I want you to open your Bibles
with me to the book of Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. We are studying through this
chapter, but not only this chapter, going back into the Old Testament
and seeing what the Bible, God's word, teaches us concerning these
particular Men and women who are mentioned. I say men and
women, not we've just mentioned men. We've talked about Abel
and Enoch, Noah, and today we're going to talk about Abraham.
Next week we're going to talk about Sarah, Abraham's wife. But we've been going back into
the Old Testament to see some of the teaching of the Word of
God concerning these people of faith. God-given faith, sinners
saved by grace, talking about faith. Look at verse eight of
Hebrews 11. By faith, Abraham, when he was
called, called of God, to go out into a place which he should
after receive for an inheritance, he obeyed. Now, I've made the
point through each of these messages that what we need to understand
is that this word faith is not the act of believing. Most of
the time when people read about faith, do you have faith? They think of the act of believing.
The word faith here is a noun, a person, place, thing, or idea,
it's an idea. What this word faith is is the
gospel which involves the promise of God to these people that finds
its ultimate fulfillment in the person and work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I hope I've been able to
show you that through each one, but we'll certainly see it in
Abraham, clearly spelled out in the scripture. It is the body
of doctrine by faith. Understand that. Now, each one
of these people did believe. They were believers, and that
believing is the gift of God. But the word faith, by faith,
we could look at it this way. Faith has a foundation, remember,
it's the Word of God. See, Abraham didn't just believe
something, he believed what God said. You read that in Romans
4. He believed that what God promised,
God was able to perform. That's significant, you see.
A lot of people believe things that God never said. A lot of
people believe things that God has forbidden. And a lot of people,
their faith, their believing is just wishful thinking. It's
an opinion. But Abraham's faith had a foundation
because God said, Abraham, I promise this. We're going to talk about
that. Abraham and the promises of God.
That's what the title of this message is. So faith has a foundation. It's the Word of God. Why do
we believe the Gospel? That God will save me and bless
me and keep me and bring me to eternal life and glory based
upon the merits of the righteousness of Christ. Why do I believe that?
Because God said it. It's not because I just feel
like that's what it is. No. God said it. I have that
foundation. Faith has an object. When you
see the word by faith, Abraham, you could say it this way, by
looking to Christ. Now Abraham was an Old Testament
believer. What does that mean? Well, it
doesn't mean that he saved in a different way than what we
who are saved today. No, it's the same way. Same person,
sinner, saved by grace. That's what Abraham was. He was
a sinner saved by grace. Growing up in religion, just
about any time I remember hearing about Abraham, it was always
the story of a dynamic person who rose above the crowd and
showed himself to be better than everybody else in some way or
another, even though he wouldn't dare think that. Every movie
I ever saw that Abraham talks about him being some kind of
a dynamic warrior like that. Well, I don't know a whole lot
about Abraham's personality other than what the scripture says
here. But the story of Abraham, like the story of Abel, the story
of Enoch, and the story of Noah, is not the story of dynamic people
who rose above the crowd and proved themselves to be better
or even to make the right choices. The story of these men is the
story of God's dynamic power and grace and goodness in their
lives. And that's the story of every
sinner saved by grace. It's not the story of man's righteousness
and goodness. It's the story of Christ's righteousness
and His goodness. That's what this is all about.
People have got to stop thinking that God saves sinners because
sinners do something for God. That's not the way it is. And
Abraham's a prime example of that. The object of Abraham's
faith was Christ. Christ himself said that. The
evidence of Abraham's faith was that this, he obeyed. Hebrews
11, 8. And it says in verse 8, he went
out not knowing whether he went. Now we know it says in verse
nine, by faith, look at it, Hebrews 11, by faith, he sojourned, he
journeyed in the land of promise. He was a pilgrim. Do you know
that Abraham did not possess one square yard of that land
of promise personally? He journeyed through it. He went
from place, he was a nomad in that sense. As in a strange country,
that means a foreign country. This is not the country of his
birth. Dwelling in tabernacles, tents, with Isaac and Jacob,
the heirs with him of the same promise. Now the promise that
he's talking about here is what? It's the promise of Messiah. Christ, salvation. How do you
know? Because it's the promise that
came through Isaac and Jacob. And you say, well, now that just
talks about their possessing that land. Now they did. That
was a promise from God. And the Jews later on, the Hebrew
children, did possess the land based on a promise God made to
Abraham. But that's not what he's talking about here. How
do you know? Look at verse 10. For he looked
for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. And then look down at verse 14. We'll get to this later on in
more detail. Talking about all who died in faith, that they
say such things, declare plainly that they seek a country, And
it says, and truly, if they had been mindful of that country
from whence they came out, they might've had opportunity to have
returned. That's talking about repentance,
and I'll get to that later in another message. But look at
verse 16. But now they desire a better,
a better country that is an heavenly, not an earthly. They desire a
heavenly country, not an earthly country, Wherefore God is not
ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them
a city. What city is he talking about?
Over in Hebrews chapter 12, he defines it. It's the new Jerusalem. It's heaven. It's the church.
It's the dwelling place of God. So that's what we say about Abraham. But what do we need to know?
The first thing I want you to see is what do we need to know
about Abraham personally? Abraham personally. And we're
gonna talk about the covenant that God made with Abraham. We're
gonna talk about next week, Abraham's seed. You see in that, then the
Bible mentions in several passages, different contexts, the seed
of Abraham, the children of Abraham, the offspring of Abraham, the
descendants of Abraham. What's he talking about? We'll
look at that next week when we get into Sarah because she's
the mother of Isaac. Well, look over at Romans chapter
four that brother Jim read. What are we gonna say about Abraham
personally? Well, the key to understanding
this is in verse three. The first line in verse three,
the question. What saith the scriptures? What does God say? What's God's assessment of it? Doesn't matter what I think or
you think or the denomination thinks or the group collectively
thinks, what does God say? Because that's the final word.
We talked about that this morning. I'm the Alpha and the Omega.
I'm the first and the last word. What's God say? Well, here's
number one, as I've already mentioned it. Abraham was a sinner saved
by grace, pure, sovereign grace, based on Christ's righteousness
imputed. Why did God save Abraham and
leave the rest of his family in Ur of the Chaldees. That's
what happened, wasn't it? Was Abraham better than the rest
of them? Did God look down on earth and did Abraham stand out,
shine forth above the crowd? Well, if you go by the Bible,
you can't say that. The Bible says there's none good,
no not one. There's none righteous, no not
one. Does that mean this? When Paul wrote that in Romans
3, did he mean by that this, there's none righteous except
Abraham? Or there's none good except Abraham? No. The Bible says all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Does that exclude Abraham?
No. The Bible says that all men and
women born of Adam, fallen in Adam, born dead in trespasses
and sins, deserve, even by their best works, condemnation. How
do you know that? By deeds of law shall no flesh
be justified in God's sight. When God called Abraham, what
was Abraham? He was an idolater. Let me read
you this. This is the book of Joshua. Chapter
24. And here's what's happening.
Joshua is leading the Hebrew children into the promised land. Remember, they had wandered in
the wilderness for 40 years because of their rebellion and their
idolatry. Moses had turned that over to Joshua. Moses could not
enter the land. We won't get into that until
we get into Moses. But he couldn't enter the land.
And mainly the spiritual lesson of all that is that Moses represents
the law. And the law is not going to get
a sinner into the promised land. The law is going to condemn a
sinner. Now that's not talking about Moses personally. He was
a sinner saved by grace. But he represented the law. Joshua. What's the Hebrew word for Joshua?
Yeshua. That's another name for Jesus
in the Greek. That's who brings sinners into
the promised land. Moses was a type of the law.
Joshua was a type of Christ. So Joshua was bringing them over
into the promised land, and it's all according to a covenant and
a promise that God made to a man named Abraham 400 and some years
before. And here's what he says in Joshua
24. It says, Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem
and called for the elders of Israel and for their heads and
the leaders, for their judges, for their officers, and they
presented themselves before God. Now look at verse two, he says,
and Joshua said unto all the people, thus saith the Lord God
of Israel, your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood.
Now the word flood there is river. He's talking about the Euphrates
River. They were on the other side of the Euphrates River.
In old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham and the father
of Nacor, and they served other gods." And that includes Abraham. God called Abraham out of idolatry. So Abraham's calling was the
result of unmerited, unearned sovereign grace. We know secondly that Abraham
was born again by the Spirit and brought to faith in Christ.
But before we get to that, look at Romans 4, look at verse 1. He says, What shall we say then
that Abraham our father is pertaining to the flesh? Remember this,
keep it in its context. And I'm talking about the historical
context here. The unbelieving Jews boasted
in basically three things. as pertaining to their right
relationship with God, their being a child of God, their being
saved, righteous. The number one thing they boasted
of was their physical connection with Abraham, their fleshly connection. We're Abraham's seed. Secondly
was their circumcision, the circumcision of the males who represented
the whole family. Thirdly was keeping the law of
Moses. The point of the gospel is to tell them this, your physical,
fleshly connection with Abraham means absolutely nothing as far
as a right relationship with God, as far as salvation, as
far as righteousness. Your circumcision has nothing
to do with those things. Your keeping the law of Moses
has nothing to do with that because you don't keep the law of Moses,
he told them. Christ told them that in John chapter 5. You boast
in Moses. Moses will be your judge. The
very one you boast in will judge you to be sinful and deserving
of damnation, because you don't keep the law. By deeds of law,
no flesh. So here's what Paul does by inspiration
of the Spirit. He says, well, what are we going
to say about Abraham according to the flesh, his physical person? All right. Verse two, for if
Abraham were justified, what is it to be justified? To be
not guilty. It means to be righteous before
God, right with God. Not chargeable. Now, if Abraham
were justified by works, he hath whereof the glory to boast, but
not before God. It's easy to boast among men.
Somebody says, well, I go to church every time the doors open.
Somebody says, I've been baptized so many times, the tadpoles know
me by my first name. Whatever you do, it's easy to
boast before men. Not before God. And God is the
supreme judge. All right? Or what does God say? What sayeth the scripture? Abraham
believed God. Now, before you stop there, think
about this. What did God tell Abraham that
Abraham believed? Well, he says, it was counted
unto him for righteousness. Now, many people, that word it,
It was counted. That word counted means imputed,
charged. It was charged to Abraham for
righteousness. This was Abraham's righteousness.
And a lot of people, they look at a verse like that and they
stop and say, well, Abraham had faith. He believed and God counted
his believing as righteousness. That's not what this verse teaches.
How do you know that? Well, we're going to find that
out for sure in just a few verses. The it there is not Abraham's
believing. Abraham did believe, and that
was a work of God, wasn't it? If we believe the gospel, that's
a miracle of God's grace. That's a gift of God's grace.
That comes from Christ, who was crucified, who was buried, who
arose again the third day. That faith does, that believing.
But it's not our believing that God counts righteous. It's whom
we believe. It's what we believe. It, what
God promised Abraham. What did he promise? Righteousness
through a substitute, a surety who would come in time. Abraham
was an Old Testament believer, as I said before. It means he
looked forward to the promise that God made. Now what is the it? We'll look
at verse four. Now to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned
or imputed of grace, but of debt. In other words, if you work for
it, If you earn it, then it's not grace. It's simply what God
owes you. If God says, I will save you
if you'll do this, and it's possible for you to do that, which it's
not, but if it were, then it wouldn't be grace. It'd be debt, be what God owed
you. But look at verse five, but to him that worketh not.
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly." It's not just believing,
it's believing whom? God who justifies the ungodly. His faith. Now that faith there
is just like the one in the book of Hebrews. It's not talking
about the act of believing, it's talking about what he believed.
It's talking about the gospel. His faith is counted for righteousness. What is our faith if we're believers?
our faith is Christ and what he accomplished on Calvary. Now
prove that, look at verse 6, here's the proof of it now. Even
as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom
God imputeth what? Righteousness without works.
That's what's imputed, righteousness, what Christ accomplished. You
see, Christ is the end, the fulfillment of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. We believe in him. We believe
that he's our righteousness. We believe that he's our savior.
We believe he's our Lord and he's our Messiah. Verse seven,
saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose
sins are covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord will not impute sin. Who shall anything to the charge
of God's elect? God doesn't charge me. I'm a
sinner, but God does not charge me with my sins. He charged him
to Christ. He imputed him to Christ. Christ
was made sin, and I have his righteousness imputed to me.
And I'll prove it again. Look at verse nine. Cometh this
blessedness then upon the circumcision only, as brother Jim said. That's
talking about the Jews. Is that just for the Jews? Is
this, in other words, what God promised Abraham, what Abraham
believed, is that just to the Jews? or upon the uncircumcision
also, or is it for Gentiles too? Well, we say that faith was reckoned
to Abraham for righteousness. In other words, what God promised
Abraham, that is, righteousness through the Messiah, it was charged
to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? When
he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision. Not in circumcision,
but in uncircumcision. What he's telling you here is
this, whether you're Jew or Gentile, Whether you're circumcised or
uncircumcised has absolutely nothing to do with this. This
justification. God justifies who? The ungodly. Now there's a modern heresy that,
well I say modern, it's really not modern, because all heresies
have been around since the inception of the gospel, as far as revelation. Modern, but it is kind of prevalent
today. that God does really justify
the ungodly, that he makes a person godly first and then justifies
him. That's not so. God justifies
the ungodly. Upon what ground does God justify
an ungodly person? Well, here he's telling us the
imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's by
grace. Look at verse 11, Abraham received
the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith
which he had yet being uncircumcised. In other words, that circumcision
was just a sign from God, a physical sign of Abraham's relationship
with God, that he might be the father of all them that believe,
Jew or Gentile, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness
might be imputed unto them also. And he says, the father of circumcision
to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the
steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had yet been
yet uncircumcised. In other words, what he's saying
here is simply this. If you listen, if you're justified
before God, that's evidenced that you believe the same gospel
that Abraham believed. You look to the same Christ.
You believe the same truth, grace, grace, grace. The righteousness
that was imputed to Abraham is the same righteousness that I
stand before God in, the imputed righteousness of Christ. Now
we'll go on with that later, but I want you to turn to John
chapter eight. Abraham was a sinner saved by
grace. Abraham was also born again by
the Spirit and brought to faith in Christ. Abraham believed.
Look at John eight. Look at verse 30 of John 8. Christ spoke these words, and
as He spoke them, many believed on Him. Here's what He said,
Then said Jesus to those Jews who believed on Him, If you continue
in My word, then are you My disciples indeed. In other words, the evidence
of being a true disciple of Christ is not just making a one-time
confession like people do today, walking down an aisle and saying,
I accept and then, no, it's continuing in his word by the power of God. And he says, you'll know the
truth and the truth shall make you free. How many people take
that one out of context? It's talking about the gospel.
Verse 33, they answered him, we be Abraham's seed. We're descendants
of Abraham and we're never in bondage to any man. Now they
were in bondage, but they didn't know it. You see, that's the
plight of man by nature. He always thinks he's saved before
he's saved. And he says, they say, how sayest
thou you shall be made free? Verse 34, Jesus answered them,
verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the
servant of sin. And the servant abided not in
the house forever, but the son abided forever. If the son therefore
shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. If Christ makes
you free, you're free indeed. Verse 37, I know that you're
Abraham's seed. Now he's talking about their
physical connection with Abraham. I know you're physical descendants
of Abraham, but you seek to kill me because my word has no place
in you. You don't believe the gospel. You're rejecting the
gospel. You're rejecting the Messiah.
You're rejecting his righteousness and opting for your own. He says,
I speak that which I have seen with my father and you do that
which you've seen with your father. Later on, he tells him you're
of your father, the devil. They answered and said unto him, verse
39, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, if you
were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.
But now you seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the
truth, which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham. Abraham didn't do that. Abraham
believed God. Now, people argue all the time,
well, what did Abraham actually know? Well, let me tell you how
to settle that question. What sayeth the scriptures? And
I want you to look across the page there to verse 51, John
8. What did Abraham know? Christ
said, verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep my saying,
he shall never see death. That's believing the gospel.
Then said the Jews unto him, now we know that thou hast a
devil. Abraham is dead and the prophets,
and thou sayest, if a man keep my saying, he shall never taste
death. You see, they understood that Christ was giving himself
the authority that only God had. Verse 53, art thou greater than
our father Abraham, which is dead, and the prophets are dead?
Whom makest thou thyself? Who do you think you are? That's what they're saying. Well,
Jesus answered, if I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my
father that honoreth me. Of whom say ye that he is your
God? You've not known him, but I know
him. And if I should say I know him
not, I should be a liar just like you. but I know him and
keep his saying. Now listen to this, verse 56.
Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and
was glad. Christ said, Abraham saw my day. Abraham believed the gospel.
Abraham looked forward to the promise of righteousness through
the God sent Messiah, God man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 57, Then said the Jews
unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen
Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Before Abraham was, I am. God in human flesh. Read on the
next verse, they wanted to kill him then. They wanted to kill
him. Well, Abraham's faith was in
the promises of God. Now, Later on, I'm going to go
into this in more detail, but let me just give you this. God
made two kinds of promises to Abraham. First, there were temporal
promises. Temporal means physical, earthly,
temporary. But also, God made, secondly,
spiritual promises, eternal, heaven. The temporal promises
that God made Abraham concerned Abraham in this world, this present
world, and concerned his natural descendants, which would include
not only the nation Israel, that was the main part of it, but
also the Arabs, Isaac and Ishmael. The temporal promises concern
the covenant of physical circumcision for the Jews. And they're possessing
an earthly land, the promised land. All the temporal promises were
for Abraham and that nation for a limited time. How do you know
it was a limited time? Because this world is not going
to last forever. There are other reasons. The
spiritual promises concerned Abraham first as the ancestor
of the Messiah according to the flesh. Remember over in Matthew
chapter 1 when it's talking about the genealogy of Christ's humanity? He starts out, the book of the
generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David. the Son of Abraham, the Messiah according to the
flesh. You see, God had already devised the one and only way
of salvation for sinners in the everlasting covenant of grace
before the world began. He'd chosen a people to save,
He'd given them to His Son, He placed all responsibility and
conditions for their salvation upon Christ. The son of God obligated
himself to come into this sinful world, taken to union with himself
a sinless human body so that he could die as the surety and
substitute of his people. The Bible in Hebrews chapter
two says he took on him the nature of the seed of Abraham. Spiritual promises also included
the promise that Abraham would have a spiritual seed. And they are identified in certain
context as true believers, both Jew and Gentile. In fact, if
you're truly a believer today, you know you are part of the
spiritual seed of Abraham. We'll talk more about that later.
The Bible teaches us that Abraham's believing and acting upon the
temporal promises of God also reflected his believing and acting
upon the spiritual promises of God. That's what Hebrews 11 is
telling us. Abraham was called of God. That
was the effectual, invincible call of the Holy Spirit to come
out of his idolatry and to go into a place which he should
after receive for an inheritance. He didn't earn it. He didn't
deserve it. It's an inheritance. And Abraham obeyed. He went out.
He didn't know where he was going. By faith, he sojourned, the scripture
says, in the land of promise as in a foreign country. He dwelt
in tents with Isaac and Jacob Heirs with him of the same promise,
he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and
maker is God. Abraham believed God. He believed
both the temporal and the spiritual promises, and he gave evidence
of this by obeying God. And we see that the primary and
ultimate object of Abraham's faith was not anything concerning
this earth, but it was all concerning eternal salvation through Christ. Abraham looked for a permanent
residence, not on this world, but in glory. And he fully believed
and expected all of salvation conditioned on the promised Messiah,
the Lord Jesus Christ, according to God's promise. And that was
evidence that what? That God had imputed righteousness
to Abraham. All who believe that same promise
in Christ, that's evidence that God has imputed righteousness
to them. God justifies the ungodly. Abraham
believed God, all right.