Abraham, Long vision

Let's stick with John's gospel. John chapter 8 please. Gospel of John chapter 8, and we're hardly scratching the surface, all three.

And yesterday likewise, some of our beloved brethren, but John's gospel is a wonderful, wonderful book to read. Verse 56, please, John chapter 8. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and he was glad. I want to think with you for a little concerning Abraham as a man with a long vision.

Abraham rejoiced to see my day. Now we must explain that, first of all, and I think particularly we find the answer for our question in the epistle to the Hebrews and also the epistle to the Romans. Because through the seed of Isaac, Abraham got a hold of what Brother Crawford was speaking of when he mentioned, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Abraham got it. He saw the agenda of God. He saw the plan, the long vision that God gave to him, and he was expecting a redeemer king.

He saw that through the seed of Isaac, of which God said, look at the sand of the sea, look at the stars of the heaven. There's going to be spiritual blessing. There's going to be earthly blessing.

There's going to be a universal king coming through your seed. And God, as we know the person of our Lord Jesus, God says that he took upon the seed of Abraham. So that is what really this passage is explaining, and he's speaking to the people to show them, you know, it's a strange thing that Abraham could see what I'm teaching, but you can't see it.

Your eyes are blinded. They were blinded, of course, by the rituals of their law-keeping. But I want to think, beloved, that we likewise should be people of a long vision.

I'm going to turn you, please, if you will, to a verse in the epistle to James, chapter 5. James, chapter 5, verse 7. Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth. He's patient.

He knows it's going to come. It's coming. He hath long patience for it until he receive the early and the latter rain.

Be ye also patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Now, the word for patience in James, chapter 5, really means long vision.

That's the idea. Keep your eye on the future and let that affect the present. And I want to try and do this with you a little from the life of Abraham, how he lived in that attitude of mind.

It's an amazing thing, because really, when you think of Genesis, chapter 12, God called him out from Ur of the Chaldees. Now, when you read in the book of Judges, you find out about Ur of the Chaldees. It was a land of idolatry, and it mentions even Abraham's father was an idolatress.

He worshipped idols, the idols of Ur and the Chaldeans. In other words, he became overcome by the spirit of the culture in which he was living, and he did leave it eventually, but he became overcome by it. And that's where Abraham was raised.

That was the atmosphere in which he was raised. Now, it is not difficult for us, and let me speak to those of you who are young and, you know, people don't like me saying that, but I tell them, if you're on Social Security, you're old. If you're young, if you're not on Social Security, you're young.

So that's going to take you up to about a little bit, 65. Anyway, so it is for all, but I want to address the young in this respect. You have to make choices for this world.

You have to make choices that are going to affect and make and create for you your world, and the consequence of those choices is what you're going to have to battle with, to try and bring them into the control of what you are aiming for as the goal in your little world. Dearly beloved, you and I belong to another world. This world is not my home.

Praise God. Now, I'm not a young man. I'm over Social Security, but I want to tell you, it's when you are younger that the Spirit of God begins to take dealings with you in your affections, and in your heart, in your emotions even, and in your different characteristics of life, your married life, and finding a partner, and your married life, and your children, and they come.

Don't forget the world into which you are bringing them, and don't forget that you're going to live with the consequences of that choice of the world. God says, I want you to have a long vision. I want you to look beyond and ask yourself the question, how will this look when the future arrives? That's what Abraham has his eye upon.

We're going to notice that as we read the scriptures. It's an amazing thing. The very first thing that we have in Abraham's life, that he's living with a long vision, is he gets a call from God.

Isn't that beautiful? God is going to draw that man out of idolatry. Now, he could have sent him to the next town, told him to start over. No, he didn't.

He says, Abraham, I want you just to go out. He never even said to him, follow me. He never even said to him, now I'll give you guidance and give you a cloud like Israel.

He just said, go out. One thing marked Abraham, brother, when he got a look ahead, and that's where God's going to give him a little vision of the future. He's going to see it by taking hold of the Word of God.

He went out unquestioning obedience. Isn't that a beautiful feature of this man? That tells, brethren, that helps to show to us what's going to characterize his life. He's going to have to live in obedience, or he's going to sink.

He's moving forward in the purposes of God, and Abraham has not yet seen the fullness of those purposes. He is going to see them in this world, in a coming day, a divine administration, and Abraham is going to see it, going to realize it. That's what God is promising him.

He saw in the seed of Isaac, the promised one will come to reign. The stars of heaven, the sands of the sea will be under the scepter of this glorious one, the seed of Isaac. And yet, he didn't have an Isaac, but he's going to get him.

He's living with a long view. Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. So the first thing that marked Abraham, as we notice him here with his long vision, is his unquestioning obedience when he left Ur of the Chaldees, and this is what marked him, not knowing whither he went.

He didn't need to know. You say, he didn't need to know. I sure wouldn't want to step out and not know where I'm going.

Now, please understand that you, with your choices for your work and for your schooling, you need to be wise, and you are wise to ask counsel. But whatever you do, don't set that as the high goal of your life. Let it become for you what is going to be the instrument in your experience that you will be able to be living with the long view in the things of God in relation to the will of God.

Go out, get away from it, let that world go, and live in view of how it will appear in the next one. Unquestioning obedience to the word of his God. Oh God, help me to be of a tender spirit, sensitive to the voice of God.

I was telling the folk yesterday, I read, just was reading, I read John Darby's Bible at home. It's a very, very reliable translation, and I read it because I like the reading of it. Not that I don't like King James, I study from King James, but I do like Darby's translation.

Psalm number 62 starts out this way, upon God only, my soul doth rest peacefully. Isn't that a nice statement? Beautiful. And in verses 2, 3, and 4, he talks about some people that tried to unsettle him, and help him get his feet off his foundation, and lose prospect, lose perspective, pardon me, in his life.

He lost the long vision. So he cries out and he says in verse 5, upon God only, oh my soul, rest peacefully. He has to call himself back again to get his eye fixed upon the goal of living for God, even as a king.

As a monarch ruling in the land of Israel and Judah, we find him crowned, and he has all the responsibility of those people and their futures in his hand. But he's a man of a long vision. He's keeping his eye upon God only.

Oh brethren, God help us to realize obedience to the call as God will touch your conscience, and seek to direct you in your thinking, and in your schooling, and in your job, and with your dear little family. He's wanting you to keep your eye on how will it look in the future world. How will this be assessed at the judgmency of Christ? How will this appear in the face of the glory of my beloved Redeemer? Long vision.

Abraham saw my day, and he was glad. That was the end of the world that called him. But when you come into chapter 14, in that chapter of course we have the very sad experience of Lot, and he's taken away captive.

But dear Abraham, you know he could have said, well, Lot, you made a wrong choice. Sorry boy, you should have, you know, you should have listened to me at the beginning. No, he says, I'm going to go after him.

And he's an old man, 318 servants, and away he goes down there. Now he's not going to compromise. After that battle is over, he's met with two individuals, the king of Sodom and Melchizedek, the high priest of God.

Now I don't know if he ever met Melchizedek previously. We don't know. Not likely, but we don't know.

That's a possibility, but we don't know. But he recognized that Melchizedek was the very man who is linked with the great promises that God had already given to Abraham. And that's what gave him the right perspective.

Again, he's looking at the long vision. He says to Sodom, I won't even take a shoelace from you. Don't even give me a shoelace.

I don't want it. Because you would just say, I made Abraham rich. Rather, that's this world.

Is this world that which you are going to gather completely and all your efforts be engaged in what can Sodom give to you? No, he says. He's got a hold of it. Listen to his answer.

Listen to what he's seeing. He's looking beyond. And he says, the possessor of heaven and earth.

Melchizedek speaks to him, the high priest. And he's brought again into the focus of the future. And that's how dear Abraham made the choice, after recovering a lot, away from the awful circumstances of Sodom.

Just what Sodom speaks of in our godless world. We find that he saw beyond it. And he's refreshed in his vision, the possessor of heaven and earth.

That's the God that's promised me. And that's the way he left that day of trial, that day of testing, that day of going to the battle. And the dear man not only won the battle, never lost a servant, saved a whole lot of them.

But he's enriched in his soul, because he's looking to the next world. Now please, don't misunderstand. God says that you should be diligent in your business.

God says that if you're not diligent in your business, then you shouldn't eat bread. So God is not saying you're going to go around like a hobo, or a socialist, or whatever you want to call them. But anyway, that's not the way God expects you to be.

He expects you to be diligent. But don't make this world your world. He wants you to make that world your heart's desire, and this world as the instrument of producing that which will eternally be to the praise of God.

That's what he wants you to be. I'm going to give you an example. A dear man, I was speaking with him, a dear believer, and I said, I just asked him routinely, you know, what are you working at these days? Well, Mr. Smith, he said, I changed jobs.

I said, you did? What did you do? He was an engineer. Oh, he said, I just felt, and I've had dealings with God that I wasn't, I was making no impression for God in the world. So I wasn't helping anybody.

I couldn't reach out to people. So I decided I'm going to become a school teacher, high school teacher. So he went to school, and he did.

He became licensed, got his certificate. He's teaching high school. I said, well, why did you do that? He said, I wanted to at least leave some marks for God behind me, and I felt I could do that with that youth, where I can't do it in the office.

You see, when I became an engineer, what I had in mind was, I'm going to get rich. That's this work. I'm going to get rich.

Wrong riches, brethren, wrong riches. Nothing wrong with having a million dollars. Nothing wrong with that.

But if that becomes the God of your life, it's wrong. God wants you to have wrong riches, and he will give to you the conveniences and the work and the money of this life to be used as tools, whereby you can magnify your blessed Lord in view of that world. That's what he's going to do with Abraham.

Abraham wasn't poor. He became a very rich man, and he was a man that used what he had and kept it separated unto the purposes that were in his heart. He looked with a long vision.

So the second thing we find is an uncompromising man in his choices because of a long vision. Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Let me notice the third one with you.

In chapter 23 of the book of Genesis, his wife dies. Sarah dies. You know the interesting thing? He could have built a great memorial tomb for Sarah.

He could have done that. It wasn't that he was poor, and it wasn't that he didn't love her. He loved Sarah.

He could have made a great memorial, and he was well thought of. You know what the people he did business with, you know what they said about him? They said, thou art a prince amongst us. He was a princely man.

So it wasn't something that was making his life miserable and making him an old grouch. No, he was living in the joy of what that long vision was. He rejoiced to see my day.

He's living with that in his soul. So what does he seek for his wife? A cave. A cave.

Two things about that cave. The first thing is it's just a temporary thing. It was never intended to be a memorial for all time in the world for Sarah.

What is the name of it? The name of that cave is Machpelah. Now, that's a very interesting title because that name means a coming in and a going out. That's what he saw, and that's what he's living in the good of.

Yes, we must meet death, brethren, but resurrection is our hope unto eternal glory. And that man had a vision of that, and he lived with the good of it. And when his beloved Sarah passed away, he knew that he would see her again.

He had that already. God had given it to him through Isaac, the reality of knowing of coming resurrection. So each of those features of his hope were before him.

The right world in the previous one, and as well the obedience unto the purposes of God to the land that he would receive, which he never saw. He never really got a hold of it, not in this life, but he shall, brethren, he shall. His feet will touch the sands of the land of Canaan in a coming day because they're promised of God.

And indeed, in view of that glory, when our Lord Jesus Christ shall return. But let me notice another one with you, just for a few moments here. And there should be room for another, brethren, before four o'clock for a short message like the rest of us today.

In chapter 22, we find the proof of an undying love. Ah, brethren, this is one of the great secrets of John's gospel. Love, the wonderful love of God for the world.

It's indescribable, it's unsearchable, it had no beginning, it will never have an end, and it has no successor. Oh, the wonder of it. God's love which embraces me.

It won't let me go, you know. It won't let me go. Oh, the wonder of it.

And not only is it my security, but it is intended to be the very character of giving me reason for my choices and molding my character, as we've been thinking of, in relation to the world that they might see. I've got something different and better. I don't need what they have.

I would love to look to the world that is coming through the undying love that God has given to me. Now, God mentions here in relation to Isaac, Abraham and Isaac, whom thou lovest. And now he's asking something of Abraham.

Now, I want you to notice what he asks of him, an offering, not a sacrifice, an offering. He says, I want you to take that son in whom are all your hopes for that glorious unfolding of the stars and the sand, that universal rain that's coming. I want you to take him and offer him.

Oh, the wonder of it, brother. That's what God is looking for. He wants the character of our love to bring to him that which is going to be seen in the future glory to the everlasting compliment of the praise of the Lord Jesus.

That's Romans 12 and verse 1. God is not asking you to give them their smokes or give them your dances or give them your earrings or junk like that. No, he's asking for you. You're his already.

And he wants you to bring to him what is his as an offering of appreciation and love. To get to know the value of the God whom he loves, he brings Isaac to the altar, lays him upon that altar, raises a knife, an offering unto God. And God gives him, he combines to him a threefold view of the future glory all in that one day.

He gives him to see the great truth of substitution, a redeemer. He gives him to see resurrection. He gives promise to him of earthly glory, heavenly glory.

He gives that promise to him. What will you offer, brother? That's long vision. Your affections, you young couples, dear young brother, young sister, put it into the discipline of your married life.

When you're making your choices, make sure you do not compromise your love for the Lord Jesus. Don't compromise it. Keep a long vision.

Don't let anything interrupt it. That's what God is looking for from you and from me. And let me tell you another thing in chapter, in the epistle to the Hebrews in chapter 11.

He looked for a city. You know, the interesting thing about it is the very first thing it says about that city whose foundation, here's something permanent. He's looking for something that is permanent.

The present is temporary. The present is training ground. The present is the manifestation of his obedience to the God whom he has never seen, to the God of heaven and earth who has given him promise.

He lives on the good of those promises. That was God's form of government with him, giving him promise. How will he obey it? He lays hold of it.

Brethren, God has given to us promise. Take a hold of it with both hands. God give us grace.

There's a city that's coming, the city of administration of all the stars and of all the sand. And the Lord Jesus Christ is the center and he's the crown of it all. And what he is looking for is men who will be brought into that glory, men and women, you and I, members of his church, to be trusted with administration in a coming day.

Dearly beloved brethren, God's looking for men he can trust. He's looking for women whom he can trust. So as he calls you, as he lays burden upon your heart, just follow it.

It's in view of a coming day. Long vision. Be patient therefore, brethren, with long vision.

Just be like the farmer. He cultivates, he sows, and he knows there's going to be a harvest because that is the divine principle in relation to farming. So in your relation to your life and to mine, Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he was glad.

He had joy when he sought to give to God the obedience of his life right to the very last. He saw an inheritance. I wrote this down at the bottom of my Bible here.

He saw an inheritance, so he built an altar. He built four altars actually, dear Abraham. Each of those altars are very instructive because they're going to get bigger and better and bigger and better until you come to Isaac on the altar and God unveils the wonders of that lovely chapter and you know what happens in the next chapter? He seeks a bride for his son.

That's the great secret, brethren. That's what God is doing. That's what it's all tied together and Abraham is brought into that, typically speaking, in the Old Testament.

He saw a cave. He saw the temporary and he saw the eternal. He saw a high priest and heard the wonder of the blessing of God.

This is what he gets to see as he keeps his eye on the future that is coming. He saw the foundation of a city whose builder and maker was God. Oh, how precious.

Those words are so sweet to Abraham. He had seen so many things. You know an interesting thing? Abraham never built a house.

He never built a house. He lived in a tent. He had a changed identity.

He's the first man in the Bible to be called a Hebrew. What does it mean? He's passing through. Temporary.

God help us, brethren, to bear character as Hebrews. We're headed home. We have glory before us.

We have the Lord Jesus before us and it may be today we'll see his lovely face, break into the joy and the wonder of the man whom we've committed our soul to and our life. Oh, to see him. God's word says they shall see his face and they shall serve him.

I don't know what service he'll trust me to in heaven, but I'll be satisfied just to see his face and to be in the glaze of the glory of my heavenly father forever and ever. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord for he is near. Let's be like an Abraham.

He rejoiced because of the man he saw was coming. It would rain in heaven and in earth and that man is my redeemer and he is my Lord. May the Lord help us to live in view of that for his name's sake.