We’re doing a series on God’s Big Story where we are tracing the central storyline of the Bible. The aim of this series is to see the big picture of the Bible. I want to offer a bird’s eye view, if you will. We live in a world that has tried to overlay their big stories as the TRUE story – the story in life that really matters. Marxism came along about a century ago to tell its story but collapsed in short order. Our Presidential candidates tell us the story of democracy and freedom that will cure all that ails us. And capitalism has promised to make all of our lives better but many have been left out in the bread lines of depressions long ago. Yet, all these stories have been tried and found wanting.
Today, we live in a highly cynical world. We are cynical of everything and everyone. Yet, the central story of the Bible promises to be the central story of our lives. And it is the one story that actually delivers on what it promises.
The Bible’s story can be unpacked in these four sentences:
God made the world.
We rebelled against our ruler.
God reentered the world to redeem us.
And God will remake the world.
So climb on top of the observation deck with me and let’s get a better perspective of the Bible before us.
Sermon Preview
Today, we look at the life of Abraham, the father of the faith. In last week’s message, we witnessed everything fall apart with the rebellion of the first couple, Adam and Eve. Things didn’t improve. In fact, things quickly got out of hand. When we left the First Couple, we witnessed them being banished from the perfect garden. And no sooner had the left the garden than their son, Cain, killed his brother, Abel over jealousy. Shortly after the Adam and Eve debacle, God pressed the reset button with a man named Noah: On Screen: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5) But no sooner did Noah get off the Ark, than we witness the ugly scene of him passed out drunk with no clothes on (Genesis 9:20-27). Earth was in chaos. The First Couple had chosen to take a destructive path and everyone was sliding continually downward and divine intervention was required. So God starts over with humanity again, only this time with a man named Abram. God chooses Abraham as the New Adam to end the lines of disaster. God makes a new fresh start.
Today’s Scripture Passage
Bookmark Romans 4 as we will be there in a few moments.
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
7 And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites , the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.” (Genesis 15:1-21)
Who is Abram? Abraham’s life is intentionally placed squarely in the center of Genesis. The book of Genesis is broken up into 11 sections where each section is bracketed by the telling the story of one generation. Abraham’s life begins in Genesis 11:27 and end in Genesis 25:1-11 with his death and burial. There are 5 stories of 5 generations in front of Abraham and there are five stories of five generations behind Abraham in Genesis. Again, Abraham’s story is placed intentionally in the center of Genesis. God wants you to focus on His choice of this one man and this one family. Abraham’s life is placed prominently in Genesis in order to catch your eye.
Now, his life was multifaceted and he is as interesting as he is important. Not only was he wealthy but he would go on to mount a small army to defeat five kings to save his nephew’s family (Genesis 13). His wife, Sarah, gave birth at 90 years of age and God later asked him to sacrifice his son, Isaac (Genesis 22:1-19). Thankfully, God later provided an animal for sacrifice in his son’s place. It’s this one man is chosen out of all the families of the earth and this one man receives an avalanche of blessing cascading one after another on him. He was a forefather to Jesus Christ. Abraham is important.
Today, Abraham is honored as the father of three “religions of the Book” – Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Today, you can drive by synagogue, mosques, and churches – all of which consider themselves children of Abraham. Jews, Muslims, and Christians have named their children “Abraham” for 4,000 years in honor of Abraham’s place in all three religions. The highest thing Abraham you should know is this: to honor His promise to Abraham, God brings His people out of Egypt and brings His Son to the cross. You will not be able to understand the world itself if you don’t understand this man’s story.
1. The Benefit of Doubt
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” (Genesis 15:1-3)
Abraham is known as the father of faith. But for a man who is synonymous with faith, he sure has a lot of doubt. Doubts keep creeping up. When we are first introduced to Abraham in Genesis 12, God promised him a great deal: Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3)
God made six promises to Abraham and God uses the word “bless” five times in the midst of these promises. The result is witnessed in Abraham’s name change: God changed his name from Abram, which meant, “father of many,” to Abraham, meaning “father of a multitude” – e.g. “Big Daddy!” That was God’s original promise to Abram. But Abraham keeps having doubts. We see him doubting here in Genesis 15 in the first recorded time where Abraham speaks to God: But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” (Genesis 15:2) And there’s another in Genesis 17: “Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, ‘Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?’” (Genesis 17:17) There in Genesis 17, Abram comes to God and says, “Lord God, you say you’re going to give me a child. We’ve been waiting for 25 years. I’m 99. My wife is 90.” Abraham is this one man is chosen out of all the families of the earth and this one man receives an avalanche of blessing cascading one after another on him. But he has doubts and he has questions.
Quickly, there are two kinds of doubters. The first doubter shakes his fists at the heavens demanding, “Why would you let this happen to me?” But the second kind of doubter says, “Lord, I don’t understand. I have doubts about me and I have doubts about You? Help me understand You and Your ways” God is gentle and is open to this second kind of doubter.
Let me offer you a brief overview of Abraham’s life … it goes like this. God says, “I’m going to send you out,” and Abraham says, “Where?” God says, “I’ll tell you later. Right now just go.” Then God says, “I will give you a land,” and Abraham says, “Where?” and God says, “I’ll tell you later. Just wander.” Then he says, “I’ll give you a child,” and Abraham says, “How?” and God says, “I’ll tell you later. Just wait.” Then finally God sends a child, and he says, “Abraham, kill your child,” and Abraham says, “Why?’ and God says, “I’ll tell you later. Walk up the mountain. Take the knife. Take the fire.”
Some of you come from families and churches that don’t allow doubt. Churches where it is unsafe to doubt and grow in your understanding created skeptics, especially among teenagers and children. If you are unable to be open about your doubts, then you are unable to grow in your faith. Abraham is a man of faith but he continually has questions for God, he constantly has doubts. God doesn’t say, “How dare you question me!” Instead, God says His tender side to Abraham: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” (Genesis 15:1)
Second, the Lord “brought [Abraham] outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. God will eventually fulfill His promise to Abraham years later: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” (Matthew 1:1) Abraham believes but he needs his faith strengthened.
1. The Benefit of Doubt
2. The Advantage of a One-Sided Contract
There are two parts to Genesis 15. The first half deals with Abraham’s question about a family while the second half deals with his question about home. Essentially, Abraham says, “Okay, Lord, you’ve told me I will have a giant family, but how can I know if you’ll come through on your promise of land? You keep mentioning land but I have no place to call home.” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” (Genesis 15:9) Hours go by and Abram falls asleep. And it is here in a vision that God reconfirms His promise of a home and a land to Abram. To assure Abraham of His promise, God makes a contract with him. This strange ceremony is how they did contracts before paper and pen. It was literally referred to as “cutting a covenant.” So the next time you’re having some work done on your house, and you’re entering into a contract with some contractor, say, “Let’s not do the old paper and pen thing. Let’s do something like this.” Right there in the front yard in front of all your neighbors, cut some animals in half and have him walk through it. If he’s is willing to do it, you may get better service.
A king would conquer three or four smaller nations and the king would enter into a covenant with a vassal, only the vassal walked between the pieces. The conquering king would just sit on the throne, and it would be the vassal who would walk between the pieces and take the oath. There are two amazing things to this passage. First, note who walks between the animals: “When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.” (Genesis 15:17) The presence of God was there in Abraham’s vision. God Himself is walking between the pieces. The second thing that should amaze us is this: Abraham doesn’t walk between the animals. Abraham doesn’t sign the contract. Abraham knew what was happening when he was asked to get the animals. But he thought he was going to walk through the animals. Abraham thought he was going to be asked to walk between the pieces, and to take a vow and say, “I will do this, and I will do that.” Instead, only God signs it. God takes the oath. God signs the contract. God makes a covenant with Abraham.
God is saying to Abraham, “My promise depends on Me and Me alone.” “And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6) Abram looked at his wife’s age and his age and he knew that he had no hope other than if God alone changed the situation. You are justified by faith alone in Christ alone by grace alone.
1. The Benefit of Doubt
2. The Advantage of a One-Sided Contract
3. The Power of the Call
Project Mercury was the United States first manned space flight. And “to go where no man had gone before” was the search to identify seven men with The Right Stuff. Known as the Mercury Seven, President Dwight Eisenhower insisted all candidates would be test-pilots. No man could be taller than 5’11” or weigh more than 180 lbs. Each candidate was to be under the age of 40 with at least a bachelor’s degree as well as qualified senior test pilots with upwards of 1500 hours of total flying time. The candidates were put through the rigors of extensive physical and mental exams. They first underwent a week of medical evaluations where some 30 different laboratory testes mapped their respective bodies through x-ray technology. Next, was a series of suit tests, acceleration tests, vibration tests, heat tests, and loud noise tests, where each candidate had to prove his physical endurance on treadmills, tilt tables, with his feet in ice water, and by blowing up balloons until exhausted. Then there were continuous psychiatric interviews, that included the necessity of living with two psychologists throughout the week, as well as extensive self-examination through a battery of 13 psychological tests for personality and motivation. Add to this another dozen different tests on intellectual functions and special aptitudes. All of this was all part of what was called, The Week of Truth. NASA described these men with these words: “The first seven American astronauts were an admirable group of individuals chosen to sit at the apex of a pyramid of human effort.” And they were national heroes as they were compared to Columbus, Magellan, Daniel Boone, and the Wright brothers.
God chooses Abraham as the new Adam. God makes a fresh start with Abraham to right the wrongs of the world. The world is spiraling downward before Abraham and the human race is out of control. God’s actions to fix the world concentrate on Abraham and his family. Everything about humanity was becoming more and more evil, more and more violent, and more and more broken. Everything was at the end of the line and then God hits the reset button with Abraham. But it wasn’t that God chooses Abraham because of Abraham’s greatness or his goodness.
Abram’s father was Terah and the word Terah means moon. Ur of the Chaldeans, the home of Abraham, was a center of lunar worship. The true family, the family that was supposed to be continuing in belief… Here was the last family, God’s chosen family. But even this family has gone over to idol worship. God didn’t choose Abraham because he has The Right Stuff. God didn’t choose because of his greatness or his goodness.
You see, it’s right here in this strange ceremony that the New Testament points to God’s promise of Jesus: “That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.” (Romans 4:16-17) Abram looked at his wife’s age and his age and he knew that he had no hope other than if God alone changed the situation. The Bible circles in bright red ink this promise for you: you are justified by faith alone in Christ alone by grace alone.
Closing Prayer
God, we are so grateful for your promises! Thank you for making good on your promise to Abraham. Thank you that you are a promise-keeping God.
We are thankful for your love for us. We are grateful that you walked through the pieces. When we failed to obey, you paid our debts.
Make us people who keep our promise. Make us people who keep our word to one another and you.
You have blessed us by your grace. And we thank you for your grace. Thank you for sending your Son, Jesus, to die on a cross for our sins. Thank you for crushing the head of the serpent. And thank you for showing us mercy in the cross.
We long to see your face and to enjoy your presence as Adam and Eve did so many years ago. Bless us with your presence and remove from us the sin that so easily hurts us. Walk with us again through your Son, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
The Importance of Faith
I want you now to imagine two letters that are sent to the Post Office. One letter is typed beautifully by a word processor. It is typed on exquisite, expensive stationery. There is not a word misspelled. It is beautifully framed, everything is perfect, not a smudge, not a smear, it is perfectly addressed, and it’s placed in the mail. A second letter is written on common notepaper like a yellow legal pad. It’s stuffed into an envelope and it is full of grammatical errors. It is smudged, dirty, and has erasures all over on it. But there’s a difference in the two letters. The first letter, so beautifully written, has no stamp on it. The second letter, written in pencil with smudges and smears, has a stamp on it. Question: Which letter will be delivered? Now let me tell you something, faith is the stamp that gets your letter on through. Faith. Some people may pray beautiful prayers, I mean they are eloquent and they may be right and the content may be good, but there is no stamp on the letter. It is faith in Christ that makes the difference. You are justified by faith alone in Christ alone by grace alone.
