Blessings

Q: What does the Bible say about God's blessings?

The Bible speaks of God's blessings as promises He gives to His people, emphasizing that if God blesses you, you are indeed blessed. God's blessings are central to His covenant promises. As seen in Hebrews 6:11-15, the writer expresses a strong desire for believers to inherit these promises through faith and patience. The blessings of God represent not mere material good but a profound spiritual inheritance that stems from His unchanging character. For instance, when God blessed Abraham with the promise of multiplicity, He emphasized that His word is irrevocable, showcasing the depth of God's commitment to his promises. Therefore, to be blessed by God is to be in a relationship where all aspects of life are touched by His gracious favor and peace, as illustrated in Numbers 23:20, where Balak is told that the blessings of God cannot be reversed.

Q: How do we know God's promises are true?

God's promises are validated by His character, as He cannot lie and has sworn by Himself to affirm His fidelity to His word. The certainty of God's promises is rooted in His perfect and immutable character. As noted in Hebrews 6:13-18, God swears by Himself because there is no higher authority. This divine assurance provides a strong foundation for the faith of believers, as His promises are anchored in His nature. Moreover, believers can find confidence in the historical fulfillment of God's promises; just as Abraham patiently endured and ultimately received God's promise, we, too, can trust that God will fulfill His declarations. The indispensability of faith is also highlighted; as we believe what God has said, we can rest assured in the power of His promises, ensuring that they will come to fruition.

Q: Why is faith important for Christians?

Faith is vital for Christians as it is the means through which they inherit the promises of God and live in assurance of their salvation. Faith serves as the conduit through which believers access God's promises and blessings. In Hebrews 6:12, the writer encourages Christians to not be slothful but to become imitators of those who inherit God's promises through faith and patience. This concept of faith is not merely an intellectual assent; it is an active trust in God's word and character. Faith and its expression through patience is pivotal, as illustrated by Abraham's journey; he believed despite circumstances that challenged his understanding. Faith, thus, fosters a relationship with God wherein believers can confidently navigate life's uncertainties, knowing that their salvation and the blessings it brings are securely grounded in Christ's completed work. Hence, faith is central to the Christian experience, providing both assurance of salvation and the strength to endure.

Q: What does it mean to inherit the promises?

To inherit the promises means to receive the blessings and assurances given by God, signifying a deep relationship with Him. Inheriting the promises refers to the realization of God's declared blessings in the lives of believers. This concept is woven throughout Scripture and prominently features in Hebrews 6:11-12, where the faithful are encouraged to pursue the full assurance of hope unto the end to inherit the promises. This inheritance comes through faith and patience, indicating that receiving God's promises is an active and ongoing process rather than a one-time event. As seen in the example of Abraham, trusting in God despite challenges was essential to experiencing the fulfillment of those promises. Inherited blessings include spiritual salvation, peace, and God's favor, enveloping believers in a profound relationship with their Creator, who has committed to bless them eternally.

I hope we believe that psalm we
just heard and that we will ask for the Lord's blessing on us. His grace and power are such
that none can ever ask too much. I've entitled this message, Blessing. Blessing. In Hebrews chapter
6, verse 11, we read, and we desire, the writer to the Hebrew
says, that every one of you do show the same diligence to the
full assurance of hope unto the end, that ye be not slothful
but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the
promises. Now the word desire in verse
11, it's a very strong word. It's sometimes translated to
covet or to lust after. It's a strong desire. Paul says, or whoever wrote Hebrew
says, this is what I desire for you. This is what I covet for
you. And what is it that he covets
for them that they might inherit the promises? Now, what are the
promises he speaks of? Well, in verse 13, for when God
made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater,
he swore by himself, saying, surely, blessing, I will bless
thee. And multiplying, I will multiply
thee. And so that after he had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise. Now, the promise And the promises
are the blessing and the blessings of God. Now this is what I want. I covet this for myself. I covet
this for you. I want the blessing of God, don't
you? I desperately want, I covet, I crave for the blessing of God
upon me. Turn with me for a moment to
Numbers chapter 22. Verse 12. Now this is after Balak had asked
Balaam to curse Israel. Verse 12, Numbers 22, And God
said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them, thou shalt
not curse the people, for they are blessed. Now if God blesses
me, you know what that means? I'm blessed. Whatever God's blessing
is, if God blesses me, I'm blessed. Go on reading. And Balaam rose
up in the morning and said unto the princes of Balaam, Get you
under your land, for the Lord refuseth to give me leave to
go with you. He's not going to do it. And
God, verse 12, And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go, for
they are blessed. Now look in Chapter 23, verse
5. Balak continues to get Balaam
to curse the children of Israel. And we read beginning in verse
5 of Numbers, chapter 23. And the Lord put a word in Balaam's
mouth, this is the Lord's word in Balaam's mouth, and said,
Return unto Balak, and thus thou shalt speak. And he returned
unto him, and, lo, he stood by his burnt sacrifice, and all
the princes of Moab, and he took up his parable. And said, Balak,
the king of Moab, hath brought me from Aram out of the mountains
of the east, saying, Come, curse me, Jacob, and come, defy Israel.
How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? Or how shall I defy
whom the Lord hath not defied? From the top of the rocks I see
him, and from the hills I behold him. Lo, the people, talking
about Israel, shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among
the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number
of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous,
and let my last end be like his. Look in verse 15 of this same
chapter. And he, Balaam, said unto Balak, Stand here by the
burnt offering, and I'll meet the Lord yonder. And the LORD
met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, Go again
unto Balak, and say thus. And when he came to him, behold,
he stood by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with
him. And Balak said unto him, What hath the LORD spoken? And
he took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear, hearken
unto me, thou son of Zippor. God is not a man, that he should
lie, neither the son of man, that he should repent. Hath he
said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall
he not make it good? Behold, I have received commandment
to bless, and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it. He hath
not beheld iniquity in Jacob." Listen to me, child of God, what
a blessing this is. When God looks at you, He does
not behold iniquity. Now can there be anything better
than that? Can there be any blessing greater
than that? Neither hath he seen perverseness
in Israel. The Lord his God is with him,
and the shout of a king is among them." And I know what that shout
is. It is finished. That's the shout of the king
that God's people rejoice in. Verse 22, God brought them out
of Egypt. He hath, as it were, the strength
of a unicorn. Surely there's no enchantment
against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel.
According to this time, it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel,
what hath God wrought? What has God done for them? What blessing to be blessed by
God. Now, if I say, bless you, can I do it? No. I can't confer on you any blessing. Some people, I mean, they're
nice in saying it, they'll say, bless you, bless you. And I'm
sitting here thinking, you can't do that. Only the Lord can truly
bless a person. And what power he has to bless. Now, inheriting the promises
are inheriting the promises of blessing. Now, I want the promise
of blessing, don't you? I so much want God to bless me. I want God to bless you. This
is what I crave. This is what I desire. God's
blessing. God's blessing makes everything
a blessing. If I have God's blessing, health
is a blessing and sickness is a blessing. If I have God's blessing,
prosperity is a blessing and failure is a blessing. If I have
God's blessing, what I do have is a blessing and what I do not
have is a blessing. All is a blessing if I have God's
blessing. If God blesses you, you are blessed. If God be for us, who can be
against us? To have God for you to have God
on your side, to have God intent upon blessing you. You see, if
He blesses you, you're blessed. And that blessing cannot be reversed. Now, here is God's blessing.
Would you turn with me for a moment to Isaiah 54? I think the timing
of this is beautiful. Isaiah 54 comes right after Isaiah
53. Isaiah 53 is that great chapter
of the Lord's substitutionary death for His people, His death
on the cross, He hath borne our iniquities and carried our sorrows
and so on. Every blessing I have, every
blessing God has to give to anybody comes because of the death of
the Lord Jesus Christ. So, we read Isaiah 53, you know
what it says, and now let's look at Isaiah 54. Here's our response
to Isaiah 53. Sing, O barren, thou that didst
not bear." You couldn't produce life. Break forth into singing
and cry aloud, thou that didst not prevail with a child. For
more are the children of the desolate than the children of
their married wife, saith the Lord. Enlarge the place of thy
tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy inhabitation.
Spare not. Lengthen thy cords, and strengthen
thy stakes. For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on
the left. And thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make
the desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear not. For thou shalt not
be ashamed, neither be thou confounded. For thou shalt not be put to
shame, For thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt
not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. For thy
maker is thy husband, the Lord of hosts is his name, and thy
Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth, shall
he be called. For the Lord hath called thee
as a woman forsaken, and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth,
when thou wast refused, saith thy God, for a small moment have
I forsaken thee. but with great mercies will I
gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have
mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer." Now I have no
doubt that's a reference to the cross. 4, verse 9, For this is
as the waters of Noah unto me. For as I have sworn that the
waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I
sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For
the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed. But my
kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant
of my peace be removed, saith the Lord, that hath mercy on
thee. O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted,
Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy
foundations with sapphires. And I'll make thy windows of
agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant
stones. And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord.
And great shall be the peace of thy children. In righteousness
shalt thou be established. Thou shalt be far from oppression,
for thou shalt not fear, and from terror, for it shall not
come near thee. Behold, they shall surely gather together,
but not by me. Whosoever shall gather together against thee
shall fall for thy sake. Behold, I have created the smith,
and bloweth the coals and the fire, and the bringeth forth
the instrument for his work, and I have created the waster
to destroy. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.
And every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment, Thou
shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants
of the Lord, every single one of them, and their righteousness,
their personal righteousness is of me. Now that is blessing. Can you see why I covet this
for myself and you? I want to inherit The blessing. What an inheritance of infinite
riches. The blessing of the living God. Now let's go back to our text
in Hebrews chapter 6. Don't you want the Lord's blessing? I do. And I'm asking for it. Lord,
bless me. Come, my soul, thy suit prepared. Jesus loves to
answer prayer. He himself has bid thee pray. Therefore will not say thee nay.
Thou art coming to a king. Large petitions with thee pray.
For His grace and power are such that none can ever ask too much. Now back in Hebrews chapter 6,
we saw this last week, the writer had given this solemn warning
in verses 7 and 8. He says, For the earth which
drinketh in the rain, that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth
herbs of meat for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing
from God. But that which beareth thorns
and briars, is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end
is to be burned. But, beloved, we are persuaded
better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though
we thus speak." Now, we're persuaded, he says to these people, of better
things than you, of your end being burned. But we're persuaded
of things that accompany salvation. Now first, I love this word,
salvation. What a wonderful word, salvation. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. God's salvation,
it's of the Lord, and oh, His salvation is such that if He
saves you, here's what salvation's all about, it's taking somebody
like me, somebody like you, somebody that's weak, somebody that's
sinful, somebody that's undeserving. You could just go on with all
the descriptions you want to use. He takes somebody like me
and makes me perfectly conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. That's salvation, isn't it? Truly,
salvation is of the Lord. And He said, we're persuaded
better things of you and things that accompany salvation. Now,
there's some things that accompany salvation. These things don't
save you, but you're not saved apart from these things or without
these things. We're persuaded of faith. Now,
my faith doesn't save me. Christ saves me. Faith believes
that. And the Lord puts such honor upon faith that He says,
Thy faith hath saved thee. Now, why does He put such honor
on faith? Because faith gives all the honor to Him. Faith trusts
the Lord Jesus Christ completely. Faith is accompanying salvation. Repentance, a change of mind. I've changed my mind about God.
I don't believe what I used to believe. I've changed my mind.
I've changed my mind about myself. I don't believe what I used to
believe about myself. I see now, I agree with what God says about
me. I've changed my mind about salvation. I see salvation's
all of grace. I see it's all in Christ. I've
had a change of mind about that. Every believer repents. I've
had a change of mind about sin. I've had a change of mind about
this world. That accompanies salvation. Love
accompanies salvation. I love God. I love the Lord Jesus
Christ. I love God the Holy Spirit. I
love His Word. I love His people. I love everything
about Him. I didn't used to. This accompanies
salvation. Salvation is what Christ does
for you. And there's things that accompany salvation. Zeal. I'm
zealous for His glory. Every believer is zealous for
His glory. I love Him getting all the glory and none going
to me. I love that. Zealous. Whatever the fruit of
the Spirit. Love. Joy. Peace. Long-suffering. Gentleness. Goodness. Faith. meekness, temperance. That's the fruit of God, the
Holy Spirit. He says, I'm persuaded better things of you and things
that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. Now here's why
he was persuaded of better things for them. Let's read verses 9
and 10 together. But Beloved, we're persuaded better things
of you and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
He was kind of speaking kind of harshly in verses 7 and 8.
For God is not unrighteous to forget. your work and labor of
love, which you showed toward his name, in that you ministered
to the saints and do minister." Now here's the evidence. Here's
the evidence that God's done something for you. First of all,
you have a love for his name. And you know, I do have a love
for his name. I love the name of Jesus. No name like His name. How wonderful
His name is. I love the name of Jesus because
of what His name means. Thou shalt call His name Jesus
for He shall save His people from their sins. I love His name
because I realize I'm saved only for His namesake. And I glory
in I'm saved for Christ's sake. And that's enough of a reason
for me to believe I really am saved. He saves me for Christ's
sake. Oh, how I love His name. I love
His name. You see, His name is my name.
Jehovah Tzedkenu, the Lord our righteousness. I love His name. And notice he talks about the
work and labor of love toward His name. And here's what proves
it in that you minister to His saints. You minister to His saints
and you do minister. You've ministered to His saints.
Now, His saints. Nobody is special like any believer. I don't care who the believer
is. They're saints. They're sanctified ones. They're holy ones. They
belong to the Lord. And here's how special a believer
is. Whatever you do to them, you
do to Christ Himself. That's how special every believer
is. Inasmuch as you've done it to the least of these, my brethren,
you've done it to me." Now that's special, isn't it? How you treat
me, better watch out how you treat me. How you treat me is
how you treat the Lord Jesus Christ. How I treat you is how
I treat the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, you've ministered to
His saints. Not just you did it in the past,
but you're doing it right now. And do, minister, you seek to
be a servant to God's people. Now listen to me. The highest
ambition, and we ought to be ambitious people. A good kind
of ambition. The highest ambition there is,
is to be a servant to the Lord's people. You believe that? It's so. That's the highest calling
I can have, is simply to be a servant to the Lord's people. Now let's
go on reading. He says, God, in verse 10, God
is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which
you showed toward His name, in that you have ministered, served
the saints, and do minister. It's not what you did yesterday,
but what you're doing right now. And we desire, we eagerly desire,
we crave for this, we lust for this, that every one of you do
show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the
end. Now here's what we desire for
you that you show, first of all, diligence. Diligence. Earnest, watchful care. Give diligence, Peter says, to
make your calling and election sure. Give diligence toward that. Give all diligence, he says,
to add to your faith virtue, and to your virtue knowledge,
and to your knowledge temperance, and to your temperance patience,
and to patience Godliness into godliness, brotherly kindness
into brotherly kindness, charity. Give diligence. Give every effort. Give earnest care. Don't be lazy
about this. Give all diligence to show, he
says in verse 11, to show the same diligence to the full assurance
of hope unto the end. Now, give diligence to have full
assurance. To where you know, you know you're
God's child. You know He's put away your sins. Full assurance. Now where does
full assurance come from? Some people act like it almost
like it's, you know, I doubt, therefore I must have faith.
No, not necessarily. Doubting is not good. Is God
worthy of all complete trust? Is the Lord Jesus Christ worthy
of complete trust? Now, where does full assurance
come from? Because I want to have full assurance.
I don't want to walk around doubting, wondering. I want to have full
assurance of faith. Where does full assurance come
from? Our Lord said, it is finished. Now, what else do you need for
full assurance? What else? Now, if I lack full
assurance, there's a reason. I'm not really believing at that
time it is finished. If I believe it is finished,
if I believe my salvation was accomplished by what Christ did,
I will have full assurance. And if I lack full assurance,
it's because I'm not really believing it is finished and I'm looking
to myself for something. If you look to yourself for something,
you're going to lose your assurance. I guarantee you will. You won't
have the joy and peace of believing if you're looking within. If
you're trying to examine yourself and so on about how good you
are or how much you're growing or how much fruit you have, you'll
lose your assurance. You look to Christ and you will have all
it takes to have full assurance of faith. Now is there any reason
for you to not have full assurance? No. If He really finished salvation,
no reason not to. Don't rest until you can say
with Paul, I know whom I have believed. And I am persuaded
that he is able to keep that which I've committed to him against
that day. Now let's go on reading verse
12. Here's what I'm designed for you, that you be not slothful,
but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the
promises. Now, I don't want you to be slothful. That same word is translated
earlier in this chapter, dull in hearing. Lazy, indolent, sluggish. You know, I hate laziness. I
hate laziness, but most especially disgusting is laziness in the
things of God. It's the opposite of being zealous.
Laziness. Now, what is spiritual laziness?
Well, you hear something like, come unto me, all ye that labor
and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. And you think, I'll
do it tomorrow. Come unto me. What do I have
to give up? How much do I have to believe?
What do I got to do? Can it wait? And spiritual laziness
is taking the things of God and saying, it's not worth the effort. We don't come out and say that,
but that's what it is. It's not worth the effort. He
says, I don't want you to be sluggish. I don't want you to
be slothful, spiritually lazy, dull, no emotional connection.
little desire, not willing to give an effort. What a deplorable
state to be in. Don't be slothful. But he says in verse 12 that
you be not slothful, but followers, imitators, mimics of them who
through faith and patience inherit the promises. Be literally mimics
of them who inherit the promises, but don't miss this, who through
faith and patience inherit the promises. The promises of God
are God's blessing. glorious inheritance, this blessing
of God, the promises of God. Remember, all the promises of
God in him are yea and amen. It's God's blessing. It's God's
salvation. It's God's mercy. It's God's
favor. That's God's blessing. How does
it come? Through them who through faith
and patience, not apart from faith and patience, but through
faith and patience inherit the promises. Now what's this thing
about? I'm not going to have God's blessing.
I'm not going to inherit the promises apart from faith and
patience. So what's this all about? Faith
is believing God. That's simple enough, isn't it?
It's believing what God said. You know, I want to be just a
child who believes what God says. Whatever He says, I believe it. Now, in the context of this passage
of scripture, he's using the example of Abraham, verse 13. For when God made promise to
Abraham, he's somebody who through faith and patience inherited
the promises. For when God made promise to Abraham, because he
could swear by no greater, he swore by himself, saying, surely,
Blessing, I will bless thee. And multiplying, I will multiply
thee. And so after he had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise. Now this is a quotation from
Genesis chapter 22. Would you turn with me there?
Genesis 22. When the Lord said this, this
was right after Abraham had offered up his only son. Genesis 22. Verse 15, Abraham had offered
up Isaac in obedience to the Lord, and the Lord provided that
substitutionary ram. And then we read in verse 15,
and the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the
second time and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord,
for because thou hast done this thing. and has not withheld thy
son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and
in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the
heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore. And thy
seed shall possess the gate of his enemies." Now, God made a
promise to Abraham before this. And this is the only way we can
appreciate this. God said, through Isaac, the Messiah is going to
come. Through your seed, all blessings
come. Now, God turns around and says,
kill him. That one that I promised the
blessings to come through, kill him. Now look at Hebrews chapter
11. Let's look at the writer to the Hebrews explanation of
what was going on here. Verse 17, By faith Abraham, when
he was tried, offered up Isaac, And he that had received the
promises offered up his only begotten Son, of whom it was
said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting,"
and here's what Abraham believed, "...accounting that God was able
to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received
him in a figure." Now here's what Abraham believed. God said,
kill your son. Abraham said, okay, I'm going
to kill him, but I know God's going to raise him from the dead
because God promised that the seed would come through this
boy. Therefore, obviously he's going to have to raise him from
the dead. He believed God. God made that promise. He believed
it. Even if Isaac was killed, he
believed God would raise him from the dead because God always
keeps his word. That's what faith believes. Faith
believes what God has said. Faith isn't believing God can
do anything. Somebody says, oh my God can do anything. I believe
He can pick up that car and throw it 100 yards or give me a million
dollars. Oh God can do so many things.
That's not faith. Faith is believing He will do
what He said He will do. Faith is believing He has done
what He said He has done. That's what faith is. Here's
faith. The Lord says through the prophet
Nathan to David, the Lord hath put away thy sin. You know what David did? He believed
his sin was put away. When the Lord said it is finished,
the salvation of everybody that Christ died for was accomplished. Faith believes that. I believe
what God said. That's what faith is. It's so
simple. It believes what God says. Through faith and patience,
he says. Here's the fruit of faith, patience. Now, patience. Everybody here thinks, well,
I'm not very patient. And no doubt we're not patient enough.
But that's really not what that's talking about when it's talking
about that, you know, when you get irritated in traffic a lot. I hate myself
for getting that way. My wife and daughter hate me
worse. I shouldn't get that way, and
that's wrong, but this thing of patience, when he's talking
about patience, he's not talking about, you know, not getting
upset while you're sitting in traffic, although you ought not, I realize. Here's the patience he's talking
about. You already know the outcome. You've already read the last
chapter of the book. You already know your sin's put away. You
already know you're accepted, therefore all the things that
happen You can take with patience. It's the Lord. It's the Lord.
He's in control. I've already read the last chapter.
I've won. I'm victorious in Christ Jesus.
Therefore, I can have patience. It's just like watching a replay
of a ball game. With those football games, they
show them at 11.30 at night when UK's not on TV. And if I already
know the outcome, I don't get upset if things are going bad
because I already know the outcome. I'm patient. Patience believes
it already knows the outcome. That's where we're coming from
in this thing. So through faith and patience, they inherit the
promises. Verse 13, Hebrews chapter 6. For when God made promise to
Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, He swear by himself,
saying, surely, blessing, I will bless thee, and multiplying,
I will multiply thee. You know, I love the language
of this, because God can swear by no greater. Isn't that glorious?
He's so great that He can't swear by anybody greater. There's nobody
above Him. He's altogether glorious. And
He said, because He could swear by no greater, He swore by Himself,
saying, Surely, blessing, I will bless thee. You see, blessing
begins with God. Surely, because I willed it,
I'll bless thee, and I'll multiply thee. And what did Abraham do? Surely, blessing, I will bless
thee, and multiplying, I will multiply. And so after that,
patiently endured. He obtained the promise. He simply waited for it to happen. He patiently endured. Now Abraham,
Abraham didn't have perfect faith. I mean, you look at his history,
I can show all kinds of holes in where he didn't seem to believe
God the way he ought to. I think of the way he did Sarah.
Two times he couldn't trust God to take care of him. And he was
afraid that because of Sarah, he would get in trouble because
she was a really nice looking lady. And he said, they'll kill
me to get her. So he said, you lie to them.
Tell them you're my sister. And he allowed Sarah to go into
a harem on two different occasions because he didn't believe God
as he ought to believe him. What about where he got in a
hurry with Hagar? The promise didn't come, so he
went ahead and tried to Do God's work for him. Now as long as
we're in the flesh, there will not be perfect faith, but there
is real faith. He did patiently endure. And
25 years after the promise was made, it still hadn't happened,
but Abraham knew it would. He knew Sarah was going to have
a baby. Now let's turn to Romans chapter 4 for a second. He patiently
endured. Beginning in verse 17, as it is written, God speaking
to Abraham, I have made thee a father of many nations. Now notice God didn't say, I
will make you a father of many nations. He says, I have made
thee a father of many nations. Hadn't happened yet, but when
God says it, it becomes past tense, doesn't it? I have made thee a father of
many nations before him whom he believed even God. who quickeneth,
who gives life to the dead, and calls those things which be not
as though they were, 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. He simply believed what God
said. 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.
She'd already gone through menopause. He understood that. Yet he staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith,
giving glory to God and being fully persuaded that what he
had promised, he was able also to perform. Are you fully persuaded
of that? Verse 22, and therefore it was
imputed to him for righteousness. Now, it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also to whom
it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our
Lord from the dead who was delivered for our offenses and was raised
again for our justification. Now, here's my challenge to myself
and to you. Mimic Abraham. Believe who he believed. Believe
what he believed. Believe as he believed. You mimic Abraham. Is there any
reason for you and I to have any faith weaker than that which
is of Abraham? You know, you and I should believe
God just as earnestly, just as simply as Abraham did. There's
no reason for us not to. Christ is the object of our faith,
and therefore we have every reason to have complete assurance in
Him. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed, and I'm persuaded. I'm utterly convinced. I'm hanging
my hat here. I'm persuaded that He is able
to keep that which I have committed unto Him. Now, what did you commit
unto Him, Paul? I committed to Him the salvation
of my soul. Hands off! Hands off! If you
believe and it works in any way, that's a failure to commit. The
only way you truly commit to Him is, hands off, I trust Him
only as everything in salvation. Now, there's no real faith without
this commitment. And if you fail to commit, it's
because you don't really believe that He is able to keep that
which I've committed to Him against that day. Now, everybody in this
room believe God just like Abraham did. I want to do that, don't you?
And by the grace of God, I'm saying by the grace of God, but
by the grace of God, I'm going to do that. That scares me when
I say that, because I know that if the Lord lets me go, I won't. But by His grace, I want to be
somebody who simply believes God, who through faith and patience
inherits the promises. May God give us all grace to
do that. Believe God. Isn't he worthy
of complete trust? God commands all men everywhere
to believe. Obey God's command. Let's pray
together.

Blessings

What does the Bible say about God's blessings?

How do we know God's promises are true?

Why is faith important for Christians?

What does it mean to inherit the promises?

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Blessings

What does the Bible say about God's blessings?

How do we know God's promises are true?

Why is faith important for Christians?

What does it mean to inherit the promises?

Sermon Transcript

About Todd Nibert

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