The Big Deal of Faith (Part B)

Why is it difficult to get Christians to understand what their salvation is truly made of? If you begin to understand it, you'll be less bothered by things.

You're still going to get hurt, you're still going to take hits, you're still going to have your lazy moments, your messed up moments. But overall, you are a menace to hell. And hell knows it. 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. You have 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 I'm 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. I'm going to ask that question again. Is your trust in his finished work, I'll put it in the positive, is it stronger than your sense of guilt? Because you're guilty. That's not going to change. You're not going to wake up one morning and say, huh, I'm no longer guilty. If you do, you'll be in heaven.

So, we've got to deal with this. Abraham left altars everywhere he went, but faith gave meaning to those altars. Other people had altars too, but God didn't receive them. There's no faith there. Now faith is the substance of things to hope for. The evidence, the proof of the unseen. The substance, it's the real McCoy. It's that which you can touch.

It's not a shadow. Faith is a big deal with God. And it better be a big deal with us. In Galatians 3, 9, Paul again, so then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. So, here in Romans, he's building on what he had already taught in Galatians. It was that much of a problem. It was a serious issue in the early church.

And this man did not back down from it. Let the Savior be the Savior. Understanding that he did not die to give us a gift that he'd snatched back when the pressure was on.

When we fail. Oh, I want to take it back now. That's not salvation. There's nothing that can snatch you out of God's hands. Not even your own messed up ways. Not even my messed up ways. I believe when John said, I've written to you that you may know that you have temporary life.

No, he didn't say that. It's eternal life. I've written to you so you can go out with a robust faith because if you don't, if you've got this wishy-washy faith, you're not stable.

You're tossed to and fro. And if it's not by every wind of doctrine, it's by every mistake you make. How useful can you be long term? How are you going to make the long haul of faith? And it is a long haul. Life is short in some senses.

In other senses, sometimes it's too long. Who is the father of us all in a sense of faith? The Jewish people. They were among the natural descendants of Abraham, but not necessarily the spiritual one.

So he's using metaphor. Paul is extending. He's extending this relationship that Abraham had to anybody who has the same faith. Verse 17, now he goes back to the scripture. As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations in the presence of him whom he believed. God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.

So you've got to, I didn't read that paying enough attention to the parentheses. As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations. In the presence of him, he kind of goes back to that now. When God sees the born again, the born again soul, he sees the finished work. He sees all the shortcomings too, but his judgment is not, his wrath is not upon us because he sees us in our glorified state, justified. Peter, he said in his first letter in the second chapter, who himself bore our sins in his own body on a tree that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes we were healed. Healed is past tense.

It's ongoing. Hebrews 10, 14, for by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified, the development of the faith. So it's not like, okay, I haven't sinned today, oops, I sinned and I got to go get forgiveness again so I can be born again.

It's like what? Be pleasing again? When we come to Christ, we're saved. That's what the word means. Let's not treat the words as it means almost saved, sometimes saved, seasonally saved, partly saved, conditionally saved.

We are saved by the blood of Christ and it's hard because, you know, we want, we come to love him, we want to do everything right. Well, it ain't going to happen. I want as a pastor to do everything right. I don't want on my drive home or my day off to have pop into my mind something I said wrong and did not qualify or missed a punch or whatever. But I am.

Comes with it. And we can say in the world, if you can't stand the heat, get out the kitchen. Well, that applies to Christianity. We can stand the heat in Christ. But we have to have a sobering approach to these things. And once we have a sobering approach and we begin to understand how profound this grace is, love only increases, devotion increases, determination increases, resolve strengthens to become that mighty fortress. And the evidence of that is how irritated hell gets over your sticking in the faith.

God who gives life to the dead. Dual application, of course, in Abraham's day, Abraham and Sarah were beyond the natural abilities to have a child. He was almost 100 if not 100. She is 90 and yet they have a child, which made tossing the ball around the yard with the child very difficult.

I've never played baseball with a 110 year old. But anyway, God looked out for Isaac. He knew he was being born into an old home and he looked out for him. And Isaac is one of my favorites in the scripture.

Talk about a peacemaker, a person that just did not strive and was a hard worker, a well digger, a beautiful character. He is sort of, you know, he's between Abraham and Jacob and he sort of can miss things with him. But if you read that life of Isaac there in Genesis, you'll find there's a lot of rich information about his character that would make you hopefully a little envious and in a righteous way. Anyway, the first meaning Abraham and Sarah.

The second is the resurrection, of course, God who gives life to the dead. Abraham and Sarah could bring no child into this world through natural abilities, not the accepted child, not together. Abraham and Hagar was a disaster. It's a disaster to this day.

It is the mistake that keeps being a mistake. But we, neither can we be brought into heaven by natural means. Abraham and Sarah could not have a child by natural means. You can't get into heaven by natural means. That's the point, some of the points that he's making here. Faith is that element that changes everything. So, Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1, and you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sin. Yeah, I'm talking to you. That's what you read and you, that's what it's saying. Don't act like it's the guy in back of you and it doesn't apply to you. The question that was good to ask sometimes, do you believe God loves your neighbor?

Well, maybe that's too close. Maybe, do you believe God loves your friend's neighbor? Well, I think all Christians say, yeah, God is love. He loves people.

He doesn't like what they do, but he loves them and the cross is a testimony to that. Well, do you believe God loves you? See, that's making the faith real. Don't play this game where you've got the antidote, but it doesn't work on you. If it doesn't work on you, then you don't have it.

It works on you too. So, as a pastor, you say to somebody who's come in and their life's a mess because they've been in sin and you say, look, God loves you. He's going to forgive you.

You've got to work at fixing, you know, cleaning this up. Well, what about you, pastor, when you mess up? Do you think God still loves you?

Yeah, I do. By faith, I do. And I hope that never diminishes in my life.

And I hope it increases, it actually increases. It's something very beautiful about laying hold of the faith with that blessed assurance. Verse, I guess, you know, one of the best pictures of going at your faith, I think, in Scripture is when David went after Goliath.

He ran to Goliath. He's like, let's get this done. I've got things to do. I've got raisin cakes in that cart.

I've got stuff. And he just said, I'm going to kill you, take your head, and then go about my business. And only I'll keep the head for three days until the flies became unbearable. Anyway, verse 18, who contrary to hope in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations according to what was spoken, so shall your descendants be. That's what God said to Abraham in Genesis 15, 5. So shall your descendants be.

Let's read it. Then he brought him outside and said, look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them. And he said to him, so shall your descendants be. God said to Abraham, like these stars.

When I was in Israel, I asked the tour guide, is there any place we can go where we can get a good look at the sky? I want to see what Abraham saw. He looked at me like I was crazy.

He did. It's like, OK, well, you're not a student of the word, so I get it. And I'm not going to break it down to you because, you know, you already ruined it, your carnal self. So I took a picture of him and made a dartboard out. No, I did not.

All right. So anyway, Abraham saw beyond the natural because of God. And that's what faith sees the natural.

Then it sees beyond the natural and takes the two and puts them together. The big deal in Abraham's life was faith, not ritual, not circumcision, not Sabbath, not diet. Faith is supernatural, but it is never unreasonable. Now, it might be unreasonable according to people. So when Paul said that the foolishness of the world, not the foolishness of reality, not the foolishness of God. God has chosen the foolish things of the world, how they view things. To them, Christianity might be foolish. But to God, it is not. It's bloody.

And to us, it's often difficult and bloody. Well, it's got to have the faith to make it work. Abraham went beyond that wishful hope. Well, I sure hope so. That's not the kind of hope he had. It was the hope born of excitement.

I can't wait. It's the hope a child gets on Christmas morning, the night before Christmas. Hoping for that day to hurry up and get here. The excitement, not the doubt. And so he went beyond and he trusted the promises, which we are to do, which we often do. And so when we think of hope, in this context, look at verse 21 of Romans chapter 4. Being fully convinced. You see, that's the kind of hope that Abraham had.

It was not that possibility. It was the fact it is done. And so we move to verse 19. And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead since he was about 100 years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb. Well, we talked about that already. But I should add, not being weak in faith, that always stands out when you read this section because we all want that.

But even Abraham had weak moments of faith. I mean, there's a whole episode in Egypt where he says, Sarah, listen, I know you're in your 70s, but you're hot. And these guys are going to want to kill you. You're going to kill me for you. Tell them you're my sister because technically you are. But don't tell them you're my wife. And Sarah said, OK, good wife that she was. And it was a disaster. And Abraham and his son Isaac picks up, does the same thing. Apple didn't fall from the tree on that occasion. But anyway, he did not consider his own body already dead. Yeah, Abraham, he failed to doubt. He forgot to doubt God. If you start to get forgetful, may I forget to be doubtful of God.

He did not adhere to the Jewish religion. He adhered to faith. John 8, 36. Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

Do you believe it? Well, he makes me free when I obey. That's not grace.

You're back to the merit system. What if I sin every day? Well, when Peter said, how many times do I forgive my brother? And Jesus told them all a bunch. Well, this applies to us too. Obedience does not add to our salvation.

It flows from it. It's like, boy, I am really, I am really saved today. I have not goofed. I am better than you. Could you imagine, could you imagine if we had a merit system in Christianity? As smug as Christians can be without any help from God. Could you imagine if God says, you know, I really like it when you outdo everybody? You know, and have pride?

Oh, man. We don't try to be saved or remain to be saved. We trust in the work that we are saved. And we are assured that we will be. You know, David, King David, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Nothing, there's no evidence in scripture that anything ever took that from him. That assurance. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. If you said to David, are you perfect?

He says, I am a worm. No, I'm not perfect. But I'm assured.

Why is it difficult to get Christians to understand what their salvation is truly made of? You know, if you begin to understand it, you'd be less bothered by things. You're still going to get hurt. You're still going to take hits.

You're still going to have your lazy moments, your messed up moments. But overall, you are a menace to hell. And hell knows it. Verse 40, he did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. Now, I pointed out that he didn't always get it right because somebody might come along and try to think that Abraham had a blab it and grab it faith, that prosperity teaches just motivational greed.

That is not the case. Paul is talking about this particular day and the overall life of Abraham. But there were times, as I mentioned with Sarah, that Abraham did not have the faith. He did waver at some point. And God never said, you know Abraham, you really let me down. I'm going to have to find somebody else now.

Not at all. What an epitaph. He did not waver at the promises of God. I like to have that on my tombstone. Well, I don't want a tombstone. I don't care what you do with me. Just don't put me on the mantle.

Hey, there's Rick in that jar. No, no. Anyway, no offense now. See, that's what I mean.

That kind of stuff will hit me tomorrow. You know what, there's probably somebody that has a loved one on the mantle and I just came and said that and I'm not trying to insult you. I just don't want to be there myself. You know, it's okay if you do.

It's not a sin. Well, I got out of that one. Coming back to this, someone would say, no you didn't. I'll see you at the greeting line, punk. Shoelaces untied, pastor. Ah, yeah. All right, anyway. There's a picture of Abraham that I wish an artist would grab hold of.

I don't mean weird Picasso type artists. Because they were that close, man. You had almost a good picture. Then you put these lines in it. Anyway, there's a picture of Abraham's faith that I love in that 15th chapter where he beats away the vultures of doubt. He makes this altar for God and he's waiting on the Lord. And the Lord is just not showing up right away. And the vultures are like, you know what, I can eat that. And they're coming down in Genesis 15 and 11. And when the vultures came down on the carcass, Abraham drove them away. That's a picture of you and me driving the doubt, driving away those things that would steal what we have for God. This altar's for God. It's not for you buzzards.

Go get your own meal. And when they came down, and then when God shows up, what happens? Abraham falls asleep. God now is watching over the sacrifice. Abraham doesn't have to be awake to drive the vultures away.

God is there. Great terror fell upon him and God ministered to Abraham. Verse 21, and being fully convinced that what he had promised he was able to perform, verse 22, and therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness.

Faith is a big deal. That's what was counted to him as righteousness. Hebrews 11, verse 8, by faith Abraham obeyed.

When he was called to go out to the place which he would receive an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going. Now some of you do that out of the context of faith. But in the context of faith, he was told to get away from his family, and he did it.

Even then he took a little time to fully pull it off, but he did. And that's how he gained favor with God. Abraham is called in Isaiah 41 the friend of God. Michael the archangel's not called that. Not that he isn't. Noah, it's just an interesting thing that Abraham was called a friend of God.

How did he get there? Faith. Now verse 23, 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. Paul never loses sight of the gospel. Everything he's been about in dealing with wrong behavior in Christians or whoever, always comes back to the cross of Christ and his empty tomb and the throne of God where Christ sits. As Abraham was put into a situation where only faith could avail, so are we.

That's the point. As Abraham was put into a situation where only faith could avail, so are we. We get put into situations where it's only going to be trust in God.

Even if you lose that thing you were holding onto, hoping God would keep it with you and you lose it, you still say the Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord because there's more to me than this life. There is the everlasting life and his reward is with him. He will reward.

He'll make it right. And when we get to heaven, there's not going to be, yeah, but you know, there's not going to be that. Salvation is by faith and by faith alone in Christ. And thus the two ways are compared.

They're contrasted. Salvation by trying or salvation by trusting, which is it going to be, Christian? Well, right now during this sermon I'm trusting God.

Well, it really doesn't matter as if when you hit the street, when you hit the beach, you stop again. Well, if you're struggling like that, just keep pushing forward. God's not going anywhere.

Keep pushing forward. Ask the Holy Spirit to shove you forward if that's what it's going to take. But don't move away from trusting the Lord. Verse 25, who is delivered up, who was delivered up because of our offenses and raised because of our justification. Well, salvation is for those who have sinned and so is faith.

It's just a balance system. God handed Jesus over to die as a representative of sinful humans. Isaiah 53 verse 5. And I'll close with this verse.

Titus chapter 3 verse 5, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. There's a gospel right there. 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.