Genesis chapter 15, Abraham believed God. The Bible is the Word of God
without a doubt, without any dispute. This is the Word of
God that we have here. And it is written that we might
know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. There is no way
of knowing God or Christ savingly apart from the Word of God. Every
word in this book is inspired by God. God moved men to write
the Bible, His Word. Therefore, one part is not more
or less important than another part of the Word of God is. It's
all, it is all important. But this one scripture, this
one scripture where it says, and he believed in the Lord and
he counted it to him for righteousness, is expounded upon more than any
other scripture in the Old Testament. Over in Romans 4 and Galatians
chapter 3. We'll see both of those here
in a little bit. But it is expounded more. It says over in Galatians
3, verse 8, it says the gospel was preached unto Abraham. God preached the gospel to Abraham.
Like Paul, Paul said, I certify you, brethren, that the gospel
which I preached is not after man. I didn't receive it from
man, but the Lord taught me the gospel. Abraham could say the
same thing. He could say the same thing.
The Lord preached the gospel to him. Saying, over there in
Galatians 3, saying, in thee shall all the nations be blessed. Over in Galatians, Paul said,
when this happened, when God spoke this to Abraham, He preached
the gospel to Abraham. And Abraham knew. Abraham understood
that this seed that was promised and spoken of by the Lord was
none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. He understood that this
was the Redeemer, that God was speaking of the Redeemer to him. This was the gospel he believed.
He believed the same gospel that you and I believe. Same gospel
in every way. Our Lord said, Abraham rejoiced
to see my day. He saw it and was glad. He rejoiced. He saw it. He understood it. He understood
the gospel and he believed God. He believed Him. Now it says
in verse 1, after these things, these things, after Abraham went
and rescued his nephew Lot after he had been captured by those
four kings, after Abraham had gone down Whipped those kings
and got Lot and all the goods that were taken and brought them
back. And after the king of Sodom offered
to make him rich over this, and Abraham said, No, you don't give
me anything. I don't want anything unless
you say you make Abraham rich. I thought about this today. I
thought what an example of faith this was. What if Bill Gates,
What if we saved one of his children? And he came up and said, I want
to build you a new building. Would we say no? I thought about this today sitting
there as I was looking at this. Would I say no if I was to save
one of his children from a disaster or whatever? And he said, I want
to build you a new, a brand new, I mean, a nice building. Would
we say no? I hope we would. I hope we would. But I'll tell you why. Because
that building, if you allow it, that building would always be
known as the building that Bill Gates built and not the Lord.
And Abraham said, no, no, you're never going to look at me and
say I made Abraham rich. Never. That's faith. Now, that's
the faith of Abraham. And then after he met Melchizedek
and he paid tithes to him. He met him and Melchizedek blessed
him and he paid tithes to him, which demonstrates... Here's
another demonstration of Abraham's faith. The faith of God's elect
as demonstrated right here. The Lord will provide. He gave
tithes of all that he had to Melchizedek because he believed.
With all his heart, he believed the Lord will provide. He'll
take care of me. He didn't hold back saying, you
know, I might need this later on. No, he gave it. He gave it. And I believe he gave the best
he had. The best he had. And then also, it demonstrates
his love for the Lord. Giving. Giving truly demonstrates
our love to Christ. It demonstrates our love to one
another. That's what it demonstrates. Then after these things, the
Lord came to Abram in a vision, and no doubt this is Christ who
came to him, speaking to him. For God has never, God has never
dealt with a man apart from a mediator, not even Abraham. So I know this
is Christ who has come to him in this vision. And notice also
here, after these things, not before these things, everything
has its place. Everything has its time. Everything
has its order. Not before these things. Every
step is ordained of God. Every step. And every step prepares
us for the next step. Everything we understand right
now prepares us for more understanding, for more growth in grace, for
more knowledge of Him. It prepares us. Every step prepares
you for the next one. Listen to this verse. In John
13, 7, Jesus answered. And he said unto him, that unto
Peter, remember he's going to wash his feet? And Peter said,
no, no, you're not going to do that. And the Lord said, what
I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. You
don't understand it right now, but you will. You will. Knowledge
builds upon knowledge spiritually. You'll understand later on. But
now here's the vision. And the first thing the Lord
says to him, says to his servant, says to his friend, You know,
he called Abraham his friend. He said, fear not. Fear not. How many times is that spoken
in the word of God? I started to write a lot of these
down. Look it up in a concordance, there's too many. Fear not. This
is a God of heaven and earth. This is God who is holy. This
is God who is a light that no man can approach. This is God.
And he comes to Abraham. And he says, don't be afraid.
Don't be afraid. Why did the Lord tell him not
to be afraid? Why did he tell him to fear not? I believe it's
this reason. Because the Lord appeared to
him in a vision and spoke to him. What happened on the Mount
of Transfiguration when that cloud come over and they heard
a voice? Did they not fall down afraid?
And he touched them and said, don't be afraid. What about in
Genesis 28, Jacob? Look over in Genesis 28. We're
in Genesis anyway. Over here in Genesis 28, 17. Genesis 28, 17. Well, look at verse 16. And Jacob
awaked out of his sleep, and he says, Surely the Lord is in
this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid. And said,
how dreadful is this place? This is none other but the house
of God. And this is the gate of heaven. He was afraid. What
about Habakkuk? Looked at here, what was it,
a week ago? Habakkuk said, I heard thy speech and I was afraid. I was afraid. What about John
on the Isle of Pethmas? I can go on and on and on with
this. Isaiah, Jeremiah, when they heard God speak, They were
afraid. No man, Mount Sinai, people were
afraid. No man, whether he believes God
or does not believe God, no man has ever heard God speak that
wasn't afraid, that it didn't bow him down. Now, this religious
world has never heard God speak. You wouldn't see or hear so much
of this flippant stuff going on if they truly heard God speak. When these men stand on television
and they say, well, God spoke to me last night. Oh, I don't
think so. I don't think so. You look in
the Word of God, you pay attention to it when you read. Every time
God spoke to a man, he was afraid. He fell on his face afraid and
gave reverence to God. But then also he said this to
Abraham. He said, fear not. He said it
to him as a word of encouragement. Abraham, you have nothing to
be afraid of. I just read to you in Psalm 3, though 10,000
encamp against me, I will not be afraid. Now, another place
it says, I will not fear what man can do unto me. Fear not. We have nothing to fear. Have
nothing to fear at all. And here's the reason to fear
not. Here's the reason. I am thy shield. Do we believe
that? Do we believe God is our shield?
And, he said, and thy exceeding great reward. Romans 8 says this,
if God be for us, who can be against us? If God is for me
in salvation, if God is for me in justification, if God is for
me in grace, if God is for me, who can be against me? Who can
stand against me? Who can take me down? Who can
charge? Well, you can charge me all you
want, but it's not going to stick. If He's before us, who can be against
us? And here, listen. Shield. He said, I am thy shield.
Do you know what that means? I'm your protection. I'm your
protection. David said in Psalm 3, I just
read, I laid me down and what? And slept. And then I awake. And I awoke. Oh, I'm thy protection. I'm your
protection, Abraham. Don't be afraid if you're not. If you're not, I'm your God. Who delivered Abraham in that
battle with the kings? Who delivered them into Abraham's
hands? Did Abraham and 318 men do that? God did it. Listen,
in verse 20 of chapter 14, And blessed be the Most High
God which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand." That's
Melchizedek speaking to Abraham. God delivered them into your
hand. Whipped four kings. Whipped a great army with 318
men. Oh, he said, I delivered them.
I'm your shield. I protected you. I protected
you. And I am thy exceeding great
reward. Oh, he said, usually the word
exceeding, exceeding anything, everything you can think of.
Exceeding anything even you can, even with these minds, even imagine.
God exceeds that. And he said, I'm your reward.
People are looking for rewards in heaven. These men preach,
false preachers preach rewards in heaven. What's greater than
God? Who's greater than Christ? Gold? Silver? A log cabin? A mansion? Whatever! They're
silly to even mention Him, aren't they? Abraham, I'm your exceeding
great reward. Listen, Abraham lost nothing. And he said to the king of Sodom,
I don't want anything. Don't give me anything. He didn't lose anything, did
he? He gained everything. Does the Scripture not say all
things are yours in Christ? All things are yours in Christ.
Even God Himself is yours in Christ. God Almighty is yours
in Christ. God is the portion of His people. You're going to divide things
out and give this one a portion, and that one a portion, this
one a portion, God is our portion. Let's look at a few Scriptures.
Look in Psalm 16. Look in Psalm 16. Psalm 16, verse 5. The Lord is
the portion of mine inheritance. And of my cup thou maintainest
my lot. But He's my portion. God's my
portion. Look over in Psalm 119. Psalm 119. Look at verse 57. Thou art my portion, O Lord. I have said that I would keep
thy word, but thou art my portion. And then one other, Psalm 142. Psalm 142 in verse 5, I cried
unto thee, O Lord, I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion
in the land of the living. God is our portion. I could go
on and on with that one too. There's a lot of scriptures concerning
that. Is He not enough? Is God Almighty
in Christ not enough? He is if you have Him. If you
have Him, He's enough. Look over in Luke chapter 22. In Luke chapter 22. I tried to
write down more verses and less notes. I wanted us to see this
in the Word of God. Luke 22. In verse 35. And he said unto them, When I
sent you without purse and script and shoes, lacked ye anything?
And they said, Nothing. Nothing. We lacked nothing. He
provided. The Lord provided. And he is
thy shield. As I read to you in Psalm 3,
but I'm not going to turn to all these other ones I wrote
down, but he's thy shield. You can write it down if you
happen to be writing. Psalm 3, 3 and Psalm 5, 12. Psalm 84,
11. Psalm 91, 4. Psalm 119, 114. I am thy shield. I am thy shield. And then Abraham,
back here in verses 2 and 3. Abraham, after God speaks to
him. And Abraham said, Lord God, what
wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless? Now, this is not unbelief.
He's not questioning God. A.W. Pink said this, Abraham
understood. He understood that heirship was
based on sonship. So he knew, he knew if all the
nations of the earth was going to be blessed through his seed,
he's going to have to have a son. He's going to have to be an heir.
There has to be an heir. I must have a son, Abraham says.
If the Messiah, and he's speaking of the Messiah, he knows who
that seed is. If the Messiah is going to come
through me, if the Redeemer is going to come through my loins,
if God is going to raise up a son, then He's going to have to give
me one. He's going to have to give me one. Abraham believed
that the seed of the woman that God spoke of concerning Eve was
that same seed that was going to come through him and all nations
be blessed. He believed that. He believed
the gospel concerning God's Son. And God said in verse 4, in verse
3, And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed. And,
lo, one born of my house is mine heir, his servant in relation
of his. And God said, Behold, the word
of the Lord came unto him, saying, This is not your heir. This is
not going to be the heir. He's not going to be the heir.
But he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall
be thine heir. The seed, this promised seed
to whom all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed,
Abraham is going to come through your bowels. It's going to come
from your lineage. It's going to come through you. God promised Abraham that he
was going to have a son even though he was an old man and
Sarah was an old woman. God promised him he was going
to have a son and he believed Him. He believed Him. Let me read you
this over in Romans 4. Let me read just a few scriptures
down here. Romans 4, it says, If Abraham were justified by
works, he hath whereof the glory, but not before God for what saith
the scripture, Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto
him for righteousness. And over verse 11, And he received
a sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith,
which he had yet been uncircumcised, that he might be the father of
all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that
righteousness might be imputed unto them also. And then it goes
on, it goes on down here and then let me see here. In verse 14, verse 13, for the
promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to
Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness
of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is
made void and the promise made is not in effect. Because the
law worketh wrath for where no law is, there is no transgression.
Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace, to the
end the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that
only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the
faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written,
I have made thee a father of many nations before him whom
he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and caused those things
which be not as though they were, who against hope, who against
hope, What's he mean against hope? He's dead. I mean, his
body and Sarah's womb was dead. He was, what, 90 years old at
this time? They were way up there in years. But 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
didn't say, Lord, my body's dead. I'm too old. You have to use
this air. You have to use this young man
in the house. He didn't even consider it. He
did not consider the situation. He said, I believe you. I believe
God. I believe God. And being not
weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead when
he was about a hundred years old. Neither yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief. God promised that seed, that
Messiah, that Deliverer, that Redeemer, and he didn't stagger
at it. He said, God said, Lord, I believe
you. I believe you. But he was strong in faith, giving
glory to God and being fully persuaded that what God had promised,
he was able to perform. Oh, Abraham, he believed what
God said to him. He took God at His word and believed
Him. And then the Lord said here,
and the Lord said, and behold, let me read verse 4 again. And
behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall
not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine
own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad.
He brought him out of the tent, evidently. And he said, Now,
Abraham, look now toward heaven. Look toward heaven and tell the
star, count the stars. Count the stars, if thou be able
to number them. And he said unto him, So shall
thy seed be." There's a multitude of stars. You know, back here
in chapter 13, it says in verse 14, And the Lord said unto Abram,
after Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes,
and look from the place where thou art, northward, southward,
eastward, and westward. For all the land which thou seest,
to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever." The first
thing he did, he said, look across the land. Look across all this. He said, this is going to belong
to your seed. Your natural seed that's going to come out of you,
and your spiritual seed, spiritually speaking, is going to belong
to you. Then he told him, he said, look
into heaven. Look upon the earth. That's how numerous the seed
is going to be. Who's going to be able to count
that multitude in glory? It's a number, the Scripture
says, that no man can number. No man can number. And all that
is from that seed of Abraham, the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham
was the father of those Jews, and he's the spiritual father
of all those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And then it says, verse 6, And he believed in the Lord.
Now this means more than he believed some facts. He didn't just believe
some facts about the Lord. He didn't believe in some doctrines.
He believed the Lord. He believed Him. Against hope,
he believed in hope. He didn't stagger. He didn't
consider his own body now dead and Sarah. He said, I believe
you. That's salvation. That's a gift
of God. That's the faith that's a gift
of God. You take the Word of God and people say, you really
believe that a flood, I mean, you really believe this whole
world was flooded? Yes. Do you really believe that Jonah
was swallowed by a whale for three days, three nights? Yes.
Yes. And I believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. I believe He's the mediator.
I believe He's our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.
He's all I need. I believe that. I believe the
Word of God. I believe God. That's what he believed God.
When Abraham heard the gospel, when he heard the gospel preached
to him. Let me show you this over here
in Galatians. Over here in Galatians chapter
three. In verse 6, even as Abraham believed
God, and it was accounted to him, it was imputed to him, it
was reckoned to him, and all that means is this, it was his. It's his. And it was accounted
to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which
are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the
scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen, the
Gentiles, through faith, priest before the gospel unto Abraham,
saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. Now look over in
verse 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.
And he saith not, And to seeds as of many, but as of one, and
to thy seed, which is Christ." This seed that he's been speaking
of all along is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who He is. And Abraham believed God concerning
his son. He believed the record that God
gave of his son. And it was accounted unto him
for righteousness. It was imputed. The righteousness
of God's son was reckoned, accounted, imputed to Abraham when he believed. And this is clearly, this is
clearly a message of justification by faith. Clearly a message of
justification by faith. There was no law given at that
time. There was no law. There was no ceremonies. Abraham
wasn't even circumcised at that time. Not at all. Abraham was justified by grace
through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ before any of this other
stuff was given. 400 and some years before the
law was given. 430 years, I think it was, before
the law was given. There is no justification apart
from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I cannot do... All of
us could get together and we couldn't do one good thing. Not
without sin. It's not possible. We could not
do one thing that would please God and God would justify us
on that ground. Not possible. Listen to this
Scripture. Acts 13, 38 and 39. Through this
man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him
all that believe are justified from all things." You could not
be justified by the law of Moses. Abraham was not justified, now
listen, he was not justified by an act of faith, but by the
object of faith, Jesus Christ. That act of faith was not imputed
to him for righteousness. But it was the object of faith,
the Lord, our righteousness. That's what was imputed, His
righteousness was. The righteousness of Christ is
what was accounted to Abraham. And notice here, no work is mentioned. Did not Abraham do some noble
things? Did he not leave his father's
house when he was told to in the land of Ur of the Chaldees?
Did he not leave that place and go all the way, go to a place
that God said, I'll show you. He didn't know where he was going.
And he did some mighty, mighty things along the way. Some years
have passed by. He did some noble things, but not one of them is
mentioned. Not one thing is mentioned. Other than this, he believed
God. Even when Paul speaks of him
in Romans 4 and in Galatians 3, he just says this, Abraham
believed God. It was reckoned unto him, imputed
unto him for righteousness. He believed God. And notice this,
Abraham had no evidence that what God said would happen. He
had absolutely no evidence that what God had promised was going
to happen. He took God just upon his bare
word. I take him at his word. You said
it. He believed the word of God. And when Abraham was declared
righteous, and I'll close, when he was declared righteous, as
I said, there was no law, there was no circumcision, there was
just faith. He just believed God. That's
all he did. Do I believe God? Paul said, for instance, examine
yourself whether you be in the faith. Examine yourself by the
Word of God. Don't examine yourself by your
feelings, but by the Word of God. Do I believe God concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ? You know, Abraham believed God
back in the era of the Chaldeans when God told him to leave. He
believed God then. He believed God for years. But it wasn't
until that seed is spoken of that he's justified, that righteousness... I mean, he was justified before
that, but righteousness is said to be imputed when he believed
God. Do I believe him concerning his
son? If so, and I stand before God,
you stand before God, if so, absolutely justified, cleared
of all charges, cleared of all guilt. There are many who die
every day in the faith, stand in the presence of God, and boy,
do they rejoice in that. Rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the result of this justification,
as it says there in Romans 5, peace with God. Peace with God. What's that worth? What is that
worth? Priceless. That commercial is
priceless. Peace with God. All right.