SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
SPEAKER_01: My name is Dan.
SPEAKER_01: If I don't know you, I'm the pastor of college ministry, and it is my joy to open God's Word with you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Would you turn with me to Genesis chapter 15?
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 15 as we continue our study, our Advent series, Jesus in Genesis, a glimpse of the gospel in the first book of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: We look to the father of faith, Abraham, Genesis chapter 15, verses 1 to 6.
SPEAKER_01: Let me read it for us to set our minds on this text.
SPEAKER_01: After these things, the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision.
SPEAKER_01: Fear not, Abram, I am your shield.
SPEAKER_01: Your reward shall be very great.
SPEAKER_01: But Abram said, O Lord Yahweh, what will you give me?
SPEAKER_01: For I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.
SPEAKER_01: And Abram said, Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.
SPEAKER_01: And behold, the word of Yahweh came to him.
SPEAKER_01: Your very own son shall be your heir.
SPEAKER_01: And he brought him outside and said, Look toward heaven and number the stars, if you're able to number them.
SPEAKER_01: Then he said to him, So shall your offspring be.
SPEAKER_01: And he believed Yahweh, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: So reads the word of the living God.
SPEAKER_01: Father Abraham died last November.
SPEAKER_01: At least that was his stage name.
SPEAKER_01: Pierre Kartner was a Dutch musician that you probably don't know by reputation, but you certainly do know his work if you've grown up in the church since 1971 when he released his campfire hit, Father Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: Father Abraham had many sons.
SPEAKER_01: Many sons said Father Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: I am, and so are you.
SPEAKER_01: So let's just praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Right arm, left arm.
SPEAKER_01: It's like a Christian hokey pokey.
SPEAKER_01: I am one of them?
SPEAKER_01: Is that true?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you're not a physical descendant of Abraham, if you're not ethnically Jewish, are you one of his sons?
SPEAKER_01: Well, according to Paul, yes, Galatians 3, 7.
SPEAKER_01: Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: So if you have faith, then you're a son of Abraham because you have a faith like Abraham's faith.
SPEAKER_01: My guess is that most of us don't think of our lives of faith like Abraham's life of faith.
SPEAKER_01: His life seems very distant to us.
SPEAKER_01: 4,000 years ago, very different culture, very different problems from the ones that we face today.
SPEAKER_01: When we think of faith, we we tend to think of problematic versions of it like blind faith.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I just gotta believe because I believe.
SPEAKER_01: Or a kind of magic faith that says, I have faith that it's gonna happen, like if you just said it enough, that magically it would appear.
SPEAKER_01: Or a kind of prideful faith.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I have faith in myself.
SPEAKER_01: But is that really faith?
SPEAKER_01: Is that the kind of faith that would make you a son of Abraham, the father of faith?
SPEAKER_01: I don't think so.
SPEAKER_01: No, what Abraham had, what we need, and what God gives as his consistent design for faith, is sweeter and stronger and stranger than the hallmark faith that you see around Christmas time.
SPEAKER_01: The faith that you need in the darkest days of your journey is the same faith that propelled Abraham for 100 years of faithful wandering in a land that he never owned.
SPEAKER_01: And it's the same faith that was in the heart of a young Nazarene virgin who was given a message and a son, and she believed.
SPEAKER_01: And that faith holds on to this one reality that is so simple it's often overlooked or just taken for granted, and yet it is what makes faith faith.
SPEAKER_01: And it's this faith like Abraham's believes that God is faithful.
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
SPEAKER_01: Faith like Abraham's believes that God is faithful, that he keeps his word, that he does what he says.
SPEAKER_01: That God is a faithful God.
SPEAKER_01: And so I want you to consider this morning, before we even start looking at the life of Abraham, and we'll look at several chapters of it in an overview fashion.
SPEAKER_01: Before we do, I want you to consider for yourself where are you in your journey of faith?
SPEAKER_01: Are you here this morning with no faith?
SPEAKER_01: You have never begun the journey of faith.
SPEAKER_01: There's other people who have faith.
SPEAKER_01: You've happened upon church on the Sunday morning, so you know that there is such a thing, but you yourself don't possess it.
SPEAKER_01: Or are you in a valley of faith, a struggle, a crisis of faith?
SPEAKER_01: Are you on the mountaintop, the pinnacle of your faith?
SPEAKER_01: Where are you?
SPEAKER_01: Wherever you are, you need to hear the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: And it's the lesson of the life of our patriarch of the faith, Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: It's that faith is faith in a faithful God.
SPEAKER_01: And that faithful God promises Abram a son, and we'll see how that impacts our faith in four parts.
SPEAKER_01: When God promises a son, first, he summons your faith.
SPEAKER_01: He summons your faith.
SPEAKER_01: Abram, before he was called by God, had faith in Sin.
SPEAKER_01: Sin was the Akkadian name for the moon god of Ur, also called Nenna.
SPEAKER_01: And sort of the patron saint of Ur.
SPEAKER_01: There was a massive temple to Sin or Nenna in the city of Ur where Abram grew up.
SPEAKER_01: This is in Mesopotamia, near the Euphrates.
SPEAKER_01: He was a pagan moon worshiper before he met God.
SPEAKER_01: But his faith in the moon, which was also known as a fertility god, was not working out.
SPEAKER_01: Abram, his name means father of many, was married relatively young to his half-sister Sarai, and they started to try to have kids.
SPEAKER_01: And then years went by and decades went by, and whether it was him or her, they didn't know, but they couldn't conceive.
SPEAKER_01: The father of many was the father of none.
SPEAKER_01: And this fertility God thing really wasn't working out.
SPEAKER_01: And it was in the middle of that life of the Hebrew, the descendant of Eber, living in the time of the patriarchs, that God spoke.
SPEAKER_01: And to this empty-handed Hebrew, a moon-worshipping Mesopotamian man, was given the promise of a son.
SPEAKER_01: Turn with me to Genesis chapter 12, as we see the beginning of Abraham's life of faith, his summons to faith.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis chapter 12, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Now Yahweh said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: And I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: This is typically called the Abrahamic covenant, or at least the first explanation of it.
SPEAKER_01: And you can see there's three elements to it in the text.
SPEAKER_01: There's a promise of a land that he's going to give to Abraham, there's a promise of a nation or descendants that he's going to give to Abraham, and then there's a promise of blessing, that he's going to bless Abraham so that then those who bless Abraham get blessed by him, and everyone gets blessed in the whole world.
SPEAKER_01: It's a blessing for everyone.
SPEAKER_01: That's the promise.
SPEAKER_01: The upshot is that God, the creator God, is inserting himself into this pagan man's life to promise him that he will offer eternal, abundant life through him and his sons.
SPEAKER_01: But notice it comes at a steep price.
SPEAKER_01: He says, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house.
SPEAKER_01: This is a command, this is a summons, it's a demand, really.
SPEAKER_01: If you really believe what this promise is, then you will act in this way.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning you will leave everything you've ever known.
SPEAKER_01: You'll leave your house behind, you'll leave your family behind, you'll leave your culture behind, maybe even the language group behind, and you will find yourself in a distant land completely unknown.
SPEAKER_01: And it all hinges on this question: Will God keep his word?
SPEAKER_01: Is God faithful?
SPEAKER_01: That's what Abraham has to answer in response to this promise that's made.
SPEAKER_01: Does he think that God will actually keep this promise?
SPEAKER_01: And appreciate the promise itself has problems.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, he's been infertile for years.
SPEAKER_01: And God just promised him a whole bunch of kids.
SPEAKER_01: How's that gonna happen?
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, Hebrews chapter 11, verse 8 tells us, well, that when he went out, he didn't know where he was going.
SPEAKER_01: God didn't tell him.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't give him like a pin, drop a pin on the GPS.
SPEAKER_01: He just said, go out.
SPEAKER_01: I'll tell you later.
SPEAKER_01: And third, he was gonna have to leave family, leave a religion behind.
SPEAKER_01: There are probably people in his family telling him, What are you, you crazy?
SPEAKER_01: You think you heard from a God, and so you're just gonna up and leave everything you've ever known?
SPEAKER_01: We have a God.
SPEAKER_01: You can worship him.
SPEAKER_01: So why?
SPEAKER_01: Why should he believe this?
SPEAKER_01: This faith is a demanding, costly call.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just let me add this God to my pantheon.
SPEAKER_01: This is a leave everything, burn the ships, and follow this God kind of summons.
SPEAKER_01: And look at verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: So Abram went.
SPEAKER_01: He did it.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 11, chapter 8 tells us he had faith.
SPEAKER_01: He believed this promise.
SPEAKER_01: He trusted in God.
SPEAKER_01: He believed that God would make good on his word.
SPEAKER_01: And what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: Well, faith is a notoriously hard word to define in the Bible, but I think probably the simplest way to say it is that faith is trust in God and his promises.
SPEAKER_01: Faith is trust in God and his promises, largely for the future.
SPEAKER_01: And faith usually answers two questions.
SPEAKER_01: Can God and will God?
SPEAKER_01: Is God able?
SPEAKER_01: Is he powerful enough?
SPEAKER_01: And is he faithful?
SPEAKER_01: Is he willing to do it?
SPEAKER_01: And Abram answered yes and yes.
SPEAKER_01: All we know is that he got this message, and that's what caused him to believe.
SPEAKER_01: The summons produced the faith that it demanded.
SPEAKER_01: Romans chapter 4, verse 18 tells us, in hope Abraham believed against hope, meaning this is crazy.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody would have done this.
SPEAKER_01: This didn't make any sense on an earthly plane.
SPEAKER_01: And yet Abraham believed.
SPEAKER_01: He trusted God.
SPEAKER_01: And so he went.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Well, because he believed in the character of the one who had promised the faithfulness of God.
SPEAKER_01: And it's the same for you.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel is a summons of faith to you.
SPEAKER_01: It demands to be heard, it demands a hearing from you.
SPEAKER_01: And the question is the same to you.
SPEAKER_01: Is the God who promises eternal life through Jesus Christ, the Son of Abraham, is he faithful?
SPEAKER_01: Well, first he summons Abram by faith, and then he tests it.
SPEAKER_01: He tests your faith.
SPEAKER_01: At 60 years, Abram packs up the U-Haul and leaves from Ur, heads to Haran, and then 75 years old, he leaves from Haran to Canaan.
SPEAKER_01: To give you a sense of perspective about this, it'd be like if you're living here in Washington, D.C., and then you migrated to Atlanta, and then a number of years later you migrate down to Orlando.
SPEAKER_01: Only you don't actually know that that's where you're supposed to end up, and there's no Disney World at the end.
SPEAKER_01: This is a matter of faith.
SPEAKER_01: And chapter 12, verse 6, we see he ends up in the promised land.
SPEAKER_01: He's at Shechem.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of in the middle of nowhere.
SPEAKER_01: If you notice in the life of Abraham, everything's denoted by trees, right?
SPEAKER_01: The oaks here and the mumreys there.
SPEAKER_01: This is where he is.
SPEAKER_01: He's just in a forest.
SPEAKER_01: And verse 7, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, To your offspring I will give this land.
SPEAKER_01: So, okay, now he's got a general sense where he's going to be.
SPEAKER_01: And then he continues to journey around, building altars, worshiping God, probably calling on God, asking, Is this where I'm supposed to end up?
SPEAKER_01: And then verse 10, the first test of faith comes.
SPEAKER_01: Now there was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land.
SPEAKER_01: In the Hebrew mindset, the famine was always God's fault.
SPEAKER_01: It was, there's no such thing as a natural disaster.
SPEAKER_01: It's only ever a supernatural one.
SPEAKER_01: God did this.
SPEAKER_01: God is the one who brought this famine, and he's always bringing famines in the Bible and moving people around with him, isn't he?
SPEAKER_01: And often down to Egypt, which is exactly what happened.
SPEAKER_01: So when he was about to enter Egypt, verse 11, he said to Sarai, his wife, I know that you're a woman beautiful in appearance.
SPEAKER_01: Which, by the way, she was 65 at this point, so way to go.
SPEAKER_01: And when the Egyptians see you, they will say, This is his wife.
SPEAKER_01: Then they'll kill me, but they'll let you live.
SPEAKER_01: Say you're my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake, which is true, kind of.
SPEAKER_01: He's a half-sister, but a half-truth is a full lie, right?
SPEAKER_01: Abraham comes up with this plan because he thinks if I don't lie, I die.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta help God out here.
SPEAKER_01: I know God made this promise that I'm gonna have all these descendants, I'm gonna inherit this land, but things are looking rough right now.
SPEAKER_01: So I gotta take matters into my own hands.
SPEAKER_01: And so he does.
SPEAKER_01: And Pharaoh takes Sarai into the house, and for a little while it works out.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 16, and for her sake he dealt well with Abram, and then he gives a bunch of money, gets rich off of this thing.
SPEAKER_01: But then verse 17, God brings a plague.
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai.
SPEAKER_01: That won't be the last time you see plagues in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: Abram's wife.
SPEAKER_01: And so Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this you have done to me?
SPEAKER_01: Same exact wording as Genesis 3.13, God's words to Adam in hiding.
SPEAKER_01: What have you done, Adam?
SPEAKER_01: Now in the mouth of a pagan king, what have you done, Abram?
SPEAKER_01: Why did you do that?
SPEAKER_01: You see, what he's pointing out here is that though Abraham has faith, Romans 4 tells us he had faith that never wavered.
SPEAKER_01: He also had fear.
SPEAKER_01: And that's a reality for any believer, that if you have faith, it's always going to be mingled in some way with fear.
SPEAKER_01: And he let the fear drive him and his decisions to sin.
SPEAKER_01: He was questioning: is God really able?
SPEAKER_01: Is God really faithful?
SPEAKER_01: One of the things we need to see in the testing of Abraham, which happens over and over and over again, is that when you face an obstacle to your faith, appreciate that God has never met an obstacle.
SPEAKER_01: He only ever has opportunities.
SPEAKER_01: If there is a hurdle in your way in the life of faith, it has God's name on the side of it, property of God.
SPEAKER_01: He put it there.
SPEAKER_01: He has a design for this famine.
SPEAKER_01: This didn't happen by accident.
SPEAKER_01: This wasn't a plan B.
SPEAKER_01: This didn't catch God by surprise.
SPEAKER_01: That temptation is not an enemy to God's plan, but a part of it.
SPEAKER_01: That trial, that sickness, that pain in your life is a crowbar from the Almighty to rip open your heart and expose what's inside and show it to you, to test your faith.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning, God is not just faithful when things are going well.
SPEAKER_01: God is faithful in the famine.
SPEAKER_01: God is faithful because of the famine.
SPEAKER_01: To us, it seems like the promises of God are always on the edge of a knife.
SPEAKER_01: That must have been what it felt like to Abram.
SPEAKER_01: But I mean, God's always got this thing balanced.
SPEAKER_01: He knows exactly what he's doing.
SPEAKER_01: His promises may seem slow to us, but for him it's right on time.
SPEAKER_01: And you may think in your life, the trials and tests that you face, you may think those are a challenge to the faithfulness of God.
SPEAKER_01: The life of Abraham tells us, no, that is the faithfulness of God.
SPEAKER_01: Samu Rutherford, who was a Puritan pastor and preacher, knew something about testing in his life.
SPEAKER_01: He married two women and had nine kids.
SPEAKER_01: One of his wives died before him, and he buried eight of his children.
SPEAKER_01: He was exiled during his ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Became an enemy of the church or the state in some sense.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what he said about those tests, those trials in his life?
SPEAKER_01: He said, the cross of Christ on my back is like wings to a bird.
SPEAKER_01: It's like a sail on a ship.
SPEAKER_01: The wind only ever blows me to him.
SPEAKER_01: He said, faith is only ever helped by adversity.
SPEAKER_01: He said, the devil is the whetstone that sharpens the believer's faith.
SPEAKER_01: He believed that God was faithful not only in fulfillment of promise, but also in testing of faith.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, tests can come in multiple ways.
SPEAKER_01: We see this in the life of Abraham itself.
SPEAKER_01: He's not just tested by famine, he's tested, chapter 13, by plenty.
SPEAKER_01: He comes back to the land and he's got so much stuff, him and Lot can't even share the same lot.
SPEAKER_01: And so they have to separate.
SPEAKER_01: And so they have to start separating.
SPEAKER_01: It's a test of plenty.
SPEAKER_01: What are you gonna do with all of the wealth that you've been given?
SPEAKER_01: Or chapter 14, we see the first battle in scripture, this battle of the two armies of kings, and Abram inserts himself in the middle of it, heroically rescues Lot and brings him back and has all this spoil, and then there's this test of whether or not he's going to give it to the king of Sodom.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, tests can look a lot of different ways, but the point is that the solution in the midst of that test is always the same.
SPEAKER_01: God is faithful.
SPEAKER_01: The question that you have to answer is always the same.
SPEAKER_01: Will God be faithful?
SPEAKER_01: Even in the test.
SPEAKER_01: Even in the trial.
SPEAKER_01: And he proves that he is.
SPEAKER_01: The third thing that he does, after summoning his faith and then testing his faith, he strengthens his faith.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 15, he's now back.
SPEAKER_01: Back in Hebron, still without the promised child.
SPEAKER_01: And Abram continues to fear.
SPEAKER_01: And so the Lord, in his faithfulness, gives him strength to endure.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 15, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: After these things, the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision.
SPEAKER_01: Fear not Abram.
SPEAKER_01: This is the first fear not in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: People like to say there's 365 fear-nots in the Bible, one for each day of the year.
SPEAKER_01: It's not true.
SPEAKER_01: There's not.
SPEAKER_01: I counted about 81 of them.
SPEAKER_01: There's still a lot.
SPEAKER_01: This is the first one.
SPEAKER_01: And it is a profound statement because it's acknowledging from heaven.
SPEAKER_01: I understand, Abram.
SPEAKER_01: You're afraid.
SPEAKER_01: You wonder whether or not I will be faithful to my promise.
SPEAKER_01: So let me help.
SPEAKER_01: Fear not, Abram.
SPEAKER_01: I am your shield, your deliverer, the one who will guard you and keep my word, and your reward shall be very great.
SPEAKER_01: That land that I promised you, those kids that I promised you, they're coming.
SPEAKER_01: You can bank on it.
SPEAKER_01: But Abram expresses his concern.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 2, but Abram said, O Lord Yahweh, what will you give me?
SPEAKER_01: For I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.
SPEAKER_01: It would have been a common thing in the ancient world.
SPEAKER_01: If someone didn't have a biological offspring, they would choose someone from their house to inherit all of their wealth.
SPEAKER_01: And he's saying, Is that what I'm gonna have to do?
SPEAKER_01: That's the plan now?
SPEAKER_01: You haven't given me an offspring.
SPEAKER_01: What am I supposed to do?
SPEAKER_01: So God confirms.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 4 Behold, the word of Yahweh came to him.
SPEAKER_01: This man shall not be your heir.
SPEAKER_01: Your very own son shall be your heir.
SPEAKER_01: Literally, the one coming out from your loins, from your own body, that one will be the fulfiller of the promise.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 5, he illustrates this.
SPEAKER_01: He brought him outside and said, Look toward heaven and number the stars, if you're able to number them.
SPEAKER_01: And then he said to him, So shall your offspring be.
SPEAKER_01: Notice, if you are able to.
SPEAKER_01: If you're in northern Virginia, you're like, yeah, three and a plane.
SPEAKER_01: Done.
SPEAKER_01: But if you live in a world lit by fire, then when you look up at the night sky, it is a sea of stars.
SPEAKER_01: People who count these things estimate that our universe contains one septillion stars.
SPEAKER_01: Ten to the 24th power.
SPEAKER_01: Can you count that?
SPEAKER_01: The point is, no, you can't.
SPEAKER_01: You can't even count that.
SPEAKER_01: But you know who can.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 147, verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: He determines the number of the stars.
SPEAKER_01: He gives to all of them their names.
SPEAKER_01: Not only can God count all the stars, he names them like Julie and Ben.
SPEAKER_01: God is able, that's the point.
SPEAKER_01: And Abram, of course, you're not.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why it requires faith.
SPEAKER_01: And so, verse 6, he believed Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: He had faith in Yahweh, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: The preeminent Old Testament statement on justification.
SPEAKER_01: God justifies him by faith and faith alone.
SPEAKER_01: And the point in context is of course God has to be the one to do it.
SPEAKER_01: He's the only one who could.
SPEAKER_01: Which is why God goes on, verses 7 to 21, to confirm not only his promise about the descendants, but also about the land.
SPEAKER_01: And he makes it a covenant.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Go get some animals, chop them in half, and then he puts Abram to sleep and he sends a smoking fire pot and a fire through it, cloud and fire, and he sends his presence through the middle of it, saying, I am binding myself to make this promise to you.
SPEAKER_01: So much so that if it requires me to take my own life like these animals, I'll do it to be faithful to this promise.
SPEAKER_01: And you know that's what he does.
SPEAKER_01: When he sends Christ, he, so to speak, rips into his flesh in order to keep his promise to his people.
SPEAKER_01: This is the first instance of the word faith in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And what it means is I don't do it, God does.
SPEAKER_01: He's faithful, so I trust him.
SPEAKER_01: When Abram's strength was failing, what did God do to strengthen him?
SPEAKER_01: He just showed him more of his own faithfulness, more of his own character.
SPEAKER_01: And that's how faith is always strengthened.
SPEAKER_01: Faith is always strengthened by looking at the object of faith.
SPEAKER_01: And you get this because you've seen kids looking at their Christmas gifts.
SPEAKER_01: I have some at my house right now who like to wander up to the tree and look at the gifts and touch the wrapping paper, pick it up, shake it a little, look at it from different angles, read one of them can now read the label on the top.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: The more he learns about it, the more excited he gets.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to know what's inside.
SPEAKER_01: So it is with faith.
SPEAKER_01: He's not giving him a new promise here.
SPEAKER_01: It's the same promise.
SPEAKER_01: He's just saying, turn it around, Abram.
SPEAKER_01: Look at it from every angle and see, no matter how you look at it, I am faithful.
SPEAKER_01: I will keep my word.
SPEAKER_01: You can bank on it.
SPEAKER_01: Especially look at the frum tag.
SPEAKER_01: And see that I'm a faithful God.
SPEAKER_01: I will do what I said I will do.
SPEAKER_01: Do you realize the strength of your faith is not in your faith?
SPEAKER_01: The strength of your faith is in the faithfulness of God and your grasp on it.
SPEAKER_01: I love the hymn, Be still my soul.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is on your side.
SPEAKER_01: Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
SPEAKER_01: Leave to thy God to order and provide.
SPEAKER_01: In every change, he faithful will remain.
SPEAKER_01: Be still my soul, your best, your heavenly friend through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
SPEAKER_01: Faith is strengthened when it catches a glimpse of the faithfulness of God.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what happens next?
SPEAKER_01: Back to the testing.
SPEAKER_01: Another test, chapter 16.
SPEAKER_01: More tests.
SPEAKER_01: Sarai comes in, says to Abram, Behold, now Yahweh has prevented me from bearing children, like it's his fault.
SPEAKER_01: Go into my servant.
SPEAKER_01: It may be that I shall obtain children by her, and Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
SPEAKER_01: Last time we heard that, Genesis 3, 17, because you have listened to the voice of your wife, Adam.
SPEAKER_01: Same kind of temptation.
SPEAKER_01: And what happens in this test?
SPEAKER_01: He exposes more of Abram's fear.
SPEAKER_01: And then what happens on the other side of that?
SPEAKER_01: 17?
SPEAKER_01: He strengthens his faith again.
SPEAKER_01: He gives him more reason to believe in God.
SPEAKER_01: He gives him a sign, circumcision.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to make good on this promise.
SPEAKER_01: You can believe it.
SPEAKER_01: And then more tests, Sodom and Gomorrah.
SPEAKER_01: He says in chapter 18, verse 14 is anything too hard for God?
SPEAKER_01: The answer, of course, is no.
SPEAKER_01: The question is, will you believe it?
SPEAKER_01: Will you have faith in the faithfulness of God that He can and He will do everything He says?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the joy of faith is that not only are we tested and strengthened, tested and strengthened.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's that's the Christian life, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: It's back and forth tested and strengthened.
SPEAKER_01: But one day your faith will be sight.
SPEAKER_01: And that happens to Abram.
SPEAKER_01: Now, named Abraham, the life of faith gives way to the life of fulfillment.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 21, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: And Yahweh visited Sarah as he had said.
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
SPEAKER_01: Just underscoring.
SPEAKER_01: He said he would, and he did it.
SPEAKER_01: And Yahweh did to Sarah as he had promised.
SPEAKER_01: Exactly like he promised.
SPEAKER_01: He was faithful to it.
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, this is a miracle, which is how God set it up, so that he's the only explanation for it.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there must have been so much joy in that moment, but she finally conceived.
SPEAKER_01: They've been waiting 25 years on this promise.
SPEAKER_01: They've moved all over the world, and at last the child of promise has come, and they saw in bold relief the faithfulness of God.
SPEAKER_01: God promised and God did it.
SPEAKER_01: Because God always does.
SPEAKER_01: He's faithful.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean that the fight of faith was over.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 22, the very next chapter, probably going to be the hardest test of Abram's life, which we'll hear about next week.
SPEAKER_01: Sarah dies, another test, trying to find a wife for Isaac, that's another test.
SPEAKER_01: And eventually he dies, not having received all the things that he'd been promised.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, Hebrews 11 tells us that he greeted them from afar.
SPEAKER_01: Because he believed by faith.
SPEAKER_01: These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar.
SPEAKER_01: And in chapter 22, we find that there's this little promise that one of God's, one of Abram's offspring is going to possess the gate of his enemies.
SPEAKER_01: Singular.
SPEAKER_01: There's this one offspring who's going to come, who is going to be the ultimate fulfillment of the promises that are made to Abram here.
SPEAKER_01: And so for 2,000 years, people are wondering, when's that guy gonna come?
SPEAKER_01: Is he gonna show up?
SPEAKER_01: Is this him?
SPEAKER_01: And 2,000 years after this promise is made, a Nazarene virgin gets a visit from an angel who says to her, Fear not, I have good news for you.
SPEAKER_01: The promise is coming true.
SPEAKER_01: You are going to be the mother of the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: And Mary, overwhelmed, is strengthened by her visit with Elizabeth and then exclaims with this incredible song, Luke chapter 1, verse 54, he has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his offspring forever.
SPEAKER_01: It took 2,000 years, but God kept his word.
SPEAKER_01: Now, 2,000 years later, since Mary received that promise, here we are.
SPEAKER_01: And we've received the promise of the coming of a son, not the first, but the second.
SPEAKER_01: That he'll return and gather us to him, that the dead in Christ will be raised, as we read earlier.
SPEAKER_01: The question that you have to answer is will God be faithful to that promise?
SPEAKER_01: Was he faithful before?
SPEAKER_01: Then he'll be faithful in the future.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, if the manger was full, then God is faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Christmas, like the life of Abraham, teaches us that you can trust in God.
SPEAKER_01: The nativity scene preaches the same message as the star-filled sky, which is the song of Hannah and the refrain of Sarah and the cry of Father Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: And it is the very news that our hearts of faith need to hear today, in whatever circumstance you find yourself in, God is faithful.
SPEAKER_01: And so you can believe in him.
SPEAKER_01: So look at this list.
SPEAKER_01: Where do you find yourself today?
SPEAKER_01: Are you being summoned to faith?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe for the first time in your life.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have faith, but you hear the summons of this faithful God, and you say, I want that.
SPEAKER_01: I want to partake of that promise and the joy of knowing this faithful God.
SPEAKER_01: And I hear that he came as a baby and he lived a perfect life, and that he died in atoning death, and then he was resurrected, faithfully accomplishing everything that he had said, so that I could trust in him and have eternal life, be blessed along with Father Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: If that's you, then believe.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the question.
SPEAKER_01: The question is, will you believe?
SPEAKER_01: Or are you here in a test of faith?
SPEAKER_01: As I suspect many are.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, the stories he'll tell.
SPEAKER_01: And I wonder if in heaven we'll get to sing Father Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: And many sons.
SPEAKER_01: Many sons and Father Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: I'm one of them.
SPEAKER_01: So are you.
SPEAKER_01: So let's just praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Father, give us faith.
SPEAKER_01: Strengthen our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Deepen our faith and our belief in your faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: Not by might, not by our strength.
SPEAKER_01: Some trust in chariots and horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
SPEAKER_01: So God help us to do that this Christmas season.
SPEAKER_01: Strengthen those weak knees.
SPEAKER_01: Bind up those who need comfort.
SPEAKER_01: And do it by the promise of your faithful word.
SPEAKER_01: Cause us to look to Christ, the founder and perfecter of our faith, and to treasure Him and His faithfulness to your word and your promises.
SPEAKER_01: And use us, we pray, to summon others to faith in this faithful God.
SPEAKER_01: We pray all this in Jesus' name.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church or our current service times, go to iBc.church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to tms.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with both.