If you would, go to the book
of Genesis now. We're going this evening to the
book of Genesis chapter 15. The book of Genesis chapter 15.
And we've been roughly going, well, maybe not so much verse
by verse, but section by section in this, the first book of the
Bible. And the last two, three messages,
we've been speaking about this man, Abram. We generally know
him and refer to him as Abraham. And indeed, we will eventually
get to when God gave him that name. But up to this point, we'll
just call him Abram because that's how God referred to him here. Now, here in Genesis chapter
15, this chapter gives us a wonderful and glorious promises, the promises
God made to Abraham. And we're also informed that
God visited him. Oh, how blessed it is when God
visits his people. Now, Abraham, he receives a visit
from the Lord in a vision. And you and I, now we know that
He visits us, but He visits us by His Spirit through the Word.
As we meet together, and even as you there in your house open
the Word of God, and you studied the Scriptures, you read the
Word of God, and you see God's face in prayer, He visits with
you too. That's a very sweet thing. He
visits by His Spirit. because he said that where two
or three gathered together, he said, I'll be in the midst of
you. And he told his disciples, I'll never leave you and I'll
never forsake you. And so here in Genesis chapter
15, God has some things to say to Abram. Now I'm only gonna
cover the first six verses this evening. Lord willing, next Wednesday
evening we'll cover the rest of the chapter. As I studied
this and prepared this message, I just decided that it's too
much of a too big of a portion of scripture to try to expound
it or preach on it in one message. So I'll divide it into two messages. This evening, verses one through
six, and our subject is Abram, a justified man. Abram, a justified man. Now, the chapter starts off this
way. Notice these three words, after
these things. After these things. Well, the
question ought to be asked, after what things? Well, after the
victory over the four kings. these four kings who had dominion
over five kings, five kingdoms, five nations, who received tribute
from them, and then they stopped paying their tribute, and then
these four kings invaded them, and they took from them all of
their wealth and all of the things that they owned, and they took
hostage women and children. Then Abraham found out that they
also took Lot. And so Abraham, he gathered together
318 of his servants, and he went out after these four kings, and
he defeated them after these things, after the defeat of these
four kings led by Chedorlaomer. So after the defeat of the four
kings and after delivering his brother in the Lord, Lot, Abram
wasn't much interested in what happened between these kingdoms
because Abram wasn't, like so many of us, caught up in the
things of this world and nations and so forth. No, he looked for
a city that had foundations his builder and makers got. let the
nation argue, squabble, and go to war. That's kind of Abrams,
his attitude. And he didn't get involved in
this until Lot, his nephew by blood, his brother by the blood
of Christ, by the grace of God. And he went and he took back
Lot, he took back all the other hostages, he took back all the
wealth, all the possessions, after these things, after he
went to war and got all of these things back, and he released
Lot from his captivity, after these things. And then after
he had received a visit from a very mysterious man named Melchizedek. He was the king of Salem. Scripture says he was a priest
of the Most High God. Hebrews chapter 7 tells us of
his name. It means, first, king of righteousness,
and then it means, secondly, king of peace. Righteousness
first, and then peace. My friends, you need to understand,
until justice is satisfied, there is no peace. There's no peace. There's no peace between me and
God until God does something about my sin. I couldn't do anything
about it. You can't do anything about your
sin. But God did. God did. And God brought in everlasting
righteousness through the obedience of the Lord Jesus, His obedience
up to and including death. and He established righteousness
for His people, and now we can boldly say, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He shed His blood. His blood,
that's the cost of peace. And so righteousness first, and
then peace, until righteousness and justice is honored, There's
no peace between us and God. Our Lord Jesus, we sometimes
sing the song. Sure will be good to get back
to singing one of these days, won't it? We sing the song, He
took my sins and my sorrows, and He made them His very own,
and He bore the burden all the way to Calvary, and He suffered
and He died alone. God in strict justice dealt with
our sins in the person of his son, who bore them in his own
body on the tree. And divine wrath was poured out
on him, and righteousness was established. And now, peace is
shown to us because justice has been satisfied. We read in Romans
chapter four, the last verse, and then the very first verse
of Romans chapter five, speaking of our Lord Jesus, who was delivered
for our offenses. That's why he was delivered.
He was delivered for our offenses, and he was raised again for,
or, here's a better example. Translation of that, he was raised
again because of our justification, because he had justified us.
Therefore being justified, therefore being justified, by faith we
have peace with God. We believe what the word of God
says. Do you believe what the word of God says? Our Lord Jesus
put our sins away. He died and satisfied God's justice. He brought in everlasting righteousness. I believe God, don't you? I believe
Him. God says, I've separated your
sins and your iniquities from you as far as the East is from
the West. God said, I put them behind my
back. He says, I'll remember them no more. They're never going
to be brought up against us. God doesn't punish His people
for sins. He chastens us for our disobedience,
but there is no penalty of sin involved in any of God's dealings
with us. Why, that penalty for our sins
has already been paid in full with the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. So after these things, after
He met with Melchizedek, And after Melchizedek brought him
bread and wine, and after these things, after Abram refused to
take anything from the king of Sodom, after these things, after
he had manifested that he truly believed God, after these things,
something really special happened. Let me give you two or three
things here tonight. Here are some very special words
to a weary warrior. Very special words to a weary
warrior. Verse 1, chapter 15. After these
things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision. This is a special revelation
of divine promises. But more than that, Oh, there's
no question, but the promises are sweet and they're dear, but
this is a special revelation of the Lord Himself. You see,
it says, after these say, the Word of the Lord. Who is the
Word of the Lord? In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. The Word of the Lord is the Son
of God Himself. That's our Savior. In fact, the Word of the Lord,
He is the Lord of the Word. You think about the Word of God.
You think about the book that you hold before you right now.
It's in your lap. It's in your hands. It's here
on the pulpit before me. The Word of God. The Lord is,
He's the Lord of the Word. Everywhere you look in this book,
He's the Lord of it. He's the master of it. He's the
subject of it. In the Word of God, the Lord
is the Word. He's the Lord of the Word. And whenever we open the book
of God, and you know this, but it's always good to be reminded,
Always be looking for Christ Jesus. And I tell you, if you
look for Him, I'm fully persuaded the Spirit of God will show Him
to you. You'll see Him. And here's Abram. After these
things, the word of the Lord came to Abram. He paid a visit
to Abram. This is our Lord in pre-incarnate
form. and he visits him in a vision.
Oh, how special this is to a weary warrior. While he has led his
318 servants, these men who were shepherds, but he had instructed
them in warfare, they had whipped these four kings, and they took
all the possessions back, they released all the hostages, and
he's weary, he's met Melchizedek, he's eaten bread, he's drank
wine, he's been offered all kinds of money, all kinds of rewards
by the king of Sodom, and Abram said, I don't want them. I've
got the Lord. What does he need with the riches
of Sodom? What does he need with the wealth
that he brought back? He doesn't need those. The only
one He needed is the one we need. That's the Lord of Glory. That's
the one we need. You can have the silver. You
can have the gold. You can have all the riches given
to Jesus. That's what Fanny Crosby wrote. She said, take the world. Take it all. Take it away from
me. but give me Jesus. Because if I've got the Lord
Jesus, I've got everything in Him. I've got everything a holy
God demands. I've got an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled that'll never fade away if I have Him. If I have Him. And so here's
the first special thing. the word of the Lord came to
him. And watch this, the Lord spoke
to him by name. He said, fear not Abram. Doesn't that remind you of John
chapter 10 verse 3, he calleth his own sheep by name. That's what it says. Oh, he knows
Abram. He's always known Abram. He knew
him before the world was formed. Abram has always been in the
heart of the Word of the Lord. Fear not, Abram. Our Lord Jesus
walked by and stood by a tomb, weeping, Lazarus had died. Martha and
Mary are broken hearted. Our Lord stands there before
that tomb and says, take the stone away. And he said, Lazarus,
come forth. He calleth his own sheep by name. Somebody said if he hadn't called
the name Lazarus, everybody in the cemetery would have come
forth. Well, maybe so. There was one man he was after.
He called it his own sheep by name. There was a fellow going
to Damascus, ungodly man, wretched man, a blasphemer, injurious. So I guess he was a real rebel
rouser, wasn't he? He was a drunkard. No, he was
a very religious man. His name was Saul. I tell you,
the Lord unhorsed him. He got a visit from the Word
of the Lord too. And here's what he said, Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me? He calls his own sheep by name.
Our Lord's making his way toward Jerusalem. He's in Jericho and
he just looks up in a tree. He says, Zacchaeus, come down. It's time to come out of the
tree. He knows His sheep. The Lord knoweth them that are
His. And wasn't it a blissful day
for you? And the Lord called you. He had set His love on you from
old eternity. There came the day for your conversion.
And I'll tell you, just as surely as He revealed Himself to Abram,
So He revealed Himself to you through the gospel of the grace
of God. And this gospel, this very blessed
Savior, He became real to you. Nobody talked you into it while
you received a visit from the Lord. Do you reckon somebody
can receive a visit from the Lord of glory and remain the
same? He said, oh no. He came to you
and He said, live. And you lived. He came to you
and said, come down out of that tree of pride. And you came down.
He came to you and He said, why do you persecute My people? And
you stopped persecuting His people. And then the Lord says this,
watch this. Not only called him by name,
but He said, fear not. Don't be afraid. You know, fear
is a natural part of the makeup of humanity. We have fears. There's no question about that.
We have fears. And how many times do believers
have fears of various sorts? One writer said well over a hundred
times in the Bible, the Lord tells us, fear not. What are you afraid of? What
are you afraid of? Well, I'll tell you, one writer
said Abram was fearful that the four kings would retaliate. Well, maybe, maybe. It was something
that caused him to be afraid. to be fearful. Otherwise, the
Lord never wastes words. He wouldn't say, fear not, Abram,
if he wasn't fearful. That make sense? Well, what was
he afraid of? What was he in fear of? I don't
think it was the four kings fearing that they'd attack him. I think
he has a fear for the very presence of the one who's visiting him.
Tell you what, other men who received a personal visitation
from the Christ of God, they were fearful. Old John on the
Isle of Patmos, he saw the glorified Christ. And he was in awe of
him and he just, he fell down before him in fear. In fact,
John said there in Revelation chapter one, I fell before him
like a dead man. That's what he said, like a dead
man. And the Lord of glory, his savior, his redeemer, put his
right hand on John and said, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. A people of God, now listen,
we do fear the Lord. We have a reverence for Him.
We have a respect for Him. We're in awe of God, but we're
not afraid of Him. We're not afraid He's going to
throw us in hell. We're not afraid that He's going
to withdraw His love or withdraw His grace. withdraw His mercy,
take that salvation away. Well, because I hadn't believed
Him like I ought to, He's going to take it away from me. No,
that's never going to happen. Let me tell you something, your
salvation is just as secure, just as secure as the very throne
of God. That's how secure you are in
Christ Jesus. Don't be afraid. God's not gonna
kick you out of his family. Oh, preacher, if you preach like
that, people just go out here and live any way they want to.
I wish I could live the way I want to. Don't you? I wish I could
live. I want to honor God with every
breath that I breathe, with every word that I speak, with every
deed that I perform, with every thought that passes through my
mind. I wish I could live like that. I wish I could live the
way I wanted to. And one day it will. One day
we will, all of us. Because I'll tell you something
that's so true for all the people of God. We all hate sin and we
hate it most in ourselves. We'll be glad to be done with
it. Be glad to lay that old nature
aside. Let them bury it. Be done with
it. Rise to heights above. See the
Lord of glory and rejoice in his smiling face. Well, he said, fear not, Abram. But also, he then said, watch
it. I am thy shield. I'm your shield. I'm your protector. When men go to battle, where
is the shield held? In front of them. The shield
is out here because the enemy is out there attacking, shooting
their arrows or darts or whatever it is, their spears, throwing
their spears, shooting this way. The Lord says, I'm your shield.
I'm in front of you. There's nothing can hurt you.
There's nothing can harm you. I'm your shield. In fact, there's a verse in the
Psalms that says He's our shield round about. He encircles us. Boy, that's a special shield
there. Nobody can get to us to do us
any real damage, to do us any kind of harm. The Lord says to
Abram, I'm your shield. I'm your shield. And over and
over again as you read through the Psalms, David says this of
the Lord. He's my shield. He's my fortress. He's my refuge. Moses said to
Israel in Deuteronomy 33, 29, Happy art thou, O Israel, who
is likened to thee. O people, saved by the Lord,
the shield of thy help, Psalm 3 verse 3, but thou, O
Lord, art the shield from me. Don't be afraid of anything. You say, well, all these things
are against me. Hey, our shield will protect
us. And there's no enemy that can
ever prevail against that one who is our shield. Now, you just rest easy. Just
rest in Christ, who's our shield. And then he says, and I am thy
exceeding great reward. I am thy exceeding great reward. Now, that king of Sodom, back
up in chapter 14, he wanted to give him a reward. I don't need
your reward. And now the Lord tells him, I'm
your reward, and I'm your exceeding great reward. Our Lord Jesus, just before His
death, He said in Luke 22, 35, He asked His disciples this,
He said, lacked ye anything when I sent you out preaching? Did
you lack anything? And you know what they said? Nothing. We lacked nothing. I'm telling you, child of God,
you lack nothing. Everything a holy God demands
of you, your substitute, has already satisfied divine justice. You lack nothing. and those necessities
that you need through life, He knows what you need. Listen, you're blessed with the
riches of His grace, the riches of His glory. You lack nothing. There's a lot of talk about rewards
in heaven. Many preachers talk about that.
You do so many good works, and well, the Lord's gonna reward
you for that. Well, let me just address that
briefly. First of all, let me say, we
can't do anything that's truly good, which is deserving of a
reward. We're sinful people. Therefore,
there's nothing that we will ever do, no word that we will
ever speak, no thought that we will ever think, no motive that
we will ever have that is worthy to be rewarded. And secondly, whatever service
we render to the Lord was ordained by God to begin with. Ephesians chapter two, now you
know this reference. or say, for by grace you say
through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's a gift of God,
not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained, that we should walk in them. Now, why should you
be rewarded or something that you do that God ordained for
you to do. And then remember this, the service
which we render to the Lord is really the Lord working in and
through us. That's what it says in 1 Corinthians
15 verse 10. Paul said, but by the grace of
God I am what I am, and His grace which was bestowed upon me, it
wasn't in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all,
yet, yet not I, but the grace of God which was in me. If you do anything that's of
a help to somebody, If you minister to one of the Lord's little struggling
lambs, if you do anything that's beneficial to somebody, it's
the grace of God working in you, both the will and the do of His
good pleasure. Why should you be rewarded? And then when we serve the Lord,
we've only done that which is our reasonable service. You remember
what it says, Luke 17, 10? When you shall have done all
those things which are commanded you, this is what you should
say, we're just unprofitable servants. We've done that which
was our duty to do. but more than any of those things. Here's what the Lord says to
Abram. I am your exceeding great reward. We do have a reward. Oh, there is a reward. And He's
somebody. The Lord says, I'm your exceeding
great reward. Abram had refused to take anything
from the king of Sodom, for he would be a debtor to no man. And the Lord says to him, I'm
your exceeding great reward. You forget about what that guy
offered you. What did he offer you? Money? Riches? I'm your reward. The great God
of heaven and earth. The Lord of glory. Your savior. He says, I'm your exceeding great
reward. You can't imagine how great a
reward he is. No greater reward can be given
but Christ our Lord. That's why Jeremiah said in the
book of Lamentations, the Lord is my portion, saith my soul. And in the Psalms, the Lord is my
portion, therefore I will hope in Him. He's all we want. Right? He's all we want. He's all we
need. And if I've got Him, I've got
everything a son of Adam could ever hope to get, and exceedingly
more. Well, then look at Abram's request,
and I'll have to go quickly. Now look at verse 2 through 5. Abram said, Lord God, what wilt
thou give me, seeing I go childless? And the steward, the servant
in my house who's over all things, he takes care of all my business.
This steward of my house is this Eleazar of Damascus. And Abram
said, Behold to me thou hast given no seed. And, lo, one born
in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the
Lord came unto him, saying, Here comes the word of the Lord again.
That one who is the Lord of the word, he comes to him, saying,
This shall not be thine heir. While the Lord had already promised
Abram earlier a seed, This is not your heir, but he that shall
come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir." Who is
that? Well, you can look at it three
different ways. First of all, there's the natural
seed of Abram that is all of Israel. But in looking at it in a spiritual
way, all the seed of Abram are all those who will also believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And Abram is called, he's the
father of the faithful because he's the first one who the scripture
says, believe God. Others did believe him, but this
is the first one that says he believed God and it was counted
him for righteousness. This is a man who rests in the
Lord. The seed then would be all of
the children of God. But more than that, more than
a natural seed and more than a spiritual seed, the Lord's
talking about the seed of the woman. That's why I read that
passage there in Galatians chapter 3. The Lord said to him, not
seeds as many, but seed as one. Christ Jesus. He's going to come
forth from you. and more you get, you follow
the Old Testament scriptures, the lineage of Abraham, and then
you get into the New Testament, and the very first book of the
New Testament, Matthew, the very first chapter and the very first
verse. Jesus, the son of Abraham, he's
the seed. He's the seed. And verse six says, Abram believed
in the Lord. This is not the first time that
he believed the Lord. This is really not his conversion. Because we read over in the book
of Hebrews chapter 11, by faith he left Ur of the Chaldeans.
So this isn't the first time that he believed God, believed
the Lord. But our Lord sets this forth
for us who also will believe Him and He notifies us that through
faith we lay hold of righteousness. Now let me give you this to you
real quick. Righteousness. It says He believed in the Lord
and He counted it to Him for righteousness. Righteousness. How does this righteousness come
to us? What's the basis of it? Number
one, we're justified by and we're made righteous by grace. Now
you read again Romans chapter 8. It talks about being justified. Being justified. It's all by
grace and that was before the world began. You know how long
we've been justified? Do you know how long Abram has
been righteous before God? Forever. Forever. God entrusted His Son with the
salvation of Abram, gave Abram to the Son of God, gave all of
us to the Son of God in eternal election. And we were made the
righteousness of God in Him right then. We've always been saved.
We've always been justified in Christ. We're justified by grace.
Secondly, Romans chapter three, we're justified by blood. By
blood. being justified freely, he says
there in Romans chapter 3 verse 24, through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus. We're justified by blood. When
did justification take place? Not only before the world began
by grace, but 2,000 years ago when Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures and brought in everlasting righteousness,
we were justified. Thirdly, we're justified by faith. That is, we receive this glorious
truth of being justified, of being made righteous by God himself
through his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ.
We receive it. Do you believe it? I know it's
almost too good to believe, but hey, it's the truth because God
can't lie. We're justified. God himself
declares us to be innocent, righteous, virtuous. Did you know that's
part of the definition of justified? We're virtuous and God declares
us to be so. How can that be? By grace through
blood. And we believe it's so. And faith
doesn't add to the justification. Faith embraces this glorious
truth of justification. And then the scripture says we're
also justified by works. Well, what does that mean? Works
save us? No, not at all. James says that
faith without works is dead. You see, we're justified by works
in this sense. Works give evidence to others
that we're righteous before God. There's going to be some evidence.
There's no question about it. There's not going to be perfect
evidence, but there's going to be evidence. We'll love the word
of God. We'll be faithful to the house
of God, to public worship, and we'll worship in private. and
will seek to do loving deeds for those who are our brothers
and sisters in Christ Jesus and help those who need help? Oh,
there are works that give evidence of our justification. We're justified
by works. And we don't look on those works.
We just live. We just live. It's the grace
of God within us that motivates us and moves us to do these things. We don't get up in the morning
and say, you know, I'm going to do some good deeds today.
I'm going to justify my salvation by my works today. That's not
the way it is. We just live. The Spirit of God works within
us. Gives us the desire to reach
out. to give, to assist, to help,
and our justification is evidenced by our works. Abram, he's a justified man. And what about you? Well, by the grace of God, by
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God giving
me faith to believe what God says. I'm a justified man. You believe Christ, you're justified
too. Lord, we ask that you'll bless
the word that's gone forth this evening. We give you thanks for
enabling us to meet together this way. Thank you for the means
that you have provided whereby we can reach out to those, there's
some people watching and listening who are hundreds of miles away,
maybe thousands of miles, I don't know. But I do know this, everyone
that you appointed to listen to and observe and hear this
message, they heard it tonight. We give you thanks for your grace
that you gave us in Christ Jesus. Thank you for the blood of redemption.
Thank you for the gift of faith. And enable us, O Spirit of God,
move us and motivate us to works of love, believing the Lord Jesus
our Savior. And we go in peace, knowing that
our Lord Jesus is our righteousness. In His name I ask these things.