He Believed in the Lord
Notes
Transcript
Call to Worship
Call to Worship
Galatians 3:1–9 “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?—Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.”
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God
Intro
Intro
Last week we had Abram’s encounter with Melchezidek, King of Salem
We looked at who this figure might be and his importance
Most importantly for us, we saw that upon returning from battle victorious, with the King of Sodom coming to meet with Abram
Abram stopped what he was doing to worship God through this encounter with Melchezidek, before returning to earthly matters.
Setting time aside to worship God is crucial for us
Today is a continuation in Abram’s narrative where we are given an important insight into Abram’s standing with God that is referenced multiple times in the New Testament as an exhortation and encouragement for us.
Body
Body
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
After achieving a great victory, meeting with Melchezidek, and turning down gifts from the King of Sodom
Abram is on a role, doing everything right
God comes to Abram in a vision: Do not be afraid.
What did Abram have to be afraid of?
He just beat King Chedolaomer and freed the prisoners and returned the captured goods.
He is being blessed in his faithfulness to God
“I am your shield”
God is protecting Abram
“Your exceedingly great reward”
Instead of needing an award from the King of Sodom, God IS Abram’s reward
What could Abram possibly be afraid of?
But Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!”
What did God’s revelation look like at this point?
As Christians, we sometimes forget that God progressively revealed his revelation in time
Humanity did not have full revelation of the Gospel until after Christ’s Death burial and resurrection.
What did Abram have?
There were very few worshippers of the true God
Melchezidek was one
Abram, who was formally an idol worshipper, was another.
Scripture did not exist.
Any special revelation from God would have either been what God revealed directly to them
Or what had been passed on through oral tradition
From father to son
From Noah to his sons, to their sons, and so on and so forth.
Most of what Abram knew about God was likely what we have recorded in Scripture.
Genesis 12:2–3 “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.””
There was no clear understanding of Christ and an afterlife
So all Abram had to go off was God’s word and promise.
Abram was trying to be faithful, but he had no offspring of his own.
Our modern culture is so far removed from how God created us to be, that we miss the fear that Abram has.
We’ve been programmed into living for the now.
Modern Christianity does a little better and encourages us to live for eternity, which is good.
But nature and Scripture teach us to live for future generations on earth.
Genesis 1:28 “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””
Grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it.
Becoming a Christian does not mean that future generations do not matter
Children are good.
It is good and natural to desire children and grandchildren.
It is a result of sin to not have children, whether intentional or not.
Abram was promised by God to be the father of nations, he was an old man and had no children of his own.
perhaps God meant he would be the father of nations through one of his servants born into his house?
As Christians, we have way of coping with the curse of infertility.
We know that via sharing the gospel, we can be fruitful and multiply the Church
We know that we have brothers and sisters, sons and daughters in the faith
Abram did not have this.
And the little revelation that Abram did have from God seemed to indicate that he would have children, yet he was an aging man, with an aging wife, and no earthly hope of children as a stranger in a foreign land.
Abram’s fear was dying childless.
Not only is that a perfectly natural fear
But the looming reality denied what he thought God had promised him.
And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
God reaffirms Abram’s understanding and gives him hope
Abram will have his own offspring
He will have an heir from his own body, not an heir from among his servants.
Abram had not misunderstood the promise of God
Look at the sky
Count the stars.
However many you can count, if you can number all that you see, so shall your descendants be.
God reassures Abram
not only will he have an heir born to him, but his descendants will be countless like the stars of the sky.
And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
Not because of how Abram handled the strife with his nephew Lot
Not because of how Abram nobly came to the aid of lot in vanquishing the enemy to rescue Lot.
Not because of how Abram rightly worshipped God with Melichezidek
Not because of how Abram rightly turned down the rewards of the King of Sodom
but because Abram believed in the Lord, it was accounted to him for righteousness.
This is the same way that God accounts to us righteousness; by faith
Yes, God is going to give Abram biological descendants and make him into many nations
But those who believe God like Abraham are Abraham’s descendants
As Jesus said to the Pharisees in John 8,
“If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham.
The ultimate “work” of Abraham is believing God, who then accounts you as righteous.
Then He said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.”
And he said, “Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?”
So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
Though he believes God, he still has weak faith.
We’ve spoken on this before, God does not require perfect faith, but that is not an excuse for us to doubt.
We keep crying out to God in faith, to help us have more faith
We are not given the details
Did God give Abram these instructions?
Did Abram just know to do this with the animals.
Either way, Abram gathers the requested animals, divides them, and waits
Chasing off the vultures that came to feast on the carcasses.
Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
Similar to the sleep God put Adam into in creating Eve
horror and great darkness fell upon him
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God: Hebrews 10:31
Though Abram is declared righteous, he is still a mortal, sinful man.
Proverbs 9:10 ““The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
A great and terrible vision and promise is given to Abram:
Know certainly
your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs
they will be servants
they will be afflicted for 400 years
but the nation whom they serve will be judged
after bondage, his descendants will leave with great possessions
you will go to your fathers in peace
You will die at a good old age
you will be buried
meaning there will be a possession in this foreign land
your descendants WILL return here, to where you are buried
but it will not be until the 4th generation
until it is time for God to destroy the Amorites.
And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying:
“To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
After reaffirming and giving further revelation to God’s promise to Abram, God seals the covenant.
Like the presence of God, manifested as a pillar of fire and cloud in the Exodus of God’s people, God’s presence appears to Abram, passing between the pieces Abram had laid out, consuming them.
In this Covenant, God establishes the range of land that Abram’s descendants will inherit.
Conclusion/Application
Conclusion/Application
What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.
Apart from the person of Jesus Christ and his death, burial, and resurrection, perhaps nothing more is important than how to obtain that righteousness.
Abram believed in the Lord and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
That same belief is required for us.
Abrams good and commendable works that preceded these verses were not enough to obtain righteousness.
his heroics and piety were not enough
but because he believed God, God credited him with the righteousness of Christ
though God commands us to be strong and courageous like Abram
and to worship him in spirit and truth
these things to not save us.
though we have more knowledge of the mind of God and the full revelation of His Scripture,
He still requires the same simple faith of Abram.
We are to have faith as a child and believe in God.
Believe that God has provided a way of salvation through Jesus.
Believe that we have been grafted into the household of God, a spiritual heir of Abraham through Abraham’s physical heir Jesus Christ.
