men this is impossible; but with God
all things are possible.” (Mt 19:26)
It is impossible for sinners to choose God, but God chooses whom he
will. It is impossible for sinners to
give themselves life and faith in Christ, but God gives life and faith
irresistibly. It is impossible for
sinners to justify ourselves or work out a righteousness but God sent his Son
who did so by laying down his life in place of his people under the justice of
God. It is impossible for sinners to
persevere in faith to the end but God is able to preserve us like he did
Abraham. It is impossible for sinners to
raise ourselves from the dead in spirit then give ourselves a new, sinless,
glorified body but God is able. Faith is
being persuaded that God is able to do everything God promised.
FAITH IS BEING MADE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD
Romans 4: 22: And therefore it was imputed to him for
righteousness.
Abraham believed God
therefore God imputed the righteousness of Christ to him. Righteousness was imputed to Abraham because
in Christ his Surety, before God, Abraham was already made righteous. God only imputes what a man has been made and
Christ as Surety then by his blood made all his people the righteousness of God
in the court of God’s holy and just law.
Faith is the river through which God imputes that righteousness to the
court of our conscience. Our text gives
us this promise,
Romans 4: 23: Now it
was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 24: But for us
also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus
our Lord from the dead; 25: Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised
again for our justification.
There is a seventh
thing that faith is. Do you know what
the seventh thing faith is? Faith is to
be with Christ for all eternity! Believe
on Christ today and the righteousness of Christ shall be imputed to you and you
shall abide in Christ for all eternity!
Amen!