S. ABRAHAM AND THE PROMISES OF GOD
ABRAHAM AND THE PROMISES OF GOD Dr. W. A. Criswell
07-25-54
Now this evening we begin with the thirteenth verse, and conclude the chapter. The chapter [Rom 4:1-25] is an illustration of what Paul is saying about our justification. We are justified. We are declared righteous. We are accepted by God, not because of our good works, because no man’s life is acceptable to God because of our good works. The element of sin is in everything that we do. “There’s no man that is righteous”-righteous, perfect, acceptable-no not one.” “All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”
If we are to be justified, it can never be on the basis of our righteousness. The righteousness, if we ever face God, must be by importation. It must be imputed. It must be given to us through the worth and merit of somebody else. And that somebody else is the Lord Jesus.
Now, in preaching that and in writing of that, Paul, in the fourth chapter of Romans, uses an illustration. He speaks of Abraham, our father according to the flesh, being a Hebrew, him being a Jew. And he says, if Abraham were justified by works he had whereof the glory to see what I’ve done, and look at me. But, he couldn’t do it before God, because God knew too well what he had done. And Abraham, like all of us, was a fallen creature. He was an unholy and an unrighteous man. But what saith the Scripture? “Abraham believed God.” He trusted in God. Though he was a sinner, as all of us are sinners, yet he cast himself upon the mercy of God. He trusted God. Abraham believed God and his faith was counted for righteousness. He was saved by trusting God, believing in God. Now, that was the message this morning: the faith that saves, the committal of our souls to Jesus.
Now, tonight we are going to talk, speak, read, exhort about that faith that Abraham exercised. And Paul speaks of it now, as we begin in the thirteenth verse of the fourth chapter of Romans: For the promise-talking about the promises of God, Abraham believed God-For the promise, God promised that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, or through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise madw of none effect.
Because the law worketh wrath…
Therefore it is of faith that it might be of grace.
If Abraham were to be worthy of the reward of God, it would be a debt that He owed him to pay him. But, it is not of the law or righteousness or of deed. It is of the mercy and grace of God. It is a gift.
Therefore it is of faith-something Abraham just trusted God for, that it might be of grace-and it might be a gift of the Lord; to the end the promise might be sure to all of the seed; not to that only which is of the law-that is, just to the Jew, but that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
Anybody that believes in God is a descendant of Abraham.
(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations-including us.) before him whom thee believed, even God, who quickened the dead, and called those things which be not as though they were of God.
Now, going back to Abraham:
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 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 unto him; But for us also, to 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.
Now, if I can choose a text out of that passage it is this- Rom 4:20 :
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 God had promised, God was able also to perform.
“He staggered not at the promise of God.” I want you to know that sometimes the Lord overwhelms us. If we believe what God says and what he’s promised, it is sometimes an overwhelming thing. When it says here Abraham “staggered not at the promise of God”-in a moment, we can see what he could have staggered at. But, I say, as we begin this talk tonight, sometimes the Lord overwhelms us. We just simply are. We are just swept away by what God promises and how such a thing could be is difficult for us to receive or to understand. Could I say-do you remember, when the Lord Jesus said to those who were around the tomb of Lazarus-dead four days. In that country, it is hot, like this country. And they didn’t embalm the body. And in just a little while, the body begins to disintegrate and to decay.
Lazarus had been dead four days-four days. And by that time, the decay had set in. In a hot country, with a body not embalmed, swollen, the Lord said: “Take away the stone.” And when he said that, it was more than poor Martha could take: “Lord, no, no, I could not bear to look upon the swollen burst form of one who we have loved. Lord, no, not that.”
“Take away the stone.”
“No, Lord, no. No.” And the Lord said: “Martha, said I not unto thee that if thou should believe, thou should see the glory of God?”
Then, they took away the stone.
You know, I think I would have staggered at that, too. Wouldn’t you? If somebody you loved, in a hot country, never embalmed for four days, dead, and somebody were to say: “Uncover the body,” I think I would stagger, too.
Lord, I don’t believe I could look. I don’t believe I could stand it. Lord, it is too much to ask. Could I illustrate, again, how the Lord sometimes overwhelms us? Little Judea, small country, about that big, the northern ten tribes had been destroyed. Nebuchadnezzar-Sennacherib and Sargon had come, those bitter, nasty Assyrians. They had come and destroyed the kingdom. There wasn’t any part of it left. And now they were coming down and they were holding Judea in the palm of their hand. And they were surrounding Jerusalem. And like you would crush an egg, it looked as if those great armies of Assyria would crush little Judea. And so little Judea did what was the most natural and normal thing in the world for people to do. They went down into Egypt to make an alliance with the Egyptian in order that the hosts and the chariots and armies of Egypt might come up and fight against those Assyrians.
That’s what we are doing today. Over there in the North Atlantic, we have NATO, a combination of nations in order to oppose Russia. And that’s what we’re doing now. We’re trying to build another NATO in the Pacific in order to stop Communism in Southeast Asia-most natural thing in the world to do.
That’s what little Judea did. Surrounded as she was by the great armies of Assyria, she went down into Egypt to make a contract with Egypt, that Egypt would come and fight for Israel, and somehow block the onrushing armies of Assyria.
They had a great preacher in that day. They had a prophet. They had a man of God. And his name was Isaiah. And the Lord God spoke to Isaiah and Isaiah came before the king of Judea with this message: “Don’t lean upon the arm of Egypt. Don’t make a contract with the Egyptians. In returning and in rest, in quietness and in confidence be your strength. Just look to God. Just look to God.” Would you do that? Would America do that? Would you stagger at that? Would you? The Lord God said to people through Isaiah: “I’ll protect you. I’ll fight for you. I’m enough. You don’t need another army. And you don’t need another covenant. You don’t need to go to Egypt. I’ll protect you.” Would you do that? Would you? Lay down your arms and pray to God: “Lord, protect our nation.”
I want to finish that theory. I don’t like that-leave a thing hanging up there in the air like that.
Judea trusted the Lord and they just left it with God and believed the promise of God. And you know what happened?
All of you know the story. When Sennacherib, at the head of that Assyrian army, gathered Judea on the inside of the walls of Jerusalem, and bottled her up, and it looked as though Judea was certain to be slain, do you remember what happened? That night the angel of God passed over the camp of the Assyrians. And the next morning, when Sennacherib arose to lead his host against the people of the Lord, he had an army of dead men. Do you remember that? Do you remember that? He had an army of dead men. The length and breadth of his camp, his soldiers in the nighttime, had died. They were corpses. They were dead men. That’s the Lord. That’s the Lord.
We are talking about this tonight: staggering at the promise of God, at the direction of the Lord. Paul uses Abraham here as an illustration of a man who was saved by his trust and by his faith, by believing in the promises of God.
Now, I think he chose Abraham because Abraham lived 400 years before there was any Law such as you have in the Bible. And he chose Abraham because Abraham lived before there was any Jew, before there was any Hebrew, before there was any rite of circumcision, before there was anything connected with anything such as the Hebrew people, the chosen people of God, the Israelis.
Back here is a man who trusted God, and his faith was counted for righteousness. So, we are going to turn back to this blessed, blessed story of the life of Abraham. We are going to look back, and look at these things that Paul says, when he speaks of Abraham staggering not at the promises of God through unbelief.
Now, six things here-one right after another in these chapters, that God said to Abraham. Every time the Lord God talked to Abraham, he talked to him in terms of a promise. Abraham, this will I do. This will I do.
Now, if you have a Bible, a whole Bible, you turn to the twelfth chapter of the book of Genesis, and we’ll begin. Abraham, who staggered not at the promise of God-the first promise is in Gen 12:1.
Now, the Lord said to Abram, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and thy father’s house, unto a land which I will show you; And I will give it to you, the length and the breadth of that land. And Abraham went not knowing whither he went. Would you do that? Would you do that, just trusting in God? He left his father’s house and left his father’s home and left his native land and left his people, and he went out, just trusting God, just trusting the Lord. He didn’t know where the Lord was directing him or sending him-just going out, trusting God, believing that God would keep his word and bring him to a promised land. First one.
Now, the second one. Look at this: And I will make thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. And in thee-in the twentieth chapter of Genesis-and in thy seed shall all of the families of the earth be blessed. At that time, Abram had no child. He was childless-didn’t have an heir. Yet, the Lord said to him: “Abram, I will make of thee a great nation. And in thy seed shall all of the families of the earth be blessed.” And Abram believed that. He didn’t have an heir, didn’t have a child. But, he believed the promise of God.
Jesus says over there in the Gospel of John: “Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad.” He staggered not at the promise of God. He saw God’s will and he heard God’s promise and he believed it: that, in his seed, all of the families of the earth should be blessed.
Now, look at the thirteenth chapter, the thirteenth chapter of Genesis. It is a story of Abraham and Lot. In the land of Canaan, they have gone in that journey and the Lord had led them to the Promised Land, to the land of Canaan. And in that land they also began to grow and to multiply-their flocks and their herdsmen and their servants. And the land couldn’t contain them both, both Lot and Abram. And so, Abram said to Lot: “The land before thee, you choose the part you want and I’ll take what is left. If you choose the right, I’ll go to the left. If you choose the left, I’ll go to the right-the land before you.” And you know what Lot did. He lifted up his eyes and he looked over the fertile section of the land, the valley of Jordan. At that time, it wasn’t cursed. It was like a paradise. It was like an Eden: beautifully watered, palm trees, date palms, fig trees, orchards, beautiful fields, beautiful city, the great plain of the Jordan. Up there, in those mountains, he looked out over the plain and he said: “I will take the well-watered plain of the Jordan.” And Abram said: “All right. Then, I’ll take these mountains, rough and uncultivable and untellable and not productive. I’ll take what’s left.” And so Lot went down to the rich valley of the Jordan. And Abram stayed up there in those rough, rocky mountains. And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Abram, you lift up your eyes now. Look to the north. Look to the south. Look to the east. And look to the west. Whatever you see, Abram-including that valley of the Jordan, wherever you look, all the land that thou seest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth. And if a man can number the grains of sand, then can thy seed be numbered. Arise, Abram, walk through the land, the length and the breadth of it. And I’ll give it unto thee as a possession forever.”
He didn’t own a rock in it at that time. He didn’t own an acre, not a piece of it. But, he believed God. He trusted in the Lord. The Lord said it was his. And the Lord gave it to him. And may I comment here, before we go on to the next chapter? The land of Palestine, by irreconcilable covenant, belongs to the Jewish people. It is theirs by inheritance. God gave it to them.
It is going to be trodden down-Jerusalem is going to be trodden down, until the days of the Gentiles are fulfilled, until the time of the coming of the Lord. Did you know, had it not been for the Gentiles that land of Palestine by now would have already been wholly in the hands of the Jewish people, without bloodshed and without war.
They were going over there and they were buying that land with money. They were buying thousands of acres and hundreds of square miles of it, and would have bought it all at a legal and set price, but the Gentiles intervened, and the Muslim world especially, and under the aegis of Great Britain, there came bloodshed and war. And did you know, in that bloodshed and in that war, the Jewish people won the city of Jerusalem? But, somehow, in the providences of God, the Jewish armies fell back and they were only able to keep one little square, not Zion, the city of David-one little end of it, that’s the only part of old Jerusalem that the Israeli nation now has. It is just that one little piece, there, where David’s tomb is. Did you know, had the Jewish people won Jerusalem, Jesus would have come? The return of the Lord would have been. But, it is not in God’s Word for the Jews to have Jerusalem until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And when that time comes-I don’t know when it is-when that time comes, look up. You’ll see the Lord in the sky. You’ll see the Lord descend on the clouds of glory. You’ll see the Lord returning with all of his saints. You’ll see the heavens filled with the angels of God. And all of us will be caught up with the Lord in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, when the great archangel blows its trumpet. That land belongs to the Jews. It will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until they say: “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” And when the Lord comes, the nation is going to be born in a day. They are going to receive him and they are going to be saved. By an irrevocable covenant, I say, the land was given to Abraham. And Abraham believed God, and the Lord gave it to him.
Now, we hasten-these promises of God to Abraham. Abraham believed, he staggered not at the promises of God.
Now, in Gen 15:1-21 -this is the one that Paul is referring to. In Gen 15:1-21 :
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision, saying, Abraham, Don’t you be afraid. Don’t grow weary in your heart. I am thy shield and you are getting great reward.
Abraham said: “Lord God, I don’t see that promise that you made to me about a seed, about an heir in my house. I don’t see it. I’m 70 years old-70 years old. And my wife Isa 60:1-22 years old. And we don’t have a child. And yet, you say, in me all of the families of the world are to be blessed, and I’m to be a great nation. Yet, we go childless. There is no heir. There is no son. And there’s nobody born. And I’m 70 years old and Sarah, my wife, Isa 60:1-22.” And the Lord said: The word of the Lord came: “This one shall not be thine heir, this son of Eliezer,” the steward in his house, the head servant. No. “But he that shall come forth out of thine own body shall be thine heir.” And he brought Abram forth abroad and said: “Look now toward heaven and look at the stars. And though be able to number them, so shall thy seed be.”
There’s that famous passage: “And Abram believed the Lord, and God counted for him for righteousness.” That’s Gen 15:6 : “And he believed the Lord; and the Lord counted it for him for righteousness.” He trusted God.
Now, turn the page again-we must hasten here. We turn the page again to the seventeenth chapter and I want you to look-talking about staggering at the promise of God. Now, you look at this for a moment.
What is the first word there? “When Abram was ninety years old and nine”-99 years old-99 years old. That’s 29 years later, about 30 years later. Thirty years after this passage here in the fifteenth chapter, when he was complaining to God that he didn’t have a son, and yet one born in his own house should be his heir. Twenty-nine years has passed. Thirty years have passed and Abram is now 99 years old and his wife was 10 years younger. She was 89 years old. She was 89 years old and they didn’t have a child. They didn’t have a child. And Abram says to God: “Lord, how can it be? How can it be-this promise that Sarah is to have a child and I’m to be its father? And she’s 90 years old, and I’m 100-how can it be?” And so, the Lord God said-now, look at Gen 17:5, “You’ve been called Abram, but I’m going to change your nanme to Abraham, for a father of many nations have I made thee.”
Now, look at Gen 17:15 : “And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, you are to no longer call her Sarai, but Sarah shall she be, because I will bless her and she will be the mother of many nations.” And she’s 90 years old and he’s 100 and they don’t have a child-been barren all of their lives. And then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed and said in his heart: “Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? And shall Sarah that is ninety years old, shall she bear, Lord, could such a thing be?”
You turn the page. In Gen 18:12 : “Then Sarah laughed within herself.” And the angel of the Lord, that came to announce the birth of that child says here, in Gen 18:14 : “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Abram, 100 years old, and he doesn’t have a child; and Sarah, 90 years old, and she doesn’t have a child. The Lord says: “According to this season, according to the time of life, you will have a little child.” And Abram laughed and Sarah laughed. And that’s what Isaac means in the Hebrew language: “laugher.” Is anything too hard for God? He staggered not at the promise of God. Sarah, 90, and Hebrews, 100, and the child was born, just as God had promised.
Now, one other-one other-the promises of God. In Gen 22:1-24 : “It came to pass after these things-after the birth of the little boy, Isaac-you know, I wish I had time to go through the Bible with you.
How in the world did a woman who was 90 years old have a child? And how in the world did a man 100 years old be the father of a child? I haven’t got time to go through the Bible because we would have to stay here too long.
But, in those chapters that we’re skipping over now, to come to Gen 22:1-24, do you know what God did to Sarah? He made her a girl again. And did you know what God did to Abraham? He made him a young man again. He recreated both of them-both of them.
We haven’t time to follow the story through. But, is anything too hard for God? Is it? Is it? The promise of God.
Now, one other in Gen 22:1-24 : the little lad now is about 12 or 13 years old. And the Lord says to him:
Now take thine only son, Isaac, whom thou loveth; and get thee in the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And I haven’t time tonight to tell that story, when Abraham-he’s 113 years old now-when Abraham takes his only boy, Isaac, and makes that three-day journey and comes to Mount Moriah. And there, on the top of the mount, he binds the boy and, on a rough-hewn altar, lays him on the wood and raises the knife to slay him.
Now, in the eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews, and the eighteenth and following verses, of whom it was said: By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called;
Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. Do you get that? Do you see that? When the Lord God said to Abraham: “Take this, thine only son, and on top of Mount Moriah, bind him there and lift up the knife and take his life, and offer him to God for a burnt offering,” Abraham obeyed God and he took his boy. And on top of Mount Moriah, on top of the altar of uncut stones, he bound the boy and prepared to take his life, believing that God would raise that boy up from the dead-raise him up from the dead. He staggered not at the promise of God.
Now, this final word to us: When God speaks and we hear his voice, there is just one thing for us to do-just one thing: Believe it, believe it. Faith is confidence in God’s Word and in God’s promise that he will keep his Word, that he will perform the things that he’s promised.
Nothing is too hard for God-nothing. And that faith-faith isn’t reasoning about it. Faith isn’t sensations about it. Faith isn’t emotion and feeling about it. That is the curse of the Christian religion: “Preacher, I’m not going down that aisle. I’m not going to accept that word. I’m not going to be a Christian, not till lightning strikes me or not until I feel it or not until I get those sensations or not until something emotional overwhelms me. Not until I see the light or hear the voice of an angel, I’m not coming.”
That’s the curse of the Christian religion-this thing of emotion. We can’t help but feel and we all have feelings. And that’s not what saves us. And that is not what faith is.
Faith is not arguing about, feeling about it, emotional about it. Faith is not one thing or the other about our sensations about it. Faith is this: God says that and I’m trusting it, so help me, God. That’s it