Introduction

Today we are knocked down by huge winds that blow each and every one. We constantly question ourselves: who do you trust, who do you have confidence; we are bombard with false media, fake media, errant media; people who change their minds without regard to reality or truth. They simply lie. All this makes us wonder whether we can have assurance of anything said or done.

Christianity is said to be a faith based religion, but I doubt many outside the church understand what this means, and unfortunately as Peter and Jude point out, many within the church do not know either, or are unconvinced of the simple truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

• So before us today is the question of faith; the promise of Abraham did not come through what he could do, but through the righteousness of faith (Romans 4:13). From this we can ask:
• What is the purpose of faith?
• How does faith save us?
• What does one put their faith in?

And for each of us

• What have you put your faith and trust in, in order to be saved?
• How are you assured of your salvation?

The Faith of Abraham

Abraham

Genesis 12 introduces us to Abram, which was his name prior to Genesis 17:5[1], when God tells Abram to move from Haran (which is in Iraq) to Canaan, present day Israel. More importantly Genesis 12 introduces us to the Abrahamic covenant that is developed between chapter 12 to chapter 17 where the token of circumcision is given (Gen 17;11).

His Father, Terah had decided to move to Canaan in Genesis 11, but got as far as Haran and settled there (Genesis 11:31). It was God who moved Abram on to Canaan.

Thus God requested that Abraham move to Canaan, and in response God would bless Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3) and sets out an irrevocable unconditional covenant:

• a great nation would descendent from him, and
• his name would be great, and
• he would be a blessing to all people, and
• those that cursed him would be cursed.

In a roundabout way Abraham makes it to Canaan to Bethel (Genesis 13:3) – via Egypt which is another story and after sometime we arrive at Genesis 15.[2]

In Genesis 15 we meet Abraham again, and the story that Paul uses to illustrate the purpose of faith. In Genesis 15 we see the unconditional promise God made to Abram – which required Abram to do absolutely nothing except believe.

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great."

But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" And Abram said, "Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir."
And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: "This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir." And he brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. Genesis 15:1-6

So who did Abram believe, and secondly what did he believe?

It is clear that Abraham did not put his faith and trust in Jesus Christ; Abraham did not know who the Messiah was, and it was not until David, some 1000 years later, that the Jews learnt the Messiah would die, when David penned Psalm 22, and furthermore, it was unknown that Christ would die as a blood sacrifice for our sins, until Isaiah penned Isaiah 53.

I mention this, because some Christians hold the view the Old Testament believers looked forward to the death of the Messiah, and the current believers look back to the death of the Messiah. This is hardly correct.

As an aside, Abraham did know that in the future there was to be born of a woman, a man who would deal with the tempter of Eve.  In the same chapter as the fall of man, a promise is made to Satan as to how he who caused the fall would be dealt with:

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel." 
(Genesis 3:15)

Who did Abraham believe?

• He believed God – Yahweh [often rendered in capitals LORD in your Bible] – the Lord God Jehovah or the Lord God Saves.

What did Abraham believe?

• He believed that God would accomplished what He had been told: he would be a father of many nations aothough he was very old as was his wife Sarah who was long past child bearing.

Why did Abraham believed?

• Abraham believed in order to have righteousness imputed him, and therefore he would be saved by God from eternal judgement.
• In the Romans passage today, we read righteousness was imputed Abraham - some Bibles will say it was ‘counted to him’; it means the same thing. Paul is saying his faith, and ours likewise, was what saved Abraham and is the only thing that will save us. The difference is we believe God when He says He sent his Son as Paul writes ‘who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25).

This means Abraham would not be judged, because there was no indictment against him because he believed what God had said to him and righteousness was imputed or accounted to him.

Thus, he believed God, when God said he would become the father of many nations, even though Abram and Sara were long passed child-bearing age.

And it was counted to him as righteousness; a verse that Paul quotes in Romans 4:3, 9, 13 and in Galatians 3:3. This fact is also mentioned in Hebrews 7:2 and James 2:23. It was a big deal, and the writers of the Holy Scriptures ensure we understand this, by repeating the fact!

From this what do we learn about the elements of faith?

Abram believed Yahweh– it was belief in God and God alone. In a moment we see God codifying this necessary element.

These verses shows that faith contains an element of believing the promises of God – it was in Abraham’s day, and it is today. I have no doubt, that Abraham also believed the promises of Genesis 3, but the form in which this was to occur remained a mystery until David and Isaiah.

Do you believe the promises of God in relation to Jesus Christ – if Christ rose from the dead to enter glory do you believe that you will also, and to immortality?
(1 Corinthians 15:53)

What did the Children of Israel have to believe?

Command to Israel

If we move on a bit in time we can ask about what of the Children of Israel have to believe. In particular, what did they need to believe in order to have eternal life. Quoting Isaiah:

"You are My witnesses," says the LORD, "And My servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He.
Before Me there was no God formed, Nor shall there be after Me.
I, even I, am the LORD, And besides Me there is no saviour.
I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, And there was no foreign god among you; Therefore you are My witnesses," Says the LORD, "that I am God. (Isa 43:10-12)

In order for Israel to be righteous they had to believe (and act upon) three things:

• Element 1: Believe in the Lord God Jehovah: Yahweh - Israel was to be His witness.
• Element 2: Believe there is only one God: Yahweh rendered LORD (or Jehovah)
  • There is to be no polytheism nor One God, one faith in God. Is this your stance? Is this the doctrine of this church?
• Element 3: There is no saviour besides God: God declared there was only one Saviour; so logically  there was no other way to be saved, which includes trusting in one’s own ability to save one’s self; it will not work.

From this is the simple principle we learn is, one cannot earn one’s salvation based on one’s own merit; it is all based on God alone.

What does salvation mean here?

1. Salvation means having eternal life; which meansNOT being punished in the Lake of Fire reserved for Satan and His angels (Revelation 20,10, 14).
2. Salvation is an assurance I will not be judged and found guilty.
3. Salvation means I am no longer under judgement, because I have been redeemed or purchased by the grace of God for to good works and therefore my guilt is done away with (Hebrews 9:9, 14; 10:2).

Principles we learn from passage

1. Salvation always comes by grace through faith; it was for Abraham and here it is for Israel. Abraham did nothing for his great reward, and Israel did nothing to earn their salvation – God provided it.

• Thus before the Mosaic Law (Abrahams time) and during the Mosaic Law (time from Moses to Jesus), the only way to salvation was faith in God. Even a gentile (and Abraham was a gentile) would be saved if he or she believed there was one God (Yahweh), and Yahweh would save.
• Paul in the Romans 4 passage we just read points this out – it was not the Law that saved Abraham’s descendants – it was faith.

2. Yahweh is our God, and there was no other before nor after and hence we have the Shama (Deuteronomy 6:3)

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!  (Deu 6:4)

3. Not only our God, Yahweh is our saviour and there is no other.

• And to emphasise this; he states: I, even I, am the LORD, and besides Me there is no saviour.

What do people of today need to believe?

Command to Jews and Gentiles today

We have learn that up to the time of Messiah (Jesus) one had to believe there was one God (Yahweh) and that Yahweh would be a rewarder of those that believed; that is, salvation would result. This applied to both Jew and Gentile. What about after Messiah died?

Today we have the gospel which sets out what we are to believe. The word gospel simply means ‘good message’ or ‘good news’. More rightly it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ – that is the message about Jesus Christ.

A passages of Scripture that succinctly sets out what is required to be saved is found 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. (Other ways the gospel is articulated include Mar 1:1; Rom 1:16; 15:19; 15:29; 1 Cor 9:12, 18; Gal 1:7; Php 1:27; 1 Thess 3:2).

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: (1) that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, (2) that he was buried, (3) that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures
(1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

Here Paul is reminding Christian readers – congregants of the church in Corinth, about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is John 3:16 that sets out that is required to action the gospel.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

This says that we need faith in the Son – Jesus Christ, just like Abraham had in Jehovah and just like the Children of Israel in Jehovah.

The question is, have you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, and what do you believe about him?

So what is faith

Faith means to believe or to trust; in essence it is to be persuaded of, and hence is linked to repentance, where repentance means ‘changing one mind’. Abraham was persuaded that he would have a son, and he would be a father of many nations.

Remember in Genesis 15:2 Abraham complained to God he was child-less so how could he possibly be a father to many nations? But Abraham repented, or changed his mind that he would be childless.

Faith is to have trust which implies relying upon something or someone. Israel had to rely upon Yahweh for their salvation – both physical (from their earthly enemies) and spiritually (from the enemy of death).

The writer to the Hebrew Christians in chapter 11 provides a description or characteristic of faith (it’s not a definition).

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  (Hebrews 11:1)

Faith looks forward to the future, to things anticipated and hoped for.

• Since the future has not been realized yet, and one may not know when it will be realized, one needs patient endurance.

Hope is not a mere wish or dream of fantasy; thus the hope must have substance, or evidence or a foundation.

• Our hope in Jesus Chris is the reality; the absolute certainty; thus a living faith gives a living hope, so real it has absolute certainty or assurance (as many Bibles translated this verse).

What do we put out faith in – the gospel tells us

Firstly Paul, in the 1 Corinthian’s passage points out the purpose of the gospel: it was the means ‘by which you are being saved’. They were being saved from the judgments of God.

• All people are going to stand in judgment by a holy and righteous judge
• Either we enter that moment prepared and ready to stand (Christians have their works judged not their sin, because our sin has been washed away with the blood of the lamb 1 Peter 1:18, 19).
• Or we enter with no prospect to survive the wrath of God

The establishment of the gospel

Paul goes on and states what the substance of their belief should be – and this is the essence of actioning the gospel. The gospel sets out what needs to be believed.

1. We need to believe Christ died for our sins (not that Christ died – for everyone dies), and furthermore, he did in a manner that Scripture required and provided a blood sacrifice, acceptable to God (Hebrews 10:12).

• The corollary to this is we have to believe this person was the Christ – Yeshua, or Jesus; that he is the messianic king; as Pilate indicated and the Jews complained, Pilate’s sign over the cross displayed the simple reality “The King of the Jews” (John 19:21).
• This corresponds to what Abraham believed – he believed Yahweh, and also what the Jews had to believe to be saved – God is Yahweh, the only one who could save. Today we need to believe in Christ Jesus who came to save.

(The Scriptures included Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12, Psalm 16, Psalm 22, and Daniel 9:24-27)

2. We need to believe Christ was buried which forms the evidence of his death; a live person would not have been buried, and furthermore, we know we was buried for three days, proving we was well and truly dead. (Isaiah 52:13 -  52:12)

And they made His grave with the wicked—but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.  (Isaiah 53:9)

3. We need to believe Christ rose from the grave; if one does not believe in the resurrection, one does not believe the gospel; the essence of the ‘good news’ is resurrection: which means Christ defeated death, the last enemy (1 Cor 15:26). Paul sates that if Christ had not risen – we remain in our sins, and we are people most pitiable, or miserable.  No resurrection, no salvation (verse 19)!

See also Isaiah 52:13 – 53:22, Ps 16, Ps 22

For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:10-11)

Hymn of praise

Summary

Elements of faith – what must be believe?

To be saved we need to believe:

1. The Messiah – Jesus Christ - died for our sins according to the Scriptures (thus we are assured this was done perfectly)
   • This means you need to believe Jesus is God
2. Jesus Christ was buried – that he actually and truly died
3. Jesus Christ rose again from the dead on the third day; which gives assurance you will also be resurrected to heaven to be with Christ.

Faith in order to do what?

Please the Father

Faith enables us to please the Father. In Hebrews 11:6 we read:

But without faith it is impossible to please Him [God], for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Israel could please Yahweh if they worshiped God alone, and believed he was the only saviour. Indeed the very first element of faith is that one needs to believe that “God is.” Thus the one coming to God must believe two things:

1. He must believe that God exists
2. He must believe God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

Salvation: faith enables righteousness to be imputed to the believer

It is by faith we are saved – just as Abraham found:

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.”

Righteousness will be imputed to believers in the Gospel of Jesus Chris just as it was to Abraham and reading on from the paraphrased JB Phillips Bible:

Now this counting of faith for righteousness was not recorded simply for Abraham’s credit, but as a divine principle which should apply to us as well. Faith is to be reckoned as righteousness to us also, who believe in him who raised from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, who was delivered to death for our sins and raised again to secure our justification.  (Romans 4:23-25)

Faith is to be reckeoned as righteousness to us also;

• No further work to be done by an individual
  
• No further things to do, or undertake.

As Paul writes:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.   (Eph 2:8-10)

Faith give us assurance that God fulfils His promises

The great hall of faith was written by the author of the Book of Hebrews to encourage his readers.

The outcome of faith is confidence or assurance that God will fulfil his promises.

It is the Holy Spirit that provides confidence that we can have full assurance of the truth of the Bible (seen as foolishness to the heathen). And in this we learn that we must wait patiently for the substances of what is hoped for, it to come.

Thus the outcome of faith is assurance, as the hymn write wrote:

Annex

Bible readings

Genesis 12

Genesis 15 (NASB 1995)

Warnings about adding things to the Gospel

Lordship of Jesus

True: You need to believe Messiah is God; if Jesus was not God, but merely a man, he cannot be our Saviour, because all humans bare born sinful – we are born with a sin nature, and therefore, that person could not have been a perfect sacrifice to propitiate the wrath of God. The saviour has to be God, and was God; in the form of the Son incarnate

Some do muddle the believing of “Jesus is the Messiah” (or only begotten son of God, as the KJV of John 3:13 says) and making Jesus as the Lord of your Life before you are saved. An unsaved person has no capability of making Jesus, Lord of their life; it is what a Christian does once he or she is saved – indeed it is no longer I that lives, but Christ that lives in me.

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Gal 2:20)

But this is something a non-believer can attain – there is a giant gap between God and man which can only be bridged by faith in Christ.

Repenting of sins

The gospel is about the very first step needed in being saved. An unsaved person is heading in a direction completely opposite to God. The only repenting they can do, and this is under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is to change their mind about God; repent in its bare form, means to change one’s mind. Thus there is only one sin they can and need to repent of; their unbelief in God or Jesus Christ. A person who has put their faith in Jesus Christ, by grace is saved – and for the rest of their lives, like you and I will deal with the old-man; the sinful nature, that wants to keep interrupting our relationship with God; and it is in this that we need to repent – daily of our actions that prevent fruit from being born.