I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Genesis 15:1-6
1
After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:
“Do
not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield,
your very great reward.”
2
But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless
and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram
said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my
heir.”
4
Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a
son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside
and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count
them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
6
Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
-- when I was in school, there was a
familiar path that our parents all wished for us -- that we would graduate high
school, go onto college and get a degree in a good field, and then go into the
work force -- and then, after putting in 30 to 40 years working in our career,
we would be rewarded with retirement and the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of
all our labors
-- it was a good, conservative plan
-- it fit with the conservative mindset that my baby boomer parents had
inherited and it reflected the great wisdom of the time -- work hard -- do a
good job -- and you will be rewarded --
and, so, I headed out down that path, like so many others my age
-- the only problem with this life
is that the promise is always in the future -- you’re always looking ahead to
what lies over the horizon -- you’re always waiting for the rainbow -- for the
reward that’s promised to come
-- I was thinking about this the
other day -- a lot of the people I work with are preparing for retirement --
they’re at the end of their careers -- they’re cresting that hill and looking
forward to the reward that is ahead
-- so, it made me start to think
about where I am in life and what lies ahead -- it was disheartening -- I’ve
come to realize that I am a “tweener” -- you know, we call kids that are
between 10 and 12 tweeners because they’re not little children anymore but
they’re not teenagers yet -- they’re in between -- tweeners
-- well, I’m the same -- I’ve been
working in my field for a long time -- I came into the position at Moody AFB
and made a lot of changes -- I got a lot of things done -- but now, there’s not
so much left to change -- we’re more in a maintenance mode -- just plodding
along
-- it’s the same with my position --
I’ve been promoted several times -- my position and my salary have topped out
-- I’ll stay right where I am in both my position and my pay until I retire --
there’s no changes ahead
-- I’ve realized I’m not young
anymore, but I’m not old -- I don’t fit in with either group -- I’m just kind
of in between -- a tweener -- and the only thing I have ahead of me to look
forward to is retirement -- the promised gold at the end of the rainbow -- the
promise of time to travel -- time with family and friends -- time to do new
things again -- explore new hobbies -- the fulfillment of the promise is ahead
-- but right now, there is nothing
new -- and I find myself just trudging through day-to-day life -- waiting for
the promise, but never realizing it -- longing for the reward, but not able to
do anything about it
-- what do you do when you’re at
that point in life? -- when the promise seems out of reach? -- when nothing in
your life is changing, even though God has promised otherwise? -- how do you
keep on going on when it seems like the promise will never be fulfilled?
-- that’s the questions that we see
Abram struggling with in this passage from Genesis 15 -- so, let’s look back at
this passage and see what we can learn from Abram’s life that we might apply to
our own today
II. Scripture Lesson (Genesis 15:1-6)
-- verse 1
1
After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:
“Do
not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield,
your very great reward.”
-- this verse opens with the words,
“after this” -- those are words pregnant with meaning -- they let us know that
Abram, too, is a tweener
-- if you turn back to Genesis 12,
you see the start of Abram’s story -- Abram had been living in the land of Ur
with his family when the Lord came to him and told him to leave his country,
his people, and his father’s household and to go to the land that God would
show him
-- God promised Abram that He would
make Abram into a great nation -- that He would bless him and make his name
great -- and that all peoples on earth would be blessed through him
-- and, after hearing the promise,
Abram got up and left and followed God
-- he made his way to Canaan, and
God said that this was the land that his seed -- his offspring -- would inherit
-- but he couldn’t stay in the land at that time -- so, he wandered down to
Egypt, where he lived during the time of famine and where he accumulated great
wealth and great possessions
-- when the famine ended, Abram left
Egypt again for the promised land, along with his nephew Lot -- they traveled
to Canaan and Abram stayed there, while Lot moved nearer to the city of Sodom
-- again, God appears to Abram and
affirms the promise -- this is the land that Abram is given -- this is the land
that Abram’s offspring will inherit -- and God would make Abram’s descendants
like the dust of the earth -- so many of them they could not be counted
-- Abram continues to live in the
land and enjoy prosperity and adventure -- he even rescued his nephew Lot from
the hands of four kings that had attacked the area where Lot lived and taken
him captive
-- but the promise remained ahead --
despite all that he had done -- despite all the “after this” -- Abram and his
wife Sarai were still childless -- there was no seed -- there were no offspring
-- and Abram is getting old and
Abram is starting to worry -- what if the promise never comes?
-- there was a moment there when
Abram faced the temptation we all face when it seems like the promise isn’t
coming -- the temptation to take matters into our own hands -- to use worldly
means to bring it to pass
-- after Abram rescued Lot from the
four kings, the King of Sodom offered Abram worldly riches -- he could have
bought the whole land of Canaan -- he could have been set for the rest of his
days -- but Abram didn’t want riches -- Abram wanted an heir
-- at this time, Abram is 85 years
old -- he’s not looking to accumulate more wealth -- he’s looking for a legacy --
he’s looking for the promised seed
-- he’s had the promise for 10 years
now, but he’s still living in unfulfillment -- he’s living life as a tweener --
remembering the success of the past, but still looking over the horizon for the
promise as time is slipping away -- where are the many nations that were going
to come from him? -- where are the offspring that were going to be as numerous
as grains of dust on the land? -- why was God not fulfilling His promise?
-- after this, the word of the Lord
came to Abram -- this is the first time we see the phrase, “the word of the
Lord came…” in the Bible -- it is used over 100 times later on in the Old
Testament, but its first use is here -- as Abram is looking for answers, the
word of the Lord comes to him in response
-- when we begin to doubt -- when
the promise is still over the horizon -- when we are in need and turn to the
Lord -- His word comes to us -- in our day, the word of the Lord comes
primarily through the Scriptures -- but we also hear the Lord speaking through
the indwelling the Holy Spirit -- and we hear Him through His people -- the
church
-- Abram was in need and the word of
the Lord came to him in a vision -- the word of the Lord -- the revelation of
God -- came in two main ways -- visions and dreams -- the difference is that in
a vision, the person is awake and receives a revelation or visit from God while
awake -- such as Paul on the road to Damascus when he saw the risen Christ -- that
was a vision
-- the other way was in a dream --
in this case, you are asleep and God speaks to you in the depth of your slumber
-- so, God comes in a vision and speaks to Abram
-- note here that God calls Abram by
name -- that tells us that He knew Abram personally -- it reminds us that He
knows us, too -- no matter what we might be going through -- no matter how
lonely or abandoned we might feel -- no matter how far away the promise seems
-- remember this -- God knows you and He knows your name -- and His word will
call to you, just as He called to Abram
-- It’s like this verse from the
Casting Crowns song, “Who am I?” -- "Who am I/That the Lord of all the
earth/Would care to know my name/Would care to feel my hurt?"
-- God speaks to Abram and says, “Do
not be afraid” -- this is also the first time in the Bible that we see the
phrase, “Do not be afraid” or “fear not” -- it’s repeated 365 times for us --
once for each day of the year to remind us that God is with us and so we should
not be afraid
-- Abram’s fear at this moment was
that the promise would not be fulfilled -- as we will see in the next two
verses, Abram’s fear was that the promised heir would not come, but that the
steward of his household would inherit all that Abram had acquired -- like I
said, Abram is a tweener -- and he’s getting old -- and he has no children --
when you’re 85 years old and you haven’t had any kids yet, you start to wonder
if it’s going to happen or not
-- this type of fear always runs
counter to faith -- as we talked about a few weeks ago, there are two types of
fear in the Bible -- there is an affirming type of fear -- the fear of the Lord
-- that refers to honoring God with the respect and awe due His holy name --
this is not the type of fear that Abram has here -- Abram has the other type of
fear -- the fear of loss -- the fear of emptiness -- the fear of getting hurt
or getting killed -- the fear that God’s promise has failed
-- God knows Abram -- He knows
Abram’s heart -- He knows Abram’s doubt -- He knows Abram’s fear -- so, God
tells Abram, “Do not fear -- do not doubt -- do not worry nor be anxious,
because I am here -- I know you by name -- I know your heart -- I know your
desires -- I remember the promise -- and it is coming -- you must trust and
believe”
-- the real answer that God gave to
Abram’s fear was to say, “I Am” -- God responded to Abram’s fear by saying “I
am your shield; I am your very great reward” -- Ray Pritchard wrote: “To say
that God is the great “I AM” means that when we come to him, he is everything
we need at exactly that moment. It’s as if God is saying . . .
“I
am your strength.
I
am your courage.
I
am your health.
I
am your hope.
I
am your supply.
I
am your defender.
I
am your deliverer.
I
am your forgiveness.
I
am your joy.
I
am your future.”
[I
am your promise.]
-- “God is saying to you and me, “I
am whatever you need whenever you need it." He is the all-sufficient God
for every crisis.”
-- God’s presence and our faith and
trust in Him turns aside fear every time
-- God goes on to tell Abram that He
is Abram’s shield and his very great reward -- to be his shield meant he was
under God’s protection -- if Abram would trust in Him, He would shield Him from
all harm -- He would stop all the flaming arrows of the evil one, even the
darts of danger, discouragement and doubt about the promise that were affecting
Abram right now
-- when we get discouraged -- when
we doubt God’s word or God’s presence or that the promise is ever going to come
to pass -- remember our shield and trust in Him and His word
-- by saying He was Abram’s very great
reward, He was affirming Abram’s rejection of the worldly wealth offered by the
King of Sodom -- He was telling Abram that true treasure is not found on earth,
but in heaven, through Him -- Abram should continue to seek to lay up treasures
and riches in heaven, and not look to worldly means to meet his heart’s desires
or to bring the promise to pass
-- it’s too easy to give up on God
and seek to solve our own problems in our own way -- it is too easy to fall
into the temptation of thinking that we have to do it on our own if it’s going
to get done -- God’s ways are always right, even if they seem to be taking too
long to come to pass -- when we try to fulfill our desires in ungodly ways, sin
and death and chaos follow -- seek the fulfillment of the promise and your
desires through God and not through self or this world
-- verse 2
2
But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless
and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram
said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my
heir.”
-- Abram has the promise but he’s
living in unfulfillment
-- when God tells him that He will
be his shield and his very great reward, Abram responds by asking God, “How? --
How can this come to pass when I remain childless?”
-- remember that the promise of Genesis 12 was
that Abram was going to be the father of many nations -- Abram’s question was
how is this going to happen when I am old and still childless
-- Abram was full of doubt -- now,
we need to know there is a difference between doubt and unbelief -- doubt is
believing in God but not knowing how it will happen -- doubt is being honest
with your fears -- doubt is looking for the light -- trusting the light --
trusting God’s word -- but not knowing when it will come or how it will happen
-- unbelief, on the other hand, is a
refusal to believe the promise -- where doubt says, “How?” unbelief says, “it’s
not possible” -- where doubt still looks to God in faith, unbelief hardens the
heart and refuses to trust in God’s word -- unbelief is unwilling to trust what
has been promised will come or to trust that what God says is true
-- in these verses, we see that Abram
doubted the promise -- he believed in God -- he trusted in God -- he just
didn’t understand how the promise was going to come to pass -- it’s similar to
how Mary responded to Gabriel when he told her she would become pregnant and
bear the Messiah -- her response was, “How is this going to happen?” -- not
“that’s impossible”
-- doubt is okay, because it looks
to the light and trusts in God and results in a maturing faith -- unbelief, on
the other hand, rejects God and lives in the darkness and chooses self over the
Savior
-- so, Abram is still trusting God
-- he’s still believes in the promise -- but he doesn’t see how it is going to
come to pass -- or, a better way to say it -- it doesn’t look like it’s going
to happen as Abraham expected -- at this point, Abram seems to think the
promise is going to have to come through Eliezer of Damascus, because he
doesn’t see another way
-- more often than not, the promise isn’t
fulfilled in the way we expect -- God doesn’t move the way we would like -- the
doors we wait on don’t open when we hope -- things don’t go our way -- our
prayers seem to go unanswered -- have you ever happen to you?
-- you still trust and you still
believe, but the promise remains over the horizon and God isn’t moving or
working in the way you thought He would
-- that’s what was going on with
Abram -- and that is what happens to us all the time -- it comes from making
God in our own image -- from putting God in a box and thinking we’ve got God
all figured out -- if we only say this prayer or follow this command, then God
has to do what we say
-- but God tells us in Isaiah
55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways
higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’
-- God doesn’t work the way we think
He should -- He refuses to fit in our box or to be made in our image -- the
same was true with Abram
-- Abram doubted God in this
instance because God wasn’t doing what he thought God should be doing -- so, he
didn’t understand how the promise could possibly come to pass -- he still
trusted God -- he still believed God -- he still hoped in the promise -- but he
just didn’t see it
-- verse 4
4
Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a
son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside
and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count
them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
-- God hears Abram’s doubts -- He
knows Abram’s fear -- and so He speaks to Abram’s doubt and fear directly and
reassures Abram that the promise would be fulfilled through Abram’s own seed --
that the promised heir would come from Abram’s own body -- that he would truly
be the father of many nations -- not just in name -- not through a proxy or
adopted son and heir -- but through his own son -- through his own offspring
-- God carries Abram outside in the
vision and has him look to the heavens and see the stars -- the promise is affirmed
again -- your offspring shall be like the stars -- unable to be counted -- and
the evidence of the promise lay before Abram
-- the God who made the very heavens
Abram looked at -- the God who knew the stars by name and how many there were
-- the God who knew him by name and knew his fears and his doubts -- this God
-- the Great I Am -- would fulfill the promise -- it was coming
-- Abram saw the stars -- he heard
the word of the Lord -- and he believed in faith
-- when we are alone with our doubts
and our fears -- when it looks like time is passing us by and that the promises
will never come to pass -- we need to do like Abram -- we need to look to the Creator
of the heavens -- we need to listen for the word of the Lord -- and we need to
trust and believe and know that what God has promised will always come true,
even if we don’t understand it or understand how it will come to pass
-- verse 6
6
Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
-- Abram believed the Lord -- what a
powerful statement of faith in the face of doubt and fear
-- Abram trusted God -- he believed
the Lord -- he even believed in God’s promise to make of him a great nation
even though he and his wife were very old and there was no earthly hope of an
heir from their own bodies
-- his faith and trust in God is an
example we should follow -- as it says about Abram in Romans 4:20, “He did not
waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith,
giving glory to God”
-- even though Abram was full of
fear and doubt -- even though he didn’t understand how the promise could ever
come true, he still believed -- and God saw Abram’s faith and credited it to
him as righteousness
-- before we leave this passage,
it’s important for you to know what that last phrase here in verse 6 really
means -- what the Bible is saying when it says that God credited Abram’s faith
to him as righteousness because it has to do with the fulfillment of the
promise
-- righteousness is one of those
words we toss about without really considering what it means -- righteousness
is being in a right relationship with God -- it is defined by faith -- it is
strengthened through experience and righteous living -- and it is demonstrated
through our trust and belief in the promise
-- righteousness implies holy living
-- a life lived in relationship with God -- and the fulfillment of the promise
of salvation -- eternal life with God
-- when it says here that Abram’s
faith was credited to him as righteousness, it is actually speaking of Abram’s
salvation
-- let’s go back to the promise --
Abram was promised that he would become the father of many nations and that all
people on earth would be blessed through him -- and he was told that this would
happen through his seed -- his offspring
-- God blessed Abram and Sarai --
later known as Abraham and Sarah -- with a son of their own, Isaac -- and
Abraham had another son through the slave woman, Hagar -- Ishmael
-- through those two biological
sons, Abram became the father of many nations -- including the nation of Israel
and the Arab nations that exist today
-- but you need to know that the
promise that God gave Abram was not just the promise of an earthly nation -- the
promise here of the coming of a son from Abram’s line referred to the coming of
the Messiah -- that is why we read in the Scriptures later that Isaac was the
son of promise, because the Messiah came through Isaac and Jacob’s line and not
through the other descendants of Abraham
-- the promise that is being made
here to Abram is the promise of salvation through Jesus -- that is why this is
the first time we see someone in the Bible being called righteous by God --
because Abram overcome his doubt in the promise and believed the Lord, he put
his trust in the One who was to come -- the Seed of his line -- Jesus Christ
-- through faith, Abram entered into
a right relationship with God through the promise of a Messiah -- He looked
forward to the promised Heir -- the Messiah -- and it was credited to him as
righteousness -- as saving faith -- as true belief
-- in order for us to be made
righteous -- in order for us to be in a right relationship with God -- we have
to do the same
-- while Abram looked forward to the
promise that was to come, we look back to the promise that was fulfilled -- we
look back at the cross and see the finished work of Christ for the atonement of
our sins -- and when we believe the Lord -- when we put our faith and trust in
the same promise that Abram believed in, we too will be considered righteous in
the eyes of the Lord and will be in a right relationship with Him through His
Son Jesus Christ
III. Closing
-- I know I’ve gone long this
morning, so let me bring this to close by sharing with you the story Vernon
Grounds once related about Prince Albert of England
-- Prince Albert had visited the
laboratory of a scientist named Lyon Playfair -- According to Playfair’s
biographer, as the prince and the scientist stood near a cauldron of boiling
lead, Playfair asked Albert, “Has your royal highness any faith in science?”
-- “Certainly,” answered Prince
Albert. -- Playfair washed the prince’s hand in a special solution and then
told him to reach into the cauldron of boiling lead with his bare hand and to
scoop out some of the lead -- without hesitation, the prince plunged his hand
into the caldron and scooped up some boiling lead in his palm—and he wasn’t
injured at all.
-- If Prince Albert could place that
kind of faith in the words of a respected scientist, how much more may we trust
the word of the Lord
-- Abram began this passage in fear
and in doubt -- the promise was too big -- the promise was too far away -- the
promise looked like it was never going to come to pass
-- but God spoke to him and affirmed
the promise and Abram believed with a faith strong enough for righteousness and
salvation
-- the message I want to leave you
with this morning is to keep on believing -- trust in God -- trust in His
promise -- things in this world may not come to pass the way you want them to --
the best laid plans of men and mice might fail -- but the Word of God stands
true -- and the Promise of God that Abram was given -- the promise of the
Messiah -- the promise of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life with Him --
stands fulfilled today in the person of Jesus Christ
-- all we have to do is believe --
all we have to do is trust God and trust Jesus and believe in the Promise we
were given
-- let us pray
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