Grace and Figs

Grace and Figs By Rev. Res Spears / General I've been thinking a lot about vacations lately. Somehow, sometime, when all this moving is behind us - and right now, there's just a piano, a couch and two love seats between us and a "For Sale" sign in front of the old house - someday, we'll be in a position to take some time off again. At least that's what Annette keeps telling me whenever I whine about it. So, yeah, I've been thinking about vacations. And one of the things I'm known for within our family is the surprise vacation. Our first surprise vacation was about 12 years ago, when we took the whole family to DisneyWorld. Annette and I made all the advance arrangements. We told the adults, but I didn't want to spend six months having the grandchildren asking us "When do we get to go?" every other day. So we told them that they were taking us to the airport and it was only when we got there and opened the trunk that they saw their own luggage and realized they were going with us. We took them with us to see a space shuttle launch another year and didn't tell them where we were going until they saw the "Welcome to Florida" sign. And then there was the year we met their parents and them for lunch in Richmond one afternoon. After lunch, as the kids started to get into their car to go home, we opened their trunk, took out their luggage and put it in the truck and said, "C'mon! Let's go!" If you were to ask them about that trip today, they MIGHT recall that we went to the Smoky Mountains, but they'd probably be more likely to remember that we drove back home two days early into the teeth of Hurricane Irene so that I could be in Suffolk to cover the hurricane for the newspaper. After that frightening drive, it is truly a wonder that Annette still speaks to me. So, yeah, I've got something of a reputation within the family as a guy you should probably trust when he says, "Let's go!" And as I've been running back through those memories recently, it occurred to me that one of the great biblical examples of God's special, choosing, saving grace starts out much the same as those vacation stories of mine, with the words "Let's go!" Or more accurately, "Get going!" Last week, we talked about God's common grace - the grace He bestows upon mankind, the grace that causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust, the grace by which we are fed and clothed and housed, the grace that causes the grass to grow and the sun to shine, the grace that provides gladness of heart in all people, regardless of their status before God. But there is a special kind of God's grace that operates through faith to bring salvation for those to whom God chooses to show it, and that's the grace I want to talk about today. This is the grace the Apostle Paul wrote about from prison in Rome as he awaited his execution. Even as Paul knew what lay in store for him - even, perhaps, as he heard his captors making the final arrangements for his execution - he wrote to his protegé, Timothy, to encourage that young pastor to persevere through his own trials. 2 Timothy 1:8-9 NASB95 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, This is the grace of God in stooping to show favor to those who have done nothing to deserve it. Remember that Paul had zealously persecuted the young church, participating even in the murder of Stephen. But God had chosen Paul from eternity past to appoint him, as Paul says in concluding his thought, "a preacher and an apostle and a teacher." More to the point, and more to Paul's benefit, God, in His infinite grace, had chosen Paul for salvation. The same way He had chosen Noah. The same way He chose the people of Israel to be His special possession. The same way He chose the disciples, through His Son Jesus Christ. The same way He chose the thief on the cross. The same way He chose Timothy. The same way He has chosen all people of faith throughout history, none of whom did anything to earn their choosing. All the way back to Adam and Eve's son, Abel, salvation has been by God's grace alone working through the mechanism of faith alone. And even the faith is a gift from God. Today, we're going to be looking at an event in the life of Abraham, one of the Bible's greatest heroes of faith. This event, from Genesis, chapter 12, is often used (and rightly so) in sermons about faith. But today, I want us to concentrate primarily on what it tells us about God's grace. So if you'll turn with me to the Book of Genesis, we're actually going to pick up in verse 27 of chapter 11 before getting to the part of the story that you'll find so familiar. Genesis 11:27-30 NASB95 Now these are the records of the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran; and Haran became the father of Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans. Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah. Sarai was barren; she had no child. OK, let's stop there for a minute. The reason I wanted to direct your attention to this part of the account of Abraham's life is to give you some family background. Moses, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, records here that Abram, as he was known at this time, was one of the sons of Terah. We also meet his brothers Nahor and Haran, along with their wives and children, notable among them being Haran's son, Lot. And then we meet Sarai, Abram's wife, who was barren. Now, barrenness in the Ancient Near East was seen as a curse, and so Sarai's introduction to us is intended to show us that she lacked God's blessing on her life and that Abram had no hope of an heir. So now that we have met this family of nomads, we will see that they were probably moving from place to place as they looked for good pasture lands for their flocks. Genesis 11:31-32 NASB95 Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife; and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans in order to enter the land of Canaan; and they went as far as Haran, and settled there. The days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran. There's something important here that would have been clear to the people of Israel for whom Moses originally wrote this book, but it's something that's not clear to our modern eyes. First, many of the names we have encountered have connections to the worship of the gods of Babylonia at the time. Many scholars believe that Ur was located in the ancient Babylonian empire and so the names would make sense in that context. And much later in history, Joshua would confirm our suspicions as he spoke to the people of Israel in the Promised Land as he was about to die. Joshua 24:2 NASB95 Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the River, namely, Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods. You see, Abram, this man who we now know as Abraham, the great man of faith in Yahweh, the one true God, was a pagan and a polytheist, just like his family and just like the people among whom he lived in Ur and in Haran. In fact, these were people who were just a few generations removed from those who had built a tower at Babel in an attempt to reach the gods. And this is shocking to us, because we like to think that Abraham was always stalwart in his faith in the one true God. That's the mistake we make so often when it comes to God. No matter how much we hear that grace is God's unmerited favor, we still like to think that we who have experienced His grace have done something to earn it. But here we see that Abram is introduced to us as a man who was caught up in the worship of false Gods. And yet, as we shall see, God chose Abram just as he was. God didn't wait for Abram to recognize that he had been worshiping false gods. God didn't wait for Abram to come to Him. God didn't wait for Abram to do something that would prove him worthy of receiving God's grace. Instead, God reached down into Abram's life, right into the midst of the idolatry. God stooped in kindness to show favor on one who did not deserve it. God purposed to lavish grace upon this pagan idolator. And so, we pick up in verse 1 of chapter 12: Genesis 12:1-3 NASB95 Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." Now there is a lot going on in this blessing, but first we need to notice a textual issue before we can see it all. The textual issue appears at the end of verse 2. The literal translation from the Hebrew is not "And so you shall be a blessing," but rather "And so, be a blessing." When we see that line as a command, rather than a prediction, the parallelism of the Hebrew poetry becomes clear. Notice that there is one command in verse 1. Get going. Go away from your country. Go away from your relatives. Go away from your father's house. In other words, leave everything you have known and head to a place that only God knows. There's a neat set of bookends in Moses' portrayal of the life of Abraham. Moses records only two times that God told Abraham to "Go." Here is the first, and God was essentially saying, "Go and give up your past in faith." The other time God told Abraham to go was many years later, after the birth of Isaac, the son of God's promise, who represented Abraham's future, his lineage, his posterity. Can you guess the second time God told Abraham to "Go"? It takes place in chapter 22. Genesis 22:1-2 NASB95 Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." He said, "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you." What a great picture of submission to God we see in these two events. What portion of your life does God want you to devote to Him? All of it! Your past and your future and your present. It's all in His hands anyway, so we should strive to be more like Abraham - fully submitted to God in faith that He has a plan better than any we could engineer on our own. That's not an easy thing for us to do, any more than it was an easy thing for Abraham to step out of his tent and head off into the unknown, any more than it was easy for him to take his beloved son Isaac up the mountain with the intention of sacrificing him to God. But God had a plan to rescue Isaac, and He has a plan for your life, as well. The key to experiencing the richness and wonder of His plan is, just as it was for Abraham, obedient faith. And God rewards obedient faith. Look at what He promised Abraham back in verse 2. A great nation. Blessings. A great name. God in His unfathomable grace had chosen this pagan named Abram, but the key to Abram's experiencing the blessings of grace was obedient faith. Which brings us to God's second command here: Be a blessing. Why does God bless us? So we can bless others. And so God says here that if Abram is obedient to God's call to bless others, which in Scripture nearly always includes telling others about the one true God, then He will do even more for Abram. He will bless those who bless Abram. He will curse those who curse Abram. And He will bless all the families of earth through Abram. Now, what's going on with that third promise is that God is making Abraham to be the redemptive force to save the nations that had formed as a result of the curse at Babel, when God had confused the people's language and scattered them across the earth. This is the lens through which the rest of Scripture can be understood. Though Abram would have had no way to fully understand it, this was God's promise to send a Savior through the line of Abraham. This Savior would be God's very Son, Jesus Christ, born to a virgin Hebrew girl who was descended from the line of Abraham, a girl who was described by the angel as "full of grace," meaning that God chose to stoop in kindness to show her the great favor of making her the mother of the Savior of the world. The grace by which He used Mary's faith to bring His Son into the world so that all who believe in Him might have eternal life in Christ is the same grace by which he used Abram's faith to make him the father of the nation of Israel. It's the same grace the Apostle Paul was talking about when he wrote: "For by grace are you saved through faith." And here we see that Abram's faith caused him to step out of that tent and into the unknown. Verse 4: Genesis 12:4 NASB95 So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. So where did Abram's faith come from? Remember that he was a pagan idolator. There is no evidence in Scripture that he knew the one true God prior to this encounter. Well, Paul tells us where Abram's grace came from in that passage from the book of Ephesians. Ephesians 2:8-9 NASB95 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. The grace here is God's grace, and the faith is God's gracious gift. The same thing was true for Abram. He could not have received God's grace without faith, and he could not have mustered the faith on his own. Both the grace and the faith were from God. But Abram still had to obey in order to receive the promised blessings. And so we see that he stepped out of the tent and left Haran at the age of 75. So we see that this pagan idolator who suddenly came face to face with the special, saving grace of God, this grace by which God chose him out of his sinfulness to give him the promise of great blessings, was obedient to that first command to "Get going!" But what about the second command, to "Be a blessing"? We'll see the answer to that question in verse 5 through 9. Genesis 12:5-9 NASB95 Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land. The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him. Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD. Abram journeyed on, continuing toward the Negev. Here we see that God reconfirms two of His promises, the promise of land and the promise of descendants. "Abram, you've been obedient to My first command, so I will keep my conditional promises." And Abram's response is appropriate: He worshiped the Lord. But what we can understand as we peel back the layers of this passage is that Abram was already being obedient to the second command, as well. Look at verse 5. Now, when we read that Abram and Sarai and Lot took with them the "persons which they had acquired in Haran," we might think that this refers to servants, and that's possible. But when we read that line in the context of what we see in verse 8, I think we can come to a different conclusion. In verse 8, Moses writes that Abram built an altar to the Lord and "called upon the name of the Lord." The Hebrew word that's translated as "called upon" here can also mean "to proclaim." Martin Luther translated this line as "he built an altar to the Lord and preached the name of the Lord," and most scholars today agree that this is probably the sense that Moses had when he wrote this passage. So the idea is that Abraham was preaching in this new land about the one true God who had stooped down in kindness to show him favor, even though he had done nothing to deserve it. And when we see that Abram was preaching about God's grace in this foreign land, it's easy to go back to verse 5 and see that the persons - literally the souls - that he had acquired in Haran were people to whom Abram had preached the grace of God. In other words, having experienced the grace of God, Abram went right out and began sharing the good news of that grace. Sometimes I feel like I preach the same message every week. And I have come to conclude that there's a reason for that. From Genesis, chapter 1, through Revelation, chapter 22, there is one message repeated in various ways, over and over. It is the message of a creator God who moves in grace through generation, through degeneration and through regeneration. We see that message clearly in the Book of Genesis, where Moses writes of God's gracious generation of the universe, of His graciousness even as those He created in His image degenerate into sin and death, and of the regeneration He promises and begins to bring to fruition through a pagan idolator named Abram, whom He chose out of His abundant grace. It is the message of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration that we see from Genesis 1 through Revelation 22. And it is the message that those who have received God's grace, that those who have responded to His grace in the faith that He provides, are blessed so that they can bless others. We who have responded in faith to the good news that our Savior, Jesus Christ, came and lived and died for our sins and was raised from the dead and now sits at the right hand of God in heaven waiting for the day God sends Him back to take home all those who have put their faith in Him - we are called, just like Abram, to "be a blessing." We have the unconditional promise that we are saved by grace through faith that Jesus is who He said he is and that He will do what He said He will do, but just as Abram was commanded to bless others, we are, as well. Jesus, when He was sitting with His disciples at the Last Supper, hours before His arrest and crucifixion, told them why He had chosen them. John 15:16 NASB95 "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. If you have followed Jesus Christ in faith, it is because He chose you, just as His Father chose Abram. And He chose you so that you would go and bear fruit, whether that's in Haran or in Canaan, whether that's in Suffolk or in Haiti or somewhere else. I may not able to on vacation right now, but I've been enjoying a different kind of blessing for the past week or so, and it's almost as good as a vacation. Our new house has a fig tree, and that fig tree is just bursting with fruit. It's fantastic. But the truth is that it's an ugly little tree, and if it weren't for the fruit that we're able to harvest from it, it really wouldn't be of much use. Be like that fig tree. Go out and bear fruit. I know that's the same message I always preach, but I can only say that it's the same message I see written throughout Scripture. God's grace is not something any of us has earned, and therefore none of us has the right to hold it selfishly. Be like that fig tree. Be like Abram. Go and proclaim the name of the Lord. Go out and bear fruit. As God said to Abram, "Get going!" Page . Exported from Logos Bible Software, 1:22 AM August 2, 2020.