Ron Dunn Podcast - The Kind of Faith that God Requires

Episode Date: August 6, 2025

We must walk through the door of salvation by faith. Faith is the key to salvation.

Romans chapter 4, verses 16 through 25. Last Sunday morning, I preached to you a message on why God requires faith. This morning the message is the kind of faith that God requires, the quality of faith that God requires in our lives. Romans chapter 4, verses 16 through 25. Therefore, it is a faith in order that it might be by grace. To the end, the promise might be sure to all the seeds, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made thee a father of me.

many nations, before him whom he believed, even God, who quicken us the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were, who against hope, believe in hope that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body, now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's wounds. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith giving glory to God. And being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was also able to perform. And therefore, it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now, it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us all

soul to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus, our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification. Salvation is like a house with many rooms, and the only way that you can unlock the door that leads inside that house is with a key named faith. For by grace are you saved through faith. It is grace that saves us. It is God who saves us. Grace makes salvation available, and faith merely accepts what grace makes available.

So when I come to that place where I am willing to submit myself to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I am ready to receive the salvation that he so graciously offers, I must walk through that door. by faith. Faith is the key that unlocks the door of salvation. Nothing else. I merely accept. I merely take by faith what Jesus Christ has done for me on the cross. And so God places in my hand the key of faith.

I insert it in the lock. I turn it. I walk in. I'm saved. Not by faith. I'm saved by Jesus. But faith, you see, accepted what Jesus has for me. Well, I get inside that house, and I see a lot of rooms.

There's more to being saved than just being saved. Salvation is like a house with many rooms. I don't want to simply be on the threshold. That's not a place to live. None of us like to come into a house and just made a spit right there on the threshold. We want to go into the other rooms. A lot of rooms we want to go into. Want to go into the kitchen.

Oh, I'd hate to go into a house and not have to go into the other rooms. have a key to the kitchen. Don't want to just stand there on the fresh door. When I get tired, I want the key to the bedroom. Salvation's like that. Once you get inside, you realize there's so much more to being saved than you ever dream.

There's a door over there. There's a room over there called Victory Over Temptations. Boy, I'd like to have that. Because I've realized that even though I've been saved, I still have problem with sin. I thought after I was saved, I would sprout wings, and the halo would rest upon my head,

and I would never anymore be bothered with sin and temptation. But I find that I'm still weak, and I still yield to temptation, and there's a room over there marked victory over temptation. If I could just get a key to that door, I go over there, and it's locked, and so I fumble through all my keys. I've got all kinds of keys. There's the key of self-effort, and I try that, and it just won't work. There's the key of struggle.

I think, well, if I'll go to church more, that'll get me in front. that room of victory, and so I put in the key of church attendance, and that doesn't work. Well, maybe if I were to start pithing, oh, that's desperate. You've really got to be desperate to try that, but I really want victory over temptation, so maybe if I'll just start tithing, that'll give me victory over sin, and so I take that key, marked pithing, but none of the keys were. I would love to get inside that room of victory, but I can't do it. There's another room over there, Mark's witnessing.

Oh, I'd like to do that. I hear the Bible says that I'm supposed to witness, and Jesus said if I'm saved, I'll be a witness for him. And I would love to witness, but I just can't do it if I could get inside that door, and I go and I try the door and it's locked, and so I reach in, and I pull out a bunch of keys, and I'll try the key of study course. Maybe if I just have a study course, I'll be able to witness, but that won't work. I'll have the key of Gloriaita, where they had a conference on reaching others, and that's

what I need. I need to go to a conference on how to reach others, and I try that key, and that doesn't work, so I'm locked out of that. There's the door of service, there's the door of teaching, there's the door of self-control, there's the door of joy, there's the door of peace, all of these magnificent rules in salvation, and I can't get in a single one of them. I might as well be lost outside of the fact that when I die I'll go to heaven, but as far as in its practical living, salvation is not doing anything for me,

because the Lord only gave me one key, and that was just the key to get in. and he didn't give me all these other keys. Boy, you know what the greatest discovery of my life is when I discovered that key of faith is a master key. And it unlocked every door in the house. I'm saved by the means of faith. And I live the Christian life by the same means. For by grace are you saved?

Jesus 2, 8, and 9. For by grace are you saved? And that little Greek word saved is in a perfect tense which reads like this. For by grace have you been saved and are you being saved? Salvation is not merely a point in time. Salvation is a process. I have been saved, that's right. But I am being saved today.

Jesus is saving me today. And the Bible says in Romans chapter 5. in the amplified translation, I will be daily delivered from sin's dominion. That's what it means, by being saved. I have already been saved. When I was nine years old, I took Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I was saved. That was a point in time, but that's not all there is to it.

For by grace, I was saved back under. By grace, I am being saved. So, Ephesus is 2.8 and 9 rigs like this. For by grace, have you been saved, and are you being saved? through faith by grace are you saved through faith

it is through faith that I am saved and it is through faith that I live my Christian life faith is the master key that unlocks every door

in the house I have victory over temptation the same way I was saved by grace through faith not by effort not by struggle not by rules

and regulation when I was a junior or a senior in college and we'll forget one night I sat in the living room with my wife we were discussing things of the Christian life and I cut my spiritual teeth on hellfire and damnation preaching and as many of you did I remember my first firm and if I didn't have something in there

about the movies and dancing and smoking and gipping snuff and all this sort of stuff it wasn't preaching to me you know I remember my earlier revival I used to have a youth night Had it night Youth night And I ask all the young people to come And give up sins of the youth

Not going to do any more kidding No more dancing No more drinking No more going to picture shows And you know of course anybody was afraid to stay back Because if they stayed back Boy that put a label on them So every young person in the congregation would come

But after a week or two You know they'd be right back where it was I remember one night I said to my wife I said you know I'm not even able to live up from my own preach. And I was so tired of struggling and striving to keep rules and regulations. I thought that victory and joy and the abundance of the Christian life kept pain through

rules and regulations. And it was a startling and depressing failure when I realized I couldn't even do what I was asking other people to do. Faith is the master's. keys that unlocks the door. God has only one way of my being right with Him. That is by grace through faith. There is only one way that I today can be right with God,

not by anything that I am doing, but by simply resting in what he has done. The same way I was saved or the same way I live today. Now, the kind of faith that God requires, requires from every one of us is the same kind of faith that Abraham had. Same kind of faith that Abraham had. You know, four different times in the Bible, you'll find this same verse, The just shall live by faith. Now, why did God say that four times? Is it because he was running short of material? No, God isn't redundant. God never waste the word. God has always brief, concise, and to the point.

But four different times in the book of Abacca, in the book of Romans, in the book of Galatians, in the book of Hebrews, the Bible says the just shall live by faith. Obviously, God was trying to teach us that the just, those who are saved, those who are justified, live by faith. We don't live by any other means except by faith. Not by struggle, not by self-effort, not by anything that I do. We live by faith. And so Paul says the quality of faith that God won't.

wants to find in every person's life is the same quality you found in that man called Abraham. Notice what it says in verse 16, that the promise is to all of us, notice, but to that also which has faith like Abraham is what it means. The kind of faith that God looks for when he looks at my life and when he looks at your life is the kind of faith that Abraham has. Abraham is the perfect illustration of the quality of faith that God requires in my life. saving faith, the kind of faith that takes salvation, the kind of faith that brings victory in our day to life is the quality of faith that we found in the life of Abraham.

So he says he is the father of us all. He is an example of every one of us. If I want to know how to face it in my daily life, I need to go back and look and see how Abraham did it. So, there are three things that Abraham was characterized Abraham's faith, and there are three qualities of your faith that must be present in your faith if you're going to be saved, first of all. If you're going to be saved, you can't be saved without this kind of faith. First of all, if you're going to be saved, you must have this kind of faith. Secondly, if you're going to be spiritual after you are saved, you have to have this kind of faith. Three things.

of all, the kind of faith that God requires that quality of faith is faith that centers in a person, faith that focuses on a person. Notice what he says in verse 17, to whom he believed even God. Where did Abraham place his faith? He placed it in a person. He placed it in God. Now, there is a common mistake about faith. Faith is a very popular faith. subject. Everybody talks about faith. Even the unchaise talk about faith. There have been some famous men who've written famous books on the power of policy thinking and the power of of policy believing in such as this. And I was reading some time ago, one of the greatest authors on this thing, here's the statement that he made. He said, you have to have faith

in faith. Just believe in belief. you've got to have faith in faith. All things are possible to him that believe. Just believe. Just believe. Just believe. Just have faith. And everything will work out all right. The Bible doesn't keep that, and that's not free. Once in a while I'll talk to someone about their salvation. And they say, oh, I'm sad. I said, how you know? Oh, I'm just believing. I just believe it. I just, you know, if you have enough faith, you can be saved. I just believe that God's going to save. No, that's not what he's talking about. A lot of people have faith in faith. Faith and gain enough faith and faith believe hard enough and believe long enough and believe strong enough that will come to pass. No, sir. Some of us, the problem with us this morning in this place is you have faith in your faith.

That's why you're not doing anything. That's why there's no evidence of spiritual life in your life. That's why there's no victory in your life because you're placing your faith in your faith and you say, oh, if I just had the faith of brothers doing so. If the Lord would just give me a stronger faith. Jesus Christ

didn't say, if you have a certain amount of faith, if you have a lot of faith, you can move mountains. He didn't say that. He said if you have any faith at all, you can move mountains. Now, I want to make a statement. I hope you'll write it down or remember it if you have a good memory.

faith is only as valid as its object. Faith is only as valid, only as worthy as its object. The most important thing in faith is not the subject of faith, it's the object of faith. I make a statement, I believe in. I am the subject of faith. What I believe in is the object of my faith. Now, the important thing is not the subject of my faith. It's not how strong my faith is, or it's not how weak my faith is.

The important thing is that object in which my weak faith is placed. Now, let me illustrate. Back in the spring, when I was in Colorado, the priest at Ponderosa, it was told up there. and we were doing a little sightseeing one day and we came to some lakes that were ice over and somebody told me you could just, you know, they'd skate on that ice, you could just walk out across that lake

there, that ice is solid enough. Well, part of country I've always lived in we never had ice like that. And so I thought I would just kind of skirt around the edges and I walked out there on that lake, just right on the edge, so that it broke through, I'd be able to get to shore before too much time elapsed. And I think, well, I'll walk out just a little bit farther, but I just didn't have enough faith to walk out any farther.

I wasn't about to get out there in the middle and have that thing break on me and go under and freezing water, not on your life. I just wasn't going to trust it. I wasn't certain about it, so I just spit back. Well, if I got in the tar and we left, As I saw a fellow, there was another little lake right next by it. And right out in the mad dab thinner of that lake, there was a fellow sitting there fishing.

He had a little box. He had put a hole in the ice. He was sitting there on that box. Fishing. I don't know. Boy, that guy's got faith in that ice. Tremendous faith in that ice. I had weak faith in thick ice, and it held me up.

What held me up when I walked out there on that lake? It wasn't my faith. It was the ice. My faith, if it had only been as valid as the subject, if I had had faith in my faith, if the strength of my faith determined whether or not that ice held me up, I would have plunged into the water. But the strength of my faith didn't have anything to do with it.

What made my weak faith valid was that it was faith in strong ice, even though I wasn't aware of. Faith is only as valid as its object, and weak faith in strong ice will hold you up every time. Now, I could have had strong faith in weak ice, and I would have gone under. I could come back to Texas, and January in a little sheet of ice hovers the lake, and I say, well, now I was up in Colorado, and I saw a fellow sitting out there in the middle of a lake fishing on that ice. If he can do it, I can do it. I just believe that I can do it.

I just believe that I can do it. And so I proceed to walk out down on ice. I haven't taken five steps until I'm in the water. Strong faith in weak ice is not worth anything. Weak faith in strong ice is tremendous. Faith is only as valid as its object. Now, you want to know how to increase your faith and get stronger faith? Well, I've been thinking today about that fellow I saw sitting there on that, in the middle of the lake, fishing.

Now, where did his faith come from? How come he had so much more faith than I had? He wasn't a tourist, that's why. He was a native. He knew the land. He knew the temperature. He knew the characteristics of that lake. He knew that ice.

His faith in an ice grew stronger and stronger as his knowledge of the object of his faith increased. I want to say this morning how you can have tremendous faith and strong faith and growing faith. You'll learn more about the object in your faith as far. Look at what it says. Abraham placed his faith in a person, and it says he believed in God. And it says two things about the God he believed in. First of all, who quicken us the dead. Now that's mighty chief, mighty power.

he believed in a person what about that person that person had enough power to raise the dead not over that but he called us those things which be not as though they were

that means that the Lord's feet and non-existent things come into existence for that's power that's power Abraham wasn't believing in a little weak God he was believing in a God that he knew had the power to raise the dead and had the power to just speak a word

and non-existent things would come into existence, and he placed his faith in that kind of God. That's why I love to read the Psalms. You read the Psalms, and you'll notice the Psalms are full of the majesty and the greatness of God. Then you know why David was such a man of faith. God is our refuge in a very present hell in time of trouble. He makes us warrants to see. He puts the bow to thunder.

Come and behold the works of the Lord. See what desolation he has wrought in the ends of the earth. David is constantly magnifying the greatness and the power of God. That's why he was a man of faith. I look over here and I see John was a man of faith. No wonder because we opened his gospel with the majesty of Jesus. He says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. and the Word was God.

And all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. A great God. I read over in Colossians, where he says he is the image of invisible things, and he has created all things, and by him all things, hold together. The omnipotent power of the Lord Jesus Christ not only created this universe, but he holds it together. Now, you can take the weakest, the sickest faith, around and place it in a magnificent, omnipotent God, and it will work miracles. The kind of faith that God requires is faith that doesn't believe in what you can do

and doesn't believe in faith, but it believes in a person. It centers all of that faith in Jesus Christ. I am counting on His power. That's what faith means. If you want a definition of faith, it simply means to rely to take. count on God's power. That's what it is. All right.

Secondly, this quality of faith is not only faith that centers in a person, it is also faith that contradicts the problem. Now, God changed to Abraham and said, Abraham, you're going to have a child. A little boy. Boy, I'd like to have been there when God told Abraham that. Abraham was at least 99 years old.

He was way past the age of... Pile bearing, Sarah had never been able to bear children. Even when Abraham was able to have children, Sarah was unable because she was barren. Can you imagine what God? And God told Abraham, Abraham, I know you're nearly 100 years old, and you're past the ability to have children, and Sarah's never been able to have children, but listen, I have news for you, you're going to have a child. more I would like to have been there when Abraham told Sarah. I don't know about you, but normally it's a woman who's the first to know,

but this time the man was the first to know. Can you imagine that? You know what? If God had come to some of us, we've been in Abraham's place, you know what we've said? Oh, Lord, no, you've made a mistake because I'm a hundred years old, and there's no possibility of my having a child in Pharaoh. I have never been able to have children, even if I were a young man against Sarah,

could never have any children. Lord, no, no. It's not practical, Lord. It's not reasonable. Every law of logic argues against what you say. Notice what it says in verse 19. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead

when he was a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's wounds. I want to say to you that Abraham's physical condition had not absolutely one thing to do with faith. Faith is that quality of believing in God that contradicts the problem and ignores the circumstances.

Now when it says he considered not his own body, it doesn't mean that Abraham just closed his eyes to reality. Because the truth of the matter is, he did consider his own body. If you'll turn back over there in Genesis, you'll find that Abraham did say, well, Lord, I'm so old that I can't. and Pharaoh, Abraham did consider his own body, but when he matched that over against the Word of God, he didn't consider it. It was not to be taken into account.

He didn't take a piece of paper and a pen and say, all right, now I'm going to write down all the reasons why I cannot have a child and all the reasons why I cannot can. He didn't even consider his own physical inadequacy. And you ought not either when you're coming up. against what God wants to be and what God wants to do. As you go through the Bible, and I wish we had time this one, and just to go through the Word of God,

you'll find that there is a monotonous repetition of this complete disregard for circumstances. That's what faith is. Faith is a complete disregard for circumstances. It had never reigned on the earth, but Noah still builds an 18,000-ton ship. Why? Outward circumstances said, no, you're crazy. God said, no, I'm going to stand to rain. All right. He built an 18,000-tonship had never rained. Nobody had ever seen anything like that before.

That's crazy. That's crazy. Gideon started out with an army of 32,000 men to go against people that he was outnumbered to begin with, and God reduced that army to 300 men. Outward circumstances contradicted Gideon's mark. but God said the victory is out. Abraham was faced with an impossible situation. You know what God did? God shut him up to faith. The only way that Abraham could have any children had to be by faith. Now, I want to apply this.

And I want to say to you that your physical ability or inability to do anything has nothing at all whatsoever to do with your physical. Christian life. I thank God for that. Somebody said, preacher, if I would witness, and I would be a witness if I just had your ability to speak, that doesn't have anything to do with it. If God says, I want you to be a witness, I want you to tell someone about Jesus, I don't care what your problem is, if you're a stammerer or a sutterer, it doesn't make any difference.

Your physical condition has nothing whatsoever to do with your believing in God. up. I got a silly little illustration of this. I'm, you know, sometimes you think that after you've been preaching for a number of years and the seminary graduate, if these things ought to be easy to you and just be cool about everything. But I want to say a ridiculous little thing that happened to me some time ago, I pulled into a filling station, and normally I'll carry some little tracks, you know, with me, and I get a chance to say a word of witness to the man, and I leave him a track, and so I pulled into the end-co station down here, and while he was gassing up, I got my track out, and all of a sudden,

I was afraid. All of a sudden, I was nervous. All of a sudden, I was intimidated. All of a sudden, I had butterflies in my summer. Now, I know none of you know anything about what I'm saying now, but all of a sudden, I just didn't want to do it. What a relief if that fellow, you know, just wouldn't even come back. And I sat down to say, now, this is a baby. Here I am, his own man, a preacher.

And yet, I couldn't deny it. Well, I didn't want to witness to him. I was nervous. I was scared. Just flat-out praise. And I sat there and I said, no, wait just a minute. The Lord has promised, the Lord has promised that he has not given to me the spirit of fear, the spirit of intimidation.

The Bible says when the Holy Spirit fills you and anoints you that it gives you boldness and courage. I said, now, Lord, I know that this fear and this apprehension that I feel is of the devil, is not from you, because you don't give me the Spirit of Spirit of Spirit. fear, this comes from some other sort. And I said, right now I feel scared of that, but I'm going to trust you and I'm just going to face it, and I'm going to head and witness to this fellow, because you said that you're going to give me the

power and the ability to do it, and if I listen to what my body says and if I go by how I feel, I won't witness, and I'm just going to faith it, Lord, I'm trusting you to give me the grace and the courage and the ability and whatever else it takes to witness to this fellow. And I did. Now, listen,

If I had let physical ability or inability, if I had let outward circumstances dictate to me how I was to live my Christian life, I would not have witnessed to that man I would have sinned against God. But to face it, it contradicts all problems. Somebody says, well, I wish I could tie it, but I can't afford it. If I can get a raise in this fall and to sing it gets better, well, then I'll be able to try. No, sir. No, sir.

Obeying the Word of God has absolutely nothing to do with outward circumstances. You faith it. Nobody that's ever put his faith in God like that has ever been disappointed. The Bible says, He that believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. I like that. He that believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. I want to say to you, I am not ashamed, and God has never put me to shame when I've trusted Him. The kind of faith that God requires is a faith that contradicts the problem.

You just don't even consider the problem. They're making the difference what the problems are. God says this, this word, you do it. The Lord, I just trust you to do it. You have that kind of faith? You have that kind of faith to be saved. I know some people, they try to be saved, but they never really believe God was going to save them when they ask you.

I want to say this to you that it won't do any good when you get out on your knees and ask God to say that you don't believe he's going to do it. You understand what I'm in? I just merely saying the words and praying a prayer and going through a form of God. Lord Jesus stated, but if you don't believe he's going to save it, then he's not going to save it.

He's saved by grace through faith, not by grace through praying. By grace through faith. When a man said, I always ask him, I said, do you believe you were asking? God, the Savior here to do it right now? When they say, yes, I say, all right, you ask. Just expecting to do it. I don't feel anything.

Faith contradicts the problem. I'm not crying. I don't feel goosebumps all over me. I don't hear angels singing. I don't see the flash of lightning like somebody else's when they were safe. Just faith it. Outward circumstances have nothing at all to do. All right, the last thing is this.

Faith is not only that kind of faith that centers in a person contradicts the problems, but it's also a faith that goes ahead and claims the promise. Now, I want you to notice this. In verse 20, Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but were strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was also able to perform. Abraham gave God the glory.

That means Abraham praised God for Isaac before He was. ever saw Isaac. Abraham thanked God before Abraham ever saw any evidence that God was going to do it. God said he was going to do it. He just claimed it by faith. He said, Lord, you promised his son. I look at my body. It is dead.

I look at terror. She is barren. There is no physical human possibility of our having a child. But you say you're going to give us a child. Thank you, Lord, for my son. And the Bible says that he lived the rest of his days in the assurance of that son even before he saw it. That's phrase.

Displaining the promise. That's how everybody's saved. It's explaining the promise. Displaining the promise. I talked to a fellow one day doubting his salvation. I said, listen, if God were to send you a nose, God were to write you a letter saying, if you were saved, would you believe that? He said, oh, yeah, I'd believe that.

And so I turned to Romans 10, 13. I said, there it is. There it is. You say, I need a sign. You don't need a sign. Sign is not a faith. The only sign I need is this book. Oh, I have a struggle with it sometimes.

Sometimes I know what God wants them to do. I know what the Bible keeps. And I say, Lord, if you just somehow show me that you want to do this. And every time I pray like that, well, the spirit of God conviction after wait, I said, Lord, I'm sorry, you said in your word. That's the only sign of need. That's the only evidentiary. Three stages of faith

Some people believe that God can But that's not faith Faith is not believing that God can It's believing that God will But real faith Is believing that God has already That's real faith That's what Abraham has

Abraham believed that God could He believed that God would And he believed that God already had And he thinks him for That's what it means in March 1124 When Jesus said in what things wherever you desire When you pray, believe that you've already Got them and you'll have them

That's why God wrote the book of Revelation The past tense, because as far as God's concern It's already done That's why in Romans Chapter 8 in verse 29 it says that you and I are already glorified. Well, I'm not glorified, yes you are in the mind of God As far as God is concerned, it's already done

It's already come. It's disclaiming. You know, it's an insult to God when we don't believe his word. It's a claimant. The Lord, I don't feel it. I don't see any outward evidence, but if you said it, I believe it.

Thank you. Let's suppose that one of my children is deathly ill in the hospital. And I discovered that it's going to take thousands and thousands of dollars in order to minister to the physical need to that child.

No way that I'm going to could ever do that. No way that I could ever in a million years ever pay for that. Let's suppose that you're quite wealthy. And you come to me in Iran, I don't want you to worry about a thing. I have deposited $10,000 in your account. And you just draw on it as you need it. I turn to you and I say, I'll believe that when I see it. That's not what I've said, I'd put my hand in yours and I said, oh, I thank you, thank you.

I know it's there. I've got no doubt, it's there, but I believe this friend of mine. I believe it. I haven't seen it. I haven't drawn up on it. I haven't sent a dime of it. But I have no doubt it's there.

I believe it's there. Because he's told me it. And I thank you for him. I looked at him and said, You bring to me the deposit to it. When I see it, then I'll believe. That'd been insult to him. I'd be calling him a liar, and that's what some of you're saying about God.

Oh, and God says it. That's it. I know a man who used to pray that God would give him a lot of money so he'd never have to worry about things. You know what he said? He said God gave me something better. He gave me the faith to trust him to supply my needs. It's claiming a promise.

It's claiming a promise. Lord, you said it. I believe it. That's it.