Rev. David Holwick N Series: What Is Ours in Christ
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
April 22, 2001
Romans 4:16-21
|
I. God is good but life can be tough.
A. Dark humor.
In 1976, a 22-year-old Irishman, Bob Finnegan, was crossing
the busy Falls Road in Belfast.
Suddenly he was struck by a taxi and flung over its roof.
The taxi drove away and as Finnegan lay stunned in the road,
another car ran into him, rolling him into the gutter.
It too drove on.
As a group of people gathered to examine Finnegan, a delivery
van plowed through the crowd, leaving in its wake three
injured bystanders and an even more battered Bob Finnegan.
When a fourth vehicle came along, the crowd wisely scattered
and only one person was hit - Bob Finnegan.
In the space of two minutes Finnegan suffered a fractured skull,
broken pelvis, broken leg, and other assorted injures.
_____________________________
In 1977, a man hit by a car in New York got up uninjured, but
lay back down in front of the car when a bystander told him
to pretend he was hurt so he could collect insurance
money.
The car rolled forward and crushed him to death.
_____________________________
In 1981, 42-year-old Romolo Ribolla of Pisa, Italy, sat in his
kitchen, with a gun in his hand, threatening to kill himself.
His wife pleaded for him not to do it, and after about an hour,
he burst into tears and threw the gun to the floor.
The gun went off and killed his wife.
#5435
B. Hardly funny at all.
A woman from David Henderson's church was diagnosed three years
ago with multiple sclerosis.
It is an ugly illness that causes muscle tremors, palsy, even
paralysis.
She had just rounded 30 and had two young children.
She was crushed.
When she visited a specialist 18 months later, she found out
the diagnosis was wrong ... and far worse.
She didn't have MS.
She had ALS, "Lou Gehrig's Disease."
It is a fast-acting and debilitating disease for which there
is no cure.
Four or five years is all she might expect to live.
II. In a disappointing world, where is our loving God?
A. Bible says things are not the way they should be.
1) Sin crept into the garden. Rom 8:20-21
2) Our rebellion filters out and produces pain.
B. Has God lost control of world?
1) No. World is not what is WAS to be, but also is not what
it IS to be.
2) God will make things right someday.
3) A day of reclamation. Rom 8:19
C. Hope is faith's answer to the dilemma.
1) Hope is believing that what SHOULD be, WILL be.
a) Abraham and promise of a son. Rom 4:16
b) He was rich and powerful, but bet everything on God.
c) Yet nothing in his life supported this. (real old)
2) Quote by a Polish Jew in Holocaust:
"I believe in the sun even when it is not shining.
I believe in love even when I am alone.
I believe in God even when He is silent."
3) This is the stuff of our hope.
III. More than a wish.
A. First aspect of hope - something inside of us.
1) A sense of longing mixed with anticipation.
a) It is the fruit of our suffering. Rom 5:4
b) The basis of our endurance. 1 Thess 1:3
c) The basis of our patience. Ps 33:20
d) The source of our joy. Rom 12:12
2) It is God's work in us, but our responsibility to nurture
and guard. Jer 29:11
a) Take hold of it. Heb 6:18
b) Be sure of it. Heb 6:11
c) Hold unswervingly to it. Heb 10:23
B. Second aspect of hope - something outside of us.
1) There is a reality on which our inside hope is pinned.
a) By definition it remains a FUTURE reality. Rom 8:24
1> It is promised for us by God so is more certain
than the coming of tomorrow. (Abraham and son)
2> It will not disappoint us.
b) Its substance is the Second Coming of Jesus. Tit 2:13
1> At last we become like Christ. 1 Jn 3:2-3
2> One day evil will be done away with. Rom 8:22-24
c) We are to set our hope FULLY on it. 1 Pet 1:13-16
2) Hope is different from a wish.
a) We have a guarantee from God.
b) Hope is wishing for what God has already promised us.
IV. Hope's nemesis.
A. The greatest robber of hope is Circumstance.
1) Literally means "stand around."
2) Events and people who crowd around us and limit our view.
a) For Abraham, it was fact he and Sarah were so old.
b) He even tried to come up with his own schemes & failed.
B. Circumstances are persuasive.
1) Positive ones tempt us to put our faith in them, not Lord.
a) Bible warns against this. Ps 33:17; 1 Tim 6:17
2) Negative ones tempt us to forget God's promises.
a) We find it hard to look beyond pain.
a) God's promises come by faith. 4:16
1> Puts emphasis on God's free grace to us.
b) Believing against hope. 4:18
1> Abraham accepted God's promise at face value.
A> Circumstances were against him. 4:19
B> Yet he did not waver in unbelief. 4:20
2> God can do what he promised. 4:21
C. It is hard to hold on to hope.
1) Despair comes when we believe what our eyes tell us.
a) When circumstances are difficult, the game is over.
b) Despair says circumstances tell us what is true about
God.
c) Hope says GOD tells us what is true about circumstances.
2) Pastor's wife and AIDS patient - do you have another hope?
Louis Smedes tells the story of a pastor's wife who
works at an AIDS clinic in Los Angeles.
A new doctor had insensitively told one AIDS patient
that he would not live out the year.
As the man left the clinic, he stopped at Tammy's desk
and wept, "He took away my hope."
"I guess he did," Tammy answered.
"Do you have another one?"
#19024
V. Tightening our grip.
A. Close your eyes to the persuasive pull of circumstances.
B. Quit believing that life stops when pain starts.
1) Pain has a place in God's redemptive work.
2) God uses pain for our growth.
C. Remember the goodness of God.
1) Hard times tempt us to believe God is not up to the task.
2) Remember how he has helped you in the past.
3) We may not know his purposes, but we do know his heart.
D. Live with one eye fixed on heaven.
1) Our senses tell us that this is all there is, then death.
2) This world is neither our home nor our hope.
VI. The last word.
A. God has the power to do what he has promised.
1) Abraham got his son, and millions of believers follow his
footsteps.
2) If the promise hasn't arrived yet, keeping hoping.
Woman diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease:
"I don't know what my future holds, but I do know the Lord
is always with me and won't abandon me.
I've shelved my fears because of my concrete hope in the Lord,
wrapping around me, giving me peace with my situation."
B. Hope is letting God have the last word.
=========================================================================
This series is based on one in Discipleship Journal #114, Nov/Dec 1999.
This sermon very closely follows the article "Hope - Anchoring Your Heart
To A Sure and Certain Future," by David W. Henderson, page 52.
SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 5435 "Think You've Had a Bad Day?" from sermon by Rev. Ken D.
Trivette titled, "Why God Let's His People Suffer."
Original source is unknown.
#19024 Louis Smedes, quoted in "Hope - Anchoring Your Heart To a Sure
and Certain Future," by David W. Henderson, Discipleship
Journal #114, Nov/Dec 1999, page 55.
These and 17,000 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
=========================================================================
Study notes:
Romans 4:16-21
I. God's promises come by faith. 4:16
A. Puts emphasis on God's free grace to us.
B. Abraham is the father of faith.
II. Believing against hope. 4:18
A. God made a promise (son) and Abraham accepted it at face value.
1) Circumstances were against him. 4:19
2) Yet he did not waver in unbelief. 4:20
B. God can do what he promised. 4:21
_________________________________________________________________________
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
Created with the Freeware Edition of HelpNDoc: Full featured Documentation generator