Adrian Rogers: How to Have a Rock-Solid Faith [#2054]

[Music] welcome to love words fine with Pastor teacher and author Adrian Rogers reaching out with God's love bringing people to Christ touching lives around the world and helping you find the answers you need today join us as we prepare to open God's Word and discover how your life can be changed forever by his great love where it's finding would you take please the Bible and look now in Romans chapter 5 find it if you will and when you found it just look up here I heard somewhere of a little boy who had a horse and the horse was really just an old oak burning nag horse was decrepit swayback and was it much of a horse really sort of a flea-bitten horse and a man was making fun of the little guy in his horse now the boy loved the horse very much because they've been pals for a long time the man in order to ridicule the little boy and have some fun with him said the son is that horse any good he said yes sir he's the best horse in the whole world he said well Sonny it doesn't look so good said can he run fast he said no sir but he can stand fast now I want to talk to you about how to have a faith that will stand fast how to have an anchor that will grip the solid rock how to put some spiritual steel and concrete in your life because in these desperate days in which we are living you will need it many Christians today are being blown about by the winds of circumstances and they are are being scattered by the storms of calamity and they are being swept away in floods of affliction and they don't have an anchor that will hold in the storm to the contrary their life seems to be built on eggshells and jello they're weak and floundering Saints and God wants us to be strong God doesn't want us to fold up and give up God wants us to look up and stand up God wants us to have a foundation that is sure the book of Romans is a foundation for our faith a solid word for an unsure age would you like to have rock-solid faith would you like for your anchor to hold you see God is in the business of building Saints when God gives you salvation he's not finished with you he's beginning with you the Bible says in Philippians 1 verse 6 he who hath begun a good work in you will perform it so getting saved does not mean we're not we're now the finished product one man was wearing a lapel button and it just had a series of letters on it it said p BP g INF WM y that's all it said on the button and a friend asked him what does that mean he said it means please be patient God is not finished with me yet and God is not finished with you yet God wants to build into you a rock-solid phase our scripture tells us how he does that in four steps and I want you to look at it right now beginning in verse 1 therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God and not only so but we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost now I want to ask you a question when God saves you what does God give you as the byproduct of byproduct of that salvation is it peace or is it tribulation the answer is yes now we read about the peace of God in verse 1 therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ but notice verse 3 and not only so but we glory in tribulations don't thank dear friend that when you get saved that all you get is peace and there's no problem no heartache no tears no disappointment oh no when God is going to build into you a rock-solid faith he's going to mix in some tribulation for things I want you to notice now folks this is for your welfare don't let this flow pass I mean this is God's Word to you now when I just playing games if you want to have a solid faith then you're going to have to learn today point number one conversion brings conflict did you get that conversion book brings conflict verses 1 & 2 he's talking about our conversion being justified by faith talking about peace with God he's talking about access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God oh yes praise God hallelujah we like that but now moving to verse 3 and not only so but we glory in tribulations now the word tribulation means pressure that's literally what the word means is translated here tribulation but it was used when you would crush grapes to get wine the same word tribulation Jews it was you when you would crush olives to get oil and God wants to build into your character the wine and oil of his strength and his love and so God is going to bring God is going to bring pressure into your life because without pressure God cannot make you a strong state without tribulation God will not make you a strong Saint you need conflict you need pressure conversion brings conflict a diamond is a lump of coal that's been under pressure for a long long time and you need to understand the ways of God that when you're having trouble and heartache and disappointment God is over at all the word luck does not belong in the Christians vocabulary and the word fake FTE does not belong in your category or in your vocabulary God is watching over it all now you may not be able to understand it Thomas Watson said where reason cannot waive their faith must swim but you must understand that God is over all and when you come to Jesus you're going to come into conflict and pressure now this conflict and this pressure may come from Satan or it may come from God but God is over at all Satan will bring conflict to cause you to stumble God will bring conflict to cause you to stand but you're going to know pressure as a Christian now some of this pressure is going to come from the world you know the Bible says in Romans 12 verse 1 don't be conformed to this world the minute you come to Jesus this world is going to begin to bring pressure on you to squeeze you into its mold and you'll feel that every day in the entertainment world in the business world in the social world in the political world there will be incredible pressure upon the child of God in this world with its theories and with its thrills this this world is going to come against you in so many ways but not only is the pressure going to come from the world it's going to come from the flesh you're going to find out that the once you get saved you receive a new nature but the old Adamic nature is still there the the proclivity to sin is still there you feel it I feel it you never get beyond the Bible calls this the flesh it is an enemy inside the fort and you're going to feel a civil war within you I felt it when I first got saved as a teenage boy I can remember a particular time after I'd given my heart to Jesus I was out with some friends and an incredible testimony i excuse me an incredible temptation came to me and I can remember as it were yesterday the incredible war that was going on within me because my flesh that Adrian that's something you want to do that's something you need to do everybody else is doing it and the Holy Spirit said to me no you're different you cannot do that and I felt the biggest battle going on in my heart and I prayed and I struggle as a new Christian friend you'll feel that when you come into salvation you're going to find out that the world be working on you to squeeze you into its mold and you'll find out that inside there's something that rises up in you and there is raging in you a conflict a civil war am I the only one who felt that have you felt it okay you feel it that's in all of us the Bible says the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to another then not only will there be the conflict with the world and not only will there be the conflict with the flesh but the conflict with the devil himself friend you never really understand the power Satan until you get saved till you get say because you say well I don't have any difficulty with the devil well if you don't let me tell you why it's because you and the devil is traveling in the same direction you turn around you have a collision with him right now you're in collusion with him but you turn around and you start the other way if you never met the devil it's because you and the devil are going in the same direction that's all I'm saying to you is when you get saved when you give your heart to Jesus Satan is going to level all of the artillery appel against you and if you're not struggling against the devil if you're not in battle with Satan now I tell you you must be a little better than Jesus because he was Satan came against Jesus he comes against me and he will come against you there was a man who had the farm hand worked on his farm the man was not a believer the farmhand was the two of them Hauer were friends and they went out the duck-hunting together and the man who was not a believer was saying to the farmhand he said look he said you're always talking about fighting with the devil and wrestling with the devil he said I never have to fight with a deadline I've had to wrestle with a devil now I'm not even a Christian he said boss if you and I shot two ducks one was wounded and one was dead which one would you go after first he said well I guess the wounded duck he said that's right he said the devil knows you are dead duck now friend that is true I mean if the devil doesn't bother you just because you're a dead duck you don't have to bother you but I'm saying this listen to me conversion brings conflict conflict like you've never known you may you may get the idea that you're not even saved because here you're sailing along and then one day you give your heart to Jesus and bang here comes the world here comes the flesh here comes the devil I guess you the Bible calls that tribulation the Bible calls that pressure but not only will it come from Satan to cause you to stumble it will come from God because you to stand God Himself will bring tribulation and pressure the Bible says whom the Lord loves he scourge ah's and disciplines every child of God you see listen God is not trying to make you happy wants to make you holy and temptation and testing and trials are part of life it's a false gospel that says if you come to Christ there'll be no adversity and there'll be no misfortune there'd be no persecution there'd be no pain the late great Vance habner said this and I've copied it down for you I want you to listen to it here's what Vance habner said he said I'm often amused and amazed by the way we equate Christianity with success popularity and prosperity we may not admit it but we use the same old gauge that the world uses except we use religious language it would appear that it would appear that gain is godliness with us in spite of Paul's formula that godliness plus contentment equals prosperity now I'm telling you folks that the first step in God building a rock-solid faith is conflict he tells us in verses 1 & 2 that we're going to be saved then it tells us in verse 3 that we need to glory in tribulation and remember the word tribulation means conflict it means pressure step number 2 step number 2 now this is what God is going to do to build character into your life a conflict teaches constancy conflict teaches constancy notice again knowing that tribulation worketh patience now what is patience not the ability to thread a needle not the ability to finish a crossword puzzle no the word patience means constant C it means consistency you see when the pressure comes the crisis comes it doesn't make you it just reveals what you're made of the same Sun that melts the ice hardens the clay the word patience again it means endurance the new American Standard said it brings about perseverance Goodspeed says it produces endurance how many in this building today would say pastor I want strength I want victory I want prosperity Haemon contentment oh you'd say Oh everybody here wants those I wonder if I would ask how many of you want patience very few of us would say I want patience but you never have these other things that I've just mentioned without patients without constancy without endurance you see tribulation works patience now come up close I'm going to tell you something you will never learn much of anything worth look learning if you don't have constancy endurance and patience you just won't do it if you want to learn how to play the piano you're going to have to learn the scales if you're going to learn Greek you're going to have to study the verbs sorry about that if if you want to lose weight you're going to have to have constancy if you want to build character you're going to have to persevere you're going to have to endure there is no instant maturity conversion brings conflict and conflict is meant to teach continuance constancy the Bible calls it patience what you do when the conflict comes are the four things you can do some people just retreat they just run away from conflict they whether physically or emotionally they get a plane ticket they take a pill they turn up a bottle they take a needle they take a gun they just try to run from conflict one man said the way to fight a woman is with your hat he said what do you mean he said grab it and run so some when conflict comes they retreat others when conflict comes they resent I mean they say I gave my heart to Jesus Christ I went down there I got baptized I started going to Sunday School I start tithing now look what has happened to me and they pout they get a grudge with God they become cynical they don't retreat they resent others resign they just cave in they give up they lie down on the field and surrender the shield and they get into discouragement and despondency but what is God's plan God's plan is not for you to retreat not for you to resent not for you to resign with the reasons Tom by faith that you will follow him faith listen to me faith has shown more in patience and constancy than in any other way if you really have faith when trouble comes you will endure faith is not receiving from God the things you want nearly so much as it is accepting from God the things against tribulation works patience don't try to to wiggle out of what God is doing to you job said though he slay me yet will I trust him Winston Churchill was a man it looked like a bulldog stood like a bulldog he was the one who said never never never never give up and he reminded us that a bulldog has his nose slanted backward so he can hold on and still breathe that's a bulldog now what you need to do is to get a bulldog grip on Almighty God and like Joe say I don't care what is happening what my children do what the doctor tells me what my banker tells me I will not let go my anchor hold you see what what is this constancy William Barkley describes it so well I want you to listen what he said it is not the patience that sit down and bow its head and let things descend upon it and passively endure until the storm has passed it is the spirit which can bear things not simply with resignation but with blazing hope it is not the spirit which sits statically enduring in one place but the spirit which bears things because it knows that these things are leading to a goal of glory it is not patients which grimly waits for the end but patients which radiantly holds for the dawn that's the kind of endurance that the child of God has oh I wish you would hear what he says so so notice conversion brings conflict a conflict teaches constancy and constancy develops character now watch it look in verse 4 if you will and patience experience now what does it mean experience the translation you may be holding in your lap today may say character patience constancy brings character and God wants to build into you character God wants to build into you rock solid faith God is building your Saints with spiritual steel and spiritual concrete you see reputation is what others think about your character is what God and your wife know about you God wants to build character into your life this word experience was used in the Bible of gold let's try it in the fire and comes out pure the same word that is it has character to it you see God is going to put you in the fire of affliction why to test you the faith that can't be tested can't be trusted so God is going to put you in the fire reflection to test you and that's the way that you're going to learn how much dross there may be in your life that needs to be burned out of your life the the sludge that's in the gold or you see that's the way God builds character I hate to tell you this folks but the time that I've grown the most and the time you will grow the most not when everything's been going fine with me you think back about those times when you grew the most in the Lord and most likely that those times you're going through sorrow and pressure and trouble in that truth listen it is just simply true that God in the furnace of affliction somebody wrote these lines I walked a mile with pleasure she chatted all the way but left me none the wiser for all she had to say I walked a mile with sorrow and not a word said she but all the things I learned from her when sorrow walked with me God wants to build character into your life and what God does is not to remove you from difficulty or pain but to the contrary God is in the transformation business you know God did not take away evil what God does he transforms it God didn't stop the crucifixion he just gave us Easter you see God's method is not the method of substitution most most of us will God to give us help instead of sickness we won't God to give us wealth instead of poverty we want God to give us friendship rather than loneliness we just want God to substitute things but God is not in the substitution business God is in the transformation business Paul took God took Paul's weakness and he transformed it in the strength he took his suffering he transformed it into glory this reason why job said he he knows the way that I shall take and and when you tried me I shall come forth as gold now God wants to build into you character and there's no way that you're going to have character which is also translated experience without experience that's reason why I think the King James Version translates it experience somebody was talking to a businessman he said how do you become a success in business he said good decisions I said that's fine he said where do you learn how to make good decisions he said experience he said well where do you get experience he said bad decisions is it what God is going to do God is going to put you in the furnace of affliction and God is going to build your character you can be instantly spiritual but you cannot be instantly mature and by the way you can be young once but you can be immature for a long time now listen here conversion brings conflict conflict teaches constancy constancy builds character if you will stay in the fire god knows what he's doing and most of us just want to get out of fire we don't stay there but they say that when the the person who is the refiner who is refining the gold he knows it's pure when he can see his face reflected in it what God is looking for is his character his likeness reflected in our lives now here's the fourth and final thing are you falling with me falling along now listen conversion brings conflict sorry but it's true conflict teaches constancy patience endurance stay in there when you do that constancy will build character then you know what will happen to you that character will give confidence that's the last thing that's the rock-solid faith I'm talking about the confidence look at it here in God's Word and patience experience character and experience what hope hope what does the Bible mean when it says hope it doesn't mean maybe so it might be no friend you need to understand this and if you don't get this you're going to miss the whole thing when the Bible uses the word hope it means rock solid hey that's what it means for example the second coming of Jesus is called what the Blessed hope that doesn't mean a blessed meeting no no he is talking about hope as an anchor of the soul all right now let me give you the scripture that I thought up Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 19 which hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast what good is an anchor without a solid rock which hope we have as an anchor of the soul steadfast sure you say well I want a rock solid faith all right conversion brings conflict and conflict teaches constancy and constancy preaches brings character and character brings confidence you bend through the fire and you know he has not failed you you know that he has kept his word you know that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers but things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord do you know what hope is hope is faith in the future tense I mean it believes God not only for the present but it believes God for the future Thomas Brooke said hope can see heaven through the thickest clouds doesn't matter what I have that absolute confidence now look at it he says here look and patience experience and experience hope now watch this and hope maketh not ashamed what does that mean make us not ashamed it means it will never disappoint you he cannot fail he will not fail but you need to get a bulldog grip on the things that really count no one ever has or ever can put his faith in Jesus and be disappointed or shamed that he did it that was a good place for an amen amen I read somewhere of a Salvation Army lass who had been witnessing to a family in a poor neighborhood as the people lived in upstairs tenement and the father in the home was an atheist and about atheist the philosophical atheist and this girl who worked in the Salvation Army had been trying to lead this family to the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and and as she the father would was in a conflict with her but she just kept loving and kept going the son in that family grew ill and he was critically ill they didn't have enough of whatever it took to put him in the hospital he was dying at home this girl went back one more time to see if she could witness to see if she could share the love of Jesus and as she stood outside the door she could hear what was going on in the door and reported it later the boy asked his dad dad am i going to die and the father said son you will die but don't worry about it after you die it will be all over you won't feel anything you won't know anything you will have forgotten the pain and the sorrow so so don't worry about it son I I love you son and just hold on son just hold on after a while would be over and the son said but but father I'm afraid and I don't want to die and but I I need some help and the father said son my son I love you it'll be over in a moment it'll be all over all over son hold on just hold on that Salvation Army last said I heard that boy pathetically say father you're telling me to hold on but there's nothing to hold on to friend I will tell you something when you know Jesus and when you're waters your feet touch those chilly waters of death and when the winds are blowing your anchor will hold your anchor will hold you will have a rock-solid thing that's what hope means that's what hope means conversion brings conflict conflict teaches constancy constancy builds character and character enables us to trust God in the darkest tone which hope we have as an anchor of the soul impossible pol in the book of Ephesians talked about those who were lost and it talked about them being alienated from the life of God without hope in this world aren't you glad there is a hope not amazing a hope our certainty that's what we have today now it begins with conversion would you bow your heads in prayer heads are bowed and eyes are closed while heads about maybe if somebody's praying for you right now but I want to talk to you if you're not certain that you're saved let me tell you how to be saved would you pray a prayer like this Lord Jesus mm-hmm Lord Jesus I know that you love me thank you for paying for my sin with your blood on the cross my sin deserves judgment thank you for taking my judgment thank you for bearing the penalty for my sin thank you for being my substitute thank you for such great love thank you lord and now Lord just by faith I open my heart I receive you I believe you're the Son of God I believe you paid the full debt for my sin I believe that God raised you from the dead and now right now I receive you into my heart as my Lord and Savior would you pray that right now I receive you into my heart as my Lord and Savior this moment forgive my sin cleanse me and save me I'm not asking for a special feeling I'm not looking for some kind of sign I stand on your word I just trust you by faith you're now my Lord and my Savior my God my guide my friend and Lord Jesus because you died for me I will live for you I will not be ashamed of you I will confess you openly I will follow you the rest of my life by your grace and for your glory we pray God has blessed you as you've watched this message if you'd like additional copies or information on other resources write us at love were exclaiming geobox 38 800 memphis tennessee 38134 at l w sm o RG in the u.s. you can place Visa or MasterCard orders by calling 1-800 two seven four five six eight three Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Central thank you and may God richly bless you [Music]

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Keywords: how, to, have, rock, solid, faith, foundations, for, our, romans, Adrian, Rogers, Dr, Pastor, Teacher, Teaching, Preacher, Preaching, Evangelist, Prophet, Prophecy, Truth, Praise, Faith, Worship, Gospel, Grace, Word, Minister, Ministry, Ministries, Love, Worth, Finding, God, Jehovah, Jesus, Christ, Christian, Christianity, Yahweh, Messiah, Saviour, Savior, Lord, Holy, Spirit, King, Lamb, Ghost, Bible, Bellevue, Baptist, Church, Saved, Salvation, Sermon, Fellowship, Trinity, Priest, Missionary, Revival, Lost, Sin, Satan, Backslide, Help, Forgiveness

Id: jEVWBFkWw30

Length: 36min 17sec (2177 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 29 2017