Faith: What It Is and How to Have It

SPEAKER 01 : 0:00

Known for his unique ability to simplify profound truth so that it can be applied to everyday life, Adrian Rogers was one of the most effective preachers, respected Bible teachers, and Christian leaders of our time. Thanks for joining us for this message. Here’s Adrian Rogers.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:17

Would you take God’s Word, find Romans 10. In a moment, we’re going to begin our study in verse 17. Now… The book of Romans is the foundation for our faith. It is the constitution of Christianity. It is the solid rock upon which we stand. And the book of Romans tells us, I suppose more than any other book in the Bible, about the grace of God. I love the word grace. It is a beautiful word. I think the only word more beautiful to me is the name Jesus. But grace, think what a beautiful word that is. And what is grace? Well, let’s make an acrostic out of grace. G-R-A-C-E. God’s riches at Christ’s expense. G-R-A-C-E. Have you got that? God’s riches at Christ’s expense. That means Jesus Christ on the cross, dying in agony and blood for our sins, provides for us all of the riches of God. God’s riches. at christ expense that’s grace but listen folks faith lays hold of what grace provides now without faith there’s no way that you can acquire the grace of god that the grace of god can come into your life only through faith ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9 for by grace are you saved Now what is faith? F-A-I-T-H. Forsaking all, I trust Him. That’s faith. Forsaking all. Forsaking my good works, my good intentions. Forsaking my sin. Forsaking all that I am by nature and by the first birth. I turn my back on that and I take Jesus. Grace, God’s riches at Christ’s expense. Faith, forsaking all, I trust Him. So… When I put my hand of faith in God’s hand of grace, that’s salvation. For by grace are you saved through faith. It is faith that receives what grace receives. provides and so when paul tells us about grace then he goes on to talk to us about faith and tell us what faith is and how we can understand faith you see faith makes god’s grace available and real to us grace is god’s ability faith is man’s responsibility now listen Grace is God’s ability. Faith is man’s responsibility. Jesus died, but we must believe and receive, or the death of Jesus does us no good whatsoever. So it is our responsibility to respond to God’s grace all that we receive we receive by faith you want to be saved well Romans 5 verse 2 says therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ do you want to be sanctified sanctifying their hearts through faith the Bible says do you want your prayers answered therefore whatsoever things you desire when you pray believe that you receive them and you shall have them Do you want to overcome the world? This is the victory that overcometh the world. Even our faith. It is faith that is the medium of exchange in the kingdom of heaven. That’s the reason the Lord Jesus Christ said, Be it unto you according to your faith. According to your faith. That is the measure. Your faith is the measure of your victory, your success. All of the things that grace provides, they come to us by faith. So it is so very, very, very… I’ll say it one more time, very important that you learn what faith is. And so Paul now, who has been talking about the grace of God, now talks about faith in that grace beginning in verse 17. So look at it. So then faith cometh by hearing. And hearing by the word of God. But I say, have they not heard? Yea, verily their sound went into all the earth. Now he’s quoting the scripture here. The Psalms that say the knowledge of the Lord is seen in nature throughout all of the earth. And their words unto the end of the world. But I say, did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. But Isaiah says very bold and saith, I was found of them that sought me not, and I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me, but to Israel he saith. All day long have I stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. Now we’re going to think about faith today. Now don’t think that this is just a nicety. This is a necessity. And I want to say that lack of faith is not weakness, it is wickedness. And no one who does not believe has the excuse to say they cannot believe because the Lord has dealt to every man a measure of faith. Unbelief is a terrible, horrible sin. As a matter of fact, 1 John 5, verse 10 says, “…he that believeth not God…” hath made him a liar. Unbelief is a slander against the character of God. It was unbelief that led Eve to that sin in the Garden of Eden. It was unbelief that locked the doors of the promised land to the children of Israel and caused them to wander in the wilderness. It’s unbelief that sends men to hell. Listen to this scripture. John chapter 3, verse 18. Here’s the words of Jesus. Now listen carefully. He that believeth on him is not condemned… But he that believeth not is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. There’s some people who tell you that Jesus only died for the elect, but that’s not what the Gospel of John says. It says the only reason men are not saved is not because Jesus didn’t die for them, but because they didn’t believe in Him. He that believeth in him is not condemned. But he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed. Jesus died. Salvation is there. But they refuse to believe and therefore, therefore they are not saved. It’s the same thing when Jesus was in his hometown of Nazareth. And the Bible says that Jesus could do no mighty works there because of their unbelief. He, the Almighty, the Sovereign, limited Himself. By their unbelief. He allowed their unbelief to keep him from doing mighty works there. He could do no mighty works there because of their unbelief. Do you mean to say that he was not sovereign? He’s not all powerful? He’s not all glorious? Of course he is. He’s all of those things. But he has said, be it unto you according to your faith. He limited himself. He allowed himself. To be limited by their unbelief. He that believeth on him is not condemned. But he that believeth not is condemned already because he has not believed. Unbelief is not mere weakness. Unbelief is wickedness. Unbelief never comes out of the head. People don’t have intellectual problems. It may show up as an intellectual problem, but unbelief comes out of the heart. The Bible says, beware lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief. And over there in Romans chapter 1 and verse 17, the Bible says, the just shall live by faith. The way that we live the Christian life is not by striving and It’s not by trying, it is by trusting. The just shall live by faith. Now I’m saying all of that, all of that’s just the front porch to get us into the house. All of what I’m saying is the importance of faith that lays hold and receives what grace provides. I want us to see what true biblical faith is. And the very first thing I want you to see is what I want to call the object of faith. What do you place your faith in? That’s so very important because so many people call things faith. That’s not faith at all. Some people say, well, just believe, you know, it’s positive thinking. Well, I like positive thinking. I’m very much in favor of positive thinking. But positive thinking is not faith. Some people think hoping for the best is faith or giving it your best or whatever. They have all kinds of ideas about what faith is. But faith is no better than its object. I was in the Atlanta airport coming to Memphis. They called the flight. I got up, gave my ticket along with Joyce to the lady. We went through the thing, went to seat 15D and E. and sat down. After a while, somebody else came and said, you’re in our seat. I said, no, here we are. There we are. That’s us. Then after a while, I heard somebody say on the intercom, would Mr. and Mrs. Rogers please identify themselves? I said, how’d they know I’m on this plane? So I pushed the little thing, and after a while, the lady came and said, Mr. and Mrs. Rogers, this airplane’s going to Shreveport. Now, friend, I didn’t want to go to Shreveport. Now, I had a lot of faith in that airplane. I had a lot of faith in the ticket system and the person who took my tickets and so forth. But folks, all that faith knew me one way to good if I’m on the wrong airplane. Isn’t that right? Now, misplaced faith is a terrible thing. You put faith in the wrong place. You’ve got to put your faith in the right place. And you see, the Bible never tells us to put faith in faith. That’s just positive thinking. What is the object of our faith? The object of our faith is Almighty God. Now, you’re in chapter 10. Go back to verse 11, if you will. For the Scripture saith, whosoever believeth, now watch this, on him, underscore that, on him, On him shall not be ashamed. The object of your faith is Almighty God. There’s nothing mystical or magical about believing. Faith is no better than its object. Now listen to me very carefully. Some people say faith moves mountains. That is not true. It is God that moves mountains. Pay attention. It is not faith that moves mountains. It is God that moves mountains. The Bible in Mark 11 verse 22, Jesus in that context, Jesus answered them and said, Have faith in God. In God. Your faith is no better than its object. So many people just misplace this. Faith and faith is nothing but positive thinking. A little boy came home from school and his dad said, how’d you do in the test today? He said, well, I think I flunked my math test. The father said, you need to be more positive than that. He said, okay, I’m positive I flunked my math test. Positive thinking is not faith. Faith in faith is not faith. You’ve got to have faith in God. If you put faith in faith, faith in positive thinking, you’re going to get discouraged. There are people who tell you that if you believe it, you can achieve it and all of this. And they tell salesmen this and they tell athletes this and they tell all these people this. But that’s just simply not true. That is not true. Just because you believe it, you can’t achieve it. And just because you think you can do it, you cannot do it. And after a while, you’re going to find yourself so discouraged and Satan is going to say to you, you really don’t have what it takes. Now listen to me. Your faith is no better than the object of that faith. Weak faith, weak faith in the right object is better than misplaced faith in any object. Weak faith in God is better than faith, strong faith in anything else. Don’t get the idea that because your faith is weak that it won’t work. You may be afraid to fly on an airplane at all. But if you get on it, you’ve exercised faith in that airplane and you’re just as safe as the pilot or the steward. It’s a weak faith. Faith is what counts. It’s not the size of your faith. It’s the object of your faith that really counts. So many people fail to understand this. If you look in the Bible, almost everybody who got a blessing from God had weak faith. There are a few who had strong faith. But most of them had weak faith. There was a man whose son was demon possessed. And he came to Jesus. And he said, Master, if you can do anything for my boy, please do it. Jesus said, if you can believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. Do you know what that man said? He said, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Have you ever been there? We all have. Lord, I believe. I have faith. But Lord, help my unbelief. You know, Spurgeon said a trembling hand can receive a gorgeous, wonderful gift. It’s not faith and faith. It’s not the quality of your faith. It’s the object of your faith that really counts. Again, the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 12, we’re to be looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Look to Jesus, the object of your faith. He is the author. He is the finisher of your faith. It is faith in Him. That’s the object of your faith. If you don’t have your faith in the right place, what good is your faith? You’re going to Shreveport, friend, when you ought to be going to Memphis. You’ve got to put your faith in the right place. That’s just all there is to it. Looking unto Jesus. Hebrews 12, verses 1 and 2. And that word, looking unto Jesus, literally means looking away from everything else. And looking unto Jesus. Don’t look at others. Look to Jesus. Don’t look at yourself. Look to Jesus. Don’t look at circumstances. Look to Jesus. Don’t look at Satan. Look to Jesus. Look away from everything else. It literally means, literally translated, it means looking away from everything else and looking to Jesus. That’s the reason why I said faith is what? Forsaking all. I trust Him. The object of your faith must be God. Your faith is no better than its object. Looking unto Jesus. You know what the devil will do to you? The devil will want to make you doubt your salvation. And here’s what he’ll say to you. You say you trust Jesus? Uh-huh. Well, just how strong is your faith? Maybe your faith is not strong enough to save you. Maybe you don’t have good enough faith. Maybe you don’t have strong enough faith. And the first thing you know, you get to examining your faith. You open up your innards and pull out your faith and look it all over and examine it. And you say, well, I wonder if I really have that saving faith. You know what the devil’s trying to get you to do? The devil is trying to get you to look at your faith rather than looking to Jesus. Now listen, don’t put faith in faith, put faith in Jesus. The devil used to pull that trick on me. He used to say, well, Adrian, how do you know that you really believe enough? I just learned how to turn the tables on him. I say, you know, devil, you’re right. My faith is weak, but Jesus is wonderful. I’m not putting my faith in my faith. I’m putting my faith in Jesus. Jesus never said, look at your look. He says, look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth. Don’t look at your look. Don’t put faith in faith. Put faith in Jesus. Faith in faith is positive thinking. Faith in Jesus is salvation. Now, the object of faith is God. So, what should be your ambition then to know God? to know God. That’s the reason the Bible says we’re to be looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. You see, if you look to yourself, you’re going to be discouraged and weak. Put your eyes upon Him. The Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth in Him shall not be ashamed. I hope this is getting through to you. Your great need today is to learn of Him. To come to know Him. If the object of your faith is God, then the ambition of your heart ought to be to know Him. The more you know about Him, the more you’re going to find faith as the byproduct of your heart. When you look to Jesus, when you discover the God of the Bible, when you come to see Him, you’re going to find out that faith is axiomatic in your heart and in your life. Let me give you a verse. Psalm 9, verse 10, “‘And they that know thy name,’ that is, the character of God, “‘will put their trust in thee.'” Daniel 11 and verse 32. And they that know their God shall be strong and shall do exploits. And so the object of faith is God himself. Not positive thinking, not your own ambitions, not your own will, not your own intentions. Just know God. They that know thy name will put their trust in thee. Romans 10 verse 11, whosoever believeth in him shall not be ashamed. Now here’s the second thing about biblical faith. Not only the object of it, but the origin of it. The origin of it. Now if the object of this faith is to trust him, then you’ve got to hear from him. So the origin of your faith is the word of God. The object of your faith is God himself. You trust him. But the origin of that faith is to hear Him. Now look, if you will, in verse 11. So then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Go back to verse 14. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? That’s a very logical question. Go back up to verse 8. But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith. The word of faith. Now, the object of faith is God himself, so you must know him. But the origin of faith is the word of that God. You must hear him. You must learn to listen to God if you would have faith. You see, you cannot pray outside the will of God and get your prayer answered. And in order to pray in the will of God, you’ve got to hear the Word of God. Now, where does this faith come from? You don’t generate faith. You don’t just clench your fists and Grit your teeth and say, I am going to believe. Faith cometh. Look in verse 17. Faith cometh by hearing. That is, it comes from outside of you. You don’t generate that faith. Now, you can have natural faith in the natural realm. We all live by natural faith. You’re putting faith in the chair that you’re sitting in right now. You’re putting faith in the engineer that put this roof over us. When you go to the restaurant, you’re putting faith in the cook. That’s natural faith. We all live by faith every day in chairs, planes, food. Ron Dunn said this, he says, The doctor tells us that we have a disease that we’ve never heard of, writes a prescription that we cannot read for a medicine whose name we cannot pronounce, which we take to a druggist that we do not know, who gives us a bottle of liquid which tastes like poison, which we take and go back for more. That’s faith. But that’s faith in the natural realm. But we’re not talking about that. We’re talking about biblical faith that’s in the supernatural realm. You don’t work it up. It comes down. Peter said in 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 1. He talks about those who have obtained like precious faith. And then in Philippians chapter 1 verse 29. For unto you it is given. behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake that is the believing on him is given to you nobody can believe in God unless God enables him to believe now listen to me the only way that you can believe in God is to hear from God and God must enable you to believe and the instrument that God uses to enable you to believe is his word Faith is not a leap in the dark. It’s a step in the light. You hear from God. But without a word from God, listen to me very carefully, without a word from God, you have no basis for faith. There’s some people today who say you name it and claim it. That is absurd. You can’t claim it unless God names it. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Now, put in your margin Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 1. Here is the description of faith. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Think of that word hope. What does that word hope mean? It doesn’t mean maybe. Not in the Bible. It may mean it in modern English. But in the Bible, the word hope means bedrock assurance. And that assurance is based… On the Word of God. The second coming of Jesus is called what? The blessed hope. That doesn’t mean the blessed maybe. It means the blessed certainty. And faith is the substance of things hoped for. That is bedrock assurance based on the Word of God. Again, the Bible calls hope the anchor of the soul. Well, friend, you don’t put your anchor in a chunk of cloud bank. You put your anchor… In something that is strong and solid. So now pay attention now because we’re going to learn something about hope. Hope is bedrock assurance. Now look at the word substance. The Bible says faith is the substance. Of things hoped for. I look this up in some different translations. One gives it, for the word substance, gives the word assurance. Another gives the word confidence. Another gives the word guarantee. Another gives it, and I love this, the title deed. What happens is this. That we have bedrock assurance. We have substance. We have the title deed according to the word of God. Point I’m making is this, that the object of faith is God. The origin of faith is the Word of God. If you don’t hear from God, you’ll never have faith. Well, let me just put it this way. If you don’t hear God, not just hear from God, if you don’t hear God… You’ll never have faith. But it is the word of God that’s going to bring faith in your heart. Now, look in verse 17. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. That is hearing the word of God. The word that is translated word there is not the word logos. which means the revelation of the Bible, like we call the Bible the Word of God. That’s the Logos. But it’s a different word. It’s the word rhema. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the rhema of God. And that word means the communication of of the word of god not just the word of god i don’t mean when i say just the word of god to deprecate the word of god but it is not the bible that you hold in your hand that’s going to give you faith It is God speaking to you out of that Bible. Not the logos that you have in your hand. That is the Word of God. That is. But you need to have God speak to you. You need a rhema, a communication of the Word of God. You can hear with your ear everything that I say this morning and not have faith. But oh, if God speaks to your heart. You’ve got to hear God. You’ve got to get a communication of that word from God. And my job is not to teach you some sermon outline. My job is to get you to listen to God as God speaks to you. You’ve got to hear from God. You’ve got to hear more than a sermon. You’ve got to hear more than a pastor. You’ve got to hear God. Look in Romans 10 verse 14. How then shall they call on him? In whom they have not believed. Now look at that little phrase, in. How shall they believe? In him whom they have not heard. It doesn’t say in whom. But whom they have not heard. Now what is the difference? Well… They basically mean the same thing. But it means that God has to be speaking to you. You’ve got to hear God today. Because faith comes when you hear God. God takes the word of God and the truths of the word of God. And God applies those to your heart. And God is speaking to you. You must hear Jesus today. You must hear Jesus say to you today, come unto me. all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He is speaking to your heart today, if you will listen. Now, here’s the third thing I want you to see. I want you to see not only the object of our faith, which is God Himself, the origin of our faith, which is to hear from God and get a word from God, but I want you to hear also, friend, the objective of our faith. Why does God use faith? What is faith all about? Is faith something that you can put in your pocket to spend for whatever you want? Can you just say, well, I have faith, so I’ll have a bigger house. I have faith, so I’ll get well. I have faith, so I’ll have friends. I’ll have faith, so I can get married. I’ll have faith, so I can have a Cadillac. I’ll have faith, so I can… No, no, no, no, no, no. Faith is not getting man’s will done in heaven. Faith is God’s way of getting God’s will done on earth. Now, it’s very, very important that you see this because so many of us think that faith is something that we can use for ourselves. Look, if you will, in verse 12. Now, that’s the will of God. that you be saved. Go back, if you will, on down to verse 15 of this same chapter. And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. Now, the preacher is to be sent. The preacher doesn’t originate his own message. I don’t sit back there in my study or in my study of the house and say, now, what do I want these folks to know? What do I think will be good ideas for them? No. I am to be a messenger boy with beautiful feet, running with glad tidings. I have been sent where God says, go tell them this. Now, we have workers here at our church who buy things for the church, cleaning fluids and paper goods and so forth. Well, we don’t just say go buy whatever you think you want or whatever you think that we need. There is a requisition, a purchase order, something that is given so that they come back with the right stuff. You see, they don’t originate all of that. The object of somebody who goes to the supply store with a purchase order is to get what the leader says we need, what the administrator says we must have. And faith is God’s way of getting the things done that He wants done through us. That’s the objective of faith. Now, if you make faith some sort of a Midas touch, that makes God your servant. But God is not your servant. You are God’s servant. And again, faith is not getting man’s will done in heaven. It is getting God’s will done on earth. You say, well, wait a minute, Adrian. You mean to say that I’m hemmed up by the will of God? Yep. Just like a minnow hemmed up by the Atlantic Ocean. The will of God doesn’t mean fewer blessings for you. The will of God means more blessings for you. But the objective of faith is that God’s word that he sends will have its effect and God will do it through us. So what you need to do is to find the will of God because the Bible says this is the confidence that we have in him. If we ask him anything according to his will, he hears us. Well, how do we know His will? We know His Word. Well, how do we trust His Word? We know His person. So the object of faith is God Himself. The origin of faith is the Word of God. The objective of faith is the will of God. Now, if you’re not interested in the will of God, forget faith. So what should you do? If the object of faith is God, get to know God. If the origin of faith is the Word of God, begin to listen to God. If the objective of faith is the will of God, then submit to God. God doesn’t give His faith to rebels. Friend, learn to trust the Lord and let God stay in control. Now here’s the final thing, and we’ll just wrap this up. What is the operation of faith? The operation of faith is to obey God. Now watch this. If you say that you believe God, but you don’t obey God, you don’t really believe Him. Faith is belief with legs on it. Faith obeys. Now if we believe, obviously it is because God has enabled us to believe. But if we don’t believe, we’re the ones held responsible. Look, if you will, in… Verses 17 and 18. So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went out unto all the earth, and their words unto the end of the world. But skip down to verse 21. But Israel, he saith, all day long have I stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. Now, they have not all obeyed the gospel. You must obey the gospel. All day long, God says to Israel, have I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gang-sang people. Now, what does that mean, disobedient? Well, you know what disobedience is, just not obeying. What about gainsaying? We don’t use that word very much today, but it means obstinate. It means people who just refuse the Word of God. Here’s the Word of God, and it goes forth, and God is stretching out His hands. There’s some people say, oh, well, God just calls just some, and when God just calls some, they’re going to come, and nothing can stop it. You better read the Bible. Friend, he says, all day long have I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people. God is stretching out his hands. But they wouldn’t believe. They wouldn’t believe. They refuse. Gainsaying means that they are not only disobedient, but they are obstinate. They say no. They take the Word of God and they parade it past the judgment bar of their mind. And they make a jury of themselves. And they say, no, I don’t think so. I’m not going to obey that. Friend, the operation of faith is obedience. to God. You’re not saved by faith and works. You’re saved by faith that works. And if it hasn’t changed your life, if it doesn’t get down into shoe leather, if it doesn’t get down into your heart, if it doesn’t make you a different person, if it doesn’t cause you to obey the Word of God, don’t tell me you have faith. Don’t tell me you’re going to heaven. Faith without works is dead. That’s what James tells us. Now, you’re not saved because of your works. You work because you’re saved. But God stretches forth His hand and people can say no to Him. And if they say no to Him, God says, I stretched out my hands all day long to a disobedient and gainsaying people. They’ve not all obeyed the gospel. So when you believe, you obey. Trust and obey. For there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. The object of faith is God. Know Him. The origin of faith is the Word of God. Hear Him. The objective of faith is the will of God. Yield to it. It is heaven’s way of getting God’s will done on earth. And then the operation of faith is to obey God. Say, yes, Lord. It is belief with legs on it. Now, that brings me one last thing. You say, Pastor, is faith the gift of God? Yes. Faith is a gift of God. Does that mean if God gives it that I’m going to automatically believe? No. Breathing is a gift of God. God gives me lungs and God gives me air. That was a gift from God. That was a gift from God. But I can smother if I want to. Breathing is a gift of God. Faith is a gift of God. God gives you his word and God gives you his spirit. But then God says, whosoever will may come. Whosoever will may come. All day long have I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people. So it’s time right now for you to do the most wonderful thing that you could possibly do. And that is to trust this great God for salvation. For by grace are you saved through faith. You put your hand of faith in God’s hand of grace. And that’s salvation. And precious friend, right now, right now I want to lead you in a prayer. If you don’t know Jesus, pray this prayer. God, I believe that you are the Almighty. I want to put my faith in you. I believe the Bible is your word and you’ve spoken to me out of your word today. And I know, Lord, that you want to save me and I yield myself to that today. And now I will obey you By confessing you as my Lord and Savior. Right now. Father I pray that many will come to Jesus. In his dear name I pray. Amen.

SPEAKER 01 : 37:09

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