Applied Faith - Romans 4

Proposition: Faith is made active when applied to a promise

Our God, brothers and sisters, is a God of promise. What God has promised to the believer is what’s at the center of all that we believe in. A promise is God giving us His word that He will carry out a particular act or has already carried out a particular act on our behalf. But in order for that act of God to become a reality in our life, we have to accept his word as being fact.

The only way God’s promises become a reality in our lives is when we are able to accept the fact that everything we recieve from him is done through a credit system. God has developed a line of credit for the entire human race to tap into in order to access heavenly blessings. But the only blessings that are made available to us are those that the Father has promised to us.

Illustration:

It’s like when grandmama nem used to send us to the store back in the day. If she told you to go to the store and get her some flour and some syrups so she can finish making them biscuits, and when you get there you decide on your on to get some now & laters and you come home with only half of what she sent you there for, curseth be to you and the ground you walk on. She didn’t give you money for a pack of now&laters. She told you specifically to get some flour and some syrups in order to fix them homemade biscuits that you love.

In the same way God has provided for all of us a measure of faith. The faith that God has given us must be attached to the promises that he has given us in Scripture. Faith is made active when applied to a promise. Faith absent of the promise is dead faith. Faith doesn’t work outside of Gods word of promise.

In Romans 4, Abraham is given to us as an example of what this faith looks like and how it works in the life of a believer. What makes faith so valueable as we can see in Abraham is the fact that only faith can endure the different obstacles that life presents to all of us.

What God Says

1. What God says and what you see may contradict one another. vv 13-14,19

God is able to bring dead situations back to life. It may look like a dead situation but God is able to turn it around.

Our future in eternity was in dire straights until God raised Jesus from the dead. The gospel, the word of the cross is the promise that we apply our faith towards.

Just like Abraham who had to endure 25 extra years after the promise, we in the same way have to navigate through the different obstacles of life without allowing these obstacles to weaken our faith in God and what he has promised on our behalf.

Thats why bible study is important, because sometimes our situations can look pretty grim. And the only thing we have to lean on is the promises found in Gods word. And placing our trust, our faith in Gods promises is what gives us the ability to endure.

Transition: Because when what we see contradicts what God says, and then you add the fact that other people are saying the same thing about your situation, it has the tendancy to cause us to question Gods promises even more.

What people say

2. But what other people say or think should have no bearing on what God has promised us. vv 19-21

It’s not an accident that Paul mentions Sarah in this particular verse. Because not only was Sarah barren in the womb, when God gave the promise to Abraham the he and Sarah would become pregnant with child at an old age, Sarah laughed. It says in Genesis 18:9 They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” 10 The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” 13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”

The point is don’t let what other people say weaken what you know and may have learned long ago about the promises of God.

Transition: I know that some of these promises you’ve learned long ago as a child in Sunday school, but just because a lot of time has passed don’t mean that his promises are any less effective. You may not have seen any evedence of what you’ve learned long ago, but what you see and other people say has no bearing on the effectiveness of Gods word. Because .....

What seems impossible

3. ..... what seems impossible is very possible with God. Impossibility becomes possible through the promises of God. vv13-18

Faith depends on the promise to make a way out of no way. vv 13-18

Everything Abraham hoped for and believed in was based on the promise that he and Sarah would have an offspring at their old age and the seed of that offspring would be an heir of the World(v13)

So the child that born to Abraham and Sarah was Isaac. And to Isaac was born Jacob. And to Jacob was born Judah. The Messiah that is to come on the great Day of the Lord will be the Lion from the tribe of Judah who has become heir of all creation.

.Jesus Christ is the ultimate promise that Abraham received through limited revelation.

The word of the Cross was not revealed to Abraham. But the fact that Abraham believed in what God did tell him, that he would have a child in his old age was enough to be justified, declared right with God

Application/Conclusion

So now, in this dispensation, Gods revelation is the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross of Christ is the bank that enables all who believe to draw from. The cross is the credit system that the Father has developed on behalf of an otherwise lost world.

It is up to us, if we are interested in drawing from what Christ has done on our behalf, we too like Abraham will be credited with righteousness. So in verse 3, where it says Abraham beleived God and it was counted to him as righteousness, you can put your name there in Abrahams place, but only if you believe in the promise of the gospel, the word of the Cross. Amen