Well, I hope you've been able
to enjoy the life of Abraham as I have. I've just really,
really found it precious going back and reading again and again.
And it doesn't take too long. There aren't a lot of chapters
about Abraham in the scriptures. But they are foundational. They are incredibly Abraham's rejoicing. I was going to call
this doing the work of Abraham rejoicing. I don't know if rejoicing's
a work. It's certainly what Abraham did. He rejoiced. He rejoiced
to see my day. The world says seeing is believing. If I see miracles, if I see performances
of things, if I see great numbers, if I see other things, If I see
evidences, the evidences, all the evidences we ever know, brothers
and sisters, are in heaven. If you go and read John chapter
11, you'll see that this not seeing is believing. seen. We've looked at Abraham
bringing the sacrifice, we've looked at Abraham and his relationship
with God being called out of idolatry, being told to go to
a land that he didn't know where he was going and he just simply
followed and simply trusted the Lord Jesus Christ who he met
again and again and again. And Abraham is remarkable, isn't
he? He is the father of the faithful. He's the father of the faithful.
In Genesis 26, as he's about to die, it says, all of these
promises, the promises of being a seed and the promises of all
the nations, they're his because that Abraham And all of those who are of faith
are of the faith of Abraham. He is our father. Because Abraham
obeyed my voice, obeyed my voice, he kept my charge, my commandments,
my statutes, and my laws. So let's go back to Genesis chapter
17 that Ben read earlier. I want us to be reminded of the
fact that as far as the Lord Jesus Christ is concerned, that
he speaks truth and he speaks reality. Abraham's rejoicing
right now. Abraham's rejoicing right now.
He read it in Exodus. That's why I was going to call
the title of this sermon, Abraham's Rejoicing, because his rejoicing
that he rejoiced in 4,000 years ago is the rejoicing that he's
rejoicing in today. And it's just remarkable, isn't
it? Faith is always in the present
tense. You can't live on yesterday's
faith and you can't live on tomorrow's faith. Faith is always in the
present tense. That matter that came down from
heaven was satisfactory for today, always, wasn't it? It turned to worms, didn't it?
So many people want to live on experiences and live on things
that have happened to them in the past. Abraham was set free
from all of that idolatry. He rejoiced. He rejoiced, as
we've seen in our other studies, he rejoiced in the person whom
he met. It was God, in Genesis 17 verse
15, just as one example, God said unto Abraham, God said unto
Abraham, who was speaking? The Lord Jesus Christ was speaking.
All through Abraham's encounters and all of the Conversations
he has, it's always a conversation with the Lord Jesus Christ. He
met him. This is eternal life that you
know him, not that you know about him, not that you can write theological
discourse on him. You actually know him personally.
You'll know him personally when he comes and meets you. and you'll rejoice in him. There's
something about saving faith which just flows out of a person. It leaks out. I love what the
description of Huntington's church members was a couple of hundred
years ago when you scratched and the Bible flowed out. description,
isn't it? Abraham heard him speak. Abraham was called out here so
much to rejoice in, didn't he? But he rejoiced in a person.
He was called out of idolatry. He was given the promises. He
called him to the land of promises and he separated him from the
others and he revealed to Abraham The acceptance, the acceptable
sacrifice. We looked at that a few weeks
ago. There is an acceptable sacrifice
which God has appointed. And that acceptable sacrifice
is the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And that's exactly
what the covenant in Genesis chapter 15 is all about. It's
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You bring that sacrifice to me,
says God the Father. And Abraham's work at the bringing
of that sacrifice was to make sure that the sacrifice was perfect
and complete. Only a perfect sacrifice can
make people perfect. Only a perfect sacrifice can
satisfy the holiness of God. Only a holy sacrifice will satisfy
God. So God, Abraham's rejoicing is
in the person who met him, the person who spoke to him, the
person who revealed himself in the sacrifice and made Abraham
accepted in the Beloved. And so when Abraham heard those
words, walk before me and be thou perfect. Was he trembling
and thinking, dear oh dear, this is a very big ask? Or was he
saying, I am walking before him and I'm looking to him who is
the perfect one and I can rest in that promise from God. It's
not just a command for Abraham, it's a promise from God. He says,
walk before me and be thou perfect. And Abraham was revealed, had
revealed to him that substitute. We looked at it in Genesis chapter
22 when Abraham took Isaac up on that mountain. And according
to Hebrews 11, he actually slew him in his own mind. And what
rejoicing Abraham must have had as he went down that mountain.
How he would have embraced his son and how they would have talked
about the glory of redeeming love, the glory of the substitute
who died in his place. All the provision of God. God
will provide himself a sacrifice. And Abraham, in this person,
the Lord Jesus Christ, was revealed to have and be part of a true
family. All those born of God, all those
born from above, are all those who are born of the promise.
All of those who are born of the promise are born in covenant.
We'll look at that a little bit more. But Abraham worshipped
God, as we spoke a few weeks ago. Abraham worshipped God for
who he is. Abraham worshipped God in the
sacrifice and in the substitute. Abraham worshipped God in the
Lord Jesus Christ. is the worship of an absolutely
sovereign God. All worship of God is an act
of the grace of God. He worshipped him in that acceptable
sacrifice. He says, take from me a sacrifice. You worship God in an ordained
sacrifice. You take your son up on that
mountain. You'll worship God in a complete sacrifice of Genesis
15, not a half sacrifice, not a sacrifice that tries and is
effective and effectual to you if you do something. That's not
a complete sacrifice, that's not a complete substitution,
brothers and sisters. Abraham worshipped God in a blood
sacrifice. God says, you bring for me, you
bring this for me, for my satisfaction, for my namesake, for my acceptance
of you in that sacrifice. In God's sight, God says, when
I see the blood, when I see the blood of my son, I will pass
over you. Abraham's rejoicing, brothers
and sisters, is the rejoicing of all the children of God. We
are commanded to rejoice. We're commanded, you read Philippians,
we're commanded again and again and again to rejoice in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Because God has, along with Abraham
and along with Abraham's Lord and substitute, he's blessed
all the children of God. If you have a blessing in this
world, you can be blessed along with a faithful Abraham. Just
listen to what Galatians chapter 3 says, He therefore that ministers
to you the Spirit and works miracles among you, does he do it by the
works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Hearing of the faithful
one. The Lord Jesus Christ faithfully
proclaimed him and him crucified, even as Abraham believed God. Abraham believed God. He believed
what he heard from God. He believed the words of God.
He simply believed God. And as I said last week, to not
believe him is to denigrate his character. If you don't believe
him, you're actually declaring him to be unfaithful and untruthful.
may it not be from us. He accounted to him, he reckoned
it to him for righteousness. When God reckoned righteousness
to Abraham and reckons righteousness to all of his believers, is he
doing it against the God the evidence of the righteousness
of all of God's people there, so that you are commanded to
reckon yourselves. Reckon it to yourselves. God's
reckoning of these things is because the evidence is there
before Him. The evidence, it's accounted to him, it's put on
the account of all of God's children. Know ye therefore that they which
are of faith, those which are born of faith, the same are the
children of Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith preached before
the gospel unto Abraham. Abraham heard the gospel. The question for people in churches
isn't, if Abraham was sitting in the pews, would he be sitting
there with his Bible out and saying, amen, amen, amen? That is the Lord Jesus Christ,
I mean, that's exactly what he said and that's exactly what
he did. They which are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Why is that? Why are we blessed
with him? It's all about union, brothers and sisters. It's all
about covenant union. And this comes to God's people
by faith. It comes through the preaching
of the gospel. For as many as are of the works of the law,
if anyone attributes anything of their salvation to anything
that they have done, They are under a curse, for it is written,
Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them, but that no man is justified
by the law. And the sight of God is evident,
for the just shall live by faith. He's declaring what God said
to Abraham. The just shall live by his faith,
it is in the original, by his faith. It's a personal faith,
isn't it? The law is not of faith. The man that doeth them shall
live in him. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing
of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. That's the blessing. You see
why the sacrifice is so important in Genesis 15 and in Genesis
22. Abraham's life is characterized
by two things. He had a tent. Everywhere he went he lived in
a tent. And everywhere he went, you go and read the accounts
in Genesis, everywhere he went he had an altar, a tent and a
sacrifice. This is no home for God's people. This was no home for Abraham. rejoiced to see the day of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so the things that the people
of this world esteem are not the things that Abraham esteemed.
That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. And that's why the sacrifices
are so important, isn't it? To speak of Abraham is to speak
of him bringing sacrifices, of him bringing the one who reveals
the glory of that substitute. Abraham rejoiced. He rejoiced
when he went down that mountain. What was Abraham rejoicing in?
He had only one thing to rejoice in, brothers and sisters. He
rejoiced in the Lord Jesus Christ when he embraced his son and
he went back to those people having worshipped God. He was
worshipping God in the perfect sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.
See the sacrifice, this is what we read in Galatians, the sacrifice
brings the blessings of Abraham to his faith children. The sacrifice
and the covenant are one in our Lord Jesus Christ. So to go back
to what I said earlier, Abraham rejoiced in the person who met
him. Before he rejoiced in the promises,
before he saw any of those things, before he had a child, before
he had any evidence in his hands to prove it, he rejoiced in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He rejoiced in being enabled
to live by the faithfulness of the Son of God who loved me and
gave himself for me. So the cause of Abraham's rejoicing
is the Lord coming and speaking and calling and promising. The
object of Abraham's rejoicing is just the reveal of Lord Jesus
Christ. And how is he revealed to this
world? He's revealed through the preaching of the gospel.
How shall I hear? unless he be proclaimed. And how can they preach unless
they're sent? They're promises of God. Lord Jesus Christ is going to
come and reveal himself to his people in this world through
the preaching of the gospel. That was the object of Abraham's
rejoicing, the revealed Lord Jesus Christ in power and in
sacrifice. Abraham rejoiced to see my day. In the scriptures we keep reading
again, in the New Testament accounts, he says, my hour has not come,
my hour has not come. And when those people in John
12 come to them, they say, so we would see Jesus. And now he
says, my hour is coming. Every day is the day of the Lord,
but there is a particular hour, isn't it? Let us rejoice in the
day of the Lord and be glad in it. But here he's referring to
this day, this day of consummation, when the promises The shadows,
the figures, the tokens become historic reality when the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the name of God is glorified in the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and the law of God is honoured
and all of God's people are saved and what was promised to Abraham
is now the living reality. How are Abraham's sins taken
away so that Abraham could walk before me and be perfect? Where
were David's sins put away? They were put away in the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. That's why Abraham
could walk before God and be perfect. God doesn't say, walk
before me and do perfection. God doesn't say walk before me
and try your hardest, try to be perfect. God doesn't say all
of those things. He says walk before me and be
perfect. Be perfect. There's a being before
doing in salvation. There's a being before doing
in our walk of faith in this world with Abraham. You are now, brothers and sisters
in Christ, according to God Almighty, complete in Him. There is now
no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And so how
did this work out in Abraham's life? Abraham saw. What does faith see? What does
faith see? As I said earlier, faith sees
the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham was taken by God down
to that nation, and it was a huge nation, wasn't it? It went from
the Nile River across to the Euphrates River, all of that
land. God said to him, all that you walk on is yours, Abraham.
And that was a land full of cities and full of nations. Abraham
saw by faith. He saw that land and he looked
to the promised land. I love what Hebrews 11 says of
him. He looked around that land and
he was looking for a city. What was the city that Abraham
was looking He was looking for a city whose builder and maker
is God. There wasn't a single earthly
city on there that had foundations. There wasn't one that had foundations.
That's why he lived in a tent. He had all the money in the world.
He was as rich as you could possibly imagine. Faith sees the home of the righteous
in heaven. Abraham saw the victory of the
Lord over those enemies that you can read about in Genesis
14 when Lot was captured. Abraham so rejoiced in God that he was offered by the King
of Sodom an absolute fortune. And he says, I have so much money,
I'm not going to take a single penny. I'm not going to take
a single penny. All of my blessings have come
from God. All of my righteousness, everything I have in this world
comes from God. God said to him, I am thy shield
and thy exceeding great reward. I'm not going to take a penny
from you. I'm not going to take a penny from the King of Solomon. And he saw in that victory, he
saw that as the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ over his enemies. God delivered them. God delivered
them. Abraham took 318 farmhands to
fight with kings. We keep thinking that these are
little sort of villages. There were hundreds of thousands
of people living on those plains, and these kings had captured
a whole stack of them. Abraham goes up there with 318
farmhands to take on armies. Why did he have 318? Well, 319
was too many. It's as simple as that, brothers
and sisters. He didn't need an army, he needed God. And he did
have God. And that's what God says, I deliver
them into your hands. Oh, brothers and sisters, if
we could walk like Abraham did, we'd be glad, wouldn't we? When
we see the enemies and they're too big for us and they've taken
us in a way, taken us captive. And if we could see our Lord
Jesus Christ, that great triumphant warrior that marches through
this land and he says, they're mine and no one's gonna hurt
them. And I'll deliver them all back. Back to safety. Abraham worshipped at an altar,
but he saw a sacrifice come, didn't he? He saw a perfect sacrifice. He sacrificed lots of sheep and
goats and bullocks and other things, but he saw an altar. I love what Hebrews 13 says,
we have an altar, we have an altar already, brothers and sisters.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the altar. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the place where we worship God. Those men in the days of
the Lord Jesus saw that temple and yet they didn't see him who
is the temple, they didn't see him who is the altar, didn't
see him who is the sacrifice, didn't see him who is the priest,
didn't see his blood, didn't see his death, didn't see his
offering. didn't see him as the one that
makes all these people perfectly free from sin and perfectly acceptable
to God and makes them perfect. Abraham saw a miraculous child
born. What a remarkable day that must
have been. A woman who he'd been married
to all of his life, over 90 years old, And there is a perfect baby
boy that comes out of her. What did Abraham see when he
saw that baby? Abraham looked beyond the baby.
He rejoiced to see my day. He rejoiced to see my day. He was looking to the one, that
miraculous child. Abraham and all his family were
circumcised, but Abraham knew that there was a circumcision
of the heart to be done by the Spirit of God. The physical circumcision
was but just a token. Abraham's joy and comfort depended
upon the one he had met and given the promises. Abraham simply
lived by faith. God said it. That's it. God said it, and that's reality. God said it, and that's reality
for me. live by faith. We read those
verses out of Romans Chapter 4 last week. They're just so
glorious, aren't they? They are a great description
and I pray that this might be the Lord's gift to us, isn't
it? He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but
was strong in faith. Wouldn't that be lovely if God
could make you and here, strong in faith, and I want you to be
reminded that faith is a noun there. It's speaking of the faithful
one, speaking of the gospel, giving glory to God, strong in
faith and giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what
he had promised, he was also able to perform. Is that your
persuasion? in these days that we live in,
where there's so much turmoil and tumult in this world. I love what it says. Abraham saw it and was glad. I love looking up these Greek
words and Hebrew words and seeing what they say. To be glad means
to be cheerful. It also means to be calmly happy. Isn't that lovely? What a lovely
description of walking with the Lord Jesus Christ, to be calmly
happy, to be cheerful, to rejoice. Let's go back to Genesis chapter
17. I'll just be very brief as we
look through it. I just wanted to see some of
the promises that God makes here. Lord Jesus had met in the previous
chapter Melchizedek who is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
what did Melchizedek bring to him? He brought him bread and
wine. He brought him the tokens of the covenant in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But just listen to the promises
that God makes in Genesis 17. He says in verse 2, This passage leads on to Abraham
rejoicing. That's that word laughing in
verse 17. So listen to the build-up or
the basis upon which Abraham is rejoicing and I trust it might
be the cause for you to see and to rejoice and to be glad. Verse 2, he made, I will make
my covenant between thee, me, and thee. So he's speaking of
the eternal covenant in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the covenant that saves all of God's children, isn't it? It's
not the covenant of the law. The covenant of the law came
450 years later. love God. But I just love what
God says, isn't it? This is the cause of Abraham's
rejoicing. God says, I make the covenant.
I make it between me and thee. I will multiply thee exceedingly. My covenant is with thee, and
thou shalt be a father of many nations. I shall be a father
of many nations. It's interesting, Abraham's name
means father. Abram means father. Abraham means father of many. Abraham was 99 years old, and
every time he was introduced to anyone, this is my friend
Abraham, and they'd say, well, that means father. How many children
do you have, Abraham? None. None. None. Decade after decade after
decade, in a sense, almost his name mocked him, didn't it? And
then God says, you're not just going to be father now, you're
going to be the father of many nations. He gives him a new name. He gives all of his children
a new name. Verse six, and I will make thee
exceedingly fruitful. I will make nations of these
kings shall come out of thee." All of the kings of Israel came
out of the Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious King himself finally
to come. Verse 7, and I will establish
my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their
generations for an everlasting covenant. An everlasting covenant. If you hear this from God and
you are given faith to simply trust the Lord Jesus Christ,
you'll love what God says. This is an everlasting covenant.
To be a God unto thee. He is a God to all people, isn't
he? What he's saying is that I will be God especially in relationship
with you, Abraham, and all of your faith children. And I will
give you the land for an everlasting promise. And I will be their
God. I'll be the God of all of your
faith children, Abraham. And then circumcision is given
as a covenant. This is just a token. It was
only ever a token, brothers and sisters. And if you look at the
context there, what's it a token of? It's not a token of keeping
the law. It's not a token of what you
do. It's a token of what God does in promise to his people,
isn't it? I don't have time now, but go
and read Hebrews chapter 10 and you'll see what that covenant
was. Sarah's given a new name. She's now the particular princess. She was one of the princesses
before, and now she is a particular princess. Verse 17. It's just lovely, isn't
it? This is Abraham's rejoicing.
Abraham fell on his face. That falling on his face is to
worship God. Abraham fell on his face and
he worshiped God. and laughed and rejoiced. Now he was rejoicing because
he believed. Sarah was promised a son in the next chapter and
she laughed inside of herself, inside a tent, and God said,
you laughed at me. You were laughing in disbelief.
Abraham was laughing and rejoicing in the fact that God was able
to do as he has promised. Abraham was looking beyond all
these things to the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want
us to close by just looking at the rejoicing of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It was only once in the New Testament where he's declared
to rejoice, and so it's significant, isn't it? Abraham is the father
of the faithful. Abraham's rejoicing was in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Can you rejoice where the Lord
Jesus Christ rejoiced? Can you rejoice what Abraham
rejoiced in? In Luke chapter 10, the disciples come back. from having
been sent out by the Lord Jesus Christ and given a special commission
to cast out demons and heal people. In verse 18, when they come back
and they're rejoicing, he says, Behold, I beheld Satan as lightning
falling from heaven. And he said, Behold, I give you
power to tread on serpents and scorpions and all over the power
of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding,
this is his command for us to rejoice. Notwithstanding all
these remarkable things that you have done, that I have done
through you, notwithstanding, in this rejoice not. Don't rejoice in those things.
Don't rejoice that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather
rejoice because your names are written
in heaven. That's the true rejoicing. That
was the rejoicing, wasn't it, that Abraham was rejoicing in. You rejoice that your names are
written in heaven. In that hour, Jesus rejoiced
in spirit and said, can you rejoice with the Lord Jesus Christ and
said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth. that
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed
them unto babes. Can you rejoice in that? Even
so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Abraham worshipped God for who
he is. God for who he is. Verse 22, All things are delivered
to me of my Father, and no man knoweth who the Son is but the
Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and he to whom the
Son will reveal him. And he turned him unto his disciples
and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see I tell you that many prophets
and kings have desired to see those things which you see, have
not seen them, and hear those things which you have heard,
and not hear them. Abraham rejoiced. Abraham rejoiced. He rejoiced in the of unconditional affliction. He rejoiced in the God of particular
redemption. He rejoiced in the God who is
absolutely sovereign over all things. He rejoiced in the God
who has a family. the world, he rejoiced in the
sacrifice by which all those were made absolutely perfect.
All of God's children are perfectly fit homes for God to live in. Abraham rejoiced to see the day
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were persuaded of them,
and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and
pilgrims in the earth. And they are looking for a better
country, that is, a heavenly country, wherefore God is not
ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared May Abraham's calls for rejoicing,
may Abraham's object of rejoicing be ours. I said last week that Abraham
had a childlike faith. It's just sweet the way Abraham
just simply believed God and rejoiced. To believe God, to
know him is to rejoice and be glad, to be calmly happy. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we do thank and praise you for the glory of the gospel, which
is good news about who your dear and precious son is. You sending
him and the glory of why he was sent and the wonder, Heavenly
Father, that in his sending he was perfectly successful in all
he did. He always did those things that
pleased you. Oh, our Father, we praise you
for the wonder of that sacrifice that as that precious blood was
draining from our Saviour's body on Calvary's tree, the sins of
all of his children, all of his bride, all of his body, were
being washed away. O our Father, we pray, like Abraham,
we would hear you say, walk before me and be thou perfect. May we, like Abraham, heavenly
Father, be led to worship you, be again continually led to look
to the one sacrificed for sins. the one righteousness that all
of your children have before you. Oh, our Father, we pray
that you be merciful, cause us to be glad, to be calmly happy
in the glory of your dear and precious Son and his finished
work. Bless our fellowship, Heavenly Father. May we, like Abraham,
be led into a family that loves and