INTRODUCTION
In college, usually the most basic freshman courses are labeled “101.” It may be Algebra 101, History 101, Calculus 101 or something like that. Today I want to teach from Romans 4, some of the basics about faith.
My favorite uncle was Uncle Charles, my mother’s younger brother who never married. One of the reasons he was my favorite uncle is because he was so generous. In fact, it was just about a month ago that he died and went to be with the Lord. I can remember when I was a little kid, we would gather at my grandparent’s house where my uncle lived. When the family was all gathered around, he always played a little game with me. He would hold out both of his hands. In one hand would be a nickel; in the other hand would be a dime. He would say, “Ok, David, choose, which one would you like to have, a nickel or a dime?” You know, a nickel is a lot bigger and thicker than that little old thin dime, so I would pick the nickel. He laughed, and called the rest of the family in there and said, “Y’all come here and watch this.” He pulled out another nickel. He said, “All right, David, choose which one you want, the nickel or the dime.” I’d choose the nickel and everyone would chuckle a little bit. I want you to know, the second time he did it, I figured it out. I figured out I was being the point of a little joke there, But do you know what I also figured out in that young, devious mind of mine? I figured out the moment I chose the dime, that little game would end. I went for years choosing that nickel. I got lots of nickels. I never once chose the dime. I had figured it out and I had the key to that little game. Even though he got a lot of laughs out of it, I think in the end, the laugh was on old Uncle Charles.
There’s no trick to knowing God. You’re not the object of some divine, capricious joke. God has made it really simple. As I said last week, he offers his Grace that comes down in the form of Jesus, and our response is our faith. When God’s Grace intersects with our faith, which is a gift itself, BOOM, that’s when salvation takes place. Just as I figured out that little game Uncle Charles used to play, as soon as you can figure out that the key to unlocking the blessings of the Christian life is faith, the sooner you will begin to enjoy all the blessings of the Christian life. Romans 4, is sort of a little parenthetical chapter Paul inserts. He has been talking about all these great doctrines, Grace, righteousness, redemption, faith, and suddenly he’s going to insert a little historical chapter, and he’s going to give us some flesh and blood examples of what faith really is. We’re going to look at that today.
We will be looking at the first 17 verses of chapter 4, but let’s read them as we introduce each section. First, let’s read the first eight verses.
Romans 4:1-8. “What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does the Scripture say? [Here’s the first time of twelve times the word faith, trust or believe is going to be used.] ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. ‘Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.’ [from Psalm 32]
I. EXAMPLES OF FAITH
Today, as we start examining the first of two messages about faith in chapter 4, I want to introduce you to this topic, “What is faith and how can I appropriate faith?” First I want to talk about what the examples of faith are. When Paul is going to talk about faith, he gives us, as I have said, some live and living, flesh and blood illustrations. He gives us two Old Testament examples.
1. Abraham–followed God’s plan without knowing all the details
Example number one is Abraham. Much of the chapter is about Abraham. What can you say about him? Well, Abraham followed God’s plan without knowing all the details. To follow God when you don’t know all the details requires faith. The amazing thing about Abraham is he came along before the law of God was even given to the Jews. One of the questions that has been asked of a lot of so-called Christians is, “Who came first, Moses or Abraham?” Did you know about half of the people who claim to be Christians get the wrong answer? Half of the people say, “Well, Moses came first.” No, no, no Abraham came centuries before Moses. God gave the law through Moses. Old Abraham came along before there were the Ten Commandments. He came along before there was the law of God. God just called him out of Ur of the Chaldeans, which is near Saudi Arabia today in the Iraqi area, and said, “Abraham, there is only one God. Stop worshiping all the pagan gods that your family has worshiped for years. Trust me. I’m going to take you to a land.” It took great faith for Abraham to say, “Ok, yes sir!”, and he moved. He started moving toward this land he didn’t even know anything about. He didn’t even know God’s name.
When somebody directs us to do something, before we take the first step, most of us want to know all the details. In fact, if Abraham had been like most of us, and God had spoken to us, we would have said, “Now wait a minute. I need to know who you are, God. What’s your name?” Abraham didn’t ask. We would have asked, “Now, Lord, we want to know exactly where it is you are going to take us. What is the name of the land you are leading us to?” Abraham didn’t ask that. Later on, Abraham just kept on moving by faith until he came to this land that was going to one day be Israel.
There were some other things Abraham did that expressed tremendous faith. One time after Abraham had conquered some lands and had appropriated a lot of wealth, God said, “Abraham, I want you to give one tenth of that wealth to this priest named Melchizedek, who is a forerunner of the Lord, Jesus Christ, a foreshadow of Jesus.” Abraham didn’t say, “Give one tenth of all my possessions to this priest that I’ve never met before? Do you think I am crazy or something? Why should I give one tenth of my possessions to this guy I’ve never met before?” He didn’t do that. He didn’t say, “Who are you?” He didn’t say, “Where am I going?” He didn’t say, “Why should I tithe?” He just trusted God.
It took amazing trust for Abraham to do what God told him to do without knowing all the details. Do you remember there was one final part of the promise of God? God said, “Abraham, in fact, I am going to change your name from Abram to Abraham, and your new name means ‘father of many people’” So, Abraham spent most of his life having the name Abraham, father of many people, but he wasn’t the father of many people. Can’t you just see old Abraham at a convention like a lot of you attend? He has a name-tag on that says, “Hello. My name is Abraham.” That name meant father of many people. Can’t you just see him walking up with his name-tag, “Hello. My name is Abraham.” Somebody looks at him and says, “Well, hello there father of many people. How many children do you have?” and Abraham says, “None.” Oh, I have one child through my wife’s maid, but that’s all. “Why is your name “father of many people” if you don’t have any children?” “Well, God told me that I was going to be the father of many people.”
We’re going to see next week he reached 99 before his name ever made sense. You talk about amazing faith that was required. One of the greatest examples of faith in the Bible is Abraham who followed God’s plan without knowing all the details. if you are still looking at the text, look at the first five verses there. It says in verse 3 he believed God, and because he believed God, God said, “All right, Abraham, I’m going to give you a credit line of righteousness.” Did you notice verse 4 says Abraham didn’t earn this credit line of righteousness; it was given to him as a gift. Paul uses the analogy here, when you get paid wages, it’s not a gift. How many of you when you get your paycheck, you go up to your boss and say, “Oh, thank you so much for this wonderful gift. You’re so kind.” No, when you work for wages, you say, “Hey, I’ve got that coming to me.” Abraham never one time thought, “God, you owe me something. You owe me eternal life. You owe me righteousness.” Never one time. He understood it was a gift.
I hope you understand when God looks at you and he says, “Your sins are forgiven and you are righteous,” I hope you never once entertain the thought, “Well, God, that’s what you owed to me.” No, my friend. It is a gift. So, Abraham is the first example.
2. David–accepted God’s forgiveness when he still felt guilty
There’s another example here. Not only is Abraham given as an example of someone who followed God without knowing all the details, there was David he uses as an example. David accepted God’s forgiveness when he still felt guilty. I don’t know if this sounds familiar or not. You’ll have to decide. There was once a leader of the strongest nation on the planet. This nation’s leader claimed to have a relationship with God. One day this nation’s leader committed a sexual indiscretion with a young woman who was not his wife, and then, worse even than committing that sexual indiscretion, he denied it. He tried to cover it up. For months, and months, and months he covered it up. A lot of people around him suspected he was guilty, but he kept covering it up and he kept denying it. As you know, the person I am talking about is King David, a man after God’s own heart. David was king of the greatest nation on earth, and yet he broke three of the Ten Commandments. Abraham came before the law, David came after the law. He broke three commandments: He coveted his neighbor’s wife, Bathsheba, then, he committed adultery with her, and then, he had her husband murdered. Why do you think Paul chooses Abraham and David? Well, here’s Abraham before the law He’s trying to show us even before the law was ever given, there was only way to be saved–by faith. Then he shows us David, after the law was given, there was still only one way to be saved, that is through faith.
Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 32. We need to look at the rest of Psalm 32 because only the first two verses are quoted in Romans, chapter 4. Now I have to give you the background of this Psalm. David prayed this prayer after he had been convicted of his own sin of coveting his neighbor’s wife, adultery and murder. How did that happen?
As I told you, this world leader denied it for many months until finally God’s prophet Nathan came before David and said, “David, you are the man. You are guilty.” Finally, David begins to confess his sin. look at Psalm 32. We’ve already read the first two verses. It’s quoted in Romans, chapter 4. Look now at Psalm 32:3. This is what David says happened when he did not confess his sin. “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand, oh God, was heavy upon me; My strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.” Can you relate to that? Your strength is sapped as in the heat of summer! “But then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord—And you forgave the guilt of my sin.’” Skip down to verse 10: “Many are the woes of the wicked,” David said, “But the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the man Who trusts in him.”
David went for months covering up his sin. While he was covering up his sin, the Bible says he was in agony; he was miserable. He walked around, drained as if he had expended a lot of energy on a hot summer day. He said, “My bones were hurting.” I want you to know, if you have right now, unconfessed, unrepented of sin in your life, it will affect you physically. It will make you physically sick. Did you know during the months David tried to cover up his sin of murder and adultery, he was literally aching; he was fatigued; he felt drained all the time; sleep was a stranger to him? He was miserable. Finally, the Holy Spirit, through the prophet, Nathan, said, “David, you’re guilty.” and finally David broke in repentance. In confession he said, “God I confess to you. I am a sinner.”
In Psalm 51, which is the partner Psalm to Psalm 32, David said, “Create in me a clean heart, oh God and renew a right spirit within me.” He said, “I confess against you and you only have I committed this terrible deed.” If you want to find God’s forgiveness. If you want to find God’s cleansing like David did, you must come to a place in your life where you confess your sins, you repent of your sins, and then as it says in that verse we just read in Psalm 32 you must trust God for his forgiveness.
Back in Romans 4 I said David accepted God’s forgiveness even when he still felt guilty. You need to understand today we are all sinners, and we have all done terrible things before God, every one of us. When you come to a place in your life that you turn from your sins and you put your faith in Jesus, and you confess you are a sinner, God forgives you. He cleanses you of your iniquities, your transgressions and your unrighteousness. He cleanses you, but there are still some of you who, like David, still feel guilty. You still feel dirty.
You are saved by faith, and you receive God’s forgiveness by faith. I need to say something very important here. When the prophet, Nathan, pointed his finger at David, and said, “You’re the man. You’re guilty.” David said, “I confess that I am guilty.” The moment he confessed, Nathan said, “David, the Lord will not hold this sin against you. You are forgiven.” You say, “Wait a minute. Didn’t David suffer terribly as a result of that sin?” Yes, he did. Four of his children died. When God forgives you of your sin, he does not remove the consequences of your sin. They are still there. So, some people would say, “Well, pastor, I’m so thankful for the forgiveness of God, I’m just going to go out and sin all I want to, live it up and have a great time because God is going to forgive me.” Well, yes, he’ll forgive you, but you are still going to have to deal with the consequences of your sin. The consequences of sin are terrible. They are awful.
And so, we have the two examples of faith in the Old Testament: Abraham, who followed God’s plan even though he didn’t know the details and David, who accepted God’s forgiveness even though he still felt guilty. A couple of weeks ago I made the statement somebody said was the clearest thing they have ever heard about the Bible. Do you know what the statement was? I said, “In the Old Testament, God gave the law to make us understand that we are guilty. In the New Testament, God gave us Grace to let us understand that we can be saved.” This person said, “I have never seen it that way before, but how then were people in the Old Testament saved? Will there be any Old Testament people in heaven? It was before the cross, before Grace.” Absolutely, there will be Old Testament people in heaven. Abraham is already there. David is already there. How do Old Testament people come to know Jesus Christ? The same way we do. There is only one way to be saved, and that’s by faith in God’s plan.
In 1972, I gathered in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas, with about 60,000 other college students and teenagers for something called “Expo ‘72.” We were singing and praising the Lord. I remember Josh McDowell spoke. This was sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ, and in 1972 all of us who were “Jesus freaks” at the time, we had this one thing we did a lot. It was called “one way.” Everybody in that stadium would hold up that one way finger. One way Jesus. That even became a little symbol for the Jesus movement. The One Way. There is only one way to heaven and it is Jesus.
Old Testament people were not saved one way while we are saved another way. No, there is only one way. Here’s the difference. They were saved by putting their faith in God’s plan in the future. Even though they did not know the name, Jesus, they understood the plan. We are saved by putting faith in God’s plan, past tense, and we know the details. It was Jesus who died on the cross. Do you know what Jesus said about Abraham? Jesus said, “Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he was glad when he saw it.” Abraham didn’t know his name, Jesus. He just knew God had a plan, and he put his faith in God’s plan. So, those are some examples of faith we find right here in Romans 4.
II. ENEMIES OF FAITH
There are not only examples of faith, but also enemies of faith, because there are some things that will keep us from experiencing great faith. There are some enemies of faith I want to mention. Let’s look at verses 9-16. Every time we use the word “circumcision” in this passage, I want us to think about “outward religious signs.” For us, baptism, church membership, communion, service you substitute all those outward trappings of Christianity for the word “circumcision.”
Romans 4:9-16. “Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised or before?” Now, that’s a pretty important question to the Jews. Was it the act of being circumcised that made him righteous, or was it the faith before the act that really credited righteousness to him? Here’s the answer in verse 10, “It was not after” meaning after he was circumcised “but before. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.” Let me just explain that. All that is saying is you have to be saved by faith first before anything like baptism, church membership, communion, or serving the Lord even matters. If you do all of those things up front thinking it is going to make you righteous, you are wrong. “So, then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.” now, he walked by faith and we are to follow in his footsteps of faith, it says. It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.” that phrase keeps appearing over and over again “righteousness that comes by faith.” “For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. Therefore”, you know Paul is trying to summarize this argument “Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.”
Look back up at verse 14. It says, “If those who live by law are heirs” in other words he is saying if there is anything you can do to earn righteousness, “then faith has no value.” The Bible talks about a kind of faith that is empty, dead, false. In fact, James writes about “dead” faith and “living” faith. What is it that destroys faith? What are those things in our lives that become enemies to faith?
1. Failure–I’m too bad to change
Number one is “failure.” Failure can be an enemy to your faith. If you have had a lot of mistakes and failures in your life, this is what you may say. “I’m too bad to change.” So, some people have so many mistakes and goof-ups and failures in their lives that they say, “Hey, I am beyond change. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Well, you are not a dog and we’re not talking about tricks here. If you are here today, and you say, “I’m too bad to change. I just want to say to you, “You’re absolutely right.” If you think you can change yourself, you are deceiving yourself. But, faith says, “I admit I am a failure, but I’m going to let God change me.”
A couple of weeks ago I was talking to a guy who claimed to be a Christian at one time, but now he says he’s no longer a Christian. I’ll let you figure that out. He said to me, “I’m too far gone now. God would never take me back.” He thought he was so deep in the ruts of rebellion and sin there was no hope for him. Well, I’m here to tell you, it takes faith to believe no matter how bad you are, how rotten you have been, the grace of God can still pick you up out of the depths of sin and can change you and save you. I believe with all of my heart there never has been a sinner on planet Earth who is too bad for Jesus to save and for Jesus to change. That’s the key, you can’t change yourself, but he can.
2. Fear–It’s too good to be true
Fear is the second enemy. Some people have a fear of trusting Jesus. They say, “Wait a minute. It’s just too good to be true. This business of putting your faith in Jesus, turning from your sins, praying a little sinner’s prayer, I’m just skeptical of that. It’s just too easy.” There are some of you in this room who pride yourself on being “thinkers.” You like to process things. You like to really consider things and chew them over mentally before you accept them. Sometimes people absolutely are afraid this Christian life business is too good to be true.
Let me remind you what the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 18:3. Jesus said to a bunch of adults, religious people, “Unless you change and you become as little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Intellectual adult, let me tell you this. You make a tremendous mistake if you think you have to figure all of this out before you can trust Jesus. In fact, Jesus said you have to trust like a little child. We’ve made a terrible mistake in the church if we try to make little children act like adults to become Christians. The opposite is true. Adults have to become like children to become Christians. It is simple childlike faith.
When I was growing up, I believed my dad. I believed anything my dad said to me. I used to love to hear him stories of when he was in World War II. If my dad told me he had single-handedly captured Emperor Hirohito, and he was chained in our basement, I would have believed him. I would have sold tickets to my neighborhood friends to see Emperor Hirohito if my dad told me because I believed everything my dad said. Have you ever noticed children trust and believe? That’s why some people take advantage of them. God is not trying to take advantage of you. He says, “Trust me with a childlike faith.”
3. Feelings–It doesn’t feel right
Number three, of course, is “feelings.” Some people are trusting feelings, and they say, “It just doesn’t feel right.” I’m going to say more about this next week, but I want you to know feelings are the shallowest part of your soul. In fact, I am a little bit upset, and more than a little bit concerned that there seems to be a movement on the part of many Christians today to go from church to church to church just to try to experience some “new feeling.” Whether it be laughter, whether it be slain in the spirit, whether it be some kind of giddy feeling where the hair on your back stands up. There are a lot of people who are going around searching for a feeling. That is terribly dangerous. You don’t live the Christian life led by your feelings.
When I was in college I read that little blue Campus Crusade booklet, “Have You Made The
Wonderful Discovery of the Spirit-filled Life?” and in that booklet there was a little picture of a train with a coal car and a caboose. On the engine was the word “Faith,” on the coal car was the word “Fact,” and the caboose was the word “Feelings.” You cannot allow feelings to lead you in a Christian life. If you follow your feelings, you’ll be led astray most of the time. Aren’t you glad you are not saved by feelings? Because, unless you are a morning person, when you wake up you don’t feel saved until about 10 o’clock every day, do you? You look in the mirror. You don’t look saved. You don’t feel saved. No, I’m glad the Christian life is not lived by feelings. It’s lived by faith. That’s the engine. The facts of the word of God feed that engine, and feelings are the caboose that follows behind. There are feelings in the Christian life, but they are the result of faith, they are not what produce faith. Well, those are some of the enemies of faith.
III. THE ESSENCE OF FAITH
Let’s talk about the essence of faith. I have waited all this time to get to verse 17, which to me is one of the greatest verses in the Bible on faith. Would you agree with me before we read verse 17 that if anybody knows anything about faith, it’s God? The character and nature of God is intertwined with the essence of faith. Now look at verse 17. “As it is written: ‘I have made you a father of many nations.’ He is our father in the sight of God in whom he believed” there’s that word again faith, believe, trust. Then, let’s learn something about God “the God who gives life to the dead” if you want to put parentheses around this next phrase, this is what faith is “and calls things that are not as though they were.” That’s faith! Faith is when you call things that are not as if they were. That’s what we are talking about, the essence of faith.
What really is faith? You remember I talked just a moment ago about feelings. You and I have five senses: taste, touch, hearing, sight and smell. If you are trying to use your five senses to grasp and understand the Christian life, you will be frustrated all of your life because you cannot see God, you cannot smell God, you cannot hear God with these ears, you cannot taste God and you cannot touch God. Faith is the sixth sense. Faith is the sense that overrides, supercedes or overrules all the other five senses. Faith is that part of your personality when everything else, sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch says, “No, no, no” faith says, “Yes!” It calls things that are not according to the five senses as if they are.
1. It’s not faith itself; it’s the object of your faith that matters
Look at Hebrews, 11:1. This is another great verse on faith in the Bible. It says, “Now, faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” the key words in there are sure we’re sure of it it’s sure something we hope for but then the next word is certain we are certain of what we do not see. First of all, it is not faith itself; it is the object of our faith that matters. You exercise faith in one form or fashion every day of your life. Every time you get into an automobile, stick a key in there and turn the ignition you believe the car is going to start and take you somewhere. Sometimes, your faith is misplaced Every time you drive across a bridge you are putting your faith in that bridge and we all know of bridges that have collapsed and sometimes that faith can be misplaced Every time you write a letter, seal it, put a stamp on it and stick it in a mail slot you are putting faith in the United States Postal Service and we all know at time that faith can be misplaced. It is not faith itself. We all employ faith. It is the object of your faith that matters. Cars will fail you. Bridges will fail you. The USPS will fail you, but my friend, God will never fail you! The key is it is the object of your faith.
the words faith, trust and believe are the same word in the New Testament and they are used over 500 times. If I could make it as simple as I know how what does it mean for you to trust God? What does it mean for you to have faith in God? It is to believe he is worthy, he is reliable, and he will never fail you. He will do everything he says he will do.
If you are still having trouble getting a grasp on faith, let me just try to show you what faith is. Gary, would you just put your Bible down there and stand up here. Gary did not know I was going to do this. Face Mike and hold your arms straight out in front of you. Gary, you’re an attorney, aren’t you? Have you learned you can’t trust everything people say? Especially as a lawyer, you have learned that. Right? But you know me a little bit. We’ve been on some trips and things together. Gary, I’m going to ask you to fall backwards when I tell you too, and I am going to catch you. I want you to fall straight back. Now you know if I’m a total stranger, he’d be a fool to do that or, if I’m somebody who has lied to him before and done something dirty to him, he would be a fool to trust me. I just want to see how much faith Gary really has. When you are ready, Gary, let’s see if you trust me. Let’s see if you put your faith in me. A little stumble there, wasn’t there, buddy? I promise you that’s the essence of faith. It’s when you stand there, and God says, “Fall on me. Trust me. You can’t see me, you can’t hear me with your ears, but trust me.” and you fall upon the grace, the mercy, the forgiveness of God. Remember, it’s the object of your faith that’s the key, not faith itself.
2. A little faith is a powerful force
Here’s the second statement about faith. A little faith is a powerful force. Jesus said in Matthew 20, “because you have so little faith, I tell you the truth, have faith as much as a mustard seed and you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move” Nothing will be impossible for you.” Some of you are thinking, “Well, I need more faith.” No, you don’t. A little bit of faith is a powerful force. What’s the difference between a mustard seed and a mountain? A mustard seed has within it LIFE–divine life and a mountain is dead, inorganic rock. What Jesus is trying to say here is a little bit of living faith is more powerful than any immovable object on earth. A little faith is a powerful force.
3. Your faith can be developed by exercise
Number three, your faith can be developed by exercise. Faith is like a muscle in the body. Every one of us if we are born normally is born with 330 muscles. Let’s say all of a sudden you decided you wanted to get stronger. Are you going to go down to the hospital and say, “Hey, I need some more muscles. Would you operate on me and give me a few more muscles.”? No. You would begin to exercise the muscles you have and they would become stronger. Faith is like a muscle–if you don’t use it, it will atrophy. Look at what the Bible says in Romans 10:17, “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” How do you increase your faith? How do you strengthen your faith? Getting into this book faith comes by hearing the word of God. Let me tell you what faith is. Faith is when you come to the edge of all you know, and you come to the edge of the darkness, and then you take one more step into the darkness knowing one of two things is going to happen. Either God will be there to step upon, or God will teach you how to fly! When you come to the edge of all that you can experience, and you take that one more step, and you lean upon God, that’s when you put your faith and trust in him.
OUTLINE
I. EXAMPLES OF FAITH (1-8)
1. Abraham–followed God’s plan without knowing all the details
2. David–accepted God’s forgiveness when he still felt guilty
II. ENEMIES OF FAITH (9-16)
1. Failure–I’m too bad to change
2. Fear–It’s too good to be true
3. Feelings–It doesn’t feel right
III. THE ESSENCE OF FAITH (17)
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1
1. It’s not faith itself; it’s the object of your faith that matters
2. A little faith is a powerful force
He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20
3. Your faith can be developed by exercise
Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17
