Are You A Child of Abraham

I want to talk about Abraham. So we're going to dive in right here at v. 14. What good is it, my brothers? This is James 2 v. 14.

What good is it, my brothers, that someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? It ought to be obvious from the text what the answer is. It's amazing. It's amazing that the number of guys that are out there that are going to look at this portion of Scripture and say somehow this is not meaning what it sounds like it's plainly meaning.

Can that faith save him? You ought to recognize right off that James is looking for the answer. No, that faith can't save him. If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? And again, you ought to be able to answer that question.

It's no good. That's obviously the answer that he's looking for. So also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my works. Okay, I'm not going to fight that.

Okay, I will show you my faith by my works. You believe God is one. You do well.

Even the demons believe and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person... see, the person is a fool that believes that that kind of faith will save them. You foolish person that the faith apart from works is useless? Do you want to be shown that? How is He going to show us? Well, He's going to show us by Abraham.

You say, that's where I want to go today. Basically, I'm going to spend today dealing with Him. A lot of it is going to be a running commentary on Abraham.

But right now, just what James says, was not Abraham. This is how he's going to show the foolish person that faith apart from works is useless. And he's going to use Abraham as a classic father of the faithful example for us.

Was not Abraham our father? You've got to follow this. The faith that he's looking for in us that is going to show itself real by works is exactly the kind of faith that Abraham had and he showed its reality by his works. He's obviously looking for us to see in ourselves exactly that which was in Abraham.

Was not Abraham our father? Justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar. You see, faith is the issue. It's not works and there's no faith involved.

It's works that flow out of faith. Faith that produces an obedience to God. Faith that produces love.

There's an obedience of faith. And you see that faith was active. That's the thing, an active faith.

If the works aren't there, it's not an active faith. It's believing facts like you believe God is one. You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed, active and completed by his works.

And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, the classic text, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. And he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

Now here's the thing, maybe you don't think a whole lot about Abraham, but you should. How old did he live to be? Somebody knows, shout it out. 175.

175. So, I'm a numbers guy. This is a timeline.

Can anybody imagine what timeline that might be? You know what's really interesting? I went through Genesis 11 and I created that timeline here because I just wanted to see how everything fell out. I've looked at this before, but this is very interesting. Abraham was born roughly 290 years, just shy of three centuries after the flood.

So that's where he fits in history. Noah is Abraham's great-great-great-great- great-great-great-great-grandfather. Do you know your great times eight grandfather? We don't.

We don't know them. But here's what's really interesting. So, as you follow that lineage from Noah, who do you got next? Who's after that? Which one of the sons was Abraham coming out of the lineage of? Shem.

Okay, you know what? Shem actually outlived Abraham. Did you know that? His great times seven grandfather outlived him by 35 years. Check this out.

When Abraham was 45 years old, every single one of his fathers back to the flood were alive. All of them. When he was 45 years old, Terah, Nahor, Serug, Reu, Peleg, Eber, Shelah, Arpachad, Shem, and Noah were all alive.

You know, that's what happens. Noah lived to be 950 years old. Shem lived to be 600 years old.

That's what happens when people live multiple centuries. You get a whole lot of overlap. The amazing thing is that Shem actually... Where was that guy? Shem actually outlived... Like, all that we know about Abraham happened, he lived his whole life, and Shem was still alive and outlived him by 35 years.

Did anybody know that? I'm doing my timelines here, and then I'm like, I looked it up. I hope my numbers are right. I'm a numbers guy.

Anyway, I've got all this down here. To me, that's absolutely amazing. Here's the thing.

We're going to find out how important Abraham is to our salvation. That's what I want to look at. It is not random that Paul in the deep letter to the Romans and that to the Galatians, he pulls out Abraham.

Hebrews pulls out Abraham. James pulls out Abraham. Jesus talked about Abraham.

Why? But I'll tell you this, brethren, one thing you want to remember and Hebrews brings this out. As important as Abraham was, do you recognize that in his day during the 175 years, as important as he is, as critical to our salvation as we're going to find out he is, there was one walking the earth in his day that was more important. Do you remember who that was? Who did Abraham give tithes to? And when you give tithes to somebody, the person you give them to is always more important than you.

That's the case that's being made. Okay, here's what I want you to know. Did you know my salvation and your salvation hangs on what it means to be a son of Abraham? Do you believe that? Maybe you're not really excited about that.

Maybe you're already thinking, oh no, a whole message on Abraham. What is all this? And I recognize the average person in the world has no clue. And probably a lot of you when you got saved, you had no clue.

And as Gentiles, we don't have much of a clue. But you recognize our Bibles teach that salvation comes through Abraham. And if you doubt that, I'm going to prove it to you.

Unless I am a child of Abraham or an offspring of Abraham or a son of Abraham, unless that's a reality, I'm going to perish. I am not going to have salvation. I am going to go to hell.

And very quickly right here at the beginning, I want to prove that to you ten ways. The first thing is this, look, open your Bibles now to Galatians. Check out Galatians.

I know that Brother Craig went through this not too long ago, but just for refresher's sake. Obviously, the Scripture says this, that if you believe and you are baptized, you will be saved. If you do not believe, you're going to be condemned.

Obviously, faith is absolutely necessary to being saved, to avoiding condemnation. Now notice this, Galatians 3 and verse 6. Do you all see it there? Just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness, there's our passage again, know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. If you don't have faith, you're going to be condemned.

If you don't have faith, you're not a son of Abraham. If you do have faith, it's those of faith who are sons of Abraham. You see, what do we think? We think about being a son of God.

Sons of God. Children of God. That's how we think.

We think of, even it came out of that prayer today, God is our Father. We pray, Our Father. We pray, Father.

But brethren, isn't that all that matters? It's almost like, why descend to this? I mean, why drop down to this? Look at there at Galatians 3.26. In Christ Jesus, you're all sons of God through faith. I mean, come on, Paul. If you're going to say, I'm a son of God, why almost like descend into calling us children of Abraham? I mean, isn't that like... But you know what, sometimes that's just our Gentile ignorance speaking.

It's much like Jesus calls Himself Son of God, where He's called the Son of God, and then we kind of wonder, why does He call Himself the Son of Man? But that's just ignorance on our part. Isn't that not really understanding the significance of what that means? And it's the same thing for us. Brethren, the fact is that Paul makes it a big deal to talk about.

The New Testament, it's a big deal. Jesus talks, it's a big deal about becoming this Son of Abraham. In Galatians 3, Abraham's name shows up seven times.

This is a really big deal. So the first thing is this, you, by faith, are a son of Abraham. Those go together.

Okay, second thing is, the blessing. Just follow the argument here. Look at Galatians 3.8. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, obviously the verse before is thus making them sons of Abraham, if you've got faith, preach the Gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, notice this, in you, that's key, see, being a child, it's in Him.

It comes through Him that the blessing is going to be upon us. Notice this, in you shall all the nations. Who are the nations? The nations are the Gentiles.

Folks, that's us. If there's going to be blessing, it comes through Him. That's what's being taught right here.

Notice this, in you all the nations be blessed, so then those who are of faith are blessed. My point here is blessing. Do you recognize this? There is one man through whom God blesses the world.

And look, verse 10 says, all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. Do you recognize this? If your identity is connected with Abraham, you are in the realm, the only realm, of people on the face of this earth that are blessed. If you're not in that group, you're in the group that's cursed.

And cursed is to be damned. Brethren, the blessing that we have being connected with Him, that most brethren, and I hope this isn't you, most modern people just shrug their shoulders at such a reality, and it's like, they have no idea of the stupendous value, the monumental necessity. Brethren, that blessing promised to Abraham and his children.

I hope it's registering. Brethren, the thing is, if you're blessed by God, you are blessed. And if you are connected as a son to Abraham, you are blessed.

And I'll tell you this, the Jews recognized that. That's why they were so quick to point out their physical attachment to Him. That's why they had to be told, don't come here saying that.

Because they did say it, because they recognized that there was a blessing that was connected with it, and they wanted to be in on this, and I hope you want this. Here's a third thing, just following the flow. Notice verse 14, So that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

And you know what's interesting? Before you get to the end of this letter, he says this, one sows to his own flesh, he's going to from the flesh reap corruption. The one who sows to the Spirit, will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Do you recognize this? If you don't have the Spirit, you don't belong to Christ.

And you see, only ground out of which eternal life can be harvested, is the ground of the Spirit. And isn't it interesting that that is said in 3.14, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit. That's really incredible to me.

Why? Because search everything directly said to Abraham. And I don't find the Spirit is promised. You know where I find the Spirit gets promised? Not so much in the Abrahamic Covenant, as in the New Covenant.

And yet, Paul connects these realities. So here's the thing, your son of Abraham, you have faith. You among all the people on the face of the earth, you are blessed.

You alone are in the group of people that possess this promised Holy Spirit. Okay, you keep going. You remember this, John the Baptist, "...Bear fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father.

For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham." Now brethren, unless you repent, you are going to likewise perish. Do you see what he's doing? He's saying, what is the characteristic of a child of Abraham? It's repentance. Not only repentance is bearing the fruit of it.

Not only faith, that's what James is after, it's bearing the fruit of it. This is the reality, and don't say to yourself you're one of these unless you've got the fruit that corresponds with repentance. Unless you've got the fruit that corresponds with faith, thus says James.

So, these go hand in hand. You see how Scripture is tying these things together? He's tying this to being a child of Abraham. How about this? Galatians 3.29 If you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring.

See again, it feels to me like Paul is arguing downhill. Doesn't it feel that way? It feels like, wait, if I'm Christ, why are you going on from there? Almost like you're going downhill to the next thing. Then you are Abraham's offspring.

If I'm Christ, why even say that? Why is that even necessary? Brethren, it's because we don't recognize exactly this, that when God made that covenant with Abraham, that's the covenant, folks. That is the covenant by which you're going to be blessed, by which you will get to glory, by which you will... I mean, whatever all the benefits are of the salvation that we have, including the salvation itself. Listen to this.

Jesus said to Zacchaeus, Today salvation has come to this house, since he is also a son of Abraham. You see the connection there? Or you've got the inheritance. We'll go back to Galatians 3.29. If you're Christ, then you're Abraham's offspring heirs.

You see, that's what is so critical. Romans 4.13, the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world. Do you know what that's promising? Abraham is going to rise from the dead.

He can't be heir of the world if he's dead. Have you never read? He's God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He's not God of the dead.

I mean, the reality in all of this is to be an heir and never to be defeated by death. Notice this. Just listen to this.

Don't turn there. Romans 4.11, Abraham received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The argument that Paul is making here is that circumcision didn't play into this.

Circumcision came afterwards. Abraham believed first. And the purpose for this order, the purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised.

That includes us, the Gentiles. So that righteousness would be counted to them as well as him. You see another advantage of this? Being counted righteous.

Think about it. You are an heir. You have the blessing.

You have salvation. You have repentance. You have faith.

You have Christ. You have the Holy Spirit. This is the kind of thing that is connected to this.

You can keep going. Listen to this. Hebrews 2. You know this text.

Surely it is not angels that Jesus helps. Who does He help? Who is it? It is the offspring of Abraham. And I'll tell you this, that is exclusive.

Because the kind of help, this isn't like helping nine lepers who didn't come back. He helped people like that. He fed many.

They saw the miracles that He did. Brethren, the help that I'm talking about here is the help that He only gives to those that are the offspring of Abraham. What kind of help? It's not the angels that He helps.

He helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore, Jesus had to be made like His brothers in every respect so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of His people. That's the kind of help He gives.

Propitiation for your sin. Notice, brethren, here at the end. Just the Abrahamic covenant itself.

Listen to this. In Genesis 17, God says, I will establish My covenant between Me and you, Abraham, and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you. Now, I hope you were paying attention.

My point is this. The only way you can have God as your God be a son of Abraham. The only way you can have Christ be your Christ and get the help, the propitiation, be a son of Abraham.

The only way you get the Holy Spirit, that's a promise that is connected back to Abraham. If you've got faith, you're connected to Abraham. If you've got repentance, you're connected to Abraham.

If you're going to be like Zacchaeus and you're going to have salvation, you're going to be a son of Abraham. These things are all connected. I hope you recognize.

It's strange to us, this thing about Abraham, but it's at the heart of the Gospel. And I know you know it because you're reading your Bibles and you come across these things. But as Gentiles, it just doesn't stick with us.

Brethren, the reality is this. This promise that was given that God is going to be our God to Abraham and his offspring, it is going to come through a multitude of nations, a multitude of the Gentiles. We're going to take black and white and Hispanic.

And they've all got to become these offspring of Abraham to have the blessings and the promises and everything. To have God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and all the inheritance that's here. And you know what? Jesus comes along and you remember the dialogue He's having.

Here's these Jews. We're children of Abraham. And you know what He said to them? If you were... Oh, He recognized and acknowledged they physically descended from Him.

He admits that. But then you know what He says? If you were... Listen to how He says it. If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did.

Do you see what James is doing? James is basically driving that truth right there home. He's bringing up the work that Abraham did. And he says, this fulfilled the Scripture that says he believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

He's tagging on this the works he did. You will do too. And James' point is this, if your faith is not like Abraham's faith accompanied by the kinds of works that he did, then it's not the same kind of faith that Abraham had.

And you've got to be connected to him. You've got to be found. This all comes through him and it comes through a faith like he has.

So, okay, here's the thing. This is what James is after. What Abraham did.

You've got to do the things that Abraham does. What did he do? Well, we know this. We know that in James 2.23, Abraham believed God.

We know that in James 2.21, what James did was he offered up Isaac. Okay, we got that. James is talking works.

Jesus is talking works. And so let's talk about that. Let's actually look.

What happens here is we need to kind of dissect the situation with Isaac. And so, you know what he says. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? Faith was active.

Faith was completed. The Scripture was fulfilled. Okay, so let's go back to Genesis.

Let's go see this in the beginning. Go back to Genesis 11. Look there at v. 30.

Genesis 11.30 Since offering Isaac is being brought up by James, in order to confront you and me about the quality of our own faith, whether our own faith is real, then this definitely bears consideration. Brethren, this is an inspired account that God is giving to us by which to measure where our own faith is. Is it of the same quality? Is it of the same nature that Abraham's is, was? And so notice this.

You got this little thing that gets said. Genesis 11.30 And the thing is, you might want to just notice that Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans. That's v. 31.

In 30, before they leave even Ur of the Chaldeans, Sarai was barren. She had no child. You've got to have that fact.

Before they even left Ur. This is a reality. She had no child.

She's barren. The Lord doesn't pass over that fact. And we shouldn't either.

And if you jump right over to Genesis 16.2, Sarai herself said to Abram, notice Genesis 16.2, Behold, the Lord's prevented me from bearing children. And that's exactly right. God's involved in this.

That thing in 11.30 isn't just a fact somehow separated from God. God's involved in this. God's in control.

And she recognizes. This isn't accidental. The point is God's intentionally creating a situation.

You see that? He is going to give a promise which He hasn't given yet. And the promise is going to be directly related to the fact that Sarai is barren. God's setting this thing in order.

And Abraham knows it, that she's barren. Sarai knows it, and we know it. That's the issue.

Only then does God give His promise. God's putting this plan in motion. You know what He's doing? Brethren, you can't get away from this.

When you come to Romans 9, when you come to Galatians 4, you're going to find this. Scripture says you and I are like Isaac. We are children of promise.

And what you need to recognize is this. God is putting a plan in motion by which He is going to show us that all the sons of Abraham are created supernaturally by promise. Not just Isaac, but us too.

And that case is made in the New Testament. That this isn't by the flesh. This is something that God is going to do.

It's not by human effort. The reality is that creating a child in this situation is humanly impossible. Listen to this.

Galatians 4.28 Now you brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. We're like Him. That's the point.

Back to Genesis 13.16 Go to Genesis 12.2 12.2, I will make of you a great nation. Now God promises. We all know Sarai's barren.

There's the promise. God comes along in 13.16 and He's going to reiterate it. Not only reiterate, He's not going to just say I'm going to make you a great nation.

Notice what He says in 13.16 I'll make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Brethren, what's happening inside Abraham's head? He hears. There's promises.

Brethren, do you know where faith happens? It happens in the head. We can involve the heart, but that's a hard separation there. But the fact is, when people believe, it's got to do with their thinking.

It's got to do with conviction. It's got to do with what's happening inside. What's happening inside Abraham's head? He's been given these promises.

Sarai's barren. He has no children. And you know what? Paul comes along and says with regards to this exact account, he says exactly this.

He says no unbelief made him waver. He doesn't see how this can happen. He's got Eliezer, a servant.

Maybe that's how it's going to happen. He's legal. Maybe adopted.

I mean, we can think of adoption. We can think of having a family line through adoption if we can't have any of our own children. Perhaps that's there.

But the fact is that Paul says he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God. He was fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised. Now right at this point, there's nothing about this promise thus far that would exclude the fact of an adoption son.

Eliezer could be the guy. At this point, that's possible. At this point, all he knows is that somehow there's going to be this nation.

And there are going to be these children, offspring, the dust of the earth. But it says that he's not swayed. Abraham examines the facts.

What's he got to work with? Look at Genesis 15.2. Abraham says it. Lord God, what will You give me? I continue childless. The heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.

There's Eliezer. I mean, he's my legal heir. That's what I've got, Lord.

That's what I've got to work with. That's all I've got to offer. Look at Genesis 15.4. Behold, the word of the Lord came to him, this man shall not be your heir.

Your very own son shall be your heir. And he brought him outside and said, look toward heaven and number the stars if you're able to number them. Then he said to him, so shall your offspring be.

I mean, you can imagine the Milky Way stretched across the sky in the Middle Eastern night. It would have been staggering. I mean, you know what it's like when it's crystal clear and you're away from city lights.

It's like that Milky Way looks like a cloud. What is all that cloud of light? It is a number beyond reckoning of stars. More stars than you can... Number that, Abraham, if you can.

Okay? Genesis 15.6. This is what gets quoted. Romans 4, Galatians 3, James 2. He believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness. Abraham, your very own son.

But, nothing is said yet about Sarah. Go to Genesis 16.1. Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had born him no children. We know the story.

Egyptian servant Hagar. Sarai said to Abram, Behold, now the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go into my servant, maybe that I may obtain children by her.

You see, there are ways in people's heads by which they think they can obtain children that aren't actually their children. Whether that's by adoption or here through a concubine. Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

And 1615, Hagar bore Abram a son. Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore Ishmael. Abram was 86 years old.

We know that Sarai was 10 years younger. She's 76 years old. When Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.

Brethren, I'll tell you this. God is in this business and one of the most loving things that God can ever do for us is put us in situations that go beyond our strength and go beyond our human ability and our human resources. Brethren, it is a great mercy of God when He makes us dependent on Him.

And that's precisely what's happening. Brethren, don't you want to live in a way that you're constantly being married aware and recognizing just how necessary God is to you? And that's exactly where He's got them. God's purpose in all this is to magnify His own power and His glory and His wisdom and show Abraham and us that not only our dependence on Him, but oh, brethren, that our dependence is not misplaced.

It is a safe place. And I'll tell you, Abraham is thinking one thing. Ishmael is the answer to this.

Thirteen years go by and he's thinking Ishmael is the answer to this. He's just riding this thing. We're reading all these things.

Boom, boom, boom, boom. You've got to recognize years between these things. Go to Genesis 17.

Now, thirteen years later when Abraham was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to him, I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless that I may make My covenant between Me and you and may multiply you greatly. Then Abraham fell on his face and God said to him, Behold, My covenant is with you and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.

And brethren, if you didn't realize this before, the name Abram being changed to Abraham reflects this reality. No longer shall your name be called Abram which is father of nations. Your name is now going to be called Abraham, the father of many nations.

For I've made you the father of a multitude of nations. You see, God explains what the name means. I'll make you exceedingly fruitful.

I'll make you into nations and kings shall come from you and I will establish My covenant between Me. Brethren, do you recognize that as he looked up at that night sky, how many of us in this room were there? You're part of it. We're just lost in the vastness of the whole thing.

But this includes us. We're right here in the midst of this whole thing. So, keep reading.

Verse 6, I'll make you exceedingly fruitful. I will make you into nations. Kings shall come from you.

7. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your offspring after you throughout your generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And Abraham, his mind is Ishmael. But the formation of a people of God for the sake of God's name from all the families of the earth and all the nations of the earth is not going to be of the flesh.

It is not going to be a human creation. It's not going to happen that way. That's why Ishmael doesn't qualify.

He is a son of the flesh. He is not a son of promise. And that is the argument made in Galatians 4. That's why Ishmael doesn't fit here.

Symbolically, his mother is Hagar. She represents a whole covenant of works is what Galatians 4 says. And so, here it is.

Symbolically, Ishmael represents the flesh. They represent a product of Abraham and Sarah's effort. God's about to cut off Abraham's plan.

He's making this thing humanly impossible. Look at 1715. A year later.

Abraham's now 100. God said to Abraham, As far as Sarai, Ah, here comes Sarai. Your wife, you should not call her... Oh, he's changing her name too.

Now it's going to be Sarah. And I will bless her. And moreover, I will give you a son by her.

I will bless her. She shall become nations. Kings of people shall come from her.

Sarai signifies, my understanding is this, my princess. Which is kind of like, what I read this, is that her honor is confined to one family only with that name. Sarah signifies a princess of multitudes.

Look at Genesis 17. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed. Said to himself, Shall a child be born to a man who is 100 years old? Shall Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child? Abraham said to God, You see, I wasn't making this up.

Oh, that Ishmael might live before you. 13 years, that's what he's been thinking. He thinks he's on the path to fulfillment of all this.

And God said, Nope. Abraham, you've been wrong for 13 years. That is not my plan.

That is not it. Brethren, the thing is, What's Abraham pleading for? Let it be Ishmael. He's pleading for God to fulfill His promise in the more carnal, less spectacular way.

Which is more spectacular. I mean, often times I ask people that when they're living their Christian life. Well, you know, you could kind of save up all this retirement, have all this exorbitant amounts of insurance and everything.

Or you could just give it all away. You give it to the orphans, you give it to the widows, you give it to everyone. And then when you're in need, watch God do a miracle.

It's like, what do you want? Which would you rather have? Well, it's easy to sit here right where we're all comfortable and we're not being put to the task to say, Oh, we like the way that's all glorious. But you see what he's wanting? He's wanting to opt for the less spectacular path. Just give us the carnal path that, you know, Sarah and I were able to come up with this plan and just cater to that.

And here, Genesis 18.10, the Lord said, I'll surely return to you about this time next year and Sarah, your wife, shall have a son. Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old.

Advanced in years, the way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, after I'm worn out, my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure? So I mean, what do we have? We have Abraham laughing and Sarah laughing and I don't find anywhere where it says God laughed. But brethren, I'll tell you this.

In the midst of all of this, remember Paul. In hope, Abraham believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations. As he had been told, so shall your offspring be.

He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead, since he was about 100 years old, and when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. And it's like all this culminates in these words. You remember what God said.

Is anything too hard for the Lord? And in the end, what are you going to say? That put the pilings under his faith. You want to stand on something? Brethren, the church is supposed to be supernatural based on a God who alone is capable of doing all the things He calls us to do that we don't have it in our own power to do. That is the promise of promises.

Is anything too hard for the Lord? For our Lord? For Abraham's Lord? For the Lord we have a part with in being a son of Abraham? That question is a question about God's ability to create for Himself a covenant people against impossible human odds. Who has babies at 90 years old? Anybody want to answer that? And brethren, the thing is, it comes back. Where's Prince? Did he disappear? Remember Prince's dilemma? He was saying how, I think it was during the prayer meeting, he was saying how we're doing all this evangelism and how he was distressed over the fact that we just weren't seeing all these people saved.

Brethren, isn't this the great evangelism question? Is anything too hard for the Lord? This specifically has to do with God making a promised people, a promised son. Aren't we children of promise? Brethren, this comes down to the very missionary question. Is anything too hard? What's the answer? Nothing is too hard.

Can God make children out of Syrian refugees? He has been. Can God make children up in the Himalayas? He has been. Can you take a guy like Raju? Do you recognize Raju? It's been said, but you need to see the video footage.

The pile of rock is like the altar you can imagine. This is the massive pile of rock that they have outside the village for stoning people. And Matt said lots of people have been stoned there.

And they were going to stone Raju if he ever came back. Why? He was a radical Hindu. And what did he do? He got exposed through the Floreses to the book of John.

And now you go over there, you've got to meet this guy. It's like he is on fire for the Lord. He is fearless.

We're driving along in this bus. And all of a sudden, we've got this group from Manchester. I mean, the tires lock up.

If somebody would have been behind us. I mean, they locked. They weren't turning.

And we're going along at highway speed. Well, however fast you can go in Nepal. And it's like, okay, we've got to get out.

We've got to jump in the back of this truck. Not Raju. He was the driver.

We got the van off the road. We got it over to a guy. God gave us a mechanic right there.

Raju had to jump on this bus and go all the way back to Kathmandu. It was a long hours and hours, maybe a day's ride all the way back to Kathmandu. He's on this bus and he's preaching the Gospel.

They get to the point where they begin to threaten him that they're going to kill him. And he's telling them I can't. I mean, I used to be like you guys and I need to tell you all about it.

And then they got to the place where they were going to pay him to stop. That's how this guy is. You've got to meet this guy.

And the Manchester team was just up there in his village. But brethren, this is a great evangelism question. Is anything too hard for the Lord? And that specifically has to do with him making covenant children, children of promise.

We are like Isaac. We are the children of promise. There are no others.

That is our connection. This is our connection with the covenant. It's the Abrahamic covenant.

And this is what we see in all of this. Romans says this, I've made you, Abraham, the father of many nations in the presence of the God in whom Abraham believed who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Brethren, I hope you can take that promise home.

You can look at a neighborhood where right now there's no child of God exists. But God is in the business of calling children. He can raise children of Abraham out of the rocks, folks.

And He's in the business of doing that. Any one of you want to raise your hand and say, yeah, I was one of those rocks. I was a rockhead.

Hard in my sin. Stupid and running from God. And then there's this.

Genesis 21.1 The Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as He had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him whom Sarah bore him, Isaac.

And we know that in Hebrews 11.12 it says, Therefore from one man and him as good as dead were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. God is bringing this to pass. God saw to it that Sarah was barren.

No adopted son is going to do. No child of a slave girl is going to do. And God makes sure that Abraham and Sarah are old.

So old. A hundred years old. Ninety years old.

So old you can't even think about them. And we're all watching. Abraham's watching.

And God preserves it all so that we can watch. It's there. Nothing is too hard.

That's the point. But then the unthinkable happens. It's like, okay, if you're Abraham, now, okay, now all the pieces are in place.

And then here comes God and it says, After these things, Genesis 22.1, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, he said to him, here I am. He said, Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning.

No question. No procrastination. And you know what? We know something about Abraham's thoughts.

Again, faith is always a matter of thinking. You're constantly thinking. Is God able? Is God able? And you know what Hebrews tells us he was thinking during all of this? By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.

He had received the promise. He was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said through Isaac, shall your offspring be named. He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead.

Now think with me here. He loved him. God said that.

Your only son whom you love. Okay, you can think if you had to put together a close family member. Your own son.

It's like, I don't want to do this. Why? Because of the affection I have for him. Because of the love I have for him.

But see, that's not even what he's thinking. He's thinking, how is God going to be faithful to that covenant? How is God going to be faithful to the promises that He has made to me? And you know what he figured? God's able. His faith wasn't swayed.

Now that isn't the way God did it, but he said to himself, you know what? I put a dagger in his heart. God raises him from the dead. It's going to happen through Isaac.

And if he's got me going up there and killing him, there's only one way it's going to happen and that's if he comes back to life. And God's able to do that. And you see, brethren, that's how we ought to be moving.

That's how we ought to be operating. Why? Because we're children of Abraham. We need to think like him.

Even if you don't have it figured out how it's going to work. Because brethren, I'll tell you this, in the end of this, you know what's really interesting? James doesn't have any kind of expectation you're going to go out and kill your son. He has this expectation you're going to go out and kill your time and kill your money by meeting the needs of needy people.

Isn't that interesting? That's the thing that he recognizes fulfills our faith, whereas Abraham's faith is fulfilled by taking his son and putting it on the altar. He's recognizing the place for us. And there may be many other ways, but the example that he gives us is something is getting put on the altar for us too.

What is it? Your time? Your money? Your comfort? Isn't that what it always comes down to? This is a test of faith. His sister asked me last weekend. She was asking me after I got done preaching last week about retirement.

And it's like, brethren, liquidate it. Use it on present needs. Oh, but what happens if I go to old? What happens if I get in a need? What happens if this happens or that happens? Brethren, what I told her is this, live according to where your faith is at right now.

And brethren, what we want is our faith becoming more like Him. Where it's like, well, you know what? If I give it all away, you may have an idea about how God would provide for you just like he had an idea. But you see, it wasn't unbelief.

He was just figuring, well, God can do this. God can do it this way. And you know, God is often in the business of surprising us how He does it.

A lot of times it's not the way that we have figured out. Brethren, this takes us to James 2 which you really have to ask yourself. Remember Jesus' words.

If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did. I would say this, are you a child of Abraham? Obviously, after everything we look at, you would certainly at least say, I hope so. But one of the ways that we can test our faith is does our faith resonate with the same kind of thing that Abraham's faith resonates with? What Abraham did in James 2.23 tells us is he believed God.

And listen, again I want to remind you of this. This is what Paul says about his faith. Romans 4.18, in hope he believed against hope.

Romans 4.19, he did not weaken in faith when he considered, and what was he considering? He was considering the human factors that made this thing seem impossible. Brethren, we are called to turn the world upside down. We are called to be a light.

We are called to harvest the world, to be fishers of men. We are called to love like Christ. We are called to let our works be seen by the watching world.

We're called to love one another like Christ loved, that the world might look at us and recognize that we're His disciples. Brethren, you who are natively selfish and not loving, we're being called to do all these things, the reality of which is when we consider the human factors in all of this, there's no explanation for how all this can happen. But he didn't weaken in faith when he considered the human factors.

4.20, no unbelief made him waver. 4.20 again, he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God. I'll tell you this, the more we step out in faith, the more we are going to bring glory to Him.

The more we're calculating, we have to think about everything and make sure all the human factors are in place, the less you will glorify Him. You've got to be able to derive that. If you look at it and say, well, I'm 100 years old, my wife is 90 years old, this just makes this thing pretty... I mean, my human experience tells me and all probability and statistical analysis and all of this thing, and you know, that's not very likely to happen.

And sometimes we get that way as people of God. Well, you know, what do the books say? God's all the time, what's God saying to us? He says, put me to the test. Don't we read something like that in Malachi? Put me to the test.

It's like, this brings glory to God. Fully convinced that God was able. Able to do what He had said.

That's what we need to be convinced of. God is able. God wants us to believe He's able.

What is it about faith that gives glory to God? I mean, right here at the end. What is it? I mean, isn't this crucial? Don't we exist to give glory to God? Isn't that the primary reason why God created us? To display His glory? And it says He grew strong in His faith as He gave glory to God. Brethren, if we're not all caught up in that, then we've kind of lost the reason for why we exist.

If it's always to be safe, and the people that walk around constantly, we don't want to be presumptuous. Brethren, when you have a God that is able to do the impossible, the New Testament is just not full of all sorts of warnings against presumption. It's full of warnings against unbelief.

Over and over and over again. Brethren, we've abandoned our reason for existing if we get to the point where we can't step out in faith and trust the Lord. And brethren, it's just like the glory of God.

It's so lost to us. I was telling the guys yesterday in the preacher thing, it's like you drive around the city, you look at the billboards, you can turn on the radio, and it's like God is just absent. People fall short of the glory of God and we hardly think anything.

There is no greater reality in all the universe. God loves this God that we have, the God of Abraham, is a God that loves to be trusted. And Abraham brought Him glory.

He loves to be trusted when things seem impossible. Put me to the test. Take situations that demand that your bank account can't handle.

Take situations that are more than your logic can figure out. Take situations that go beyond what our spiritual gifts are collectively as a church. Over and over and over again, God is saying, put me to the test.

Put me to the test. Brethren, all you have to do is look in Scripture where you've got people that really put themselves, stepped out, went way out on the limb because they trusted in a great God. You see, God is so pleased with that.

Shouldn't we attempt to do the impossible? Why? Because we serve the God who told us, I am the God who... Is anything too hard for me? I am the God of the impossible. Brethren, we should not be quick to say that God did this thing for Abraham. Oh, but you know, today, we have to be so much more reserved than step out and trust that.

You know, we can be quick to say that certain things can't be done and that's just over our head. That thing is too big. It's too out there.

It's too much. It's too far. We're too small.

Our resources are too... This is too impossible. In hope, Abraham believed against hope. And I come back to this over and over.

That in hope, he believed against hope. There was nothing, humanly speaking, that gave you any indication that this thing could be pulled off according to human power, human logic. It couldn't be.

And God loves us to be in those positions where we step out. Brethren, the thing is we don't always have to have everything figured out. He certainly didn't, but we need to trust Him.

And He's called us to do certain things. And if we step out in hope against hope, no human possibility. It doesn't work on the basis, brethren, this whole thing of mathematical probability.

It's like I've said this before, but I've heard this through the years. People liken faith to sitting in a chair. No, it isn't! You don't sit in that chair beyond some inkling of hope that it's going to hold you up.

I mean, do you recognize how Scripture speaks? In hope, Abraham believed against hope. You sit in that chair because why? You're all sitting in the chair. And nobody's tears breaking.

Nobody's falling over. It's not a test of faith when you sit in the chair. You say, well, you know, sit in the chair, it's the same way you put your weight on Jesus Christ.

That is not a good comparison, folks. That is a horrible comparison. Why? Because my human experience tells me that 99,999 times out of 10,000 or 100,000, people sit in chairs and they don't collapse.

You have no expectation that sitting in that chair it's going to collapse. Hope beyond hope. It's like when there was... You know what? It'd be more like this.

You watch 1,000 other people sit in the chair and it collapses every time. Now you go sit in it. Trusting the Lord because He's told you to go sit in it.

Trusting the Lord is not going to cave in now. That's more to the point, folks. The thing is, brethren, it's like there is a God in Israel.

There is a God of Abraham. And He is our God. This is the same one.

He's the one that gives the victory. He's the one that gives success. We need to be in positions, brethren, where God's got to hold us up or we're going to fall flat on our faces.

We need to move forward with that kind of mindset. And you can see, James says this, you see that faith was active along with His works. Faith was completed.

Scripture was fulfilled. Brethren, His faith was that energizing force that compelled Abraham to action. His actions are the energetic and the forceful and the full of life response to His faith.

When we have the God that we have, brethren, we should hang our heads if we only attempt what seems easy and obvious. That's not where we want to be. Abraham's faith didn't rest in mere profession.

It was operative. And he stepped out. Brethren, I love to see people step out.

Even if in the end, and you know what? We need to be very careful as a church. Somebody steps out and it seems like they fell. It seems like they failed.

It seems like the branch broke. We don't want to immediately then kind of say, well, we better not ever try that again. Brethren, we heard about it from Prince.

You know these guys? They were arguing about who was going to be greatest. And these guys had flaws. And these guys did that and the other thing.

And you can look at Peter doing this and that and the other thing. But brethren, just because we have failures, a lot of times when we have failures, we learn things. We learn important things.

God is testing us. The whole thing about this is these works complete our faith. You've got to get beyond just a profession.

Brethren, remember this here at the end. The Scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and was counted to Him as righteousness. And he was called a friend of God.

And we know that Jesus comes along and says, I've called you friends. Brethren, just remember this here at the end. That God that calls us to trust Him, He speaks to us as a friend.

He says, trust Me. Abraham was a friend of this God. You've got to know that the friendship with God goes hand in hand with His giving God glory and trusting Him.

That is a friendly thing to the Lord God of Abraham. Father, I pray that something of value would be in the heads and hearts and minds of Your people hearing about Abraham, the God of Abraham, the promises made to Abraham, the resoluteness, His faith, active, obedient, completed. Help us to be the same.

Help us to be a people that bring glory to You. Help us to be a people that are truly the friends of God. I pray in Christ's name, Amen.