"I Am Almighty God"

Well as we begin chapter 17 You might notice in the bulletin even it says verses 1 through 6 and that's true

We'll make reference but really this morning. We're not going to get far outside of verse 1

There's just so much packed in to verse 1 But we'll soon make up for that In the rest of the chapter as we'll have to cover a lot of ground in short order

In order to pursue the larger theme of covenant theology in this chapter.

It's kind of a holdover from chapter 15 where God establishes his covenant with Abram and Here God doesn't establish a new covenant, but rather elaborates or expands upon the covenant he has made in chapter 15 adds further instruction to it and certainly, there's all the structure of this covenantal language you'll notice even in the verses that God begins with a declaration of who he is and then binds himself to This elaboration of the covenant as for me and then as we'll see taking on next week as for you

And then even later on as for Sarah, I this is covenantal language Certainly, this is the heartbeat of the chapter, but there's such a powerful spiritual dynamic in verse 1

I didn't want to miss it in the time we have together this morning. So let me begin by reading

Genesis 17 1 through 6 When Abram was 99 years old the

Lord appeared to Abram and said to him I am Almighty God walk before me and be blameless and I will make my covenant between me and you and will multiply you exceedingly

Then Abram fell on his face and God talked with him saying as for me behold

My covenant is with you and you shall be a father of many nations No longer shall your name be called

Abram But your name shall be Abraham for I have made you a father of many nations

I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make nations of you and kings shall come from you

This is a simple turn of the page for us We've jumped out of chapter 16 into chapter 17 and it seems like this is just the next day moving from a

Tuesday into a Wednesday Of course, that's not the case for Abram and we know from the age statements that that's the case the last time we saw

Abram Just last week. He was blowing out 86 candles on his birthday cake

He was 86 years old According to the last verse of chapter 16 Ishmael was born and Abram was 86 years old

Now Abram is 99 That's 13 years later in between this gap as we turn the page

We're turning past 13 years of a life lived of Ishmael being nursed and then weaned and now he's that Awkward teenager, maybe he you know, maybe he's somewhat of a pest around the house

Maybe a Dennis the Menace, but he's well beloved. He's beloved Certainly of Hagar dearly beloved as we see in verse 18 of Abram Maybe not so beloved of Sarai as we can imagine

Not everything is well in the home front. And of course the last time we saw Abram we saw his wavering devotion to God Just like rebellious

Adam and all of his passivity He allowed Sarai to spitefully and cruelly treat

Hagar He followed the the doubtful scheme Wondering if this is how he was to secure an heir and God is answering that in the language of chapter 17

Abram like Adam welcomed corruption into his home into his world into his relationships

Just like Adam and as far as we could tell as we pointed out last week God only revealed himself to Hagar.

We have no record in chapter 16 of God Addressing Abram in that whole event. We have no follow -up

God doesn't go to Hagar and then move to Abram and Sarai and give further instruction as far as we know

God only revealed himself to Hagar Hagar has returned somehow some sort of erstwhile

Reconciliation has taken place But Sarai and Abram as the text stands have received no further revelation from God no further encounter with God That doesn't mean that Abram hasn't been faithful to call upon the name of the

Lord Hasn't been faithful to gather his servants in his household and his his son

Ishmael put him on his lap and worship The Lord and call upon his name It just means that as far as we can tell

God has not revealed himself in some significant way to Abram Until this verse until 13 years have passed some of you have been

Christians for about that time and I trust that along those 13 years of your walk of faith.

You've had encounters with the Lord What I mean by that is This rather subjective language that we use at times a heart being strangely warm Some some fresh encounter some new conviction some burden

That you've had that from time to time. Maybe it's been a long season, but a long season for a

Christian might be months God forbid a year but 13 years of this kind of encounter with the

Lord You can wonder how Abram had any faith left at all after 13 years

Certainly there's a sense in which he had what he wanted. He had a son From his own body.

Maybe God will now work through Ishmael Yeah He's the product of my doubt and my wife's sin and yeah

It's caused a lot of strain in my marriage and in the home front, but maybe this is what God intended Maybe this is what

God will use We know of course, this is not what God intended but God doesn't reveal that to be the case until 13 years later

So for 13 years God allows Abram to be apart from this renewing of his faith this

Renewing of the promise this encounter with God there. There is a renewal that's taking place in chapter 17 a an

Affirmation of the covenant my covenant is with you I am going to do all that I promised even 25 years ago when

I called you out of Irv the Chaldeans I have not forgotten. My promise is not slack. I will do all that.

I've committed to you Remember Abram that I'm the one who passed through the animal parts. I swore as it were by myself

I'm the one that's making a covenant with you. You're not making a covenant with me and Yet here 13 years have passed and there's no sense of of Abram's faith being renewed until chapter 17

Now that's very significant to me and I think it's illustrative of the Christian life

That there's often great seasons great spans of time where God allows doubt to build devotion to waver affections to grow cold

Commitments to dry up before he comes to his people out of his grace and renews their faith by giving some

Revelation some nearness some presence of himself. Now, of course as Christians We we understand that we draw near to God according to his means of grace

This is one of the means of grace We're practicing this morning, isn't it gathering together with the

Saints with the brethren who are called by his name calling upon his name Praying to him being prayed for Worshiping him being taught and led in his word

These are all means of grace that we avail ourselves to but if you've been a Christian for any length of time You know that you can go through all of these things as empty motions

You can as it were arrange the altar stones But that doesn't necessarily mean that God will yet come in fire

And I think we see that in chapter 17 God is not in the business of week by week renewing his people affirming their faith in him

Rather he gives these Precious revelations of himself these these rare encounters with his person

By his spirit in such a way that often his people have to trot out live by faith in between There's a time before these renewals

There's a time in between that that God is certainly as present as ever by his spirit and yet there's a sense in which subjectively we're not receiving that and Sometimes that feels like wandering sometimes that feels like walking by faith as we're being sanctified that comes more naturally we come to expect that we begin to be like the deer that the psalmist speaks of we we pant and Thirst and hunger for that nearness for that newness for that revelation of God The first point

I want to make is this God uses the time before renewal as Much as he uses the time of renewal

That's the first point God uses the time before renewal as much as he uses the time of renewal we should not have a theology that God is only in such encounters as these as Though he's only the

God of Abram every 13 years as Though God is only at work in Abram's life in an

Abram's heart when he encounters him in this powerful way The way that fills him with joy and awe and as we see he drops on his face because he's encountering the living

God Who's a consuming fire? But we know God uses the time before the time in between just as much as he uses this

This is how God is working Dynamically in the lives of his people these 13 years were not wasted

They illustrated the consequences of serving God by the flesh in Galatians 4 Which we're going to be getting to in a few weeks

Ishmael's a picture of walking with God in the flesh God's allowing the consequences of this failure to play out over 13 years

So that Abram is slowly but surely stripped away. He's allowing 13 years of age

So that Sarah is not entering into menopause, but she's well past it and Abram is weak and elderly himself they intensify the dilemma and They also in a way built up Abram's confidence and hope that well now it has to be

Ishmael If it was going to be anything else it it's too late. Now. It's going to have to be

Ishmael or bust RS candlish a great Scotsman great

Scottish commentator said Abram had got the very thing promised

Or at least something like it and so he almost stopped to look or long for anything more right?

He has a son now It's not through Sarah. I It's kind of an awkward tension because of that but at least he's got his boy.

He's got his son He's got a lineage now in such a state how great the need of a revival in the life of Abram and he receives it a

Repetition of the original call a renewal of God's covenant you see

And what my point is God is using this time before this renewal as much as he's using the renewal itself

This is how God visits his people He's in the dryness even when he is in the stream in the midst of the desert

And you must believe that by faith if you're a Christian Of course, if you're not a Christian, all you know is dryness and darkness

But I reference his people how he renews the faith of his people

Spiritual renewal Begins in these times of weakness deprivation hunger thirst.

This is when God revives his people Historically, this is when God has revived States and colonies and nations in such times of dire need

When there's been a famine in the land for the Word of God God moves in a way of renewing his people renewing their faith moving powerfully by his spirit

The Puritans often wrote on this very theme You've heard of the the declension in the life of a

Christian's soul these deep dry Valleys these rots and so often the

Christian thinks in the midst of that kind of darkness Where is the Lord? We read these Psalms and we relate to them in this way.

Where are you? Where have you gone? I'm left to myself my pillow my empty stomach.

I do not eat. I do not sleep. Where are you God and The point is God is near.

He's very present and he's at work Even when he's distant in this way even when the times are dry and difficult and the trial is heavy and the burden is fierce

God is at work and So God uses the time before renewal as much as he uses the time of renewal

Look at this. This is what God is up to according to Paul and Romans 4 beginning in verse 18

He speaks of Abram who? Contrary to hope in hope believed

So that he became the father of many nations, right? This is the elaboration of the promise made in chapter 12 according to what was spoken.

So shall your descendants be 15 And not being weak in faith

Boy, he seems pretty weak in faith in chapter 16, didn't he? What does Paul go on to say not being weak in faith?

He did not consider his own body Already dead since he was about a hundred years old you see

Not being weak in faith, let me put in parentheses for you as a result of being renewed in chapter 17

He did not consider his own body Which was already dead Not exactly a compliment to the elderly folk

But his body was as good as dead Paul says and the deadness of Sarah's womb

His wife was infertile her whole life and now she's passed menopause He did not waver at the promise of God the promise elaborated here in chapter 17 through unbelief

But was Oh interesting strengthened in faith He was strengthened in faith giving glory to God Now with verse 20 you could not get the picture that Abram had this resolute faith when

God made that covenant with him in chapter 15 and he Was pressing on from strength to strength going from mountaintop to mountaintop

His faith could not waver all of his neighbors and everyone in his household said this is a man of faith

He's never doubted God every day. He lives by faith Of course that could not be said of Abram.

We've seen that in chapter 16 everything collapses He looks eerily like Adam and all of that passivity.

He doesn't fear God He fears his wife and the word of his wife and then he doesn't fear

God in his relationship with Hagar though He married her became a husband to her. He says treat her how you want when she runs off No one goes after her but the

Lord how weak was his faith at that moment plus 13 years

If you're at that level, what does 13 years of not encountering the Lord God due to that kind of faith?

And so when we read that he was not weak in faith when his body was dead We're reading about the effects of encountering the

Living God of being renewed by encountering God of having faith affirmed in the promise of God and That's why he would not waver

After this encounter in chapter 17 because he was strengthened. You see his faith was weak

Until God encounters him renews him and his faith is strengthened God is at work in the weakening

As Much as he is in the strengthening he allows it for his sovereign purpose

For 13 years God was stripping away the bodily ability the cold and dead affections of Abram so that he was being reduced to himself reduced to the instability and volatility of his walk so that he was as it were wavering at the promise of God through unbelief so that upon Encountering God and receiving his promise afresh

He would be strengthened in his faith and he would no longer waver at the promise So the second point then that follows out of this is

God uses the time before renewal To bring us to the end of ourselves

God uses the time before renewal to bring us to the end of ourselves Abram has to come to the end of himself to the end of his hope for Ishmael He almost can't let go let it be with Ishmael God says no it'll be according to the child of promise in our

Strength. We are limited to what we can accomplish for God in our arrogance and our boastfulness and our self -reliance

We are limited in how God will move through us. And so he brings us patiently through these valleys and dry seasons stripping us of that self -reliance

Self -dependence stripping us of that sense that God is at our beckon and call that that we can live as it were completely free of Pursuing him and pursuing his grace according to his means and that all will be well

He'll always be near the stream will never dry up He brings us slowly but surely to an end of that before he renews our faith

God uses the time before renewal to bring us to the end of Ourselves, he makes us weak

Because apart from the Lord there is weakness but with the

Lord there is strength and he does not share his glory with another He has no desire to be the co -pilot in your life

Tear up that bumper sticker take that magnet off the fridge He brings his people and then you know, we often talk about this being brought to the end of yourself

We talked about this for the unrepentant right the unbeliever the prodigal. It's a right way to talk they have to come to the end of themselves and There that repentance can can turn to God they can turn to God and repentance in faith

They first they have to come to an end of themselves. It's a right way to speak It's a right way to speak

It's dangerous for if you're an unbeliever here It's dangerous for you to be around Christians because when we're when we're praying for you

Even if we're uninformed we might be praying God bless them And the reality is that prayer is being translated in heaven as God break them strip them down Bring them to the end of themselves.

It's dangerous to be prayed for and If Christians are a little more mature a little more informed we don't pray bless them as much as we pray break them

Lord Show them their foolishness Show them that they're pursuing death Show them that the dead end show them the wide path of destruction

Lord break them Take away anything they're standing on any hope they have if it's not in you

So we often Speak in this way use this language of being brought to the end of ourselves in terms of those outside of the

Christian life Yet to be initiated yet to be brought in converted What I'm saying is it's proper for us to also think about this in the

Christian life that in my walk of sanctification often There's these dynamic seasons where God must bring me to the end of myself

He must show me the ways that I've been relying on my own efforts putting my hope in my own progress Completely blowing all the things that he's called me to do

Ignoring his commands getting comfortable with the coldness and and hardness and stubbornness in my life

He must bring me to an end of that Has that happened to you in your Christian walk in any given season?

Have you come as it were to the end of yourself? Has this been part of how God renews you? Revives you

Establishes you afresh and the promises of the gospel. This is what he does. I Remember vividly a few years ago

Vividly remember exactly where I was weighing and I just felt like for if not a whole season just weeks.

I had been off in every respect you know as A husband as a father as a brother as a minister.

You have to insulate these things, right? It's can be rather difficult to be so insulated But inside I just felt like I was running on empty going nowhere

Hardened against God hardened against his will distant and all of my affections and I just remember

I you know, of course one of the mercies of being a minister is you're forced to be in his word Whether you feel like it or not. I Can remember exactly where I was why

I was laying on one of the girls twin beds at the time And I had this pink butterfly blanket over me.

I'm sitting there perched up typing. It's late at night and God just broke my heart

And I just sat there in the bed laying weeping like a baby. I had come to the end of myself

Who am I? What am I doing? How have I stumbled like this?

What where am I going? It was this realization that even as a

Christian Even one who's familiar with with all that God has done and all that God has teachers one who would seek to counsel someone in that state

But even I at times in my walk had to be brought to the end of myself Here it is

God here I am before you It's taken me a long time Lord to realize it

It's taken me a long time Lord to be honest with myself So that I can be honest with you

Lord up done a lot of half -hearted prayers and half -hearted repentance and half -hearted motivations

But here I am You have brought me to the end of myself God uses the time before renewal to bring us to the end of ourselves

And notice the way that he does this he He allows us as it were to to walk in this rut of unbelief

So that in that weakness and in that despair he can show his power and give us belief firm belief established belief

Right going back to Romans 4. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief Everything we've seen for the past several chapters has been

Abram wavering at the promise of God But he was strengthened in faith giving glory to God Because God sovereignly interrupted that By renewing him in that pitiful state of weakness and despair and notice 21 being fully convinced

That what he had promised he was also able to perform. He believed that God was able to do this

Abram was so brought to the end of himself as an elderly man with a wife

His body dead her womb dead and yet he believes by the faith that God strengthens.

He's able to do it He's able to bring me a son out of the dead. That's what the writer of Hebrews reasons such was the nature of Abrams faith

God as it were strips away everything to bring us to the end of ourselves to make us honest with where we are before him so that he can intervene so that he gets the glory he shows that he's able to do this and If we hadn't been brought to the end if we hadn't been brought to that low ebb of our weakness

We would still have reasons to think there's still some way forward I Still have some control.

I Don't have to depend upon God by faith that he alone can do this and now he alone must do this

Because I'm in a pit And I cannot Thirteen years ago.

I thought I could three years ago. I thought I could three months ago I thought I could but now I cannot he's brought me an end to myself

Do you notice that in the Gospels when Jesus heals he often you often see the same dynamic don't you

I Think of the the one with the flow of blood the hemorrhaging woman.

She was brought to an end of herself She had spent all of her money she had sought after everything she was in the crowd she was so weak so humiliated so destitute of hope that She didn't even want to go and approach

Jesus or have a dialogue with him as many others would that they would cry out to him She just tried to if I could just touch him so weak was her faith

But the weakness of faith was what God used it God had brought her to an end of herself and that was where she needed to be to be restored and made whole by Christ When the two blind men in Matthew 9

We read of them falling after Jesus and crying out son of David have mercy on us

And then he went into the house and the blind men came after him you can picture them stumbling through The threshold feeling their way around still crying out.

They don't know if he's a foot away or in three other rooms Have mercy on us son of David Somehow they're ushered before his presence and Jesus says to them

Do you believe I'm able to do this notice it's not like Jesus.

Oh, yeah sight It's almost like Jesus is dodging that isn't it? Interesting Jesus son of David have mercy

He's kind of walking away walking into a house. They have to keep coming after him Wouldn't in that process they begin to doubt maybe he has no will to heal us

Maybe our blindness is is what we deserve a Lot of sins are prevented when you don't have sight but not all sins

But they get to a place where all they can do is cry out They've pursued him.

They have no idea They have reason to think that he might not want to heal them. Otherwise, he would have come they have to go to him and The first thing that Jesus says to them is do you believe

I am able? Do you believe I'm able to do it? That's what we read in Romans 4

Abram had to be brought to the place that he believed God was able to do it And it wasn't going to be

Ishmael and Hagar It was going to be as an elderly man with a wife

Whose womb was dead and God is able to do it and they said yes

Lord And he touched their eyes and he said according to your faith. Let it be We must be brought to an end of ourselves as Christians continually,

I Have no doubt that in this room this very morning. There's a brother or sister One beloved of the

Lord who's at a place in their walk. They need to be brought to an end of themself

They're just not there yet We are not ashamed.

We know who we have believed. We're persuaded. He's able He is able we get to that place of weakness where we are not able

He is able he's able to keep it because I lose it I blow it I'm not able

Lord Renew me Lord because you are able you can do it. You will do it

God uses these times of weakness these times before renewal He's at work to communicate his love and his power and his strength and his willingness in the lives of his people it's a love that will not let you go and You will not have gratitude you will not have humility before that love unless you've got to this place of weakness and desire and despair

Robert Hawker says let every exercised meaning anxious believer. Remember this in those dark seasons

Call to mind how the great father of the faithful was exercised Abram was anxious

Let him remember also these Communications of divine love they are precious things

Learn to prize them when you're a new

Christian. It's just there It's just there. The stream is full and flowing

When God begins to work not just in those hilltops, but in the valleys, that's when you learn to prize

What Hawker is calling? communications of divine love Those rare gems those sweet seasons

When Christ is very near to you and you are on the precipice of living

Not by faith, but almost by sight He's so near to you and he only does that to prepare you for the next season of the valley

The next trial the next burden the next leg of the journey in your walk of faith third point

Renewal begins With the revelation of God himself So God is at work as much in the time before renewal as in the time of renewal and God God is using these times before renewal to bring us to an end of ourselves

But then third when that renewal finally comes when we've gotten to that place where we can do nothing else

But look up to God and and cry out to him and receive from him renewal always begins with the revelation of God himself when

Abram was 99 years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him I am

Almighty God, this is the beginning of the covenant structure, but it's so much more than that when

God reveals himself to his people it Provides the immovable foundation for all that they are called to do.

We're going to see that as we press forward But please don't lose sight of this point

Renewal begins with the revelation of God himself This is how

God revealed himself to Moses. This is how God revealed himself to Isaiah in the year that King Uzziah died

This is how God reveals himself to his people when that renewal comes, you know, it's a renewal of the

Lord because he's revealing himself Something of his Majesty something of his holiness something of his beauty something of his goodness something of his patience something of his love something of who he is

That's how God begins to renew the lives of his people. We begin to perceive God and his character

We see who he is We see how he is we see how he has been and what he has called us to we see more of his attributes

More of his character more of his glory and this begins the the season of renewal in the lives of his people

Now this revelation of God it can It could be on a certain aspect of who he is.

God is infinite His attributes are so profound

It may be that God reveals himself in a certain way with a heavy emphasis

Depending on where you are What you need? Here clearly what

Abram needs and how God prefaces his revelation is he reveals himself as God Almighty The omnipotent

God that's that's as it were the emphasis in God's revelation to Abram This is the first occurrence in Hebrew of God's divine name

El Shaddai there's a very interesting history of translation about what possibly lies behind Shaddai and Really we owe it more to Jerome than anyone else in the early church for why

Shaddai has been translated as almighty But certainly that's the meaning the imagery behind this word in Hebrew Shaddai would be on the one hand a mountain

So you have that picture of something? Mighty who's able to ascend the mountain as it were who's able to move the mountains of this is picture of firmness and and might and strength

There's also an image instantly interestingly of of a nursing mother or abreast

And so there's this nurturing aspect to it. That's part of the etymology of the word, but but here definitely

Omnipotence is in view God is all omnipotent powerful he's almighty and he's reminding

Abram of that because Abram is 99 years old and His wife cannot possibly conceive and he's about to give

Abram the assurance that Sarah I will conceive And so he reveals himself as the

God who's able to do it. I am almighty Abram. I'm all -powerful. I Spoke the world into being and you don't think

I can create a baby in an elderly woman God Begins the renewal of Abram's faith with a revelation of his power his utter power

And in the scope of Abrams 25 years sojourn of faith.

You could not say That that power was selective. It was being stored up until God had just enough to finally dispense it

God is all -power He always has been always will be all -powerful

God is omnipotence And yet he allows these 13 years to go by with the same power

Not for any reason but in his sovereign wisdom. He was doing work in the life of Abram and Sarah So you cannot say in whatever state you are this morning

That God's power is bound That God's power is limited or restrained

If it's limited or restrained. It's only limited or restrained by his sovereign will

He exercises unlimited Infinite power as he wills according to his wisdom and his goodness and his purpose in other words

God is revealing something of his sovereignty to Abram something of his sovereignty

Isn't this instructive to the Christian life? sometimes

We think God is not powerful enough to fully sanctify us from our sins Young Christians, especially how could

I possibly be a Christian? How could I possibly Have been bought by the precious blood of Christ if my life is looking like this

If I'm capable of living like this acting like this and here it's a reminder.

God is all -powerful. He's mighty to save Could it be in his wise?

Sovereignty, but though he is a God who hates sin and in his holiness Judges sin in the lives of his people who are under the refuge of the cross

He and his wisdom allows them to be brought to the end of themselves so that they find they're all in him

They find their strength not in their resolve not on their resolutions, but in his grace and in his unfailingly good purpose

Christians often are afraid to affirm the sovereignty of God because they feel that it impinges upon their

Responsibility or that it makes God culpable for their sin. Well, he hates sin He's holy if he had all that kind of power even over my will and what my life looks like then

Isn't he somehow responsible for my sin? And we would say God forbid may it never be

God is not the author of sin God is not lenient towards sin He's a fierce judge of anything that's sinful and yet in the lives of his people

He's a patient shepherd and a tender gardener and he faithfully prunes and he allows certain things to grow and to be

So that in his wise purpose when he moves in power when he moves to renew he gets all of the glory

It's evident that it was of his hand by his power and not of us Not of that book.

We read not of the blog post that really blessed us not of decisions that we made this year

But of God by his grace even when he uses those things the

Bible affirms the absolute sovereignty of God over his creation his utter holiness and of course at the same time the full

Responsibility of human beings as moral agents that are held accountable for their actions But human responsibility never trumps

God's sovereignty God's sovereignty is the basis for all that takes place in God's world

Including the 13 years of being brought to an end of yourself.

God is able We don't consider the possibility of this so often, right?

Do we pray with the faith that James encourages us to pray with We cannot doubt right we don't want to be wavering we must believe that God is able

We've prayed for a tumor To be dealt with we have certain statistical expectations of what medical professionals are able to do

That's only been reaffirmed through time Because this is just the way things go.

Does that have any impact on your understanding of the way that God works? Or what he's capable of doing in our own lives of sanctification we ask questions like How could

God allow this? How could God fix this? How could God turn this around?

How could God use somebody like me? And we have to be brought to the place that we realize

God is able God alone is able apart from me.

Jesus said you can do nothing You know, there were a lot of wealthy patrons that were saved in the early church

And Jesus said it was easier For a camel to go through the eye of a needle

Than for a wealthy man to enter into the kingdom of God And yet there's wealthy men in the kingdom of God God is in the business of doing things that to our eyes are somewhat natural or expected

But in a spiritual perspective are impossible Jesus for someone whose heart is given over to wealth.

It's impossible Try pushing a camel through a needle that'll be easier than trying to get a wealthy man to follow

God And yet wealthy men follow God Because God's always in the business of doing the impossible

When Jesus says that we're able to do greater things What is he referencing but that very dynamic?

Of people who are dead and trespass and sin being translated out of that utter darkness into light and life eternally

Those are the greater things That God is doing in us and through us and all around us

He is El Shaddai. What can you say, but he is El Shaddai He's fully capable

I love what Arthur Pink says about this this title El Shaddai, right the divine name

He says it's blessed to remember that this same divine title is found in the church letters

Come out from among them as Abram did from the Chaldeans be separate says the

Lord touch no unclean thing as Abram did with Hagar and I will receive you.

I will be a father unto you. You will be my sons and daughters says the

Lord Almighty Another affirmation. How are you able to do this?

How are you able to come out? How are you able to conduct your life in a way that you touch no unclean thing?

How is it possible that you could live your life as a beloved son or daughter of God? Well, it must be that God is

Almighty It is because our

God and Father is the Almighty Hebrew 725 that he's able to save them to the uttermost that come unto him by God It is because our

God is Almighty But he's able to sympathize with those who are weak and tempted

It's because our God is Almighty that nothing can separate us from his love It's because he's

Almighty that he can change our vile body and fashion it into something glorious According to that working whereby he works even to subdue all things to himself

It's because God is Almighty that he's able to keep us from falling and present us spotless

Before God in the presence of his angels with exceeding joy because God is Almighty God's sovereignty as it's revealed to Abram Shows us the theological truth that God receives all of the glory

Because God alone is able God alone is Almighty we struggle with the doctrine of God's sovereignty because it

It kills the flesh doesn't it? It attacks our pride and if we're being honest

We want something of that credit something of that control Certainly I can have a pinky on the reign of my sanctification

God surely there's something that makes me a little bit better than other people. I know there's some

Twinkle that I have that's just charming to you and then your divine sovereignty. It was irresistible

Of course you had to choose me, but when you realize what

Jonathan Edwards said you contribute nothing to your salvation Except the sin which made it necessary Then you realize that God is not only sovereign

Almighty but infinitely good the fourth

Point last point although we'll have a few conclusions a few applications the fourth point and It must be sandwiched together with what

I just said is that God's renewal bears the fruit of his grace

Whenever scripture affirms the utter sovereignty of God and what he must do We don't have to go very far to find the verses that apply to man's responsibility the warnings and the promises thereto

Our salvation, of course depends upon God God Almighty. He must begin it and he must end it

He must preserve it and he must keep it all of the links of the chain of salvation Flow out of the power and the grace of God working on behalf of his people

But as soon as you establish that you get these verses like working out your salvation with fear and trembling

But then you go back to for it's God who's at work in you both to do his goodwill and pleasure

So these things are both affirmed and we we dare not separate them less

God's sovereignty becomes an excuse for unbelief or unrepentance or God is somehow misconstrued as the author of sin or a heavenly grandfather who winks

God in his grace comes to Abram this faithless pitifully passive man and He affirms all that he had promised to him

There's nothing inherently good about Abram that isn't from God already when God called him out of Ur of the

Chaldeans He was a pagan. He was an idol worshiper He did not know the Lord God God revealed himself to him then and then throughout this this curvy valleys of failures and stumbles

God remained faithful to Abram But notice that when God reveals himself when he renews

Abram's faith with it comes this call this condition this beckon

Walk before me and be blameless So it's all grace all grace and Within that whole canopy of grace is this call and God will only call what he provides

But the call goes out walk before me. This is who I am. I'm Almighty Look at my grace to you.

Look what I've promised and in the midst of all of that Abram walk before me Be blameless

We said that Noah was blameless in his generation it was said that Enoch walked with God Walk before me

Be blameless The Hebrew verb here walk, it's a it's an interesting stem here

It's the hit by L stem, which is reflexive and so we could translate it continually walk or live out your whole life

This isn't some temporary test. This isn't just for a moment in chapter 17. He's saying

Abram I'm about to reveal my promise in your life. Things are happening now.

I Had work to do in that desert for 13 years, but here I am And I'm giving you a faith to hold on to to cling to to be nourished by Abram walk before me be blameless

Whenever God renews his people out of that pit out of that desert out of that dryness it comes with this calling

God doesn't even have to say it his people desire it Serve you Lord. I want power.

I want consistency. I want discipline Lord I want growth. I want fruit God is simply putting in our heart what he's calling

Abram to do here When God reveals himself in this powerful way when the Living Lord God comes to Abram What is

Abram's heart singing, but I want to walk before you. I want to be blameless. Help me Lord Live out your whole life a

Word about blameless that's kind of scary language to us. Isn't it be blameless or like well, I'll blow that this afternoon blameless, of course

Has the connotation of something whole something perfect. It could be translated perfect be perfect Be perfect.

Wherefore God is perfect. We might say But of course blameless here we have to keep it in line with what we know about God's calling and what the scriptures also say about what it means to be blameless or whole

Complete that's the language here. Perfect doesn't mean without blemish this word for perfect It rather means something whole something complete.

It's perfect because it's complete. It's not missing anything So there's something we could almost say well -rounded about it

It's full another gloss would be it's sincere It's sincere.

It's not external It's not a put -on it's not hypocritical it's sincere

Walk before me live in front of me live with my eyes upon you and do it sincerely Do it sincerely

Acknowledge it in your heart acknowledge your ways before me Notice that we have two separate commands here walk and be blameless two commands

Now how we line these two commands up may be important. It could go either way There's not a lot of indications about which way to take it.

It could simply be sequential Walk before me and be blameless. So it's just a sequence of commands.

There's no significance or And I think it I'm leaning in this way or it could be understood as consequential

Often in Hebrew when you have two commands The second is the consequence of the first walk before me and so be blameless

In other words This is how you will live Sincerely Abram by walking before me by living your whole life in my presence with my eyes upon you being conscious of that When you're in the closet when you're in the basement when you're in the workplace when you're around those difficult people

You are conscious that your life is being lived before God. This is how you will walk in sincerity

This is how you will be complete Abram God tells

Abram that he must walk before him and be blameless single -hearted

Devoted holy, of course, we recognize there are none righteous

No, not one unless they're declared righteous by God on behalf of his son who is crucified for his people

The righteous in other words are those who have this relationship to the Lord they're saved by his grace

Not by their works lest there's boasting And so as it was for Abram here so it is for us

Abram believed in the Lord counted it to him as righteousness So if you're talking about blameless as a moral category a moral standing before God We're not unloading this picture of being accepted by God into it

We're not talking about justification here. We're talking about a life of sanctification

That is is sincere. It's sincere. It's whole

It's not haphazard It's not piecemeal. It's not on Sundays only It's not in front of certain people but non cert of others.

It's it's in the eyes of God And this is all that God is requiring of Abram Commit your way to the

Lord Psalm 37 5 Trust in him. He'll bring it to pass He'll bring forth your righteousness as the light

That's why Paul could say as a Jew who had to constantly go and cleanse himself Ritually and offer sacrifice at the temple in Jerusalem He could say of himself in that state as an unbelieving

Jew Philippians 3 6 concerning the righteousness, which is in the law I was blameless blameless.

In other words, I was sincere when I sinned I went through what God prescribed for my sin I went to the temple.

I did sacrifice. I ritually cleansed myself. I was blameless according to the righteousness of the law

Then I encountered the risen Lord Jesus and I began to understand a little bit more about the righteousness which is in the law

After Christ revealed himself to Paul he knew that his whole walk was all of grace He went from I was blameless to I am the chief of sinners the chief of sinners

You've never never met a bigger sinner than me. I Pursued to the death people who called on Jesus first Corinthians 15 10, but by the grace of God I Am what

I am and his grace to me was not in vain. I Worked harder than all of you see

God's sovereignty human responsibility. I worked harder than all of them. Yes But it was not

I it was the grace of God with me So some concluding applications just three the first is we must walk before God.

You must walk before God What is the the preacher say in Ecclesiastes as the conclusion of the whole matter?

Fear God and keep his commandments reverence him and follow him

That's the conclusion of all of life That's the sum It's just a different way of saying the same thing walk before God and be blameless

Live your life in front of him in sincerity and wholeness How are you going to do that the same way that God is doing it with Abram He's working in those times of dryness

So that when that renewal comes his strength his faith will be strengthened and he'll go on from strength to strength

These valleys in between God does not waste Friend you are living your life before God whether you want to or not.

I say you must walk before God. That's not optional You are always walking before God.

Your life is always open before his sight We must all give account for deeds done in the body whether for good or ill

Our life is open before God Abram's life is as open as it ever was in chapter 17 verse 1

So why does God say it then? Walk before me as though Abram wasn't of course he was he's saying it for Abram's sake my whole life is

Open before God whether I realize it or not and God says Be conscious of that Walk before me in a way that your heart is sincere your life is whole

Every aspect of your life is lived in my presence What's called quorum

Deo you fan of R .C. Sproul? He always loved that phrase before the face of God quorum

Deo Walking before God does not mean running ahead of where God is in your life

Does not mean hanging back afraid of what he'll find means your whole life is open before him and you live that way

You live consciously in what Calvin called the theater of God, which is this life this world? You live as though God is a spectator not just externally but internally in the secret desires and thoughts of your heart to live this way is

The entrance into understanding what it means to love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength

You cannot do that if you're not consciously living your life before God your whole walk before God And if you're to do that if you're to walk before God secondly, you must walk before God by faith

You must walk before God by faith This is the only way to walk before God believing what he says trusting in what he reveals

Taking his warnings to heart and walking accordingly taking his promises to heart and walking accordingly

Walking according to the hope that lies before you the joy that is set in your way

This is nothing less than the life of sanctification in a Christian.

You become more conscious of Your own ways before God things that are unseemly

Season by season God is pressing more and revealing more not only of himself, but more of you to yourself

You've got to trust him You have to walk by faith not by sight

Not by the sight of being dead in body not in the sight of having a wife Whose womb is dead?

But by faith and what he said Are you walking by faith that God is faithful to provide a way of escape when you're tempted?

Are you walking by faith that God will not put on your life on your shoulders more than you're capable of bearing?

Are you walking by faith that that God has a purpose in the trial in the thorn in the affliction that you're facing

This is what it means to walk before him Nothing is random Nothing that happens to me is unplanned.

There's not a rogue molecule in the universe. And so I walk by faith Even if that faith takes me down a 13 -year

Valley I walk by faith Even if that revival has been a long time coming and I have yet to encounter the nourishing presence of God I walk by faith.

I don't walk by sight I walk by feeling or fuzzies. I walk by faith in the

Word of God RS Candlish again To walk before God is to live in his sight under his inspection

To realize at all times that his presence and his providence are there To feel his eyes that never sleep upon us

To walk this way before God is impossible Unless there's redeeming love on his part

Which is apprehended by faith on our part. I cannot live under the gaze of God Unless that gaze is one of love because of Christ by faith

This is why you can only walk before God by faith It would be a terror to walk in the sight of God unless you do so by faith in Christ And so walking by faith is a means of drawing closer to Christ being more hidden in Christ Seeing more of the the fruit and the virtue and the grace of Christ in your life.

You can't walk before God with a whole heart in sincerity if your life is pockmarked with distrust and doubt

The people who walk before God in sincerity and integrity are people who trust God despite themselves

Despite their circumstances despite the season despite the relationships despite the hindrances

They trust in what God has revealed If we've learned nothing from the life of Abram so far we should have learned that We look to him we walk before him by faith and in this glorious Transformation that Paul describes in 2nd

Corinthians 3 we become like the one we're looking to the one we're exercising faith toward We look to him who's immovable and we become immovable

We look to him who does not change and we're a lot more stable in the next season We have not understood the meaning of faith unless we become like him whom we believe

Third and the last point So the first point first application we must walk before God Secondly we must walk before God by faith

Third and last we must walk before God by faith in his almighty faithfulness

We must walk before God by faith in his almighty faithfulness

Wherever my faith is resting upon my ambitions my energy my capability my capacity

What I've learned what I know what I've done who I have. I'm not walking by faith in his almighty faithfulness

What that suggests to me is That you cannot begin to walk before God unless it's flowing out of this revelation of God Notice that the order is not

Walk before me be blameless. I'm God Almighty It's the other way around It must always be the other way around do better work harder strive

How are you still messing up like this? You call yourself a believer. I'm God Almighty. No, it's always the other way around.

I'm God Almighty Walk I'm the

God of all power I'm the God of grace I'm the

God whose purposes fail. Never. I'm the God who renews his mercy every morning in light of that walk before me

In light of who I am walk before me in light of how I'm revealing myself to you walk before me

We walk by faith in his almighty faithfulness The walk of faith is not clambering after some residue of what we know about God.

It's the outflow Of what we know about God And so we press into his word

We press forward and persevere in prayer. We want to know more of him so that we can walk in his ways

Walk by faith in his faithfulness The greater

God is in your affections the greater he is to your mind The more likely you'll be able to walk in sincerity before him the more likely you'll be conscious of him in all of your ways and endeavors

If God is small God is distant if God is inconsistent if you don't begin with God the

Almighty You will not walk before him if you do it will be splotchy at best

It'll be because you've heard me and I'm all exercise and I'm losing my voice and that's good enough to get you through sunset tonight

And then live the rest of the week in a slothful sinful state but to have this view of God the

Almighty Faithful in his purpose sure in his promise the

God of all hope if I'm To live before this

God. I will do it if my whole life and all of its warts all of its

All of its garbage is open before this God Through Christ I can do it sincerely with my whole heart

Isn't that what

God is showing to Abram When he says I am Almighty God Walk before me

Be blameless. You must walk before God by faith in his

Almighty faithfulness Spurgeon says

Whatever ill -taught divines may do in other words people who don't know what they're talking about The Holy Spirit never never puts the fruit before the root he never places the pinnacle where the foundation should be begin with God's all -sufficiency and Then go on to this holy fellowship of obedience and then aim at this scriptural perfection

Everything else flows out of this you walk before God by faith in his

Almighty faithfulness Notice lastly before we come to a close

Within these verses in verse 5 What really in all these verses we have a number of I will statements and this is even before God launches into all that he's going to elaborate but he says

I will I will I will repeatedly This is what I shall do. This is what I'm going to do except in verse 5

It's a different verb verbal tense It's a perfect Which means it's something completed.

It's an action that has been completed. I Have made you That's a perfect tense verb, that's a that's a completed action

So you have I will I will I will in the future I'm going to I'm going to and then verse 5 is

I have made you a father of many nations What no you haven't I have one son by Hagar God uses this language of Completed action even though it has yet to pass

Why Because so sure so certain is the purpose of God that everything he will do is as though it has already been done

God is so powerful so sure so unchanging in his purpose that Everything he commits to do it's as though it's already done.

It's as good as done You might as well speak of it in the past tense Which is exactly what

Paul does in Romans 8 When he's talking about your salvation in Christ It's all perfect verbs

Moreover those that he predestinated he also called that's a perfect verb

Those who he called he justified so far. We're tracking. Yep. Yep He must have predestined me if he called me and he did call me

I remember all those years ago in the back of the Camry outside that parking lot and He did justify me because I turned to him in repentance and faith when he gave me a new heart to believe in him

And so I'm definitely justified and to those whom he justified he glorified. Oh Wait a second.

I actually haven't been glorified yet Paul You practically have it's as good as done

So sure is God's commitment So definite is his promise that Paul can speak of the whole purpose of God's salvation in your life as a completed action

So walk before him this Almighty Faithful God who speaks of what he's going to do in your life as though it's already been done walk before this

God blamelessly sincerely Spurgeon he says

Child of God you've been saying I don't see how God's gonna fulfill this promise in my life What do you have to do with that?

Walk before God and be sincere He'll take care of what he's promised There's a beautiful simplicity here.

I'm doing all of this Abram. You just walk before me sincerely That's my encouragement to you brothers and sisters in the

Lord Say look at my life Look at what

I've dropped Look at what

I'm gonna have to confess as I'm about to take the the emblems of his broken body and poured out blood and Every week

I do it And in the back of my mind in the back of my heart I feel as though I'll do it again between now and next

Sunday and how many Sundays will there be before I don't even care

And then I mindlessly Eating destruction to myself. Am I even a Christian at this point?

How is God going to fulfill his promise of salvation in my life if my life looks like this

See the marvelous wisdom of God here, what is that to you? Have you covenanted to do this work

Have you passed through the animal parts, I'm sorry. Was it you that made this promise? No, it was me

So walk before me sincerely I'll fulfill what

I've accomplished I'll attend to all that. I've said I will do Abrams.

God is our God walk before God by faith in his almighty faithfulness

Let's pray father.

We thank you for your word We thank you for your purpose your promise

It is sure and we are not You are changeless and we are changing you are firm where we're unstable

Lord you're good where we're corrupt True or we're hypocritical Light where we're darkness love where we're hardness patience where we're stubbornness

Mercy where we're cruelty Nearness where we're distance Sympathy where we're indifference

Thank you for who you are Thank you for what you've promised Thank you that you can speak of our salvation in the past tense because of Christ Thank you for sending him because we could not save ourselves

Thank you for still saving us because we cannot save ourselves Lord, thank you that you've given us a heart to know

That you are able and everything that we've committed to you. You will keep against that day that coming day

I pray for any in this room Lord. Are they in that 13 -year ditch? Might they encounter you the

Living Lord God might you renew their faith? Strengthen it make it sure show the work that you've patiently done in this pruning in this oppression over this

Distant season and I pray if there's one who's not in the valley because they haven't even begun a walk of faith

They don't know you they're strangers to your grace Do what they cannot do Lord.

They're not sick They're not troubled. They're dead and trespassing sin and only you can give them life

So give them life Breathe on them spirit of God This we ask in your son's name