Abraham's Faith: Trusting God's Promises Against All Odds

True faith as the work of God is not a thing to be put down; it is a conquering grace and makes a brave fight against wicked unbelief. While doing so, faith has her eyes open, and she in due season spies out grounds of confidence. She looks at God himself, she considers the days of old, she remembers her own experience of the right hand of the most high, and thus she lifts her eyes to the hills whence cometh her help. [00:06:20]

Abraham had received an assurance from the Lord that he was to be the father of many nations. His faith in this promise underwent great trials. Whether is the sweet honey of promise, there the wasps of doubt will be gathered together. A promise calls for faith, but through our natural depravity, it awakens unbelief, and there is a struggle around the sacred promise, such as that represented in the prayer, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." [00:05:28]

The patriarch's faith settled down upon God's power to quicken the dead, and he found in that unquestioned faith a foundation for the firmest confidence. The truth of God's power to quicken the dead met all the difficulties of Abraham's position. He argued, "What if my body be dead? God can quicken it. What if my wife be in this matter as one dead? By God's power, she can receive strength." [00:08:14]

Abraham had a second holdfast in the creating power of God. The Lord had spoken to him concerning his seed as though it existed and had said, "I have made thee a father of many nations," as though these nations were already born. He had changed his name from Abram to Abraham, which means father of a multitude. Yet when he entered his tent, no child fondly climbed his knee, no babe smiled from the arms of Sarah. [00:09:09]

Faith beholds her visions in the night; she wants not earthly light. A blind man loses nothing by the set of sun, and faith loses nothing by the removal of outward evidences. Faith has wrought many of her greatest deeds in hours which seemed least suitable for her undertakings. Like David's hero, she slays her lion in the pit in the time of snow; like Jacob, she wrestles with the angel and wins the victory when night has fallen on all the world. [00:13:59]

Now is a special time, poor sinner, for believing in God that quickeneth the dead. Now is thy choice opportunity for testing the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus, who said, "I am the resurrection and the life." God can keep his promise of grace to thee, even to thee, if thou believest, for he quickeneth the dead. If thou believeth that all the dead shall rise at the last day, cast thou not believe that though thou art spiritually dead, God can quicken thee? [00:16:49]

When death crushes down the church and there seems no sign of revival, then should we believe in the God of resurrection. The carnal man cares nothing for the condition of the church of God, but the spiritual man takes pleasure in her stones and favors the dust thereof. Some of us would sooner suffer personal calamity than see the cause of God and truth in a low condition. [00:22:51]

Abraham believed and looked at things from God's standpoint. As it is written, "I've made thee a father of many nations before him whom he believed, even God." Abraham looked at the promise as Abraham, and he could not see how it could be. He had no child, and his wife was old, but God calls him by the name which signified "father of a multitude" because he viewed him as such. [00:45:08]

Abraham as the outcome of his faith obeyed God in all things, a very essential point this. Believing God, he left his estates in Ur of the Chaldees and came to Canaan to live in tents and wander about like a gypsy, that he might dwell where the Lord had called him to sojourn, alone, a stranger in a strange land. If you believe the promise of the gospel, you will come out from the world, you will come out from sin, and you will become one of those strangers who followed Jesus whithersoever he goeth. [00:49:14]

All true believers, like Abraham, obey. Obedience is faith in action. You are to walk in the steps of the faith of father Abraham. His faith did not sit still; it took steps, and you must take these steps also by obeying God because you believe him. That faith which has no works with it is a dead faith and will justify no one. How should a dead thing justify? [00:49:33]

Justification by faith is no fiction; it is a fact that the believer is just, is saved, is complete in Christ Jesus. God give us to see this fact even as he sees it, and then being justified by faith, we may have peace with God. Next, you see that Abraham considered his body now dead. Our authorized version runs thus: he considered not his own body now dead. [00:53:15]

The moment you believe in his risen son, God counts you righteous, and as you keep on believing, God accounts you righteous. "Oh, but I'm a poor imperfect creature." God counts you righteous. "I strive after holiness, but I am not what I want to be." God counts you righteous. God never makes mistakes; he never miscounts. If he counts a man righteous, that man is righteous, depend upon it. [00:53:15]