Turn back to Romans 1, please.
Got a call from Joe Terrell last night, and he was supposed to
preach next Sunday night, and found out I got it messed up,
and he's preaching tonight. And I've asked Andy to preach
next Sunday night, but Joe hadn't been here in a long time, and
I guess it's my fault. I think it's his fault, but I'll
call mine. I also want to remind you of
Vacation Bible School this week, Tuesday through Thursday, beginning
at 10.30 to 1. We're really looking forward to that. I've entitled the message for
this morning, What Does Faith Believe? Faith has a content. Faith believes something. What
does faith believe? Paul says in verse 8 to the Romans,
first, I thank my God through Jesus Christ. I love the way
Paul does that. He says, I don't even want my
thanks to come up to God apart from Christ. It's only through
Christ that my thanksgiving can be accepted. But I thank my God
through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken
of throughout the whole world. Now, what a commendation. He
wasn't exaggerating. The faith of these people was
indeed spoken of throughout the whole world. Now, the church
at Rome was not a church that he had founded, but he knew personally
many of the members of his church. As a matter of fact, if you look
in chapter 16, when he's giving his closing greetings, he mentions
28 people by name that he knew and that he loved. And this was
a church that the Lord had greatly blessed. And what a commendation
your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Wouldn't you
be thankful if the Lord called somebody to speak of your faith?
What a blessing that would be. He says in verse nine, for God
is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of the
son, that without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers. I'm always praying for you, making
a request, if by any means, now at length, I might have a prosperous
journey by the will of God to come unto you. And the only way
we'll have a prosperous journey is if it's God's will. He says,
for I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual
gift. Everybody's interested in material
gifts, aren't they? What about spiritual gifts? Water of greater value. To the end that you may be established,
settled, not bending to and fro, but settled and established,
secure in Christ, secure in the gospel, matured. That is, verse
12, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith. My faith and your faith. By the
mutual faith, both of you and me. Now, this mutual faith is
what Peter calls like precious faith. Faith's precious, isn't
it? It's a gift of God. And if you
have faith, you know it's precious and you know it's the gift of
God. You know it didn't come from you. You know it's something
that he gave you. In this epistle to the Romans,
Paul uses the word faith or its verb form believe over 50 times. It's a great treatise on justification
by faith, whatever that means. I hope we'll know by the end
of this message. Like I said, I've entitled this
message, What Does Faith Believe? Faith has a content. What does
faith believe? Believe being the verb form of
the noun faith. What does faith believe? Now
my introduction will be longer than my message, so don't let
anybody get frightened by the length of this introduction.
I don't know how many times I've heard preachers preach 30 minute
introduction and then for the first point you hope I won't
do that. Let me say this at the outset.
Listen to the statement very carefully. Faith is not giving
assent to a doctrine. Faith is not believing a doctrine. Faith is trusting a person. Faith is trusting a person. On six different occasions, the
Lord said, thy faith hath saved thee, or thy faith hath made
thee whole. This gives us some idea of its
importance. We read in the scriptures of
little faith. Why are you so fearful, O ye
of little faith? We read of great faith. O woman,
Great is thy faith. But did you know that little
faith saves as surely as great faith does? You know why? Because strictly speaking, it's
not the faith that saves, it's the object of the faith that
saves. The Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew
121 says, thou shalt call his name Jesus. And it doesn't say,
for your faith will save you from your sins. It says, for
he shall save his people from their sins. That's our hope.
It's not in our faith, it's in Him. That's what faith believes.
Our hope is wholly vested in Him, trusting Him, relying upon
Him. Now Paul spoke of being established
in the faith. Don't you want that for yourself?
I want God to establish me, to ground me in the faith. We read
of one faith. Paul said in Ephesians 4, there's
one faith. There's not two different faiths. Understand this. Believers
believe the same thing. There's not different beliefs
among believers. We all believe the same thing
if we're believers. There's one faith. We read of
the faith of God's elect. The faith that all of God's elect
possess. We read of the common faith.
The faith that's common to all, that which is general to all.
Every believer possesses this faith. We read of the law of
faith. I like that. The law of faith.
You know when you believe, you're obeying the law. A law worked
in you. I mean, it's like a law of nature,
a physical law. What comes up must go down. If
you've got the law of faith, that means you must believe. It's your nature to believe.
You still have the unbelief of the old nature, but you have
a new nature that cannot not believe. The law of faith. You cannot not believe if you
have faith. And you can have unbelief, but
you've got faith right along with it. You know, when that
fella said, I believe, we just heard that song. Help my unbelief. At all times our prayer is, Lord,
I believe, I do. Help thou mine unbelief. We read of being justified by
faith. Do we make void the law through
faith? God forbid, yea, we establish the law. We read in Romans 10,
4 that Christ is the end of the law to everyone that, what? Believe
it. Romans 1.16, Paul said, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it's the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth. Would that describe me? Am I
someone who believeth? Therefore, it is a faith that
it might be by grace. By grace, you say, through faith
and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works. Lest any man should boast. We
read in the scriptures of the righteousness of faith. And we
read of the word of faith, the word of faith, which we preach.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Paul said
in Romans 14, 23, whatsoever is not of faith is sin. There's
a good definition of sin. Whatsoever is not of faith is
sin. And we read, by faith you stand. And we read of the spirit of
faith. Paul spoke of the spirit of faith. I believed, therefore
have I spoken. We're told the law is not of
faith. and we're to continue in the
faith grounded and settled. We read of faith unfeigned. I
love that. Faith unfeigned. Genuine. Genuine. Not insincere, not fake, not
an act, but faith unfeigned. A real sinner needing a real
savior, trusting a real atonement that he accomplished. Faith unfeigned. We read of being kept by the
power of God through faith unto salvation. We read of the mystery
of the faith and keeping the faith. In 2 Timothy 1.12, Paul
made this statement. I love this verse. He said, I
know whom I have believed. He didn't say I know what I believe.
He knew what he believed, but he said, I know whom I believe.
Really what you believe is determined by who you believe. You can't
believe him and believe in an unsuccessful atonement that he
could die for you and you wind up in heaven anyway. You can't
believe anything like that if you believe him. I know whom
I have believed, Paul said, and I'm persuaded, I'm convinced
that he is able. Are you convinced in his ability
to save you without your help? I'm convinced that he is able
to keep that which I've committed to him I've committed the salvation
of my soul to him. I'm not looking to myself. If
he doesn't do it all, I won't be saved. I've committed the
salvation of my soul to him. I know whom I believed. I'm persuaded
he's able to keep that which I've committed to him against
that day. John said, this is the victory
that overcometh the world, even our faith. Now you see how important
faith is? Whoso believeth that Jesus is
the Christ is born of God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that what? Believe. What must we do
that we might work the works of God, some people asked the
Lord. And he said, this is the work of God that you believe
on him whom he hath sent. That is the work of God. They which have believed do enter
into rest. Oh, the rest of not working,
the rest of knowing the job's done, it's finished. We also
read where Paul said, all men have not faith. If you don't
have faith, you don't have any faith. All men have not faith. The Lord said, if you believe
not that I am he, you shall die in your sins. And he said to
another group, you believe not because you're not of my sheep.
As I said to you, notice he didn't say you're not my sheep because
you don't believe. He said, you believe not because you're not
of my sheep. As I said to you, my sheep hear my voice. You see, faith is hearing the
voice of the son of God. He said, I know them and they
follow me. The Lord said to Peter, Peter,
I prayed for you that your faith fail not. Now, Peter failed miserably,
but you know what didn't fail? His faith. Because the Lord prayed
for it. I prayed for you that your faith
fail not. And when you're converted, strengthen
your brethren. Now, I want to look at Hebrews
chapter 11 for just a moment. Hebrews chapter 11, the great
chapter on faith. Verse 1. Now, faith is the substance,
the ground, the confidence of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen. Now, don't miss that not seen.
Can I look at myself and my life and my thoughts and my works
and say, yep, you're justified? You're without sin. That's what
justification means. Understand that. Justification means you're
without sin. Can I look at my life, my works,
my conduct, my attitude, my thoughts, and say, yep, you're justified?
No, I can't. Not if I'm honest. And if you
could look at yourself and conclude by your own efforts and works
and life and so on that you're justified, you're deceived. Well,
what's the evidence you are justified then? Faith. Faith! is the evidence of things
not seen. I believe God. He says in verse
2, for by it, by faith, the elders obtained a good report. Now let's
think about these elders. Elders like, these are the Old Testament
saints. Jacob, Lot, Job, go on and on. These men had a good
report. How? You couldn't, could you
look at Lot if it wasn't for the New Testament? Could you
look at Lot and say, yeah, he was a believer? No, as a matter
of fact, you would conclude probably that he wasn't if you read the
account of his life. How'd he get a good report? Faith
in Christ. He got a good report card, all
As, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Job, we read of
the patience of Job in the New Testament. You read Job chapter
three, he's anything but patient. We've been looking at that in
Bible study. Well, how did he get this good report? Faith in
Christ. Sarah, Sarah, when the Lord comes
to Sarah and tells Abraham, and Sarah's listening, you're going
to have a child. And she started laughing. She
said, how can I have pleasure in me being old in my Lord also?
She'd already gone through menopause. Abraham was an old man. She laughed. Then the Lord said, why did you
laugh? And she said, I didn't laugh. She lied to the Lord right
in his presence. Yet, what's the New Testament
say about her? Through faith, Sarah received strength to conceive
seed, and was heard in that she feared. What about Moses? Moses murders a guy, hides his
body in the sand, and takes off in fear of the king, and runs
away from Egypt. And the scripture says regarding
him, by faith he feared not the wrath of the king. It doesn't
say anything about what the Old Testament, by faith we retain
it. You know how you're going to
get a good report? By what Christ did for you. You relying on that.
That's the only way me or you are going to get this good report.
Look in verse three. 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. The
only understanding there is, is through faith and without
faith, you can't understand a thing. Natural man can't even begin
to understand the gospel. You've got to be given faith
or you will not understand anything. It's by faith we understand that
the world were framed by the Word of God. Look in verse 4. By faith Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness
that he was righteous. God testifying of his gifts,
and he by it being dead yet speaketh. Through faith, God testifies
regarding that person who has faith, they're righteous. That's
what God says about me. He's righteous. And that is through
faith, only through faith. You know that. If you've got
faith, you know that His righteousness is the only righteousness you
have, and you know it's the only righteousness you want. Verse
five, by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death
and was not found because God had translated him. For before
his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God,
but without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh
to God must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him. By faith, we actually please
God. Now this gives us, that's my
introduction. And this gives us some idea of the importance
of this thing of faith. Abraham believed God. Romans, that's the first reference
to believing in the scripture. It's in Genesis chapter 15, Abraham,
God said, you see the stars, so shall your seed be. Abraham
didn't have any evidence at all that he would have children except
the naked word of God. And he believed what God said.
Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.
He was fully persuaded that what God had promised, he was able
also to perform. Now, what does faith believe?
It believes something, doesn't it? What does faith believe? And I'm going to give you not
what I think it believes or what religion says it believes, but
what God says faith believes. We're going to look at two scriptures.
First, turn with me to Romans chapter four. Romans chapter four. Look in verse five. But to him
that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. Now there is what faith believes. First, it believes from the very
depths of its being. Faith believes that it can't
be saved by its works. To him that worketh not. I cannot be saved by what I do. And if my salvation is dependent
upon me doing anything, I will not be saved. Faith understands
that it cannot be saved by its works. You know why? Because
faith believes God's testimony concerning man. I believe what
God says about me. When it says, God saw the wickedness
of man was gray in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. You know what? That's me. I believe
that about myself. I've said this so many times.
It's one thing to believe in the doctrine of total depravity.
And it's an altogether different thing to believe that you yourself
are totally depraved. To him that worketh not. Now this is what, that's the
first, you don't believe works. How about you? Do you understand
that you can't work your way into heaven if salvation is dependent
upon you to do one single thing? You won't be saved. To him that
worketh not. But what's it say next? to him
that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. That word ungodly is a horrible
word. Evil, wicked, depraved. But did
you know that those are the only people he justifies? Romans 5,
6 says, for when we were yet without strength, In due time,
Christ died for the ungodly. For whom did Christ die? For
the ungodly. And it says that he justifies
the ungodly. Now, what would you think of
a judge who a man had, say, murdered one of your children in cruel
wickedness? And then the judge says, well,
they're justified. You'd say, that's wrong. I couldn't abide that, could
you? Well, we wouldn't want to have a judge like that, but yet
God is able to do this. He's able to justify the ungodly.
Now, the only way me or you will be justified is if He justifies
us. Remember, justification is not something you accept or receive. It's something that God declares
you to be. He justifies the ungodly. You know, only God would do this.
Now, you listen real carefully. If salvation were left up to
us, nobody would be saved. That's just the truth. You know,
people argue with election. How can it be fair for God to
elect some and not elect everybody? Or how can it be fair for Christ
to only die for the elect and not die for everybody? Now, wait
a minute. We make statements like that. What we're saying
is we're more merciful than God. We're more gracious than God.
When the fact of the matter is, if salvation were left up to
you, at some point, somebody would say, you'd say regarding
that person, I'm done with them. I'm done with them. But not God. Only God in his mercy and grace
would justify the ungodly. And only God could do it. How? Well, let's stay in Romans 4,
look in verse 6. Even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without their works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities
are forgiven, whose sins are covered, covered in the blood
of his son, washed away. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Now, here's my hope. Here's the
hope of every believer. Here's what we're relying on,
that God doesn't impute my sin. If he did, it'd be over for me.
But he imputed my sin to his blessed son, and he took the
righteousness of his blessed son and gave it to me. And I'm
justified. That's how God justifies the
ungodly. And God did do it. Look at the
last verse of this scripture, chapter four, for he was delivered
for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.
And this is all my faith. I am relying on him. who justifies the ungodly. To him that worketh not. Now
would this describe you? This is God's definition of faith.
To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth
the ungodly. I'm not working. I know I can't
be saved by my works, and I'm relying on him that justifies
the ungodly. Now turn to Luke chapter 22.
Now, this is the other scripture that
came to my mind when I thought, how would God define faith? And
this is the thief on the cross. Now, most would admit or agree
that this man had the minimum of what faith is. actually has
the maximum. But people would say, well, he
just barely made it. I mean, he just he he died on
his deathbed and he was given faith at the end. This man had
whatever the minimum faith is. He had it. Well, I would agree.
But I'd also say this man had the greatest faith I've ever
seen. Oh, what great faith this man expressed. I just admire
this thief on the cross for the faith that he expressed. Now,
this man had lived a life of crime. And he had only been a
believer for a few hours. And we know he was a believer
because the Lord said unto him today, thou shalt be with me
in paradise. Did the Lord ever give anybody
else that much assurance? I don't see where he gave anybody
the assurance that he gave this thief. Today, you're going to
be with me in paradise. Now, this man, we know he had
faith. Now, he had the mutual faith
that Paul was faithful. He had the same faith Paul did.
Same faith Abraham did. Believed the same gospel. Now,
let's begin in Luke 22, verse 37. For I say unto you that that
is written must yet be accomplished in me. And he was reckoned among
the transgressors. A couple of thieves with him,
and he was counted one of them. For the things concerning me
have an end. Now look in chapter 23, verse
32. That thief was one of the transgressors he was reckoned
with. Verse 32 of chapter 23, and there were also two others,
malfactors, criminals, led with him to be put to death. Matthew's account says they that
passed by reviled him and the thieves cast the same in his
teeth. Now, while the Lord was hanging
on the cross, both of these thieves were cursing him and making fun
of him. If you're the Christ, save yourself
and us and come down. They both cast the same in his
teeth. Both of these men went up and
were nailed to a cross, hardened rebels, hating the very one that
they beheld beside them, making fun of him. Look in verse 39. And one of the mouth factors
which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save
thyself and us. Now, the other fellow had started
off this way, but now he grows strangely silent. The reviling
stops. He sees something that this other
thief did not see. Look in verse 40. But the other
answering rebuked him, saying, Dost thou not fear God, seeing
thou art in the same condemnation? Now, this I know about a believer.
Every believer cannot bear to hear Christ dishonored. They
love His glory. They love His glory, and they
can't bear to hear that which is dishonoring to Him. And he
rebuked his fellow thief. He said, Don't you fear God?
Now, what did this thief believe? He believed that Jesus Christ
was God. Do you believe that? Do you believe
that the man Christ Jesus is nobody less than God manifested
the flesh? Are you relying on Him being
God. And the only way He can do you
any good is if He is God. The only way your sin can be
washed away is because of whose blood that was shed. It's Christ
that died. He who is God, who has such power
and saving efficacy in His blood. He said, don't you fear God?
He knew that one hanging on the cross was God. That is what faith
believes. He believed that Jesus Christ
was God. He said, if you believe not that
I am, that word he is in italics, it's supplied there by the translators. He's saying, I am that I am,
I'm the great I am. If you believe not that I am,
you shall die in your sins. He believed that the Lord Jesus
Christ was God. Secondly, this thief believed
that he personally deserved to be damned. Look what he says.
Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?
And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our
deeds. Do you believe that you deserve
to be damned? that if God sent you to hell
without giving you mercy, you'd be getting exactly what you deserve. Do you believe that? Do you really
believe that? Well, this faith did. We indeed
justly. We receive the due reward of
our deeds. But let's look at what else this
fellow believed. We indeed justly, for we receive the due reward
of our deeds. But this man hath done nothing
amiss. He believed in the absolute sinlessness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He never sinned. Not in thought, not in word,
not in deed. He never sinned. Do you believe in the sinlessness
of the Lord Jesus Christ? Let me ask it another way. Are
you relying on his sinlessness as your righteousness, your personal
righteousness before God? He believed in the righteousness,
the sinlessness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And look what he says,
verse 42. And he said unto Jesus, Lord,
I think this is the greatest example of faith in all the Word
of God. He looked at that one who was
hanging on a cross. You wouldn't have thought he
was Lord. He was nailed to a cross. He didn't have a friend in the
world. Everybody forsook him. He even cried out, my God, my
God, why have you forsaken me? He looks at this one hanging
on a cross. You couldn't even recognize his
face with the blood. He knew he was the Lord. He said,
you're the Lord. You're in control of this. You're
the Lord. You're the sovereign of the universe.
You're the king of the universe. You're the Lord. You're Lord
of creation. You created the world. You're
Lord of providence. The only reason you're hanging
there is because it's your will. You're Lord of salvation. You
are salvation. He believed He was the Lord.
Do you believe He's the Lord? Are you relying on Him being
the Lord? You know what else he believed?
Verse 42. And he said unto Jesus, Lord,
remember me. When you come into your kingdom,
he knew he wasn't going to stay dead. Now he watched him die,
but he knew he wasn't going to stay dead. He knew he was going
to come back as a mighty reigning king. He knew he was the king
of the kingdom and he knew he wouldn't stay dead. He knew he
would accomplish whatever he willed to do. It would all be
accomplished because of who he was. He believed that. He was
relying on that. You believe that? Do you believe
he's the king of kings? And that he's the lord of lords?
And that he must be successful in whatever he does? And that
when he said it is finished, it was in fact finished because
of who said it? He accomplished salvation. He's
going to come back as a mighty reigning king. Lord, remember
me when you come into your kingdom. And here's what he was relying
on. All the Lord had to do was remembering as one of his. That's all that
needs to be said. He's one of mine. I need no other argument. I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. Here is what a believer believes.
A believer believes that all the Lord has to do is remember
him. He's one of mine. You know, on
Judgment Day, here's what I'm relying on. Here's all I'm relying on. When
my name is called, you'll say, he's one of mine. Nothing else is needed and beloved. Nothing else is wanted. And look at the assurance he
was given. In verse 43. And Jesus said unto
him, Verily, I say unto thee. You know, there's something powerful
in the Lord says that I say. I say, this is not the words
of some mere man. Verily, I say unto thee, today thou shalt be
with me in paradise. You know what? That very day,
that very day, the moment he died, he entered into paradise
to be with the Lord. Now, this is what faith believes.
And this is great faith. This isn't just bare bones minimum. There's no greater faith in all
the Bible than this. He believed. that Christ was God. He believed
he personally deserved to be damned. He believed in the absolute
sinlessness and perfection of Jesus Christ. He believed that
Christ was Lord. He believed that he died as a
king and would not stay dead, but must be successful in whatever
he did. And he would come back as a mighty
reigning and ruling king. And he believed that all the
Lord had to do was remember him as one of his and nothing else
needed to be said. That's what faith, that's the
common faith, that's the mutual faith, that's what every believer
shares in. What Paul called the mutual faith,
both of you and me. What David, or what Peter called
like precious faith. In Acts chapter 16, the Philippian jailer said to
Paul and Silas, sirs, what must I do to be saved? He said, I'm not saved. Whatever
salvation is, I'm not that. What must I do to be saved? And
how did Paul answer him? Believe. on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved. Beloved, if you, I don't care
who you are, if you believe, if you rely upon the Lord Jesus
Christ, you shall be saved. That's God's
promise. Let's pray together.