God never changes. He's immutable,
never changes. That's what the Scriptures teaches
us, that He never changes. He said in Malachi 3.6, I am
the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob,
you're not consumed. Jesus Christ, the same today,
yesterday, and forever. Whatever Christ was before, He
is now, and He shall be forever. He never changes. And the scripture
says that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness, neither
shadow, nor turning, nor variableness. I mean, there's no turning or
shadow about God. Light, perfect light, never changes. And if He never changes, impossible
for Him to change, then His ways are ever the same. They're ever
the same. He don't change His ways. And
He deals with all men, especially His elect people, through all
time, basically, basically the same way. And it's because of
this fact that we can say that history repeats itself. Because
men do the same thing over and over because of their nature.
And God does the same thing and deals the same way with everybody
because of His nature. He cannot change His nature in
the way He deals with people. And if what I said is true, shouldn't
we expect to find that God's dealing with Abraham forecast
how He would deal with us who were Abraham's seed? And I'm
going to talk about Abraham tonight. Abraham's experience illustrates
our experiences, how God saved Abraham and what He did for Abraham. I would say that's what He has
done for us because we're Abraham's seed. Look here in verse 16 of
Romans chapter 4. Paul's talking about salvation
being a faith, not by law. And it's a faith that it might
be by grace, for by grace are you saved through faith, and
that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Your faith is
not yourself, and the grace brought this faith, and it saved us from
the curse of the law. And here's the reason being that
it's the faith that it might be by grace that the goal being,
the end of it being, the promise might be sure to all to see.
If it's of grace, and God gives you this grace and gives you
faith through grace, then the promise that He's made is going
to be sure, because it does not depend on us. It depends on the
grace of God and the faith that He gives. And this promise might
be sure to all to see. Now, we're talking about Abraham's
seed, not to only that which is of the law, not only the Jews,
but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, those who
are the sons of A, who is the father of us all. Now, I said
here that Abraham is the father of us all. And that we walk in
the footsteps of the faith of our father Abraham. Back up there
in verse 12, it says, He's the Father's circumcision to him
who are not of the circumcision only, not that you're lonely,
but also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham,
which he had before he was ever circumcised. So it says here
that Abraham's the father of us all. How is Abraham the father
of us all? In what sense is Abraham the
father of us all? Now, by nature, I'm not a Jew,
so I'm not a descendant of Abraham. Isaac and Ishmael were the direct
descendants of Abraham, and Ishmael's all Arabs, and Isaac is all the
Jews. But figuratively and typically,
Because we believe, we walk in the footsteps of our father Abraham,
and Abraham believed God, and God saved him by grace and gave
him the faith to believe, and He counted to him for righteousness,
then we are the, he's the father of us all who believe. If you
have faith, then you're a son of Abraham. Is that not right? The natural son inherits things
as certain from the traits from his father. There's a resemblance
between them. Adam begot sons in his own likeness. In his own likeness. Now I want
to show you what I'm talking about. Look over in Galatians
chapter 3. This is what I'm trying to say. Abraham's the father
of the house, he's the father of us all. In what sense? Well,
we're not... It's procreation, that's for
sure. We're the uncircumcision. We're
the heathen. We're the ones that God made
a promise to in our Lord Jesus Christ. And there's a resemblance,
a likeness, between Abraham and those who are Abraham's seed
and heirs according to promise. Look what he said here in verse
7 of Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3 and verse
7. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith the same are
the children of Abraham. Well, if you believe, if you do, you're a child of
Abraham. And watch this, the scripture
foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith. Now
that's us. Preach before the gospel unto Abraham, saying,
and these shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be
of faith are blessed. Faithful Abraham. Abraham got
blessed Abraham. That's what he done for us. Look
down verse 29 of chapter 3 here. And if you be Christ, then are
you Abraham's seed and heirs according to promise. So you
see, beloved, we're Abraham's children, the children of Abraham.
I read the scriptures this morning where I said, you know, we'd
be Abraham's children. We're not born of fornication.
And he said, Lord said, if you were Abraham's seed, if you were
Abraham's children, you'd do the works of Abraham. And you
remember when John the Baptist was preaching and he said in
Matthew chapter three, he said this, there were those that came
to him, the Pharisees came to him and a bunch came to him and
they didn't want to be baptized. He said, thank not within yourselves
that you have Abraham to your father. For I say God is able
of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham, able to do that. And so you see, beloved, there's
Abraham's seed, and we are, Abraham's the father of us all. So Abraham,
then, if he's the father of us all, he's a sample or an illustration
of a believer, of a child of God, who's portrayed generally
of speaking of all those who believe. Now, what was he at
the beginning? Turn to Acts chapter 7. What
was Abraham at the beginning? Where did Abraham live? What
kind of person was he at the beginning, before God ever saved
him? The Scriptures tell us that he dwelt in the Ur of the Chaldeans. That on the other side of the
flood, on the other side of the river, Jordan, that he was a
man who was an idolater. That he was a godless man. He was a heathen man. And look
what he said here in verse 1 of chapter 7 of Acts. Then said
the high priest, Are these things so? And Paul speaking now. And
he said, Men and brethren, fathers hearken, the God of glory appeared
unto our father Abraham when he dwelt in Mesopotamia before
he dwelt in Corinth, before he dwelt in Aram. So listen, he
was over in the earthy counties. far off from God, so far off
that he was a stranger from the covenants of promise, without
God, without Christ, and without hope in this world. But he said
here while he dwelt over there, the God of glory appeared unto
him. What does that mean? That God
had to make himself known to Abraham, and God only reveals
himself one way, and that's the God who has all the glory, and
all the power, and all the might, and all the majesty. That's where
he was. He was a lost sinner. And then
look what God said to him. Get thee out of thy country,
and from thy kindred, and come into a land that I shall show
you. First thing he'd done is he appeared unto him. He revealed
himself to him. Revealed himself to him when
it's an idolatry. And listen, beloved, that's not
what God done to all of us. We were idolaters. We were lost,
idolized our free will, idolized our works, idolized our self-righteousness,
idolized our doctrines, idolized our obedience and our faith and
our works. And yet one day the God of glory
appeared to us when He was preaching the gospel, and somebody was,
and God got our attention. And the first thing he says,
get out! And you read in Revelations that
almost everybody that God ever saved, he said, come ye out from
among her. And I tell you what, he brings
us out. And oh, what happened to him? The God of glory appeared
unto him. God went after him. That's what
God's got to do to any man. He's got to go after him. That's
what's so encouraging about the Gospel. That's what's so wonderful
about the gospel. When Isaiah, the king whose eye
had died, Isaiah saw the Lord. Where did he see him? He saw
him in his glory. He saw him in his power. And I'll tell you,
beloved, God has to go after a man. Now, you think Abraham
was thinking about God? You think Abraham was looking
after the truth? You think Abraham was a fellow
that was sincere? And that he really wanted to
know God? No, no, no, no, no. There's never been anybody wanting
to know God before God knew them. There's never been anybody ever
called on God until God first called on them. There's never
been anybody ever had an interest in God until God first manifested
an interest in them. You can't find that goodness
in the Scriptures. Jacob was laying asleep one night,
and what happened to him? The Lord got a hold of him. Noah
was the only one in his day that found grace in the eyes of the
Lord. Lot had to be drug out. Because he was a righteous man,
God had to go down and get him and bring him out of Sodom and
Gomorrah. He had to take Paul and put him
down. Paul had hatred in his heart
when God put him down. So that's what I'm saying, is
that Abraham, the father of us all, he was a lost man, just
as lost as he could be. And God had to go get him. God
had to go get us. And I bless his name that he
come and got me. Laid hands on me. Didn't bring
me against my will, he just made me willing, like he did Abraham. And God called him to separate
from all that pertained to his own life. He says, you leave
out there. He said, get out of your country
from your kindred and come into a land that I'll show you. You
mean leave my father and my mother? Leave my brothers and my sisters?
Leave my job? Leave my home? Leave all my friends? Leave the people that I love? Leave my idols? Leave my works? Leave my sincerity? Leave all
my prayers behind? I want you to leave everything
that you had down there at Calvin. I want you to leave it. I don't
want you to take your gods with you. I don't want you to take
your works with you. I don't want you to take your sincerity with
you. I don't want you to take nothing with you but you. It's
your wife, and you get up and get out of there, and you forget
everything. And that's why Paul said, I count
everything but done, but long, that I may win Christ. And of
all the things that you'll ever do, as a believer, as a believer,
and this is one thing you can find out and you can examine
yourself to see if it's so or not, that you, when you're brought
to faith in Christ, head to head, face to face with the Lord Jesus
Christ, And you're brought to where you're going to come on
His terms and be saved by Him as He saves sinners. You will
come to the place and the time where you'll have to count everything
that you've ever done up to that time that you knew Christ and
trusted Christ. You'll have to count every bit
of it, but done, and walk off and leave it and say, there's
nothing to anything that I ever done until I knew Christ. Now,
that's one of the hardest things you'll ever do, but you'll do
it. You'll do it. I've not met anybody
yet that ain't done it. Everybody starts saying, when
do I get saved? When do I get saved? Well, I might be saved,
you might be saved. It don't make no difference when. Are
you trusting Christ right now? You're not looking to something
that happened 25 years ago. Surely you're looking to what
Christ did. Surely you're looking to what Christ does. You're not
trusting some kind of experience that runs chills up and down
your back. If you walked away from your
life and went to Christ, that's what God said to Abraham, get
out, get out, get out! Abraham fiddled his thumb and
said, well, I'm going to go tomorrow. He left that day. I believe the
day that God appeared to him, I believe he packed his bags
and away he went. Come on, load up the camel, pack
up the tent, we're going someplace. Where are we going? I have no
idea. I just know that God appeared to me and He told me to go. Oh
my! Now let me tell you something
about Abraham, what he didn't do. He didn't entirely obey at
the beginning. He took his daddy with him, and
he took his nephew with him. And he had to wait until his
daddy died, but God meant to bring him out, and he went as
far as Iran, and he got there, and he stopped right there. And
his father died, and then they went on. And then they had this
great trial between Abraham and Lot, because they had so much,
you choose which way you go. And Lot chose the well-watered
plains. And I'll tell you something about
him. His first real trial, and all these are first real trials
or something. And turn with me to Genesis chapter
12. Let's look at this just a minute. Abraham, the father of us all.
How is he the father of us all? Well, he's a father like us when
God called him, God saved him, separated him. Our Lord Jesus
Christ separated us, sanctified us, separated the Son to Himself.
And look what happens. He gets down in the promised
land. He gets down into Canaan. And he went out, and God took
him, and they came out and got him to the land of Canaan. And
then they started going down to the south, and look what it
says there in verse 10. He got his first trial, just right after,
just, you know, he got down in there in the promised land where
God told him to go. And the first thing that happens to him, and
there was a famine in the land. Oh, God's gonna try him. He says,
you go out, I'm gonna show you a great land, you're gonna own
it all. And they got down there, and there's a famine in the land.
What did Abraham do? He said, Well, I'll sit here
and God will provide for me. God will meet all of my needs.
But instead, he went down into Egypt to sojourn there, for the
famine was grievous in the land. Look what he told his wife now
in the last part of verse 11. Behold, now I know that thou
art a fair woman to look upon. Therefore it shall come to pass
when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This
is his wife. They'll kill me, and they'll
save your life. This poor old boy has already made a mess out
of things. That man, you ain't never done
anything like that. We ain't never took things into
our own hands. The old man, he said, look here, so just tell
them you're my sister. It'll be well for me for thy
sake, and my soul shall live because of thee. And what happened?
And it came to pass, when Abraham came into Egypt, the Egyptians
beheld the woman, she was very fair, and they took that woman
into Pharaoh's house. Oh my! It seemed to me, Lord,
here's the thing. It seemed a natural thing to
do. If there ain't no food here, let's go where there's some food
at. It seemed a natural thing to do. It seemed a natural thing
to do to try to preserve yourself. But here's the difference between
Abraham naturally, but Abraham didn't have a natural position. He had a position as one of God's
children, as the father of the faithful. He was bought with
a price. He should have known without
God, without Christ, he could have done nothing. You see, he
looked at his circumstances instead of the promises. And God helped
us to not look at our circumstances, but believe God. And then you
remember when he was promised a son. God came to him and promised
him a son. Time went on, time went on, time
went on, and finally, Sarah said, listen, we ain't going to have
no son. So I'll tell you what, you go into my handmaid Hagar,
and you have a son by him. Now God doesn't make a promise
you're going to have a son. But he yielded to the flesh,
and he went in unto Hagar to assist God to fulfill his promise
and purpose. And he denied God by that very
thing. And God says, faithful, he denied
God, but yet God remained faithful to him. He can't deny himself.
And Ishmael, that son of promise, he had to go. He couldn't stay. He was a child of the flesh.
And all the experiences that Abraham had as he went down through
Canaan, as he went down through thing after thing after thing
after thing after the God made him His promise, that I'll be
your exceeding great reward. You look up to the heavens, see
the stars, that's how many children you're going to have. Look at
the sand, that's how many you're going to have. Look to the east,
look to the west, look to the north, look to the south. It's
all going to be yours. This whole world, everything
in it. And Abraham believed that. Did
he believe it perfectly? Did he act perfectly? No. But
all of his experiences prepared him for the greatest trial that
he had ever had. God put him in the fire, put
his gold in the fire, his faith in the fire, the gold had been
refined. And he's not only willing now
to leave the heir of the Calvins and to leave everybody behind
and to give Ishmael up, but God gave him that son of promise,
and that boy is probably 18, 19, 20 years old. And the father
says, take your son, you own your son now, and go up on that
mountain that I'll show you. He is not only willing to give
up his father, give up his nephew, give up Ishmael, but now he's
ready and willing to give up the son of his love. Grace will
always triumph in the heart of a believer. Grace will always
abound where sin abounds. Grace will always make it come
out to the glory of God. Always do it. And then look over
in Hebrews 11 with me just a moment. And I'll tell you, beloved, I
know that from experience, and I know you do too, when we've
leaned on understanding. And one of my prayers is this.
You know, the Proverbs said in Proverbs chapter four, acknowledge
the Lord. Acknowledge the Lord in all thy
ways, and He'll direct thy steps, direct your path. Lord, And Jeremiah
said, this is not in man to direct his own stance. So one of my
prayers is, Lord, I acknowledge You. I acknowledge You. You've got the power, You've
got the glory, You've got the right, You've got the promises,
You've got the grace, You've got the strength, You've got
the... I acknowledge You to be my all, my salvation. to be the
promise, to be everything, you'll be everything to me. And Lord,
I acknowledge you, so please direct my ways. Don't let me
go nowhere, do anything. Circumstances will overthrow
us. We'll get to looking at how things
are going around us, and we'll automatically start saying, well,
this can't be right, that can't be right, God, stop doing this
stuff. And listen, next thing you know, we're leaning to our
own understanding, trying to take things in our own hands.
And when we do that, we've done already made amends. But oh, listen, so we walk in
the footsteps of our Father Abraham. Well, the second thing about
him was he was a man of faith. Not only he was a portrayal of
a believer, but he is a man of faith. Look here in Hebrews.
His faith is mentioned three times. Look in verse 8. His faith
is mentioned three times. By faith, Abraham was called
to go out into a place. Now, you notice, let me tell
you something. Let me stop right here while I'm thinking about
it. If I don't say it while I'm thinking about it, I'll get away
from it. No matter what a believer did, and the sins he committed
in the Old Testament, When you get to the New Testament, they
never, ever mentioned against him. Abraham's lies, Abraham's
going to Egypt, Abraham trying to save his own hide until he's
willing to give up his wife. None of those things are mentioned.
All it talks about is his faith. The question is, by faith, Abraham,
when he's called to go out into a place, which he should have
to receive for an inheritance. Watch this. He obeyed. He went
out. He didn't even know where he
was going. How many times? Have you ever went anywhere and
you don't know who you're going? I've got lost a few times and
said, how did I get here from there? I have done that. I've
been going someplace and how in the world did I get here?
And can I get back out of here? I've done that a few times. But
oh, listen to what he says here in verse 9, And by faith, says
Abraham again, he is a soldier in the land of promise, as in
a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob,
the heirs with him of the same promise. Look down here in verse
17. Here it is, by faith again. By
faith. Abraham, when he was tried, offered
up Isaac. And he that had received the
promises offered up his only begotten son. Oh my. So here's a man of faith. His
faith, I want to say his faith was probably more tried than
anyone else, because it always relates to him in faith. But
Job was tried severely. But Abraham's called the father
of the faithful. And it always mentions his faith.
We walk in the footsteps of his faith. And his faith was probably
tried more than anyone's else. Leave your kindred, leave your
birthplace, sit on a long journey, and we arrived in that new land.
You know, he never occupied one eye over the ground on it until
he went down to seek him when Sarah died. He went down to seek
him, and he bought him a cave down there, a burying place. He bought him a grave. That's
what he bought him. Bought him a place to be buried.
And he buried his wife there. And he was buried there. Isaac
took him and put him with his wife Sarah. The only spot of
ground he owned, and all the time he was a stranger in the
pilgrim, was a place where he's last put his body. And when it's
all said and done, that's all me and you gonna have. I've got seventy-four and a half
acres down there, but I'm gonna end up with six, six by six out
there at Thomas Springs. That's gonna be my, that's gonna
be it, ain't it? If that took care of him, you
know, Abraham believed God. And that's the only thing he
ever owned. And, beloved, that's all he ever owned was a burying
place. And when it's all said and done, that's all we're going
to... And, oh, beloved, his faith was tried by the promise of a
son. Look back over in Romans chapter
4 with me just a moment. You know, his faith was tried
when God promised him a son. He was an old man. Sarah even
laughed about it. She said, when the Lord comes
this time next year, I'm going to come by and Sarah's going
to have that son. Sarah's going to have a son.
She laughed and said, how in the world is that going to happen?
She said, I'm an old, old woman. And how in the world can me and
Abraham enjoy a life like that and have that kind of support?
Oh, she just laughed about it. And the Lord said, why do you
laugh? Oh, I didn't laugh. But oh, listen, look what it
said here in verse 20. Oh, my. Well, look in verse 18. Let's
look in verse 18 first. Who against hope believed in
hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according
to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being
not weak in faith, He considered not his own body now dead. He
was a hundred years old. God made him a promise, you're
going to have a son now. A hundred-year-old man don't
have children. When he was about a hundred years old, and he never
even considered the deadness of Sarah's womb. She was in her
nineties. And he 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 was able also to perform. He waited over 25 years for that
child to come. 25 years. It'll be this year.
It'll be this year. It'll be this year. And then
all of a sudden, here he is, he's 100 years old, sad way up
in her 90s. Oh, listen, God came and said,
now listen, it's going to be this time next year. I'm going
to let this season. Abraham said, oh, God made a
promise. Oh, you know, Abraham, we ain't
got no children. God made a promise. Sarah, I
ain't got no children. God made a promise. A year later,
she had a little boy. Why don't you name him Isaac? And then he said, take that son,
the oldest son, what a thing. That son that all the promises
of God was in. That son that Christ would come
through. That seed that Christ would come
through. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Israel,
and they, what, David, Solomon, Ruth, Jesse, come on down until
you rest. Come down to the time that Christ
is born. That was because he's going to
come through that seed. And then God says, you take that
promised son, and you take him up on the mountain that I show
you, and I'll tell you what I want you to do. I want you to offer
him to me. And Abraham, But he got there, and this is
how his faith was. I'm telling you, he talked about
a man of faith. And we walk in the footsteps of that faith,
and he's the father of all of those who are of faith. He told
all those fellas, he said, now you stay right here. I and the
lad are going up yonder to worship, and we'll be back in three days. Now, he took the pyre with him,
he took a rope with him, wood with him, and he was willing to give up
his own son. And you know what the scripture
says? Accounting that God was able to raise him from the dead.
He understood that if he did offer that son, and God had all
the promises in him, that God would raise him up again from
the dead, because he said, I am allowed to come back again. And
you know what all that was about, don't you? That prefigured Calvary. If Abraham gave his son, he would
have done it by faith. Our Lord Jesus Christ God gave
his son. And there was really, this time,
an offering made. And there was no one to save
him. No one to come and stop his hand and put a ram in his
place in the thicket. Oh my! Did Abraham's faith ever
waver? That's kind of, that's a rhetorical
question, you know. The answer's in the question.
He obeyed and left Chaldea, but by unbelief he took his father
and his nephew with him. By faith he left the ear of the
Chaldeans, but by unbelief he stopped short at Aaron. By faith
he entered the Promised Land, but through unbelief he forsook
it when a famine came. And by faith he returned back
into the promised land, but by unbelief he had a child born
of the flesh, Hagar and Ishmael. By faith he went against five
kings that came into Sodom and took his nephew Lot prisoner
And he took 300 men and went and fought 500 kings, defeated
those 500 kings with 300 men, and took everything back, God's
lot back, and everything that was stolen, everything that was
taken. And he came to the king of Sodom, and the king of Sodom
said, Here. He said, You take a tenth of
everything that there is, and I'll take the rest. And Abraham
lifted his hand and said, He said, I'm off so much as take
a shoelace unless you say that you made Abraham rich. But beloved,
he went and rescued the Lord from the kings, but by unbelief,
lied to Abimelech about his wife. And you know what this shows
us about ourselves? There's two of us. Two of us. As there was Isaac and Jacob
in the same womb, There's a new nature and the old nature in
the same body. Faith and unbelief dwell in the
same person, don't they? Huh? We've got two natures. It's
sad, but it's true. I never had a bitter problem
with sin in my nature until God saved me by His grace. And now
I can just get aggravated and get angry, and it'd be sinful
to me. I used to try to get mad and get angry, and I was justified
in it. Well, if it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have got
that way. But now it's always my fault. And it really is. It's
my fault. It's me. And ain't that the way we are,
two natures? Do you feel those two natures
warring in you? Do you feel the flesh and the spirit warring
against you? Do you feel, have you ever been praying, and all
of a sudden you've been praying, and your mind just goes, way
off in left field, just out of the blue, just whoo! Some ungodly
thing come into you, and here you are, you're praying, you're
reading the Bible in your mind, you're just all of a sudden,
you're getting something and all of a sudden it just kicks off. And you say,
oh Lord, what is it? Well, oh, have mercy on me. That's
them two natures in us. They're just like two people
in a womb, just fighting and beating and banging and fighting
at one another. And let me tell you something,
the one you feed the most, that's the one that's going to have
all the strength. You feed the spiritual man, the spiritual
man will have more strength. If you feed the flesh, the flesh
is going to have more strength. That's why we've got to come
and be fed. Oh Lord, give me that manna from heaven. Give
me that water. Feed me with food convenient
for me. Feed the new man. Feed that new man. And keep feeding
that new man. And that old man won't bother
you near as much. But he's never going to let you
alone. Never going to let you alone. And let me quickly say
this, talking about two natures and how did people have unbelief.
Israel at the Red Sea, they got there and after they crossed
the Red Sea, they began to murmur because of hunger. What did God
do? They didn't perish. And then
David slew the lion, but yet he fled from Saul. Elijah faced
450 false prophets of Baal and defeated them all and had them
all burned up, not all slain. But then Jezebel, just one little
old woman said, I'm going to have it. And he run like a scared
hound. Peter walked on the water, walked on the sea, cut off a
Roman soldier's ear to protect the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet,
when he was standing there at that fire, a woman, just a maid,
said, ain't you one of them? And he trembled before that maid
and said, I do not know that man. I've told you that. Oh,
that unbelief. What a sin that doth so easily
beset us. But doesn't this show us the
longsuffering of God towards His home? When Israel murmured,
they didn't perish from hunger. They were fed with angel's food.
That's what the scripture said. David wasn't slain when he faced
Goliath and fled from Saul, but he was raised up to sit on the
throne. Elijah didn't die at Jezebel's hand. In fact, he didn't
die at all. God came and took him in a chariot
of fire. Took him to glory without dying
at all. And Peter was not disowned by
Lord Jesus Christ. But he said, Peter, I give you
the keys to the kingdom. He opened the door to the Jews
on the day of Pentecost and used the keys to the Gentiles at Cornelius'
house. Oh my, oh grace, grace, grace,
oh how abounding it is. And that's what we're talking
about. We walk in the with Abraham, the father of us all. And we
have some resemblance to him. We do. We really do. There are
some folks right here. You manifest that characteristic
of Abraham. You believe God. And God didn't
forsake Abraham when his faith faltered. But let him on and let him on
until he is able to take his son up on Mount Moriah just like
God would offer his own son. We see God's sovereignty in choosing
him. Of all the people in the area
of the Calvary, Abraham was the only one called. Of all the people
that you know, and all your family, I don't know of anybody on my
mother's side or my dad's side, as far back as you can go, that
God ever made a murmur toward. I know that My mother, my father,
and a brother went out into eternity, and not one of them ever called
on the Lord. Every time you see them, they
had a cigarette in their face, or a beer in their hand, or a
glass of whiskey. And here it is. God came to where I was. God's sovereignty and choosing
Him. Was God wrong to leave everybody else down there in Calvary? Wouldn't have been nobody come
out of there if God hadn't have brought him out. See, God's sovereignty
has played in Abraham's character. God called him, God saved him,
and God developed his character and kept giving him grace and
working that faith until that man died. And oh, his unworthiness. Look
in Isaiah 51. I'll be done in a minute. Look
in Isaiah 51. Oh, look, we see God's sovereignty in choosing
him and giving him the promise. You can watch Abraham's character
develop as time goes on. And oh, look what he said here
in Isaiah 51. Paul shows his unworthiness.
Verse 1. Hearken to me, ye that follow
after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord. Look unto the
rock which ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit which ye
are dug. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare
you. For I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased
him." But still yet, he's a rock and a pit from which he doth.
And that's why, beloved, election's of grace, of grace. And not only that, beloved, but
you know what about Abraham? He's the father of us all. He was an object of God's love.
Oh, what an object of God's love. God called him His friend. God
said, Abraham, my friend Abraham. You know the only time Christ
called somebody a friend? You know who it was? It was Judah's
friend. Come, let's hear. Now, he did say this about his
disciples. He says, you know, a servant
don't know what his master's doing, but you're my friends,
and I'll let you know what I'm doing. But he was the friend
of God. And our Lord Jesus Christ appeared
to Abraham in Genesis 18, and the Scripture says that he sat
down there and ate and drank with Abraham under that tree. Remember that? And then he told
him what he was going to do with Solomon and Gomorrah. That's
how close he was. He said, I'm going to go down
there and destroy that place. And God took him into fellowship
with him in his heart when he called his son. So you offer
up your son. God let him know what was in
his own heart to do. Abraham, the father of the faith,
the father of us all. You reckon we got any evidence
of being one of Abraham's children? I believe God. I believe that
God gave me... I believe the promise that God
said, if I believe on His Son, He'd give me everlasting life.
I believe that. I believe that God made Christ to be my righteousness. I believe that God said, when
Christ put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, that all my sin was
put away once and for all. I believe that. And I'm going to die in that
hole. I'm going to go out into eternity in that hole. I'm one of those seeds that Abraham
sown. When God said, look at that sand.
He said, that dirt. See that sand, that dirt there?
He said, I'm going to give you that many children. I'm one of
them pieces of dirt that God said, that's going to be one
of your children. Raised up out of the dirt. Out of the pit.
Out of the rock. Hewn out of it. Our Father, gracious, blessed
Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, how wonderfully gracious and
kind and patient You are. Father, Your Word, oh, what comfort,
what assurance it gives us. When I read about Abraham's faith,
and yet I read about him going down to Egypt, that's me, Lord. When I hear about him trying
to Get his wife to save his skin. That's me trying to save myself
from any kind of trouble. When you give up to the flesh,
that's all, Lord. But yet, I believe. I believe. I do believe. And I know there's
some people here tonight that believe. They believe. They believe God. They believe
every word He said. They trust His blessed Son. They
walk by faith. They live by faith. They want
to honor God by their faith. But they know that without grace,
their faith would falter desperately. So, Lord, fill us full of Your
grace. Increase our faith. Make us love You more. Make us
need You more. Preserve and keep your people.
Bless Obe when he preaches Wednesday night. Brother Dale when he comes
next Lord's Day here. God bless him. Strengthen and
encourage him. Oh Lord, open the hearts of the
unconverted in this place and save them by your grace. We ask
in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.