Fully Persuaded

Introduction: Take your Bibles this morning and turn to Romans chapter 4.

As you turn there, this letter to the Romans was penned by Paul the Apostle who had a great desire to preach the Gospel to those that were in Rome.

The main subject of this tremendous epistle in the first half is Salvation by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the second half, Paul speaks about living the Christian life.

And Although this section of Scripture primarily deals with Salvation by grace through faith and this matter of Justification.

I want us to see that there is many gems of truth scattered in this treatise that deal with you and I concerning the Christian life.

Read Romans Chapter 4:1-21.

I want you to make note of that phrase “being fully persuaded...”

Let’s pray

You and I are called to a life of faith.

This is the God ordained life for the Christian.

We are to live from “faith to faith” for the just shall life by faith.

Perhaps the greatest example of this, outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, is found in the life of Abraham.

When we think of those triumphant figures in the Word of God that lived by faith prior to Abraham, we remember folks like Noah, and Enoch...

But here the Holy Spirit gives us an example that would be especially compelling concerning this matter of faith by citing Abraham, who often called the “Father of faith...”

This example is what we find here in Romans chapter 4.

In this particular account we are told that Abraham was fully persuaded by the promises of God.

What a challenging statement for you and I.

I desire to be a man that is fully persuaded by God’s promises;

I want to be a man that is full of faith and of the Holy Ghost.

We find also by the way, just as a side note, that coupling together, men that were full of faith were described as being full of the Holy Ghost…

You will see that coupling in Stephen in Acts chapter 6 (as well as no doubt the other men spoken about in Acts 6) and also Barnabas in Acts 11.

But here we see that Abraham is spoken about as an example of this kind of fully persuaded faith.

I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ will use men and women today that have a fully persuaded faith in Him and His promises.

I think in this day we need some Christians to labour for Christ who are fully persuaded by the promises of God.

With that being said, I want to give you three points concerning this fully persuaded faith.

I. Abraham: an example of faith

God had dealt with man since the beginning...Think about all that took place up until this point.

We have:

The fall of man

The corruption of man

The worldwide flood and Noah

The tower of Babel and the scattering of the people. And then following all of this, God deals directly with a man. He calls Abraham from Ur of Chaldees. A place esteemed of idolatrous worship.

Some 400 years at least had passes since God last spoke to Noah.

As we look back at that early incident of faith, we come to understand the magnificent unfolding of this promise culminating in the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ “the son of David, the son of Abraham…”

In other words because Abraham was fully persuaded in His faith toward God, the Lord Jesus Christ as pertaining to the flesh descended from that line.

Think of how God used Abraham as an example of faith, Abraham being fully persuaded.

Did Abraham fully grasp what the results of his faith would bring?

I think like Abraham, you and I have no idea the ramifications of us living the faith.

Listen Abraham lived and died physically some 2000 years before the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I’ve got this chart in my study that shows the guestimated time frame from each chapter of the Bible beginning in Genesis 1 through the birth of Christ.

And when you come to Abraham’s call in Genesis chapter 12, along with the first mention of the Abrahamic Covenant through the 1st Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ at His incarnation in Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2.... you have to follow that chart all the way around the border. It follows the full circumference of the border and arrives on the bottom side some 2000 years later.

Its quite astounding when you think of it.

A. The promise decreed.

Genesis 12:1-4 “1 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2 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: 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. 4 So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.”

In Genesis 12, God made certain promises:

- To make of him a great nation. (This implied him having a child.)

- To make his name great and that he should in some way be a blessing. (The extent of the blessing would be to all families of the earth. This in greatest contrast to the curse that was upon all of Adam’s race.)

- To bless them that bless him and to curse them that curse him.

In verse 7 of chapter 12 God further promises to Abraham the land of Canaan to his seed. (Again implying his posterity.)

“And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.”

In Genesis 13 the Lord enlarges this promise even further and states that Abraham’s seed will be as the dust of the earth; innumerable.

In Genesis 15 God tells Abraham his seed shall be as the stars of heaven: innumerable.

Abraham received this first promise at the age of 75 (Genesis 12:4).

What a tremendous lesson just knowing this that God is able to do marvelous things with those even in the middle of their lives or even their latter years being fully persuaded. (Abraham died at the age of 175.)

Almost ten years later (Genesis 15:1-6) , Abraham asked God yet again concerning this promise. No child had been given to Abraham.

Think of it, between chapters 12 and 13 of Genesis, God declares yet again this promise. Clearly in Genesis 12, the Lord promised to make of Abraham a great nation. This could only come from His seed.

Genesis 13 tells us that the Lord enlarges this promise way beyond Abrahams ability to grasp. You seed Abraham shall be “as the dust of the earth…”; without number. And yet there he is with not even a child of his own.

Abraham reaches the age of 90…15 years had passed…Abraham is walking by faith… and still no son of his own.

At 85, he had given in to carnal reasoning and took Hagar to raise up seed as Sarah was still barren.

Looking at the Bible, we see that this was not the promised seed God had spoken about. The impossibility of fulfilling the promise.

One Bible expositor - “A time arrived when humanly speaking this hope seemed impossible of realization.”

B. The Promise Believed.

“Nevertheless, “against all hope,” that is, in spite of the fact that the birth of the child of promise appeared to be impossible, Abraham “in hope”...continued to trust in God.

Result: the hope was fulfilled so that, through his son Isaac, Abraham became “the father of many nations”

I want you to see that there was a requirement not just of faith, but the quality of this faith was tried by time.

I was tried by time and it was tried by circumstances.

You see Abraham, has the seal of God’s Holy Word to attest to the fact that He had a strong faith.

The scriptures testify to the fact that Abraham was fully persuaded, that God was able to perform that which He had promised.

The Bible says in verse 18 of our text that Abraham “...against hope believed in hope...”

In verse 19, the Holy Spirit shows us that His faith was not weak but was a strong faith....stating, “And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead....” at the age of 100 when he received the promised child.

In verse 20 the Holy Spirit contrasts Abraham’s faith with what is spoken about in the book of James, that Abraham did not stagger at the promise of God vacillating between to two opinions, as an unstable man.

But in conclusion was “fully persuaded...”

This does not imply that Abraham did not wrestle with how this should take place.

But rather that His faith, His belief and trust was in the God who is “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Ephesians 3:20)

The repetition and enlargement of the promises given to Abraham show us the important role of the Word of God, the preaching of the Word of God and the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives in the increasing of our faith.

We have not only the Promise Declared, the Promise Believed, but lastly,

C. The promise received.

Abraham at this very moment is in heaven having found the end of his faith!

We often think of these folks of time past, as if they cease to be, but the Bible assures us that Abraham has seen the end of his faith and is very much alive at this present moment.

The Lord Jesus Christ spoke to this in Matthew chapter 22 when he stated, “31 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, 32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? [in the present tense] God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

You see Abraham received the promise of that child in Issac, and he will see, the entire fulfillment of all that God promised to him in due time.

The bible tells us in the book of John that Abraham rejoiced to see the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ speaking in John 8:56 stated, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.”

He saw the end of these things, by faith.... He rejoiced at the Lord’s promises…he rejoiced at the Lord’s redemptive plan...

What fully did he understand in totality, we do not know. But we do know that God has and will fulfill all that God had told him.

And so,

II. Christians: Followers in faith.

You and I like Abraham have received many precious exceeding great promises by God.

A. The promises made.

We do not have to look any farther than God’s Word to see these promises.

In II Peter 1:2-4 “2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, 3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

What are these exceeding great and precious promises?

What promises should we be fully persuaded concerning?

They begin first of all with:

Salvation -

You and I ought to be fully persuaded, that without Christ every man is under the condemnation of God.

There were a few folks that my wife and I were able to give a Gospel track to and encourage them to receive Christ. But if they do not receive Christ, they are under the condemnation of God.

We ought to be fully persuaded that God has promised to save them that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

When we look in the Scriptures, we understand that the Gospel is available to all men. The heart of God declares that He would that all men would be saved.

Those that are here this morning without Christ, Salvation is available to you by receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.

Today you can enter into a relationship with God by admitting you are a sinner, understanding that because of your sin, you are separated from God. Quite simply you have broken God’s law. And the wages of that sin is death.

You can this day receive Jesus Christ as your Savior by believing on Him and death, burial and resurrection.

He took your punishment on the cross of Calvary being made sin for us. He bled and died, but the Bible says He rose again for our justification. My friend you can be fully persuaded of this today and enter into Salvation by receiving Jesus Christ today.

You and I Christians who are saved ought be fully persuaded of this.

We ought to be fully persuaded about this matter of:

Sanctification -

Listen, you are not stuck in the Christian life. Many today have given up on faith. They have ceased to believe that God is working in their lives conforming them to the image of Christ.

Many of have ceased to believe that God is working good in their lives.

Perhaps it is that the circumstances around you seem bleak. Perhaps it is that you have had trouble with a certain sin in your life, or things just have been difficult and you given up on this truth that God gives good gifts to His children.

Let me encourage you this morning that God is working in our lives to conform us to image of His dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is fitting us to be vessels to His glory in eternity.

The Bible says in Romans 8:29-30 “29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”

Paul in His letter to the church at Philippi used that same word translated in Romans 8:29 as the word conformed, to express his earnest desire and understanding of this work that God is doing in his life. He states in,

Philippians 3:10 “10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;”

In that same letter we find an expression of the next thing you and I ought to fully persuaded about and that is our:

Glorification -

Philippians 3:21 “21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned (there is that same word that was translated as conformed) like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”

We ought to be fully persuaded concerning Salvation, Sanctification, and Glorification.

But then I believe the Bible shows us and teaches us that we ought to be fully persuaded about the

4. Power of God’s Word and the Gospel.

Listen Pauls said in Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

I want you to understand and be fully persuaded this morning that there is power in the Word of God.

You and I may approach someone with a simple Gospel track and think in weakness of faith this will never work. This person will never be saved.

But let me remind you this morning the Word is powerful and it is alive!

Isaiah 55:11 says “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”

There has never been a time when God’s Word does not accomplish that which he sends it forth to do.

My friend the Word of God still has power to bring salvation to those that will believe.

The Word of God still has power to bring conviction to the hearts of men through the operation and ministry of the Holy Spirit.

The Word of God still has sanctifying power in the life of a Christian.

You and I need to be fully persuaded in the Power of God’s Word and the Gospel.

5. You and I need to fully persuaded of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ and Judgement to come.

Illustration - Just this past week my wife and I spent some time down in Florida… And as we began our trip down there and spent some time there we became aware on an system that was beginning to form just below the gulf of Mexico. We began to see this system form into a tropical storm and then eventually a full fledged Hurricane. It came to a point where we knew it was coming, it was on the precipice of arriving there in Florida.

Listen we were fully persuaded that this was going to happen. And so, with that understanding we made arrangements to leave the area we were in.

Now we didn't know exactly when that storm would arrive or exactly where it would hit, but my friend we were sure it was coming.

The Bible tells us in II Peter 1:19 “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:”

You and I have the sure prophecy of Scripture recorded for us concerning the return of the Lord Jesus Christ and the judgement to come.

We ought to be fully persuaded about the return of our Saviour the Captain of the Host and the Captain of our Salvation.

Lastly, though we could continue for so much more

6. We ought to be fully persuaded of God’s goodness and protection of His children.

My friend, we are living in perilous times. We are living in eventful days.

I love this prophecy found in Isaiah 54 verse 17.

Isaiah 54:17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.

What an encouraging promise from the Word of God concerning the servants of the Lord!

“The inheritance which awaits those who serve God is truth and victory.”

I think of that hymn I am on the winning side

“Once I drifted out in sin, had no hope nor joy within, And my soul was burdened down with pride; Then my Savior came along and he showed me I was wrong and Now I know I'm on the winning side

I'm on the winning side,yes I'm on the winning side, Out in sin no more will I abide, I've enlisted in the fight or the cause of truth and right Praise the Lord- I'm on the winning side”

You and I my friend despite all that is going on around us are on the winning side.

Abraham understood regardless of what took place He was on the winning side.

Well how is it we are to be fully persuaded in these promises.? What do we find in the Word of God to help us in our belief.

B. The promises believed.

The record of those before us.

God has given us the certain record of those who have gone before us.

In Romans 15:4 “4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”

In these records we see a progression of faith in their lives of individuals and the outworking of that faith.

I think about the example given to us in real time as the man at Bethsaida who was blind was miraculously healed by the Lord Jesus Christ.

This blind began in faith by the word of others, being led of them to the Lord and beseeching to Lord to heal this blind.

The blind man then took a further step of faith and held the hand of Jesus being led out of the town.

The Lord touched this man having spat on his eyes and asked what he saw.

To which the men replies “I see men as trees, walking.”

In other words, I progressing in faith… I am beginning to see.

Until finally the man sees after being touched by the Master physician once again. And the Bible says, the man “was restored, and saw every man clearly...”

Giving glory to God increases our faith.

Our vision of God will determine our faith.

Let me say it this way, How we know God by and through His Holy Word will determine whether we are fully persuaded or not.

The more we look to the Lord, the more we will increase in our faith.

My friend let me ask the question of you this morning, What glory do you ascribe to God?

What honor and place do you give Him in your life?

Are you looking to Jesus the honor and finisher of your faith?

My wife recently reminded me of Peter’s act which vividly described for you and I the eye of faith being on our Savior.

You’ll remember that it was Peter realizing by acknowledgement it was the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who had fed the multitudes walking on the water cried out, "Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.”

This exclamation of faith gave glory to the Lord of glory Jesus Christ. His eye of faith was on His Savior.

But as he began on the process of faith… taking step by step the Bible tells us that “he saw...” with his distracted eyes all the danger around him and began to sink...

But faith jettisoned up once more and he looked immediately upon the Lord Jesus Christ and cried “Lord, save me.”

It was the three Hebrew children, that also we getting ready to be thrown into the fiery furnace that exclaimed in Daniel 3:17 “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.”

In other words, We give glory to and honor to God who is able to deliver us if he so desires.

3. Step by step leads to greater faith.

If we are going to be men and women of strong faith…fully persuaded in the promises of God, we must do so by taking more steps of faith.

We all are familiar with the story of Abraham recorded for us in the Scriptures.

At the age of 100, Abraham had the promised child Isaac. Genesis chapter 21 records for us Sarah’s conception and the birth of Isaac in verses 2 and 5.

But then in Genesis 22, we find after many years had passed, that the Lord asked Abraham to take another greater step of faith.

Many surmise that Issac was at least 13 years of age if not older…he could have been 25 years of age…We simply do not know.

Regardless of the exact age, Abraham had much time to be firmly fond and acquainted with His precious boy.

And as one victory of faith led to another victory of faith, we see that Abraham was asked to display for you and I a stronger faith.

We all know that Isaac was reckoned as dead in Abrahams eyes on that mount and though the LORD stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, In Abraham’s mind he had already taken that step of faith…being fully persuaded by the promises of God.

And I ask the question, How does a man get to that place where he would be willing to give everything to the Lord, even his only son.

The Bible says that Abraham accounted, “that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.” (Hebrews 11:9)

I close with this illustration from an expositor of the Word of God, “ But how many people would willingly put themselves into positions requiring such faith? One who did was George Müller, the German-born minister of the nineteenth century. After a profligate youth and life-changing conversion to Christ, Müller moved to London, where he involved himself in a variety of ministries. Eventually, he was drawn to Bristol, England, where he began ministering to the multitudes of orphan children in the vicinity. Starting with only a few children, he eventually had two thousand under his care, accommodated in a large spread of houses and buildings.

Müller’s ministry might not have gained such attention except for the way in which it was financed. He made no requests for funds at all, but simply committed his needs to God in prayer. Müller himself lived without financial or material assets, but trusted for all things in the provision of the one whom he believed had promised to meet all of his needs. By Müller’s own testimony, there were times when he would have no food with which to feed the orphans under his care. But acting by faith, he would prepare the table, set the children at their places, and then wait upon God’s provision. Invariably, provision would arrive—a delivery, a knock at the door, an unexpected gift. George Müller was a man who, like Abraham, placed his faith in the God who promised he would provide.”

“All of these facts make Abraham’s faith that much more wonderful. He did not have a Bible to read; he had only the simple promise of God. He was almost alone as a believer, surrounded by heathen unbelievers. He could not look back at a long record of faith; in fact, he was helping to write that record. Yet Abraham believed God. People today have a complete Bible to read and study. They have a church fellowship, and can look back at centuries of faith as recorded in church history and the Bible. Yet many refuse to believe!

“God honours faith; and great faith honours God”

I wonder as we close, are you going to attempt to be “fully persuaded” as Abraham was in our Lord Jesus Christ?

By immersing yourself in the records before us that God has given to us.

By giving glory to God, beholding Him through the Scriptures in fellowship with Him… All eyes on the Savior...

By taking step by step…walking in faith...

In the end, will God write down in His record there is one of mine that is fully persuaded!