I want to pick up tonight right
where I left off this morning in Genesis 15, verse 6. Genesis 15, verse 6. If you're taking notes, the title
of the message this evening is Standing on Justified Ground. Genesis 15, verse 6. And he believed
in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness. Abraham believed God. What an astounding statement. Do you believe God? I believe
God. What an astounding fact. You see, faith is that which
no man can perform. No man can exercise. It cannot be mustered by mental
determination. It cannot be accomplished by
a mere decision or an exercise of man's imaginary free will.
Faith is the gift of God. If a man believes God, he believes
God by the operation of God's grace. If a man believes God,
we believe God according to the working of his mighty power. No man can or will believe God
except God give him faith by his almighty grace. Now faith
is absolutely essential to our salvation, yet faith does not
accomplish it. Faith is that which receives
what God accomplished, and yet we could never receive it except
by faith, and so we must believe him. And if we believe him, it's
because he's given us grace to believe him. My soul, can it
be that God who has discerning love gives this great gift to
me? Abraham believed God. When the Holy Spirit tells us
that, he is saying, here is a miracle of grace. Here is a sinner doing
what no sinner can do. doing what we must do, doing
what only the grace of God can enable us to do. Abraham believed
God. Oh, I pray that God will cause
you to believe him, to believe him. Now in this 15th chapter
of Genesis, when the Holy Spirit tells us that Abraham believed
God, five things are evident concerning his faith. First,
He believed the gospel as the very word of God, and the word
of God directly from God himself. Paul tells us that the word of
God which he spoke to Abraham was the gospel of Christ preached
to him. God had said to Abraham, Fear
not, Abram, for I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.
And upon the heels of this revelation, Abraham asked God to give him
a son. He asked God to give him that
one through whom his promise would be accomplished. And then
in verse four, we're told, Behold, the word of the Lord came to
him saying this, this Eliezer shall not be your heir, but he
that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine
heir. And he brought him forth abroad
and said, look toward heaven, count the stars and you can count
your people. Now, like Saul of Tarsus, Abraham
was a man who could declare, as Saul did after he was converted,
I certify you that the gospel I believe is not after man. For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ. The gospel came to him not as
the word of man, but as the word of God. His faith stood not in
the words of man's wisdom, but in the wisdom of God and in the
power of God. You see, if a sinner believes
God, he will believe because the gospel has come to him in
demonstration of the Holy Spirit, in effectual power, and in much
assurance. In the assurance that it is indeed
the Word of God. This is what Paul said to the
Thessalonians. Turn over to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. He says, I know your
election. I know your election. In verse
five, he says, I know it for our gospel came not to you in
word only. You didn't just hear us preaching. You didn't just hear us talking
about the things of God. Our gospel did not come to you
merely with the words of men, but rather it came to you in
power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. Oh God, make
your word come to me in that way, in power, divine power,
in the Holy Ghost, by the operations, the secret, mysterious, effectual
operations of God in your heart, giving you assurance this is
God's word, this is God's word, so that you hear the word say,
God said that, God said that, that's not a man talking, that's
God talking, God said that. That faith, you see, which stands
in the wisdom of man is nothing but a man's faith, no matter
how accurate it may be doctrinally. That faith which stands only
in the wisdom of a man is nothing but a man's faith. If you believe
because you have been persuaded by some man to believe, if you
believe because you have been enticed by some man to believe,
if you believe because some man with great eloquence and reason
and logic and oratory skill has massaged your brain and talked
you into believing, you don't believe. Faith stands in the
power of God as the very Word of God. All right, secondly,
Abraham believed the Word of God specifically concerning his
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That seed in whom and by whom
redemption would be accomplished, that seed in whom and by whom
the blessing of God would come upon chosen sinners. The promise
he heard from God, he recognized to be the very same promise as
had been made to Mother Eve back yonder in the garden. Now, theologians
can't see it. Commentators can't see it. Educated
fellows can't see it. Hebraists and Greek scholars
can't see it. Abraham saw it. He said, this
is what God told Eve. This is what God told Eve. This is the seed of whom Eve
had promised. This is the seed in whom Adam
and Eve, this is the seed promised of God from the beginning. He
understood that God was talking to him about his son. And Paul
tells us that he understood that. I'm not guessing about it. We
read this morning in Galatians 6, or Galatians 3, Paul says
plainly, God told Abraham, now I'm talking about my son. He's
going to be your son, but he's my son. He's not just the son
of a man, he's the son of God. The son of God who is the seed
of woman, the incarnate God, holy, righteous, that God who
comes to accomplish redemption. You see, true faith is fixed
upon Christ. True faith deals with Christ. True faith rests on Christ. True faith believes the Word
of God concerning his Son. We believe God concerning many
things. We believe God's promise concerning
providence. We believe God's power in the
rule of all things. We believe the revelation of
God concerning his holy character. We believe God concerning that
which is revealed in the Word. but our faith rests in his soul. We believe that Jesus Christ
is made of God and to us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. We believe that Jesus Christ
alone is the revelation of the eternal God. We believe that
by Jesus Christ and by him alone we have access to the father.
We believe that in Christ we are accepted for Christ's sake.
Thirdly, Abraham believed that God could do that which was absolutely
impossible for any man to do. Abraham believed that God, who
gives life to the dead and calls things which are not as though
they were, was perfectly able to cause him and his old wife,
Sarah. And I say that not with regard
to any sense of disrespect, but just with regard to her age.
She was an old woman. She was an old woman. He was
an old man. She had always been buried. Her
womb had always been dry. The possibility of her burying
a child was absolutely impossible as far as men are concerned.
Possibility of him fathering a child was way past time. It's way past time. But he believed
that God could do it. God said, I'm going to give you
a son. Abraham said, well shoot, he's God. That's no problem.
He's God. He can do what he will. If God
says, I'll cause that dead womb to live, that dead womb is going
to live. If God says, I'll cause this old man to rejoice in the
birth of a child, this old man is going to rejoice in the birth
of a child. If God says, I'll awake the dead, he'll awake the
dead. If God says live, men shall live. That's the important thing. Paul
tells us this was not written for Abraham's sake alone, but
for our sake, who also believe on Jesus Christ, who God raised
from the dead. This is written then concerning
faith. Faith believes that sinners deserving
God's wrath, sinners under the curse of God's holy law, sinners
dead in trespasses and in sin, sinners who cannot come to God
and will not come to God. Faith believes God can call sinners
dead to live, cursed to be blessed, sinful to be set free. Faith
says God can do it. Faith looks on Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, and hears God speak. And God says, look unto
me and live. And faith says, look unto Him.
Blessed God, I live. Faith says God can pardon my
sin. I see it. Yonder in the sacrifice. Faith says God can make me righteous
because Christ's righteousness is of value sufficient. to satisfy
even God himself. You see, faith says he is able
to say to the uttermost all them that come to God by him. He that
comes to God, what? Must believe that he is. And
that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. He
who said, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. Faith
looks to him. and says by God's grace I could
live, by God's power I can have his salvation, by God's righteousness
in his son I can stand before him righteous. Fourthly, Abraham
believed the promise that God made to him, the promise made
to him in the gospel, though vast and sublime beyond calculation,
to be a matter of absolute certainty. Because God said it. Faith believes God. The unbeliever,
you who are without Christ, you who sit back and refuse to believe,
you say God's a liar. Faith says, oh no, he tells truth.
He's telling truth. God said, I'll make you to have
a son. And your son is that seed in
whom all nations of the earth shall be blessed. And I will
make you to be so fruitful that your people shall be more numerous
than the stars of heaven. Abraham said, man, that's a big
promise. Not too big for God. Not too big for God. Now let's
look at the promise that God made to us. Turn over to Ephesians
chapter one. Verse three, blessed be the God
and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
For what purpose? That we should be holy and without
blame before him. That can't happen. That can't
happen. That can't happen. Oh, yes, it
can. God promised it. And God'll do it. and without
blame before him, in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good
pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace,
wherein he hath made us accepted into beloved, in whom we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of his grace. God can save me. God can make
me holy and without blame before him. God can make me to be a
possessor of heaven's glory as his son because of Jesus Christ. Fifthly, Abraham believed the
gospel. Hold your hands there in Ephesians
1. I want you to come back to that. Abraham believed the gospel
as the very word of God directly to him concerning him. I don't know how to explain what
I've got to say here, but I know it's something. No sinner will
ever be saved until God speaks grace to his heart and says this
is for you. Now you'd be talked into joining
the church, you'd be talked into religion, you'd be talked into
reforming your life, you'd be talked into baptism, but you
can't believe God. until God says this is for you.
Look in Ephesians what? Verse 13. Abraham heard God speak
to him in the gospel. And this is what God said. He
said, I am thy shield. Not just I'm a shield. He said,
I'm your shield. He said, I am thy exceeding great reward. Not just I am exceeding great
reward. He said, I'm your reward. In
other words, he said, I'm your savior. I'm your savior. Now
look here, Ephesians 1.13, Paul says, In whom you also trusted,
how is it that you came to trust Christ? If you believe on the
Son of God, this is how you believe on him. This is how you came
to believe on him. After that you heard the word
of truth. Look at it now, the gospel, the
great glorious good news of your salvation. God came and pointed
you to the Son. and said, he did this for you.
God said, he's your sacrifice. He's your shield. He's your reward.
He's your salvation. He's your savior. And you heard
it and believed. Christ died for me. My only hope, my only plea is
that Christ died. When he did, he died for me.
He died for me. In whom you also trusted after
that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
in whom also after that you believed, believing the word, you were
sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Believing God, Abraham
was justified by faith, received the blessedness of sins forgiven,
righteousness imputed, and immutable, perfect acceptance with God himself
through the blood and righteousness of Christ. This is what verse
six declares. And he believed in the and it
was imputed to him, it was counted to him for righteousness. Now,
beginning at verse 7 and going through the end of the chapter,
we see Abraham standing wherever the believer stands, on justified
ground, standing before God Almighty, justified. Standing before God
Almighty, seeing God through the sacrifice, seeing God in
the gospel, seeing God in grace and mercy, justified. and faith
standing on justified ground, Merle sees what no man can see
anywhere else. No man. That man or woman who believes
God sees what he could not see before, understands what mystified
and dumbfounded him before, and rejoices in those very things
which either bored him to death or stirred up his hatred of God
to the boiling point before. Standing on justified ground,
the most uneducated, the most illiterate believer sees with
perfect clarity what the most brilliant, well-educated scholar
who is an unbeliever, no matter how religious, can't even imagine. The believer looks at him. Yeah,
I believe that. You don't? I'm so sorry. I'm
so sorry. Well, that's a plain nose on
your face. Well, I can't see it. I understand that. Blind folks can't see. They can't
see. But folks who see, see. Folks
who hear, hear. Folks who have hearts to believe,
believe. And believing, they understand.
Let me show you what the scripture says. When God the Holy Spirit,
the Comforter, whom the Father will send in my name, shall come,
he will teach you all things. That's what our Lord said, isn't
it? He said He will guide you into all truth. Turn over to
1 Corinthians 2, verse 9. Through faith, Paul says, we
understand. And all spiritual understanding,
David, is by faith. By faith. You can't get it by
catechism. You can't get it by the most
Diligent instruction, you can't get it by memorizing scripture,
you can't get it by good education, you can't get it by the most
diligent examples given. The only way you can get understanding
in this book is by faith. The only way. By faith we understand. Look here in 1 Corinthians chapter
2 verse 9. As it is written, eye has not
seen or ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. You can
talk to your neighbor, your sons, your daughters, mother, daddy,
brother, sister, husband, wife. You can talk to them till the
cows come home. And they can't say. They just
have no interest. Not even concerned. But God has
revealed them to us by his Spirit. He revealed something to us.
Look at verse 11. What man knows the things of
a man, save the spirit of man which is in him, even so the
things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God. Now we've
not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is
of God, that we might know the things that are freely given
to us of God. Which things also we speak not
in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches,
comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man You can reason with him. You
can present him with logic. You can present him with a thousand
proof text for every point. You can argue with him. You can plead with him. You can
do everything. You can beat him to death with
a Bible in your hand. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. He can't. He can't. He's blind. He can't see. At no point get
too upset with blind men because he can't see. He just can't see.
He receiveth not the things which are of the Spirit of God, for
they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them. How
come? Because they're spiritually discerned. Verse 15. Now look
at this. But he that is spiritual judges. The word, Bobby, means he discerns.
He's got a discerning ear. He got to discern. He discerns
all things. My sheep hear my voice. They
follow me. A stranger they will not follow.
How come? Because they know the difference. They know the difference. Look in 1 John chapter 2 verse
20. You have an unction, an anointing
from the Holy One. And you know everything. You
know all things. Now what on earth does that mean?
A lot of you fellas sitting out there who know a lot of things
about a lot of things I don't understand anything about. It
doesn't mean you know all things without exception. Oh no. It
doesn't even mean you know everything written in the book. Doesn't
mean that. It means you know all that's written in the book. Do you get the difference? I
don't know what every word in this book means, but I know what
the meaning of it all is. I know what this book teaches.
I don't have any questions, but I know what this book teaches.
Not only that, every man who's taught of God understands all
things. All things necessary, all things
needful, all things concerning your God, His salvation in Christ
and redemption and grace by Him. Believers know it. They know
it. They're taught of God. Now, if you hold your Bibles
open back to Genesis 15, Let me show you what Abraham saw
standing on justified ground as a believer. Number one, he saw God's call.
He saw the call of God. You can't get the cart before
the horse. You can't see God's call. You can't understand God's
call. You can't grasp the teaching
of scripture with regard to God's call until you've experienced
it. You just can't. You just can't. In fact, all
truth is received by experience. By experience. We learn the things
of God by experiencing them. Abraham, we're told in verse
7, the very first thing we're told, after we're told that Abraham
believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness, in
verse 7, the Lord God said to him, I am the Lord God, the Lord
that brought you out of the Ur of the Chaldees to give you this
land to inherit it. He saw that God's call came to
him distinctively. I called you. I called you. He saw the blessedness of God's
call. It's God's call which made me
possessor of God's heritage. He saw the result of God's call. Abraham believed God. And the
next thing we read, God seems to say to him, Abraham, don't
forget, this is how you came to believe me. I called you.
I called you. Abraham was made to see that
his faith in God must be traced to its source, which is God himself. I believe because God called
me. He said, I am the Lord which
brought you out of her. I'm the Lord which gave you this
heritage. Faith sees the value of God's
call and prizes it. You see your calling brethren.
Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble
are called. But God called you based foolish nobodies. He called you nothings to bring
to nothing things that are, that no flesh should glory in his
presence. Secondly, Abraham saw God's sacrifice. Standing on justified ground,
faith sees the glory of God in blood atonement. Look at verse
He said, Lord, whereby or how shall I know that I shall inherit
it? How do I know? How can I know with certainty
that what you said concerning me possessing this land, concerning
my seed being more numerous than the stars of heaven or the sand
of the earth, concerning my seed possessing everything, how can
I know it so? Now look at verse 9. God said,
all right, this is how you know. This is how you know. Take me
a heifer, a three years old. And a nanny goat, a she-goat,
a three years old. And a ram, a young steer, three
years old. And a turtle dove, a young pigeon. And it took unto him all these
and divided them in the midst and laid each piece one against
another, but the birds they divided not." Here's Abraham, standing
here before God, and God says, now you take each of these queen
beasts, the very same beasts which in the law were given to
be sacrifices by which the priest would make atonement for the
sins of the people, morning by morning, evening by evening,
and on the day of atonement. And he's standing here with these
sacrifices divided, the knife in his hand, blood dripping from
his hand. Only the birds weren't divided,
he stands. Now, the heathen had taken this
very same thing, the same kind of sacrifice. Two men throughout
barbaric days would make a covenant and they'd take a sacrifice and
they'd divide it in pieces. And the sacrifice stood for an
oath. And this is what they said, if I don't keep my word, let
this sacrifice represent what shall become of me. Here the
Lord God says to Abraham, this is the basis of my oath and my
promise and I make this covenant with you. The only grounds upon which God
can bless and save a sinner, Abraham understood was blood
atonement. Oh, the precious blood of Christ. All the sacrifices set forth
in all the Old Testament scriptures, Abraham saw on the other side,
before the sacrifices were ever ordained, he saw that all the
sacrifices pointed to one sacrifice, that sacrifice by whom and in
whom God and man meet together, the sacrifice of his own dear
son for the satisfaction of his justice. And faith stands here
at the sacrifice. Now look at verse 11. And when
the fowls came down upon the carcass, Abram drove them away. Now there's a sermon in that,
I may get to it one of these days. Don't let anything or anybody
separate you from the sacrifice. Don't let anything or anybody
turn your attention away from the sacrifice. Any intruder between
you and the sacrifice, drive it away. It comes from hell. I don't care if it looks like
it comes from heaven. The pharaohs came down to devour the carcass
and Abram drove them away. And Abram, believing God, stands
here in the midst of the sacrifice, and he sees himself involved
in it. Faith does. When Jesus Christ died under
the wrath of God Almighty as my substitute, bearing the terror
of God's holy law, Bearing the vengeance of God's unmitigated
wrath. I died in him. Bearing the terror of God's holy
law. Bearing all the unmitigated wrath
of God Almighty to the full satisfaction of divine justice. I'm involved
in that sacrifice. Faith understands that. When
Christ died, I died, and now I'm dead to the law, and I'm
alive to God. Now the law has nothing more
to do with me. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. Thirdly, Abram saw God's covenant. Standing on justified ground,
faith sees God in covenant grace, a covenant ratified by blood.
Look at verse 12. And when the sun was going down
a deep sleep fell upon Abram and lo and horror of great darkness
fell upon him. Horror of great darkness. He
perceived what took place at Calvary when the sun was darkened
and God refused to look on his own son. And the son of God cries,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And Abraham seeing
himself involved in all this, a horror of great darkness fell
upon him. Look at verse 17. And it came
to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark, behold
a smoking furnace and a burning lamp. Remember with the children
of Israel traveling through the wilderness, they had a pillar
of fire by day, a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by
night. This is what Abraham saw. Passed between the pieces, Abraham
beholding the sacrifice and beholding God's mercy and God's grace to
him, sees God present in the sacrifice. Passed between those
pieces, verse 18, the same day, the same day, the Lord made a
covenant with Abraham saying, unto thy seed I have given this
land from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river
Euphrates. faith sees God in the covenant
and sees the covenant in the blood as the basis upon which
God does all things is covenant mercy. Covenant mercy ratified
by blood atonement through God's darling son. Jesus Christ was
brought forth from the dead through the blood of the everlasting
covenant. Why did Paul use that kind of
language? Because this covenant is made
effective to God's people by the sacrifice of God's darling
son whereby all the stipulations of the covenant were fully met
and satisfied. Fourthly, faith, standing on
justified ground, sees the mystery of God's providence. We won't read the verses, Merrill
read them earlier. God said to Abraham, he said,
now Abraham, don't think all your troubles are over. I promised
I'll give you the land. And he died without possession. He died without, he didn't have
not once, not even the place where his foot was standing did
he own, but he owned it all. God promised him the land. He
said your seed's going to inherit it. Now, I know religious denominations
have wrangled and hollered and fussed and fought for years talking
about how the Jews are going to finally possess the land and
the Palestinians are fighting over it now and the Jews and
they're going to fight over it until time is over. But I'll tell you who's
going to possess the land. We're going to possess it all.
All of it. The whole earth is ours. The
whole of God's creation is ours. Everything we shall walk with
God upon a new heavens and a new earth in perfect righteousness. But before we do, we're going
to have to spend some time in Egypt. God said, Abraham, you're
going down to Egypt and 400 years your people going to dwell there.
400 years. 400 years. But when you come up, you're
going to come up better off than you were when you went down. You see, standing on justified
ground, faith perceives that all the trials and tribulations
and heartaches and afflictions and troubles and sorrows in this
world of woe come to pass in this world for two reasons. Because
God is judging Egypt and God is saving Abraham, see. Everything,
everything, I want to bring you. One more thing, standing on justified
ground, faith sees God's promise. Faith sees and is assured of
the fact that our ultimate salvation and triumph in Christ is a matter
of certainty. Look at verse 14, that nation
whom they shall serve will I judge. Afterward they shall come out
with great substance and thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace
and thou shalt be buried in good old age. But in the fourth generation
at the appointed time they shall come hither again For the iniquity
of the Amorites is not yet full. The iniquity of the world is
not full yet. But when it is, judgment comes. And Jacob's fullness has not
yet been brought in. But when it is, we shall come
at last. into the good land of glory to
possess it forever. Because God said so. God said,
I give you eternal life. And faith in the midst of trial
and heartache, in the midst of horrid unbelief, in the midst
of, in the teeth of our sins, says eternal life is mine. God says, you'll never perish. Never. See the sacrifice. See the sacrifice. Hear the covenant. You'll never
perish. And faith says, bless God, I'll
never perish. Never. Never. No matter how much it looks like
I'm perishing, I'll never perish. Faith, standing on justified
ground, says, I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded
that he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day and at last. See the circle round the throne? See the seats around the Lamb
sitting on the throne? There I am, seated with him in
glory. Because God called me. God made
a covenant for me. God died for me. God keeps me. Amen.