Sermon Tone Analysis

Romans 4:18-25.

"Hoping Against Hope".

Safe Haven Community Church.

Sunday October 23rd, 2022.

Romans 4:18-25.

[18] In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, "So shall your offspring be." [19] He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.

[20] No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, [21] fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

[22] That is why his faith was "counted to him as righteousness."

[23] But the words "it was counted to him" were not written for his sake alone, [24] but for ours also.

It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, [25] who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

(ESV)

What does it mean for someone to put themselves into a position that requires a hopeful faith?

One who did was George Müller, the German-born minister of the nineteenth century.

After a wasteful youth and life-changing conversion to Christ, Müller moved to London, where he involved himself in a variety of ministries.

Eventually, he was drawn to Bristol, England, where he began ministering to the multitudes of orphan children in the vicinity.

Starting with only a few children, he eventually had two thousand under his care...Müller himself lived without financial or material assets, but trusted for all things in the provision of the one whom he believed had promised to meet all of his needs.

By Müller's own testimony, there were times when he would have no food with which to feed the orphans under his care.

But acting by faith, he would prepare the table, set the children at their places, and then wait upon God's provision.

Invariably, provision would arrive-a delivery, a knock at the door, an unexpected gift.

George Müller was a man who, like Abraham, placed his faith in the God who promised he would provide.

"Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible," Müller wrote.

"There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible.

Faith begins where man's power ends" (Boa, K., & Kruidenier, W. (2000).

Romans (Vol.

6, pp.

140-141).

Broadman & Holman Publishers.)

The patriarch Abraham had such a hopeful faith through the promise of God, that his descendents, his children would have a future.

Abraham had every reason, from a human point of view, to give up the attempt to produce a child through Sarah, as both were well beyond the physical ability to produce children.

His hope flew in the face of that which is founded on the evidence of reason and common sense.

The ancient patriarch had hope when, from the human vantage point, there was absolutely no basis or justification for hope.

Yet despite the seeming impossibility hoped for, he believed it would happen as God said.

People often use the word-"hope" as something that they long for when the odds seem against them, like "I hope to win the lottery".

But Biblical hope springs from the promise of God.

Abraham's faith is not described as a "leap into the dark," a completely baseless, almost irrational "decision"...but as a "leap" from the evidence of his senses into the security of God's word and promise (Moo, D. J. (1996).

The Epistle to the Romans.

The New International Commentary on the New Testament (282-283).

Grand Rapids, MI: Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.).

In Romans 4:18-25, the Apostle Paul shows us through the life and faith of the patriarch Abraham three realities of Biblical hope: 1) Its Analysis (vv.

18-19), 2) Its Assurance (v20- 22), and 3) Its Application (vv.

23-25).

1)The Analysis of Biblical Hope (Rom.

4:18-19)

Romans 4:18-21.

[18] In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, "So shall your offspring be." [19] He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.

(ESV)

In this passage Paul lists seven key characteristics of Abraham's faith and of all faith that is God-given, the only kind of faith that results in salvation.

First, the apostle declares of Abraham that in hope he believed against hope.

Grammatically this is known as an oxymoron, a figure of speech in which seemingly contradictory ideas are combined (e.g., thunderous silence, sweet sorrow, etc.).

Abraham against hope, or beyond hope, nevertheless (had) hope (KJV Bible commentary.

1997 (2226).

Nashville: Thomas Nelson.).

John Chrysostom called this situation: "It was against man's hope, in hope which is of God." (As quoted in Moo, D. J. (1996).

The Epistle to the Romans.

The New International Commentary on the New Testament (282).

Grand Rapids, MI: Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.)

Hope is a decidedly Pauline word, and a word found more often in Romans than in any other New Testament book.. Faith is the belief in God that he will do what he has promised to do.

Hope is faith moving forward and putting that faith into action.

(cf.

5:2; 15:13; Gal.

5:5; Eph.

1:18-19; Col. 1:23; 1 Tim.

4:10; Heb.

11:1; 1 Pet.

1:21).

It is distinguished from secular optimism in that it is grounded in what God has done in Christ (Morris, L. (1988).

The Epistle to the Romans (210).

Grand Rapids, Mich.; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press.)

Poem: Of this situation, Charles Wesley said: In hope, against all human hope, Self-desperate, I believe; . . .

Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees, And looks to that alone; Laughs at impossibilities, And cries: It shall be done!

Applying this to ourselves, if God is who he says he is (and he is!), none of his promises will fail because he forgets us or our situation is beyond his power.

The problem is, many...keep in the back of our minds unexorcised suspicions that what we say we believe about God's power is not really true.

For all our lip service about trust in God, we rely chiefly upon what we can do ourselves.

Some of us need to take deeper possession of the truths we have already believed about God.

A good measure of how much spiritual truth we have appropriated is, how long is our worry list?

(Hughes, R. K. (1991).

Romans: Righteousness from heaven.

Preaching the Word (101).

Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books.)

Please turn to Genesis 15

The object of Abraham's faith was God, and in particular His promise that he, that is, Abraham, should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, "So shall your offspring/descendants be."

Genesis 15:1-6.

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." 2 But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir." 4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: "This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir." 5 And he brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them."

Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." 6 And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

(ESV)

* In the previous chapter, Genesis 14, Abram rejected the sinful offer from the king of Sodom.

But here in chapter 15 he is fearful, because on the surface, it doesn't seem like God will fulfill His promises.

Fear often drives people to take the quick and easy route attempting to shortcut faithful obedience.

But fear only leads us further from Him and the true source of blessing.

But through the word of the LORD Abram got his eyes off of what seems to the God who is.

Because of this trust in God, God blesses Abram and promises that He will have many descendants.

Sin falsely provides a short cut to what we desire.

Only through Faith in God and His promises will we receive what will truly bless.

Abraham openly admitted before God that he could not understand how the divine promise of an heir, much less of a multitude of nations, could be fulfilled.

The very fact that Abraham was trying to understand how God's promise could be fulfilled indicates he was looking for a way of fulfillment, although he could not yet see a way.

Paul declares in Romans 4:19 that Abraham believed God and he did not weaken in faith.

The interesting irony is that Abraham's faith did not "weaken" even as his and Sarah's bodies were progressively weakening.

To weaken in faith is to allow doubt to cloud and partly undermine belief.

Abraham had been trusting God for 25 years, acknowledging, as Paul had just intimated, that "God ... gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist" (Rom.

4:17).

As far as we know, Abraham had witnessed no miracle of God.

He had never seen God raise a person from the dead or call anything or anyone into being who did not already exist.

Yet he firmly believed that the Lord was easily capable of doing such things, as we saw last week from Hebrews 11:17-19.

(Osborne, G. R. (200).