I invite you to turn back with
me this morning to Romans chapter four. My subject this morning
is faith. What, how, and why. That's what he tells us in this
chapter. What it is, how it's obtained,
and why. Now the theme of Romans is free
justification by the righteousness of Christ by way of the obedience
of our representative and substitute, Jesus Christ. And it's given
to us, in particular us, by imputation through faith. It's through faith
in his blood, Romans 3.25 or 24. being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus whom God
has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins. What is justification? What is justification? Somebody
said, just as if you'd never sinned. Well, I won't, argue
with that, that's not too bad, but justification is being pronounced
innocent. If God justifies you, he's declaring
you innocent of all wrongdoing. Who shall lay anything to the
account of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who's
gonna lay anything to your account? Now, if you've done something,
something could be laid to your account. and all your sins have
been paid for. And they were never charged to
you, they were charged to our substitute. It means to demonstrate or prove
to be just, to be declared free of all blame. In Romans 5.18
it says, therefore as by The offense of one judgment came
upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men under justification of
life. All that was in Adam, guilty,
condemned. All that's in Christ, justified,
justified. By their righteousness, no, by
his, by his. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. There are two federal heads set
forth in the scripture, Adam and Christ. Adam, the man, was
first by manifestation and called in 1 Corinthians 15, 45, the
first Adam, the first man. Christ called the second Adam,
but he predated the first Adam, but he was second in manifestation,
and therefore he calls him the second Adam. The first is of
the earth earthly, the second man is the Lord from heaven.
He's the God man. He's the God man. And I'm telling
you this because by these two men comes life or death. Life or death. In Adam all die. All die in Christ, even so. Just like in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive. Paul's already showed us, and
he showed us this by historic fact and by scripture, that all men,
both Jew and Gentile, are all under sin. He proves it to us,
proves it to us. None righteous, none good. None
that understandeth and none that seeketh after God. All gone out
of the way, together become unprofitable. All have sinned. Romans 3, 23. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. So if I look out on humanity
and I see that all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God and there's none righteous, how in the world are they gonna
be just before God? Not even a slight possibility,
but for the intervention of God. So what are you trying to say,
Preacher? I'm laboring to point out that
salvation must come to you from God. From God. It's his. It's in his hands. It's already accomplished. It's
already done. It's in his hands. Now who's
he going to give it to? Is he sitting up there waiting
on you to exercise your will? Is he sitting up there waiting
on you to make a decision? He's pacing back and forth worried
that ain't anybody going to choose him. Huh? No. No. This salvation has been secured
for his elect. How's he gonna give it to them?
How are they gonna know that Christ died for them? That they
were actually, when Christ rose from that dead, from that tomb,
they were actually justified. This is God declaring to the
whole world, devils in hell. This man is justified. He's justified. And all whom he represented,
he was delivered for our offenses, raised again for our justification. Salvation, because it cannot
come from fallen men, must of necessity come by way of another
head. And that not after the fact,
but long before. Long before. We are all partakers
of our father Adam's condemnation, and even so, all God's elect
are partakers of our representative in whom we were chosen long before
Adam ever had a being. Election in Christ is a plain,
established declaration of holy scripture. Don't you ever let
anybody sell you on the notion of universal salvation. It just
is not so. Not so. It's not in the scriptures
anywhere. He says we're blessed in heavenly
places in Christ with all spiritual blessings. Whoever these people
are, according The blessings of God are according
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. And the reason for our election
is that we should be holy. Nothing in us or about us or
in our salvation is contrary to the character of God. It's
in full harmony with the character of God. We're holy. That's why
he chose us in Christ. And we're without blame. Nothing
can be charged against us. Fact is, he tells us in Colossians
chapter one that we're un-reprovable. God can't look at you and find
anything wrong. Well, you're pretty good, but
you... No. No, you're perfect. You're un-reprovable. What a reconciliation. and that we might be before him
being loved. In Romans chapter four, Paul
will now show us what faith is, why salvation must be by faith,
and how it's obtained. So let's begin here. What is
faith? We talk about faith all the time. Are you a believer?
I'm a believer. Well, what is faith? What is? Why don't somebody come up to
you on the street and say, what is faith? That's what happened
to me. They asked me what the gospel was and I couldn't tell
them. I didn't know. What about faith? Could you tell
them what faith is? What is faith? Romans four, verse
three. He said, what sayeth the scriptures? That's
what we need to know, ain't it? What God say. Abraham believed Huh? Did God give him a big long list,
and he said, well, believe, and Abraham went down the list, said,
well, I'd believe that, but this over here, I don't know about
that. Huh? No, he believed God. He believed God. I'm gonna tell
you something. If you believe God, you believe
everything God said. You don't believe some of it,
He believed all of it. He took God at his word. God told Abraham, he said, get
out of your father's house. He packed up and left, didn't
he? Huh? Why? He believed God. He believed
God. He told him to go to a land that
he'd afterward show him. He didn't know where he was going.
What'd he do? He went. He went. He told him after him and his
wife were well beyond producing children that Sarah was gonna
have a child by him. Did he believe God? Says he did. He's staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief. He told him to offer after this
son was born, this miraculous son, this son that couldn't possibly
be, now is. And he gets up to about 15, 16
years of old and he stacks a bundle of firewood on his back and got
the torch. And he told his servants, he
said, you stay here, the lad and I go yonder to worship, and
we'll be back. We'll be back. God told him to
offer his son as a sacrifice. Cut him up, dice him up, just
like you do the lamb, lay him out on the cold wood, set him
on fire. He believed God. He believed
God. Because God told him of his seed,
of his seed, he gonna raise up the Messiah. And he knew if he
destroyed that son, God gonna raise him. And that's why he
told his servant, he said, we're going up there to worship, I'll
be back, and the boy's coming with me. He believed God. Faith believes
God. It believes God's testimony concerning
creation. Well, I believe God, but I don't
know about the creation being, you don't believe God. I don't believe God. God said
he spoke the world into existence. Huh? Listen to this, Hebrews 11 through.
Through faith, what's that? That's believing God, right?
Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by
the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not
made of things which do appear. There was nothing, and then there
was everything. Had to come to pass by the word
of God. By the word of God. Faith believes
God's testimony concerning the fall and judgment of man. He
doesn't reason in his head, well, you know, my dad said, and my
grandpa said, and the world says. No, no, he believes God. God said, by one man sin entered
into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. He believes God. That's what
faith does, it believes God. It acts on what it believes. It walks that way. Adam was the acorn out of which
the whole forest of humanity grew. God put a perfect man in
a perfect environment with a perfect fellowship with God. He had everything
a man could possibly desire and yet failed. So is God unfair
because he don't do the same thing to you and I? Well, where
would we stand? Imperfect man in an imperfect
world, in an ungodly world, a world full of antichrist religion.
You think God ought to just keep over and over? No, no. No, he
did one man. And out of that acorn come the
whole forest of humanity, out of him. And no need to continue. Man
died under the judgment of God in the garden and you and I are
children of wrath even as others. And faith believes God concerning
his eternal election of a people. God said he chose a people. So
a man stands up, well I don't believe in that. I believe that
would be unfair. You gonna call God out on the
floor? You gonna sit in judgment of
God? My soul. Scripture's so full of election. You know what he told his disciples? You have not chosen me. I have
chosen you. And the whole world said, no,
that's not election. I said, I don't believe God. I don't believe God. They get all dressed up and act
like a Christian, but they ain't Christians. They don't know God.
They're not followers of Christ. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee. He's the blessed man. Abraham is the father of all
them that believe in a typical sense. He's the beginning of
the nation of Israel as God singled him out to demonstrate the faith
of God's elect. And then fourthly, faith believes
God concerning the eternal redeemer. Salvation rests on the shoulders
of one man. One man. You believe that? One man. One
man. Either he's able to save or you
can't be saved. One of those. In these last days, listen to
this. That is, what is the last day?
That's every day after the appearance of Christ in this world. That's
the last days. We're living in the last days. In the last days, God has spoken
to us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
and by whom also he made the world. who being the brightness
of his glory and express image of his person and upholding all
things by the word of his power. Now watch this. When he had by
himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the
majesty on high. How'd he do it? By himself. By himself. You believe that? Faith does. Faith believes God. Faith, God said, is the substance
of things hoped for. I'm walking on this floor down
here because I built it. And it has substance. I put two
betweens down here. I put three-quarter plywood on
top of it. It's got substance. I can walk
on it. I believe it's going to hold
me up so I can walk without Re-figuring every time I take a step. Substance. Well, what is the substance of
things hoped for? Faith. I believe God. I believe God. I don't know anything
about eternity, Luke, do you? There's a thousand things over
my head, but eternity's way over my head. I don't understand.
I can't even conceive of no beginning and no end, and neither can you.
We're creatures of time. But God said we're eternal creatures. We're eternal creatures. He gives to us everlasting life. Well, when's it gonna end? It
ain't gonna end. It ain't gonna end. Well, how
long's it gonna go? Forever? Forever. Faith believes God. It's the
substance of things hopeful. We walk on solid ground, that's
substance ain't it? Faith walks on solid ground.
Believers walk with God by faith and faith is the substance by
which we walk. We're saved by hope, Paul said,
but hope that is seen is not hope, for what a man seeth, why
does he yet hope for it? Faith ain't got nothing to do
with that. Faith is a substance of things hoped for, and it's
the evidence of things not seen. I'm just so weary of men trying
to push me into some kind of an experience to prove evidence
of salvation. Faith is the evidence. It's the
evidence. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Faith is the evidence. You either
believe God or you don't. And Paul tells us Abraham believed
God. That's what faith is. All right,
here's the second thing. How do we obtain this faith?
How do I get it? I see it in the word of God.
I see what it is. I see how important it is. How'd
I get it? Where's it come from? Where's
it come from? We're not born with it. It's
not some secret part of the human body that's produced when we
get older, not something triggered by circumstance, so where do
you get it? It's not something created by
the will, it's not of him that will it, and not of him that
runneth. Romans 4, 5 says, but to him
that worketh not, But believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. Faith's not the work of men.
By grace are you saved through faith. And that faith, not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God. Where's it come from? God
gives it. God gives it. I tell you, you
can see it, I've seen people sit in services. I don't even
know why they come back. But they come back, and come
back, and come back, and years go by, and they're still coming.
Maybe they come because their mom wanted them to. I don't know.
That's what Jesse said. He came because his mom kept
asking him to come. I came because my mom made me
go. Let me tell you something. After
a while, they heard. And they believed. Why? In God's good time, he gave him
the gift of faith. Paul said, when it pleased God
who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace
to reveal his son in me. It's not of works, he says in
Ephesians 2.9, lest any man should boast. We're his workmanship. They told our Lord, what must
we do? They saw, man, they saw lepers cleansed, they saw these
miracles of God, they saw the dead raised, demons cast out,
all this impossible stuff was done right before their eyes,
and they got all excited, and they seen the disciples doing
it, and they said, what must we do to work the work of God?
He said, this is the work of God that you believe on me, whom
God has sent. That's a miracle of God, you
believe. You believe. God spoke to David through a
widow woman from Takea. And this is what she told him.
This had to do with the recovering of his son Absal, okay. He said,
for we must needs die and we're like water spilled out on the
ground which cannot be gathered up again. Neither does God respect
any person. Are you listening? Yet does he,
God, devise means that his banished be not expelled from him. Ooh, do we believe that? I do. I do. God has made. In 2 Thessalonians 2.13, Paul
tells us, God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. Whereunto
he called you by our gospel. Well, he could have called him
by Timothy. He could, but he didn't. Called him by Paul. Why? Because that's what he purposed
to do. What he purposed to do. It's making us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of enlightened saints. And it's the work of
God in you allowing you to do what no other man could ever
do. To as many as received him, to
them gave he power to become the sons of God. They wouldn't
have received him if he didn't give them the power to do it. even to them that believe on
his name, did it through faith. How do we obtain faith? It's
the gift of God. If you're going to receive something,
it has to be given to you, don't it? I can sit and think about
giving you something all the time. It ain't going to benefit
you at all until I get it in my hand. It's the gift of God, and we
receive it as such. And then faith, God says, cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Now, I don't wanna
shock you, but you can't hear a book. You're gonna hear a preacher. Somebody told me, why, he talking
about spiritual hearing there. No, he ain't. No, he ain't. He talking about hearing with
these ears. Does it have to go past those
ears? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You don't hear a book, you hear
a voice. How shall you hear, listen to this, without a preacher?
I ain't gonna hear. You can hear a book if he's talking
about spiritual hearing. But that ain't what he said.
He said, how you gonna hear without a preacher? And how's he gonna
preach if I don't send him? So then Paul said, based on that,
faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. God's preachers preach the word. Preach the word, Paul told Timothy.
Preach the word. It's the only light we have concerning
the things of God. We sit and talk and I've been
there and done this. You sit and some of you do. Some
of you may still be doing it, I don't know. I found it to be
an unprofitable thing. You sit there and they'll tell
you what they think and then you'll tell them what you think
and then they'll tell you what, doesn't matter what you think,
matters what God said. Preach the word and leave it
there. The word alone is given by inspiration
of God. Let me show you something over
here in 1 Peter. We're talking about how faith is obtained.
It's given of God. It's given of God, and it comes
by hearing the word of God preached. 1 Peter 1.23. Very well-known verse. Being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the
word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh
is grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of the grass,
and the grass withers, and the flower fadeth away. But the word
of the Lord endureth forever. Now watch this. And this is the
word which by the gospel is preached unto you. In James chapter one, it says
of his own will, Begat he us with the word of truth. So, what's
that mean? Well, that mean be slow to anger,
be quick to hear. Be quick to hear. In Genesis 12, verse four, Abraham
departed as the Lord had spoken to him. Does God speak to a preacher? That's the only way he speaks.
in these last days. Speak through his preachers. Be swift to hear, slow to speak,
and slow to wrath. And I know we've been told that
God can save a person any way he wants to. So how does he want
to? It pleases God through the foolishness
of preaching to save them. Is he going to do what he wants
to do? Sure is. I wanna hear men's experiences
out on the river and home in the closet. Faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. That's the what and the how.
Now let's look at why. Romans four, verse 16. Therefore, based on what faith is and how
it's obtained, therefore, it is of faith that it might be
by grace. To the end, that the promise
might be sure to all the seed, and not to that only which is
of the law, the Jews, but to that also which is of the faith
of Abraham, who's the father of us all. Why did God purpose to save men
by faith? He said, if these stones I could
raise up children to Abraham, why didn't he do that? Why did God purpose to save men
by faith? Well, first of all, that it might
be an act of His mercy and grace. You see, behind everything that's
going on, behind creation, behind all these eternal appointments,
behind everything that has gone on, behind the condescension
of Christ into this world, behind all of these things is
God's everlasting purpose of grace. He's gonna glorify himself,
and the way he's gonna do it is in the salvation of sinners.
That's what everything is about. Get every idea of earning favor
with God by your works out of your thinking. Why not let man earn his way
to God? He said, it's not of works lest
any man should boast. Give a man a single thing to
do, he'd brag on it for eternity. I couldn't tell you how many
times people told me one thing I can say. No, you can't say
that. Better not. Why does a man save sinners by
grace? Because of man's inability. He
can't do anything. He can't do anything. He has
to be given faith. He can't muster it up. He said,
by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight. How's he going to justify it?
Listen to this. This is in the faith chapter,
Hebrews chapter 11. He said, by faith Enoch was translated
that he should not see death and was not found. They hunted
for him, couldn't find him. Man, he's a good old fellow.
Where'd he go? Where'd he go? Because God translated him. For
before his translation, he had this testimony. He pleased God. He pleased God. Now listen to
this, verse six. But without faith, it's impossible
to please God. It's impossible to please God. Faith is a gift of God's grace,
and every soul chosen of God, redeemed in Christ, shall be
given this precious gift of faith. He said, all that the Father
giveth me gonna come to me. They gonna come to me. And him
that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. And then here's
another verse, Acts 13, verse 48. Paul went to Antioch. He
was preaching to Jews and Gentiles. The Jews got jealous over the
multitudes. Man, they were giving Paul a
hearing, even some of the Jews. So they stirred up the higher
up, the women and different ones, and they began to spread tales
about Paul and his helpers. And Paul said, seeing you count
yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, he said, behold, I turn
to the Gentiles. And he quoted that scripture
out of the Old Testament that has to do with the Gentiles being
saved. And he said, and when the Gentiles
heard this, Acts 13, 48, when they heard that, when they saw
in the word of God that God had included them in this salvation,
that this salvation was accomplished in the Lord Jesus Christ. When
they heard this, the promise of salvation to them, it says
they were glad. They were glad and they glorified
the word of the Lord. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. Who did? All those ordained to
eternal life. It is a faith that it might be
by grace to this end that the promise might be sure to all
the seed. What seed? Abraham's seed. Not Abraham's natural children.
No, that can't be possible. But Paul said in Galatians 3.29,
and if you be Christ, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs
according to the promise. God has a people, and those people
are gonna come out of every tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue under
heaven. And this thing called faith is a wondrous work. It's
a wondrous work. It's completely contrary to human
nature, completely contrary. And we wrote these verses in
Ephesians 2, 8, 9, by grace are you saved through faith and so
on. He says we're his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to these
things. And then lastly, it's by faith
in order to be sure. God doesn't do things iffy. If
he does something, it's done. It's done. And it's done to perfection. Nothing iffy about what God does.
If it were possible for us to lose our salvation, we'd definitely
lose it. But we're not of them, he said,
that draw back to perdition, but of them that believe to the
saving of our souls. This is the what, the how, and
the why. And I pray this morning that
not a soul will leave this building without knowing what Paul wrote
to these Romans. They asked him about this faith,
and here's what he told them. He said, this is in Romans 10,
he said, the word is nigh thee. It's nigh thee. God brought you
here, he put me here. The word is nigh thee. Listen
to this. Even in your mouth, and in your heart, that is the
word of faith. which we preach is brought nigh
to you. May the Lord teach us these things
for Christ's sake. Thank you.