The Faith & Call of bram

Take your Bibles and turn to Romans chapter four. Romans chapter four By the way, I I must say with that, every now and then, I have to stop singing when I'm leading the congregation and almost hate to start back up again because I can hear y'all sing and I think this congregation sings so much better for the number that are here than a lot today. And that is a sweet sound in the ears of our savior. When we raise our voices in song and in praise of him. An expression of our faith and gratitude to the one who has done so much for us.

Romans chapter four and we are going to begin by reading verses one through five. Romans four one through five. What shall we say then? That Abraham, our father, as pertaining to the flesh hath found. For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory.

But not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now, to him that worketh is the reward reckoned of grace, not reckoned of grace but of debt but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Let's go with our Lord in prayer once more.

Lord, thank you for your word this day. Thank you for the opportunity to preach it and teach it. Lord, I pray that you would guide as I do. I pray Lord that you would fill all of us with your holy spirit as we yield ourselves to you and to your word today. Lord, draw if there be anyone here that does not know you today as savior.

Draw them to yourself, Lord. And bring them to saving faith in Jesus Christ. We thank you Lord for our savior. We thank you for what you did for us and may Jesus Christ be exalted and may we be edified today in looking to you. We pray in Jesus name.

Amen. Now, in the book of Romans, Paul has been teaching, preaching, proclaiming the good news. What is the good news? The good news is this, you cannot get to heaven based on your righteousness or good works. None are righteous, what?

No, not one. No Jew, no Gentile, no rich, no poor, not one is righteous before God except for the Lord Jesus Christ. Rest of us are all sinners and we all fall short of the glory of God. Justification, there, what is the word justification means? It means being declared guiltless before God in heaven.

Is the opposite of being found guilty? We found guiltless is means what is what it means to be justified and in Romans chapter three, the end of Romans three, we learned that we are justified or declared guiltless before God in heaven not based on our righteousness but based on faith in Christ alone. The righteousness of God which is in Christ Jesus which is apart from the law. The righteousness of God in Christ Jesus which is through faith in him. The righteousness of God in Christ Jesus which excludes boasting.

Now, one of us can boast and say, I earned it. I deserve it. We don't. Our boast is in who? Our boast is in our savior, Jesus Christ.

For he is the one who deserves the glory. He is the righteous one and he is the one who gave himself for you and for me. In Romans chapter four, Paul continues on this description of justification by faith through the illustration of Abraham. Was Abraham saved by works? Was Abraham saved by the law?

Or was Abraham saved by faith is the question that is before us. How was Abraham justified in the eyes of God? Was it through circumcision? He mentioned last week in the passage. The answer is no.

God said, Abraham was justified before he was circumcised. Was it through the law? No. The law was not given till whom? Till Moses, okay?

Is that before Abraham or after Abraham? That's after Abraham. So, how was Abraham justified? Well, to explain that here, Paul quotes from the Old Testament. Abraham was justified by what?

By faith. He believed God and it was accounted to him or reckoned to him for righteousness. Okay, verse five, it says, but to him that to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness. So was the case with Abraham. Verse three, Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness and that is a quote from Genesis 15 and verse six.

How was Abraham justified before God? Well, God said in Genesis and God said again through Paul here, he was justified because he believed in who? He believed in the Lord. He believed God. He trusted in him.

He was saved the same way we're saved. He was justified before God the same way we're justified and that is not by works but by what? By faith. Faith in God equals imputed righteousness. Now, what does that mean imputed righteous mean?

That means righteousness placed into one's account by another, okay? Not that is earned but that is what? Given, okay? Let's say, you owed a debt of a million dollars and they called you on the loan and you had to pay the debt. Do you have a million dollars in your don't raise your hand if you do, okay?

That's not the point, alright? Do you have a million dollars in your bank account? Well, if me if you're me, you don't have a million dollars in your bank account. So how are you going to pay the loan? The answer is you're not.

I'm not going to pay the loan. I can't pay the loan. In respect to God and our need for righteousness and the debt that we owe him because of our sin, we do not have the means to pay it. We cannot work enough. We can't do enough good works to offset our sinful condition and the debt that we owe.

But there was one who could. Jesus Christ the righteous. So, you can't pay that million dollars. So, what if somebody who has a million dollars places their million in your what? In your account.

If they place their million dollars in your account, now can you pay it? Yes, you can. Why? Because you worked for it really hard? Because you earned it?

Because you deserved it? No. Because somebody out of the goodness of their heart, despite your ignorance and foolishness in racking up a million dollar debt. Put the money in your account so you could what? You could pay it.

That's what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. And that's what Jesus Christ does for you when you come to him in faith. He takes his righteousness that you do not have and he places it in your what? In your account. He accounts it, imputes it to you.

So that you do not have to pay the penalty of separation from God eternally in hell. That is what Jesus has done for us and how does that happen? When does that happen? It happens when we put our what? Our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

When we receive by faith that what? That gift of everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's exactly what God did for Abraham also. Was Abraham righteous?

No, because none are righteous one. No, not one. Was Abraham justified? Yes, he was but not by his works but by the imputed righteousness of God placed into his account when he put his faith in the God who called to him. Believe me, trust me.

Follow me. Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy, he saved us. By grace through faith, are you saved? Faith is the key. Faith is the key.

A key clearly demonstrated by Abraham. A man of faith and a man of action. We're going to begin looking back in Genesis 12 now if you would turn back with me to Genesis 12. At the life of Abraham and the faith of Abraham and the gift of God. In Genesis twelve one through seven with the calling of Abraham.

I had thought about, well, I'm just going to, it mentions Abraham in Romans four as an example. So, we're going to turn to the Old Testament. We're going to we're going to look at how all this applies from Abraham in one message. Now, we'd be here till about 02:00 if that were the case, okay? So, we're going to divide it up, alright?

And we're going to spend a few weeks rather than one long Sunday on Abraham. So, Abraham twelve one through seven, we have the call of Abraham and we see the Abraham, the faith of Abraham demonstrated here for us in Romans twelve one through seven. So, let's look there. Romans 12, I mean, 12, sorry. Genesis twelve one through seven.

Now, the Lord said unto Abraham, okay? We call him often Abraham but before later in his story, he was called Abraham. Abraham, which was his given name. Later, God changed it to Abraham. So, now, the Lord said to Abraham, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee and I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing.

I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. So, Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken unto him and Lot went with Abraham, went with him, and Abraham was 75 years old when he departed out of Heron. Abraham took Sarai, his wife. Later, she would be named Sarah, slightly different name and Lot, his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered and the sons that they had gotten in Heron souls that they had gotten in Heron and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan in the land of Canaan, they came and Abraham passed through the land unto the place of Shechem unto the Plain Of Mora. And the Canaanite was then in the land and the Lord appeared unto Abraham and said, unto thy seed or offspring, will I give this land and there builded he an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him.

So, this is the call of Abraham and in the call of Abraham, we see the necessity of faith and Abraham's response of faith, okay? So, to begin with, we want to look at God's command. What did God command Abraham? What was in his call to Abraham here in Genesis chapter 12? We'll look at a few things.

First of all, his command in that he commanded Abraham to leave and to follow. He commanded Abraham to leave and to follow. To leave his what? Get thee out of thy country. To leave his homeland, okay?

Where he grew up. My homeland is in the mountains of Virginia. That's where I was born and raised. And I have sort of still an affinity for the mountains of Virginia. I love Florida.

I love the winters here. They are awesome. But I do miss the mountains. If you haven't noticed, there aren't too many mountains in Florida. Abraham's homeland was Ur Of The Chaldees which was in Mesopotamia.

He had traveled a few years earlier from Ur up to Heron when God had first come to him to his father's home place which was up in Heron. Today would be kind of Eastern Syria. And in Genesis chapter 12, God came to Abraham again and called him to leave Haran and to follow him to the promised land, which would have been Southwest of where he was. So, he asked him to leave his homeland. He asked him to leave his kindred, okay?

His relatives behind. He had a lot of relatives particularly in Haran. He had a lot of relatives, relatives on his father's side of the family in particular and so God said, Abraham, I want you to trust me, okay? Trust is another word for faith. That is faith is trust in someone that you cannot touch or see.

Or in promises that have yet to come to be. He said, Abraham, believe in me. Get thee from your homeland, from your country, from your kindred, from your father's house, unto a land that I will show thee. In order to fulfill God's will in Abraham's life, it was necessary for him to leave thanks dear and comfortable to him. In order to do that, in order to cleave in faith to the Lord, he had to be willing to turn from things that he had put his what?

Trust in earlier. Bible uses the word repentance to describe that turning from things you have put your trust in before salvation. To trusting in who? Christ Jesus by faith. What is it that you trusted in before you came to Christ?

Were you trusting in your heritage? Were you trusting in your good works? Were you trusting in your good looks? That some of us that never worked. Were you trusting in your church membership?

Were you trusting in idols as many around the world still today are trusting in us? Were you trusting in your intelligence or trusting in your wealth as sadly again, many people are trusting in. Trusting in those things will not get you to heaven. You must trust in who? You must trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

God came to Abraham, said, trust in me. Leave behind these things. In Luke chapter 14, Okay and now it doesn't work again. Alright. You'll just have to listen or turn, alright?

Luke chapter 14 verses twenty five and twenty six says, and there went great multitudes with him with following Jesus and he turned and said unto them, if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, in his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. What was Jesus saying to those people? They had thronged him with a great crowd that was following him from town to town and out into the countries of Galilee, countryside of Galilee. And some of them said, hey, I'll follow you and he said, well, wait a second. Do do you do you really mean that?

Do you really trust me? Matthew sixteen twenty four, Jesus said unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny who? Himself and take up his cross and follow me. God called to Abraham and in Abraham's case, it was a physical call to leave, a physical place as well as a spiritual place to put his trust in God. Jesus called his disciples also to leave.

Often cases, their homelands and their place. How? By what? By faith. Faith is the key.

Our road to discipleship begins also. When we leave behind our old life by faith and or enter into a new life in who? In Christ Jesus. It continues. It doesn't end when you get saved.

It just what? It just begins. It continues as we learn to let go of other things which we hold dear for closer intimacy with our savior. For greater knowledge of our Lord and in service to him. So, he asked Abraham to what?

To leave. How could Abraham do that? Only by what? By faith. He also asked him to follow.

Matthew sixteen twenty four, Jesus said to his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and what? Follow me. He said to Abraham, I want you to leave your homeland. Now, isn't enough just to leave your homeland? He said, I want you to leave your homeland and what?

Follow me to the place that I will lead you. Again, Hebrews eleven eight, by faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place, which he should after receive for inheritance, obeyed, and went out not knowing whether he went. What does that mean? He didn't know where he was going. In other words, he didn't know the country.

He didn't know the place. When he left there to go to Heron, he knew where Heron was. He knew who was in Heron. He knew what he would find when he got there but when he left Heron to go to the promised land, he didn't know exactly where it had been. He had never been there before.

He didn't know what he was going to find there but he trusted who? He trusted in the Lord. He put his what? Faith in the Lord. Faith is key.

You can't and you won't follow God to Jesus Christ for salvation and you won't follow God as a Christian in your life in discipleship if you do not have what? If you do not have faith. Faith is key. Wherever God leads, not always a specific place. What God asks is for us to put our faith in leaving, obeying, and following him.

He said to the disciples along the shoreline of Galilee, follow me and I will make you what? Fishers of pen. What was he saying? Trust me. Trust me.

Trust me and follow me. I will make you to be something greater than fishers of fish. I will make you to be fishers of men. Proverbs three, five, and six says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not unto thine own understanding and all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.

When God called me into the ministry, I was in high school. I went forward in a service. I think it was my between my junior and senior year in high school at camp and I really was convinced that God was calling me into the ministry. However, that one part of me that said, yes, Lord, I know what you're calling me into. The other part was saying, no, Lord, I can't do that.

I can't do that and you know something the Lord didn't tell me when he called me in high school and later when I finally surrendered in college, God didn't tell me that he was going to send me to Georgia to be a youth pastor in Georgia. God didn't tell me he was going to send me to Florida to be a pastor Missouri Avenue Baptist Church in Florida. God simply said, what? Follow me. Follow me.

Trust me and I will lead you. If you trust me, I will lead you. Now, that should be enough because if you know God, you know, he's never going to lead you astray. He is never going to lead you to a place where he will not give you the grace. To handle it.

He is not going to lead you to a place that is not best in the end for you. We can trust him. You must trust him to be your Lord and savior. There is no salvation except by what? By faith.

Your good works won't do it. Your church membership won't do it. Whatever else you're trusting in, it can't help you. Only Jesus can. But you must turn to him in faith.

And trust in him to save your soul and to take you to heaven. For that is the only way to be saved. That is the only way you can be justified is through faith in Jesus Christ and by the way, it's the only way to live the Christian life. Walk by faith and not by what? And not by sight.

When we try to walk by sight, we only cause ourselves stress and misery trust in God. He will never lead you astray. So, he called to Abraham to leave and to follow him by faith. He gave Abraham precious promises. Now, you see, when God says, follow me, he he also gives to us what?

Precious promises. The same as he did to Abraham. Follow me. Believe me and you will never what? You will never perish.

That's in a place called hell or also the Lake Of Fire. Trust and believe on Jesus and you will have everlasting life. Trust in Jesus and he will come someday to take you to the place that he is preparing for you. Trust in Jesus. Put your faith in him.

God has promised that he will never leave you nor what? Forsake you. And the list goes on, okay? God makes promises to all today who will put their faith in him, who are justified by faith, and he made promises to Abraham also. He says, verse two, and I will.

I will and in verse three, he says, I will. I will what? Well, he lists several things here that God says he will do. Not things he requires of Abraham to do. He just requires Abraham to put his what?

Faith and trust in God and then God says, I will. Throughout the Old Testament, God said to Moses and God said to Joshua and God said to the prophets he saw, he said, I will be with you. And I will not fail you. I will be with you. Don't be afraid.

Don't be dismayed. Don't be discouraged for the Lord thy God is what? With you. I will be with you. God makes that same promise to us.

I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. When God, when Jesus commissioned his disciples to go out and to proclaim the gospel. Go you therefore and teach all nations. Make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost.

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Is that the end of the verse? No. And low I am with you always even to the end of the world. Jesus said, don't fear, I will be with you.

I will be with you. Come to Christ. Trust him. He says, I will what? I will be with you.

Christian, follow him. When he says, go here, go there. When he says, do this, do that. When he says, don't do that, don't do that. Trust who?

Trust in Jesus. For he says, he will what? He will be with you even unto the end of the world. And he will not lead you astray. He promised Abraham to make of him a great nation.

A great people. Make of him a great people. Give him land. Genesis fifteen eighteen and the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham saying, unto thine, unto thy seed or thy offspring, have I given this land from the River Of Egypt into the great river, that would be the the river Euphrates. God promised Abraham, you trust me.

I will make of you a great nation. I will give you offspring. Many offspring. How many offspring did Abraham have or Abraham when we meet him here? How many did he have?

He had zip, zero, none. How old was he? He was 75. How old was Sarah? She was about 65.

She was already past childbearing years. She could not physically, naturally conceive, and give birth to a child. They were past that point in their life and they had no children. But God said to Abraham, put your faith in me. I will give you what?

I will give you children. And of course, he did. He said, I will bless you personally and directly prosper you What greater promise can you get than the blessing of God upon your life? What greater what greater gift? What greater reward?

What greater promise is there? Than the blessing of the creator of the universe. Of the sustainer of the universe, of the sovereign God of the universe. What greater blessing? The blessing of your parents, the blessing of your friends, the blessing of your king, None of those compare to the blessing of the God of heaven And God said to Abraham, I will bless you.

Romans eight thirty one says this, what shall we then say to these things? If God before us, who can be against us? If God's for you, who? Can be against you. Who?

Can bring anything to your charge? Who can stand in your way? If God is on your side. David knew that when as a young man, he stood before a giant almost twice his height with a sling and five stones. If God before me, who can be against me?

Who can stand against me? And well, so we see Goliath fall. Matthew five eleven and twelve, Jesus said, blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they, the prophets which were before you.

God said, I will bless you. When you're persecuted, know this, they may be cursing you but I will be what? But I will be blessing you. Now, which would you rather have? Their blessing or mine?

He said, I will make your name great. Well known and highly praised. In Abraham's day, he was a nomad, a man without a country, unlikely ever to be remembered by anyone. Who is who is who has a more well known name throughout history apart from Abraham. There's almost no one that is more well known in any age in the past two plus millennia apart from Abraham.

Some of these people that we today think of when we think of people of power, think of people of fame, actors, and athletes, and presidents. Their names will not be remembered or remembered by few. Should the Lord tarry in this earth be here longer? But Abraham He's been known for a long time. God recorded his story here by Moses and his name continues to be known today.

He made of him a great name. Second Timothy two eleven says, it is a faithful saying for if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. Revelation 26, blessed and holy is he that hath pardon the first resurrection on such the second death hath no power but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him for a thousand years. You may be nobody now.

That you are somebody in Christ Jesus. You are somebody in the eyes of God and you will be somebody one day in the eyes of the world when you rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years. Isaiah, God said to Abraham, I will make your name great. He has, has he not? And God always keeps his what?

Promises and he said, you will be a blessing. You will be a blessing and indeed, by trusting the Lord, Abraham's Abraham became an example for others to see of the blessing of God upon those who fear him. The same will be true of us. If you will trust in the Lord, put your faith in him. That you let that faith grow each day and affect the way you live.

You will be an example too of God's blessing upon those that fear him. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven. God made promises concerning Abraham's effect on others. He said, if you will trust me, I will bless those who bless you. I will curse those who curse you and in all the families and in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

Galatians three six through nine say this, even as Abraham believed God and was accounted to him for righteousness. There's that verse again. It just keeps popping up. Even as Abraham believed in God and was accounted to him for righteousness, know you therefore that they were which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. You mean, I don't have to be a Jew by heritage to be a child of Abraham.

No, you don't. You can become a child of Abraham by what? By faith. Know you therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham and the scripture foreseen that God would justify the hidden through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed. So, then, they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham and Jesus who died on the cross for our sins in his humanity is also a descendant of who?

Abraham. It was through Abraham, through his offspring that God brought Jesus into the world to die for the sins of mankind that through the faith of Abraham and the promises of God, we too. Can become the one. As many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons or the children of God even to them that believe on his name. Just like Abraham.

We see God's command, God's promises, and then Abraham's faith. What did Abraham do? Well, he believed God. He believed God. He put his faith in God and that is demonstrated by his what?

By his actions, by his departure. Now, he wasn't saved by departing. He was saved by believing. The Bible makes that very clear. The Bible doesn't say, Abraham left Heron and God accounted that to him for righteousness.

Did it? Did it say that? No. It says, Abraham believed God and was counted to him for righteousness. His leaving is an expression of his what?

Of his faith, of his belief in God. James says, faith without works is dead. Show me your faith without your works. I will show you my faith what? By my works.

The devils believe and tremble. They're no, they know there's a god but that doesn't mean that they've repented. No. You're saved by faith but faith that what? Demonstrates itself in action.

Abraham's faith resulted in his action Demonstrated by it and he left like the disciples of the New Testament left their nets beside the shore. Like you turn from whatever you were trusting in when you got saved to put your faith and trust in the God of heaven and Jesus Christ, your savior, to save your soul, and give you eternal life. Abraham put his faith in God. He left his homeland and he followed the Lord. By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance obeyed and he went out knowing whether he went.

And what did God say? He believed in the Lord and accounted it to him for righteousness. Justified by faith but faith expressed and demonstrated in his actions. Does getting baptized up here through a baptistry behind me here, you can't see it but does that save you? Can that save you?

Then, why get baptized? To demonstrate the faith that has already what? Saved you. That's why Christians are supposed to get baptized as a demonstration of the faith that has already saved them. Abraham left his homeland.

That was his demonstration of faith but in both cases, water baptism doesn't save you and if you leave clear water, it ain't going to save you. What will save you is leaving behind your trust in sin and the pleasures of sin and putting your faith in Jesus Christ. So, we see Abraham's faith and we see God's confirmation. Look, if you would again in verses six and seven. Six and say, Abraham passed through the land under the place of Shechem on the Plain Of Moran, the Canaanite was then in the land and the Lord appeared unto Abraham and said, unto thy seed, will I give this land and there builded he an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him.

When he got to the land, what did God say? He said, you're here. Here it is. I'm going to give this land to your what? To your offspring, to your seed.

And again, Abraham expressed his faith by building a what? By building an altar there to worship the Lord who had called him, to worship the Lord, who had led him, and guided him, and promised him, that he would give him an heir, that he would give him children, which now at the age of about 90, he still didn't have. But he trusted in the Lord and the Lord confirmed it. If you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ to save you, God has also confirmed that in your heart also. That you are a child of who?

A child of God. By the Holy Spirit that he has given you whereby we cry, Abba, Father. He confirms to us also that we are the children of God by his spirit and by his what? By his word, the sword of the spirit that he has given to us. And what should be our reasonable response?

Worship at his feet. To lay down our lives a living sacrifice. In Thanksgiving to the one who has delivered us from the eternal penalty and power of sin. Into his marvelous light, into his marvelous kingdom. Which we will one day enjoy with him.

Who has promised forever and ever. But in closing this morning, do you have that assurance? Do you have that confirmation, that assurance in your life that you are a child of God? If you haven't, you can but you must put your faith in him and call on him to be your Lord and savior. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be what?

Saved. For all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Have you done that? Do you know him? Have you put your faith in Christ?

If you have, you are a child of who? God, a follower of Jesus Christ, child of Abraham, in faith. And Christian, how are you doing following him? Is your faith growing? Does your life show it?

Does your worship show it? Does a heart, your heart of gratitude show it? Does your holy lifestyle and obedience show it? They should. And if they don't as they should, then your faith is not what it should be.

So, you might want to talk to him about that too. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for this day. Thank you Lord for all that you've done for us. Precious promises that are ours in Christ Jesus.

Thank you for the example of Abraham and on how he was justified by faith as you emphatically remind us in your word. Lord, we pray if there's one here that's never trusted in you to be their Lord and savior. Yet to put their faith in you, to save them from their sin in hell. I pray that they would do that today. I pray Lord if there's one here that's just not sure.

I pray they'd come. So, we give this hymn of invitation. I'd love to sit down with them. And look into your word. And seek for that assurance that only you can give.

And I pray Lord as Christians that we would be willing to let go of things in our life that are holding us back in service to our God. Cast aside every every weight in the sin which doth so easily beset us. That we would follow you with all our heart. That we would grow in our faith. That we would learn to trust you more.

In Jesus name, we do pray. Amen.