Alright, let's go to Romans chapter
4. It's good to be back. We had
a good service in Danville and it's always good to be home.
Now, after declaring that believers establish the law through faith,
according to God's promise, the Holy Spirit now shows us a glimpse
of Abraham's faith. And so I've titled this Faith
Is. Faith Is. And there's seven things
here that we see faith is. So I'm going to just speak briefly
on each one. But I want to show you these
seven things that faith is. First of all, faith is believing
God. Faith is believing God. He says in verse 16, it says,
Abraham is the father of us all. He's speaking of all who believe
on Christ. And he says in verse 17, as it
is written, I have made thee a father of many nations. Now
let's read it without the parentheses. Abraham's the father of us all,
before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the
dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Now the God that true faith believes
is the God who is the father of all his people. That's who
true faith believes, the God who is the father of all his
people. If you read the margin, it says
there, like him whom he believed. Abraham is the father of us all,
like God whom he believed. And God is truly the father of
all his people. God is the everlasting Father
of everyone who ends up believing on Christ. And the reason we
end up believing on Christ is because God chose us to believe
on Christ. He elected us to be saved. That's
why we end up believing on Christ. Every true believer's faith began
with election. That's where it began, with God
choosing us. Ephesians 1.3 speaks of all believers
when it says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings according
as He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
It was in heavenly places. And it says that we were holy
and without blame before Him in love in Christ. And He predestinated
us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself. That
means in time, at His appointed time, everyone of His elect shall
be given faith to believe on Christ. And it was all according
to the good pleasure of His will. It was to the praise of the glory
of His grace. And this is how we are made accepted
in Christ, the Beloved. So everybody that has true faith,
it began by God choosing them. That's how it began. And true
faith believes this. True faith believes the God who
quickens the dead. We believe the God who quickens
the dead. He says every true believer is
quickened. He says there, the God who quickeneth
the dead. That means to give life, to make
alive, to create anew. We all come into the world dead
in sin. and we can't do anything. We
have no ability to believe and we don't want to believe. Our
hearts by nature are enmity against God. You ever notice when there's
a group of people and you got a group there that's not believers
and everybody's just carrying on a conversation, everybody's
talking, and then you start talking about the gospel and all of a
sudden everything gets silent. And a lot of times the people
that don't believe God We end up either leaving or changing
the subject. That's enmity in our heart. We
don't want to talk about God. We don't want to talk about Him.
But the true and living God is able to quicken the dead. He's
able to quicken us and give us life. It's called the exceeding
greatness of His power. Because the same exceeding greatness
that it took to raise Christ from the dead, it takes to give
a sinner life. That's what he said at the end
of Ephesians 2. The exceeding greatness of God which He's shown
to us is that same exceeding greatness wherewith He raised
Christ from the dead. That's power, isn't it? It takes
power to quicken a dead sinner. You and I don't have that power.
And then look here. Now this is what I want to focus
on a little bit right here. True faith believes God who He calls things to exist that
are not. Look at this, Romans 4, 16. He
said there, I'm sorry, verse 17. It says at the
end that He calleth those things which be not as though they were. Now, this can be misleading. And I want you to understand
what this is not saying. It is not saying God is pretending. It is not saying God is calling
us one thing when really we are another thing. That is not what
it is saying. Scripture never says concerning
what Christ has done for us, it never says as though. Never. We are crucified in Christ. I am crucified in Christ. It
is not as though I am. I was in Christ and all His people
were in Christ. And it's not as though our old
man of sin was destroyed. It was destroyed. It's not as
though that we're righteous before God. It's not as though we are.
We are righteous before God. Did Christ really die? Then we
really died. Did Christ really rise? We really arose. See this thing,
that's not what it's saying here. This is for our comfort. This
is to comfort us. To show us that the works were
finished from the foundation of the world. That's what we're
seeing here. Now we're creatures of time.
So everything that we think about has a beginning and an end. But
with God it's just the eternal now. That's all. And so when he foreknew his people
and he predestinated his people, according to Romans 8.30, At
that same time, right then, them He also called and whom He called
He justified and whom He justified He glorified. It was done. It was finished in Christ. It was all done before Him in
Christ even though we weren't called yet in time. Now understand
that doesn't mean that God does not fulfill His purpose in time
or that it's unnecessary for Him to fulfill His purpose in
time. What it means is before God it's done and there's no
remote possibility He will not do it in time. There's no possibility
that He will not do what He purposed from eternity. You see, when
you're all powerful and you rule all things, you don't have to
pretend anything. God told Abraham, I have made
thee a father of many nations. And it was before God whom Abraham
believed. And when he told him that, Abraham
didn't have a child. Not even one. And it'd be years
and years and years before he'd have a child. But God said, I
have made you a father of many nations. When God called Abraham a father
of many nations, before God, he was a father of many nations. And the reason is all Abraham's
seed was in Abraham. Just like when he chose us in
Christ, all Christ's seed was in him. All his people were in
him. And so whatever Christ was in
eternity, that's what his people were in him. Before God. We're
talking about before God. There was no possibility that
God would not quicken Sarah's womb and produce a child from
nothing. And there's no possibility that
God will not, in time, quicken every chosen, redeemed sinner
and create life in us out of nothing. When it says here that
He calls those that are not, it's talking about us. He calls
you and me who are nothing to bring to nothing things that
are. And just like He created the world out of nothing, He
creates His people out of nothing. I'm saying I have nothing in
us. I have nothing in us. And I'll tell you something else
that we need to grasp, and this is just impossible to really,
I mean, don't ever think, well, I have to really understand that,
figure it out before I can believe it. If you do that, you won't
believe anything. God's just so much bigger than
we are. But listen to this. When He quickened Christ and
raised Him from the dead, we were raised from the dead and
we sat down in Christ at God's right hand before God. Before
God. That's done. Listen to this.
He said in Ephesians 2.1, if you want to look at this, He
said, You hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and in
sin. Now that speaks about our Experience of it. We were dead
sinners. But now look now at verse 5.
Even when we were dead in sins, has God quickened us together
with Christ, by grace you are saved, and hath raised us up
together, and made us sit together in heaven and places in Christ
Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches
of His grace and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
That's why Paul said, your life is hid with Christ in God. You
are seated at God's right hand. Before God that's how it is.
And so everything he did in eternity and he said the works were finished
from the foundation of the world and everything that he purposed
in Christ in eternity he purposed that so that in the ages of time
he might call us and show us his exceeding kindness toward
us in Christ Jesus. Let me You try to get your mind,
see if you can wrap your mind around this statement. Ecclesiastes 1.9 says, 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. Is there anything whereof it
may be said, See, this is new? It hath been already of old time. which was before us. That's speaking
eternal language. Everything God brings to pass
in time, God already made it in eternity. It's already done
before Him. So, that's why it says in time
Christ was slain on the cross. But, scripture says He's the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. When He struck
hands with God and assured His ship covenant with God, it was
done. It was done. In the end, we're
going to be perfectly holy before God without any sin whatsoever. But Scripture says right now,
as He is, so are we in this world. That's not an as though. That's how it is before God.
Now here's the takeaway brethren. These are reasons to believe
God. Faith believes God. That's what faith is. God who's
all powerful. God who calls things that are
not to bring to nothing things that are. We don't look at things
that are temporal. Faith doesn't look at things
that are temporal. Faith looks at eternal things and believes
eternal things because those are the real things. Everything
we see and can touch and we think is real solid is just temporary. What's eternal is what's forever.
Alright, now back to our text. Here's the second thing. Faith
is believing God's Word. Faith is believing God and faith
is believing God's Word. He says in verse 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. Now people ask us all the time
and they'll say, now what's the proof that you have for believing
in God? The proof I have for believing
in God is God's Word. That's the proof I have. That's
all the proof I need is God's Word. This is God's Word. You know, the Big Bang is a theory
of man that lies. This is God's Word who cannot
lie. Do you see the depravity of man?
He'll believe a theory For men who are motivated by money and
need extra money for grants and things, they've got to come up
with something. And won't believe God, who can I lie? Listen to
this. Arthur Pink said this. Imagine
40 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,
without talking to one another or being present with one another,
they strike 66 different notes. and which when combined yield
the theme of the grandest oratory ever heard. Would it not show
that behind these 40 different men there was one presiding mind,
one great tone master? You take this Bible and you read
this Bible and there's all these different men over all these
different periods of time, 40 different men that wrote these
scriptures, some educated, some uneducated. They didn't know
each other. And yet you read these and all
66 books have one message, Christ's victorious salvation of his people.
And you begin to see how well everything just goes right together
with everything else. And it makes the believer know
God is behind this. God, the Holy Spirit, moved those
men to write what they wrote. Faith believes God's word. Here's
the third thing. Faith is not considerate of carnal
inabilities. Look here in verse 19. It says,
And 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 womb. Now God promised Abraham that
He was going to use Abraham to produce a child in Sarah. And
God waited until they were a hundred years old. Sarah never had a
child. Her womb was dead. Now natural reason, natural sense,
medicine will tell you that's an impossibility. This woman
couldn't have a child. There's no way she could have
a child. But it says here, being not weak in faith. Weakness of
faith, you know where it comes from? You know where weakness
of faith comes from? It comes from looking at things,
carnal things, that make it unable or have inability. That's where
weakness of faith comes from, looking at temporal things with
natural sight. But Abraham considered not his
own body Neither the deadness of Sarah's womb. And therefore
against hope, against all these things that were contrary to
his hope, he had hope. Because he believed God's word.
He didn't look at those things. You ever notice when God, all
through the scripture, when God promises a blessing, declares
what he's going to bring to pass, he always makes it so that you
know God alone did it. He makes the way impossible for
man. He said Joseph was going to reign
over all his brethren. So he makes sure Joseph is sold
into slavery and then imprisoned down in Egypt. And then God raises
him to power so that he reigned over not only his brethren but
all of Egypt. God declared he's going to deliver
Israel and he's going to use Moses to do it. So God saw to
it that when Moses was born as a helpless infant, he was thrown
in the river. And then God used Pharaoh's own
servant to find him and used Pharaoh's own riches to raise
him up and gave him the best education possible. And He even
used Moses' own mother to nurse him and raise him and teach him.
And then God used Moses and delivered Israel and destroyed Pharaoh.
He always makes you know, He did it. You didn't have anything
to do with it. I've told you all this, I think,
before. Some of our new brethren may not have heard it, but when
we were in Franklin, Tennessee, Brother Marvin Stocker was pastor,
sometimes we would have so many people in attendance that the
ladies that were keeping the nursery would have to go out
in the yard and keep the ladies, because we'd have to use the
nursery. And we'd have a bunch of people
in attendance. And while we had all that crowd,
we could not agree to buy a building. We could not do it. We had bought
a building, but as Brother Don used to call it, it was an albatross.
But we couldn't agree to build a nice building. And God whittled
that work down. He just kept whittling it down
and whittling it down until there was just a handful of families.
And we found a building and we bought it and never missed a
day. God's going to make it known, and He's doing it. He's doing
it. And faith doesn't believe when
evidence is brought forth. That's not faith. If you've got
evidence, you can see that God's going to do something so that
now, well, OK, now I trust Him. Well, you don't really trust
Him. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. So fourthly, let's look at this.
Faith is giving God all the glory. He says in verse 20, He staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith,
giving glory to God. Now, that's a description of
Abraham when he was in Christ and that's how God saw him. But
if we look at Abraham, go back to the Old Testament, I love
this how in the Old Testament, A picture of being in our sin
under the law, you see all the brethren's faults and everything
that they did. You go to the New Testament,
a picture of being under grace, being in Christ, God doesn't
record them. He just says, they were perfect.
Because that's how God sees us in Christ. You go to the Old
Testament, you see how we really are. And if you go to Abraham,
you see what all he really did, you'll understand that this strong
faith Abraham had came from God. Abraham didn't just have it.
Abraham was an idolater in a foreign land, in a land of heathens.
And he would have stayed there if God had come to him and given
him faith and called him out. And then there came a time when
Sarah and Abraham They were in such unbelief that Sarah said,
I think what God means is you need to take my handmaid and
have a child through her because I can't have a child. And Abraham
did that. And they would have stayed in
that unbelief if God hadn't come and turned them from it and said,
this is not the child. The child I'm going to create
is going to be of me. And it's according to my promise.
And he gave them faith and strengthened their faith. So if it wasn't
for God, we wouldn't have faith and we wouldn't persevere in
faith. So when we believe God, whether we have weak faith or
strong faith, we're giving the glory to God. We're giving the
glory to God and giving Him all the glory. This is the difference
between true religion and false religion. If there's anything
in your religion that you did to save you or that you contributed
to to save you, That's one area where you're glorying in yourself
and you're not giving the glory to God. And if we look at, if
we believe that men are going to stop God from fulfilling His
purpose, then we're glorifying men. That's what we do when we're
in unbelief and we're fretful and worrying and worrying about
tomorrow and what's going to come to pass, we're glorifying
man. That's what we're doing. But
when you believe God, you glorify God. We glorify whatever we believe
in, whatever we're trusting in. And so, you know, you know this
and I know this. It's a simple thing. When your
children trust you, trust the word you've told them, they honor
you. And when my children do that,
I honor them. You know why? Christ honored
faith repeatedly in the scriptures. He would commend believers for
their faith. You know why he did that? Because
faith gives him all the glory. Faith commends him. That's why
he did that. So the scriptures tell us, don't,
you sitting here, I know you're surrounded by friends that don't
believe and you're afraid of what they're going to think if
you believe on the Lord and profess Christ and all these different
things. Do not Be concerned about the
rest of your friends and the rest of your family and the rest
of mankind. Do not let that come into play. Listen to what God says. In Isaiah
8, 12, He says, Say ye not a confederacy, a confederacy to all them to
whom this people shall say a confederacy? Neither fear ye their fear, nor
be afraid. Here's what He said. But sanctify
the Lord of hosts Himself. See Him high and lifted up. Let
Him be your fear and let Him be your dread. And He shall be
for us sanctuary. He'll protect you. You'll be
safe in Him. So see, we're either going to
fear man or we're going to fear God. We either glorify man or
we glorify God. And faith glorifies God. Gives
Him all the glory. We give Him glory for choosing
us, redeeming us, regenerating us, preserving us, everything. is all of Him. And then fifthly,
faith is being fully persuaded that God is able to do what He
promised. Look here in verse 21. And being
fully persuaded that what He had promised He was able also
to perform. Are you persuaded? Are you persuaded? I am with Paul. I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nothing shall
be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus. I am persuaded of that. I am proof of that. If I can't
separate me from the love of God in Christ, ain't nothing
going to be able to do it. I can guarantee you that. and
all the suffering that Paul endured for the sake of Christ because
he preached the gospel, Paul said, I'm not ashamed. I'm not
ashamed. For I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
against that day to him. You know why all those believers
in the Old Covenant, you know why they all persevered to the
end in faith? Scripture says, they all died
in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen
them afar off. That is by faith and being persuaded
of them. They were persuaded that what
God promised, He could bring to pass. He was able to bring
it to pass. And so they embraced those promises
and they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on
earth. What are we persuaded of? We are persuaded God is able
to fulfill every promise He has made in His Word. That He can
do everything He said. Remember when Sarah laughed?
The messenger came and said, at this certain time I am coming
again and Sarah is going to have a child. And Sarah was in her
tent and heard that and she laughed. And the messenger said, is anything
too hard for the Lord? Is anything too hard for the
Lord? He said, at this appointed hour,
I will come again and you will have a child. And I guarantee
you this, nothing is too hard for the Lord. At the appointed
hour, God will work everything in providence to bring His child
under the sound of the gospel and He will create life in a
dead sinner, just like He did in Sarah's womb. Abraham, this
is what is amazing to me, Abraham even went and offered up Isaac
on an altar and drew back his knife and he was fixing to slay
that boy because God told him to. And before God, God saw his heart. And before God, he really did
slay Isaac. Why did he do that? This was
the boy, the one child he had through whom God said, Christ
is coming and all your people are going to be saved. Why in
the world would he go and kill that boy? Accounting that God
was able to raise him up from the dead. He was persuaded God
was able. And the scripture says, from
the dead God received Isaac. in a type, in a picture, because
he saw Abraham's heart, and Abraham really killed that boy. Christ
summed it up. He said, with men this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible. I don't care what it is about
salvation. Look at a man. With men it's impossible for
you to choose God, but God chose His people, and He makes His
people choose Him. It's impossible to give ourselves
life, but God gives His people life. It's impossible for us
to fulfill the law and establish it in perfect righteousness.
But Christ came and did it for his people. It's impossible for
us to persevere in faith when God preserves his people. It's
impossible for you and I to, for our spirit to rise and go
into God's presence when we die of us. And it's impossible for
us to raise our bodies and give ourselves a glorified body. But
God does that. as soon as you take your last
breath. A to Z, everything about salvation, with men it is impossible,
but with God it is possible. He does it all. Here is the sixth
thing. Faith is being made the righteousness
of God. It says in verse 22, And therefore,
because Abraham believed God, it was imputed to him for righteousness. God imputed the righteousness
of Christ to him. Now hear what I say. God never
imputes anything except what a man has been made. That's all
He imputes. He imputes to you what you have
been made. In Adam all sinned. And death
entered in. We all have sinned in Adam. And
that's why God imputed sin to us. But we were in Christ. His elect were in Christ. And
Christ made His people the righteousness of God. He did it. We don't do
it through faith. It's not faith that makes Him,
His righteousness to be our righteousness. No, He made His people righteous
by His Word. When He cried, it's finished,
it was done. And it's for that reason that God brings us to
faith in Christ and imputes the righteousness of Christ to us.
Faith is the river through which we experience that righteousness. When Christ said it's finished
and He entered into glory, we were made righteous before the
court of God's holy law. But faith is that conduit through
which God makes us to experience that we are made righteous in
Christ in the court of our conscience. So we can understand we're righteous. It's finished in belief. You
see what I'm saying? It's a finished work. Now look
at verse 23. 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 raised again
for our justification. Now listen to me, you that don't
believe. You know what he's telling you? He's saying, if you believe
on Christ, right here where you sit, this righteousness is yours. God will make you to know there
is no more condemnation for you. You don't have to worry about
dying and coming into God's presence and being cast into hell. There
is no condemnation. God will not charge His people
with sin because Christ answered for all our sins. Just believe
on God. Believe Christ and He imputes
this righteousness to you. I got one more thing. Seventh
thing. Faith is. Faith is one day being
with Christ for all eternity. That's what faith is. Then we
won't have faith. We won't need it then. Alright,
let's stand together. Father, we thank You for this
Word. We thank You that You've given us faith to behold these
things are true believe you and to trust Christ alone. Lord,
we pray you continue to keep us and strengthen our faith and
glorify yourself thereby. We pray for those that don't
know you, Lord, that you'd call them and give them this faith
and bring them to rest with us in Christ. We thank you, Lord,
for all your blessings, for everything you've given us. We trust you'll
continue to provide all for us. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.