Turn with me to Romans chapter
1. I want to begin reading verse 7. To all that be in Rome, beloved
of God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my God
through Jesus Christ for you all. For who? For whom is Paul
thanking God for? The saints. The saints and what
our Lord has done for his saints. He says that your faith is spoken
of throughout the whole world. I want to speak with you tonight
about the faith of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Paul says your faith is spoken
of. Your faith is spoken of. Our faith, the believer's faith,
is the faith of God. Your faith you that believe the
Lord Jesus Christ. It is the faith of God Look over
at Romans 3 verse 3 Romans 3 3 For what if some did
not believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faith of God without effect? the faith of God this faith of
God speaks of your salvation. The faith of God is a term used
to describe our salvation, the salvation of God that he has
provided in the Lord Jesus Christ for his people. It's called the
faith of God. Sometimes it's called the faith
of Christ. Here it's called, in chapter one, your faith, your
faith. God has revealed this faith,
meaning he's revealed this salvation. to his prophets, to his teachers,
to his pastors, through this word, through this scripture,
and by his spirit, making known what he is saying in his word,
he reveals this salvation, this faith of God, which by his grace
and power is made your faith, you that believe, your faith. And so we believers are made
subjects of the grace of God's faith. It's a work of His grace. This faith is a work of His grace
for His people so that this faith which we have in Christ, which
is expressed in us, there's life and there's a motion of the soul
to Christ. When He gives faith, the gift
of faith, there's a movement toward Christ in our souls, in
our hearts, in that new creature which He has formed in us and
created in us by His grace in Christ. And then there's blessings. There's blessings that we receive
that are understood through this faith which He gives to us. There's
blessings and an understanding of what he has done for us. I
think many in the world, they can have a knowledge, a certain
knowledge, a certain understanding of what they would call the faith
of God or the faith of Christianity. They might use that term, and
that means they have an understanding of some principles or some doctrines
or certain practices, but they have no experience. of the faith
of God. That's a gift, a spiritual gift
of God given by His Spirit to His people because He loves them
and He's gracious toward His people. He provides for His people
this faith of God. And so it is that it's through
the grace of God which is given to us through redeeming grace
that it becomes our faith. There's a new birth, there's
a new creature born again of the Lord Jesus Christ whereby
we live and we're drawn to Christ, we're moved to Christ and He
reveals more and more this faith or this more and more this salvation
through the faith which He gives to His children. And so what
I'm saying here is that the faith of God is experienced and believed
by you, because it is a spiritual work of God. It's not of this
flesh. It is a spiritual work of God. You that believe Christ, give
God thanks. Praise God, because all men have
not faith. But you that believe, when the
sinner saved believes Christ, it's because God has given them
that faith to know what he has done and accomplished for them.
And so it describes the salvation of God, which is entirely contained
in Christ. It's all given in Christ. There's
no part of the salvation that spills outside of Christ or comes
outside of Christ. It's all in Christ. It's all
given to you in Christ. All the blessings of God are
given to us in Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, which hath blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. All the blessings of God are
given to His children in Christ Jesus. And so this faith, it's
different from those who just study and learn about this faith,
about Christianity, they might call it. They see it as a form
of history, a form of religion, a form of meditation. But to
us who believe, Christ is made precious. He's precious. And we understand that this is
all our salvation. Christ is all our salvation,
everything we need to stand before God. be accepted of him is given
freely in the Lord Jesus Christ." So Paul says, well we're just
going to go through this a few verses here and look at this
faith as it's described here in these verses. And faith is
broad, faith is worded in many different ways, but it all speaks
to the salvation that God has given to us in Christ. So Paul
says, let's go back to verse eight. First, I thank my God
through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken
of throughout the whole world. Notice that Paul thanks God for
his brethren. Paul thanks God for his brethren
who have faith. He doesn't thank them for believing.
He thanks God for their faith and their believing. Faith is
not an ability of man. Faith is not something that man
can just commit or commit himself to or dig deep and just start
practicing and say, I'm gonna believe now. This is gonna be
my choice and I'm gonna believe now. It's not something that's
done by man by which he can do or will do to be saved. Faith
is a gift of God, it's of God. In 2 Thessalonians 3, 2, Paul
said, all men have not faith. All men have not faith. In fact,
no man has it by nature. There's a form of belief or a
trust that men may or may not have. Some might call some men
gullible for trusting someone that they shouldn't, but that's
not the faith of God. No man has this faith of God
by nature. It is given by God. It's a fruit
of the Spirit. It's not a work of the flesh. Faith is the gift of God, given
to His people, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world. We are chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. Ephesians 1.4 So faith is given
according to the grace of God. It's not earned by man's works. God's grace is freely given to
those redeemed by the blood of Christ. It's given. Ephesians 2.8 says, For by grace
are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God. Second, Paul says your faith
is spoken of. It's spoken of throughout the
whole world. What he's saying there is faith
is something that is witnessed by others. Others will see the
faith of God. They'll know that you who believe
Christ have been blessed of God. God has done something for you
that believe. Through faith, through the faith
of Christ, though the faith of Christ is not understood or agreed
with by many, faith is witnessed by those who see your faith. They see your faith. Those who
believe Christ see it, and those who do not believe see it. They
may not agree with it, but they see it. Paul said to Timothy
this, 1 Timothy 3.16, he said, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. Well, just like Christ was seen
and preached throughout the world, so this faith goes throughout
the world, and it's revealed, it's manifest in the Lord's people,
so that it is spoken of, it is heard. The Lord makes it known
what He has done for His people. This salvation, this, the knowledge
of the faith of God, of what God has done for His people,
spreads throughout the world. Believers hear the faith of other
believers and we rejoice. We rejoice to hear the Lord doing
a work in his people in some part of the world. We rejoice
to hear what the Lord is doing in Africa and in parts of Africa
where the gospel is spreading and going forth. We rejoice in
that. Unbelievers hear the faith of
believers because faith is manifest in the redeemed of the Lord. It's manifest, it's made known.
Like we read earlier, we won't look at this tonight, but Paul
says in verse 17, Romans 1, 17, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. As it's written, the just
shall live by faith. Well, they see it. This world
sees that faith which the Lord reveals in his people. You know, when we hear Christ,
and we see Christ and we believe him, believers are baptized. We're baptized confessing Christ,
confessing that we live in and by him. Baptism is identifying publicly
with Christ. Before the world, whoever is
there, we're identifying with Christ. That when Christ was
crucified, that when he died, I died with him. And when He
was taken from that cross and buried, I was buried with Him. And all my sins, buried, put
away out of the sight of God. And when He rose from the grave,
I rose with Him. set free from the law, delivered
from the body of sin, delivered from the dominion of sin, delivered
from the wrath of God, delivered from the curse of the law, delivered
from the hand of God's justice, and we stand complete as a member
of Christ's body, complete in Him. We're members of His body,
and so we stand complete in Him. And we're confessing that. We're
confessing my hope is Christ. I don't have a righteousness
of my own. I don't have anything to boast of before God. I have
nothing to tell you of something I've done and how I got myself
saved. I didn't get myself saved. God
graciously saved me by Christ in His darling Son. He redeemed
me and delivered me from dead works that cannot save. It is
dead, empty, vain works. Christ has provided everything,
everything that His people need. Christ has cleansed us. Christ
has clothed us with His righteousness. His faith and His faithfulness
is my faith and my faithfulness. I have no confidence in this
flesh, but every confidence in Christ." And that's what the
Lord reveals in us. That's what He manifests. And
that comes forth from our lips. That's what we speak of. That's
the one whom we boast in. We don't tell people how to get
saved. We tell people of Christ. And they'll say, sirs, what must
I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. And that faith is ready. It's
right there. It's already in their mouth.
It's already in their heart. And they speak that which the
Lord has revealed to them in the Lord Jesus Christ. So by
faith, we declare what God has done for us in Christ. That's what we're declaring,
you that believe the Lord. For example, What this world sees, I mean,
I know that there's many false ideas and understandings of what
Christianity is. There's a lot of lies and filth
and darkness, which is labeled as Christianity. And that's not
Christianity, not what our Savior taught us. But you that believe,
what are we confessing? We're confessing that we are
justified by the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not justified by my works. You're not justified by your
works. We're justified by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the
faith of God reveals in us, it speaks, what's revealed in us,
it speaks to our justification. God justifies our salvation,
that his people are indeed saved. They have been justified, made
righteous by Christ. How so? Well, he reveals faith
in his children who believe him and confess him. Paul tells us
we are justified by the faith of Christ. We're justified by
the faith of Christ. And that really is speaking of
his faith, speaking of his faithfulness to the Father. And that's our
faith. That's what we trust in is Christ. not saved by our faith. Our faith
reveals the one who saves us, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we
are justified by Him. This faith from God declares
we have been adopted by God through Jesus Christ. We are brought
into the family of God through the adoption of Christ, by Jesus
Christ. We are adopted sons and daughters
of God the Father. We are in the family of God and
faith makes this known for a year, all the children of God by faith
in Christ Jesus. Christ has made us adopted sons
and daughters. He's brought us into the family
of God. Faith makes this known to us. Faith reveals this, what
God has done. This faith from God declares
all our sins have been forgiven. We have received the remission
of sins. That is the forgiveness of sins. Listen to Romans 3.25. God hath
set forth Christ. to be a propitiation through
faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission
of sins. He's set forth Christ to turn
the wrath of God, which was justly against us, to turn it upon himself,
to set us free and deliver us from the wrath of God. We go
free through faith in his blood. It's his blood that delivers
us. He gives us faith. He reveals faith which sees and
knows His blood is sufficient. His blood cleanses from all sin. His blood cleanses me and makes
me righteous and whole before God. This faith from God is sanctifying
and purifying by God in Christ. Paul, speaking in Acts 26 verse
18, he said, Believers have an inheritance among them which
are sanctified by faith that is in Christ. We are sanctified
by Christ and we have faith that He has sanctified us and set
us apart by His grace and mercy. And it testifies that we have
been sanctified by Christ. You that believe, it's a testimony
that you've been sanctified by the Lord. And our Lord purifies
our hearts by faith in Christ. He said in Acts 15, 9, purifying
our hearts by faith. That might have been Peter actually,
but our Lord has purified our hearts by faith. God testifies
that we have eternal life through faith, meaning our faith testifies
that God has given his children eternal life, that that one who
confesses Christ and believes that God has raised him from
the dead has eternal life, because they believe Christ. They that
believe Christ are evidencing that Christ has given them life,
that he has put away their sin. And so he's testifying that we've
been given that life. Our Lord says, he that believeth
on me hath, past tense, everlasting life. That life has been given,
and that's why you believe. That's why you have faith, because
you've been given life, you've been given the spirit, you've
been cleansed of your sin, you've been justified, sanctified, purified,
delivered from the body of sin, delivered from death, and you
now stand and live in the Lord Jesus Christ. This world may
not believe it, but your faith is witnessed in the world, and
it's testifying that you've been justified, adopted, forgiven,
sanctified, purified, and have eternal life. That's what your
faith testifies, and that's your hope. That's all your confidence,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the next few verses, They
continue to show the spiritual nature of faith, that it is a
spiritual gift. For without faith, it's impossible.
It reveals how we worship God, and why and how we are pleasing
to God. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. And so, this faith is given to
us, and this is how we walk now, and this is how we serve God,
and how we know God, and why we come. Because we believe that
He is salvation, that He has accomplished our salvation. We
don't come and we shouldn't be coming. The Lord corrects us
from thinking this, that we don't come to get ourselves saved or
to ensure our salvation. Our hope and confidence is in
Christ that we are saved. And so we come in faith to worship
him who saved us, to worship him who laid down his life for
us, seeking to know him more and more, to grow in the grace
and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He does
this. And so we're reminded in these
things of what our Lord said to the woman at the well. He
tells us God is a spirit. God is a spirit. We're not going
to worship Him by this flesh. God is a spirit. And they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Well, I don't have that by nature.
My spirit was dead. My spiritual life was dead in
Adam. I don't know the truth, except God give me His spirit,
give me life, and reveal His truth in me. in Christ, in the
face of Jesus Christ. Now listen to what Paul says
in relation to these things. Verse 9, For God is my witness,
whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son. Did you
hear that? Whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his Son. That without ceasing I make mention
of you always in my prayers. So, serving God with our spirit
in the gospel of His Son, that's how we serve God. That's how
we worship Him and know Him. He's speaking of the new man,
which is formed in us by Christ, by His Spirit, and by the incorruptible
seed of Christ. And the Spirit takes the things
of Christ and He makes them known to you. and knowing what our
Savior has done. It's a spiritual work of grace
toward us through Christ. And that means, once again, that
faith is not a work of this flesh. Faith is not a decision that
we make. Faith is not something that we
can exercise or will to do to believe God. Faith is not of
this flesh. When God brings you under the
preaching of the gospel, You either believe Christ or you
don't. He makes that known to us. He does that for us. And
so our Lord does that by his grace and mercy, by his spirit.
And when God brings you under the preaching of the gospel,
you either believe Christ or you don't. And what we believe
of Christ is not only is he the son of God, And not only did
the Father send Him, but that our Savior came willingly as
the Lamb of God. Faithfully serving the father
not doing his own will but speaking the things which he heard of
the father of his father doing the the works that his father
sent him to do and he came as the Savior the Christ the Lamb
of God to put away our sin and he gives us that faith that we
believe he came for me and Every child of God sees and knows that
He laid down His life for me, a sinner, one who could not save
himself, one who could not please God by my works. I didn't turn
God's heart toward me, to make him more kind toward me, Christ
came entirely of his own free will. He came willingly, and
he laid down his life for his people. And we're made to know
that when he laid down his life, he pleased the Father well, and
we know this because God has raised him from the dead, justifying
you that believe him, justifying our faith, that our faith is
not in vain. We believe, we've heard what
God has said that He would do in His Word concerning His Son
Jesus Christ, what He would do for His people. And so this faith
which we've been given testifies that God has done this for me
in Christ. Each one of you is taught that,
you that believe Him. God has done this for me. God
has given me this life in Christ out of His free grace, His free
grace for me. Otherwise, I wouldn't believe
it. And so faith is the gift of God. It's of the spirit. And it's not of this flesh. And I emphasize that because
it's the way the world speaks of the gospel, speaks of Christ.
It's what you need to do. And we're rejoicing what Christ
has done. And his spirit turns us from
the love of this world and seeking to please ourselves. and turns
us to the true and living God to seek him, to know him, to
worship him, and to serve him. In John 3, 19, it says, this
is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and
men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were
evil. And so the Lord's showing us,
you and me, we're never gonna break free of that bondage. We're
never gonna break free of that prison. in sin. We're never going to
deliver ourselves from that. That's why Christ came, because
He's the one that delivers us. In fact, it says in... Oh man, this fly is killing me.
I've got this fly going around my head here. Isaiah 49. Isaiah
49.9. This is speaking to Christ. He
says that thou mayest say to the prisoners, go forth. To them
that are in darkness, show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways,
and their pastors shall be in all high places. And so it's
Christ who does that. It's Christ who comes to the
prisoners and delivers us and sets us free. He's the one that
brings us out of darkness. He's the one that is our Savior
and our salvation. Now, by that spirit, Paul continues
in verse 10, making request, if by any means, now at length,
I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto
you. For I long to see that I may
impart unto you some spiritual gift. to the end that ye may
be established. That is, that I may be comforted
together with you by the mutual faith, both of you and me. And so our Lord's teaching us
that when it comes to faith, it's of God's grace. None of
his children, none of God's children are excluded from this gift.
Every one of God's children has faith. They've been given faith.
And none of his children are excluded from that gift. Those who believe are experiencing
God's grace in Christ. Paul said, and now abideth faith,
hope, and charity. These three. Those three, faith,
hope, and charity, are given to every one of God's children. Every one. There's no children
that do not have this spiritual faith, this spiritual hope, this
spiritual love. All God's children have these
three brought in them, born in them by the Spirit of God. This
is the fruit of the Spirit. And in this mutual faith, we
have fellowship with one another because we've been brought into
union with the true and living God. And we fellowship with one
another because we are the children of God. Each one of us now has
access to God's throne of grace. Every one of us can go to the
Lord's throne and pray. We can go before Him in prayer
and pray. We can pray for one another,
and we do, and we pray for the needs and the concerns that we
have. We lift one another up before our Lord. He says it's
according to the eternal purpose which he hath purposed in Christ
Jesus our Lord in whom we have boldness and access with confidence
by the faith of him. By his word, by his grace, we
are drawn to him and come before him. And secondly, each one of
us now has Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith. Each one
of us has Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith. Ephesians
3.17 says that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. That
ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may grow up in him. Each one of us has Christ dwelling
in us. Third, each one of us now feeds
and lives upon Christ by faith. That's how we live. is feeding
upon Christ. That's why when professed believers
don't come to services, they get weak, and they struggle. They're not strong. They are
weak, and it's only by the grace of God that He draws them in
and strengthens and nourishes them and comforts them again.
John 6, 56 and 57, our Lord said, he that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. We feed upon Christ. As the living Father hath sent
me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he
shall live by me. We live upon Christ by faith. We trust him. That's our nourishment. That's our strength. and food
in the new man. That's what we feed upon. Fourth,
to each of us Christ is made precious to us by this faith. First Peter 2 7, unto you therefore
which believe he is precious. He's made precious because again
we know he's my salvation. He's my entrance into the Father.
He's my acceptance with holy God. I'm in the family of God
because of him. My sins are put away because
of him. He's precious. He's precious unto you that believe.
Fifth, our mutual faith makes the gospel of Christ useful and
profitable unto us. Meaning, you hear it. You hear
and believe what Christ has done. Many hear. Many are called, but
few are chosen. And many hear and don't believe. Many hear and hear hear a dead
word, hear no word, hear works, hear what they need to do, you
hear what Christ has done. It's made useful and profitable
unto you by this grace of faith given to you. Hebrews 4.2 says
it this way, for unto us was the gospel preached as well as
unto them, but the word preached did not profit them, not being
mixed with faith in them that heard it. Who made the difference? And you that have heard and believed,
God did. God made the difference in giving
you faith, which is a fruit of the Spirit, which means you have
the Spirit given to you, which means Christ has done these things
for you. He's accomplished your redemption
and your salvation. That's why you believe. That's
why the word you heard was mixed with faith, because he's given
it to you graciously, freely in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he's given you faith in him. And having this faith from God,
it makes us to rejoice in God together and to rejoice in fellowship
one with another. And we rejoice in him. And this
was just a sampling of what we know of and understand concerning
this faith which God has given to us. And so you that believe
Christ, you that rejoice in Him, rejoice in God. Give God thanks,
because it's of Him are we in Christ Jesus who made unto us
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And according
as it's written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Amen.