Faith in God’s Promises

(Rom. 4:2-3, 13-25)

Promise: 1. An assurance given by one to another that the former will perform a specified act.
2. A reasonable ground for hope or expectation

Jonathan Swift once said, "Promises & pie crusts were meant to be broken."

In Greek, faith is pis tis and means a conviction in the truthfulness of God.

Faith must have a reliable basis upon which to be founded

God has the power to carry out his promises (Rom. 4:17 & 21, Eph. 6:10, Jer. 32:17)

God can/does honor promises despite circumstances/appearances as we observe them

(Rom. 4:17-18, 2 Cor. 5:7, Heb.11:7, 13 & 33, Matt. 19:26, Luke 1:37)

Faith is not about ignoring/denying circumstances, it is about believing God anyway,

in spite of circumstances! (Rom. 8:24)

Ray Stedman, wrote, "If you have a God who can raise things from the dead and who
can call into existence the things that do not exist … [then] you will never know when
a thing that is dead and dull and lifeless may be touched by the grace of God and
brought to life again."

God is faithful/trustworthy (Deut. 7:9, 1 Cor. 1:9, Heb. 10:23, 2 Thess. 3:3, Titus 1:2)

The Bible is a record of God’s promises and his faithfulness in keeping those promises

Joshua wrote, "Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one
was fulfilled (Joshua 21:45)."

A few hundred years later King Solomon reminded his generation of the same thing when he
said in 1 Kings 8:56, "Not one word has failed of all the good promises He gave..."

We are called to have “Child-like Faith” - A firm belief in the reliability of God and the truth of His word.
Just as a child learns to implicitly trust its mother, so a young Christian relies on the Lord for its spiritual
leading, feeding and protection (Mark 10:15)

Living Exercising/Demonstrating faith strengthens/grows faith, develops confidence in God and a firm
reliance on the certainty of God’s grace, counsel and enabling. (Matt. 7:7-11)

We can demonstrate our faith by, waiting patiently/persevering in faith, for the fulfillment of God’s
promises (Heb. 6:12 & 10:36, 1 Cor. 16:13)
 Abraham waited 25 years, until he was 100 years old, between God’s original promise & the birth of
Isaac (Heb. 6:15, Gen. 18:14)

David waited for years during the wicked reign of Saul before he came to the throne of Israel.

God’s first promise of a Messiah appears all the way back in Genesis (Gen. 3:14-15)

The Lord has His own perfect timing (2 Pe. 3:9)

God has promised salvation/eternal life (John 10:28, 1 John 2:25, 5:11-12, Heb. 9:15)

People can gain the benefits of God’s promise to be declared righteous by their faith, through His
grace (Gen. 15:6, Rom. 4:3, 16 & 24, Gal. 3:6-7, James 2:23)

Jesus Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promises (Rom. 15:8, 2 Cor. 1:20, Gal. 3:16, 1 Cor.
15:45)

"In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed (Gen. 22:18)

"He will swallow up death for all time" (Isa. 25:8)

"His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed" (Dan. 7:14).