I want to read just two verses
to you, in verses 4 and verse 5, Genesis chapter 26. I had
purpose to pass by this. I said something about it last
time that you and I looked at this. I can't remember exactly
what I said about it. So if I repeat myself, it's good. We should approach sometime the
Word of God, I think, as if we've never heard the Gospel before
in our life, and see it anew, see it afresh. These two verses teach us a Gospel
principle, this concept that I mentioned last time, that God
blesses people. God blesses people. And he blesses
people on this ground because someone else was obedient. That's
what we see here in this passage. That's what I want us to see.
Look in verse 4. Here the Lord God is speaking
to Isaac, Abraham's son. And he says in verse 4 of Genesis
26, I will make your seed to multiply as the stars of heaven. I will give unto your seed all
these countries, and in your seed shall all the nations of
the earth be blessed." This is what I'm going to do. And here's
the grounds upon which I'm going to do it. Here's the cause of
it. Because that Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge,
my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. This is the first
time we find that I am aware of in the Word of God where this
concept is introduced, that God will bless a group of people.
Here he says a nation, the nations of the world. I will bless them
because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my laws and my statutes
and my commandments. In thy seed shall all the nations
of the earth be blessed, as a result of Abraham's obeying my voice. Now, that's a wonderful concept,
isn't it? But you know that's the gospel? That is the gospel
in a nutshell. Strong says this word, because,
carries the ideal of compensation. In other words, he's saying,
I'm going to bless you to compensate Abraham for his obedience. that He has obeyed my voice and
kept my laws. This concept is so important
because this is the very way that God blesses us. This is
the way that He saves us and forgives us and gives us righteousness
and justifies us by the obedience of some other person. Now, I
want you to turn to Romans chapter 5. You hold Genesis 26. And I
want you to turn to Romans chapter 5, and if you have never marked
this verse of Scripture before, I want you to mark this verse
of Scripture. Because this is what we're saying
here this evening in this passage, that God blesses other people
because of somebody else's obedience. You look at Romans chapter 5,
and look here in verse 19. Romans 5, verse 19. If you don't
have this marked in your Bible, and you don't mind marking it
in your Bible, you mark this verse. And not only mark it,
but set and look at it. Just take time when you get home
or wherever you are on your job, have time just to sit and stare
at this verse. Isn't it an amazing verse what
it teaches? And this is the Gospel. Look
what it says in verse 19. For as by one man's disobedience,
that was Adam, many were made sinners, sinners by nature, sinners
by deed, sinners by choice, so by the obedience of one, Jesus
Christ, shall many be made righteous. Ain't that a wonderful concept? By one man's obedience shall
many be made righteous." Remember what the Lord Jesus said about
righteousness? Except your righteousness exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no
wise inherit the kingdom of heaven. Abraham believed God and it was
counted to him for righteousness. David said, in you, O Lord, do
I put my trust? Let me never be put to shame.
Deliver me in your righteousness. Deliver me from my sin. Deliver
me from my guilt. Deliver me from the judgment
of God and from the wrath of God. How, David, in your righteousness. And here it is. Here is that
righteousness. It's the righteousness that comes
through the obedience of somebody else, the Lord Jesus Christ. David said in that wonderful
psalm, in Psalms 89, blessed are the people that know the
joyful sound. The joyful sound. Not that sound
from Mount Sinai, where those bugles were blowing. And the
angels' voices were heard, and the lightning was flashing, and
the thunder, and God gave those Ten Commandments. And they said,
Don't let God speak with us. We're going to die if He speaks
with us. But David said, Blessed are those who know the joyful
sound, the gospel sound. Lift up your voice, he said,
O Zion, with your glad tidings of great joy. They shall walk,
O Lord, in the light of your countenance, and in your name
shall they rejoice all the day long, and in your righteousness
shall they be exalted." And somebody else's righteousness. Whose righteousness? The Lord Jesus Christ. Surely,
shall one say, in the Lord, in the Lord Jesus Christ have I
righteousness by His obedience. By the obedience of one man shall
many be made righteous." Not that they'll be put on a way
of righteousness, that they may by their own obedience work out
a righteousness. It's not that they'll have a
chance to become righteous, but they'll be made righteous by
the obedience of one man. Not that they'll have a righteousness
pasted on them, But they'll be made righteous. Made righteous. Not merely counted righteous,
but made righteous. By His obedience shall many be
made righteousness. Listen to this wonderful passage.
God hath made Christ to be sin for us, Him who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God. in Him. Now, do you suppose if a man
had such a righteousness as that, that he could face death and
eternity and stand before God in that righteousness? I'd say
he can, wouldn't you? Now, to Him that's able to keep
you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence
of His glory, do you know about anybody in this life who is faultless? I know only one man that lived
in this life that was faultless, but only one, and that was Jesus
the Lord. But here he says that he is able
to present you faultless before the all-seeing eye of God's holiness. How does he do that? It is this
righteousness. By the obedience of one man shall
many be made righteous. That is a wonderful concept,
isn't it? Blessing other people because of one man's obedience.
Come, you're blessed of my Father. You're blessed of my Father.
On what grounds? Because I obeyed my Father. Now,
you come and you inherit the blessings. You can't earn them. You didn't buy them. It's not
inheritance. You're blessed of my Father because
I obeyed my Father. Now, that's the gospel, ain't
it? That's the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ, due to
His obedience, now shares upon us the blessings of God. And you and I rejoice when we
find that out. But there's something else about
Abraham's obedience. Turn back over here again with
me in Genesis chapter 26. It's not only that his obedience
brings the blessings of God, and because of his obedience,
Something else concerning Abraham's obedience, and notice this here
in verse 5, and you may have never noticed this before, but
notice how complete it was. Notice how thorough Abraham's
obedience was. You and I have never seen this
before. We've never seen this before because nothing was ever
said like this before. Look at this. Here's what God
said concerning Abraham. Because Abraham obeyed my voice,
he kept my charge, He kept my commandments, He kept my statutes,
and He kept my laws. And you and I look at this and
we'll say, we've never seen such things. What in the world is
He talking about? You know, when you come to this,
this is the first time any of these things have been mentioned.
You'll look in vain to see that anybody kept any charge in all
the 26 chapters before this. Nothing is ever said about God's
commandments, about His statues and His laws. This is never mentioned. You come here and you begin to
wonder, what in the world is he talking about? Abraham kept
his charge. Abraham kept his statues and
his commandments. And then you begin to search
and see what kind of man Abraham was. And what you conclude is
that Abraham just obeyed and everything. He was obedient in
everything God asked him and commanded him to do. He obeyed
everything. The Lord appeared to Abraham
in chapter 12, and He said, Abraham, get out from your country, from
your father's house. And the Scripture says, Abraham
obeyed and went out. In the 17th chapter, the Lord
appeared to Abraham, and He said, Abraham, circumcise yourself
and all the males of your house. Circumcise them. Abraham sharpened
his knife, went out and circumcised all of his males, according to
the word of the Lord. In chapter 15, the Lord said
to Abraham, Take you a heifer, a goat, a ram, turtledoves, and
pigeons, and you cut them up in proper order, and you offer
them to me for a sacrifice. Abraham done exactly what the
Lord told him to do. Those buzzards came down on the
sacrifice, and he got him a stick and drove them all away to obey
the Lord. In the 21st chapter, the Lord
spoke to Abraham, and He said, You cast out that bondwoman and
her son, for they won't be sons. He won't be an heir with Isaac,
My son. You cast them out. Abraham got
him a bottle of water, a loaf of bread, and gave it to Hagar
and sent him, her, and his son out into the wilderness. He obeyed
God's word. The Lord come to Abraham in chapter
22 and said, Take your son, your only son, and offer him for a
burnt offering. Abraham took him up there and
put him on that pile of wood and was ready to slay him and
set it on fire. Everything that God told him
to do, he did. Every law, every statute, every
commandment, Abraham did it. His obedience was more thorough
than I can imagine. I had no idea he did all of this,
did you? But God knew my charge, my commandment,
my statutes, my laws, It wasn't that Abraham just refrained from
doing anything evil. He did everything right in the
eyes of God. And this was God's testimony
of him. And he says now to Isaac, I'm
going to bless you, because his obedience was so fair. If you and I have difficulty
grasping the obedience of Abraham, this mere man, How much less
can we enter into the perfect obedience of the God-man? How many ways can a man sin? We sin by commission. We sin
by omission. None of us realize all that is
required in perfect obedience. The law of the land? That is
required. Obeying the civil authority?
Obeying the law of nature? Obeying conscience? Obeying God's
voice? Obeying God's law? There have
been some people that talked about human perfection as though they
knew what that entailed. Have you ever talked to somebody
that believed in human perfection? I don't think we have anybody
around I guess we've been so experienced now that humanity
has finally lived long enough now that those fellows finally
said, no, no. Experience tells us better than
that. Throw away the Bible, we know better than that. But there's
been some who professed human perfection, having no idea what
that entails. How often have you and I sinned
and never realized it because we were ignorant of the law that
we had just broken. How little do we know and understand
concerning complete and thorough obedience. Yet the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God in our humanity, right before the eye
of all seeing God, from His birth to His death, rendered perfect
obedience to God. Even the death of the cross He
obeyed. Obedience in his thoughts, obedience
in his motives, obedience in his word, obedience in his deeds. He knew everything that God required,
and he rendered perfect obedience to everything. The Lord Jesus
in John chapter 8 was talking to the Jews, and what He was
telling them there was He was unlike them. He said, I'm nothing
like you. You're trying to bring me down
on your level." But he said, I'm nothing like you. I'm from
above and you're from beneath. I'm from heaven and you're of
this world. And he made this statement, it's the most marvelous
statement, and it shows us in this statement that he is indeed
eternally different than you and I are. Here's what he said.
He that sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone,
because I do always those things that please Him." Ain't that
a wonderful testimony? Always? Was his obedience that
thorough and complete that he could honestly say, from the
time I was born to this very day, My thoughts, my motives,
my words, and my deeds has thoroughly pleased God. He's nothing like
us, is He? He's nothing at all like us,
Jesus is. Not like us. You and I seek to
know God's will. We read and we pray and we seek
it. And when we find it, we try to
do it. And what do we wind up doing?
We wind up weeping and repenting. Because we see sin is mixed with
everything we do. But I'll tell you one thing,
brothers and sisters, it wasn't so with him. He knew God's will,
and he did it perfectly. God sent him to do a work, and
he accomplished it perfectly. That's obedience. And you know
something? That's the obedience God requires. I called Brother Larry yesterday
and asked him if he knew that Catholic doctrine, the name of
the Catholic doctrine they have. I found the word. It's superrogation,
the doctrine of superrogation. And it's the doctrine that means
this, that someone has rendered over and above that which is
required. Their obedience is more than
has been required. And by rendering more than was
required, they build up merit. And then in certain cases, they
can take their merit and give it to somebody else. It's a prerogation. You got any extra merits? I'll
tell you somebody that has. I tell you, he rendered such
perfect obedience to his Father that he built up enough marriage
in himself that he can give it to you and he can give it to
me and make us righteous, save us. By one man's obedience shall
many be made righteous. And the last thing about Abraham's
obedience is this. We'll look at this and we'll
quit. It's finished. Now this is so important. It's
obedience. It's perfect obedience. It's
thorough obedience. And here's a wonderful concept.
It's written here in past tense. Did you notice verse 5 in our
text? Because Abraham obeyed my voice. And he kept my charge. He kept my commandments. He kept
my statutes. He kept my laws. It's a finished
obedience. Why is this so important? Well,
it was only after Abraham died that you could sum up this obedience. You had to wait until he died.
What do you think about Abraham's obedience? Is it a thorough obedience? Is it perfect obedience? Well,
we'll have to wait and see. He's still breathing, you know.
We're going to watch Him. He could get messed up. There's
been a lot of old men messed up in their old age. So we're
just going to watch Him. And then, after He's dead, then
we'll sum up His obedience. Then we'll see how perfect it
was. Well, in chapter 25, down here in verse 28, look at this.
In verse 7. Chapter 25, verse 7. These are
the days of the years of Abraham's life which he lived. Now 175
years, and Abraham gave up the ghost and died in a good old
age. Abraham was dead. He was gone. And his obedience was finished. You could count it up and say,
here's what he did, and now it's never going to change. He's not
here to mess it up. He's dead. He's gone. Now you
can sum up his obedience. Did Abraham obey God in all things?
Yes, he did. And you know something? That
will never change. It can't change. Why? Because Abraham's gone now. He
can't mess it up. See what he's saying. See the
importance of that. See the importance of that. If Abraham was still
around, and the Lord came to Isaac, and he said, Isaac, I'm
going to bless you for Abraham's sake, because he obeyed me. And then a month later, the Lord
comes back and says, Isaac, I'm sorry. I've been watching Abraham over
there, and in his old age, he's messed up. So I'm going to have
to withdraw the blessings that I promised you. I can't bless
you after all. No, it can't happen. Why? The
obedience is finished. He ended his course. God's going
to bless Isaac and all the nations on Abraham's finished obedience. Ain't that wonderful? It's the same with our Lord Jesus
Christ. Not only are we blessed because
of His obedience, not only are we blessed because He thoroughly
obeyed, but we're blessed because His obedience has been summed
up. It's finished. That was twice the Lord made
a statement. He came to the end of His ministry.
And then he stops there in the 17th chapter of John. He stops
and he looks back over his life upon this earth. And he makes
double sure that everything God gave him to do, he did. He checked. He examined his footsteps. And he checked and made sure.
God told me to do this. My father told me to say that. And here was his conclusion as
he looked back over his earthly ministry. He says, Father, I
have glorified you on this earth. I have finished the work that
you gave me to do. I've loved you with all my heart.
I've kept all your laws, your statues, everything that was
required of me to honor you, I did it. I finished. There's nothing else left to
be done. The ministry is over with. He had finished his earthly
ministry. The last thing he did was eat
that supper with his disciples. And he says, now it's time I
go to the cross. All the work has been finished.
I don't have to go back and do anything. I didn't forget anything. I left nothing undone. It's finished. God has been glorified. Every
demand of the law has been obeyed. A perfect life has been lived. It's finished. What does that
mean to you and me? God requires it. That's what
God requires. How perfect do you and I have
to be to come into God's presence? Jesus Christ is the example.
What God required of Him is what He requires of you, and He requires
of me. I must do it in myself, or you
must trust someone else to have done it for you. That's what
it means. We can't be saved apart from
obedience. But not ours, but somebody else's.
And then He makes that statement again. He came there to the cross,
and He was hanging on the cross. And the Scripture says just as
the very same thing was said of Abraham, he gave up the ghost,
that very same thing was said of the Lord Jesus hanging on
that cross. He bowed his head and gave up the ghost, but remember
the statement that he made, the very last statement that he made
before he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. Remember that
precious word? It is finished. It is finished. What is finished? Justice has
been satisfied. It's finished. Justice is satisfied. Sin is punished. It's purged. It's put away. It's finished. Sin's penalty. The wages of sin
is death. The Lord Jesus said it's finished. You know why no child of God
should fear death? Because Jesus Christ tasted it. He tasted it. You know why no child of God
should fear the wrath to come? Because Jesus Christ suffered
it. He suffered it. I mean, He suffered
it. He's not suffering it. No child
of God will ever suffer it because it's not been suffered. Death's
been tasted. It's in the past tense. It is
finished. Perfect obedience and it's finished. We often talk about trusting
the finished work of Christ. I've got a better statement than
that. Trust Christ. who finished the work. Rest upon
Him. He's not asking anything of you.
Like dear old Brother Thomas said, I listened to that message
and Brother Glenn, I listened to what he said four times. Do, do, do. That's all we think about, isn't
it? Do, do, do, do, do, do, do. The work is finished. Rest, rest,
rest, rest, rest. And I'm telling you, when you
rest in the Lord Jesus Christ, there's when you'll go out to
do for His glory. We must be always coming right
back here and hearing the Gospel and learning the Gospel all over
again. Let me read you one passage, and I'll close with reading this
passage. Look here in Leviticus chapter 16, verse 29. Leviticus chapter 16, verse 29. I was reading this passage one
day, and it just jumped out at me. And my soul entered such
rest when I read this. And I would encourage you to
just open your Bibles in Leviticus 16, and just look at this passage. Just look at it. And see the
Lord Jesus Christ in this. This is the Day of Atonement.
where the priests went into the sanctuary with blood to atone
for their sins. And look here in verse 29 of
Leviticus chapter 16. This shall be a statue forever
unto you, that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the
month, you shall humble your souls. That's what that word
is. You shall afflict your souls. Humble your souls. and do no
work at all, whether it be one of your own country or a stranger
that sojourneth among you. For on that day shall the priest
make an atonement for you, to cleanse you that you may be clean
from all your sins before the Lord." What would it mean for
you to leave here this evening clean? before God. You will not become clean by
doing. Cease to do, he said. Cease to
do. Someone else has already done.
Set outside that sanctuary. And you watch that priest with
his basin of blood go all the way back through that curtain,
and he opens it up and he goes before the mercy seat, and he
sprinkles that mercy seat with blood. What are you doing? You're sitting outside. The priest
is doing something on your behalf. He's facing God. He's coming
into God on your behalf. And He has the remedy for your
sin. It's a cup of blood, a basin of blood, a bowl of blood, and
He sprinkles it before God. And God appears in His Shekinah
glory, and He says, I've accepted this sacrifice. And the priest
goes back out, and there you stand anxiously awaiting. And
he lifts up his hands and says, God bless you. Go home in peace. God has accepted my sacrifice. That's what you and I need to
see. And we need to see it not just one time. Get up in the
morning, Monday morning, not Sunday morning, but Monday morning,
and read this passage, and see Jesus Christ going into the presence
of God for you, and obtaining redemption for you. And just
sit there and look at Him, and praise Him for doing it. and
then go out and live for His glory and tell others what He's
done. Oh, what a gospel! What a gospel! By the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. God bless His Word.