#21 HCBC 3-04-07 AM
Abraham’s Faith is Our Faith
Abraham’s Hope is Our Hope
Romans 4:18-25
I. Abraham’s Faith Is Our Faith 19 - 21
Abraham faced reality 19
His body was as good as dead!
His years were about a hundred!
His wife was unable to conceive!
Heb 11:11-12 By faith Abraham, even though he was past age--and Sarah
herself was barren--was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from
this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous
as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
Faith allows us to face reality!
We don’t have to go into denial!
We can acknowledge that life has its problems!
We can admit that sometimes life is hard!
Psalm 13
Faith doesn’t change with the circumstances!
Abraham faced reality
Abraham believed God’s promise 20
Abraham didn’t waver – he believed!
1 Ki 18:21 Elijah went before the people and said, "How long will you
waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if
Baal is God, follow him." But the people said nothing.
Jas 1:5-8 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives
generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who
doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
To the centurion in Mt 8 Jesus said: "Go! It will be done just as you believed
it would." And his servant was healed at that very hour.
John said: Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God--
In John 4 Many of the Samaritans believed in Christ because of the testimony
Of the woman at the well.
In John 16:27 Jesus said: “No, the Father himself loves you because you have
loved me and have believed that I came from God.”
And Jesus later said: "Because you have seen me, you have believed;
blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
In Acts 4, as the gospel began to spread, “many who heard the message
believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.”
Acts 5:14 “…more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were
added to their number.”
Acts 11:21 The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people
believed and turned to the Lord.
On Paul’s first missionary journey, in Acts 14:1 it says: “At Iconium Paul and
Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue.
There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and
Gentiles believed.
On Paul’s second missionary journey, in Berea, (Acts 17:12 Many of the
Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and
many Greek men.
In Corinth, (Acts 18:8) Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household
believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him
believed and were baptized.
Paul wrote to the Ephesians, (Eph 1:13) And you also were included in Christ
when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having
believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy
Spirit,
John says, in 1 John 5:10, Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this
testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made
him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has
given about his Son.
Abraham didn’t waver – he believed!
Abraham faced reality
Abraham believed God’s promise
Abraham was strengthened in his faith 20
The example of David in 1 Samuel 30
The Amalekites had attacked Ziklag, the home of David and his people.
The Amalekites had burned the city and taken all the people captive,
Including David’s wives.
1 Sam 30:3-6 When David and his men came to Ziklag, they found it
destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive.
4 So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to
weep. 5 David's two wives had been captured--Ahinoam of Jezreel
and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. 6 David was greatly
distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was
bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found
strength in the LORD his God.
Abraham was strengthened in his faith.
David found strength in the Lord his God.
How are you and I strengthened in our faith?
Time in the Bible
Time in prayer
Time in Sunday school and the worship service
Time in fellowship with other Christians
Time in Bible study
Time in reading biblical Christian books
Time in listening to biblical Christian music
I call it being in the spiritual gymnasium!
That’s how we are strengthened in our faith!
Abraham faced reality
Abraham believed God’s promise
Abraham was strengthened in his faith
Abraham gave glory to God 20
The crowd who watched Jesus heal a paralytic gave glory to God!
In Galilee, when Jesus healed the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and
Many others, the people were amazed and gave glory to God!
Jesus said to let our light shine that men might give glory to God!
Isn’t that the reason we live, to give glory to God?
Shouldn’t everything about our lives give glory to God?
Our work – our marriage – our finances – every relationship?
If Abraham’s faith is our faith, and Abraham gave glory to God,
shouldn’t our lives be all about giving glory to God?
Abraham faced reality
Abraham believed God’s promise
Abraham was strengthened in his faith
Abraham gave glory to God
Abraham was fully persuaded 21
Perhaps one of the reasons we don’t give more glory to God is that we are not
fully persuaded!
2 Tim 1:12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed,
because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is
able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.
Hymn # 409 I Know Whom I Have Believed
If Abraham’s Faith Is Our Faith, then…
II. Abraham’s Hope Is Our Hope 18, 22 - 25
Abraham’s hope was against all hope 18
Humanly speaking, there really was no hope that Abraham and Sarah would
have a son.
Humanly speaking, Abraham was not going to be the father of many nations!
Isn’t God great! When we see no way – God makes a way!
Nothing is impossible when you put your trust in God!
When we stop trusting in our own limited, feeble human abilities,
and put our hope in God, He takes over and brings about that which is
best in our lives!
Abraham had hope because he believed God!
What are the things that God has promised you, which you try to bring about
by your own strength and striving?
Is there something in your live that you need to give over to God and allow
Him to accomplish?
Ultimately, who or what are you trusting in?
Abraham’s hope was in the crediting 22
Because Abraham believed that God had power to do what He had promised,
righteousness was credited to him.
His hope was in the One who credited righteousness to his account!
His hope was in God!
Righteousness was given to him because he believed what God said!
Is your only hope the hope that you have because of what God has promised?
Can you sing with honesty:
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
Abraham’s hope was in the fact that God gave him a righteousness based
upon belief!
Abraham’s hope was not for him alone 23
And this hope was to for him alone!
Whether Abraham fully understood all that God had in mind when He said:
“you will be the father of many nations,” God knew what He was doing!
God had in mind Isaac, and Jacob, and Joseph, and the twelve tribes of Israel,
and David, and Jesus Christ, and you and me and all who would come
to Him in faith!
Abraham’s hope was for us too! 24
You see, Abraham’s faith was not for him alone, but for us too!
Because to everyone who believes, righteousness is credited!
To everyone who believes in the ONE who raised Jesus Christ from the dead,
the same righteousness that was credited to Abraham, will be credited
to them.
That is why the Psalmist could write:
Ps 102:18 Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet
created may praise the LORD:
Our hope is credited 24
“to whom God will credit righteousness-“
We know it is not earned or deserved!
We know it is only by the grace of God!
We know it is a Romans 9:16 says:
“It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy.”
We know it is credited to us!
Our hope is the result of belief 25
Verse 24 says that this righteousness that is given to us is “for us who believe
in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.”
It comes to those who believe!
He was delivered for us
He was resurrected for us
Abraham’s Faith Is Our Faith -- Abraham’s Hope Is Our Hope!!