Genesis #28 - The Gospel According to Abraham #18 - "The Legacy of Faith" (Genesis 25:1-11)

Redeemer Bible Fellowship

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June 9, 2023

00:26: For one last time, we come to the sermon series that we have been in for several months now in the life of Abraham that we have called the gospel according to Abraham.
00:37: And if you have your Bibles, and I hope you do, take them and turn with me to Genesis chapter 25.
00:43: Genesis chapter 25. Genesis chapter 25 and verses 1 through 11.
00:50: If you grabbed one of the red Bibles we give away, that's on page 19. Revelation chapter 20, not
00:56: Revelation, Genesis chapter 25 and verses 1 through 11.
01:03: Genesis 25, 1 through 11. If you are able to do so, can
01:09: I invite you to stand with me out of reverence for God's word as we read this portion of scripture together.
01:17: Revelation chapter 25, beginning in verse 1. Brothers and sisters, these are God's words. Abraham had taken another wife, whose name was
01:27: Keturah. And she bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Midan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.
01:34: Jokshan fathered Sheba and Dedan. Dedan's sons were the Asherim, Letashim, and Laomim.
01:42: And Midian's sons were Ephah, Ephah, Hanuk, Abedah, and Elder.
01:48: All these were sons of Keturah. Abraham gave everything he owned to Isaac. But Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his concubines.
01:57: And while he was still alive, he sent them eastward away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.
02:04: This is the length of Abraham's life, 175 years. He took his last breath and died at a good old age, old and contented.
02:15: And he was gathered to his people. His sons, Isaac and Ishmael, buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre in the field of Ephron, son of Zohar the
02:25: Hethite. This was the field that Abraham bought from the Hethites. Abraham was buried there with his wife,
02:31: Sarah. After Abraham's death, God blessed his son Isaac, who lived near Be 'er,
02:38: Lehi, Roei. The gospel is a flower phase, but this word of our God will abide forever.
02:44: Join with me as I pray, ask for the Lord's help, and we come to this portion of his word. Well, Heavenly Father, we thank you once again that we have this privilege to come and to open up your word and to hear you speak to us as your people.
02:58: And so, Father, we would ask that as we round the corner on this part of our study in Genesis, looking at the life of Abraham, we pray that we would be receptive to the lessons that your word would seek to teach us.
03:11: We pray that your spirit would grant illumination. He would shine light upon the word so that we can understand what you have for us in this message.
03:22: Father, it's our custom to pray for other churches in our valley, and we take a moment to pray for Gold Valley Fellowship.
03:28: Thank you for Pastor Dave and the work that he is doing up there in Gold Hill. Pray for the continued blessing on that work there.
03:36: Pray for their intern who is serving there, as well as getting training for ministry.
03:42: Pray for that body, that they would continue their faithful outreach to the people of Gold Hill. Pray for the preaching of God's word, that your word would bear fruit and increase among them.
03:52: And we pray that for us even now as we open up your word here. We ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake.
03:58: Amen. Please be seated. Well, we come to the end of something of an era, it feels like.
04:10: Eighteen messages, almost five months, given breaks and what have you, since we began.
04:17: We come to the end of our study in the life of Abraham, and I don't know how you felt about this series.
04:25: I can only speak for myself as I've been able to spend each week preparing these messages. I hope that as we've walked through Abraham's life, as we've seen his flaws and his victories, as we've seen his faith and his failures, my hope is that you've learned something about what faith looks like in real life.
04:46: What does it look like when, as one preacher I used to listen to used to say, when we put shoe leather to the experience that is being
04:55: God's people. I hope that as you've read this, you've picked up on the reality that this is no hallmark
05:04: Christmas movie. I have a family member who will remain nameless to protect the guilty, who loves hallmark
05:12: Christmas movies. If you've ever watched one of them, I've watched one in my life, and I plan to keep it at one.
05:20: If you know them, they're just bad movies. I love movies, they're just bad. Like contrived drama, unrealistic expectations, nice almost like saccharine solutions that don't really require any work, and it's just ridiculous at the end.
05:35: Well, this, that's fine for a hallmark movie if you choose to watch those things, but that's not how the life of faith goes.
05:45: I hope you've gathered as we've been looking at the life of Abraham that the life of faith can sometimes be messy, it can be complicated, and frankly at times it's like walking in the dark, trusting that God does have a map and a flashlight while he's telling you to follow him.
06:04: As we close out the life of Abraham, I want to keep this final message something simple. I'm not going to do all of the usual things
06:10: I do in a sermon, mostly. I want us just to just dive straight in and to look at two things.
06:16: We're going to look at the physical legacy that Abraham leaves us as he dies, but then
06:22: I want us to look at the spiritual legacy he leaves for us. That's why I've titled the message this afternoon,
06:28: The Legacy of Faith. What legacy does Abraham's faith leave for us?
06:36: Well, for the rest of our time, I want to consider the twofold legacy, like I said, his physical legacy and the spiritual legacy, this twofold legacy that Abraham leaves for us in the
06:46: Word of God. So, first of all, consider with me Abraham's physical legacy, Abraham's physical legacy, and that's what we're going to see here in chapter 25.
06:59: The death narrative of Abraham, for as important a character as he is, is actually quite brief.
07:04: It kind of just comes to an end very naturally. It plays out really in four scenes, and each of them have something to say about the legacy that Abraham leaves behind.
07:17: So, four scenes real quickly. First of all, Abraham leaves the physical legacy of fathering nations, fathering nations in the first four verses.
07:27: So, again, look at them with me. Abraham had taken another wife whose name was Keturah, and she bore him all of these sons.
07:35: All of these, end of verse four, were sons of Keturah. Now, we're not told exactly how long it's been since the events of Sarah's death in the end of chapter 23.
07:47: We're not told how long it's been since the events of Sarah's death, chapter 24, and the whole quest for a wife for Isaac, and where we are now.
07:55: We do know that enough time passed for Abraham to remarry and father kids again. My best guess is he remarries not long after Sarah's death, and so given the age that we're given he dies in verse seven, we can kind of guess about 37 years passes.
08:12: Again, it's a guess because we're not told for certain, but it seems to make the most sense. Well, this second marriage, shorter than his first, considerably, is nonetheless blessed with six children.
08:23: And we don't know all the details about all of the children who are mentioned, but the ones who are mentioned in more detail, we will meet again as we read the
08:32: Bible. So Midian is mentioned. He's the father of the Midianite people. We're going to see them again in Genesis, and they'll pop up from time to time throughout the
08:41: Bible. Taking notes, 1
11:23: Chronicles 32 does refer to Keturah not as Abraham's wife, but as his concubine. Regardless, and like I said, that's a discussion for another time, don't, again, lose the big point.
11:35: The big point here is very simple. Isaac is the son of the promise, and with him recognizing this, with Abraham recognizing that this is the son that God has made the promise with, he seeks to protect and secure the inheritance that God has promised for Isaac.
11:54: So his legacy is preserved through fathering nations, through securing the inheritance of Isaac. It's also preserved through being buried in his piece of the promise, through being buried in his piece of the promise.
12:09: So again, verses 7 through 10, this is the length of Abraham's life, 175 years. He took his last breath and died at a good old age, old and contented, and he was gathered to his people.
12:22: His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre in the field of Ephron, son of Zohar the
12:28: Hethite. This was the field that Abraham bought from the Hethites. Abraham was buried there with his son,
12:36: Sarah. Now, I won't go into all the details about the importance of this plot of land. We did that back in Genesis 23.
12:43: You can listen to that message on our website, YouTube channel, or the app, How Faith Deals with Death.
12:48: We've talked about that already. Real quick, if you weren't here, you missed that message. This plot of land that's mentioned in detail here is not just a plot of land.
12:56: It's the first owned property that Abraham had in the land. It was the first fruits, the advance on God's promise to give
13:05: Abraham not just this plot, but this entire land. And so even as he is dead and he has been buried, even the place he is buried leaves a legacy of the fact that God had promised him that he would be the inheritor of this land.
13:29: Finally, there's a final part to Abraham's legacy, and actually this has nothing to do with Abraham himself.
13:34: This is everything to do with Abraham's God. So he leaves a legacy through the fathering of nations, through securing the inheritance of Isaac by being buried in the land of promise, but he also leaves a legacy through God's advancing of the covenant promise.
13:52: God's advancing of the covenant promise, verse 11. So after Abraham's death, the text says, verse 11,
13:59: God blessed his son Isaac who lived near Be 'er L 'Chai Roi.
14:06: If you remember that, that ties back to the Ishmael story, this well of the one who sees me. This term blessed has come up over and over and over again in our study of Genesis, especially in relation to Abraham.
14:21: And now that Abraham has died, we now see this term not being used for Abraham, but now being used for his son.
14:28: The blessing has officially, as it were, transferred over from I, from Abraham, excuse me, who has gone the way of all the earth to his son
14:36: Isaac. I won't labor the point of Isaac's existence too long, simply because we will spend time in the life of Isaac in the fall,
14:46: Lord willing. Now, if it feels like I moved very quickly through verses 1 through 11,
14:52: I did. I was actually quite intentional wanting to keep that section of our message relatively short.
14:58: And I did so because I want to move from the physical legacy of Abraham, important as that is, to, in my opinion, what is probably more important, which is point number two, the spiritual legacy that Abraham leaves for us.
15:20: The spiritual legacy that Abraham leaves for us. What legacy does
15:27: Abraham leave for us as God's people? I quote Warren Weisbeam, not necessarily the most reformed commentator, but still incredibly helpful.
15:37: Warren Weisbeam, in his study of Abraham's life, he says this, that Abraham left his material wealth to his family and his spiritual wealth to all who would believe on the
15:49: Lord Jesus Christ. I think that's an excellent way to put that.
15:55: And so what I want to do for the rest of our time, and here I'm going to take much more time, what
16:02: I want to do is to look at three texts where Abraham is mentioned in the New Testament. And as we look at these texts in the
16:08: New Testament, I want us to dig into some lessons that we learn from this patriarch's life.
16:14: This will feel like reviewer points because we're going to touch individual sections of Abraham's life, but I want us to focus a little more intently on the spiritual lessons that we can learn from each of these texts.
16:28: So what exactly is Abraham's spiritual legacy? What does he, as it were, leave in the will for us as God's people?
16:38: Well, first of all, he leaves us the legacy of justification by faith alone.
16:45: Justification by faith alone. For this, come with me to Romans chapter four. Romans chapter four, this is still the very early section of Paul's treatment of justification by faith.
16:58: He spends the first three chapters of Romans giving us the bad news, the problem of human sinfulness, and the need for redemption.
17:06: And then chapter three, verse 21, he starts to get into this subject of the righteousness of God that is received by faith.
17:13: And we're going to count for just a few moments in Romans chapter four in verses one through 12.
17:19: Romans chapter four in verses one through 12. Paul is, without question, the missionary theologian of the
17:29: New Testament. He is the one who both plants a number of churches and writes the most theologically dense material that we read in the
17:39: New Testament. And Romans chapter four, in my opinion, is Paul at his theological best.
17:46: We are encountering Paul really firing on all cylinders. And we would need several weeks of sermons to trace out and then develop all of the riches that are here.
17:57: So consider this me kind of just skimming the surface for some nuggets for a few moments because there is so much more that could be said about even this short section of Romans chapter four.
18:08: But what I want to do is I want you to kind of follow the logic of the section with me. And as you follow the logic of the section, we're going to see what
18:15: Abraham has to teach us about justification by faith. So the section begins with what you could call a foundational principle.
18:23: It starts with a principle that is right at the bottom of everything Paul is going to say.
18:30: So look with me at chapter four verses one through five. It says, what then will we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found?
18:40: If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about but not before God. So Paul's point is very simple.
18:49: If Abraham found righteousness with God, but his righteousness with God was found on the basis of his works, he would have something to boast about because after all he did it, but he wouldn't have anything to boast with God, boast with before God, so to speak.
19:07: And so verse three says, for what does the scripture say Abraham believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness.
19:14: Now to the one who works, verse four, pay is not credited as a gift but as something owed.
19:19: Again, all of us who have worked at some point in our lives, you recognize this. Your boss is not doing you a favor when he gives you a paycheck, you worked for that money, you deserve it.
19:28: And that's Paul's point here. If you work, the wages you receive are not a gift, they're owed to you.
19:39: But look at verse five, he says salvation doesn't quite work like your job. He says, but to the one who does not work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited for righteousness.
19:53: Here's the foundational principle Paul's laying for us. That Abraham proves that justification is based on faith in Christ, not works of the law.
20:03: Pretty simple, we don't really need to expand too much on that, it's pretty straightforward. And he explains, secondly, what this justification is.
20:13: Now you remember in this series we actually had a whole message on justification where I went into way more detail. Well, this is one of the texts we looked at, if you remember,
20:20: Romans 4, 6 through 8. Because this justification is not a moral act, it's not something to do with your state as a human being, it's a judicial act.
20:32: It has to do with your standing. So we understand this in the world of the law.
20:39: So when you go to court, from what I understand anyway, the court really isn't trying to determine if you're a bad person or not.
20:47: They may bring that in as part of their consideration, but that's not what they're trying to find out. They're trying to find out as the law goes, did you break this law or not?
20:55: Are you guilty or not guilty? Well, that's what justification deals with. It deals with the question of, are we guilty before God or are we righteous before God?
21:05: So look at verse 6. Paul says, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the person to whom
21:11: God credits righteousness or imputes righteousness apart from works.
21:18: And he quotes Psalm 32. Blessed are those whose lawless acts are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
21:25: Blessed is the person the Lord will never charge with sin.
21:30: Again, these are judicial and legal terms. They're not moral terms. The righteousness we receive in sanctification is not the same thing as we receive in justification.
21:40: And then he comes back to Abraham having cleared up the nature of justification.
21:46: Verse 9, he essentially says Abraham's justification proves this fact.
21:53: You see, Abraham was justified before he was circumcised. So verse 9, is this blessing, the blessing that he quotes from Psalm 32 of your sins being forgiven, your lawless acts being forgiven, your sins being covered, the
22:05: Lord never charging you with sin. Is this blessing only for the circumcised then?
22:12: Or is it also for the uncircumcised? For we say faith was credited to Abraham for righteousness.
22:20: Verse 10, in what way then was it credited? While he was circumcised or uncircumcised?
22:27: When did Abraham receive the righteousness of God that comes by faith? Well, if you remember from our study of Genesis, that was in chapter 15.
22:36: Remember Genesis 15, 6? Abraham believed Yahweh and it was counted to him for righteousness.
22:45: That was pre -God giving the covenant of circumcision, chapter 17.
22:53: So he asked, was it while he was circumcised or uncircumcised? It was not, verse 10, while he was circumcised, but uncircumcised.
23:01: And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness he had by faith while uncircumcised.
23:10: Which again, I won't go over because we studied Genesis 17, but circumcision didn't make him righteous.
23:15: It was a sign and a seal of the righteousness he had already received.
23:22: And that's Paul's point. Abraham's justification wasn't because he did this physical act as some were teaching in the days of the early church.
23:31: Your salvation is based on, yes, Jesus, but also your obedience to the law. He says, no, no, no, no. If that's the case, Abraham couldn't have been justified.
23:38: But we say he was. And when you come to the end of verse 11 into verse 12, Paul ends this pretty simply.
23:45: All he says is, what was true of Abraham is true of you. So look at the end of verse 11. He says, this was to make
23:52: Abraham the father of all who believe, but are not circumcised so that righteousness may be credited to them also.
24:02: And he became the father of the circumcised who are not only circumcised, but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith our father
24:10: Abraham had while he was uncircumcised. Paul's point is pretty simple. For those who've not been circumcised,
24:17: Abraham is a father in the faith because he was justified before he was circumcised.
24:23: Oh, and even for the Jew who believes in Jesus, the same thing is true. Why? Because Abraham was justified before he was circumcised.
24:31: His circumcision was simply a sign of the righteousness he already had. Whether you are a Jew or you are a
24:37: Gentile, the way in which righteousness is received is exactly the same.
24:45: And that's part of the spiritual legacy that Abraham leaves for the children of God.
24:51: Every believer, Jew or Gentile, follows the footsteps of Abraham when they readily accept that they have no righteousness of their own, that they have no good works that are worthy enough to receive
25:02: God's righteousness. When they rest in and receive the righteousness that God alone gives freely by his grace.
25:15: If we can be so bold, Abraham doesn't just leave a spiritual legacy for us, he leaves ultimately a gospel legacy for us.
25:26: In fact, you don't need to turn now, I'll read it, but listen to what Paul says about Abraham in a very similar context.
25:31: Galatians chapter 3 and verses 7 to 9. Galatians 3, 7 to 9. He says, you know then that those who have faith, these are
25:43: Abraham's sons. To quote the Sunday school song once again,
25:50: Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them and so are you. Well, there's a lot of truth to that statement.
25:57: If you believe in Jesus, you are indeed one of those sons. Congratulations! Galatians verse 8.
26:03: Now the scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith.
26:09: And this is the part that when I read, when I taught Galatians a few years ago, this hit me in some big ways. It said that the scripture saw in advance that God would justify the
26:19: Gentiles by faith and proclaimed the gospel ahead of time to Abraham.
26:26: There's a reason why I called this series the gospel according to Abraham because the
26:32: Bible tells me that in seed form, to be fair, he didn't know all the details of the gospel that we know, but in seed form,
26:39: Abraham heard the gospel message. How? Well, Paul tells us. He proclaimed the gospel ahead of time to Abraham saying, all the nations will be blessed through you.
26:51: The fact that there can be a salvation that extends beyond Abraham's physical life to all the people of God, that blessing that we saw in Genesis chapter 12, that reality comes to the full when we understand the gospel.
27:07: That's how Paul can say, verse 9, consequently those who have had faith are blessed with Abraham who had faith.
27:18: The universal blessing that Abraham heard of and believed was ultimately about Christ, the one, the ultimate seed through whom all the nations would be blessed.
27:27: And that's every part, every bit. Think about this. It's every bit a part of our legacy as God's people, as the cross and everything that happens in the book of Acts that we've been reading.
27:39: Abraham's legacy is our legacy as well. And so Abraham leaves for us the legacy of justification by faith, but that's not all he leaves for us.
27:49: For this, I want us to turn to a second text. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews in chapter 11.
27:56: And in Hebrews chapter 11, we're going to see a second part of the legacy he leaves for us. And if the first part was justification by faith alone, we also receive from Abraham great biblical help on what it looks like to be obediently walking by faith.
28:12: Obediently walking by faith. We've referenced this passage a few times towards the end of our study, but I want us to come and again, look at the logic of this in a bit more detail.
28:26: Abraham leaves for us the legacy of not just justification by faith, but what it is to obediently walk by faith.
28:36: So Hebrews chapter 11, I want to draw your attention to verse 8. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 8.
28:44: Word of God says, By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and set out for a place that he was going to receive for an inheritance.
28:53: He went out even though he did not know where he was going. By faith, he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents as did
29:00: Isaac and Jacob, co -heirs of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is
29:09: God. By faith, even Sarah herself, when she was unable to have children, received power to conceive offspring, even though she was past the age, since she considered that the one who promised was faithful.
29:22: Therefore, from one man, in fact, from one as good as dead, came offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and as innumerable as the grains of sand along the seashore.
29:34: These all died in faith, even though they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth.
29:47: Now, those who say such things make it clear that they were seeking a homeland. If they were thinking about where they had come from, they would have had an opportunity to return.
29:56: But now they desire a better place, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their
30:03: God, for he has prepared a city for them. By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.
30:11: He received the promises, and yet he was offering his one and only son, the one to whom it had been said, your offspring will be traced through Isaac.
30:19: He considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead. Therefore, he received him back, figuratively speaking.
30:28: Long section. What do we learn about walking by faith from Abraham? Firstly, this passage shows us that Abraham's walk of faith, and by extension, your walk of faith, will be number one, difficult.
30:42: It'll be difficult. Think about this. Abraham leaves his family. He leaves his homeland. He leaves the security of a home for a tent in the wilderness.
30:55: And he doesn't just do this. Some of us, let me not tell lies. Some of us love camping.
31:01: We do it for a temporary period of time. Imagine if you decide, I'm gonna pack up my house. I'm just gonna live in a tent forever.
31:11: Oh, and this is not just a nice place that's set up for camping. It's the middle of the wilderness.
31:19: Oh, when he's doing this on the promise of a God he had never seen, about a place that he had never owned. I'll put it to you there.
31:26: If that's not pressure, if that's not difficult, if that's not plain hard, please, you need to tell me what your definition of something hard is, because you must be a different kind of cold.
31:38: I think for anybody who just thinks about this, even from a purely human perspective, this was not easy.
31:48: And I think we learned from Abraham quite plainly that the walk of faith is indeed not easy. As some of you know from hearing me preach for any length of time,
31:59: I have my gripes with a lot of Western evangelical belief and practice. A lot of them, if I'm really honest.
32:06: Near top of the list. It's not top of the list. I have some other things that are further ahead. But near top of the list is the ease and entitlement our approach to Christianity has created.
32:22: Unlike any other part of the world, I've met believers from all over the world, even believers who've come from persecuted countries. We in the
32:28: West seem to have this belief that we are owed a life of ease and simplicity.
32:35: But the Bible nowhere promises. We've been unconsciously discipled into believing that Christianity is simply just a set of discrete tasks.
32:44: You know, you go to church, you hear some sermons, you kick some greenbacks in the box at the back, you're nice, or pass a plate, depending which church you go to.
32:51: You're nice and friendly. The world loves you. You know, Christianity doesn't cost you that much.
32:58: Now, let me be clear. Should you go to church? Yes. In fact, there's a conversation to be had that maybe we could do with more church, not less.
33:04: Different sermon, another time. Should you listen to the preach word? Yes. Should you give to the church?
33:10: Yes, the Bible says you should. Should you be kind to people, living out the love of Christ to a world that so desperately needs it? Of course you should.
33:16: I'm not saying those things are bad, brothers and sisters. Far from it. Those are good and wonderful things.
33:23: But if we boil down Christianity to basically those few easy or relatively easy things, there's a problem.
33:32: It's a big problem. The problem is that you're missing the reality that sometimes, in the words of Jesus, the
33:39: Christian life is denying yourself, taking up the cross, which by the way, was an instrument of death.
33:46: Deny yourself, taking up the cross, and following Jesus. Oh, and Jesus doesn't promise to give you step -by -step directions like your phone does.
33:55: It's the paradox of the Christian life. Have you ever thought about this? That we come to Jesus and we find rest, and we find peace, and we find everything that we need in Him.
34:05: And yet the same Jesus who calls us to find rest and refreshing and peace in Him also tells us to take up the cross and follow
34:14: Him. If Abraham teaches us anything in his life, it's that sometimes faith in God, faith in Christ, doesn't make your life easier.
34:23: It might just make your life a whole lot harder. It might make demands of you that stretch you, that disrupt your life as you know it, and generally are kind of hard.
34:33: Well, Kofi, that sounds kind of soul -crushing and destroying. I didn't come to church for this. But before you say that, can
34:43: I also point you out to the reality that Abraham also teaches us that the walk of faith is not just difficult, but it's promise -driven.
34:53: Throughout this series, I've used the term promise a lot. I didn't have time this week. I was going to run a search just in all my notes how many times
35:00: I used the word promise. I didn't. But it was a lot. I know I did. And then it hit me. I've actually not stopped once to define what promise is.
35:09: I just kind of just used it and assumed we all know what we mean. So, better late than never, let's take a moment and define what this term promise means when you read your
35:18: Bible. The New Testament word for promise, it carries this idea, it's easier to define that one than the one in Hebrew.
35:25: The New Testament term for promise carries this idea. Here's what one dictionary says. It's a declaration to do something with implication of obligation to carry out what is stated.
35:39: Let me say that again. It's a declaration to do something with implication of obligation to carry out what is stated.
35:51: In Kofi level terms, a promise, by the
35:57: Bible standards, cannot by definition be empty. You know, we talk about people making empty promises. In the
36:04: Bible, promises can't be empty because there is the obligation built into it to carry out what you have said.
36:13: And think about this. When God promises to do something, He is obligated to do what
36:20: He has promised. And think about this. Since God can't be obligated by you, because that would make you sovereign over Him, and no one is sovereign over Him.
36:31: Since God can't be obligated by you to do anything, who is God obligated to?
36:40: Himself. He is obligated to nobody but Himself.
36:45: Who is on the line if He doesn't do it? Himself. And this is something that the authors of the
36:56: Hebrews picks up on. As he's seeking to encourage these Hebrew Christians who are tempted to go back into Judaism.
37:02: Time and time again in our study of Abraham, you probably noticed this. It's the knowledge of God's promises that pushes and propels
37:10: Abraham to make tough decisions. And the authors of Hebrews picks this up. So look at verse 9.
37:15: He says, By faith Abraham stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise. Verse 11.
37:24: Sarah was able to have this child. Verse 11. Since she considered that the one who had promised was faithful.
37:33: Verse 13. These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised.
37:43: Why could Abraham offer up his son? Verse 17. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He received the promises.
37:51: It is knowing the promises of God that fuels the kind of obedience that humanly looks extreme and quite frankly, makes little to no sense.
38:07: Why would somebody, and I know people who have made this sacrifice, said, you know, I'm going to leave my comfortable life in the
38:12: West to go to a people who don't know Jesus, who might actually kill me. We talked about that a few times in this series.
38:20: Why would somebody choose to do that? Why would somebody say, I have a career.
38:26: It takes care of my family. I'm going to leave that behind to serve
38:31: God's people. The pay is not great, if there is some in some cases.
38:37: I'm leaving the security of a job for the security of the unknown, but I'm going to do that to serve
38:43: God's people. Why do people say, I went to school. I got all this education. I'm going to lay all of that down so that I can serve in a ministry that probably wouldn't pay half as well as the job
38:54: I left behind. Think of a friend of mine who, this is the kind of nerd he is.
39:01: PhD in linguistics. Studies language because he's fascinated by language.
39:12: Becomes a believer in his PhD program. On course to go be a professor at some school somewhere and decides
39:22: I want to become a Bible translator. And I remember there's a guy who was a few years ahead of me.
39:33: We were in the same church. And I remember people begging, don't leave your job. You can do that and still work. He said, I know, but the need is great.
39:39: And they need people who can do this full time. You don't need to do that. You can do that and still keep it. I'm not saying it would have been wrong for him to keep his job.
39:46: I'm not saying that. Please don't hit me. But what propels somebody to say the need is so great that I'll basically give up what
39:55: I basically was broke for. He wasn't making a ton of money as a PhD. To go and translate the
40:02: Bible for people who chances are might kill you for doing it. Now, granted, he was living in London and serving in that way, kind of coordinating for the field.
40:12: So he wasn't in immediate danger. But let's be clear. The people who are going to take those Bibles will probably die. What makes somebody do that?
40:20: It is reminding yourself of the promises of God. Can I just give you one of them that ties exactly with Abraham, according to the author to the
40:30: Hebrews. Look at 2nd Peter 3 .13, 2nd Peter 3 .13. Listen to what
40:36: Peter says here. Peter is talking about the reality of the soon coming day of the Lord. And he says, verse 13, in light of the fact that the elements and everything that's in them is going to be burned up with heat.
40:52: Verse 13 says, but based on his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells.
41:04: You see, the ultimate promise for God's people. Think about this. I've been thinking about this a little. I'm reading a book about this whole idea of the new creation at the moment.
41:13: How many of us have been taught this idea, essentially, that the life after this one is basically this disembodied experience, often the great blue yonder?
41:23: Even in culture, well, how is heaven often depicted? You're sitting on a cloud plucking a harp for eternity.
41:31: And we may say, well, non -Christians don't really understand that. But where do you think they got that from? Generations of Christians who kind of spoke in that sort of way.
41:41: No, the ultimate experience for God's people is not a disembodied experience often in a great blue yonder somewhere. That's what the
41:46: Bible, and I'm not saying there is not a heaven. There is when people die prior to the resurrection. Yes, they go into the presence of God.
41:53: I 110 % affirm that because that's what the Bible says. But that's not the ultimate reward of God's people.
41:58: That's not the ultimate thing we're waiting for. The ultimate thing we're waiting for is the resurrection of the body and the institution of a new heavens and a new earth.
42:09: A very real, very physical new creation. Okay, Covey, why are you going here?
42:14: Simple, because if that's where we're looking, that should orient the way in which we view what we have right now.
42:22: Some of you know, our family lost our home in 2020 in the
42:28: Almeida Fire. If I learned anything from that experience, I learned way more than I wanted to, if I'm really honest.
42:35: But if I learned anything from that experience, it was to not get attached to a house.
42:43: I'll be honest with you. Can I just be transparent and vulnerable with you for a moment? I live in my house.
42:49: I like having a house to come home to. Do I love my house? I'll just be frank with you.
42:55: You can pay me to. I love my family. I love my church.
43:01: I love serving God's people. But the events that happened to me in 2020, if they told me anything, it was,
43:06: Covey, you can't get attached to bricks, mortar, and plaster. And that's not to say that you shouldn't care for your house.
43:13: I'm not saying, please hear me. I'm not saying that. But it does teach you that physical things literally can go up in smoke.
43:23: Woke up that morning, had a house. Went to bed that night homeless. That will change your perspective. Or it should anyway, change your perspective pretty quickly.
43:32: But while I'm not excited about the physical house I live in, I'm excited about a very different kind of building.
43:38: In fact, it's not even a building. It's a city. Look at Hebrews 11 .10. It says, why was Abraham willing to give up everything?
43:46: Says 11 .10, for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is
43:54: God. Abraham could give up a physical house because he knew he was going somewhere where that thing wasn't built with bricks, wood, and plaster.
44:08: One of my favorite hymns from back in the UK. The hymn goes by the title,
44:14: All My Hope On God Is Founded. All my hope on God is founded. He will still my strength renew. Me through change and chance he guideth.
44:20: Ever faithful, ever true. God unknown, he alone calls my hearts to be his own. It's the second verse, especially since having lost a home, that kind of sticks with me.
44:33: It says, pride of man and earthly glory. Sword and crown betray his trust. All that human toil can fashion.
44:40: Tower and temple fall to dust. But God's power, hour by hour, is my temple and my tower.
44:52: If we learn anything from Abraham, it's that a life that is promise -driven, a life that is driven by the reality of a world beyond this one, that kind of a life, the kind of life that says,
45:06: I don't put my hopes and my trust and my confidence in what I can see. That's the kind of life we should seek to pursue.
45:12: And again, please hear me. I have to say this because of late, when some Christians like me say stuff like this, we get accused of, you're pietistic.
45:19: You don't care about the world around you. No, let's be clear. Jeremiah 29, seven, we're to seek the welfare of the city that the world has placed us, that the
45:27: Lord has placed us in. We should pray to the Lord on his behalf because in its welfare, you found your welfare. Let's be clear.
45:32: Christians should actually care what happens to the world around them. No Christian gets to say, well, it's all going to hell in a handbasket.
45:37: So I don't need to worry about it. That's not the Christian's understanding. But the Christian also understands.
45:43: If everything around me perishes, I'm not entirely worried because I have a world beyond this one that is guaranteed.
45:58: God is the architect and builder of that creation. And quite frankly,
46:06: I think Abraham teaches us, if he teaches us nothing else, that it's perfectly possible to live in the world in the kind of way that has both value in this life and value for eternity.
46:20: Abraham leaves for us the legacy of justification by faith, of obediently walking by faith.
46:26: But he leaves us finally the legacy of bearing the fruit of faith, bearing the fruit of faith.
46:31: And for this, last passage will be in James chapter two, the letter of James in chapter number two.
46:43: James two is another one of those texts that's considered controversial, even though it really should not be controversial. Those who oppose what we talked about just a few moments ago about justification by faith, they will normally jump to this passage and say,
46:57: Kofi, you talked about this justification by faith thing, this free righteousness that is given by God.
47:03: James has something to say to you though. So look at James two 24. What does it say? You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
47:15: Oh, yikes. That's a problem. Didn't we just read Paul saying the opposite? Have we found a contradiction in the
47:23: Bible? No, we have not found a contradiction. Actually, context is your friend.
47:31: James chapter two starts off by talking about the sin of favoritism. So chapter two, verse one, my brothers and sisters do not show favoritism as you hold onto the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.
47:43: He says, don't be favoritist. Don't show preferential treatment to the rich while ignoring the poor.
47:49: That's a whole other sermon for another time. And so as he kind of explains that you shouldn't do this and gives biblical reason why, he picks up in verse 14 and says, what good is it my brothers and sisters if someone claims to have faith but does not have works?
48:06: So the person who claims to have faith but doesn't care for the poor person, he says, how can you say you have faith but it doesn't have works?
48:18: Can such a faith save him? If a brother is, oh, now he tells you in context what he's talking about.
48:25: If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food and one of you says to him, go in peace, stay warm and be well fed, but you don't give them what the body needs.
48:35: What good is it? I was going to say something about folks who say,
48:41: I'm going to pray for you, but don't actually do anything. But let me leave that alone. That can get controversial. Verse 17, in the same way, if faith does not have works, if it does not have works, excuse me, is dead by itself.
48:59: But someone will say, verse 18, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without works and I'll show you my faith by my works.
49:10: You believe God is one. You have an orthodox profession of faith. You believe that God is one. You are not an idolater. A little bit of sarcasm from James here.
49:20: Good, even the demons believe and they shudder. My pastor had a sermon one day he preached.
49:27: He said, don't be a better, don't be a worse theologian than the devil. You know all the right things, but it doesn't actually move you.
49:37: Saying you believe is one thing. But here's James's point. This is what I think people miss about this passage.
49:44: That while we are saved by faith alone, the faith that saves is never alone.
49:51: This is how our fathers in the faith explained this. They said, quote, faith that receives and rests on Christ. This is the second
49:56: London Baptist confession. Faith that receives and rests on Christ and his righteousness is the only instrument of justification.
50:03: Yet it does not occur by itself in the person justified, but it is always accompanied by every other saving grace.
50:10: It is not a dead faith, but works through love. They're simply channeling the same point
50:16: James is making. That faith will always be accompanied by works.
50:22: And that's where he picks up where I want us to focus as we close. Verse 20, after rebuking the person who says that they believe in God, and well done, demons have that faith too.
50:35: Verse 20, he says, senseless person. Which by the way, sometimes people will say,
50:42: Christians should not say harsh things. Don't be more biblical than the Bible. Anyway, senseless person.
50:48: Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless? Now here's where he gets to Abraham. Verse 21, wasn't
50:55: Abraham our father justified by works in offering Isaac his son on the altar?
51:02: Chapter 22 of Genesis. You see that faith was active together with his works.
51:09: And by works, faith was made complete. And the scripture was fulfilled that said that Abraham believed
51:17: God, and it was credited to him for righteousness, and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
51:27: Okay, Kofi, great, but you've not solved the contradiction though. Well, you solve it by simply recognizing
51:33: James is using justification in a different context than Paul is. We understand this in the
51:40: English language. If I say the word duck, what does the word duck mean? It can mean the bird that goes quack.
51:50: It can also mean get down because something's coming that might hit you. And how do we know the difference?
51:59: Context. So if I'm walking with Gareth and we're by a pond, and Gareth's vocabulary is growing at the moment, and so he sees a duck and he says, duck, he's not telling daddy get down.
52:12: If, for whatever reason, I decide to go play a game of dodgeball, and one of the people
52:18: I'm playing with says duck, he's not telling me to look at a yellow bird. He's telling me to get down before I get palmed in the face.
52:27: Why? Context tells you what's going on, and it's the same with James here. When James talks about being justified by works, he's talking about the public declaration, the public proof of faith.
52:41: He's not talking about the root of faith. James's illustration, remember, James is written primarily to a
52:48: Jewish Christian audience. James's illustration to this very Jewish audience who more than likely still prided themselves,
52:55: James is arguably the first letter written in the whole New Testament, they're probably still priding themselves a little bit on being
53:02: Abraham's seed, and his point is very simple. Don't say you're one of Abraham's children if you don't have the kind of faith
53:07: Abraham did. Abraham's faith was not just a I talk about it faith, it was I, if I may use some bad grammar for a moment,
53:14: I be about it. Abraham didn't just claim to believe
53:20: God, but when the rubber met the road, Abraham's faith, that's why he says the scripture was fulfilled, verse 23,
53:26: Abraham believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness, it's proven that he actually has faith by his single -minded obedience to God.
53:37: And so Abraham leaves for us the legacy of bearing the fruit of faith. Now I can hear what some people are going to say at this point, but Kofi, Kofi, Kofi, Abraham screws up so many times.
53:53: He did, let's not mince words, he did. One of the benefits of exploratory preaching is you can't skip anything, not without people noticing anyway.
54:05: So we've looked at every time Abraham screws up and he screws up in some pretty big ways. He misses it quite profoundly at points and sometimes the temptation can be, see
54:18: Abraham's not someone we should follow, the only example is Jesus, don't worry about Abraham, I'm going to say flag on the play, no, no, no, no, no.
54:30: The same Holy Spirit that notes the failures of Abraham also notes when his faith is at its strongest.
54:38: And I know in our theological circle at times, we can have this tendency to what we call worm theology. Have you ever heard that phrase before?
54:46: All we do is talk about how bad we are and or how depraved we are. You know, I'm just a worm, I'm nothing,
54:51: I'm less than nothing. Now let's be clear, I think every Christian should have a healthy view of who they are, including the fact that without God, you are indeed nothing.
55:00: But the same Bible that tells us that also gives us the example of faithful men, imperfect, but faithful men, and says you should follow them.
55:12: See, the reality is even imperfect faith is worthy of emulation, not because it's imperfect faith, but because it's pointed in the right direction.
55:24: And in that sense, as we wrap up the life of Abraham, isn't Abraham's story in a lot of ways, the story of all of us at some point, imperfect faith, following a perfect savior.
55:39: I'm sure if I were to be somewhat forceful and just start asking all of you your personal stories and specificity, tell me a moment where you messed up in your
55:48: Christian life, where you got it wrong. I don't think anybody in this room would have a, quite frankly, have anything to say to Abraham.
55:56: Yeah, you maybe didn't mess up like Abraham did, but you've messed up in your own ways and so have I. And if we learn anything from Abraham, it's this, it's imperfect faith following a perfect savior is pleasing to God.
56:12: And ultimately, as we think about the legacy of faith, isn't that the best legacy that we can leave? I don't think about my own death often, but occasionally
56:23: I'll have reason to. And I've come to the place in my own life where I've come to the realization that when
56:29: I die, I don't want people to say that he was a good guy. I don't want people to say that, you know, he works really hard and man, what a preacher.
56:37: I mean, not that great, but what a preacher. And all of that, I don't wanna hear any of that. No, no, no, no, no. When I die and the
56:44: Lord should feel pleased to call me to himself, you know what I wanna leave behind? Kofi wasn't perfect and didn't claim to be, but man, he loved that Jesus he talked about so much.
56:59: That's the best legacy that we can leave. And I think Abraham helps us as we've seen his life to understand what it is for imperfect faith to follow a perfect savior.
57:14: And Father, we thank you that even though our faith is imperfect, your son and our savior
57:19: Jesus is definitely not. We thank you that his righteousness is credited to us, it's imputed to us.
57:34: But Father, when you look upon us, you don't see us, but you see the righteousness of your son.
57:42: And not only that, you've welcomed us into your family and you've called us to walk with you imperfectly as we do, as difficult as our walk often is.
57:54: And so Father, as we conclude this study of the life of Abraham, help us that we would simply desire with everything and us to walk with you imperfectly to be sure, but in faith nonetheless.
58:08: Father, thank you for this study. Thank you for all that you have taught us. And I pray that this will not just be information we hear and we file it away in the store cupboard of our mind, but we would regularly come back to these things that we would be regularly encouraged and equipped by the reality of the gospel, even as we see it in the life of Abraham.