Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Let's get our bibles and turn.
[00:00:03] In our study of, on our study in the school of evangelism, we have looked at repentance in our, this section of our study on the school of evangelism. Of course you can't, you cannot be an effective witness for the Lord so long as you and I, we cannot be effective so long as we cannot clearly explain what it means to repent and to believe, because those two things are both essential and both are actions of the heart, not actions of the life. Although both have fruit that is manifested in the life, they are things done in the heart. And so, you know, in some circles it is even, there are people that even describe the idea of faith, which is what we're going to get into in just a minute. And I hope it'll clarify some things to you. But there are some people that describe faith. The decision, if you will, to believe in Christ, to trust in Christ, even though you're not actually doing anything, you're actually relying on another. Right? That's the whole idea of faith. But yet they describe that as a work like it's, it's absolutely antithesis. But for those of you that, that kind of follow theological questions, that's, that's something that comes up sometimes. So we're going to look, today, we're going to look at faith. And I want to, I want to look at several passages, starting in Romans chapter four, that deal with faith. What we're going to do to begin is look at a, we're going to look at an illustration or an example of faith, starting in Romans chapter four.
[00:02:05] And we'll look at a lot of other verses as well. But I want to give you a couple of definitions.
[00:02:13] But before that, I want to give you a reminder of the illustration and the example I gave you earlier or last week, rather, of the man who is the criminal who is chained, the convicted criminal who is chained in his jail cell. Okay? You remember that? Remember I explained that I was using that as an illustration to describe repentance and faith in a way that maybe we can latch onto. So again, I'll just repeat it just so we can be on the same page. Imagine a man who's a criminal who has committed the crime, who is guilty of the crime, and he's sitting, he has been convicted and he is sitting in jail serving his sentence. He's sitting in prison serving his sentence.
[00:02:58] And imagine in this case, he is a man who is chained in his cell. Again, we know that's nothing common practice now, but in, in days gone by. That was common practice. So imagine he's chained in his cell. And as a result of that, both his conviction, his guilt, and the chains that bind him, he cannot just simply get up and walk out.
[00:03:20] And as this man is sitting in jail, he comes to the realization, however that happens, he comes to. Comes to the realization that what he has done that has landed him in this jail cell is the crime that he committed is an evil act. In other words, he has become persuaded.
[00:03:43] And really, this could apply to people who are in prison at this moment. In fact, people that work with among prisoners in the jail ministry and things, I'm sure that's something they have to deal with, because, of course, nobody. Nobody in prison should be in prison, right? Of course. If there's any doubt, just ask them. They're not supposed to be there. They were set up.
[00:04:08] But this man is sitting chained in his cell, and he comes to the understanding and realization that he did the crime, and his crime was wicked and evil. And for that reason, he deserves to be in the condition that he is in. He deserves to be condemned.
[00:04:26] In other words, his condemnation is just.
[00:04:31] It is right that he is chained in this jail cell, right? That is really the core of repentance.
[00:04:40] It's that understanding of the wickedness of our sin. And with that, that the desire that, remember, it's a change of mind, a change of heart concerning our sin. And that is what has happened. He went from a man who. Who said, I didn't do it, man. I didn't do it, man, to, I deserve to be here. What I did was evil. You see, the change, his attitude toward his sin has changed. Okay? That's what repentance refers to.
[00:05:09] But even though he has repented, even though he has come to this realization and his mind and heart have changed toward his sin, he still cannot simply get up and leave his cell, for he is locked in his cell and still chained in the cell. So even though he has repented, he does not have liberty nor forgiveness, nor freedom.
[00:05:32] For that, he needs a redeemer.
[00:05:36] He needs someone to pay his penalty. He needs someone to free him outside of himself.
[00:05:46] And so, in the same way, by receiving Christ, though repentance is not salvation, but it is required. Because once we have repented and we have come face to face with the wickedness of our sin before God and our just condemnation, because what we have done, we then can receive Christ in the right heart with the right motive.
[00:06:12] And that chain of our sin that has bound us is loosed, and we are freely forgiven, because Christ has paid our penalty and we are trusting in him.
[00:06:22] Repentance alone is not enough.
[00:06:25] It is needed to prepare the heart, but only faith in Christ. And truly, we could say only Christ himself and what he has done can lead to lead to freedom and forgiveness, right?
[00:06:41] And.
[00:06:42] But even with that, and this is what I was saying last week when we finished, is, even though, you know, it's commonly argued, well, if I don't have to do anything to be saved, in other words, if it's not of works, then what's to stop me from, if God just freely forgives me, if I simply believe in Jesus, what's to stop me from going out in sin? You know the answer? Repentance. That's not the only answer. There are other things, but it's repentance. Our heart towards sin has changed, which was a requirement to come to God aright, where God receives us with our heart right in his sight.
[00:07:17] And even that, though I hasten to say that is not something that we can produce ourselves, repentance is something that God works in us through his power. It's good to see Miss McLean in here.
[00:07:31] She must not like me very much. She's never in my Sunday school class.
[00:07:35] That's because she's always in her Sunday school class. But all right, let's look at romans chapter four.
[00:07:44] Let's pray first, and then we'll begin looking at verse number three.
[00:07:49] Our father, thank you for the chance to be here today. Lord, we just, we ask for your help. Lord, we are so thankful for your word and we do need understanding and wisdom. And I pray that you would not only give me wisdom as I try to help your people, but I pray that you would also give your people wisdom and understanding and turn the lights in their hearts and all of our hearts on that we might see the scriptures, just what they say, plainly.
[00:08:12] And I pray, Lord, that you would enable us and equip us to be able to explain the gospel and how is the right way to come to the Lord. Lord, it's not complicated, but Lord, we just ask you that you would help us to understand these concepts in a clear and unambiguous way.
[00:08:31] And so, lord, we commit this time to you. Lord, I pray that your spirit would be among us and would teach us in Jesus name, amen.
[00:08:40] All right, let's start in verse one. I said three, but let's start in verse number one. The Bible says, what shall we say then? That Abraham, our father, as pertaining to the flesh hath found.
[00:08:51] For if Abraham were justified by works he hath, whereof to glory, but not before God. For what saith the scripture? How many of you have a reference Bible? That is a Bible that has little numbers and letters? All right. All right, you see numbers? Verse number three. You see a little letter, a little number beside that, that verse somewhere, right? Or in that verse? Give me a little nod. You see that? Okay. Just hold your place there. Okay? I'm gonna read the verse. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
[00:09:26] Now, to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him. Now, we're no longer talking about Abraham. Now, once we're in verse five, Abraham in verse three is an illustration. But now when we get to verse five, it's showing us what it illustrates, what Abraham illustrates. So verse five says, but to him that worketh not, but believeth him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
[00:10:02] Okay, those of you that have a reference bible, look at that letter in verse number three.
[00:10:07] What does it say?
[00:10:11] Somebody just yell it out. It's fine.
[00:10:14] Genesis 15, six. Correct. All right, so we're going to go to Genesis 15 in just a minute because I want to show you something out of that. Okay?
[00:10:23] All right, let's go down to verse number 17.
[00:10:31] Verse 17 says this again. We're talking about Abraham again. As it is written, I have made thee, Abraham, a father of many nations. Before him whom he believed. Notice that. See, this is. We're talking about faith now, okay? Which is belief. Trust. All right.
[00:10:48] Before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were, who against hope, believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations. According to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, notice that word, faith, he considered not his own body, now dead.
[00:11:13] Now, the context of this is when God promised to Abraham that Sarah would have a child. Okay, Abraham is old. Ancient. Okay? He's ancient at this point. Sarah is as well.
[00:11:29] Verse 19. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body, now dead when he was about a hundred years old neither. Yet the deadness of Sarah's womb, he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief. There it is. Faith. But was strong in faith, giving glory to God. And being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore, it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now, that's the end of the part that's talking about Abraham. That's the illustration, the parable, if you will. Now, verse number 23 begins the lesson. In other words, what is God trying to tell us through this illustration? Verse 23.
[00:12:09] Now, it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also. That's you. That's me to whom it shall be imputed. That is righteousness. If we believe there's faith on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. Now, we're going to come back to this in just a little bit, but I want to take a slight detour, okay? Because I want to clarify something that on the subject of faith that has been muddled. Okay? So hold your place here. If you got a bookmark, just stick it right here. And we're going to go to Genesis 15 in just a second. But let's, before we go there on the way, go to John, chapter three.
[00:13:00] John, chapter three.
[00:13:12] So we're looking at Abraham as an example of faith by looking at how Abraham believed and what that meant.
[00:13:23] We can see, as we saw in romans three just a minute ago, romans four. I'm sorry. We can see what faith is. We can see where it comes from. We can see how it's exercised and what it does, what the effect is, because this is the same faith that is required to believe unto salvation. Okay, so John, chapter three. Look at verse number 16.
[00:13:56] For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. But notice what this says, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. All right.
[00:14:11] Verse 18.
[00:14:13] He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten son of Goddesse. Now, in an attempt to explain faith, some people have tried to make a distinction between believing in Christ and believing on Christ, because in verse 16, it says in him, believeth in him. Verse 18 says on him. Okay, let me give you a couple of definitions to illustrate what I'm trying to say.
[00:14:50] These are both definitions that are out of the dictionary. Okay? I'm just copying them verbatim. They're both definitions for the word believe. Okay? As a verb number one, to believe means to give intellectual assent to. To accept the truth or accuracy of. For instance, I believe that the colonies won the revolutionary war.
[00:15:19] That's what that's talking about, right?
[00:15:24] The same set of definitions. A different definition says this. To have confidence in or faith in and consequently to rely on or trust to.
[00:15:37] That's a little bit different, is it not?
[00:15:40] You might say one's in your head, one's in your heart.
[00:15:44] You can maybe say it like that.
[00:15:46] One involves facts, the other involves personal trust. You can say it like that. And two, and the reality is that there is what I think there is confusion on the subject of faith in particular, and I think it's a satanic deception.
[00:16:07] When you see the word believe in faith, in the Bible, it's only ever one thing. It's only ever one thing.
[00:16:15] But in our society, we, we throw around the word faith more often to refer to the first definition, which is the one where you just think you accept something as true, especially in a religious context. And so I say to, for instance, to Sister Chung, I say, do you believe in Jesus?
[00:16:33] And she says, well, of course I believe.
[00:16:37] You say to someone who hates God, do you believe in Jesus? Or maybe to a historian, do you believe in Jesus? Of course. Jesus was a man. Of course.
[00:16:50] You see, that's not what we're talking about. But why do so many people understand that when we say it? Because when we're trying to give the gospel to someone and we say, we quote the scripture, John 316, whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life, they think, oh, I accept Jesus, that Jesus, he's a savior. Yes.
[00:17:11] It's a mental ascent only.
[00:17:13] So to combat this, some people have said, some people have tried to make a distinction, and I think the motives are right. They say, well, that's, you know, to accept that Jesus was real, that's to believe in Jesus. But to trust in him as your own savior, that is, to believe on Jesus. The problem is that in John three, as an example, they're both used interchangeably. In verse 16, it says, whosoever believeth in him. In verse 18, it says, he that believeth on him.
[00:17:44] But what you might not know is that it has the same construction in both cases. It's the same thing.
[00:17:51] It's the same thing.
[00:17:54] Now, this is not. And so there is no distinction between believing on Jesus and believing in Jesus. To believe in Jesus means. Does not mean you merely accept his existence or facts about him. To believe in Jesus means you are trusting in him.
[00:18:10] You're trusting in him. Your faith, your personal faith and hope is resting in him. That's what that means.
[00:18:19] All right. Now go back to I mentioned. I wanted you to hold your place in romans four. Now, if you would go back to Genesis 15 like I mentioned before, I want to show you something. Here. Here.
[00:18:52] All right, brother Ari, can you turn back to chapter four, romans four? I'm going to ask you to read that for us while we look at Genesis 15. Okay? Can you do that?
[00:19:05] Genesis 15.
[00:19:07] Verse number, verse two.
[00:19:16] And Abram said, lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless. And the steward of my house is this eleazar of Damascus.
[00:19:29] And Abram said, behold to me, thou hast given no seed. In other words, no children.
[00:19:34] And lo, one born in my house is mine heir. He's referring to his servant. Now, verse four. And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, this shall not be thine heir. But he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. That is a natural born son.
[00:19:53] And he brought. Now, this is verse five. Now, follow it carefully, if you would. And he, that's God brought him Abraham, forth abroad, outside, and said, look now toward heaven and tell the stars. Count the stars.
[00:20:12] You know, you go to a bank like abby works at a bank. She's a yemenite teller. You know why? Because she counts money. To tell means to count. That's why they're called tellers. You could call them counters if you want to do that. I just want to see a counter, please. They probably look at you funny, but that's what it means. So the Lord says, look now toward heaven and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said unto him, this is God speaking to Abram. So shall thy seed be. You see that?
[00:20:43] This is a promise. God made Abram that out of his own bibles. That is, his natural born son. Through Sarah, out of his own bibles, his descendants would be in number like the stars that he's looking at. Everybody with me on this. So God made Abraham a promise.
[00:21:05] A promise. The word of the Lord. Notice in verse number four. Notice what it says. The word of the Lord came unto him. That's important. The word of the Lord came unto Abraham. And God made a promise.
[00:21:20] And Abraham, in response to the promise. Notice what it says.
[00:21:28] Verse number six. And he, Abram, believed in the Lord.
[00:21:35] And he counted it to him for righteousness. Now, we've seen that verse before, haven't we? Brother Ari read that verse back in romans four. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God. And it was counted unhindered. All right, so this is romans four is referring to this verse. Notice, and just as a side note, just as a side note, did you know this is the first instance in the Bible of faith and of righteousness?
[00:22:06] The first instance of both of those in the same verse, which is a core doctrine.
[00:22:13] One is righteous not by doing good works, not by being a good person, but by faith. First occurring in the Bible simultaneously in this verse is the first time. Isn't that amazing?
[00:22:26] Faith. You know, listen, the fact that we are made righteous by trusting in the Lord rather than by doing good works is one of the most foundational doctrines in scripture.
[00:22:43] It is one of the most important doctrines in scripture, and it's also unique to Bible Christianity.
[00:22:53] No other religion or faith tradition holds to this doctrine. None, not a single one. Even the ones who purport to hold to the idea that we're made righteous in the sight of God by faith, they add, and we'll talk about this. Maybe today, maybe later. They add to it. They top load you with a bunch of other works that you have to also do to show that you believe, which is works.
[00:23:23] This is unique to Bible Christianity. Listen, so here's what this means.
[00:23:27] It is impossible for us to be righteous by what we do.
[00:23:33] The only way to have righteousness is if we're given righteousness.
[00:23:39] And we're given righteousness in response to faith. Well, how do you know that? And remember, faith is nothing. Accepting of facts. That's why we have to understand what faith is and why it's so insidious that the devil has altered this definition.
[00:23:54] Oh, yeah. I believe in Jesus. Yeah, I'm good.
[00:23:57] Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
[00:23:59] The very people that say that are trusting in the fact that they are good people and they are righteous to go to heaven. The very people that say it.
[00:24:08] The very. You know what? I've said that no doubt in my life.
[00:24:15] All right, first sentence of faith and righteousness converge in this verse. Now, brother Ari, read. I'm going to read our verse here again in verse six. And I want you to read your verse again for us also. No, but read it after the it is written part, the actual verse itself. Okay. All right, verse six. And he, Abram, believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness. Go ahead, just read the verse then. That's fine.
[00:24:52] You see any difference?
[00:24:56] All right, read this. The equivalent part. All right. He believed in the Lord. What does it say?
[00:25:04] He believed in the Lord.
[00:25:06] Abraham believed God. You notice any difference?
[00:25:09] What's the difference?
[00:25:15] One says, genesis says he believed in the Lord. One says he believed God.
[00:25:22] Now, in our minds, that sounds a little bit different, but it's not.
[00:25:28] To believe in the Lord is to believe God. Do you understand? It's to put one's trust and what God has said.
[00:25:36] Right? So when Abram. So think about this. God made a promise to Abram about the stars and how his descendants would be as the stars. He heard that promise, and he trusted God's word, what God had said. Not only that, from that moment, he was fully persuaded that God would do what he said he would do. This is what it means to believe in the Lord.
[00:26:10] This is placing one's faith and trust, personal faith and trust in Jesus. This is not. Abraham believed that God existed. When the Bible says Abraham believed. And this is. And I'm telling you, listen, generic, generic Christianity. This kind of generic, superficial type of Christianity. Where the Bible is known. Kind of at a distance, kind of just real, you know, real. Simply. Not that we're digging deep or anything, but you understand what I'm saying? The kind of generic Christianity that knows the Bible kind of as a distance. And doesn't seek to understand it fully.
[00:26:47] Well, they read verse number five, verse six, rather. He believed in the Lord. And I think. Well, of course, Abraham believed. He believed in. He believed God existed. He believed in the Lord. Abraham already believed God existed. That's why he left his homeland. We're not talking about belief in the fact of God's existence. We're talking about a specific promise God made to Abram.
[00:27:10] You understand? A specific promise. And Abram's trust in that promise, personally.
[00:27:19] Is everybody with me?
[00:27:21] We already know Abraham believed in God. In the idea of believing in the fact of God's existence.
[00:27:29] This is something more. This is true faith. Now, if you would go back to now, notice in verse number six, it says.
[00:27:38] And he believed in the Lord. And he, God counted it to him, Abram, for righteousness. So Abram was not righteous. God counted his faith as righteousness to him.
[00:27:51] Okay, go back to romans four. If you would look at verse number.
[00:28:15] Verse number 18 again. We're talking about Abramouse, Abraham.
[00:28:22] Verse 18 says this. Who against hope? Abraham believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations. According to that which was spoken. Now, stop here.
[00:28:35] This is where I want us to pay close attention. All right? Look at verse the end of verse number 18. Notice what it says.
[00:28:41] According to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. What is that referring to?
[00:28:52] What's that?
[00:28:54] Okay, you're all correct, of course. But specifically what I'm talking about. It's referring to Genesis 15 six or 15 five, where God says, look toward the stars, so shall thy seed be as the stars. Right. It's important that you understand that.
[00:29:19] Verse number 19.
[00:29:21] Or let's get down to verse number 20. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief. Did Abraham have a lot of reasons to disbelieve God?
[00:29:32] Yes.
[00:29:33] Like what?
[00:29:37] What, you got a problem with old people?
[00:29:40] Exactly. He was really old. His wife was past the time of childbearing. Right.
[00:29:46] He had a lot of reasons.
[00:29:49] Not only was the fact that he was 100, his wife was 90.
[00:29:53] Was it kind of outside of the natural realm for her to conceive a child, but she had already passed through her childbearing years without a child, which strongly indicates something might have been wrong. That's another reason to disbelieve what God had said. Did Abraham have any natural reason to rely on what God said as true? None.
[00:30:18] It was against hope.
[00:30:20] In other words, you might say it was a hopeless case. We might say that Abraham believed, though it was a hopeless case against hope. Believed in hope. That's what the verse says.
[00:30:32] Why then was he convinced that it would happen? Because it says verse 21, notice. And being fully persuaded that, why was he fully persuaded that that would happen?
[00:30:45] So upon a single basis, no other basis. On a single basis, Abram was convinced that what God had said he would do, and that basis was God's word.
[00:30:59] You with me now?
[00:31:07] He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.
[00:31:11] No.
[00:31:13] This same unbelief exists in our day on the subject of our salvation.
[00:31:22] Naturally, to our logic, we think, most people think until they come in contact with the word of God, what the Bible says, what God has said, even though it's clearly spelled out, until they do. Here's the assumption. The natural assumption, is, if I do good things, I am good.
[00:31:45] If I do righteous works, I am righteous.
[00:31:50] So if I want to be righteous and I want God to accept me, I must do good works. You know, here's the sad thing.
[00:32:00] People perish and go to the lake of fire based on that assumption because it plays into.
[00:32:13] It plays into our arrogance, because we tell ourselves we're good and it's tied up in our own personal value, the way we view ourselves. Right?
[00:32:26] It's humiliating. You know, repentance is humiliating because what does repentance say? Repentance says, my sin is evil and I deserve the punishment and the guilt and the condemnation. That's humiliating to someone. Who has? And many of us have been there. Listen, many of us have been there. We're not looking down from a perch upon anybody.
[00:32:51] A number of us have come to the Lord and we had a great struggle just to admit that fact, that we were not righteous. We had no claim, no goodness to claim. But this is exactly what the Lord says.
[00:33:05] And it is unnatural to think that someone can be righteous even though they didn't do righteousness, you see, staggered. Not at the promise of God. God has said that clearly.
[00:33:20] And yet many people stagger and stumble because of this idea, this false idea that if you do good things enough, then you're righteous. And that's not true. And why is it not true? It's simply this.
[00:33:39] Because of our sin, we can do a mountain, we can do a whole planet of righteousness.
[00:33:49] And our sin ruins it all.
[00:33:52] Our sin ruins it all.
[00:33:54] There was a cambodian proverb that says, I don't even know if I can remember in cambodian, but I remember the gist of it, which says something to the effect of, you could build a ship. Of course, they don't use righteousness and unrighteousness. They refer to Gaiman kun, which is good karma and bad karma. But they said you could build a whole ship of merit, of good works, of good deeds, of righteousness. And one small leak will sink it.
[00:34:23] I think that's a fitting illustration, don't you? That is exactly what the scripture teaches.
[00:34:30] But again, self righteousness is something that. It tickles our ego.
[00:34:37] I have done all these good things and God's not going to accept me, correct?
[00:34:43] That's right. Why? Because you have sinned. I have sinned. That's why.
[00:35:03] Verse number 21 says this. And being fully persuaded that what he God had promised, he was able also to perform. This is Abraham's. The description of Abraham's faith.
[00:35:17] Next verse. And therefore, because Abraham had this faith solely in what God says, despite all the reasons to stumble and not believe God, it was unnatural. But solely upon the basis of what God had promised, he was fully persuaded. That's faith. Faith is not. Listen, and you gotta be careful when you're witnessing to someone that you don't. And we fall into this in our zeal. When we're trying to share the gospel with someone and they're kind of on the edge, we fall into it. Well, just give Jesus a try. That is not faith.
[00:35:53] Do not fall into that trap. There is no giving Jesus a try. You're either in with both feet bridges burned or you're not.
[00:36:02] Was Abraham giving God a try.
[00:36:05] It says what? Fully persuaded.
[00:36:10] Convinced that what God said was true.
[00:36:14] That's what it means when a person comes to goddess. They come to Jesus for forgiveness. They come to Jesus for eternal life.
[00:36:23] It's not on a trial basis. It's, well, I'll dip my toe in. No, you better jump in.
[00:36:29] That's the only way. That is what faith is. Anything else is not faith.
[00:36:40] And being fully persuaded, verse 21. That what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. So Abraham was made righteous because of his faith. God counted his faith. This kind of faith, true faith, this fully persuaded faith, his only kind.
[00:37:00] And he was made righteous on the basis of his faith in God's word. But notice at the core, at the center of all of it, is the word of God. Look at. We're already in Romans. We're almost finished. Look at Romans, chapter ten.
[00:37:14] It's no surprise that Abraham's faith. By which he was made righteous in God's sight. Found its source in God's word. We read it in Genesis. And the word of the Lord came unto Abraham. Abraham believed God. Remember, according as he had said, so shall thy seed be. You see, the word of God at every step. In other words, God made a promise to Abraham. Abraham trusted God. He believed in the Lord.
[00:37:46] And for that reason, his faith was counted for righteousness. Now, it should be no surprise then, that Romans chapter ten, verse 17, says what it says.
[00:37:56] So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
[00:38:03] The word of God is the only source of faith.
[00:38:06] There is no. We can argue and apologize. And we can have all the arguments from, you know, about evolution. And all the arguments from philosophy that explain theism. And, you know, all of these things. But ultimately, when we're sharing the gospel with someone. The only thing that matters is God's word. They must believe it or reject it, period.
[00:38:28] They must trust what God says concerning themselves, concerning the claims of Christ. Let me show you what I mean by that. And we'll be done back in Romans chapter four, verse 23. This is the application of this truth. You've got the word of God. You have the description of Abram's faith. You have the reasons he shouldn't believe. You have how he got righteousness. And look at how the Lord then applies it to us. Now, in 2024 or 30 ad, 33 AD, or whatever it is. Look at what he says now. It was not written for his sake alone. In other words, it wasn't just an Abraham thing. That it was that it righteousness was imputed to him or counted to him. Verse 24. But for us, me and you also, to whom it shall be imputed, that is, righteousness will be counted to us if we believe not the promise that God made to Abraham, but the promise that God made to us.
[00:39:33] That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Right. That's the promise to us. And he says it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. Here it is. Who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. That's the gospel right there. And so the Lord lays the gospel and the promise from the gospel. Christ has died for you. He has borne your sins. He has taken your penalty. He has risen from the dead. If you put your trust in him, he will forgive you.
[00:40:11] You will get righteousness from him. You have none of your own, if you will simply trust in him. And when a person does that at that very moment, just as Abraham, God counts their faith as righteousness, and they are forgiven of all their sin, because Christ has died for them.
[00:40:32] Let's pray.
