Now, let's go back to your bookmark,
Matthew chapter 2. Matthew chapter 2. I'm taking
the title from what is said in verse 15, verse 17, and verse
23, and what is said back in chapter 1, verse 21 through 23,
that it might be fulfilled. That it might be fulfilled. Did
you notice that in the reading? Look at verse 15. And was there
until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled which is
spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, out of Egypt have I called
my son. Again in verse 17 we read, then
was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet. Again in verse 23. He came and
dwelt in Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled, that it might be
fulfilled, which is spoken by the prophet. Again, back over
in chapter two, look at verse five. Then he said unto them,
in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written in the prophets,
that he must be born in Bethlehem, he must be raised in Nazareth.
Remember, look back to chapter one, Matthew chapter one, Verse
21, He shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name,
Savior. He shall save his people from
their sin, that all this was done that it might be fulfilled,
which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold,
a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name, Emmanuel. That's what the songwriter
was writing about Emmanuel, which means what? God with us. God with us. Now, everything
concerning the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ was prophesied
in the Old Testament prophets. To Him give all the prophets
witness. Our Lord Jesus Christ came in
the fullness of time to accomplish salvation for us as God had said
He would do by His faithful obedience unto death. Romans 15 says, Whatsoever
things were written aforetime were written for our learning,
that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might
be fulfilled. Our risen Lord said to those
men in Luke 24, All things must be fulfilled which are written
in the law of Moses, in the prophets, in the Psalms concerning me. The Lord fulfilled every prophecy
and type. In the fullness of time, the
Lord Jesus Christ came, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman,
made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law,
that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are
sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your heart,
crying, causing you to cry out, Father, Father, have mercy upon
us. Now remember, everything that
God had promised, not one word, not jot or tittle, not one word
has failed. Not one word has failed nor one
promise of God. And he's made a lot of promises.
All the promises of God in him are yes and in him amen. Not
one promise of God has failed. I'm persuaded of this great truth,
aren't you? Every word he's spoken came to
pass. Every promise he made shall be
fulfilled, knowing unto God all of his works from the beginning."
Isaiah said this, the Lord says this to the prophet Isaiah. He
said, I've spoken it, I bring it to pass, I've purposed it,
I will do it. God does all His pleasure. He
always works all things after the counsel of His own will. I'm persuaded like Abraham, aren't
you? Abraham staggered not at the
promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving
glory to God, being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he's
able to perform. I love that Psalm 57 verse 2,
he performs all things for us. Everything God has promised,
and he's promised a lot. He's able to perform. I'm persuaded
like Paul that nothing can separate us from the love of God which
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let me give you this intro. Remember from reading Matthew
2, King Herod told the wise men when they found the Messiah to
come back and tell him where they found the Messiah so that
he might also come and worship the Messiah, the Lord, who was
born King. Now we know Herod had no good
intentions of worshiping the Lord, right? Because it says
down in the end of verse 13, for Herod will seek the young
child, not to worship him, but to destroy him. The wise men,
after they found the king and worshiped him, as it says there
in verse 11, when they were coming to the house, they saw the young
child, how old he was, some think maybe two, maybe younger than
that. With Mary, his mother, they fell
down and worshiped the Lord, Him. Not Mary, but Him. And when
they had opened their treasure, they presented Him with gifts
of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And being warned of God, verse
12, in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed
into their own country. The wise men, after they found
the Messiah, worshiped Him as the star led them to the Messiah. They worshipped Him as God their
Saviour. They presented gifts unto Him
and worshipped Him. And then the Lord warned them
to go back home another way. Don't go back to Jerusalem. Don't
go back and see Herod. Again, we see the working of
the sovereign providence of God, don't we? Our God ordering all
things in the lives of His children, especially this young child,
especially Joseph and Mary. We know from reading the scriptures
that all things are working together for good to them who love God,
to them who are the called according to God's purpose. Of Him and
through Him and to Him are all things to whom be glory both
now and forever and ever. So we can see the working of
God's providence in this story, can't we? They presented these
gifts to Joseph and to Mary and to this family in worshiping
the Lord because Joseph and Mary needed these gifts for the journey
that they would soon take into Egypt. See how God provided for
them? The Lord will provide. Now, several
things I want us to learn from what we read here. We see the
first thing I want us to look at is the ministry of the elect
angels to the elect of God. To the elect of God. If you look
back in chapter 1, verse 20, When Joseph thought on these
things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a
dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto
thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived of her is
of the Holy Ghost. Again in chapter 2, verse 13,
And when they departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared
to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise and take the young child
and his mother and flee into Egypt. and be thou there until
I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the young child and
destroy him." Again in verse 19, the angel appears to Joseph
again while in Egypt, but when Herod was dead, behold, the angel
of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph while in Egypt. So we see the ministry of the
elect angels unto the children of God. Remember from our reading
last week, the angel, the Lord said to Mary, fear not for thou
hast found favor with God, Luke chapter one. And behold, thou
shalt conceive. in thy womb, and bring forth
a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great,
and he shall be called the son of the highest. And the Lord
God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. God said,
I've set my king on my holy hill Zion. That was all the way set
back in Psalm chapter 2. The angels of God were very active
in that day, weren't they? Ministering, busy, In those special
days, God used the ministry of the angels to speak to His servants. Now today, as far as we know,
the Lord speaks to His servants today through the completed Word
of God. I've never seen an angel. I've
never heard a message from an angel to me. I've never had an
angel appear to me in a dream. Most of my dreams are nightmares,
to be right honest with you. It's just nightmares. But in
these special days, God used these messengers sent to certain
people to reveal certain things, because they didn't have the
completed Word of God. Peter says, we have a more sure
word of prophecy. Remember, in 2 Peter, for the
prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. But
the angels in those days had a special ministry. Now, that's
not to say that angels aren't busy about ministering today
to the saints of God. For we studied and read in Hebrews
chapter 1 about the angels of God where it says, Are they not
all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who
shall be the heirs of salvation? Remember in Psalm 91, for he
shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all
thy ways. They shall bear thee up, lest
thou dash thy foot against a stone." Now, I've never seen an angel.
I don't know much about angels, but I do know that there are
ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them who are the
heirs of salvation. We are told in 1 Peter chapter
1 that they attend the preaching of the gospel with great interest. He said, when the gospel is preached,
the angels of God desire to look into these things. They do rejoice
when a sinner repents and believes the gospel. For we read in Luke
15, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one
sinner that repents. Although with this warning, we
don't worship angels, do we? You remember John on not one
but two occasions in Revelation, John fell down before the feet
of an angel, the angel of the Lord, and the angel said, don't
worship me, I'm just a messenger, worship the Lord Jesus Christ.
So we see the ministry of angels, don't we? We don't discount the
ministry of angels, they are the elect angels of God sent
forth as servants of God. Second thing I wanted to see,
we also learn how exactly accurate the inspired written word of
God is. As I pointed out in the introduction,
all things were done that the scripture might be fulfilled.
Matter of fact, if you look that up in the book of Matthew, he
uses this statement, that it might be fulfilled, not once,
not twice, not ten times, but I found at least sixteen times,
he says these things were done, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. The Lord Jesus Christ was born,
lived, died, was raised from the dead according to the Old
Testament writings of what the prophets said would come to pass. To Him give all the prophets
witness. His incarnation was told and
foretold and prophesied, and He came in the fullness of time.
Now, let's look at those three things, about these three prophecies. Look at verse 13. When they were departed, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying,
Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into
Egypt, and be there until I bring word, for Herod will seek the
young child to destroy him. And he arose. And he took the
young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt,
and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled
what was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt
have I called my son." Now it seems kind of unusual, doesn't
it? That Joseph was told to take the young child and go south
into a land of bondage, down to the house of Egypt, which
means house of bondage. When Herod learned the wise men,
let me back up here, when the Lord the Lord being sent into
Egypt, that it might fulfill the prophecy found in Hosea,
when Israel was a child, then I loved him and called my son
out of Egypt." Hosea 11 verse 1. Now why did this take place?
Well, we know to fulfill the scripture, no doubt about that,
but also to teach us that God calls all of his sons out of
spiritual Egyptian bondage. We were held and captive to our
sinful nature, dead in sin until God was pleased to call us out
of the kingdom of darkness and deliver us into the kingdom of
God's dear son. He commands the light of the
gospel to shine in our heart and he calls us out of the house
of bondage into that glorious liberty we have in Christ Jesus. The Lord writes about it this
way, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor, because he hath sent me
to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captive,
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are
bruised." Now that was a prophecy from Isaiah 61, and it was fulfilled
in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to set his people
free. The second thing we see, the second prophecy in verse
16 down to verse 18, Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked
of the wise man, he was exceeding angry and sent forth, commanded
his soldiers, his army, and slew all the children that were in
Bethlehem and around the coast, the borders of that city thereof,
from two years old and under, according to the time which he
had diligently inquired of the wise man, then was fulfilled
this prophecy, Jeremiah 31. saying in Ramah, that is a bordering
town of Bethlehem, there was a voice heard, lamentation, weeping,
great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and would not
be comforted because they are not. When Herod learned of the
wise men not coming back and exposing the young child to his
murderous plans, the wise men went back home another way and
Herod being angry that he had been tricked
by these men, decided to kill every child in Bethlehem, two
years of age and under, not satisfied with just killing those in Bethlehem,
but in all the surrounding areas. Then the prophecy was fulfilled,
was written 700 years before by the prophet Jeremiah, the
weeping of Jacob's children. Now we might be tempted to think
Could not Almighty God prevent such a horrible and atrocious
act of a murderous king to kill all those children? Could God
have prevented that? Of course. He's God. He does
all things well and right. Of course He could have done
so, prevented it. That was not His purpose. It
was not His purpose to do so. Nothing happens in this world
by accident. Everything happens on purpose.
He worked all things after the counsel of His own will. Now, three things we can learn
from this. We live in the land of sorrow. There's death everywhere. Young and old die alike. We live
in the land of sorrow. We live in the land of much grief
and heartache. Our Lord was born, lived, and
died. in this land of sorrows. You
remember Isaiah 53 calls him what? The man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief. Someone said years ago God had
one son with no sin, none without sorrows. He was a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief. Our Lord tells us in this life
you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. God said I've
overcome. So we do have heartache, we do
have tribulation, we do live in the land of of the dying.
We're going to the land of the living, but we live in this land
of the dying. The second thing I want us to
learn from this horrible act of Herod, the total wickedness,
depravity, and sinfulness of our own depraved heart. Someone said, what one man's
nature has done, every man's nature is capable of doing. That's
a description of what humanity is unrestrained by God. Your heart and my heart and every
man's heart, as Jeremiah said, is desperately wicked. Who can
know it? There is none righteous, no,
not one. We often talk about the doctrine
of total depravity, and it is true that we really don't believe
in total depravity and the doctrine of total depravity unless we
really believe that we are totally depraved, that I am the sinful
man, that we can say with the Apostle Paul, O wretched man,
that I am. It's a blessing from the Lord
to know that you're a sinner. If God ever teaches you in your
heart that you're a guilty, vile, wretched sinner, that you deserve
nothing but the just wrath of God, if He teaches you that,
I'll tell you what'll happen. You'll cry out for mercy. You'll
cry out for mercy and God is pleased to show mercy to those
who call upon Him. The publican did. Blind Bartimaeus
did. The publican said, Lord, be merciful
to me, thee, sinner. God has never turned away a mercy
beggar. If God has taught you, you're
a sinner, through and through. He'll also teach you that the
Lord Jesus Christ came to save sinners, such as we are. This
is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that the
Lord Jesus Christ came to save sinners. You know the rest of
it? I'm the chief one. I'm the chief
one. Now here's the third thing I
want us to see. There's something else we need to see here. The
Lord is calling out His elect infants by the way of mercy. They were only removed from the
great evil to come in the day of destruction. Just a few years
from this time, the Roman armies came and completely destroyed
all Jerusalem and killed most of the people. And these infants
were spared that, weren't they? God in mercy called them out.
Our Lord said in Matthew 24, we're going to see woe to them
that are with child. In Luke 23, our Lord said, Behold,
the days are coming in which they shall say, Blessed are the
barren and the wombs that never bear and the pipes that never
gave suck in that day of destruction. Now, all the old grace writers
that I read after believe that the little infants who are called
by God, who die in infancy, are chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world, who are sinners, they're sinners, born in sin,
shaped in iniquity, sinners redeemed by the blood of Christ, and they're
with the Lord forever. The old writers referred to them
as the elect infants. Now, we don't preach babies in
hell. That's a straw man that those who hate the gospel of
the grace of God accuse us of. We believe and preach that God,
when he calls an infant, goes to glory because he's redeemed
by the blood of Christ. Now, we get that from the example
of David. You remember David had a child
by Bathsheba, and God, when that child was born, that child was
sick, and David mourned and wept for that child seven days, and
he wouldn't eat, and he mourned and he wept. Someone came and
told David, said, David, your child is gone. Well, he cleaned
himself up, he washed himself, he put on clothes, he ate a big
meal, and the servant said, what is wrong with that man? While
the child was sick, he mourned and wept, and now the child has
died, and now he's happy. Remember what David said? He cannot come back to me, but
I shall go to him. David had hope in that son being
with the Lord. And that's the Scripture that
says, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. Now here's the third prophecy
that's given to us in verse 19 down through verse 23. But when
Herod was dead, God judged him, didn't He? When Herod died, it's
appointed unto man once to die, and after that judgment, Herod
had the answer for those murders. Behold, an angel of the Lord
appeared in a dream to Joseph, saying, Arise, and take the young
child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel. They
which are dead, which sought the young child's life, are dead. And he rose and took the young
child and his mother and came into the land of Israel. But
when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea in the room
of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there back to Jerusalem.
Notwithstanding being warned of God in a dream, he turned
aside into the parts of Galilee. He skirted around Jerusalem on
his way back north to Nazareth, the city of Galilee, the city
of Nazareth in Galilee, verse 23. And he came and dwelt in
a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which is
spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene. Now, why is he called the Nazarene?
Well, he was raised up in Nazareth. He was raised up in Nazareth,
but there's something more here about that name. Again, another
scripture is fulfilled. When Joseph and Mary took the
young child to Nazareth to escape the brutal reign of Herod's son,
who killed many more people than Herod his father did, again we
see the protecting hand of God ruling over all things to protect
the Messiah. His time was not yet come. that he must die until that appointed
hour. The Lord must be raised in Nazareth
to fulfill the scriptures. And this is from Isaiah 11 verse
1. Let me read it to you. There
shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, a branch,
capital B-R-A-N-C-H, which means netster, Nazareth, shall grow
out of his roots That's where we get the root word Nazareth. Nazareth, now think about this. Of all the places the Lord could
have been raised up, born in Bethlehem to fulfill the scripture,
raised in Nazareth, all the cities that he could have been raised
in, he chose specifically that city. Now why? Well, we know
everything God does, He has a purpose. Nazareth was considered a very
low place. Remember someone said, when Philip
findeth Nathanael, he said, we found the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. Do you remember what he said?
Can any good thing come out of that city? It was a despised
city. It was a skid row. It was a skid
row of Galilee. I mean, it was the place where
nobody wanted to live. And yet God chose to send the
Savior to that city to be raised up. What does that tell us? The Lord Jesus Christ identified
with our poverty, didn't he? The Lord spent 30 years of his
earthly life in this little despised town of Galilee in a carpenter
shop. 30 years. He worked with his
hands, labored with his hands, worshiping God. when he went
to his hometown synagogue in Nazareth, and they gave him the
Scripture, and he stood up and read Isaiah 61. And he said,
this day is the Scripture fulfilled in your ears. It was a name,
this city of Nazareth, it was a name often used in a manner
demeaning and belittling the Lord Jesus Christ. They would
say, this is Jesus of, you know, that place, Nazareth. It was
a term of belittlement. In John 18, Jesus, therefore
knowing that all things should come upon him, went forth. This
is him in the garden being arrested by the soldiers and the Pharisees. Said unto him, Whom seek ye?
The Lord said, Whom do you seek? And they answered him, Jesus
of Nazareth. And the Lord said to them, I
am he. He identified with that name. I am he. Judas was also
with them who betrayed the Lord. You remember Pilate wrote the
title over his cross, and the writing was Jesus of Nazareth,
the king of the Jews. But also this name was used to
identify his character as the savior of his people. Listen
to this scripture I found in Mark chapter 1. In a synagogue
at Capernaum, there was an unclean man with an unclean spirit, and
he cried out, and said to the Lord, what have we to do with
thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us?
I know who you are. You're the Holy One of God. Even
the demon spirits recognized the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a
name the Lord used to identify His character as the Holy One
of God. As the Holy One of God. If you
want to turn with me, you can, but turn to Acts chapter 4. If
you don't want to turn, just let me read it to you. Acts chapter
4. Remember when the crippled man
was healed? The impotent man and John and
Peter were called before the officers of the Sanhedrin. In
Acts chapter 4 verse 10, Be it known unto you all and all the
people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by
him, that this man stand here before you whole, Acts chapter
4 verse 11, This is the stone which is set at Nod of you builders,
which has become the head of the corner. Neither is there
salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. He identified himself
as Jesus Christ the Nazarene. When the Apostle Paul was giving
his conversion story in Acts chapter 2, When Paul said, who
art thou Lord? And the Lord answered back to
him, I'm Jesus of Nazareth. who you persecute. So the Lord Jesus Christ identified
himself as the lowly one born in Nazareth, come to save his
people. Our Lord identified himself with
us in so many ways, not only bone of our bone and flesh of
our flesh, but also being lowly born, born in poverty, that he
might be tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. He performed so many miracles,
didn't he? For others, how many miracles
did he perform to relieve his own suffering? None. None. He was tempted and tested in
all points like as we are yet without sin. He took upon himself,
he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself
of no reputation. and took upon himself the form
of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being
found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross." Jesus the Nazarene. He identified with us in our
poverty and in our sin as our substitute. But there's something
else in this name, Nazarene. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
true Nazarite. who took upon him the Nazarite
vow. You can read about it in the
book of Judges, in the book of Numbers. You remember Samson
took that Nazarite vow to himself in Judges chapter 13. It says,
for lo thou shalt conceive and bear a son. This is Hannah, or
rather the wife of Well, I've gone blank here. Let
me read this verse. Judges 13, Below thou shalt conceive
and bear a son, and no razor shall come on his head. For the
child shall be a Nazarite, a Nazarite unto God, Manoah and his wife. That's the man's name. Manoah
and his wife. A Nazarite unto God from the
womb, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the
Philistines. So Samson was a Nazarite who
took that vow upon himself, and that means he was separated under
God to accomplish God's purpose, God's work. The Lord Jesus Christ
had that Nazarite vow upon him. That's why he's called a Nazarene.
He set apart in the eternal counsel of God as our great high priest
to obtain eternal redemption for us. with His own blood. He is that Nazarite that didn't
attempt to deliver God's people, that delivered them completely
and fully with His own blood, separated under God to accomplish
God's work of redemption, redeeming His people, and He said, it's
finished. It's done. Completed. He accomplished
the mission that God gave Him to do. Every believer Like the
Lord Jesus Christ, he's called a Nazarene. We are also called
a Nazarene, separated unto God to honor and glorify him. I take
that name to myself, a Nazarene, separated unto God, unto his
glory. Now let me give you this in closing. We see something else, the hatred
Herod's hatred stands as a prime example of man's hatred and opposition
to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The natural man is enmity
against God. The carnal mind will not receive
the things of the Spirit of God. Unbelieving and wicked men will
go to great lengths, just like Herod, to destroy the gospel
of the sovereign free grace of God and those who preach it.
They'll go to great lengths to destroy it. Because they find
it most offensive to the flesh when you shut men up to the sovereign
purpose of God, to the sovereign will of God, and shut them up
to the mercies of God in Christ. wrote this, and I, brethren,
if I yet preach circumcision, why do I suffer persecution?
Then is the offense of the cross ceased. If we preach works, salvation
by works, well, that's not offensive to the flesh. That's what the
flesh wants to hear. Why is the gospel so, the gospel
of God's grace in Christ? Now, I'm not talking about that
false gospel. I'm talking about the gospel of God's sovereign
grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why is it so offensive to the
natural man? Well, I'll give you three reasons.
To call a man a sinner, it offends his pride, doesn't it? Does it
offend you when I call you and tell you you're a sinner, guilty
before God? To the natural man, that offends
his pride. He doesn't want to hear that.
He wants the preacher to brag on him, to tell how good he is.
But the Scripture says there's none righteous. The Scripture
says all who sin and come short of the glory of God. Why is the
Gospel so offensive? Secondly, to shut a man up to
the sovereign revelation of God offends man's wisdom, doesn't
it? When you say, God will have mercy
on whom He will, He'll harden whom He will, that offends man's
wisdom. You mean I can't figure this
thing out? That's exactly right. God must reveal the Gospel to
you. Thirdly, why is the Gospel so offensive to say that salvation
of the Lord and all of God's grace offends man's so-called
righteousness and morality, doesn't it? They think their morality
counts for righteousness. The best morality we have is
nothing but sin. In God's sight, it might look
good when we compare one worm to another, but when you compare
a worm to God, our righteousness is, he said, our filthy rags.
The offense of the cross of Christ has not ceased. To those who
are perishing, it's still a stumbling block. but those who are called
Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Most people, people can be most
religious, most religious, most self-righteous, but when confronted
with the sovereign Christ of God, they will say, apart from
God's grace, they will say away with him, we have no king but
Caesar. Now, lastly, Got a few minutes
left. Joseph stands as a shining example
of faith, what it is to believe God. Faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. When the
angel of the Lord told Joseph to name that child Jesus and
take Mary to be his wife, he was obedient to the word of the
Lord. When Joseph was told to take the young child into Egypt,
he immediately that night fled. into a foreign country, knowing
that the Lord would provide and take care of him. When Joseph
was told to take the young child back to the land of Israel, he
headed back there, back to Joseph's marriage hometown of Nazareth. Why did he do all that? He believed
God, didn't he? There's an example of faith.
Like Abraham of old, true faith takes God at his word and acts
upon it. Precisely to the degree we believe
God, we obey Him. Abraham believed God and was
counted to Him for righteousness. Turn over here to Roman chapter
4, and I'm going to quit with this, but I want you to see this. What shall we say? Roman chapter
4. Verse 1, what shall we say then
that Abraham, our father, as pertains to the flesh, hath found?
What shall we say? For if Abraham were justified
by works, he hath whereof the glory, but not before God. For
what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it
was counted to him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is reward,
not reckoning of grace, but of debt. Romans 4 verse 5, But to
him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also described
the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes his righteousness
without works. Did you get that part? without
work, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven,
whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Now look right across the page,
Romans 4 verse 20, He staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being
fully persuaded that what He had promised, God was able to
perform, therefore it was imputed to Him for righteousness. Now
it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed, but
for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him
that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification, therefore
being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. All these things just didn't
happen. They all came to pass to fulfill
God's purpose in redeeming His people and calling them out of
darkness into God's marvelous, marvelous light.