Let us turn once again to God's
Word in that portion of scripture that we read in the New Testament
in Romans chapter 4 and calling your attention this morning to
the words that we find in verses 20 and 21 Romans chapter 4 verses
20 and 21 where we read concerning Abraham he staggered not at the
promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving
glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what he had promised
he was able also to perform. In Romans 4 and verses 20 and
21, he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but
was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded
that what he had promised He was able also to perform, to
say something then with regards to the faith of Abraham. Here at verse 11, He is spoken
of as the Father of all them that believe. Again, in Galatians
chapter 3 and verse 7 we find a very similar statement. that
they which are of faith the same are the children of Abraham. Abraham is set before us then
as the great exemplar of saving faith. Interesting to observe
how the various characters that we read of in Holy Scripture
do time and again set before us these various graces. With regards to Job, for example,
he is spoken of in terms of his patience. There in James chapter
5 and verse 11 you have heard of the patience or the endurance
of Job and seen the end of the Lord, how that the Lord is very
pitiful and of tender mercy. The mystery of God's dealings
with that man Job, that remarkable book and the great trials that
came upon Job and how he was able to endure, how he is renowned
then for his patience. And then when we think of the
prophet Elijah, He is spoken of, is he not, in terms of his
prayer, the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man which
availeth much, again in the fifth chapter of the Epistle of James. And there Elijah is set before
us, a man of like passions as we are, And he prayed that there
might not be rain and there was no rain for the space of three
and a half years. There we see the effectual fervent
prayer of that man as it got heard, got answered. Elijah renowned
for his prayers. And then furthermore we read
of the man Moses, how he was the meekest of men, above all
the men that were upon the face of the earth." Renowned for his
meekness, not to be confused of course with weakness. There
was nothing weak about that man. He was a prince in Egypt. He was the one who was raised
up to deliver the children of Israel out of the bondage that
they were enduring under Pharaoh, but what meekness we see in the
life of Moses. These various character things
spoken of in Scripture and particular graces of the Spirit mentioned
with regards to one and another of them. And so when we come
to Abraham, he is the father of them that believe. All those
who are of faith are the children of Abraham. And he is spoken
of extensively in this fourth chapter of this epistle to the
Romans. Spoken of in terms of the consequence
of his faith, that righteousness that was reckoned through Verse
3, what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it
was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. What was it that was counted?
for righteousness. It was not the actuality of his
faith. It was not faith that was his
righteousness, but it was that great object of his faith. And the object was God's promise. As we have it here in verse 21,
being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able
to perform and that object of his faith is really the Lord
Jesus Christ himself Christ says in John chapter 8 your father
Abraham rejoiced to see Midah and he saw it and was glad his
eye the eye of faith in Abraham was toward the Lord Jesus Christ
Lord the importance of the objectivity of faith and faith is that that
looks away from self Abraham looked to Christ, looking on
to Jesus. The author and finisher of faith
there in Genesis 22 where we read of how God so sorely tried
that man's faith when he was tested, when he was commanded
to offer up the son of promise, Isaac. He sees beyond Isaac,
he sees the Lord Jesus Christ. Here in chapter 3 And verses
21 and 22 we're told how the righteousness of God without
the Lord is manifested, being witnessed by the Lord and the
prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus
Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there
is no difference. It is this righteousness of God
by the faith of Jesus Christ that was imputed to Abraham. And so he was justified. There,
all those many centuries before ever Christ had been born, he
was justified by faith in the Lord Jesus, just as sinners in
this gospel day are justified as they are found looking away
unto the Lord Jesus as the Lord their righteousness. But this
morning I want us to think more particularly of the subjectivity
of Abraham's faith. The object of that faith, as
I've said, must be the Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness.
But let us consider something with regards to the character
of his faith in that subjective sense. We're told in verse 20,
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but
was strong in faith, giving glory to God. Now there are As we learn
in Christian experience, there are two sides in all religion
that is real, all religion that is that that is wrought of God. There must be two sides. There
is the dark side, but there is also the bright side. What do we mean when we speak
of the dark side and the bright side? Well, on the one hand,
there is the awful, the dreadful reality of sin. There is the dark side. But on
the other, there is that glorious salvation that is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the bright side. Again, we see that on the dark
side there is that terrible ruin. that is the consequence of Adam
and Eve's rebellion against God, the fall of man, the ruined condition
in which we find ourselves by nature. On the bright side there
is that great work that has been accomplished by the last Adam,
the Lord Jesus Christ, that second man who came from heaven, that
great work of redemption. And we must If we're those who
are truly the Lord's people, we must know both sides. We must know something of the
former, we must know something of the dark side, before we can
know the latter, before we can know anything of that bright
side. Does not the one really, in a
sense, prepare us for the other? In the course of His ministry,
the Lord Jesus Christ says, They that are whole have no need of
a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the
righteous but sinners to repentance. He is speaking of course of the
righteous in terms of those who are self-righteous, those who
have no sense of their need. He was surrounded by the scribes
and the Pharisees, how they despised him. His ministry was not meant
for such characters as that. They were not sick. He comes,
does the Lord Jesus Christ, to call those who are sinners unto
himself. What comfort can a Saviour bring
to those who never felt their woe? A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost hath made him
so. New life from him we must receive
before for sin we rightly grieve. So often we find that what lies
at the root of our sin is that accursed, that dreadful sin of
unbelief. In Hebrews chapter 11 we have
that great catalogue of the men, the women of faith from the Old
Testament Scriptures and of course we see how that Abraham occupies
a significant place there in that chapter. And then when we
come to the opening words of the twelfth chapter, we're reminded
of what Paul has been saying previously. He says, wherefore
seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses. He's clearly referring back to
those he's just been speaking of in chapter 11, the opening
words, indicates that, wherefore, seeing we also are compassed
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, he says, let us lay
aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us.
And what is that sin which so easily besets? Well, in the context,
it is that that is not faith. It is that awful sin, that dreadful
sin of unbelief. And I say unbelief is at the
root of our sins. We see it in the Garden of Eden,
we see it in the fall of man, in Genesis chapter 3. Remember
how in the opening verse we see the instruments of Satan, the
serpent. Now the serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he
said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of
every tree of the garden. Now, he comes, you see, with
his question, and in a sense what he is doing there, he is
querying the Word of God. He is querying the things that
God had said. God had said quite clearly, quite
plainly to Adam, In chapter 2 and verse 16, "...of every tree of
the God, and they may as freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, they shall not eat of it. For in the day
that they eat thereof, they shall surely die." But here is the
devil with a question. Yahash God said He shall not
eat of every tree of the God. He is seeking to undermine the faith of Eve as he comes
as he comes with his temptation and now Eve begins alas to water
down the word of God she says that God had said you are not
to eat of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil lest you die
but God had said in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die She waters it down. But now the devil begins now
to take advantage of her. He says at verse 4 there in chapter
3, Thou shalt not surely die. Why? He denies the very Word
of God. He goes contrary to the Word
of God. Do you see what unbelief does?
It is directed point blank against God's Word. That's unbelief.
Unbelief is against God. Unbelief is therefore against
the Word of God. And what does God say with regards
to His Word? Well, the Psalm is, in Psalm
138, Thou hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy Name. That's what God has done with
His Word, He has magnified it above Himself. What is His Name?
His Name is Himself, His Name is the revelation of Himself.
In his name we see something of his character, the great I
am, the unchanging Jehovah. And he has magnified his word.
If his word fails, why God himself has failed? And yet, here is
the devil denying the very word of God. Oh friends, what an accursing
it is not to believe God, not to believe the Word of God, the
sin which does so easily beset us. And it was that sin that
we see so evident with the children of Israel during their wanderings
in the wilderness. It was that unbelief that kept
them out of the Promised Land, as Paul makes so plain when he
writes there in Hebrews chapter 3. In verse 8 he says, Harden not
your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the
wilderness when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw
my works forty years." How did they provoke God? By their unbelief.
At the end of the chapter he says, "...to whom swearing that
they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed
not." So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Because of unbelief. Again, in chapter 4 and verse
6, it says, I entered not in because of unbelief. What an accursed thing is that
unbelief. And here, with regards to Abraham,
we're told he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief,
but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. All that accursed
sin. that unbelief that clings and
clings to us. It's so bound up in our fallen
nature because we are of course by nature the offspring of Adam
and Eve. We are descendants from that
pair who sinned in the Garden of Eden and unbelief was there
at the root of their sin. And as I said, not only there,
but subsequently even in the history of the children of Israel,
delivered so gloriously from all the bondage which was Egypt.
And yet, unable to enter into the Promised Land because of
their unbelief, wandering 40 years in the wilderness. We see unbelief then, set before us plainly. in the
history that is recorded in the early chapters of Scripture. But not only do we see it in
Scripture, we're also made to feel something of it in our own
experience, are we not? Unbelief is found to be the chief
of sins when God begins to deal with us. Think of the words of
the Lord Jesus Christ, As he speaks of the ministry of the
Holy Spirit, words that we often refer to there in John chapter
16, Christ says when he is come, he's speaking of the Spirit,
when he is come he will reprove the world, it says, or as the
margin gives, convince the world of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment. Of sin, because they believe
not on me, of righteousness, because I go to the Father and
ye see me no more, of judgment, because the Prince of this world
is judged. The words of the Lord Jesus concerning
the Holy Spirit. And what is the first part of
the Spirit's ministry? He will reprove of sin, because
ye believe not on me. You see what he convinces us?
unbelief. And the strange thing is that
when God begins to deal with us in our soul's experience,
he brings us to this, that we have to believe in our own unbelief. We have to believe in our own
unbelief. We have to believe in the utter
impossibility of faith that we cannot believe. Isn't that true
in experience? One thanks God that as one thinks
back one can remember those early dealings of the Lord in the soul
and wanting to believe and yet feeling the impossibility, unable
to believe. Writing in Galatians chapter
3 Paul says, before faith came we were kept under the law, shut
up to the faith. that should afterward be revealed. Shut up! Shut up to what we are! Shut up to faith, and that faith
not of ourselves, that faith that must come from God, that
faith that is the gift of God, that faith that is by the operation
of God. Here in chapter 11 of Romans,
in verse 32, we're told how God has concluded them all in unbelief,
that he might have mercy upon all. He concludes them in unbelief. He shuts them up to their unbelief. He makes his people to feel their
impotence. He teaches them the truth concerning
their condition. That unbelief, you see, that
they have inherited from their first parents. Now, with regards
to Abraham, we are told he staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. We're not to imagine here that
Abraham was altogether free from unbelieving doubts and unbelieving
fears. We know, because it's recorded
in Scripture, that he was not always walking by faith. Remember, as we see him, called
out of Her of the Caldives, taken by God, and led from place to
place, having the promise concerning the land, the land of Canaan
would be given to him and to his seed, and yet he wanders
not knowing where he is going from time to time and so we find
him in Genesis chapter 12 in Egypt and he's fearful he has
a very beautiful wife Sarah and he fears that when the Egyptians
see his wife they'll desire to have her and so he tells her
to say that she's his sister, now in a sense he's not lying
because she was related to him but where is his faith? where
is his faith in God? he's not walking by faith he's
looking to himself again in chapter 20 he behaves in a similar fashion
with Abimelech he's not always walking by faith, he can't believe
all that God says to him. When God speaks and gives promise
concerning his seed and Sarah is barren, what does he do? Well,
in Genesis chapter 15 he speaks of the steward of his house serving
as his seed because he has no natural son at that time there in chapter 15 of Genesis
God appears to him, this is where God really makes the covenant
at first with him in chapter 15, the covenants renewed in
chapter 17, the chapter that we read but here in chapter 15
we're told how the Lord came unto Abram in a vision saying
fear not Abram I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward
And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go
childless? And the steward of my house is
this, Eliezer of Damascus. And Abram said, Behold, to me
thou hast given no seed, and no one born in my house is mine
heir. And behold, the word of the Lord
came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that
shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. He's not believing there. There's
unbelief. There's doubt in his heart. And
he's told that he's going to have a natural son. But still,
Sarah is barren, there's no child. So, what happens in chapter 16
of Genesis? Why Sarah suggests that her handmaid,
Hagar, should serve as another wife to Abraham and Abraham falls
in with him and he takes Hagar and we have the conception and
the birth of the son Ishmael. It's quite evident in these things
that he is not always walking by faith. We would be wrong to
imagine that the life that he lived was one in which there
were never any unbelieving doubts or any unbelieving thoughts. And yet it says, being not weak
in faith, he considered not his own body, now dead, when he was
about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's will. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God. All this is written, and when
we come to that chapter that we read in the 17th of Genesis,
it may have struck you, even as we read through the chapter,
how this man of faith responds to the promise of God. At verse
17, And Abram fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his
heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years
old, and shall Sarah that is ninety years old bear. And Abram
said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before them. And God
said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt
call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him
for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. He is the father of all them
that believe. But we do discover a certain truth with regard to
this strange life of faith, that it is such a peculiar life, an
in and out life. The hymn says, Dream not of faith
so clear as shuts all doubtings out. Remember how the devil dared
to tempt in Christ to doubt the Lord Jesus was tempted of Satan.
He fell not with the temptation, of course. When the devil comes
and says, if thou be the Son of God, he would have the Lord
Jesus to question even the truth of his eternal sonship, if thou
be the Son of God. Of course he's the Son of God,
the eternal Son of God. But all the subtlety of Satan
We see him subtle there as he comes through the serpent in
the garden of Eden. And oh, he assaults Abraham who
is the father of all them that believe. There is such a thing
as those staggerings, even the staggerings of unbelief, and
yet this man, oh this man is preserved through it all. There's
the paradoxes there now. Because here we see the strength
of Abraham's fight. That's what stands before us
in the text. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, it says, but was strong in fight. His
fight was a strong fight. A strong fight. Now, the word
that's used here, to stagger, literally means to be divided
in mind. It's one of those combined words
in the original. It's made up of two words really. And it has this idea, it has
to do with the mind. And the mind that is divided. It's a double mind really. It's
a very mind that James warns us against. in the opening chapter
of the epistle you're familiar with the words
I'm sure verse 5 following if any of you lack wisdom let him
ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and that prayeth
not and it shall be given him but let him ask in faith not
in wavering for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven
with the wind and tossed for let not that man think that he
shall receive anything of the Lord a double-minded man is unstable
in all his ways. Well, Abraham was never a double-minded
man. He was never a double-minded
man. Although, when his faith is tried and tested, he comes
under severe pressure, but he's never double-minded. The psalmist
says of the good man, his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. and Abraham's faith was fixed. He was one who truly trusted
in the Lord. How else could he be set before
us as the great pattern of faith? His faith was a real faith. We
know that without faith it is impossible to please God. He
that cometh to him must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder
of all that diligently seeking all we desire that faith that
we believe that God is and that God will hear us in
our prayers the Lord Jesus again says all things whatsoever you
shall ask in prayer believe in you shall have it you shall receive
it all things that we ask believe in when it comes to our seeking. How are we to seek? You shall
seek me, says God, and find me when you shall search after me
with all your heart, not double-minded, not a divided heart. To be wholehearted
in our seekings after God, in our prayers to God. Now Abraham's
faith was a strong faith. Why was it a strong faith? because
he was a faith that came from God and as that faith that Abraham
had came from God so his faith went to God that faith that is
of the Lord is the faith that looks to the Lord and such was
the faith of Abraham by grace are ye saved through faith and
that none of yourselves were told It is the gift of God, not
of works, lest any man should boast. His faith of Abraham was
not works. As we see at the opening part
of the chapter, Abraham believed God and it was counted for him
for righteousness, ne'er to him that worketh is the reward not
reckoned of grace but of debt, but to him that worketh not.
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodliness. That's the faith
of Abraham. He's not of works. It's that faith that is the gift
of God. It's that faith that is the operation
of God. It was the way the Lord dealt
with him and brought him to such saving faith. Again, look at the language.
that we have there in that general epistle of James in chapter 2
and verse 23 it says, and the scripture was fulfilled which
says, Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness
or God fulfilled his work Abraham believed God all that faith you see that believes
God is the faith that is looking away to God. It is from God and
it looks to God. That's the sight of faith, is
it not? It's that looking away from self. It's that looking
unto Jesus. The author and finisher of our
faith as we have it in Hebrews 12.2. Again, as we've said on
many occasions, the verb there, it's so interesting. That look,
it literally means to look away from South. Isn't that what the
eye does really? It always looks away from South.
We never see our eye. We can see a reflection of our
eye in a mirror, but we never actually see the eye. because the eye looks out and
the eye of faith looks away from self and as it looks away from
self so it looks only onto the Lord Jesus Christ looking onto
Jesus the author and finisher of our faith and this was the
faith of Abraham and this is why Abraham's faith was so strong
because of that blessed object He was strong in faith, it says,
giving glory to God and being fully persuaded that what he
had promised he was able also to perform. Now what was that
promise? The promise was the Son. The
promise was that seed, Isaac. who was to be born to Sarah. But we're told quite specifically
when Paul writes in Galatians 3.16 that that seed of Abraham
was more than Isaac. Those are very telling words.
It's not seeds as of many, but as of one. It's one seed. and thy seed which is Christ,
it says. Thy seed which is Christ. Oh, it's looking beyond the promise
of the son called Isaac. It's looking to that one of whom
Isaac is such a remarkable type. It's looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is the faith of Abraham.
It centers in Christ, in His person, in His work. This is
why the Lord says to those Jews in John, your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day and he saw it. He saw it and was glad
by eye of faith he saw the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is the
faith you see that overcome. that overcoming faith is the
faith that believes in Christ, that believes in Christ as the
Son of God. John chapter 5 and verse 4, Whatsoever
is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory
that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh
the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? He's believing that Jesus is
the Son of God. He's believing in the deity of
Christ. That's the faith of Abraham.
And it overcomes, overcomes all the staggerings of unbelief.
When we look away from ourselves and all our trust and all our
confidence is placed in another, even in the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. Remember how in John chapter
9 we have that record of Christ's great miracle where he gives
sight to the blind man and that man was born blind and you're familiar I'm sure
with the content of that chapter great chapter John chapter 9 and the Jews are determined that
if anyone was to confess that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah,
he would be put out of the synagogue. He'd be excommunicated, cut off
from the ancient people of God. And this man who acknowledges
the Lord Jesus as the one who had performed the miracle, why? They put him out. They put him
out. And then the Lord Jesus goes
back and finds him and speaks to him and he puts that question
to him in John 9 and verse 35. Dost thou believe on the Son
of God? Oh, there's the question. Dost
thou believe on the Son of God? That question has to come to
us this morning. Are we those who truly believe
on the Son of God? Is that where our trust is? Nothing of ourselves. All our
salvation is in Him. And that faith that is centered
in Him, it is the overcoming faith, as we've said. So the
Lord puts that question to the man that He had healed, the man
that He had given sight to. Thus thou believe on the Son
of God. And do you know the answer of
the man? It's a wonderful statement that we have there in verse 38.
He said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him. If we
are those who are true believers in the Son of God, we will worship
Him. We will worship Him as our God. And Abraham worshipped Him. Well,
Abraham, he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief,
but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. How did he give
glory to God? Why, in the person and work of
Christ, being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he
was able also to perform. It is only the Lord Jesus Christ,
you see, that can help us. Why can He help us? Because He
is God. He is the one who can give us faith. He is the author
and finisher of our faith. You say to me, oh, that I had
that faith, that saving faith, that I didn't stagger, that my
mind was not divided, that my heart was whole, that I was really
sincere. that I was able to call upon
God with all my heart and ask the Lord Jesus. He is the only
one who can give these things. He is the author of faith. He
is the finisher of faith. And now the Lord Jesus encourages
those who would come and be seekers after God. He says in the course
of His ministry, ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall
find. Knock He says, "...and it shall
be opened unto you. Everyone that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall
be opened." The Lord Jesus, He doesn't speak some sort of yay-nay
gospel, it's all yay, it's all amen, it's all sure and certain,
it's all shalls and wills. Ask, He says, ye shall receive. There's no ifs or buts or maybes. Seek, ye shall find. Knock, it shall be opened. Why?
And we encourage you, seekers, all those promises of God in
the Lord Jesus are said to be yea and amen to the glory of
God. And we need to come then and
ask and we need to pray to him like that man that we read of
in the gospel who comes and he says Lord I believe help thou
mine unbelief yes or we feel so often we are prone to unbelief
it's so bound up in our fallen nature we are the sons and daughters
of Adam and Eve and our parents sinned because of unbelief They
embrace the lie of Satan instead of the truth of God. It's in
our very nature, the sin which thus so easily beset us, who
can deliver us? Only the Lord Jesus Christ. Him
who is the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob. Lord, that we might know then
something of the faith of this man, to be those who are truly
the children of Abraham, the father he is, the father of all
them that believe, we read here in verse 11. He staggered not
at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith,
giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what he
had promised he was able also to perform or he was persuaded
concerning the promise concerning the performance of the promise
it was all accomplished and accomplished by Christ therefore it was imputed
to him it says for righteousness now it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him but for us also for us
also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offences,
and raised again for our justification. The Lord bless to us his word.