Gen 15:6, Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. 
	We are in the process of consideration of this wonderful passage of scripture. We are dealing with the belief or faith with which Abraham and we are considered righteous in the eyes of God.  Abraham’s faith was in God to fulfill all that He promised under the old covenant. Our’s is the same faith in God to do all that is part and parcel of the new Covenant in Jesus Christ. It is the faith that counts Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and it is supplied through the grace and the mercy of God. As we saw last time, it is far more than just thinking that there must be a God in heaven. It involves a very personal and singular relationship with God. 
The Apostle Paul describes this passage in Rom 4:16-25. Please follow along together, Rom 4:16-25. For this reason it is by faith, that it might be in accordance with grace, in order that the promise may be certain to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, (as it is written, "A father of many nations have I made you") in the sight of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. In hope against hope he believed, in order that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, "So shall your descendants be." And without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform. Therefore also it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Now not for his sake only was it written, that it was reckoned to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be reckoned, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. 
	Our being brought into this living relationship with God, in faith, in believing on Him, is all because of God’s work and none of our own. It is nothing that we can earn. Our righteousness is only because it is the righteousness of Christ that is accounted unto us through the gift of God’s grace and mercy and love. 
	We ended last time with the following quote from the Holman Bible referring to the faith of this passage. Quote, Outside the Gospels faith is related to the keynote concepts of the Christian message: the state of salvation (Eph 2:8-9), sanctification (Acts 26:18), purification (Acts 15:9), justification or imputed righteousness (Rom 4:5; 5:1; Gal 3:24), adoption as children of God (Gal 3:26).
Each of these comes by faith. As in the Gospels, faith is an attitude toward and relationship with God mediated by Christ Jesus. It is surrender to God's gift of righteousness in Christ rather than seeking to achieve righteousness alone.
Faith is also called a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22) — something God creates in a person. In another place "faith" is used quite differently as a gift of the Holy Spirit that is given to some but not to others (1 Cor 12:8-9). Apparently such special gifts of faith refer to the ability to do great acts for God, what Jesus called moving mountains (Matt 17:20; 1 Cor 13:2). End Quote. (from Holman Bible Dictionary. Copyright © 1991 by Holman Bible Publishers. All rights reserved.)
	We saw that this saving faith involves the very core of our lives, extending far beyond our glorious salvation. It is invested into us in terms of God’s work of sanctification, purification, justification, and our adoption as His very own children in Jesus Christ. 
Today, we want to complete our deliberation of this passage in terms of faith being incorporated into the fruit and the gift of the Holy Spirit active in our lives and beings. Gal 5:22-25, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 
Our belief on God, our faith in Him is at the very core of His work in us to bring forth the evidence of the life and lordship of Jesus Christ. Since we belong wholly to Him and we are indwelled by His Holy Spirit, these elements of His very nature and character are worked in us and out from us unto others. It can be no other way because they are the inherent reality of the One by Whom we now have life. Because these are all aspects of Him, they become intrinsic to our new nature of holiness in Him. We are to willingly show forth these elements of His nature because that is who we now are in Him. 
Every true Christian is made partakers of this fruit and should be growing into a greater and greater harvest of these characteristics unto others for the glory of God. We are to find that, as the Lord works faithfully in us, this fruit just naturally is evidenced in the course of how we deal with others. This is not to say that we are always perfectly manifesting such a bountiful harvest. We do undergo those times when the Holy Spirit does a pruning work that cuts away the dead branches of our old nature.  However, as will always be the case, when the new growth is evidenced, it will be in far more lushness of fruitfulness with regard to pleasing our Heavenly Father in a bountiful harvest of His handiwork and planting. 
	Another aspect of this faith is that it is a gift of the Holy Spirit, given as He so deems needed. The Holy Spirit works to actively instill this faith in those who are desirous after more and more of this living reality. Those who seek Him with all their heart will find Him, as we are so encouraged in Jer 29:11-13. 'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the Lord,' plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 'And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. Not every Christian will choose to seek after Him in such fullness and utterness, but to those who do, the Holy Spirit will grant the increasing knowledge of His living faith in action and in relationship. 
	1 Cor 12:8-11, For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills. We cannot force the Holy Spirit to manifest this faith in us. It is only evidenced as He so deems to make it increasingly real to those who are so fully after Him. These are those who will not be satisfied with anything less than the complete fullness of God, to His glory Alone. 
This is the key truth before us. When we want something for our benefit, we will always be lacking. But, when we are after God for His sake and for His plan and for His purposes, we will always be satisfied to overflowing in the loving kindness and the tender mercy of His graciousness. 
Our Lord addressed this attitude of wholeheartedly embracing the faith of God. It is always unto Him in terms of the greatness of doing what God commands in the fullness and the manifestation of this faith that will move mountains. Matt 17:20, And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you. 
This is all tempered with the perfect love of God as described in 1 Cor 13:2, And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. What we are called to do by God, great or small in our eyes, is all done with the view to the expression, fully and completely of the great love with which He so loved us. That is the outpouring of this faith in action on this earth in the righteousness and the holiness of God in Jesus Christ. That is the active faith that will move all those mountains of this realm under the direct guidance and power of God, Almighty. 
	Continuing on then, just as this faith is not based in any measure on our ability to earn it, so also is our inclusion in it not based on the nationality of our birth. The Israelites were the chosen people of God. However, in Christ, that relationship has been fully opened and all who call upon His name in this faith are the included and the blessed of God. Gal 3:6-9, Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "All the nations shall be blessed in you." So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. Any who are called of God, regardless of race, nationality, gender, or socioeconomic standards are now able to partake of this free gift of God by the faith of Jesus Christ.  
	As the Writer to the Hebrews so eloquently states in Heb 11:8-12, By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised; therefore, also, there was born of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. Our placement into the heritage of Abraham is not by virtue of our human birth, but our new birth in Christ. As God’s working faith is manifested into us, so do we become the descendents of the faith of Abraham’s seed, Jesus Christ. 
	This changes the entire manner in which we are to view one another as Christians. So often, in this world, we are encumbered with prejudice and inclined to treat others in a preferential manner, based on simply human ideology. But that is not to be the case in regard to our faithful witness of Jesus Christ. 
Please turn to 2 Cor 5:16-21. Therefore from now on we recognize no man according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Amen.
	Again, we can not earn this saving faith through any measure of our meritorious behavior. Our attitude and our demeanor becomes infused with faith as God so freely and fully lavishes it on and into those whom He chooses to so bless in Jesus Christ. Any sense that we can make ourselves worthy of this faith by trying to fulfill the Law of God is shattered by the Apostle Paul in Rom 3:19-26. Please read along with me. Rom 3:10-26, Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Amen.
	It is all of God, in Jesus Christ through His faith that we are covered by His righteousness. Thus the promise of God made to Abraham is completely accomplished by the faithfulness and the steadfastness of God Almighty. In that truth, our faith in God by Jesus Christ is now accounted as our righteousness before God for all of creation to witness His mighty Love manifested forever! So be it!
Gen 15:6, Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is Ps 96:2-4. Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. Amen.