Romans 4:16-25Hope for the Hopeless

WREFC 4/30/28

Here are 8 things you won’t hear someone from Wisconsin say? (1)

1. I think I’d rather go to a Bears game.2. You know, I don’t really care for fish boils.3. Those drivers from Illinois really know what

they’re doing!4. Racing sausages? Never heard of it.5. German food is the worst!6. It’s too cold to ride my Harley.7. Isn’t a brat just a hotdog?8. These cheese curds are just way too

squeaky.

Here are two things you will never hear God say. One is, “You are so good you don’t need my grace and forgiveness.” Another thing you will never hear God say is “You are so bad you are beyond the reach of my grace and forgiveness.”

The one thing we all have in common is that we are sinners by nature and sinners by choice, and we all need God’s grace and forgiveness. In the first three chapters in the Book of Romans, the apostle Paul hammered home the truth that all are

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under God’s judgment because all have sinned fall short of the glory of God.

Then, in chapter 4, Paul tells us how sinners can be saved from God’s wrath. He focused on the salvation term “justification”—justification means that God declares righteous, those who have faith alone in Christ alone. He used Abraham as the supreme example of a pagan/idolater who was justified by faith. Abraham believed in God’s promise that his descendants would grow into a great nation and possess the land of Canaan forever. (Gen.12:7; 15:5, 18). His faith in that promise was credited to him as righteousness.

That brings us to our Scripture text—Rom.4:16-25. In this passage, Paul wants his readers to apply the principle of saving faith. To show us what saving faith looks like, Paul once again, points to Abraham who modeled it for us.

Rd Rom.4:16

There are a couple of things I want to point out about saving faith in this verse. First of all, notice that saving faith is not rooted in good deeds, or in religious rituals, or in the Law of Moses; rather saving faith is rooted in grace.

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Abraham responded to God’s promise with faith. He believed that God would make good on that promise. Since faith and grace go together, and since the promise is by grace, the promise can be received only by faith.

Now what is grace? There are many ways to describe it and define it: grace is divine enablement; grace is God’s unmerited favor; grace is God giving us something we need that we don’t deserve. Here’s an acrostic of Grace that some of you may be familiar with:

Grace is God's Riches At Christ's Expense. Everything that enriches your life is given to you by the God of Grace.

Salvation from sin and judgment is a grace gift. And like any gift, you don’t work for salvation, you simply receive it by faith. Can anything be clearer than Eph.2:8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

Grace and faith are inseparably linked. This is the repeated theme in the Book of Romans: salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

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Here’s the second thing I want you to notice in verse 16—saving faith assures the believer of salvation. In v.16, Paul said saving faith is rooted in grace “so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.”

In other words, whether you are a Jew or a Gentile, if you have the faith of Abraham, salvation for you is certain—it’s a sure thing. Every believer should be able to say, “I know that I’m saved because I believe the promises of God’s Word that tell me “Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved…Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ you will be saved…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom.10:13; Acts 16:31; Rom.10:9).

Is it really possible to be sure that your saved and on your way to heaven? Absolutely! That’s one of the reasons why the apostle John wrote the letter of 1 John: "These things have I written to you who believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life…" (5:13). So, Yes, base upon the authority of God’s Word, it is possible to know that you’re saved, to be sure that you’re saved.

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And what about you? If you died before the end of the day, are you certain that you’ll enter God’s heaven? If you think salvation is based on good works, you can never be sure because you will never know if you’ve done enough.

When will know that you’ve done enough to help the poor? When will you know that you’ve given enough money to your local church and to missions? When will you know that you’ve been honest enough? When will you know that you arrived at loving God with all your heart and loving your neighbor as you love yourself? If you base salvation on good works and commandment keeping you’ll always be plagued with doubts.

This is the problem people who teach that you can lose your salvation. How many sins does it take to lose it? Is it one sin, ten sins, or a hundred sins? Where do you draw the line?

In my opinion, people who believe that their salvation hinges on keeping a certain set or practicing prescribed religious rituals do not trust the sufficiency of Christ! I seriously doubt their salvation! If salvation comes by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, then my works have nothing to do with my salvation! If I sin as a child of God, my Heavenly Father will chasten me; in love He will discipline me; but I

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cannot lose my salvation. Why, because the Bible says I am “…kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1Pet.1:5).

Kata Rom.4:16, we must all come to God with “the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.” Abraham’s faith was rooted in grace. And grace is the basis of God’s promise to declare righteous all who believe in Jesus Christ who died for our sins and rose again. Saving faith is available to any and all sinners whether they are Jews or Gentiles.

Perhaps, you’re religious but lost like the Jews in Paul’s day. You think you’re saved because you were baptized as a baby, confirmed as an adolescent, and attend church as an adult. I pray that God will open your eyes to see that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, apart from religious activities.

Or, perhaps you’re like worldly Gentiles. You live for the pleasures of sin. I pray that God opens your eyes to see that you’re a guilty sinner in need of forgiveness. God will credit His righteousness to your account the instant you have faith in Christ who died to pay the penalty for your sins. In v.17, Paul quotes the O.T. to give Scriptural authority to his claim in v.16 that Abraham is the spiritual father of all who have saving faith in God’s

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promise: “(as it is written, ‘I have made you a father of many nations’)…”

This is a quote from Gen.17:5. The “many nations” refers to those who believe in God’s promise like Abraham. He was made a father so that he would be the spiritual father of all who believe in Christ.  To claim Abraham as your spiritual father is the same thing as saying “I’m saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.”

The bottom line is that salvation from sin and judgment is for everyone. It’s for Jews and Muslims, for communists and capitalists, for constitutional conservatives and progressive liberals, for Cornhuskers from Nebraska and Cheeseheads from Wisconsin. Paul goes on to say in v.17 that Abraham is the spiritual father of us all “in the presence of Him whom he believed…” In other words, in God’s eyes, Abraham is the father, the spiritual father, of all believers.

Abraham put his faith in an awesome God. He believed that God could do two amazing things. Do you see them in v.17? Abraham believed that God “gives life to the dead”. That’s a reference to deadness of Abraham and Sarah’s ability to procreate. They were old, beyond childbearing age. But out of the deadness

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of Sarah’s womb God brought forth life—Isaac, the child of promise. Later, when God tested Abraham’s faith and told him to kill his only son Isaac, he believed that God would bring his dead son to life because he knew that God must keep His promise (Heb.11:17-19). Giving life to the dead—this is one of the things Abraham believed that God can do.

The second amazing thing that Abraham believed about God is that God “calls those things which do not exist as thought they did.” That refers to the birth of Isaac. When God promised Abraham a son, Isaac was not even a twinkle in his eyes.

God alone sees the future. He sees things happening before they happen. When God told Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, Abraham believed that it would happen before it happened. And it did happen—25 years later— when Abraham was nearly 100 years old and his barren wife Sarah was ninety.

It’s easy to sit here and think, “Well, I’d believe God, too, if He spoke to me in an audible voice as He did to Abraham and promised me something.” But, would we? What God promised Abraham didn’t square with the reality of Abraham and Sarah’s situation—they were too old to have children.

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Abraham’s faith was based upon the Word of God, not on human reasoning. In his commentary on Romans, Leon Morris writes “Abraham had nothing going for him except the promise of God. But for the man of faith that was enough.”

The point is that Abraham believed God’s promise, even though the fulfillment of it was humanly impossible. True faith is always fixed upon the facts of God’s Word.

Some people think that if a person believes something hard enough it will come to pass whether God said it or not! Wishful thinking is not Biblical faith. Rom.10:17 emphatically states where true faith comes from: “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”

God said “Abraham, you’re going to be the father of many nations!” Abraham believed that promise. He exercised saving faith in God. And that’s when God declared Abraham righteous in His sight. So, saving faith is not only rooted in grace; it not only assures the believer of salvation; it also believes the impossible; it hopes against all hope that God can do what no human being could never do—in Abraham and Sarah’s case, to have a child in their old age:

Rd Rom.4:18

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If Abraham focused on his circumstances, he would have to say, "It’s hopeless! I'm too old! Sarah's too old. We tried to have a baby throughout our marriage. Why should it happen now? I mean, it's a physical impossibility!" But Abraham looked beyond himself and his circumstances to an omnipotent God. He fixed his faith upon God's sure promise as the basis of hope! What a lesson for you and me.

Faith is trusting God to keep His Word when we see no tangible evidence. Heb.11:1 makes that very same point: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1). In the words of Corrie Ten Boom “Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible.”

Abraham models for us the truth of 2Cor.5:7: "For we walk by faith, not by sight.” Abraham walked by faith in the promise of God, not by the sight of his immediate situation—and so should we.

One aged woman had so much confidence and trust in the Lord that someone said to her, "You have so much faith that if the Lord told you to jump through a stone wall, you would start jumping." She replied, "If the Lord told me to jump through a

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stone wall, it would be my business to jump, and His business to make a hole in the wall." 

Do you have any stone walls that God told you to jump through? Can you trust Him to make a hole in that wall—while you jump?

The next section gives more detail regarding Abraham’s seemingly, hopeless situation. But before we get into the exposition of that passage, I want you to think of a hopeless, stone wall situation you may be facing right now. It could be a marital problem, troubled relationships, a chronic health issue, financial concerns, or something else.

I hope you’ll be encouraged as we work our way through the exposition of vv.19-21. We could summarize this passage with the words of Clare Booth Luce: “There are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about them.” (3) The biblical principles drawn out of this passage were gleaned, reworded, and adapted from one of the sources I used in the course of my sermon preparation. (4)

Rd Rom.4:19

Abraham faced the fact that his reproductive abilities were dead and buried and that Sarah’s womb was like a tomb. He didn’t practice the

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power of positive thinking. He didn’t think “If Sarah and I just visualized the goal we’ll succeed.” He clearly understood that there was no way he could father a child or for Sarah to get pregnant. He needed a double miracle.

From Abraham’s experience we can draw this biblical principle: Like Abraham, accept the reality of your hopeless situation.

Face the facts: there will always be obstacles on path of trusting the promises of God. Don’t deny them. Don’t bury your head in the sand and pretend they’re not there. Accept the reality of your situation.

I have Leukemia. That’s my reality. It challenges my faith in God. What’s your situation? Is there anything challenging your faith in God? Whatever you need to do, the first step is to face the facts. Accept the reality of what seems like a hopeless situation.

Rd Rom.4:20

There are three helpful principles in this one verse. Here’s the first one: Don’t give in to your doubts!

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Paul states that Abraham did not waver with unbelief in God’s promise. Abraham didn’t say "God will keep His promise, at least I think He will … I hope He will … maybe He will … will He?" Instead, Abraham said “I know He will.” He believed that God was greater than His problem. Now that doesn’t mean that Abraham didn’t have temporary lapses in faith. Abraham waited 25 years for God to fulfill the promise. Do you think he had doubts along the way? Of course he did. He was only human.

Dr. Ray Pritchard gives this creative chronology of the time the promise was given and the promise was received:

At 76, Abraham buys a crib. At 78, he makes a list of boy names. At 80, he orders a supply of super-absorbent

Pampers. At 85, Abraham goes hunting while Sarah's

friends give her a baby shower. At 86, he [paints] the baby’s room. At 90, he subscribes to New Parent magazine. At 93, he and Sarah [start child birth classes]. At 96, [he] drives a practice run to the hospital. At 98, he packs the suitcase and sets it by the

tent door. At 99, he scratches his head and says, "I

wonder if God was just kidding me." (5)

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Perhaps Abraham’s worst lapse of faith occurred when he took Sarah’s foolish advice and committed adultery with her maid, Hagar. He hoped to have a male heir by her instead of waiting for God to fulfill His promise with Sarah.

But his disobedience backfired. It always does. His disobedience caused future misery to his own descendants. The Arab descendants of Ishmael, his son by Hagar, and the Jewish descendants of Isaac, his son of promise with Sarah, would be in continuous conflict, as they are to this day. Disobedience has far reaching consequences, doesn’t it?

But despite his occasional lapses in faith, Abraham always came back to the Lord. His overall pattern of life displayed faith in the promises of God.

The example of Abraham reminds us that faith is a struggle. There will be times when we will feel like giving in to our fears and doubts. But true biblical faith never gives up. It always returns to the knowledge that God will do exactly what He promised to do! Once again, the principle is “Don’t give in to your doubts.”

What doubts are you dealing with in your present situation? Tell God about it before your faith

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unravels. Be like the father in the Gospel of Mark who struggled to believe that his son could be delivered from an evil spirit. Jesus said to him “if you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” (Mk.9:23) The father immediately cried out “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.” (Mk.9:24)

There’s your prayer: “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Lord I believe that you have power to give hope in hopeless situations; help me to believe that you can do it for me.”

There’s a second principle in v.20 designed to encourage us. It’s found in the phrase “the promise of God”. After accepting the reality of your situation and not giving in to your doubts, anchor your faith in the promises of God.

Martin Lloyd-Jones said that faith “must be anchored to the bare Word of God and on nothing else whatsoever.” We must always come back to these questions: What has God said about this impossible situation? What promises has He made about my faith-shaking circumstances?

You’ve faced the facts; you’re starting to deal with your doubts. Now it’s time to visit and revisit God’s promises. Many of you have a concordance in the back of your Bibles. Look up verses that deal with

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your situation. Claim the promise; embrace the promise; believe the promise.

As I mentioned earlier, I have leukemia. But I can’t find any promises in the Bible that tell me that God is obligated to heal me this side of heaven. The redemption of my soul occurred the moment I trusted Christ. But the redemption of my body is yet future.

As a believer in Christ I know that one day I will spend eternity with God in a resurrected body, perfect in every way. Heaven is a place where there is no more sorrow, pain, and death. (Rev.21:4) In the meantime, I can claim and ponder these precious promises in God’s Word:

Kata Rom.8:1-2, I am free from condemnation. Kata Rom.8:28, I am assured that everything

works together for my good. Kata Rom.8:35-39, nothing can separate me

from the love of God. Kata 1Cor.10:13, I have God’s power to resist

temptation. Kata 2Cor.12:9, I have God’s grace to endure

my infirmities. Kata Phil.4:13, I have Christ’s strength to do

God’s will.

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And kata Num.23:19, I have the promise that God keeps His promises. Let me read Num. 23:19 for you: “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?

One commentator says that doubting God’s promise is the same thing as calling Him a liar. I quote: “To believe in God’s promise is the same as believing in God’s person. If I promise to do something for you, but you don’t believe my promise, in effect you’re calling me a liar. You’re saying that I won’t do what I’ve promised. If God promises something and we refuse to believe it [or act on it], we’ve called God a liar!” (6) End quote.

(bagel illustration)

How many of you recognize what I’m holding in my hand? That’s right. It’s a bagel—a lump of yeasted dough with a hole in the middle. First, it’s boiled in water; then it’s baked. Bagels are uniquely a Jewish creation. Kata Wikipedia, the first known mention of bagels occurred in Jewish communities in Krakow Poland in 1610.

Bagels come from Jews, but where do the Jews come from? Israel, you say. Yes, that’s right. But

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before that, they came from Abraham. The same Abraham I’ve been talking about today.

Four thousand years ago God made a promise to a very old man with a very old wife. God promised to give them a son and through that son He promised many descendants. Today, there are 15 million Jews in the world. They all descended from a 100 year old man and his 90 year old wife.

And the bagel? It’s a symbol of God’s faithfulness to the descendants of Abraham! Plain bagels, onion bagels, poppy-seed bagels, apple-cinnamon bagels, locks & bagels, bagels with cream cheese, they all testify to the fact that God kept His promise to the Jews.

After all the attempts to destroy them—from Haman in the O.T. to the Hololcaust in Nazi Germany, to Muslim Terrorists in the Middle East, the Jews are still here. And they’re still making bagels. The humble bagel—proof positive that God keeps his promises. (7)

So, whenever you feel your situation is hopeless, eat a bagel and turn your thoughts to the Bible. The only way I know to find hope in a hopeless situation is to focus on God’s faithfulness and to ponder His promises in the Bible.

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Notice the next phrase in v.20—“but was strengthened in faith”. That brings us to our fourth principle designed to bring encourage and hope to impossible situations. As you accept the reality of your circumstances, and deal with your doubts, and anchor you faith in the Word of God, anticipate that God will strengthen your faith.

The word “strengthened” means to put power in like putting gas in your car to power it. I’m glad that God accepts our weak faith, aren’t you? God doesn’t expect mountain sized faith to move mountains. All it takes is a mustard seed faith to move mountain sized obstacles.

The question is not “How little or how big your faith?” The question is “How big is your God?”

As time went on, Abraham’s faith was strengthened. His trust in God grew to the point that when God told him to sacrifice the son of promise, he believed that God could and would bring his son back from the dead!

Maybe your faith is weak and small, but that’s OK.God will strengthen and grow your faith. How do we grow in faith? The key to a growing faith is to increase your knowledge of God.

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Faith is only as good as its object. For example, you can have strong faith in a structurally weak bridge and it will collapse under you in spite of your strong faith. Or, you can have weak faith in a strong bridge and it will hold you up—even if you drive over it with in an M1 Abrams tank.

Your knowledge of that bridge increases your faith in that bridge, no matter how deep the frightful chasm below. In the same way, your knowledge of God increases your faith in God, no matter how frightful your circumstances may be. To grow in faith, study God’s attributes.

Some time ago, I introduced you to this book by A.W. Tozer—“The Attributes of God”. If you haven’t secured a copy and started reading it yet, let me encourage you to do so. Tozer covers many of the key attributes of God—Holiness, Sovereignty, Grace, Love and Power. His chapter on the power of God is particularly relevant to the strengthening of Abraham’s faith and our faith. Here’s an excerpt from that chapter:

(read highlighted paragraph p.94)

Your understanding of the attributes of God is essential to apply the next principle. If you want hope in what appears to be a hopeless situation,

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glorify God by declaring and exalting His attributes. That’s what Abraham did kata v.21:

Rd Rom.4:21

It took 25 long years, but Abraham was convinced that God had the power to do what He had promised—give him a male heir. He glorified God when He let God be God. He found hope in a hopeless situation because he exalted the attribute of God’s omnipotence. George Mueller says, “There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man’s power ends”. Have you been waiting a long time for God to act on His promise? The issue is not whether God is powerful enough to keep His promise. He’s powerful enough to do anything. Ultimately, the issue is whether something is His will or not, and if it is, then it’s a matter of His timing.

But faith doesn’t wait for the promise to be fulfilled. Faith acts before the promise is fulfilled. Like that old woman, faith doesn’t wait for God to make a hole in the wall before you jump. If God says “Jump through that wall” faith says “I’ll jump and trust God to make that hole!” That’s where the two headed ogre of doubt & fear raises its ugly head. As you prepare to jump, he shouts “Are you sure God will make an opening in that wall?” You’ll never know till you jump.

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David didn’t know if God would make a hole through the wall of Goliath. But his faith took action. He jumped at the chance to glorify God by exalting God’s power—with a sling shot no less. In 1Sam.17:45 he told Goliath “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.Everyone else allowed their doubts to take control. They were paralyzed with fear. But David relied on the name of the Lord Almighty and ran into battle. And we all know what happened next. One little stone went up in the air…and the giant came tumbling down!

Likewise, if we wait for our fears to fade and our circumstances to change, we’ll have to wait a long time. As one commentator put it, “we must fight for faith, not dwell on doubt.” (8)

Sooner or later (and sooner is better than later) we have to act on the belief in God’s ability to fulfill His promise. God will grow our faith when we step out in faith, obey God’s will, and commit our lives to His righteous character.

What’s your situation this morning? Does it seem hopeless? Then, follow Abraham’s example. He believed and obeyed; his faith was strengthened;

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he gave glory to God; he exalted God’s power and v.22 says “Therefore, it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

By following Abraham’s example of saving faith, we too can experience salvation from sin, find strength for life’s journey, and accomplish much to advance God’s kingdom agenda. Bertha Smith was a godly Southern Baptist missionary to China. She lived to be 99 years old. One thing you learned not to do around Bertha was to ask her how she feels. “Ms. Bertha, how do you feel today?” She’d give you one of those I’m- offended-looks and say, “Well, I don’t know. I haven’t felt myself lately.” Then she said, “More important than how I feel today is how do I faith today?” (9)

You may be in a seemingly hopeless situation. My question to you is not “How do you feel today?” but “How do you faith today?” Is your faith weak or strong? It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that your faith is plugged into the power of God who is mighty to save and faithful to keep His promises.

True or false: There’s one thing you won’t hear someone form Efree Rapids say: “God failed me. I can’t trust Him anymore.”

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________________________________________________________________________(1)https://matadornetwork.com/life/26-things-youll-never-hear-someone-wisconsin-say/ (2)The Epistle to the Romans Apollos/Eerdmans], p. 212), (3) https://www.preceptaustin.org/sermons_by_brian_bill-2#41825)(4)ibid (5) https://www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/1992-05-24-The-Oldest-Dad-in-the-Nursery/ (6) https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-23-nature-saving-faith-romans-416-22 (7) https://www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/1992-05-24-The-Oldest-Dad-in-the-Nursery/ (8)https://www.preceptaustin.org/sermons_by_brian_bill-2#41825 (9)https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/a-credit-line-of-righteousness-david-dykes-sermon-on-sinful-nature-188900?page=8&wc=800