You want to turn in your Bibles
to Hebrews chapter 11, and we want to look today at Abraham.
And so I've entitled this message, By Faith Abraham. Look at verse
eight, Hebrews chapter 11, verse eight. By faith Abraham, when
he was called to go out into a place which he should after
receive for an inheritance, obeyed. And he went out, not knowing
whether he went. When did God call Abraham? What
was his condition when God called him? If you look at Genesis with
me, in chapter 11 of Genesis, it gives us the genealogy of
Abraham. Remember last week, Noah and
his three sons and their wives, Noah's wife and his three sons
and his son's wives, Ham, Sham, and Japheth, were the only ones
preserved from the flood that came upon the earth. God brought
that flood on the earth and destroyed everything. And only those eight
souls were saved by the flood in the ark. And one of them,
one of the sons of Noah, Shem, was the father of Abraham, not
directly but through his line. And you can see this. I'll let
you read the genealogy yourself, but if you were to look at verse
10 and 11, you would see that these are the generations of
Shem. And Shem goes all the way down the line from Arphaxad to
Selah and Eber. Eber is another name for Hebrew,
from which the Hebrews came. Riu and Peleg and Sirug and Nahor
And so on. Nahor was the father of Terah.
And then verse 27, now these are the generations of Terah.
Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran begat Lot. So they're related. Abraham and Lot are related.
They have the same father, Terah. Actually, Abraham and Lot are
related because Lot is the son of Abraham's brother, Haran.
So Lot was Abraham's nephew. But they have the same father,
Haran and Abraham. And it says here that Tira begat
Abraham, Nahor and Haran. It sometimes says that in scripture
and you might think that he had those children all on the same
day, but it wasn't the case. They were brothers and they were
born at different times. In fact, look at The last verse
of chapter 11, the days of Terah were 205 years. So he was an old man when he
died. But then if you look at chapter 12 and verse four, Abraham
departed as the Lord had spoken to him and Lot went with him
and Abram was 75 years old when he departed out of Haran. When
his father Terah died, Abram left Haran. and he was 75. So he was born to his father
Tira when his father was 130 years old. And therefore, when
it says that Tira begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran, it wasn't when
he was 130 that he begat all those. He had those children
over time. So Tira was the father of Abram,
but they all lived in the land of the Chaldees, which was Babylon. And the area they lived in was
called Ur of the Chaldees in chapter 11, verse 28. Now look
at Joshua, the book of Joshua, if you would, and you see what
the condition of these people in that land was like. In Joshua
chapter one, I'm sorry, 24, Joshua 24. It says in verse 1, Joshua 24,
1, Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and called
for the elders of Israel and for their heads and for their
judges and for their officers. And they presented themselves
before God. And Joshua said to all the people, thus saith the
Lord God of Israel, your fathers dwelt on the other side of the
flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the
father of Nahor. And they served other gods, idols. So Abraham lived among idolaters. His father, Terah, was an idolater. No doubt, when the Lord called
Abraham, he was also an idolater. He didn't always know God. There
was a time in Titus chapter 3 and verse 3, it says, we also were
sometimes foolish. disobedient, deceived, serving
divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and
hating one another. But after that, the kindness
and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy
He saved us. By the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly,
Through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that being justified by His grace,
we might have eternal life in Him. So here we see that Abraham,
when he was called, lived among and was himself an idolater. If you look at Acts chapter seven,
you see something more about the call of Abraham. In Acts
chapter seven, there's a sermon that Stephen preaches to the
Jews there, and he begins with Abraham. He says this in verse
one of Acts seven, then said the high priest, are these things
so? And this is Stephen replying.
He said, men and brethren and fathers hearken. The God of Glory
appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before
he dwelt in Haran. And he said to him, God said
to Abraham, while he was there in Mesopotamia, before he came
out of Ur of the Chaldees, Get thee out of thy country, and
from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee. Then came he out of the land
of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from thence, when
his father was dead from Haran, then after Tira died, he removed
him into this land wherein you now dwell." So you see the history.
Abraham living in Mesopotamia, Ur of the Chaldees, an idolater
living in the land of Babylon. God calls him, he comes with
his father, he tells, get out from your father's house and
from your kindred and come to the land I will show you. What
does Abraham do? He goes to Ur of the Chaldees. I mean, he came
to Haran, which was not Ur of the Chaldees, but it was a ways
on the direction to go into Canaan, but not all the way to Canaan.
So he didn't at once go all the way, did he? But he did come
out. And now let's go back to Genesis
and chapter 12. We see the progression here.
Because when God calls us, we're not immediately full grown in
the faith, are we? Faith is something that increases.
No one has perfect faith on earth. No one has perfect faith. If
we don't have perfect faith, what does that mean about our
faith? It means it's mixed with unbelief,
doesn't it? And if our faith is mixed with
unbelief, which we know is sinful, then can God judge, can He justify
us on the basis, on the ground of our faith? He can't, can He? So in Genesis chapter 12, it
says in verse one, Now the Lord God had said unto Abram, there
you have the confirmation of what Stephen said, get thee out
of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto
a land that I will show thee. There's the confirmation that
God called Abraham while he was an idolater in unbelief living
without God in the world. That's the way God always calls
his people. But notice here, He said back
in Acts, Stephen said that he told him he would bring him to
a land he would show him while he was still there. And he reiterates
that here, verse 2. And I will make of thee a great
nation, and I will bless thee. And make thy name great, and
thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless
thee, and curse him that curseth thee. And in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed. In Abraham, all families of the
earth. What is that saying? God made
a promise to Abraham. Abraham believed God, that's
why he left. And God's promise was, through
Abraham, he was going to have a multitude of children, and
God was going to bless all the families of the earth through
him. Okay? So, now, look at, in the same
chapter, in verse 10, let's see the character of Abraham here.
There was a famine in the land, and Abram went down into Egypt
to sojourn there, for the famine was grievous in the land. And
it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt,
that he said to Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou
art a fair woman to look upon. Therefore it shall come to pass,
when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, this
is his wife, and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive. Say, I pray thee, thou art my
sister, that it may be well with me for thy sake, and my soul
shall live because of thee. What's Abraham doing here? He's
afraid that he's going to die. And so he tells Sarai, who was
indeed related to him, and she could be called his sister. Well,
just tell them you're my sister. Don't tell them you're my wife.
That way they won't kill me. Well, what would that result
in, though? That's the problem. Verse 14, it came to pass that
when Abram was coming to Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman,
Sarai, that she was very fair. The princes also of Pharaoh saw
her, and they commended her before Pharaoh, and the woman was taken
into Pharaoh's house. Uh-oh, that's not good. And he
The king, Pharaoh, treated Abram well for her sake, and he had
sheep and oxen and he asses and menservants and maidservants
and she asses and camels, and the Lord protected Abram. Listen, the Lord plagued Pharaoh
and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. And Pharaoh called Abram and
said, what is this that thou hast done to me? Why didst thou
not tell me that she was thy wife? why saidst thou she is
my sister so that so I might have taken her to me to wife
now therefore behold thy wife take her and go thy way and Pharaoh
commanded his men concerning him and they sent him away and
his wife and all that he had so Abram first of all you see
he didn't go all the way from Ur of the Chaldees into Canaan,
he stopped at Haran, and there was there for a while, I don't
know how many years, but was there for a while, until his
father died, then he was separated from Ur of the Chaldees, I mean,
Haran, and then he went to Canaan, on his way to Canaan. And not
only that, not only did his faith was not, was imperfect then,
Though he obeyed God, according to Hebrews 8, but he also treated
his wife as his sister, covering up the full truth, and put her
at danger. A very serious thing, because
he didn't really believe fully that what God had promised, he
was going to have all these children, and it would be through him.
And God's promise couldn't fail, so why did he fear for his life?
Who can hurt us if the Lord is for us? So you can see that Abraham's
faith was immature, and yet it was towards God, right? That's
a fundamental thing here. God called him. He believed God.
What does Hebrews 11.8 say? By faith, Abraham, when he was
called to go out into a place which
he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went
out, not knowing whether he went. God summarizes it all. with a
very short synopsis by saying he obeyed, he went out. He doesn't give the details in
Hebrews 11.8 about Abraham's progression in grace and in faith,
does he? And we want to understand why
that is, why God gives an account of Abraham as having obeyed by
faith. He did obey by faith, but it
wasn't all at once, and it wasn't perfect obedience either. There
was a lot of unbelief mixed in here. And this wasn't the first
time that Abraham did this. Later on, he did it again. And so you can see how Abraham
grew in this faith. So he had this faith. So first
of all, we see here that God called Abraham. And he gave him
this promise here in chapter 12, in verse 3. This promise
is called out in the New Testament. He says in verse 3 again, chapter
12, verse 3, I will bless them that bless thee, curse them that
curseth thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be
blessed. All families. What was God saying there? Well,
we don't have to guess. He explains it. Look at Galatians
chapter 3. In verse 8, Galatians 3 verse
8, it says, and the scripture, referring back to Genesis 12
verse 3, notice how God says this here, and the scripture
foreseeing that God would just, it almost personifies the scripture,
doesn't it? It does personify the scripture,
doesn't it? The scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith. Now that's the explanation here
of the promise. God will justify the heathen
through faith. He says, he preached, or the
scripture preached before the gospel to Abraham saying, in
thee shall all nations be blessed. That's incredible. God interprets
the promise God gave to Abraham as being the gospel of Jesus
Christ. That in him, in Christ, all nations
would be blessed. God would justify the heathen.
Let's keep reading in Genesis chapter three, verse nine. So
then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
The nations that are blessed Those are the ones who believe
Christ. Those, he says, so then, according to God's promise, in
fulfillment of it, they which be of faith are blessed. That
was the blessing, that they would be blessed with Abraham, are
blessed with faithful Abraham. And so, if you go back up to
verse 5, Actually, I want to look at Galatians
3 verse 1. Oh foolish Galatians, who has
bewitched you, you're like you're under a spell, that you should
not obey the truth, which is the truth of the gospel, before
whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified
among you. Apparently, with great evidence,
with great explanation and clarity, This only would I learn of you,
received ye the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing
of faith. The hearing of faith is the gospel preached and believed. But objectively, it's the gospel
itself concerning Christ, and the hearing of it is that grace
God gives to us when we hear it to believe it. So he said,
you receive the spirit not by doing something, not by your
own obedience, but you heard about Christ's obedience in his
death as the way in which God saves sinners, and you believed
it. Of course, that was God's grace
that you believed it, but in hearing it, God gave you the
spirit. He gave, like Jesus said in John
6, 63, the words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they
are life. Life comes under the hearing
of the gospel, just like it says in 2 Corinthians 4.6, God who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our hearts to give the light of the glory, the light of the
knowledge of God, the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. That's the gospel. God, as he
commanded the light and light shone, in the beginning of time,
so when the gospel is preached, the same power, in fact, a greater
power, is given to us who hear it, and God raises us from death,
spiritual death, to spiritual life, and in that life, we believe
the gospel, we believe Christ. Okay? That's what he's saying
here. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by
the hearing of faith? It's a rhetorical question. Obviously,
it was by the hearing of faith. Are you so foolish, having begun
in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? Not only
did you first, when you first heard the gospel as a sinner,
that Christ was all in your salvation, you believed Him and you rested
on Him, but now as you live your life, are you perfected in another
way? Do you go back to the law in
order to make yourself holy before God or perfect before God? No. Having begun in the spirit, are
you now made perfect by the flesh? No, absolutely not. Have you
suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain? Remember
all that time you labored under the law with the guilt and the
bondage of the law? Have you suffered that in vain?
Have you heard the gospel now and delighting in Christ, worshiping
God in truth and spirit? Do you now go back to trying
to come to Him through your own personal obedience? Or do you
only come to God by the obedience He has provided and fulfilled
in His Son? Verse 5, He therefore that ministers
to you the Spirit, and works miracles among you. Who is that?
That's the preacher of the gospel. How does he minister the spirit?
By preaching the gospel. The spirit of God himself is
given through Christ. And what are these miracles?
It's the miracle of faith. It's the miracle of the life
by the spirit given to us. Does he do it by the works of
the law or by the hearing of faith? Even as, verse six, Abraham
believed God and it was accounted or imputed to him for righteousness.
The word accounted and imputed are the same thing. Abraham believed
God and it was imputed to him for righteousness. Did he do
obedience in order for him to get that righteousness? No, he
believed God. What did he believe? Keep reading. Know ye therefore that they which
are of faith The same are the children of Abraham, because
they do what Abraham did. They believe. They believe God. But here's the verse again. And
the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith, preached before the gospel to Abraham, saying,
In thee shall all nations be blessed. So what was the promise? What was it that Abraham believed?
He did believe God, but what did he believe? Well, we read
a minute ago that God called him while he was in Ur of the
Chaldees to come out to Canaan. What was that in essence? He
said, I'm going to bless you, and you're going to be a blessing.
In fact, if anyone curses you, then they're going to be cursed.
And in you, all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed
in your seed. He didn't use the word seed, but he said in, let
me go back to Genesis 12 to make sure I don't misstate that. Genesis
12, reading it again, in verse three, he says, in thee shall
all families of the earth be blessed. Later on, it's stated
that it would be in his seed. And so, The point is, is Abraham
believe God? What did he believe about God?
What is faith anyway? What condition was he in when
he believed God? So those three questions are
very important. What was his condition? What is faith? What
did he believe? Let's consider those things.
We already saw in Joshua chapter 24 that Abraham lived among idolaters. And God called him out of that,
so he obviously was an idolater. He wasn't holy in himself when
God called him. We also saw that when he came
out in obedience to that word of God by faith, he didn't come
all the way out. And then we saw that he doubted
and unbelieved for his own life. And so he compromised the truth
with respect to his wife and put her in peril, in danger.
So his faith was certainly not pure, And his obedience wasn't
also complete. So there was a mixture of unbelief,
even in his faith and in disobedience, in his obedience. And yet God
said, by faith, when God called him, he obeyed. So what was that
promise? What did Abraham believe? So
Abraham believed as a sinner, didn't he? Wasn't he a sinner
when he believed? Look at 1 Timothy. These, if you are like Abraham,
then you are children, you're a child of Abraham. How did Abraham
believe? He points us to this in Galatians
chapter three. We just read it. How did you
receive the spirit? Was it by your own works? Was
it by your own, were you walking according to the law? No, you
heard. It was the hearing of faith. Look at 1 Timothy chapter one. Now these are familiar words,
but the trouble is we need to walk in these things. We live
upon them. If you heard and you received
the spirit under the gospel, under the hearing of the gospel,
are you perfected by something else? No. No, you're going on
in this, like Enoch, you walk with God in this. The life that
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me. It's the same thing we
believed then. But here in 1 Timothy 1, verse
12, Paul says, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled
me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.
He wasn't faithful before. He's gonna describe his situation
before. But God counted him faithful.
Verse 13, who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor, he spoke against
Christ and persecuted those who believed Christ. And injurious,
he put them in prison, and he stood there while they stoned
Stephen. But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in
unbelief." In other words, his unbelief wasn't so far as to
be reprobate, but it was in ignorance. He didn't know the truth. He
did not believe God. And he opposed Christ. Verse
14, and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundantly with
faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. God gave him that faith.
God showed his love towards him, and it all, according to here,
and like Rommel reminded us, it's all in Christ Jesus. And
then he goes on, verse 15, listen to these words very carefully.
This is a faithful saying. What does that mean? It means
this has become used so often that it has risen to the level
of a saying. People go around in the early
church, and they were talking about this. It's like a phrase. They would use it. And it's faithful. It can't fail. You can depend
on it. What is it? You who are in the
same condition as Abraham was, listen, this is a faithful saint
and worthy of all acceptation. In other words, there's not a
person here who should not receive this with the greatest welcome,
with the greatest confidence. God has said this. This is a
faithful saying. It's been repeated by those who
have heard it and believed it. What is this faithful saying
that's so worthy of all acceptation? It's this, that Christ Jesus,
God's anointed, God's son, sent from heaven in order to accomplish
this work, the one who is the word of God, God's prophet, The
one who brings us to God and stands before God as our representative,
God's priest, and brings us there by his own blood, offers himself
to God. The priest and the king, the
one who has all blessings, he has everything and he gives this
freely to his people and shepherds them. and rules over all things,
subduing their enemies, the Christ of God, Jesus, the Savior, the
one whose name means Jehovah is salvation. God in our nature
has become our salvation. He shall save his people from
their sins. Christ Jesus came into the world. He who is God came from heaven
into the world to save sinners. Now this is a faithful saint
worthy of all acceptation. He did it. God's word declares
it to us. There's no impediment here. If you're a sinner, This is the
best possible news. What do we believe? That Jesus
Christ came into the world by the will of God and by himself
offered himself to God for our sins and obeyed God perfectly
and established an everlasting righteousness and that what he
did is all of my salvation. That he came to do this and did
it. And as a sinner, what do I do?
Well, under the hearing of faith, you lay hold on this and say,
that's mine. I want this. I need this. And
it's mine. God considered Christ, not me,
and received Christ for me. And now he has made the way in
Christ to come to him. This is exactly what God did
when he called Abraham. What was the promise? In thee
shall all families of the earth be blessed. Look back at Galatians
3 again. Galatians chapter 3. What was his condition? A sinner.
Why did Jesus Christ come into the world? To save sinners. What
did God say to him? Galatians chapter 3. In verse
16. Now to Abraham and his seed To Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He saith not unto seeds, plural,
as of many. I put the word plural in there
to emphasize it. But as of one, and to thy seed,
singular, which is Christ. To whom were the promises made?
To Abraham and to Christ. That's what this is saying here.
Keep going. Verse 17, This I say, that the
covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, that's what
God said when He promised that to Abraham. God was confirming
that covenant in Christ and He went on to confirm it later to
Abraham. He says, That covenant which
came before the law, the law which was four hundred and thirty
years after, cannot disannul that it should make the promise
of none effect. The promise, the covenant, those two things
are together. In opposition to that, we have
the law, the promise, the covenant in Christ, promise given to Christ
and given to his people, Abraham, Christ. You see that? Go back
to verse 9 or verse 8. The scripture foreseeing that
God would justify the heathen through faith preached before
the gospel to Abraham saying in thee shall all nations be
blessed. Not just Abraham, but who? All
nations. Verse 9. So then they which be
of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. To whom was the promise
made? Abraham in his seat. Christ. And it includes all the
nations blessed by that, by Him, by Christ. So I'm reading this
in verse 18, Galatians 3, 18. For if the inheritance be of
the law, if we receive blessing from God because of our own personal
obedience, keeping the law, he says, if the inheritance be of
the law, it is no more of promise. It can't be both. But God gave
it to Abraham by promise. Verse 19, wherefore then serveth
the law. Why was the law given? Because
of transgressions. It was added because of transgressions.
Until the seed should come to whom the promise was made. Who
is the seed? Abraham's seed. Who is that?
It's Christ. What was the promise then? It's
that God promised to Abraham he was going to send his son,
Jesus Christ. And God would give all of the
promises to Jesus Christ that in Him, the nations of the world,
all nations would be blessed. Not every individual in the world,
but out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation, there would
be those redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Revelation 5, verse
9. And so what he's saying here is that in the very promise God
made and in the call of Abraham, come to a land, come out from
your father's house and your kindred to a land I will show
you. That was the inheritance. But what did that inheritance
consist of? Look at Romans chapter 4. Romans chapter 4 and verse 13. Romans 4.13, for the promise
that he should be the heir of the world. was not to Abraham
or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness
of faith. What was it that God promised to Abraham when he said,
come out and I'll show you a land? Well, it wasn't just limited
to the boundaries of that land of Canaan in which the Israelite
nation came and lived. It included everything in the
world. God gave to Abraham, by promise,
everything. How is that possible? because
he gave it to Christ and to Abraham in him. And so that's why he
says that when he speaks of this promise, he says it was given
to the seed, to Christ, and to Abraham and the nations of the
world that would be blessed with him by faith. So now we see here
what the essence of the promise was. It was God's promise concerning
Christ and that he would justify the heathen, sinners, by him. The heathen were sinners. They
were not Jews and they were not obedient. They were like Abraham
before he was called uncircumcised, not outwardly a Jew. Living as
an idolater called out of that given a promise concerning Christ. And now we're going to ask this
question and try to answer it. What is faith then? What is faith? Because that's what we're looking
at here in Hebrews chapter 11. What is faith? A lot of times people begin to
explain what faith is by showing the faulty faith of devils. Have
you ever heard that? Well, the devils believe, but
they don't believe right or something along those lines. Remember that
verse in James, the book of James, it says for the, let me read
that to you so you get what I'm talking about. In James chapter
two, I believe, He says this, in verse 18, yea, a man may say
thou hast faith and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy
works and I will show thee my faith by my works. James is saying
that among men, the only way they can know that we believe
is by what we do. How do we know that Abraham believed?
Well, he left. He went out. That's what it says in Hebrews
11.8. God called him and he believed and he went out. So verse 19, thou believest that
there is one God. You say, I believe there's one
God. You do well. That's true. The devils also
believe, but they also have works. They have an evidence that what
they believe is that they tremble. So unfortunately, oftentimes
I've heard preachers say, the devils believe in tremble. So
that if you don't believe exactly this way, then you're no better
than the devils. But in order to understand what
faith is, we have to understand this too. What do the devils
believe? That there is one God. Are the
devils lost? Will they spend eternity in hell
because they don't believe right? If they believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ, would they be saved? No, of course not. Why? Because
God never gave them a promise. God never had any intention of
saving devils. It doesn't matter what devils
believe. It's right that they believe
there's one God, and the only thing they have from the one
God is that they're gonna spend eternity in hell, and therefore
they tremble. But that faith isn't saving,
is it? Even though it's consistent with the truth. Well, that leaves
us with this concern, then what is saving faith? And here's where
the mistake is often made, is that people try to dissect between
believing strong or weak. And so they say, well now, you
know, faith has, you have to understand, and you have to agree
to it, and you have to trust in, and they start stacking things
up. And they say, you know, it's
not what you believe, it's whom you believe. and you don't know
whom you believe until, you know, and they start getting into this
psychological introspection about how I believe. But that's not
how we can understand the faith of Abraham. And let me just say
this, and I could give you lots of scriptures, I'll just give
you a few about this, about how, what is faith? What is faith?
Let me get to my list of scriptures here. If I ask you this question,
what is faith? You might respond correctly by
saying, faith is believing God. And that's true. But that's not
enough in defining saving faith. It's true, believing God is faith.
If I say, you know, you'll see this at funerals. People go to
funerals and people get up and talk about the person who's died.
And they'll say, you know, let's say Bob. Bob's looking down on
us now. I know Bob's there looking down
on us. He's probably laughing. They make up all sorts of things.
What is that? That's called pretend. That's
called imagining things. And they may even believe it.
I don't know if they do or not. I doubt that they do. But they
talk that way because it seems like the right thing to do because
it's not saying negative things about Bob. He's dead now. We
don't want to talk bad about him. But is there any truth in
that? Absolutely none. Why do we do
it? Because that's the way we do.
We don't represent the truth. We're not strong for the truth
as people. But faith, therefore, is believing
what's true. And how do we know that? It's
because of what God said. It's believing the truth. But
more particularly, let me read some things here about what faith
is. And I'll just give you the reference
without turning to all of these. In Psalm 106, verse 12, it says,
then they believed his words. In Psalm 106, verse 24, it says,
they believed not his word. So there you have it. Faith is
believing God's word, isn't it? So that confirms what we said.
In Luke chapter 1, verse 20, the angel said, because to Zechariah,
the priest, he said, thou believest not my words, which shall be
fulfilled in their season. And then in Luke 145, the angel
said to Mary, She that believed, for there shall be a performance
of those things which were told her from the Lord. So again,
I'm just stacking these things up. Faith in God is believing
his word. How do you know what's true?
Because God says it. But more than that, more than
that, not just because God says it, but what did God do when
he spoke to Abraham? He gave him a promise. So that
believing God, the devils have no promise of salvation, do they?
It doesn't matter what the devils believe, it's not going to save
them. Their faith cannot save them because God gave them no
promise. It's only what God does that
saves us And faith is hearing the promise of God concerning
our salvation in Christ and believing that. You see, that's the difference
between false faith and saving faith. It doesn't matter how
weak our faith is or how strong our faith is. The important thing
about faith is, is our faith in the seed, Christ? You see, the one through whom
God would justify the heathen, the sinners. Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners. So now that I've established
that, let me give you a couple more scriptures to reaffirm this.
We know it says in Romans 10, 17, now faith comes by what?
Hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. That's the way faith
comes, because that's where the good report is. The verse just
before, Romans 10, 17 says, but they have not all obeyed the
gospel. For Isaiah says, who has believed
our report? That report is Isaiah 53, Christ's
substitutionary sin-atoning work. So what they believe, the word
of God they believe in Romans 10, 17 is the report of Christ
in his sin atoning work as our Savior. That's the way faith
comes. That's the faith of Abraham and
Abel and Enos and Seth and Enoch and Noah and everybody else who
believe God. The subject of Hebrews chapter
11 is faith in Christ as the Savior. And so he says in John
20, 31, but these things were written that you might believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing
you might have life through his name. You see, the object of
our faith is Christ, the Son of God, who came into the world
to save sinners. Now, look at Romans chapter 4,
because this is also the explanation of what was given in Genesis
12, in Genesis 15, and in Galatians chapter 3. Look at Romans chapter
4, verse 1. What shall we say then that Abraham,
our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? What about
Abraham's flesh? For if Abraham were justified
by works, that's his flesh, by what he did, his own personal
obedience, God would look upon what he did and justify him.
He says, if he were justified by works, then he hath something
to glory. He hath whereof to glory. but
not before God. Maybe before men, but not before
God. And that's the point here. You
cannot boast before God. No man can boast before God by
his works. That's a fundamental thing. Jeremiah,
I could give you the reference, but you'll just forget it. So
let's go on. Verse 3. For what saith the scripture?
Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.
Now, to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace
but of debt. If you work, If you do what you
do in order to obtain approval from God and acceptance from
God and access to God, what does he say here? It's just going
to be a debt. You're incurring a greater and
a greater debt. It's not like you're wiping your
debt clean or gaining a reward of blessing from God. It's actually
the opposite. But he says here, to him that
worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. How does
reward come to us? How does blessing come? By grace
alone. That's the only way it can come.
Notice verse five. But to him that worketh not,
he does not strive, he doesn't labor, he doesn't bring to God
the fruits of his own work, he doesn't even consider He doesn't
consider anything that he can do. In fact, he discounts what
he does as filthy rags. His best works and his sin disqualifies
him from any acceptance before God. He comes to God as a sinner,
condemned, corrupt, someone God should judge and condemn. That man who does not work, who
is a sinner, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness." Now, we're defining what faith is. I said
that it's believing God's Word, but more specifically it's believing
the promise, it's believing that God is going to do what He said
He would do. That's what it is. Faith is believing
that what God promised, He will do and is able to do what He
said. But not just that, it's that
concerning Christ. Listen to the way it says it
here. To him that does not work, or worketh not, but believeth
on him, who? We have to know the what in order
to know the who. You can't separate the two. Believeth
on him that does what? Who justifies the ungodly. You see how faith has as its
object God? Who through Christ and his blood
and righteousness imputes what Christ did to the ungodly and
justifies him on the basis of what he thinks of and received
from Christ alone without any work from the man. That's the
point here. The object of our faith is God
who justifies the ungodly and how does he do that? Through
Christ alone. That and that alone is saving
faith. It's not the strength of my faith,
it's the strength of my Savior. Faith didn't die for me, faith
doesn't keep the law for me, faith doesn't keep me. It's Christ
who died and rose again because he did it all. and God justified
him. You see? And this is very important
that we understand this. When we look at the faith of
Abraham, God gave him a promise. You come to this land, I'm going
to give it to you. That was an inheritance. It pointed
to eternal glory, eternal life in Christ. He's basically giving
him the whole rainbow over all that would be required to give
him this eternal glory in life by telling him the end point.
And then he comes into the middle and he says, and your seed, born
to you, would be the one to whom all the promises were given,
and he would, through him, would bless all the nations of the
earth. And that, according to Galatians
3, verse 8, is that God would justify the heathen, the ungodly,
the sinners, through faith in Christ. They would see, they
would hear it, God would preach the gospel to them, and they
would understand, this is all my hope. God has said this, I'm
a sinner, I can take my place there. I'm ungodly, I have nothing
to bring. I'm opposed like Abraham, an
idolater, ungodly. And yet this is the greatest
news that anybody ever heard in heaven or earth, that Christ
lived and died for me. And we could talk a lot more
about this faith of Abraham, but let me take you to Hebrews
chapter 7 now and show you something else that God teaches us through
this man, Abraham. And we've gone over this, but
I want to bring it into connection with this now and wrap it up.
And Hebrews chapter 7, look at this. These things are too good to
be true, aren't they? I mean, it's not possible that
they're too good to be true. This is the eternal truth. But
to us as a sinner, to me as an ungodly heathen who has no righteousness,
my best works are filthy rags, and all of my thoughts are corrupt,
what is a sinner anyway? It's one who has nothing but
sin. In everything we do, there's
sin. In fact, I can find no righteousness. Paul said it in the song we sang.
In my flesh, in me, there is no good thing. Oh, I'm a wretched
man. That's myself. That's all I can
say about me. Hebrews chapter seven. This is
about when Abraham met this priest called Melchizedek. And I want
you to see this in the first few verses here. Melchizedek,
it says in the first three verses, is the king of Salem, which is
the king of peace, I mean. His name, Melchizedek, means
he's the king of righteousness. Verse one, he met Abraham while
Abraham was returning from the slaughter of the kings, and Melchizedek
blessed Abraham. Of course, God had already blessed
him, and here's another blessing. And then it says in verse two,
to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all. First, the one he
gave it to was, being by interpretation, king of righteousness, and after
that also king of Salem, which is king of peace. And Melchizedek
is without father, without mother, without descent, having neither
beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the
Son of God, abideth a priest continually. This is speaking
of Christ. I have no doubt that's speaking of Christ. One's like
the Son of God, he is the Son of God, and no one is like him,
no one is like God, but the one who is God. Verse four. Now consider
how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham
gave the tenth of the spoils. Abraham gave a tenth to Melchizedek
in Genesis 14, in history, before any of his children were born.
He didn't have any children at this point. He didn't even have
Ishmael. And notice verse five, and verily they that are the
sons of Levi, Levi was the great grandson, he was born to Jacob,
who was born to Isaac, who was born to Abraham. They that are
the sons of Levi who receive the office of the priesthood
have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the
law, that is of their brethren, though they come out of the loins
of Abraham. So the Levites were commanded to take tithes of those
who were Abraham's children and their own brethren. But he whose
descent is not counted from them," he's not a Levite, I'm sorry,
Melchizedek was not a Levite, "...he received tithes of Abraham,
and blessed him that had the promises. And without all contradiction,
the less is blessed of the better. And here men that die receive
tithes, but there he receiveth them of whom it is witnessed
that he liveth." Talking about Melchizedek receiving tithes
from Abraham. Verse 9, and as I may so say, Levi also, listen
to this, this is phenomenal, Levi also who receiveth tithes,
paid tithes in Abraham. Now that's amazing, isn't it?
I find that quite amazing. What is that saying? Does it
say here that it was just as if when Abraham paid tithes,
Levi was paying tithes then because he wasn't born, but he was gonna
be born through Abraham? It doesn't say, it doesn't use
the word if or as if. It says he actually paid tithes
in Abraham. When Abraham gave Melchizedek
tithes, a 10th of the spoils, Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek. Now I say all this because what
does it say in Genesis in the promise? That in thee and in
thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed. And we've
seen now that God was promising justification by Christ in that
blessing, by his righteousness, by his blood. What is he saying
here in Hebrews chapter seven, verse nine? He's saying that
this connection between us and Christ was established by God. before time began, so that we
were in Christ in this sense, that what Christ did, we did
in Him. So that when He obeyed God's
commandments, when He loved God's law, when with our sins died
so that the punishment for our sins was carried out and our
sins were blotted out before God, we died in our sins then. And when he rose from the dead
because God justified him, we rose, we ascended. We were seated at the right hand
of God. Why? Not because in our own person
we did it, but we did it in our head, in Christ, the seed, the
one to whom the promises were given. Now this is a very important
concept. So important that we, again,
we almost wonder at times, where is this said in the Bible? It
doesn't just say it like that. Where is it? It's said throughout. It's spoken of in Genesis 12,
three, in thee and in thy seed shall all the nations be blessed.
What Christ did is what I did. Do we have any evidence of that? Only this, this is what God says. How do we know it? Again, let
me take you to some scriptures just to prove it, and then we'll
try to leave you with these so that, let me just read these
to you. It says in 1 Corinthians 15,
I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,
and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according
to the scriptures. That's a very clear statement
of it. Christ died. Why? He didn't sin. He had my
sins. They were imputed to him. He
died, he was buried. Where were my sins then? Buried.
He rose again. Did I rise with him? Well, because
he took my sins and he obeyed God's law. And when he rose,
God was justifying him in that you fulfilled all righteousness,
you've put away all the sins. There's nothing left to pay.
They're all put away. Therefore God justified him and
gave him life from the dead. And so he gave all those whose
sins he bore, he carried them in his own body up to the tree.
Look at this in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30. This is being in
Christ, doing what he did, because he did it as our covenant head.
Of him, of God, are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. We didn't do
the righteousness. It wasn't our wisdom. It wasn't
our holiness. We didn't obtain the redemption.
He did it. But it was made ours. God made
him to be our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And then, in 2 Corinthians 5
and verse 21, he says this, God has made him, Christ, to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, Christ knew
no sin, that we who knew no righteousness might be made the righteousness
of God in him. So he put Christ in our place
as our covenant head so that all that he did was counted ours. Like Levi, he paid tithes when
Abraham paid them to Melchizedek. We did what Christ did in God's
purpose, God's arrangement. God imputed it to us. What was
the object of Abraham's faith? God who justifies the ungodly.
How can God justify the ungodly? because he imputes the very righteousness
of Christ to that ungodly sinner. He counts what's Christ to us. And how do I know it? God gives
me this word, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
Do I have any other reason, any other warrant, any other ground,
but God's naked word and promise concerning Christ and salvation
for sinners in him? I have none other. And was it
all enough? Is that enough for me? God says
it's enough. That's my hope, isn't it? That's
what saving faith is. By faith, Abraham, when he was
called to go out into a place he should after receive eternal
life, eternal glory on the basis of Christ and him and his life
and his death and his resurrection, he obeyed, he went out. And so
we do too. When we find in our conscience
the burden of our sin and we know in ourselves we have nothing
to bring to God and we have no reason, no basis for assurance,
and God through the scriptures directs us to Christ, what is
it that happens? A peace and joy and assurance
flows over our souls because we see from God's own promise
that everything is in His Son. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in
me, and the life which I now live, in the flesh, I live by
the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for
me. Christ, who is our life, when he shall appear, we shall
appear with him in glory. The fullness of the Godhead in
him dwelleth, and we are complete in him. So many scriptures. In him there is no sin. 1 John
3, verse 5. All these scriptures are piled,
thankfully, by God's grace, are piled up one on top of the other
to let us know that our salvation is by grace alone. It is in Christ
alone. fully, all-sufficiently, by God's
promises of Christ alone and by God-given faith in Him alone,
not by our works. Faith ascribes all to Christ
and comes to God only by Him and finds all peace and assurance
and joy in what God thinks of His Son. Let's pray. Thank you,
Lord, that you've given us this man Abraham, held him up to us
to see how he believed, that we're saved exactly, precisely
in the same way that he was. The Lord God omnipotent, holy
and righteous in all of his words and his ways has promised salvation
to sinners, unlike devils who have no hope, but to sinners
in Christ. And we have found it as a result
of your promise and of your gospel and your spirit, we have found
it in our hearts to take refuge in him. We have fled for refuge
in the Son of God. By faith, we look to him and
we expect and we wait for him to answer for us in all things.
And we have no blessings but what you've given to him and
for his sake, all forgiveness for Christ's sake. All acceptance,
all justification and holiness is in Him. We have no other plea,
Lord. We don't plead our love. We don't
even plead our faith. We plead the Lord Jesus Christ,
the one you provided. And yet we find you've given
this faith to us to find our all in Him. What a blessing.
We pray that you would uphold it now. Speak to us by your word
over and over until the end of our days as we can walk with
Enoch right into glory and receive the blessings Christ earned for
us. In his name we pray. Amen.