In Genesis chapter 17 verse 1, and when Abram was ninety years
old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I
am the almighty God, walk before me and be thou perfect. The title of this lesson is El
Shaddai. God All-Sufficient. This is the
first time that God has revealed himself as God All-Sufficient. Now, back in chapter 16, Abraham
hearkened to Sarah, and he went in to Hagar, her Egyptian slave,
and she conceived, and they had Ishmael. And from that point,
there was nothing but turmoil in the house. That's all flesh
can produce, is turmoil in the house. Abraham and Sarah tried to bring
to pass the promise of God by the energy of the flesh. That's
what they were trying to do. You know, when I was a young
man, I preached from this years ago. I was telling Vicki this
the other night, I preached from this years ago. And in my notes,
I had made the statement that Sarah
wanted Abraham to go into this Egyptian, this young Egyptian
girl. And Abraham looked at her and said, okay, okay, no problem
with that. Well, that's the way a young
man thinks. That's exactly the way a young man would think.
The years have gone by and I look at it now and what I see is a
weakness of faith, a moment of weakness in faith between both
of them, Sarah and Abraham. And I said to Vicki, I said,
I thank God I did not sit under a young pastor, that I was able
to sit under a seasoned pastor who's able to see a little bit
more in the scriptures than what a young man was able to see.
But here is a moment of weakness in faith. Abraham and Sarah trying
to move along the purpose of God. At no point will God use this
corrupt flesh to bring about salvation. At no point. Even
when Christ was born, flesh did not enter into his birth. God
used the womb of Mary. But the human nature of Christ,
the body of Christ was created by the Holy Spirit of God. Nothing
of this flesh entered into his birth. The only thing that flesh
can produce is a wild man. That's what God said about Ishmael. He will be a wild man. That is
all flesh can produce is a bunch of wild men and women. Only grace
can produce A child of God. Only grace and the power of God
can produce a promised seed. Only grace can do that. You remember
the story of that man that was possessed with a legion of devils,
a legion. And when our Lord went over and
met him and he cast them out. It is written that he was sitting
and in his right mind at the Lord's feet. Only God can do
that. Only God can. The bondwoman and
her children cannot produce heirs of heaven. False religion cannot
produce heirs of heaven. Only God can produce that. Only
God. as much as we pray for our children. I know a situation, and a man
in a place where he attends service, and they have their Bible school
in the summertime, and a couple years ago, he was telling me,
him and this other gentleman that went there, he was telling
me how many children they had won to the Lord. And I told him,
you're making them twofold the children of hell. Because I know
what they preached. They did not preach the gospel.
They did not preach the gospel. And God's not going to honor
another gospel. But I know what they did. They
put the pressure on those children to make a decision to accept
Jesus as their personal savior, and they got all fixed up, and
now they've got a false refuge for the rest of their lives.
And there's nothing more difficult to deal with than a false refuge. Now in chapter 17, here in verse
one, when Abraham was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him. 13 years, 13 years has gone by
since the last time that it's recorded that God appeared to
Abraham. Abraham hearkened unto Sarah,
went into the Egyptian girl, at Ishmael, and God did not appear
to him for 13 more years. Those, no doubt, were some very
dry, contentious years in that home. I have no doubt. There was some contention in
that home for 13 years. But when Abraham finally reached
the end of himself, 99 years of age, when he could not produce
no more, When it was evident he and Sarah both could not produce
no more, then and then only God appeared to him. God appeared
to him. When he could not help fulfill
the promise that God gave of the seed, the promised seed,
when he couldn't do anything about it, and he knew he couldn't
do anything about it, that's when God appeared to him again.
That's when he appeared to him. And notice how the Lord appeared
to him. I am the almighty God. He said to Abraham, Abraham,
I am all sufficient. I am able to bring to pass what
I promise. I am able to do what I said I
would do. That's how he appeared to Abraham.
as God All-Sufficient, El Shaddai. This is the first time the Lord
appears to him using this name. And the reason is this, because
what He's going to reveal and what He's going to do takes one
who is all-sufficient to do it. I might promise you something,
but that doesn't mean I can do it. That doesn't mean... I might
promise way over my head, but God never promises way over His
head. I can say to you, I promise you
I'll be over there at four o'clock. I don't know if I'll be there
at four o'clock or not, really. But I tell you what, if God says
he is, you can be sure at four o'clock he's there. Because he
is all sufficient, he has all power to make happen what he
promises. I don't have that power and you
don't have that power, but God does. The impossible is about
to become possible. With God, the scripture says,
all things are possible. Oh, I would to God before I die,
I'd believe that. I mean, with my whole heart and
every fiber of my being, I wish I could believe with God all
things are possible. All things. I know this, before a sinner
will ever trust the Lord for his or her salvation, before
a sinner ever does that, God will convince that sinner that
he is sufficient, that he is all sufficient, that he is all
I need, that God is, that Christ is, I wrote this down this morning,
that Jesus Christ is God all sufficient. That's when you and
I will really trust Him, when we see Him as God All-Sufficient,
when we see Jesus Christ as El Shaddai. Now, two things that we must
be convinced of here. We must be convinced of our absolute
inability to do anything and make the purpose of God come
to pass. We must be convinced of the absolute
inability of anything that we can do in salvation. You'd be
surprised how much, and it's, I'm convinced of that, but you'd
be surprised how much of that's still left in us. You'd be surprised how much self-righteousness
is still left in us. Just let someone cross you. It
comes out. It'll come out. And then we must
be convinced of God's absolute ability to save us in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Convinced. It's Christ or die. It's Christ or die. Oftentimes when I preached back
at home, 13th Street, when Henry was there, Oftentimes, I had
Mike to sing this one song, Give Me Christ or Else I Die. He sang,
I had him wear that thing. He wore that song out for me.
I said, Mike, that is the song of my heart. Give me Christ or
else I die. If I have Jesus Christ, I'm all
right. I can sing all the way to the
grave. It is well with my soul. I have
him. If I have God All-Sufficient,
with me. We have to be brought to the
end of ourselves if we are to be saved. If God's going to fulfill
his promise, if we are part of his purpose in salvation, God
has to bring us to the point where we know we cannot contribute
one thing to it. Not one thing. Most are not there. Most who profess are doing their
part. Brother, I'm not doing my part. Christ is my part all the way,
100%, Alpha to Omega. We must see that all our righteousness
are as filthy rags in God's sight. None good, no, not one, must
apply to me first. It must apply to me first. If
I'm going to preach to you, the scriptures must apply to me first.
The message applies to me first. We must be brought to see that
we are spiritually dead and doomed to eternal destruction, and rightly
so if God leaves us alone. Not until this happens, not until
this happens, will God reveal himself in Christ as God All-Sufficient
in salvation. Not until then will we see that
Jesus Christ is all we need. Now, when we see in Christ all
that we need to stand before God spotless, we, like Abraham, will fall down
at his feet. You notice there, Abraham, he
fell down before God in verse 3. And Abraham fell on his face
when God talked to him. Abraham fell on his face. I'm sure Abraham, I'm sure it
became very evident to him what he did, what him and Sarah did. And when God spoke to him and
God revealed himself as God all sufficient, I know his heart
smote him. I know it did. Just like Peter,
when he denied the Lord, The Lord just looked at him, and
when he looked at him, he went out and wept, it says, bitterly.
He wept bitterly. God all-sufficient. He is all-sufficient
in himself. That's what he's making Abraham
know. That's what he makes us know. He's all-sufficient in
himself. He needs not anything or anyone
outside of himself to exist. I need him. Christ is my life. When Christ
shall appear, who is our life? He didn't just give me life. Christ is my life, He's your
life. If you have life at all, He's
it. He's it. But God, God is all-sufficient. He doesn't need anyone or anything
outside of Himself to exist. He has and He is all power. All power. Lord, if you will,
you can make me clean. Lord, if you will, you can give
me my sight. Lord, if you will, you can give me hearing. Lord,
if you will, you can grant me faith and repentance. Lord, if
you will, you have the power and the right to do this. You
have it. And thank God if you recognize
that. And because Jesus Christ is Almighty
God, Jesus Christ is God All-Sufficient, He can save us from our sins. Now you have to know something
about the wretchedness of sin to appreciate what I just said.
You really have to know. God has to enable you to know
something about your wretched nature, my wretched nature, and
the evil of sin to appreciate the fact that Jesus Christ can save me, can save you from
our sins. He's able to do it. And he is
God all sufficient. He can keep us from falling away. Don't think you'll never fall
away. Don't think you can't fall. Don't think you can't. Peter
did. Peter fell. He didn't fall away, but he fell. The scripture says we are kept,
how? By the power of God through faith. Who does the keeping? God does
the keeping. He does the keeping. He can justify
us. He can make us righteous. He
can raise us from spiritual death and bring us to glory. Because
He is God All-Sufficient. He's God All-Sufficient. Now
notice what He says to Abraham. Walk before Me. The first thing
He does, He reveals Himself as El Shaddai, God All-Sufficient,
and then He says, Walk before me. Don't get sidetracked again,
Abraham. Don't try to go off your own
way and make things happen. Listen to me and obey my voice.
Walk before me. What does walking denote? What
does it say to you? Well, it says, first of all,
I read this somewhere a long time ago. It denotes a steady
pace. Walk before me. It's a steady
pace. One of the greatest compliments
I've ever gotten in my life. A lady I've known for years,
and I knew the family, her son, and he came home from the military,
and I was preaching back at Hurricane Road, and after the service he
told his mother He says, John is steady. She came and told
me about it. He said, he's steady. That's
the greatest compliment I could have ever gotten. Steady. That's what walking denotes.
It's a steady pace. And then it's a calm pace. If
you're walking, I'm telling you what, if you're walking, you're
calm. If you're scared, you're running. If you're in a hurry,
you're making haste, you are running. But it denotes a calm
pace. And then it denotes a journey.
A journey. This is a journey. Now the things
we experience every day is part of the journey home. Whatever it is. Whatever heartache. Whatever what we call blessing.
You know, we don't look at heartaches as blessings, do we? But the
greatest blessings are in those heartaches. They're the ones
who run us to Christ. I don't think I've ever had money
to run me to Christ. I don't think anybody's ever
really given me something. I've made something that really
developed into something and it was, nothing has ever ran
me to Christ like a heartache. Nothing. A heartache or a need. But it's a journey. And then
it denotes this, trust. trust. Walk before me. I got this from a writer that
I was reading. He said, there are four passages
which refer to the walk of the Lord's people. In Genesis 17,
walk before me, where he says to Abraham. In Deuteronomy 13,
he says, walk after me. In Genesis 5, concerning Enoch
and Noah, it says they walked with God. And then in Colossians
2, we are said to walk ye in him. We walk before God as his children. God is our father. Well, let
that sink in. Who is your father? God is your
father. If you believe the gospel, God
is your father. And then we walk after him as his servants. as his servant. We are his servants. And then we walk with him as
his friends. And then we walk in him as members
of his body. That's the four walks, I believe.
And then last of all, he says, and be thou perfect. Abraham, be thou perfect. You
know, this word is translated 44 times in the scriptures as
without blemish. That's what he said to Abraham. Walk before me without blemish.
Now over my margin, it speaks of upright or sincere. Honestly,
it's more than that. It's more than that. This is
more than just being sincere. The scripture says it must be
perfect to be accepted. It must be perfect to be accepted.
How can this be accomplished? Well, first of all, we walk by
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our righteousness. That's
where it starts. We walk by faith in Christ. We
walk this journey by faith looking to Him. who is our righteousness. What God requires is perfection. God never, ever lowers the standard. He never lowers the standard.
I read in the scriptures where the Lord said, be ye holy for
I am holy. You know what that makes me do? Two things. I do have a desire
to be holy, but it makes me run to Christ. It makes me flee to
Christ because that's the only place I know where I'm going
to have holiness and righteousness and acceptance. I know that. I know that. God requires perfection and what
he gives to us in Jesus Christ is perfection. And perfection
is what every believer seeks after. though unattainable in this life. You say, well, it's unattainable,
then we just throw up our hands and quit. Well, that's not the
attitude of a believer. Let me ask you an honest, sincere
question. If you could be without sin right
now, would you? Would you never have another
evil thought, a sinful thought, or action? I know you do. If you believe
God, you have that desire. That new man that's created in
righteousness and true holiness desires, desires holiness. It desires to walk after God. It desires to walk in righteousness
and holiness. The desire's there. Though when
I would do good, he was present with me. I know that too. I know
that too. One of the Old Testament prophets
said, Rejoice not over me, O my enemies, though I fall, yet shall
I rise again. The believer is going to sin.
The believer is going to fall. We fall in our thoughts, we fall
in our talk, we fall in our actions. But I'm telling you what, every
believer, I know this about every believer, every believer is resolved,
I don't want to do that again. I'm not going to do that again.
Even if I do it again, I'm resolved to walk before God in a way that's pleasing to Him. Listen to Paul in Philippians
3. Turn over here to Philippians 3. Here's the believer's, this
is the best way I can give it to you, the believer's attitude
here. Look in verse 12. Paul says in Philippians 3.12, not as though I had already attained,
either were already perfect. I know I'm not, Paul says. I
know that. But, I follow after, I strive
after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended
of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself
to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind, not living in the past all the time,
woes me all the time, forgetting those things which are behind
and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press. I strive, I press toward the
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. That's the believer's attitude
right there. That's it. That's not just Paul's attitude.
That's the believer's attitude. How can God say anything less
than walk before me and be thou perfect? Can he say anything
less? Our Lord said this in Matthew
5, be ye perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
But here, I want you to turn to 1 Peter. Turn to 1 Peter. In 1 Peter chapter 2, Let me read verse 20. Let me
go back to that verse 19. For this is thankworthy, 1 Peter
2 verse 19. For this is thankworthy, if a
man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it if when
you be buffeted for your fault, you shall take it patiently.
But if when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently.
This is acceptable with God. For even here unto where you
call, because Christ also suffered for us. Now listen, leaving us
an example that you should follow in his steps. I know I can't walk in this life
in perfection, but I can sure desire to. I can sure strive
to. I can desire to walk even as
he walked. We used to sing a song back home, I don't know all the lyrics to
it, but Lord, I want to be like Jesus in my heart, in my heart,
in my heart. Lord, I want to love like Jesus
in my heart. We used to sing it back home. Isn't that the believer's attitude?
Isn't that it? Lord, help me to be, help me
to walk as you would have me to walk. And that's what God
said to Abraham. And when Abram was 99 years old
and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am the
Almighty God, walk before me and be thou perfect. Boy, that just makes me want
to run to Christ. The standard is perfection. We make no excuse. I make no
excuse not to strive after that which God demands. Knowing, knowing that I accomplished
none of that in this flesh. But that all of it was accomplished
for me in Jesus Christ. All of it. In Christ we are perfect. This walk that he talked to Abraham
about is also an honest walk. Henry said one time, honest people
don't go to hell. Honest people don't go to hell.
Because it takes God to make a man or woman honest. Because
the scripture says all men are what? Liars. Liars. I was reading a thing, it's scientifically
proven, not that that means anything, but it was scientifically proven
that when two people enter into a conversation, not much more
than 15 seconds go by, somebody's lying. It's true. They said it's
scientifically proven. They can prove that somebody
is collaring something or it's shading something. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one who spoke the absolute truth. He never collared it. He never embellished it. You
just listen. You listen to me long enough
to talk about my past, talk about my high school and stuff. I started
embellishing that. You'll think I was some kind
of athlete or something. Look at me. You kidding? But
you let me tell the story. You let me tell the story, and
next thing you know, I'm a seven-foot tall. But our Lord didn't speak like
that. He never spoke like that. It's an honest walk. It's a real
desire to walk even as He walks. It's not to look for excuses, but it's to constantly desire
to follow after the Lord and walk as He walked. And the Lord
appeared as Almighty God able to do above all that we ask or
think. Do you really believe that? Do
you really believe that God is able to do above all that you
ask or think? After all these years of hearing
the gospel, I realize we think way too little of God. We think
way too little of God. He's able, more than able, to
do all we ask or think. He tells Abraham, walk before
him, in childlike trust. You know, we complicate this
matter of faith. We try to make it look like this
grandioso, I mean, real, genuine faith is just like
that of a child. It's literally like that of a
child trusting its mother or father. Well, you said you would. Wait right there and I'll be
back. Here they come back an hour later, and there's his dance.
You said you was coming back. It's just childlike trust. Let's
not complicate it. He's saying to Abraham, walk
before me and trust me and wait on me. Wait on me. Don't walk off on your own. Don't
just try to make things happen. Abraham, I'm not all sufficient. What I have promised, I will
perform. Wait on me. Trust me. All right.