Please turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 4 and we are going to be looking at the faith of Abraham to the promises of God. As you are turning there, listen to this story of a tightrope walker. The story goes like this:
There was a tightrope walker, who did incredible aerial feats. All over Paris, he would do tightrope acts at tremendously scary heights. Then he had succeeding acts; he would do it blindfolded, then he would go across the tightrope, blindfolded, pushing a wheelbarrow. An American promoter read about this in the papers and wrote a letter to the tightrope walker, saying, “Tightrope, I don’t believe you can do it, but I’m willing to make you an offer. For a very substantial sum of money, besides all your transportation fees, I would like to challenge you to do your act over Niagara Falls.”
Now, Tightrope wrote back, “Sir, although I’ve never been to America and seen the Falls, I’d love to come.”
Well, after a lot of promotion and setting the whole thing up, many people came to see the event. Tightrope was to start on the Canadian side and come to the American side. Drums roll, and he comes across the rope which is suspended over the treacherous part of the falls – blindfolded! And he makes it across easily. The crowds go wild, and he comes to the promoter and says, “Well, Mr. Promoter, now do you believe I can do it?”
“Well of course I do. I mean, I just saw you do it.”
No,” said Tightrope, “do you really believe I can do it?”
“Well of course I do, you just did it.”
“No, no, no,” said Tightrope, “do you believe I can do it?”
“Yes,” said Mr. Promoter, “I believe you can do it.”
“Good,” said Tightrope, “then you get in the wheelbarrow.”
The word believe, in the Greek means “to live by.” This is a nice story . . . [it] makes you ask, how often do we say that we believe Christ can do it, but refuse to get in the wheelbarrow?
- Source Unknown
This morning I am going to challenge you to get into the wheelbarrow, to trust Christ, to live what you believe, to believe in God’s promises to you. And as we are going to see, what God says of Abraham in Genesis and here in Romans seem to differ some. And we will see why, what God saw in Abraham that maybe Abraham didn’t see in himself because I believe the same is true for us, that God sees us as we will be, not as we are, He sees us as glorified already, when in reality, we have a long way to go! As we go through this section I believe it will encourage you to get into the wheelbarrow. With that said, let’s begin reading in Romans chapter 4, beginning in verse 19 and see what the Lord has for us this morning regarding the faith of Abraham and in reality, our own faith.
As you study the life of Abraham, that great man of faith, please understand that he did not start out that way. In fact, it seems that Abraham’s faith was weak and yet, he did have some faith in God when this idol worshipping gentile was called to leave the Ur of the Chaldeans and enter the land of Canaan. But instead of fully obeying the Lord he only partially obeyed the Lord and traveled some 300 miles to the north, to a city named Haran and remained there for 15 years until his father, Terah died, and then God spoke to Abraham again, calling him to go to Canaan and God was going to make out of him a great nation, a special people and through him all the nations of the world would be blessed.
Now that was a big promise to Abraham for he was seventy-five years old when he left Haran and he and his wife Sarah were still without children, she was barren. So this promise was believed by faith that out of his linage would come a great nation. Now as he obeyed the Lord and traveled to Canaan, a famine came into the land and instead of trusting in the Lord to sustain them, he and his wife traveled down to Egypt, which is a type of the world. Now his wife, Sarah, was beautiful, so much so that he was afraid that when Pharaoh saw her, he would be killed and he would take Sarah as his wife and so he lied to Pharaoh and told him that Sarah was his sister and thus, he took her for himself, although he did not have sexual relations with her. Here we see Abraham, this great man of faith, lie to protect himself instead of trusting in the Lord. Now as Pharaoh found out, because a terrible plague came across the land of Egypt, he rebuked Abraham for his actions, for doing this and he returned Sarah to Abraham. It is always sad when the world has to rebuke a believer because of their actions!
Abraham, now eighty-five years old, still without a child from Sarah, thought God might need some help in making this promise come to pass, in making him the father of the nation of Israel and a blessing to all nations. Thus, his wife tells Abraham to have a child with her maidservant Hagar and Abraham said, “Anything for you dear!” and I am paraphrasing here. Thus, out of this union Ishmael was born when Abraham was eighty-six years old! But again, God did not need his help, this was not to be the son of promise but he was a son of the flesh and the descendants of Ishmael continue to be a thorn in the side of Israel to this day! In Genesis 17:18-19 as God once again told Abraham that he was to have a son, we read “And Abraham said to God, ‘Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!’ Then God said: ‘No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.’”
I think at this point, after one last try, Abraham gave up trying to help God out, he gave up trying to figure out how God was going to do this, since he and Sarah were way beyond the age of child-bearing, and he just believed that what God had promised He would bring to pass. Thus, at the age of one-hundred, Abraham had a son with his wife Sarah and they called his name Isaac! But I think the faith of Abraham spoken of in Romans chapter 4 goes even deeper than this.
You see, in Genesis 22:1-2 we are told, “Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then He said, ‘Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.’” This seems like some kind of cruel joke. God gives Abraham and Sarah a son and now God wants Abraham to take his only son and bring him to the mountain He has said, and there offer him as a sacrifice!
The thing I find interesting is that at this point Abraham didn’t hesitate, he didn’t waver at what God told him to do, he just got up early in the morning and took his son Isaac, who at this point could have been some 33 years old or so, and brought him to Mount Moriah to offer him as a sacrifice to God.
As you read through this it is kind of a strange story, for God does not ask for human sacrifice but I believe God was showing us here in Genesis chapter 22 what another Father, God the Father was going to do some 2,000 years down the road with His only begotten Son, Jesus as He went to the cross of Calvary as a Sacrifice for our sins. Here in Genesis chapter 22 God was testing the faith of Abraham and in Hebrews 11:17-19 we are told, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called,’ concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.”
Abraham didn’t know how God was going to do it, maybe resurrecting Isaac from the dead, he wasn’t sure but he did know that God is faithful and he believed in God’s promise to Him, and obeyed His command. It is out of this incident I believe Paul is speaking when he said, “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.” Romans 4:20-21.
It is out of this faith that God puts into the account of Abraham righteousness, he was declared not guilty in God’s eyes, not because of his good works, but faith brought this to Abraham. Now some may wonder, “Faith in who or faith in what?” I truly believe it was his faith in the coming Messiah. How do I know that? Because in Genesis 22:18 the Lord told Abraham “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” And then Paul expounds on this in Galatians 3:16-18 when he says, “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many, but as of one, ‘And to your Seed,’ who is Christ. And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.”
Thus, Abraham was justified by believing through faith in the coming Messiah, in Jesus as Paul tells us in Galatians 3:7-9, “Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.” Thus, just as Abraham believed in the coming Messiah and it was accounted to him for righteousness we believe that Jesus has come and paid in full the penalty for our sins and thus, salvation is by grace through faith and not by the Law through works! You see, our offences were the problem that needed to be dealt with and our justification is the result of what Christ has done!
Now some may say, “That was Abraham but what does this have to do with me today?” Listen again to what Paul said, “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 justification.” Romans 4:23-25. You see, these lessons of faith are for us, to help us to grow, to help our faith grow. I don’t believe that faith is stagnant; at least it should not be for if it is then it is a dead faith. I believe that faith needs to grow, just as it did in the life of Abraham. Thus, with the remainder of our time this morning we are going to look at how Abraham’s faith grew, how it was strengthened so we can grow in our faith in the Lord. I guess you can say that this truly is the application for us!
1. THE WORD OF GOD
God spoke to Abraham several times giving to him this promise of the coming Messiah through his linage, which meant God was going to have to provide a son for Abraham, even though at this point in his life it was humanly impossible. Remember what Paul said, “And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb. 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.” Romans 4:19-21.
Abraham had God’s Word and he believed it, he trusted that what God had promised He was also able to being to pass. Paul, in Romans 10:17 shows us how our faith can grow as he tells us, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Or as The Amplified Bible puts it, “So faith comes by hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the preaching [of the message that came from the lips] of Christ (the Messiah Himself).” Folks, we have God’s Word, we have the promises of God, that is not the issue. The issue is this, do you believe what God has said in His Word for if you do you will apply it to your life! If you don’t, your walk will be chaotic, you will waver, you will try to help God out, you will be afraid. God wants you to believe in Him, to trust in Him!
Maybe you have heard of the story of the man who slipped and fell off a cliff, and as he fell he was able to grab hold of a tree limb, but now he was dangling in the air with about a 2,000 foot drop to the rocks below. And as he hung onto this tree limb, he cried out:
“Is anyone out there? Can anyone hear me?”
“I am here. I am the Lord. Do you believe me?”
“Yes, Lord, I believe, but I can’t hold on much longer. My hands are beginning to slip!”
“That’s all right; if you really believe you have nothing to worry about. I will save you, just let go of the branch!”
After a moment the man cried out “Is anyone else out there?”
Yes it is easy to believe in God’s promises, to trust in His Word, until He tells us to let go, when we find ourselves in a situation where we can’t do anything about it. But that is the time that God steps in because, as He does, He gets the glory and your faith is strengthened, it grows. You have to believe that as Isaac was born, Abraham’s faith grew. He trusted even more in the promises of God because he saw the faithfulness of God! It is as the Lord said in Isaiah 55:10-11, “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” Do you believe in God’s Word, His promises to you?
2. FOCUS ON THE LORD AND NOT THE PROBLEM
It is easy to become overwhelmed over a situation when we look at things through our own eyes, with human resolutions to the problem. Abraham was called from the Ur of the Chaldeans, called to leave family and friends and go to a land he knew no one; to a land he had never been to, the land of Canaan. There was no outward assurance, no signed contract to what he was going to get, he owned nothing in Canaan, all he had was the promises of God and thus, he walked by faith, trusting in God and His Word. It was really God’s problem, not his, all he had to do was walk; obey what the Lord had said to him. It is as Paul said in II Corinthians 5:7, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” You can’t see faith, all you can do is trust God, walk by faith believing in Him, for if you begin to walk by sight, you will find fear, frustration, and failure will come your way.
Do you realize that the sun is almost a million miles in diameter, some 864, 958 miles! That means that the sun is almost 10 times larger than the planet Jupiter and about 109 times larger than the earth. The volume of the sun is 1,299,400 times bigger than the volume of the earth and about 1,300,000 earths can fit into the sun. That is big! Now as big as the sun is, do you realize that with my fist I can completely block the sun from my sight? Do you know how I can do that since I am not that big? It is simple, just by placing my fist close to my face I can completely block the sun from my view, it is still there, I just can’t see it because of what I have done. Imagine, the sun being some 864,958 miles in diameter and I can completely block it out!
Now, do you also realize that God’s presence fills the universe and yet He too can be completely blocked out of my view? How is that done? By placing my problems so close to me, focusing so much upon the problem that God disappears from my view! The solution, as Peter tells us, is to, “casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” I Peter 5:7.
You see, as you dwell upon these problems, these issues, what begins to happen is you worry, you become anxious, fear will build up in your life and Peter is telling you to get rid of those things, cast them at the feet of Jesus because He can handle it, we can’t! And when you do you can enter His rest as Paul says “For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest . . .” Hebrews 4:2-3a.
You see, you need to take these things and apply them to your life, walk in them. Abraham believed that God could handle any situation he was in, even raising Isaac from the dead to fulfill His promise to Abraham that through his seed the nations of the world would be blessed, the Messiah would come! And thus, he could walk in obedience to God because he trusted in God. His God was big enough to handle any situation, and thus, we too need to focus on Him!
3. GOD IS ABLE
Not only are we to trust in God’s Word, to believe in His promises, but we are to focus on the Lord and not our problems, give them to Him. And lastly, and these do all tie together, God is able to bring to pass what He has promised. If I were to tell you that I have started a home improvement project and I am going to redo the plumbing, the electrical wiring in my home; you would be on the phone to the fire department, the paramedics, calling qualified plumbers and electricians. Why would you do that? Because you know me and know that I could never do those things, at least not safely! Thus, my words would be empty because I am not able!
On the other hand, God is able to take care of any of our problems; He is able for in Genesis 1:1 we are told, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” If God can create the heavens and the earth without any difficulty, don’t you think He can handle any of our problems? Do you think that anything will be too tough for Him? Of course it won’t be too tough, He can handle anything that comes His way, He is God and He is able! Paul put it this way in Ephesians 3:20, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.”
Paul uses a Greek word to explain what Christ will do in us and through us if we would only ask. Paul tells us that Christ is able to do in us “exceedingly abundantly” which comes from Greek word HUPEREKPERISSOU (hoop-er-ek-per-ees-soo’) which speaks of super abounding, beyond measure, it is far above anything we could ever imagine. That is what the Lord has for us. In The Amplified Bible Ephesians 2:20 says, “Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams].” Is that awesome! Thus, in knowing that, can you say with confidence that God is able? I hope you can because He is asking you to believe by faith these things!
You see, Paul says in Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Now you may be thinking your faith is weak, it is small, it is insignificant. Let me say this, just a little faith can grow and mature, it is no faith that is dead. Let me illustrate what I mean about dead faith:
It is that kind of faith which would lead a man to take a bottle of medicine from his medicine cabinet. Looking at the instructions on it, he says, “I’m sure they’re correct. I have all confidence in the source of the medicine. I know who wrote these directions. I believe everything about it. I know this will relieve my headache, if I just take it.” But he takes the medicine bottle and puts it back on the shelf. He doesn’t lose his headache. It continues on. Yet he can say I believe that medicine. I believe all about that medicine. But still he wont’ take it. That’s dead faith.
- Dr. Harlan Roper, Tape on James, Dallas Texas
In Matthew 17:20 notice what Jesus says, “So Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.’” Notice the point that Jesus is making here. The mustard seed is one of the smallest seeds and yet it can grow into a large bush. You see, it is not the size of your faith, but the object of your faith that is important and thus, your faith must be in Jesus.
Secondly, faith is suppose to grow and it will as you feed it, nourish it, and exercise it on a daily basis. You can feed faith by reading and believing in the Word of God. You can exercise it by applying those things to your life. Thus, believe it and live it, walk by faith and not by sight!
As I begin to rap this study up this morning, we have seen that our faith needs to be built upon the Word of God, we need to focus on Jesus and not the problem we encounter, and we need to believe that God is able to bring to pass what He has promised to us. F. B. Meyer put it this way in regards to Abraham’s faith. He said:
It was a marvelous promise that this childless couple should have a child, and become progenitors of a great nation. It was enough to stagger anyone to be told of it. But Abraham staggered not. How was this?
It did not arise from ignoring the difficulties that obstructed its realization. He might have done so. Whenever the natural obstacles arose in his mind, he might have ignored them.
But this was not Abraham’s policy. He quietly and deliberately considered the enormous difficulties that lay in the path of the divine purpose, and in spite of them he staggered not.
But his unstaggering faith arouse from his great thoughts of Him who had promised. He knew God would not have said what He could not perform. He knew that God was Lord of the nature that He had made. He fed his faith by cherishing lofty and profound thoughts of God’s infinite resources.
Throughout Abraham’s life God was continually giving new glimpses into His own glorious nature. With every temptation, call to obedience, or demand for sacrifice, a new and deeper revelation was entwined. This fed his faith, and gave it unstaggering strength.
Child of God, feed your faith on the promises of God. For every look at your difficulties, take ten at God.
- F. B. Meyer
Remember our opening story this morning of the tightrope walker and his walk over Niagara Falls on a tightrope, blindfolded. And as he completed his feat he then asked the promoter of this event if he believed that he could do it, and of course the promoter said yes, he had just done it. Upon that response, the tightrope walker said: “‘Good,’ said Tightrope, ‘then you get in the wheelbarrow.’ The word believe, in the Greek means ‘to live by.’ This is a nice story . . . makes you ask, how often do we say that we believe Christ can do it, but refuse to get in the wheelbarrow?”
My challenge to you, my challenge to me, is to get into the wheelbarrow, to trust Christ, to let our faith grow. Not our faith in faith which is meaningless, although some like to tell us that is what we need. No, our faith in Jesus, trusting Him more and more each and every day! For as Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” And listen carefully to how The Amplified Bible puts this verse, “NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].”
We may not be able to see it, but we have confidence in our Lord and what He has said to see it with our spiritual eyes, to walk by faith and not by sight, as Paul said of 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.” Romans 4:20-21. May we have that same confidence, may our faith grow as Abraham’s did as we apply to our lives that which we believe, that His Word is true, that God is bigger than all of our problems and that God is able! Won’t you believe?