Trust In The Promise AloneGreetings and welcome to all present and online, in America and abroad. Today, as we continue our study in Paul’s letter to the Romans, with a final installment in the fourth chapter, our pastor teacher Landis Fisher asks the question do the Scriptures teach Christians to speak things into existence? Or is there something else even more significant going on in the life of the patriarch Abraham?
Let us continue this examination of what the Bible teaches on this fascinating subject, as we turn to the fourth chapter of Romans, and listen as we gain some concluding insight into this great chapter with a message that our Pastor Landis Fisher has titled: “Trust In The Promise Alone”
Old Testament Scripture Reading: Genesis 15:1 – 18 (NASB)
Gen 15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.”
Gen 15:2 And Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what wilt Thou give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”
Gen 15:3 And Abram said, “Since Thou hast given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.”
Gen 15:4 Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who shall come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.”
Gen 15:5 And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
Gen 15:6 Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Gen 15:7 And He said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.”
Gen 15:8 And he said, “O Lord GOD, how may I know that I shall possess it?”
Gen 15:9 So He said to him, “Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
Gen 15:10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds.
Gen 15:11 And the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.
Gen 15:12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him.
Gen 15:13 And God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.
Gen 15:14 “But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve; and afterward they will come out with many possessions.
Gen 15:15 “And as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age.
Gen 15:16 “Then in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”
Gen 15:17 And it came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces.
Gen 15:18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates:
New Testament Scripture Reading: Romans 4:18 – 25 (NASB)
Rom 4:18 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.”
Rom 4:19 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;
Rom 4:20 yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God,
Rom 4:21 and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform.
Rom 4:22 Therefore also IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Rom 4:23 Now not for his sake only was it written, that it was reckoned to him,
Rom 4:24 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,
Rom 4:25 He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.
Transforming Power Statements:
#1) Since the book of the Law was not written until four hundred and thirty years after the patriarch Abraham, he could never have been saved by the Law but only by his personal faith in the promises of God alone, which were later written in the Law.
#2) One main reason God gave the Law was to have in place a written witness who could verify the certainty of the Gospel and the fact that salvation is given by faith in the promise alone, because Abraham who did not have a written witness is the model of saving faith.
#3) Faith in the hope of the resurrection is seen in many scenarios in Abraham’s life such as the lives of his sons Ishmael by Hagar and Isaac by Sarah, as well as in the tentative sacrifice of Isaac, and even in the barren condition of Rebekah who eventually bore Jacob and Esau.
