The Big Deal of Faith (Part A)

The promise was received by Abraham. These promises that God gave him were through faith, not becoming Jewish.

Abraham was a Hebrew, but he was not a descendant of Jacob, Israel, who was a descendant of Abraham. The principle of salvation is grace unearned. It's not grace if you earn it, not in the biblical sense. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of Romans.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Now here's Pastor Rick as he continues teaching through Romans chapter 4 on this edition of Cross Reference Radio. We are in Romans chapter 4, again verses 20 through 25. The pronoun that we begin with is referring to Abraham. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God and being fully convinced that what he had promised he was also able to perform. And therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our salvation.

I know the last word there in the verse usually is translated justification, but that is salvation. Faith is a big deal and may we never forget it, faith is a big deal and it's never automatic. Faith is not natural. It's not something that is always easy for us and when it does seem to flow easily it's because the Holy Spirit's at work. Hebrews 11 tells us without faith it is impossible to please God for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

It doesn't give us a date, does it, when he's going to give us that reward because we tend to look for it now. We tend to invest ourselves, to spend ourselves in Christ and oftentimes we feel unappreciated, passed by. We see those maybe not working as hard, apparently doing better than we are, but the Lord is mindful of all of it and he will make it right. We look now at verse 13, for the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law but through the righteousness of faith. Well he's continuing to deal with the fact that the Jews were, many of the Jews were, Christian Jews were harassing Gentile Christians telling them well if you were not a born-age Jew you had to get circumcised and you had to follow the Sabbaths and on and on it went. By the time Paul gets to chapter 9 he's going to circle back around to his Jewish people and he's going to say listen my heart is going out for you, you've got to come to Christ and so we'll get to that when we get to chapter 9.

This fourth chapter sort of sums up his initial dealings with the harassment going on but from chapter 5, well chapter 5, 6, 7 and 8 it's just like this beautiful section of scripture in the midst of what he is trying to accomplish and that is stabilize the faith, stabilize the churches, get a handle on the things that are wrong and get them out by educating the believers. For the promise that he would be heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law. He's referring to the promises that God laid on Abraham in Genesis 12, 18 and 22. That Abraham would be a blessing to all peoples, that he would receive land, that he would have more descendants than you could ever number. All of this has happened and is happening. Actually many of the Jews in their ancient writings believe that Abraham would receive all the land of the world.

That's just a side note. Without the land, without the descendants, the promise could not be fulfilled but the Jews have the land and they do have the descendants and Satan hates this and those pro-Palestinian marches attest to Satan's hatred. This is something that's not going to change until Christ returns. Satan has set his sights on the Jews as a people because God has put his promises on them as a people.

They have descendants galore. I mean there are just many Jewish people in the world even though so many people have tried to commit genocide against them, to wipe them out. Satan hates that the Jews he hates the people and every anti-Semite attests to a spiritual hatred and we better be wise and be mindful of these things and it is opportunity to preach the gospel whenever it comes up. So Paul's point is that the promise was received by Abraham. These promises that God gave him were through faith, not becoming Jewish.

Abraham was a Hebrew but he was not a descendant of Jacob, Israel, who was a descendant of Abraham. The principle of salvation is grace unearned. It's not grace if you earn it, not in the biblical sense. By faith, by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God. Abraham was accepted by God outside of Judaism. What he had to do is trust God.

That's what he did. He trusted God. He believed God's word. When God promised him something, he believed it. Habakkuk the prophet makes this simple little statement, the just shall live by faith. Those who are right with God are going to trust God. Now we have our moments and Abraham had his where he stumbled also but always under the canopy of ultimate trust in God.

As Job said, though he slay me, I will trust in him. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. That's faith in action under pressure. By faith, this is found, that statement by faith echoing Habakkuk 40 times in the New Testament, 18 of them in Hebrews 11. And we read by faith Abraham, by faith Moses, by and on and on and it goes. The Bible's telling us without faith it's impossible because faith is a big deal. It's impossible to please God without it. Paul earlier wrote to the Galatians, therefore know that only those who are of the faith are sons of Abraham. Maybe you say, I know all this. This is basic Christianity.

Yeah, but do you tell anybody who doesn't know it? There's a need for people to know that faith is a very big deal with God and if you don't have it, you've had it. And it behooves the individual to explore these things from the scripture as Paul points out at the end of this fourth chapter that these things are recorded and preserved for us today. Our work does not make us acceptable to God. God's work in Christ alone makes us acceptable.

We covered that last session. So in this sense Abraham became the father of the world's spiritual offspring in this sense. Now he wasn't the first one to exercise faith of course. Abel had faith and Abel the first man to taste death and to taste it on behalf of his faith also. Enoch had faith.

There certainly were others. Noah. But we're talking about Abraham because this is directly related to the harassment that was going on, the theological harassment within the church. Romans chapter 4 verse 11, just two verses back from where we started this morning, he says that he might be the father of all those who believe.

He's the example in that sense. Abraham is the template or a template in scripture. And for the Jews, that's sort of their starting point as a as a people. Abraham is, that is. And if we're going to get anywhere with God, it will be through faith in God. We're going to talk, that's what we're going to talk about this morning.

We're going to keep appealing back layer after layer, driving it home. Because I think we lose sight of this sometimes, many times, to just trust God and to be satisfied, to be content. Very difficult if you take your eyes off the Lord. Verse 14, for if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect. Well, if being born under Mosaic law saves the soul, who needs faith? I was born a Jew. I don't have to have faith if by that erroneous logic.

In John chapter 1, John deals with, and John writes years after the Roman letter, but he covers this in the very first chapter, wanting to read much of it. We'll just have to settle for verse 13. It's not those who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God by faith, which brings us to repentance, which brings us to service. Born, not of blood. You're just not, okay, I was born into a Christian home, therefore I'm going to heaven.

Yeah, that's not true. You might be going to heaven, but it won't be because you're born in a Christian home. That might help you get there in that it exposes you to the truth of God. It gives you the light and a head start. What are you going to do with the head start, Christian?

Born in a Christian home? What are you going to do with that? That is an advantage. A lot of them throw it away, and we don't take that kind of stuff lightly.

We war over that on our knees. You get to heaven, you find a lot of people, if we could say heaven's going to be this way to some degree, there are going to be a lot of people there who will say, I got to heaven because people were praying for me. That happened to me. There's no way I was going to heaven. There were people praying for me.

I didn't know it, and if I knew it I'd probably have something nasty to say about it. God hid that from me, but he did not hide my salvation from me. It took years and a lot of heartache on those who were praying. Well, the reason God rejects our trust in our good deeds, earning our way into heaven, is that to offer deeds to God, our good deeds, instead of receiving his son's sacrifice belittles the death of Christ. It mocks the death of Christ. It says, you did not need to die for me.

I can make myself acceptable without you. I don't need your blood. It's kind of what Cain was saying. It is what Cain was saying. It is the story of Cain and Abel. Cain hated Abel. He came to hate his brother because his brother was accepted and he was rejected.

How dare you reject me? As hard as I work in those fields, as beautiful a fruit basket as I brought, all he does is go out there with the sheep and then he comes in and gets blessed. And as Cain killed Abel, so the flesh tries to kill the spiritual nature in us also by making grace of no effect. Grace is useless. I can just do good. God will be impressed with this.

He's not. God is impressed with what he has done. And he receives us when we receive what he has done in the cross. Verse 15, because the law brings about wrath, for where there is no law, there is no transgression. Well, the bottom line, he said, if God didn't tell you what was wrong, then there'd be no problem.

Everybody could just do whatever you want to do. But he has told us what's wrong. And we can't keep from doing what's wrong. Having a nature beyond my absolute control, we cannot fully obey God. Now, the little bit we can obey goes a long way.

Let's not lose sight of that. Satan hates a little bit of obedience in us. A single act of disobedience is sin.

One act. That's all it takes to damn the soul. That's all it takes to prove that heaven says you don't belong here. Sin is a violation of God's will and calls for justice. That's part of the law.

The law says you shall do this, and if you don't, I'm going to do that. Again, my fallen nature disables my full obedience. Thus, God's wrath is upon me.

If that's the whole story, I'm guilty. And he's going to deal in wrath with the guilty. John chapter 3, verse 36, a verse I encourage you if you have not to memorize. Because maybe you'll get in front of an unbeliever and get to share this with them. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life.

And then we have to explain that, right? What does that mean, everlasting life? It doesn't mean I'm going to continue to live in the state I am in now.

I don't mean Virginia. I mean the condition that I am subject to in this world. Everlasting life means there will be no more sorrow, no more pain, there will be glory. Then he says, repeating, he who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Jesus said these words. I'll agree with Jesus long before I agree with anybody else. And may that never change. May that be true of you also. I agree with the people who agree with Christ. I disagree with the people who disagree with Christ.

They're a very basic formula. I have every right to do that. And they have every right to go to hell if they insist. But they also have an opportunity not to go to hell. It is not a right, it is grace. The law proves we violate God's values.

You know, the Old Testament gives us the Ten Commandments in the negative. You shall not kill. You shall not. You shall not. Jesus comes along and says, you know, that's all in force, but I'm going to say it to you a little differently.

I'm going to put it in the positive. You shall love your neighbor. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That's all of you.

Leave a little room for anything else. Jesus said, this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Have there been times when you didn't want that verse in the Bible? Well, I've got to say, as a Christian, I feel like I do love, genuinely love.

Now, that doesn't mean I like a lot of people or like what they do, but it does mean I'm always looking for an opportunity to preach the gospel to even those that I really don't like. It's in there, but it's imperfect, but Jesus can work with that because he has nothing else to work with when it comes to us. He is imperfect slaves, servants. Jesus' lovers are imperfect this side of heaven. Peter, the great apostle, came to realize that he did not have perfect love.

He thought he did. I'll die for you, nobody. These guys are going to forsake you, but I love you. Well, Christ got back to that, did he not, there on the lakeside in Galilee. He said to him, Peter, do you agape me? That's the highest form of love we get out of the New Testament. When the New Testament says God is love, it uses that Greek word agape. Now, here they are speaking by the lakeside in the Aramaic, but John is savvy enough to know how to put it into the Greek so we lose nothing of the exchange. So Jesus kept saying to him, twice already, do you love me? Do you agape me?

Peter, I phileo you. See, we have one word for love usually as believers. We can say, I say I love my truck, but I say I love my children. It's not the same love. I love my truck more.

No objection from the front row. Of course, we loved our children more than other things, than chocolate or whatever. Well, the Greek helps them with that. They use different Greek words for love.

They use for family love, they use stroge. For erotic love, good or bad, eros. For the love of things, passion for things, phileo. When you get a PhD, it's a doctor of philosophy. That word philosophy comes from the Greek word phileo.

They love that discipline, so much so that they invested so many years of their life reaching that standard. Well, or that level, but agape. So when Jesus said to him, Simon Peter, do you love me? Do you agape me? Peter said, I can't get that high. I have passion for you, Lord.

I want to say agape, but I can't. So what I'm trying to draw out is just our imperfections. What does Christ do when he deals with him with this? He sends him to be a preacher, a pastor of the sheep. So let's take it, John 21, 17. He said to him a third time, Simon son of Jonah, so there'd be no mistake, singling him out.

Do you phileo me? So now Jesus downsizes his question. Peter was grieved because he said to him a third time.

St. Peter's in agony. He wants to pull the fire alarm when somebody gets him out of this moment. He was, for a third time, do you phileo me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things. You know that I phileo you.

Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. That's what I need. I need your head in it. I don't need your best because you can't, your best is not good enough. I need you to love.

I need you to be aggressive and serving me. Because who needs a savior to die for sinners if sinners can find another way to heaven? Nobody needs that kind of a savior that would die if there were some other way. The entire concept of earning salvation mocks the death of Christ.

We are inferior. We can't love him like we want, but we can love him enough. And that's what Paul is trying to say. Abraham wasn't perfect, but he was good enough by faith. That's what got that relationship between he and God. Well, he says here in verse 15, for where there is no law, there is no transgression. Well, God's law draws the line.

I covered that already. By nature, I am a sinner. Original sin. If I had died in the womb, I would still have been a sinner. It would not have been, well, one day he might sin. It would have been, no question, he's going to sin. We're not sinners because we sin. We sin because we're sinners. I think I said that right.

If not, you can fix it. It's not that hard. Anyhow, trespass is the act of the sin.

It's carrying it out, crossing the line. Iniquity is the sum total of the two. David said, I was born in iniquity.

Everything about me is not right because of sin. Verse 16, therefore, it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. Well, there's a lot of heads spinning around in circles when they heard that the Gentiles have Abraham as the father, too.

No, he's just for the Jews, they would have protested, and that's what he's trying to fix there in the church. Faith links us to grace. Without faith, this is not going to be the grace, that undeserved kindness towards us again. You might have to explain that to an unbeliever. Let me tell you what grace is, theologically, from the Bible. Because you could hear the grace of a ballerina. This is the grace of a quarterback in the pocket. I mean, it's just such a great view. You know, you've watched all these big guys knocking each other around.

This guy's cool as a cucumber, looking down the field, and he throws the ball and makes a touchdown. That's grace, too. But that's not biblical grace. Biblical grace is not—it goes beyond poise.

It is undeserved kindness. Now, we use a heart as an image of love, but it is the hands, lifted to God, that are the image of faith. Lamentations. This is Jeremiah. Jeremiah, oh, the prophet, you know, just devastated at the loss of his beloved Jerusalem, and he writes about it just cathartic, you know, his heart just pouring out. And he says in Lamentations 3, verse 21, so he's fighting.

This is a fight of faith. Let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven. Psalm 134, lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord. The hands, they are that emblem of faith reaching up to God. As a little child, you know, you have a little child like two years old, and they reach up to be picked up. It's so beautiful, so wonderful, right?

Well, that's what happens when we're holding our arms up. We're asking God to pick us up, too. It's all love.

It's all trust. And those uncertain about their salvation, they're uncertain because they're not looking at the finished work of Christ, and they're not resolving to leave it there. They're looking at the cross, and they're going to leave it there, and then when they turn to walk away to go do things, they take away the faith with them.

It's hard. It's a fight for some. Jesus in John 19 said at the end of his life, he said, it's finished. The salvation process is complete. No one's going to add to this.

No one's going to take away from it. Then he releases humanity. He dismissed his humanity. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. Is your trust in his finished work weaker than your sense of guilt?

The very guilt he died to remove and rose to prove. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.

We're currently going through the book of Romans. If you're in need of hearing this message again or want to listen to others like it, head over to crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. On our website, you'll be able to learn a little more about the ministry of Cross Reference Radio, so make a note of it, crossreferenceradio.com. That's all we have time for today, but thanks so much for listening. Pastor Rick will be back next time in the book of Romans here on Cross Reference Radio.