Our subject this morning is faith, a subject in which I am vitally interested, a subject
on which I would like very much to help you. I hold not myself up for an example
of faith, but our Lord has given us an example of faith. He gives us the example of Abraham. Look at verse 11. Abraham was
called the father of all them that believe. See that in the
middle of verse 11? He received the sign of circumcision,
a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being
uncircumcised. Romans 4 verse 11, that he might
be the father of all them that believe. You know, when I was
reading the Scripture a while ago, and I read that verse down
here in Romans 4, verse 21, speaking of Abraham, Paul wrote, "...and
being fully persuaded that what God had promised God was able
to perform, and therefore it was imputed by God." It was reckoned
by God. It was charged by God to him
for righteousness. That's the very goal of living,
to be declared in the sight of God righteous, to be accepted
by the Lord God, to be received into his fellowship. This man
Abraham, this man Abraham was accepted by God, embraced by
God, accounted in the sight of God to be righteous. to be righteous. And that next verse said, now
it wasn't written for his sake alone that it was imputed to
him, but it was written for us also. This is for your good and
my good. Oh, Lord, give me ears to hear.
Give me an eye to behold, to see. Give me a heart to understand. This is what I want. How shall
I get it? How shall I attempt to attain
it? I want this righteousness. I want to be accepted of God.
I want to be received into His communion, into His fellowship.
Abraham was. And this was not written for
his sake. It's an example. It's written for our sake too,
to whom it shall be imputed if we do what Abraham did, believe. That's the way he received it,
by faith. It wasn't given to him by works, not by the law.
If Abraham was justified by works, verse 2, look back here, Romans
4, verse 2. If he was justified by works,
he has something to glory in. He has something for which to
take credit, but not before God. Not before God, because no man
can glory before God. It wasn't by works. It wasn't
by the law. It was by faith. Now that ought to get your attention.
If that doesn't get your attention, I say just close the book and
go fishing or somewhere. But if a man's not interested
in this, Abraham was accounted righteous, holy, accepted by
God, embraced, received, holy, righteous, without sin. How did
he get it? How did he get there? How did
he receive this? Well, he tells us. And he said
it wasn't written for Abraham's sake alone, that it was imputed
to him. It's written for your sake and
my sake. Just us, ordinary old sons of
Adam, fallen sinners, fleshly creatures. It's for my sake. To whom this blessing, this blessing,
this invaluable, this blessing, this infinite blessing, shall
be imputed to me and to you." If we come in the same door he
came in, if we approach it the same way he did, Abraham was
an example of faith. And God proved this man's faith.
God shows us, and we're going to see in just a moment, the
power and perseverance of this man's faith. And it could only
be revealed, Abraham's faith, the faith of our fathers, that's
what we're looking at, his faith. This example of faith, this man,
the father of believers, the power and perseverance of his
faith could only be known by trial, putting him to the test,
severe test. And his life from the day God
called him to the day God took him home was one trial after
another. He was truly a man of faith.
One trial after another. Take, for example, where it all
started. He was in his father's house.
He lived in his father's community. He lived in the place, I guess,
of his birth. His family was well known and,
I imagine, influential and wealthy. But they were idol worshipers.
They were pagans. They were heathens. They didn't
know God. That's right. Abraham's family
didn't know God. And the Lord came and said, Abraham,
get thee out of thy father's house and from thy kindred to
a land I'll show thee. And I'll make thee a great nation.
I'll bless thee. And I'll bless them that bless
thee, and I'll curse them that curse thee. And he went out.
He left his father's house. He left his kindred. He left
his home and went out in the wilderness. And he became a sojourner,
and Abraham never, from that day till the day God took him
to glory, ever really had a homeland again. He lived in tents. And
he is a type of the believer who sojourns through this earth,
through this world. Abraham looked for a city whose
builder and maker is God. He looked for the city of God.
He had no certain dwelling place here, no certain homeland, no
native land. He just dwelt in tents. And that's
a picture of the believer. He went out, he left his father's
house, not knowing where God was leading him, but believing
God. And then he and his nephew Lot, who accompanied him, Lot
went along with him, and their herds increased, and they became
wealthy men. They had a lot of cattle, a lot
of sheep and oxen. And there rose up a conflict
between Lot's men and Abraham's men, and Abraham said, let's
not strive, we're brethren. And Lot, he said, look out over
the land anywhere, and you just pick what you want, and I'll
take what's left. That's faith. God put him through
this trial of faith. Look not on your own things,
but the things of others. Consider not your own welfare,
but the welfare of others. Here's this man of faith who
believes God, who knows God his whole life is directed by God's
hand and God's purpose. And he doesn't have to fight
with greed and grasping attitude and try to attain for himself.
God will meet his need, but my God will supply all your needs
according to his riches and glory through Christ Jesus. So he said,
Lord, just take what you want. I'll take what's left. What's
left? blessed of God is a whole lot
better than man's best choice without God. And so Lot took
the well-watered plains. He took the bottom land. He took
the land down there by the river. He took the well-watered fertile
lands of the plains, and Abraham headed for the mountains. Well,
you know what happened to Lot? He lost everything. God still
prospered Abraham. And then Lot was captured one
time, Lot and all the kings of Sodom and those folks where he
lived, they were captured by roving bands of heathen pagan
kings, and Abraham got a group of men, somebody came to him
and said the whole outfit's been kidnapped and all their riches
are stolen and everything, you know, and Abraham got some men
together and God led him down to find these people. He defeated
them, conquered them, and took the spoils. And on his way back,
the kings of Sodom and the kings of those lands said, Abraham,
you take anything you want. You rescued us, you saved our
wives and our children. Just take the gold and the silver
and the precious stones and all of these things you want. The
kings of the world were going to make him a fabulously wealthy
man. Another trial. And Abraham looked
at them and he said, I don't want your wealth. I don't want
your wealth, I don't want your jewels and your gold and your
silver, and God takes care of me, lest you say we made Abraham
rich." And so Abraham turned and walked away. He walked away
from this materialism, he walked away from all of this wealth
of the world, and he turned his back and walked with God. That's
faith. All of our prosperity is not
of God. Sometimes Satan tempts us with
materialism to draw our thoughts and fellowship away from Christ.
You can't call anything a blessing that's between you and God. I
don't care how soft it is and how nice it is and how sweet
it is and how beautiful it is and how entertaining it is and
how pleasurable it is. There's nothing that is good
that prevents me from walking with God in a clear, unbroken
fellowship. There's nothing that, if he interrupts
my fellowship with God, or my communion with God, it doesn't
matter how entertaining it is, or how pleasurable it is, or
how luxurious it is, it's not of God, it's of Satan. It's of
Satan. And Abraham was wise enough to
see that. That's the reason, see, if we
call the father of the faith, he's smart enough to see that.
He's smart enough to try the Spirit and recognize what was
between him and his God. We're not that smart. We're so
ready to latch on to anything that makes this flesh a little
happier and a little more comfortable, even though it robs us of fellowship
with God. We're not that smart. Maybe we're
not believers like Abraham was. He was a faithful man. And then
another trial that he had, God gave him a son by the name of
Ishmael. You say, God gave it? Yes, all
things are of God. But there was a son born to his
home by the name of Ishmael, but the son Ishmael was born
of a bondwoman, born of Hagar, the servant woman. Wasn't the
son of promise. But Abraham loved him. He loved
him as much as you here who have adopted children love your adopted
children. Your wife may not have given
birth to that child, but you don't love it any less than you
do the ones to whom she gave birth. It's an adopted child. Your grandchildren, you love
them as much as you love your children. He didn't give birth
to him, and Abraham loved this boy Ishmael. He's a big, strong
boy, an outdoorsman, you know, a hunter, a fine-looking young
man named Ishmael. But God came and said, Abraham,
Ishmael's got to go. You see, you're going to have
a son of promise. You're going to have an heir
of promise. And Ishmael's got to go because the son of the
bondwoman can't live with the son of promise. You see, Ishmael
is works and Isaac is grace. Ishmael is Abraham's merit and
effort and works. And Isaac is God's grace and
gift and mercy. And Ishmael is Moses. Isaac is
Christ. Picture. And they can't live
together. They can't survive together.
They can't commune together. They can't walk together. They
can't be heirs together. You see, Abraham, you're going
to pass on. And you're going to have an heir.
And that heir's got to be Isaac. That heir's got to be the son
of promise. That heir's got to be Christ. That heir can't be
the law. Can't even share with him. It's
got to go. It's got to be cut off. That
son of bond, the bondwoman, the son of bondage has got to be
severed completely. And you tell Hagar, you give
her food and water, And that boy, he's about 16, 14, somewhere
in there, tell him goodbye. Now you know that was hard. But that's faith. You see, like
Roth said one time, said, don't ask God to use you, He might. He might. You say, oh Lord, anything,
anything to walk with Thee. Don't say that. Don't bow and
bow to God if you don't mean it. You don't mean it, don't say
it. Under God, don't say it. The Lord is, He deals, when He
sets out to do something, He deals ruthlessly. It's for our
good and His glory. But if He's going to be your
Lord, He's going to be your Lord. And whatever it requires to make
you a bond slave, you won't really want to be one. may be tough. These experiences, Abraham, Ishmael,
has to go. That seems cruel, doesn't it?
That seems ruthless. Why can't, now we'll sit down
and reason this thing out, why can't, now why can't Isaac, we
believe in grace, we believe Isaac is the heir, we believe
the son of promise, but now we can keep, we can keep all this
smell around, Lord, that, you know, I mean, he's not hurting
anybody, we'll just give him the, we'll give him the corner
lot over there, you know, we won't pay attention to him, just
let, the law's got to go. It's got to go. Gotta go, you're not gonna wiggle
one little finger. It's all of grace. All of grace. It's not grace plus a little
bit of works, not grace plus the observance of a little bit
of the law. It's all of grace. Ishmael, goodbye. Goodbye. I tell you, goodbye. That's hard. But grace and works
cannot live together. And then, wait a minute, I could
keep on Abraham and his trial, but this is just to the high
points. And then so Isaac came along and one day God said, Abraham, yes Lord, now take your son Isaac,
whom you love, the son I gave you, the son of promise, the
son that you cleared the whole house out for, Ishmael's gone,
Isaac, take him to Mount Moriah and offer him up as a sacrifice
to me." That's tough, isn't it? That
old man, he was about 115 then. He didn't hesitate. He saddled
a mule, got his servants, and he started toward that mountain
a three days journey. What's the Lord doing to this
man? Proving his faith. Who is your Lord, Abraham? Who
is your God? Who has first place in your heart? And after he took that boy up
on the mountain and laid him there on that altar, and started
to take the knife and sacrifice his son. God spoke, said, Abraham,
do thy son no harm. I know you love me. I know you
love me. And Abraham received Isaac, what
does Scripture say? From the dead, doesn't it? Well,
Isaac wasn't dead. He was in Abraham's mind. Abraham
had already surrendered that boy. He'd already killed him
in his mind. That's faith. He had already
committed that boy to God. He believed that God had raised
him from the dead, and he did. He received him back from the
dead in his mind, in his heart, in his intentions, in his purpose. That boy was dead. That's faith. That's faith. But the Lord God is a jealous
God, and that's the God of the Bible. And that's the God I preach
to you. And that's the God who is our
Savior. And there's no one of any less power or authority who
can be God. And this is the reason our Lord
said eternal life is to know the living God, not a God, not
a God of your imagination. You can even read the Bible and
construct a God of your imagination. You can even read doctrine and
the creeds and catechisms and make your God of your own design
and imaginations. But the God of the Bible reveals
Himself. He reveals Himself. And we don't
bargain with Him, and we don't sit down and counsel with Him,
and we don't reason with Him, and we don't ask him to meet our demands,
we bow to him. We submit. Abraham, get thee
out. And he went out, not knowing
where he was going. Abraham, you'll have a son. He believed
God. He didn't know how. Abraham,
sacrifice that boy to me on the altar. Now he did it, not knowing
why. Not knowing why. He believed God. Let's see if
we can find out something about Abraham's faith in all this. Let's see, this faith, this faith, it wasn't these deeds, it was
this faith that brought him righteousness. It wasn't these deeds. Now, if
it were the deeds, then you and I could tomorrow go out to our
farm, if we had a farm, Abraham's got a farm, Richard's got a farm,
some of you got farms, you'd go out there and give your nephew
your farm and head for the hills. And that'd be doing what Abraham
did. Or you could go home and pick out one of the kids and
run them off, you know, and say, get gone, Ishmael, you be my
Ishmael, get gone, you know. That's not salvation. Salvation
is the faith of Abraham. It's that which motivated him
to do these things that was counted to him for righteousness. See
what I'm saying? It's the faith that I want to imitate, not the
deeds, but the faith. The faith. So let's see four
things about his faith that may help us, briefly. And I'll let
you study these at home. My time is moving along. But
what was the foundation of his faith? Here are two words, two
verses. First of all, verse 18, it says,
"...who against hope believed in hope that he might become
the father of many nations according to that which was spoken." What
was the foundation of his faith? The Word of God. The Word of
God. Here's another verse, verse 20,
"...he staggered not at the promise of God." It wasn't dreams and
visions upon which he based his hope. It was the Word of God. It wasn't signs and wonders and
dreams and visions. It was the Word of God. My friends,
you can have no more certain or sure foundation for your faith
than God's Word. God said it. Abraham believed
it. The Word of God. Abraham walked with God, believing
God's Word. Listen to David. Forever, O Lord,
thy Word is settled in heaven. Listen to Christ. Heaven and
earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. I don't apologize for believing
this book. I believe it. I believe it's
the infinite, infallible, immutable, unchangeable, verbally inspired
Word of God. This is the foundation of my
faith. Nothing is so because I think it's so. It's so because
God says it's so. Human reason is not the foundation
of human experience, human feelings, human emotions. Well, I think
this. And somebody else thinks something
else. And somebody else thinks something
else. Let it be settled by what God says. This is the foundation. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. I wish that we would get in our
congregation, our people individually and personally, would get an
interest in this book. I think we'd better. I think
we'd better. Oh, I can't understand the Bible.
You're not trying. You can't read this word like
you read Sears Roebuck or J.C. Penney catalog. You get quiet
and by yourself and ask the Holy Spirit to be your teacher. Give
yourself some time and read it slowly and carefully and pray
for revelation. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst for righteousness, they'll be filled. Christ said,
if any man wants to know my will, he'll know it. So this is Abraham's, the foundation
of his faith was what God said, what was spoken. All right, secondly,
the strength of his faith. What caused him to do what he
did? Abraham was an intelligent man, a rational man, a reasonable
man. What made him do what he did?
Well, I believe the strength and motivating force in his faith
is revealed in four things that are said here. I'll give them
to you quickly. The first one is found in verse
18. Who against hope believed in hope. What does that mean? It means this. Humanly speaking,
it was impossible for him to beget a child. Humanly speaking, human hope.
Now if he had been 25 and Sayward had been 21, there wouldn't have
been any faith involved. But he was 100. And Sayward was
almost 100. Almost 100. And humanly speaking, there ain't
no way that they're going to have a son. No way. Not with
the wildest stretch of the imagination. But he believed. The power and
purpose of God reaches beyond human ability and human power. The disciples said, Lord, who
can be saved? And the Lord said, with men it's
impossible. To think of me, being a child
of God, to think of me, the chief of centers walking the streets
of gold, to think of me, a son of Adam, being holy in God's
sight, righteous, a son of God, huh? Humanly speaking, there's
no hope for that. That's like talking about a wiggling
maggot becoming a Mr. America. There's no way. That
wiggling maggot would be an Apollos. God can do it. God can take the
beggar from the dunghill and put him on a throne. That's Abraham's
faith. He's against human hope. He had hope. All right, the second
statement, the strength of his faith, is verse 19. He considered
not, and being not weak in faith, he considered not his body dead,
nor the deadness of sailors' womb. He didn't even give that
any thought. Where God is concerned, Almighty
God created the world out of nothing, why can't He create
a son? Why can't He bring a son out of a dead womb? He brought
the world out of nothing. He brought Adam out of clay,
lifeless clay. He brought a man. Why can't he
bring a man out of a dead womb? No problem. They're with God.
Believe God. He didn't even consider the deadness. And you talk about, can these
dead bones live? Sure they can. God can make them
live. God can make them live. And then
notice the third statement, verse 20, he staggered not at the promise
of God. It didn't stagger him. God came
and said, you're going to have a son, 100 years old, wife 100
years old, you're going to have a son. That didn't stagger him.
Is anything too hard for God? Hath not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel under honor and
another under wrath? The potter hath power. Nothing's
too hard for God. Can I not do with my own what
I will? He didn't stagger him. It didn't shake him up. He believed
God. And then the fourth statement,
verse 21, being fully persuaded that what God promised, he was
able to perform. The angel came and said, Mary,
you're going to have a son. I shall call his name Jesus.
He shall save his people from this sin. She said, how can these
things be? I know not a man. Nicodemus,
you must be born again. How can a man be born when he's
old? Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb? David wrote in the Psalms, can
God furnish a table in the wilderness? Well, Abraham believed that he
could. He believed what God had promised. What God said to Mary,
God was able to do. What Christ said to Nicodemus,
God's able to do. What God said to Moses, God is
able to do. The strength of my faith, it
must rest on the power and purpose and promise of God Almighty.
He's able. Humanly speaking, salvation is
impossible with men, but all things are possible with God.
Can these dead bones live? Lord, thou knowest. God is able
to save to the uttermost them that come to Him by Christ. God is able to keep, God is able
to raise this body. Now you think about the resurrection.
The body goes back to the ground, the worms eat it, it's dissolved,
it becomes nothing but dust and the wind comes and blows it.
and blows some of the dust over yonder, and some over yonder,
and some over somewhere else, and the wind catches it again
and blows it somewhere else, that body, over a period of a
thousand years, particles of that dust and dirt can be scattered
over an area a thousand miles in diameter. God's going to raise
that body. He's able to raise our body. Well, the fourth thing about
this man's faith. We saw the foundation, it's the
Word of God. We saw the motivation, the motivating
power, the strength of it. He knew God was able. And then
here's the object of his faith. Romans 4, verse 3. Let's say
it to Scripture. Now read this together. Everybody at the same time, say
it with me. Everybody together. Ready? There are three words
here. Let's say it out loud. Are you ready? Abraham believed God. He doesn't say he believed in
God. He didn't say he believed on
God. He didn't say he believed there is a God. He didn't say
he believed about God. What did he say? He believed
God. There's a difference. You believe
there's one God, the devil believes and trembles. But Abraham believed
God. Paul stood on the deck of that
ship when the storm was tossing it and picking it up and throwing
it down. They'd already lightened the load, everything they could
throw overboard, and even those veteran mariners said, this boat's
gone. We'd better get ready to leave
here. Paul said, now hold on. He said, everybody stay in the
ship. There stood by me this night the angel of God, whose
I am and whom I serve. And he said, Paul, you lose the
ship, but not one man will be lost. Sirs? I believe there's
a God. No. Well, sirs, I believe in
God. Now, I'm a Christian. I believe
in God. No. He said, sirs, I believe God. And that's the way it was. I
believe God. I believe God. I believe the
record he had given concerning his son. I believe the condemnation
and guilt under which we are through the fall, through Adam,
through imputation, Through sin, I believe it. I believe the promise
of His Son. I believe Christ came in the
flesh to redeem us. I believe Christ is at the right
hand of God. I believe God. I believe God. I believe what
He says. I believe what He does. I believe
what He purposes. I believe what He promises. I believe Him. I believe Him.
You believe Him? And this, this is when you can
count yourself a believer, when you can quit start talk, when
you can quit talk about believing there's a God. Don't you believe
there's a God? Everybody believes there's a God. I know they do.
The devil believes there's a God. But when you can stop talking
like that and start believing God, just start believing God.
I don't know whether I'm saved
or not. I believe God. I believe I'm saved because I
believe God. God can't lie. I believe my sins are pardoned
because I believe God. God said, come unto me, I'll
give you rest. Though you seem to be a scarlet,
I'll make them white as snow. I believe God. All things are going to work
together for my good and His glory. How do you know that,
preacher? I believe God. I believe God. And you are a
son of Abraham who is the father of the faithful if you can come
to the place by his grace and mercy to believe God. Just believe
God. And then the last thing, verse
22, the fruit of his faith. The fruit of his faith. And it
was counted unto him, it was imputed to him for righteousness. God accepted Abraham. God received him. He believed
Him. He believed Him. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath life. He believed Him. That dear woman of Canaan that
came with a sick daughter, and our Lord turned and He said,
It's not fit to give the children's bread to dogs. And she said,
That's so, but the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's
table. Our Lord said, Woman, thy faith Thy faith, how great
is thy faith. Be unto thee as you desire faith. Without faith it's impossible
to please God. Believe God. Quit trying to serve
God and start believing God. Quit trying to get on the good
side of God and believe God. Quit trying to master the Bible
and believe God. Quit trying to find the right
church and the right doctrine and start believing God. Quit trying to establish your
own righteousness and believe God. Just believe God. You'll
find some more folks that believe God. You may find a preacher
somewhere who believes God. Maybe. But that's righteousness. And that's the best way I can
define it. They can run around giving you steps to faith and
all that stuff. There ain't no such animal. It's
just believe in God. When you start believing God,
you have faith. That's when you're saved. Believe
God. Our Father in Heaven, we come
to Thee because we believe You. We pray because we believe You.
We trust You because we believe You. We claim your promises because
we believe you. We rest in Christ because we
believe you. You said, this is my son. Hear
ye him. We believe you. We claim this blessed promise
of eternal life because we believe you. O Lord, move in our midst. Increase
our faith. Strengthen our faith. Take our
eyes off the things of this world, off even ourselves, and our ambitions,
and our desires, and our pleasures, and our own welfare, and turn
our eyes on Christ. Oh, to walk with the King. In
His name we pray. Amen.