Believing The Promise

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. Having children is very important to people, right? You kind of carry on that family line. Having children is so important, especially back then for a wealthy, powerful man.

Abraham’s Desire for an Heir and God’s Promise

Abraham had everything he needed and then some. Very wealthy, very, he was like a prince of the land, so to speak. But you know, the one thing he wanted the most, he didn't have. He wanted an heir. He wanted a child.

He wanted a son. Look at verse four. Behold, the word of the Lord came to him saying, this one that is his servant, Eliezer, he shall not be your heir. But one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.

Then the Lord brought him outside and said, look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them. And he said to him, so shall your descendants be. Of course, Abraham was an old man.

His wife is far beyond the age of childbearing. She's barren anyways. So what God is promising, remember, it's a promise. What God is promising, it really is impossible, right? What God is promising is impossible.

Sort of like the angel Gabriel who came to Mary, a virgin, and said, you are going to conceive as a virgin. Guess what? That's not possible. Yet they believed. It's sort of like the Lord telling us, those who believe, though they die, yet shall they live.

People die. The promise of God is that they shall rise again. That's impossible. Not with faith. Not with God. Because with God, all things are possible. Creating the universe out of nothing, just by speaking the word, speaking the creation, that's impossible.

But not for God. So it's about believing the word of God. It's about believing God's promise. And what's Abraham's reaction? Verse 6 says, Abraham believed in the Lord and he accounted it to him for righteousness.

What is this? Faith alone. The gospel is salvation by faith alone. Abraham didn't have to be circumcised to be saved. He didn't have to do all these good works to be saved. He was saved by believing the promise of God.

Gentile Salvation, God’s Love for the Whole World, and Repentance

Alright, now let's go back to Genesis chapter 12. And this is one of the points that Paul is making in Galatians. And again, remember that Gentile salvation was kind of a controversial thing. Now obviously back then, the men in Galatia were not Jewish.

They wouldn't have been circumcised. Telling someone they had to be circumcised to be saved was a stumbling block. They were not inclined to do that for obvious reasons. So that was one controversy. But the whole idea of a Gentile coming to salvation to begin with, for the Jews, that was scandalous.

Hey, only the Jews are saved. That's the way they thought. Only the Jews are saved. Well, you know, the Bible says that salvation is of the Jews. It doesn't say it's only for the Jews. How many of you have read the book of Jonah?

Didn't God care about the city of Nineveh and all those people? And they repented? If you go through the Bible, God cares, even back then, about other people too. Not just the Israelites. So the Judaizers were way off base in many ways.

God so loved the people of the whole world. Right? John 3, 16. God so loved the world. 1 John 2, 2. Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, but not for ours only. This is a Jew writing this. Not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.

Jesus died for Gentiles as well. The Greek word translated world is kosmos. And in this context, it refers to humanity in general. Or the Gentiles as contrasted to the Jews. So in other words, God loves everyone.

You know, we can say that. God loves everyone. Jews can be saved. Non-Jews can be saved. People who are born from Christian parents can be saved. People who are born from non-Christian parents can be saved.

Black, white, male, female, rich, poor. Anyone can be saved. Well, you don't know what I've done in the past. Well, God knows and he says you can be saved if you will come to faith in Christ. You know how the world wants to pit people against each other, right?

You know, the identity groups. You know, male and female against each other. Black and white against each other. Rich and poor against each other. What does the Lord want to do? The Lord wants to bring everybody together in unity in his church.

There is one condition though. Repentance and faith in Christ. And what is repentance? Maybe someone listening is new to all of this. What does a person have to do? You have to repent. Repent means a turning or a change of mind.

It's one action. Faith and repentance. You are trusting in this. You are living for yourself. Walking in the ways of the world. You change your mind about sin and you turn. So you turn from sin to Christ.

You are trusting in whatever it was. It's one motion. Turning to Christ. Faith in Christ. And once you do that, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Jesus saves a person. Not what they do or how much money they give or how many good things or how nice they are. That may be important. There's something to be said about all those things. But it's faith alone that saves.

Sanctification, the Holy Ghost, and Being Conformed to Christ

And once a person comes to faith, then what? There's the sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost. Hey, listen, I know I only got three minutes, but you don't have anywhere to go, right? Hey, I don't want to lose you here.

A few more minutes. Hang on. This is important stuff. Isn't it? Isn't salvation important? Isn't sanctification important? Well, I already know. I've heard all this. I already know all this. Well, then this is a refresher so you can go tell somebody later on today or tomorrow.

Believers are said to be predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ. So once you believe you are to grow and become more like Jesus. I mean, that's how you know if the Holy Spirit is that work in you that you are conformed to be more like Jesus.

You know, that's the gospel that we preach. That's the gospel that Paul preached. And here's the good news. It's available for all. It's available for everyone. And here's the thing. It was always that way.

It was always that way from the beginning. The problem was over time, and we're almost done, but over time, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, you know, Jacob had his name changed to Israel.

The children of Israel over time, they became puffed up. Hey, we are more important. We are special. Well, they were special. That's true. But the key is, do you have faith in the Lord? That's what it's all about.

Do you personally have faith in the Lord? You know, Abraham was originally, have we read it yet? Genesis chapter 12. Are you in Genesis 12? Okay, what's he called there? Yeah, he's not called Abraham.

He's called Abram. You know what Abram means? It means father, father. But then the Lord changed his name to Abraham, which means father of many nations. The point is, blessing came through faith in the promise.

It's about believing, not the bloodline. It's not about the bloodline. Bloodline was important. It was very important, but it's about believing. Abraham's the father of many nations, not just Israel, not just the Jews.

His salvation is available to all, not just Jews. Genesis chapter 12, verse one. Now the Lord said to Abram, get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you, and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great.

And he certainly did that. And you shall be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. And here is the gospel that Paul said was preached to Abraham. The Lord says, and in you, Abram, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Abraham became known as the father of the faithful. If you have faith in the Lord today, you are, in a sense, spiritually, a descendant of Abraham. You are a child of Abraham. Why? Because you share the faith of Abraham.

You are in that same line. Abraham is the example for us all. When God told Abraham something incredible, look up at the night sky, so shall your descendants be. When he told him that, you know, Abraham didn't argue with God.

He didn't have doubts. He simply believed. Okay, God said it. That's true. It's that simple. God said it. That's true. All right, now turn back to Galatians chapter 3, and we'll close there, okay? I really mean it this time.

I have so much to say, so little time. So nobody is saved through their good works. If you think you're going to heaven because you're a good person, you know, you don't understand the gospel. And I know that 90 of you or 100 of you, Lord willing, know that.

But this is what we need to constantly be affirming and teaching people because the majority of professing Christians in this world, the majority of people in this world believe that you go to heaven because you're a nice person.

That's just inherent to people, it seems. So the children of Israel are not justified through keeping the law because nobody ever has except one, Christ, who fulfilled the law. Galatians 3 .10, for as many as were of the works or of the works of the law are under what?

Oh, well, I'm saved because I've done this and I've done that. I'm going to heaven because I'm a good person. You know what you're doing? You're putting yourself back under the law. You might as well say, I'm cursed because you're not fooling God.

Well, I'm a good person. Well, the thing is, God knows that's not true. And you can fool somebody else. You can't fool God. So I'll end here. Again, I have so much to say. I don't have time. But let me close with this point.

Be honest with God. You know, when you pray later on, on the way home tonight, just be honest with God. He already knows. There's nothing to hide. Be honest with the Lord and talk to the Lord about your relationship with him.

And some of the things we looked at, salvation by faith. Make sure you're not trusting in anything else or anybody else. Be honest with God. Amen. All right, let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, which is so rich.

And we could spend all afternoon going from one passage, comparing it with another. It's so important. And Paul, as you said, is kind of operating on a different level. We can only scratch the surface.

And that's really a wonderful thing because no matter how much we think we know, there's so much more that we don't know. And you almost live for those moments where that little light goes off and you see something.

I've never noticed that before. Or it's applied to our heart in such a way that we're going to need later today through the week. Help us to be faithful because Christ is faithful. Lord, you are faithful.

Keep and preserve your people, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornet Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, MorrisCornetChurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.