Believing the Promises of God

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Transcript:

All right, if you’ll turn with me to Romans chapter 4, and you might mark your place there, and also Genesis chapter 15. We’re going to look at Romans and Genesis both this morning. Last Sunday morning in my message, I started talking to you about the life of Abraham, and the idea of what it means to live a life of faith, to walk this journey of faith with the Lord, what it’s supposed to look like, and there are any number of examples from the scriptures.

Abraham is just, you know, he’s not the only one who lived a life of faith in the Bible. But when I think of faith, and not just faith in Jesus that saves, but faith in how I’m going to live my life, the story that always comes to mind is the one I talked to you about last week, about Abraham and God telling Abraham, get up and go to a place that I will show you. So he tells Abraham to get up and go, but I’m not telling you where until you get there.

You just start walking and I’ll tell you when you’ve arrived. That, for me, would be a terrifying thing to undertake. And for Abraham to get up and go without any discussion, without any argument, he just got up and went and God showed him as he promised.

That, to me, is one of the best illustrations of faith in a practical sense of how we live our lives, that God would say, get up and do something, and I’ll tell you what and where you’re going as you’re on the way, but first I need you to trust me enough to get up and go sight unseen. You know what, God will call us sometimes to do things without giving us all the details of where He’s taken us, without giving us all the details of how we’re going to get there or where we’re going to go, how we’re going to do this. He may call you to do some things.

He may not call you to get up and move to another country and say, but I’m not telling you where until you get there. But in your Christian life, He may call you to get up and do some things and you’re saying, but God, I don’t know where the end of this journey is. I don’t know what steps I’m supposed to take next.

And God may just tell you, you know what, take the first step, get up, and get prepared for where I’m going to send you. And we may at times have to step out on faith and say, I don’t know where God’s sending me, but I know He’s moving me to go. And so, you know, as we look at this idea of faith through the life of Abraham, we need to realize that faith is a very practical thing.

Faith is not just theology. It’s not just doctrine. Justification by faith, as important as that is, Faith is something in real life.

Faith is something that we experience and we live by and we have to make choices about day by day. As you go through your regular life, am I going to follow what God’s called me to do today or am I not? Am I going to answer his call today or am I not?

Am I going to believe his promises? Am I going to believe his word today or am I not? And those things have application, like I said, in your daily life, outside of the church building, in your home, with your family, in your workplace, in your school, wherever you happen to be, there’s a call to live by faith and to follow God in the very practical decisions of everyday life.

And sometimes He will call us to make decisions that require us to trust Him because we don’t see the end. And so last week I talked to you about Him getting up and being told to go. And one of the things that God did that we kind of glossed over, I didn’t spend a lot of time talking about last week, When God called him up in Genesis chapter 12 and said, I want you to get up and go, God also gave him some promises.

And God promised him about four major things in Genesis chapter 12. You don’t have to turn there this morning because we’re going to look at it again in chapter 15. But he promised to Abraham, he says, when you go, he said, your descendants will be a great nation.

Now, Abraham was up there in years. He was 75, still had no children. And yet God’s talking to him about descendants and said, not only will you have children, but their children and their children’s children and their children’s children’s children, they will be innumerable.

I’ll make them a great nation. That’s a pretty tall promise to somebody who’s 75 and his wife is 65. Hey, you’re going to have kids.

And not only that, you’re going to have more descendants than you can count. He promised that he would be a great nation. He promised that his name would be great among the nations, that the name of Abraham would be remembered, and of Abraham’s people that they would be remembered.

And of all of the countries that existed in that time, I mean, where is Mesopotamia? They’re no longer, I mean, it’s a region, but it’s not really a country. We don’t send an ambassador to Mesopotamia.

We don’t send an ambassador to the Hittites. But Israel, 4,000 years later, is still there as a country. And they still have a name among the nations.

Now, a lot of people hate them. But they have a name that’s feared. I watched a documentary a few weeks ago about something called Operation Thunderbolt, when Palestinian terrorists took a plane full of Israelis hostage and some others and flew them to Uganda back in the 1970s, where Idi Amin was dictator, and said, bring them here and the Israelis can’t get them.

Well, they released all the people who were not Israelis or Jews and kept them there and made demands of the Israeli government to release terrorists. And the Israeli government debated, do we release them, do we not? Golda Meir said we don’t negotiate with terrorists.

They sent a special ops team in and they liberated their people from this airport where they were being held hostage in this special forces raid, where they were being guarded by German communists, by Palestinian terrorists, and by the Ugandan army. And they liberated them, and the defenders were left saying, what just happened here? They didn’t know what hit them because of Israel.

And even the people who hate Israel today know that Israel is a force to be reckoned with. And so God’s promise, I’ll make a great name for you and your descendants, that his bloodline would be a blessing to the nations. He promised that in Genesis chapter 12.

His bloodline, his family, would be a blessing to the nations. And you know what? It’s through his bloodline, it’s through the Jewish nation that descended from Abraham, that the Messiah came to earth not only to be the salvation of the Jews, but the salvation of the entire world.

I can think of no greater blessing that God has given to mankind than to send his son to die for our sins, not only for the Jew, but for the Gentile as well. And he sent that salvation through the bloodline of Abraham. And he promised that God, that he would repay the nations according to their treatment of Abraham’s descendants.

Hey, I’m going to give you these descendants. I’m going to make a great nation out of you. And those who bless you, I will bless.

and those who curse you I will curse. God said, I’ll take care of your people. So God, when he said, get up and go, he made these promises to Abraham about his descendants.

And when we look in verse 15, I’m sorry, chapter 15, he reaffirms these things. He reaffirms these promises to Abraham. And God talks about it through the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 4.

Let’s look at that real quick. Romans chapter 4, starting in verse 16, says, therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace To the end, excuse me, to the end, the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but also that which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations before him, before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things, which be not as though they were.

Who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations. According to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb.

He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God and being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.

So here the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, is talking about forgiveness of sins, and he says it doesn’t come about by the law, doesn’t come about by adherence to the law, it doesn’t come about by works, it comes about by faith, by grace, through faith, and he gives the example of Abraham, who was the one that God said in the book of Genesis, it was imputed to him as righteousness. He says, Abraham believed God, and it was counted as righteousness. Abraham believed God in his promises.

When God said, hey, I’m going to give you children, as we’re going to see, he didn’t just promise that in Genesis 12 and forget about it. He came back in Genesis 15 and said, hey, I haven’t forgotten about giving you children. And even though Abraham at the time was about 100 years old, And his wife was 90 by then.

It says here in Romans that Abraham did not stagger at that promise. I would think if I at 100 was told I was going to have a child with my wife who was 90, I would think I would be a little shocked by that. I would think.

It’s one of those things you don’t even need insurance. The National Enquirer will pay for the medical bills. That doesn’t happen every day, does it?

And yet Abraham had such a faith in God, such a belief in God’s promises, that when he said, hey, you’re going to have a child, Abraham said, cool, how’s that going to happen? How are you going to do that? But he believed it.

He didn’t think about, oh, I’m so old, I’m so decrepit. She’s so old and decrepit. There’s no possible way.

He was fully persuaded, verse 21, that what he had promised, he was able to perform. He believed, he believed, he believed that what God promised, he would do. That’s one of the best things about Abraham.

Abraham’s not a perfect man as we read in the scriptures. We’ll talk a little bit more about that in the next couple weeks. Not a perfect man, but somebody who believed God.

When God said it, he said, for the most part, he said, okay, that’s true. Doesn’t matter that I can’t figure it out or I can’t see how it’s going to work. God said it, and that’s true.

In chapter 15 of Genesis, if you’ll turn there with me. Genesis 15, starting in verse 1. After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision.

He was called Abram back then. He hadn’t had his name changed yet. Came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.

This is not just a dream that Abraham had. He had a vision. He was fully awake and in his right mind.

When God spoke to him in a vision. Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eleazar of Damascus.

And Abraham said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them.

And he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. and he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness. Okay, so what has happened in this passage?

It sort of sounds like Abraham’s doubting God, but Romans says that’s not what he’s doing. God comes to Abraham in a vision and says, Fear not, I am thy shield, thy exceeding great reward. Abraham begins to ask questions of God.

Now, that’s different from questioning God. He begins to ask questions, and I think God allows us to ask questions. He says, what are you going to do?

You know, there’s this promise that you’re going to give me descendants, that they’re going to be a great nation. You’ve promised me this, and I believe it. But how is this going to work?

What form is that going to take? What are you going to give me? He said, because I’m still childless, and the steward of my house is Eleazar of Damascus.

And I’ve talked about him before on a Wednesday night, that he was a servant of Abraham, and he was set to inherit everything. And Abraham said in verse 3, you’ve given me no seed. I have no biological children.

This one in my house is my heir. And Abraham’s thinking here at this point, okay, God, I still believe your promise to make a great nation out of my household, but maybe your intent is for me to adopt. Maybe your intent is that these be taken into my household.

They’re my heirs, and so you’ll raise up a great nation under me from them. Is that how this is going to work, God, that maybe I’m supposed to adopt here? So he’s not doubting God’s word.

He’s not doubting God’s promises, but he’s just saying, God, I don’t understand how these promises are going to work. But he still believes that God is going to do all these things he promised back in chapter 12 and make a great nation out of it. And God’s response is, no, Eleazar is not going to be your heir, someone who comes forth from your own bowels, from your own loins.

He’s going to be your biological child. And then God takes him out and says, look up here at the stars and see how many there are. One of the things I like about living here in Seminole is I can see more stars than we could live in the city.

But still, you can’t see as many stars here as you can see when you’re way out in the country. Because there’s still some sky glow from Oklahoma City. But back then, when they didn’t have electric lights to light up the night, even in the distance, and it was just pitch black, you could go out and you could see thousands upon thousands upon thousands of stars.

And I wonder what that sight would have looked like. But even the dim stars they would have seen. And God said, you look out there and you see how many stars there are.

And if you could even try to count them, that’s what your descendants will be like. They’ll be like the stars in the sky. You won’t be able to count them all.

And they’re going to be your children. Not children you’ve adopted. Not children that you’ve brought into your house that you’ve made your heirs.

He said that they’re going to be your biological children. Now, that’s going to require a miracle. But fortunately, God is in the business of miracles.

And his answer in verse 6, he believed the Lord. He believed the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness. Now, this phrase is used several times in the Bible, speaking about Abraham, that he believed God or he had faith, and it was counted to him, it was imputed to him as righteousness.

In other words, the Bible in various ways at various times says of Abraham that he believed what God said, he trusted God, and so God considered it like righteousness in his account of righteousness. You know, if you want to imagine it like we have a bank account with God, a bank account of righteousness, we are overdrawn to infinity because of our sin. And yet God can come and put righteousness in the bank, and he can bring us back into the black.

And God did that for Abraham because he believed God. I was talking to Charla the other night. One of those things, I’d gone to bed and she came in there too.

And I was reading this passage and I said, what do you think? Which is a way for me to see what she thinks and then have an open door to tell her what I think. I said, what do you think about this?

I said, why is it faith? I said, I’ve wondered this for a while. Why is it faith?

Why is that God’s criteria for righteousness? Not only with Abraham, but in salvation. Why is it faith?

Why is that the criteria? God could have set it up to be anything. God could have said, walk backwards on Thursdays, and it will be counted to you for righteousness.

God could have said, stand on your head and gargle jello, and it will be accounted to you for righteousness. And I’m not trying to make light of this. I’m just saying, God could have said, God’s sovereign.

He could have laid out the criteria however he wanted. Why did God say, believe me, and it will be counted to you for righteousness? And folks, this is just my own opinion on it.

This is because the trust in God, we don’t trust somebody we don’t love. We don’t trust Him unless there’s some kind of change of heart. You can walk backwards on Thursdays and still hate God.

You can stand on your head and guardle jello and still hate God, but to trust God and take Him at His word, there’s got to be a change of heart. And so that makes me think, okay, why does God say everything you’ve done, forgiven if you just trust me, if you just have faith. I think, again, study this for yourself, see what you think, but for me, I think it’s because to trust him, to believe him, to have faith, there’s got to be a changed heart towards God.

There’s got to be a softening of the heart towards God. But whatever it is, God looked at Abraham and said, because of your faith, it’s counted you for righteousness. What made Abraham a great man of faith was not that he was perfect.

But one of the things that made Abraham a great man of faith was that he was somebody that when God spoke, when God made promises, Abraham believed him. If you want to live a life of faith, if you want to be a great man or woman of faith in God’s service, you’re not going to get there by all the achievements that you make, all the things you do on his behalf, all the plates you have spinning in the air, you’re not going to get there by your own effort. What God looks at and says, that’s what counts.

That’s what I’m counting for righteousness. If you want to be that great man or woman of faith, what it takes, folks, is believing the promises of God when he speaks. Believing that when God says it, it’s true regardless.

And I know we would look at the Bible and we would say, probably most of us in here would say, yeah, I believe that’s true, every word of it. But when he calls on us through his word to do something about what his word says. If you’ve been here on Sunday nights, I’ve been talking about the book of James, being a hearer of the word versus being a doer of the word.

It’s the difference between saying, yeah, I believe that’s true, and saying, I believe that’s true and so I’m going to do something about it. God can call us to do something all day long and we say, yeah, I believe that’s what God says. It’s something entirely different to say, I believe he means it.

And so I’m going to do something about it. I’m going to base my life on it. I’m going to risk my life.

I’m going to put my life on the line for that very thing that he said. God has made certain promises to us that, folks, we either believe or we don’t. Some of the things that God has promised to us, one of them is eternal life.

Do we believe God’s promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ or do we not? It’s something we better make pretty sure. Not just pretty sure.

We better nail it down tight whether we believe in that promise or not. Because that promise has eternal implications. If it’s true, then Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven.

And we are guaranteed eternity in heaven with him by believing in Jesus Christ. by not just believing that he existed, but believing in his sacrifice on the cross. If God’s promises are true, then we are guaranteed eternal life by grace through faith. If it’s not true, then we are separated from God for eternity in hell.

Folks, we need to make up our minds if we haven’t already. Do we believe that his promise is true? Am I so convinced of the truth of God’s promise of eternal life that I’m willing to stake my eternal destiny on it?

It’s a question we need to ask ourselves. Am I willing to put my trust for eternity in what God says? Do I believe him that much?

God’s made that promise. God’s promised he’ll never leave us or forsake us. It doesn’t always feel.

It doesn’t always feel like God’s just right here. Sometimes because of the way we live or just the circumstances around us in life, the way life beats us down, it doesn’t feel like God is just right here with us. It feels like he’s thousands of miles away.

And yet we have the promise of God, I will never leave you or forsake you. And that because of that he gives us the promise, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Go back and read that passage again because we think, oh, I can run for president and win because I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Or I can make a million dollars today because I can do all things. That’s not what it’s promising. You read back through all the things he says in Philippians.

He’s talking about his suffering for the gospel and God strengthening him for the work he’s been called to. And we think, I can’t run this race as a Christian anymore. I can’t live this life.

And God says you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. So we have this promise that he’ll never leave us or forsake us and that He strengthens us to accomplish whatever He’s called us to do. Do we believe that or not?

God, it’s too hard to serve you here where I am, wherever that may be. God, it’s too hard to do the right thing here. And He says, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

Do we believe it or not? God says He’ll supply all of our needs through His riches and glory in Christ Jesus. Do we believe it or not?

I’ll tell you, that’s a hard one. That’s a hard one sometimes to believe because I get my needs and my wants confused. I think I need a new car.

I mean, not new, but new to me because mine’s wearing out fast. But he hadn’t sent me a new one yet. I don’t need one yet. Mine still works.

And yet, there have been times where in my life I’ve looked at the bank account and not sure how everything balances on paper, how we had money for light or food, but it was always there. God met the needs. the bills were paid.

I went in one time for a job interview to sell insurance part-time after I had left it and was coming back to it. I was a bivocational pastor. And the man asked me, he said, well, what are your salary needs?

I said, well, I don’t even know. He said, well, what do you make now? I said, well, make about $900 a month.

And he actually gagged on what he was taking a drink out of and he thought I was joking. He said, how do you do that? I said, I don’t know.

It doesn’t work on paper, but God has always provided. You know what? It’s true.

His promise is true. He will supply our needs through his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. You read all through the Bible, and there are promises that God makes to us as his people.

There are promises that God gives us and says, you know what? You can serve me in this difficult world. You can serve me in this hostile world because I give you these promises of strength.

I give you these promises that I’ll care for you. I give you these promises that I will protect you. I give you these promises that there’s something better waiting for you.

Are we willing to believe that they’re true and act like it? That requires faith. Because sometimes we don’t see where, okay, God, if I spend this money on ministry or I give it to the church or I send it to this missionary or whatever, I don’t know how I’m going to pay my electric bill, and yet somehow he takes care of it.

God, I don’t know how I’m going to go witness to this person, but He gives us the words. God, I don’t know how I’m going to deal with this situation, but we try to do the right thing when it’s hard, and He strengthens us. And folks, I have never experienced God not keeping His promises.

You may think, well, yeah, you’re the preacher, though, of course. I’ve had a hard life in the last few years. A few years ago, I was 50 pounds lighter and had a lot more hair.

and life just has a way of I think it’s the stress honestly so yeah I tell you that God is faithful to keep his promise and I can tell you that not because I’m the preacher and it’s my job or because it’s even because it’s what the Bible says which should be good enough but I can tell you that because I’ve seen it myself as life has kind of knocked me around that God has been faithful to keep his promise God was faithful to keep his promises to Abraham. Even in giving you the description of the promises he made in chapter 12, kind of outlined for you how they were fulfilled, how he’s kept his promises. Folks, if we’re to live lives of faith, it really requires us to believe that God’s promises are true and to live like it.

We’ve got to realize that there’s nothing too big for God. You want to know what faith is? Believe there’s nothing too big for God to handle.

You don’t know what I’m going through. No, I may not. And you don’t know what I’ve been through either.

And sometimes when you’re in the middle of the storm, when you’re in the eye of the hurricane and you look out and all you can see is hurricane all around you, it looks pretty big. And when you take a step back or you look at the hurricane through satellite from outside this world, it looks a whole lot smaller. When you’re in the middle of the storm, it looks huge and insurmountable.

But folks, God doesn’t see the storm from our same perspective. You’ve got to realize, you’ve got to remind yourself that nothing is too big for God. It says in Romans 4 that we looked at when talking about Abraham and his physical limitations being old.

He didn’t consider how old he was or that his body was wearing out or that his wife’s body was old and wearing out. God said you’re going to have a child and he believed it. Well, that’s impossible.

Maybe, maybe to us, but nothing is too big for God. I guarantee you, your circumstances, whatever they may be, God can handle them. I guarantee you that whatever promises He’s made, He’s big enough to keep.

Nothing is too big for God. Faith expects God to keep His promises. Do you just have a wait-and-see attitude?

Maybe God will take care of me. Or do you expect? Do you wake up each morning expecting God to do the things He says He’ll do?

If we’re just kind of wait and see, then it’s not faith. We’re standing on the sidelines skeptically. Faith says, you know what, God promised it, and I expect Him to do it.

I’m waiting, not to see if He keeps His promises, but waiting to see when and how. Abraham knew that God was going to keep His promises somehow when he asked him in Genesis 15, Okay, are you going to send me descendants? Are you going to send them through my servants?

Am I going to adopt these people? How is this going to work? Abraham had questions about how it worked, but he didn’t question that God was going to give him descendants and make him a mighty nation.

There was never a question in his mind that God was going to keep his promises. So let me ask you this. Do you wait and see if he’s going to answer, if he’s going to keep his promises?

Or do you wait in expectation that he’s going to? And finally this morning, faith changes our hearts before our holy God. This is where I mentioned this earlier.

What is it about faith that God says, yeah, that’s what I’m looking for? Folks, faith changes our hearts. He believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness.

It says in Genesis 15. In Romans 4 it says, and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. God would look at a sinful man like Abraham.

He was a good man by human standards, but he was also, he did some wrong things. And yet God looked at him and says, you’re righteous before me. That didn’t mean that Abraham became sinless, but that means God as a judge declared him not guilty.

You’re righteous before me. You are legally considered to be a righteous man because of faith. Because his faith softened his heart before God.

Because his faith meant that God had hold of his heart. Meant that he was willing to be led. When you believe that God can and will keep his promises, that God can do anything, sort of changes your perspective on the world.

Changes your view of how the world works and how God works. And suddenly we get to a point where we’re up for anything. Whatever God calls, whatever God says to do.

I’m willing to go with it because he always keeps his promises. Folks, faith will change our hearts before God. We need to get out of the idea of, well, let’s just wait and see if God does anything.

Let’s expect him to do what he says he’ll do. Realize that there’s nothing too big for him to do. And be willing to go where he calls us.

Be willing to follow those promises wherever they do.

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