What do you believe? How often
have you been asked that question? And you hear folks talk about
various things they believe, and churches divide up and split
over what they believe, and various denominations and religious groups
write confessions of faith and creeds expression what they believe.
The Arminian Presbyterians have the Cumberland Confession of
Faith. Calvinistic Presbyterians have the Westminster Confession
of Faith. Reformed Baptists, Calvinistic Legalistic Baptists
have the London Confession of Faith. Arminian Baptists have
the New Hampshire Confession of Faith. What do you believe?
Is there any place you can turn to in the Word of God that clearly
states what all true Christians believe? That's a pretty good
question. Is there any place you can turn
to in this book where God the Holy Spirit states specifically,
all who believe, believe this? Indeed there is. Romans chapter
4, verses 24 and 25. The title of my message this
morning is, We Believe. If you open your Bibles here
to Romans chapter 4, Verses 24 and 25, we have before us in
this text of scripture that which God the Holy Spirit inspired
the Apostle Paul to write by which he declares, that is to
say by which God declares that which is believed by all who
are born of God. Romans 3 verse 24, we'll pick
up in the middle of the verse. We believe on him that raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses
and was raised again for our justification. True faith, true faith, saving
faith in all ages is the same. True faith, God-given faith,
saving faith, the faith of God's elect is in all ages the same. It is the same among all who
are born of God, all who are taught of God, all who are instructed
of God, all who believe God, it is the same. We have like
precious faith. with all of God's saints throughout
the ages of time. The faith is always the same
in the same God and in the same Savior. This is what the Apostle
Paul has been asserting throughout this chapter. He holds Abraham
up as an example. Abraham believed God and Paul
is telling us throughout this chapter that God's people believed
God as Abraham did. David believed God as Abraham
did and all of God's elect among the Jews in the Mosaic Age and
all of God's elect among the Gentiles all of God's elect in
the Apostolic Age and all of God's elect today all of God's
elect no matter where you find them no matter what circumstances
they're in their faith is the same all who believe God believe
what the Spirit of God here declares We believe on him that raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses
and was raised again for our justification. We do not believe
God because his word can be proved. We believe his word because he
is God. Abraham is held before us here
as an example of the faith which he is talking about. Let's back
up to verse 16, let me show you. Romans chapter 4 verse 16, Therefore
it is of faith that it might be by grace to the end that the
promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which
is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham,
who is the father of us all. 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, 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. Verse 19,
and being not weak in faith, He considered not his own body
now dead. If you believe God, that doesn't
make any difference. If you believe God, that doesn't
make any difference. Doesn't make any difference what
appears to be contrary to God's Word. Doesn't make any difference
what you experience that's contrary to God's Word. Doesn't make any
difference what you see that's contrary to God's Word. God said,
Abraham, you're going to have a son. You're going to have a
son. Through your wife Sarah, you're
going to have a son. And Abraham didn't give a thought
to the fact that he was 100 years old and Sarah was 90. He didn't
consider it. He believed God. Not considering
that his own body was now dead when he was about 100 years old.
Neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. 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 to perform. And therefore it was imputed
to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him, but 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 offenses and
was raised again for our justification. Now this is what we believe.
I'll give it to you in three clear statements that cannot
be denied, three clear statements that cannot be game-saved, three
clear statements that simply cannot be misunderstood. Number
one, we believe God as God. I'm not looking for something
to say, I want that to settle in. If you believe God, you believe
God as God. Not what men think about God,
not what men say about God, not as other gods. We believe God
as God. That means we believe God as
one who is able to raise the dead. We believe God as God, as one
who is able to raise the dead. Now Paul shows us in this chapter
that Abraham believed in God as God who is able to bring life
out of death. able to raise the dead. And that's
precisely what all God's elect believed. Though he was more
than 100 years old, though his wife Sarah was 90 years old,
Abraham was fully persuaded that God was able to perform what
God had promised. He believed that he and Sarah
would have a son. A son by whom the woman's seed,
Christ Jesus, would come into this world, redeem his people,
save his people, and crush the serpent's head. He believed that
he and Sarah would have a baby boy by whom another baby boy
would come who's the seed of the woman who would all together
overturn the craftiness and the wickedness and the work of Satan. though his loins were dried up
and dead. He was an old man. He was an
old man. He said, well, things were different
in those days. Not that different. Abraham recognized his loins
were dried up and dead. There was no possibility of him
having a son by any biological means. No possibility. He knew
that Sarah's womb was dried up and dead. There was no possibility
by any natural biological means he and Sarah were going to have
a son. They fell into the snare of Satan and attempted to produce
a son another way and that didn't work. Abraham believed that God
could bring life out of death. We believe that God can raise
the dead. I'm preaching to you this morning
because I believe that God can raise the dead. He who is God
has promised to give eternal life to sinners, dead in trespasses
and in sins. Now, people make all kinds of
excuses for saying they can't believe the case. I'm too sinful. I've gone too far. I've done
too much. You don't know how bad I am. God's sin. God's sin. that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life." Now either you believe God or
you don't. It is just that simple. It doesn't
matter how you feel about yourself. It doesn't matter what you think
about yourself. God said, he that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life. God said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Do you know why I have
confidence that I am born of God? I believe God. I believe God. And honestly, Rex, honestly,
there is nothing about my life that would give me any reason
to think I am born of God. Nothing. Not about the way I
feel, not about the way I think, not about the imaginations of my mind, not
about the passions of my heart. Nothing. Nothing. But preacher,
can't you point to something in you, something you've done,
something you've, some experience you've had, say, now there, that's
the reason I know I'm born of God. No. No, no, no, no, no. I believe God. That's all. That's all. God's able to raise
the dead. We read in the book of God about
two of God's prophets, Elijah and Elisha, one in 1 Kings 17,
the other in 2 Kings 4, who took the dead boys of those who were
dear to them. And they stretched themselves
upon those boys' dead bodies. You ever read that and wonder
why'd they do that? Why on earth did they lay down, stretch themselves
over those boys, just like this? Eye to eye, mouth to mouth, hand
to hand. Because they were portraying
something. They were portraying something. After they had stretched
themselves upon those boys, Those boys got up and walked out of
the grave. Those boys got up and walked
out of death because this is what the Son of God does. He
comes to dead centers and stretches himself upon us in the power
of his grace and breathes in the Spirit of life infusing his
very life in the dead causing the dead to live. It gives us
example after example. In Ezekiel 16, we have that infant,
deserted, cast off from his mother's womb, an aborted child, a child
that was counted to be nothing but a nuisance to his mother
and just aborted and cast out into the field, left there dead,
not dying, dead. And he passed by. The Lord God
passed by. He said, this is my people. I passed by you and I said to
you, live. I spread my skirt over you and
said, live. I spread my skirt over you and
said, live. And you became beautiful through
my beauty, through my comeliness that I put upon you. He takes
Ezekiel out in a valley and shows him a valley of dry bones where
armies had been slaughtered. long ago slaughtered. They'd
been dead for a long time. Their bones were now popping
out of the ground here and there. The ground had washed away, and
there they are, just bleached white bones laying in pieces. And it says, Son of man, can
these bones live? And God's prophet said to him,
Lord, you know. He said, prophesy to the bones.
And Ezekiel began to prophesy. called for the wind of heaven
to come and blow upon the bones and the Spirit of God blows upon
the bones and they stood up bone joined to bone flesh and sinew
a mighty army stood up living before God and so God said thus
it is with all the house of Israel I make my people to live. Our
Lord Jesus came once to the house of a ruler by the name of Jairus
whose daughter was dead and he stepped into the room and took
the young lady by the hand and commanded her to rise up and
she walked. He came to a woman whose son
was being carried out on the bier to be buried and he stopped
the funeral procession and he commanded the man to get up and
walk away and that one who was dead got up and walked home with
his mother. He came to the tomb of Lazarus
after Lazarus had been dead for four days. For four days he'd
been dead. Corruption had already begun
to set in. Lazarus had been laying there
in the tomb for four days. And the Lord Jesus said, said
I not unto thee, that if thou shouldest believe, thou shouldest
see the glory of God. And he said, take away the stone.
Now watch. You're fixing to see the glory
of God. Lazarus, come forth. and he that was dead came forth
from the tomb. He came forth because we have
one to be our Savior, our God, who is God able to raise the
dead. In Genesis 22, the Lord proved
Abraham's faith again. He told his friend Abraham to
take his son Isaac his only son, whom he dearly loved, and offer
him as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah. And Abraham promptly obeyed.
He took Isaac and made a three-day journey. Isaac and his servant
Eliezer, and he said to his servant when they got to Mount Moriah,
he said, now you wait here and take care of the ashes. I and my boy are going to go
yonder and worship God, and we will come again to you. Then
he was going up there to kill that boy. He was going up there
to kill him. That son, God miraculously gave
him through whom Messiah would come to redeem him. He said,
we're going to come go worship God and we'll come back again.
In other words, I'm going to go sacrifice my son and we will
come back here again. And so Abraham took Isaac up
into the mount. And when he did, he drew forth
his knife to slay him and was divinely stopped. And there was
a ram caught in the thicket, sacrificed in Isaac's place.
And Abraham said, we'll call this place Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord shall see. And the Lord
shall provide. And the Lord shall be seen in
the provision he makes. Our Savior's name is Jehovah-Jireh. could Abraham do such a thing?
How could that man, that faithful man, take his son and kill him? How could he do it? Especially
in the light of the fact that all of God's promises Everything
God promised to fallen sinners from the sin and fall of our
father Adam when he first preached the gospel in Genesis 3 15 all
of God's promises every word that God said he would do Was
wrapped up in that boy Isaac and Abraham gonna take him and
kill him. How could he do that? He believed God He believed God
who is able to raise the dead That's what we believe. Abraham
understood that God can bring life out of death. We don't believe
God, I repeat, because we can prove that what he says is true. Oh, no, no, no. We prove that
what he says is true by believing God. We prove what he says is
true by believing him. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
11. Let me show you. Hebrews 11. People want proof that this book's
the word of God. How can you prove to me that's
God's word? How can you prove that's the Bible? People, and
I realize the word Bible simply means book, but people speak
disparagingly of God's Holy Word. They talk about that's the sportsman's
Bible. Call it the sportsman's book
if you want to. That's just fine. This is the Bible on science. This is the Bible on evolution.
This is the Bible on... No, no, no, no. This book is
God's Word. This is God's Word. We know it's
God's Word because we believe God. Because we believe God.
And you can't prove it to anybody. You can't prove it to anybody.
How many times have you tried? The mark back there is a linguistic
scholar. Unlike your pastor, he knows
the languages. You can't prove it to anybody. You can't prove it. I don't care
what argument you use. I don't care what evidence you
give. You can't prove it to anybody. But you can prove it for yourself.
Believe God. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1, Now
faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen. For by it the elders obtained
good report. They obtained good report from
God that they're gods. They obtained good report from
God that their sins were put away. They obtained good report
from God that they were accepted into being loved. They obtained
a good report through faith. Watch this. Through faith we
understand. Isn't that a great word? He didn't
say, through faith we know. He said, through faith we understand.
Boy, how did this world come into being? How did man come into being? This complex creature called
man. How did he come into being? Well,
there was an explosion, or an amoeba, or something happened. things started to grow and expand
and grow and expand. And then the earth was covered
with water and there were lots of life in the water and fishes
began to grow out of those tiny, tiny little creatures that you
couldn't really identify in the water. And then they started
to flock from pond to pond until they grew legs and they started
to walk and they started to say, well, this is pretty good. It's
pretty good. And they started to stretch out for food. Oh,
this is good food up here. And they started to stand upright.
Look at that. There he is, a man. Boy, isn't
that smart? Isn't that smart? If you understand
that you're a fool. You're a fool. I mean it, you're
a fool. A willfully ignorant fool believes
such nonsense. I understand how the world is
made. I understand how you have your being. I understand how
everything came to pass as it is. But the world is so old. God made Adam look like an old
man. When he created him, he was full grown. But the scientific
evidence proves that evolution is so. I had a friend once some
years ago, she's a dear friend of mine, who struggled with this
thing of evolution. And I kept talking about it.
And finally, I had an occasion to write to her. And she's a
sharp, sharp girl. I said, would you mind investigating
for me? I really don't have time to do
it. I knew the answer. But would you mind doing a little
investigation for me in your various textbooks on archaeology
and anthropology and finding all of the evidences of evolution,
finding all the evidences of evolution that you can find,
a single example. A single example where a change
was made in a species that was an improvement. And it was three, four, five,
six months. I didn't hear from her. And finally I got a note.
She said, it's not a one. You see those fish they can't
see because they don't need any eyes. They can't see anymore.
You call that an improvement? That's nonsense. Evolution is
the most foolish thing anybody ever invented outside free will
religion. It's just nonsense. Through faith we understand that
the worlds were framed by the Word of God. God said let there
be light and there was light. God said let us make man in our
image and after our likeness and so he did. And so the things
which are seen were not made by the things which do appear.
We believe God, God who can raise the dead. We believe on him who
raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for
our offenses and was raised again for our justification. We believe
that God brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that
great shepherd of the sheep. We believe that Jesus, our Lord,
assuredly died, and that he was buried in the tomb of Joseph
of Arimathea, and on the third day he was raised from the dead
to die no more. This we believe. This we firmly
believe. This we understand, not as a
piece of fiction, not as a piece of poetry, but as a matter of
fact. And like any other reliable fact
of history, we accept it with no question. We believe that
sinners, dead in trespasses and in sins, God can raise from the
dead and cause them to walk in the newness of life. He raised
us from the dead with Christ Jesus representatively. When
our Lord arose, We arose. When He ascended, we ascended.
When He sat down, we sat down. He raised us from the dead with
Christ spiritually in the new birth. When we were born again,
God sends His Spirit and raises us from the dead. We believe
that though we shall die, we shall live again. And although
worms may devour this body, yet in our flesh we shall see God. We believe that even now, even
now, as to our spiritual things, though we are terribly, terribly
dull and dead to the things of God, He can raise us up. Our songs, as we come into the
house of God so often, we just kindly plot along through the
service. And then God breathes upon us and we can sing His praise. We try to pray and until God moves our hearts, then
we can pray. Our own souls, how we languish,
how we languish, how we languish! But God raises us up. Though
we fall a thousand times a day, He raises us up as His own. Continually raises us up. And
though now many are yet dead without spiritual life, separated
from God by wicked works, we tell them about the Redeemer.
We preach the gospel to them. Tell them how Christ came to
save sinners, how God saved sinners by His grace with the full expectation
that God can, by His Word, raise you from the dead. We believe
God as God, the triune Jehovah, trusting him as God in the whole
affair of our salvation. I love the expression that's
used in Genesis 22 of Abraham and his son going up to Mount
to offer sacrifice. The scripture says they went
up, both of them together. They went up, both of them together. I understand, as best I can understand,
that God is eternal, immutable, the eternal spirit. He has no
body, no parts. He can't be changed. He doesn't
change. I realize that nothing reaches
God, and God reaches everything. But when it comes to the redemption
of our souls, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Ghost are involved in the whole affair. God the Father came with
His Son. God the Father gave His Son. God the Father poured out His
wrath on His Son. God the Father forsook his son. God the Father refused to hear
his darling son cry when he said, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? So the scripture seems to speak
to us, as if to tell us the whole of God is involved in our redemption. God sacrificed His Son. And God the Son redeemed us from
our sins, suffering the wrath of God in our stead. And God
the Holy Spirit comes and gives us life, giving us faith in Christ
Jesus the Lord. We believe God as God. We believe on Him that raised
up our Jesus, our Lord, from the dead. Listen to this. He
that is our God is the God of salvation. What does that mean? And unto God the Lord belong
the issues of death. He that is God is the God of
salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues of death. That's
the first thing. We believe God as God. We believe that God's dear son,
the Lord Jesus, really died upon the cursed tree because of our
sins. We believe on him that raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for because
of our offenses. Our Lord Jesus, God's darling
son, was delivered into the hands of justice and death. according
to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God the Father
for our offenses, for our sins, for our iniquities, for our transgressions
that were made his. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all. Can you grasp that? The Lord God, against whom we
have sinned, whose law we have broken, whose justice must be
satisfied, has laid on His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, all the
sins of His people. The Son of God was made sin for
us, that He might be justly punished for sin. and that we might be
justly made the righteousness of God in Him. Our sins were
laid on our substitute and by His death justice was satisfied
and our sins were ever put away. Our iniquity itself was laid
on Christ. The Son of God was made sin for
us because there was no other way. for God to put away sin. God could not punish His Son
for sin. Now listen to me. God could not
punish His Son for sin until His Son was made sin. Now I acknowledge
I don't understand that. That's a mystery infinitely beyond
me. But it's fact. And I believe
God. I believe God. God said, he that
justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even
they both are an abomination to the Lord. If God looks at Don Fortner and
pretends that I didn't sin, And because God decides to look on
me as though I had not sinned, he says, all right, Don's justified.
God declares himself an abomination. If God looks at Christ the Lord,
if God looks at his darling son and says, all right, I'm going
to act like he is sin, I'm going to pretend that he is sin, I'm
going to put a post-it note on his forehead and say sin. And
now I'm going to punish him for sin. God declares, you can read
it yourself in Proverbs 17, 15, that he's an abomination. Oh
no. Oh no, this was not a supposition. This was not a supposition. God
made his son sin. God made His Son sin for us. So that all that I am, all that I am, all that I have ever done, what God's darling Son could
not be, and could not do. He could not commit sin. He's the Holy One. He's God in
the flesh. He did no sin. He knew no sin. He could not sin. He's God in
the flesh. When Satan came tempting Him,
He found nothing in Him. and he could not be a sinner. Not a possibility. But what he
could not be and he could not do, God made him to be and God
put in him. So that he drank our iniquities
unto himself. And he who knew no sin was made
sin for us. And he bear our sin in his own
body on the tree. And hear him as he confesses
sin. We read it earlier. Innumerable evils have compassed
me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
of me so that I'm not able to look up. Now either that's true or he's
lying in prayer. One of the two, Skip. There's no in-between ground. Have you ever been there? Do
you know what it is to have your iniquities lay so heavy on your
soul that like that publican in the temple, you dare not look
up? You try. But ye just dare not
look up. Mine iniquities are heavy on
me, so I cannot look up. They are more than the hairs
of mine head. Therefore my heart faileth me. Hear him again. The Savior says,
O God, thou knowest my foolishness. and my sins are not hid from
thee. Our iniquity really did become
our substitute's iniquity. And when he was made sin for
us, the Lord God Almighty drew forth the sword of his justice
and slaughtered his son because his son fully deserved to be
slaughtered by the Holy God. when he was made sin for us. Do you understand that? No, I'll
take that back. Do you believe that? We believe that Jesus our Lord
really died because of our offenses made Now here's the third thing. We believe God as God. We believe that Jesus, our Lord,
really died upon the cursed tree because of our offenses. And
third, we believe that Christ, our crucified
substitute, was raised from the dead because of our justification. Our blessed Savior came forth
from the tomb three days after He laid down His life for us
because He had, by the sacrifice of Himself, put away our sins. Look at our text again. We believe
on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered
for our offenses. but was raised again for our
justification. He died in the room instead of
his people, and dying in the room instead of his people, he
made complete satisfaction for sin. I tried and tried and tried and
tried and tried and tried to do something to make up to God. I tried to quit cussing, and
that didn't help any. And I tried to quit drinking,
and that didn't help any. And I tried to quit running around,
and that didn't help any. And I tried to quit being a hellraiser,
and that didn't help any. I tried to quit fighting with
folks, and that didn't help any. I tried and tried and tried.
I started going to church, and I tried to read my Bible, and
that didn't help any. And I tried to pray, and that didn't help
any. What can I do? What can I do? until at last
one day God revealed His Son in me who died because of my
sins and rose again because of my
justification. And God said that's enough. And my heart said, that's enough.
God requires no more. That's enough. That's enough. God cannot ask for more. God cannot require more. We believe. We believe. Jesus Christ, God's darling son,
once appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
When he was made sin, he was buried in the earth. And there
he lay, his body lay in an unjustified state as one who was justly punished
for sin, until on the third day he was justified in the Spirit,
raised from the dead without sin, and yonder he appears in
glory for us. making intercession for transgressors
according to the will of God. And soon he shall again appear
without sin unto salvation to every sinner who believes God. We believe on him that raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. Oh may God the Holy Spirit open the windows of heaven now
and drop grace in your heart and cause you this day to believe
God. God has God. God who is able
to raise the dead. Amen.