Promises

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).