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To illustrate the blessed doctrine of justification by faith, the apostle chooses to use Abraham

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from the Old Testament.

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That was a good choice because Abraham, of course, is the great patriarch of the Jews,

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and many of those to whom Paul is writing this epistle are Jewish in their background.

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So he wants to explain to them that this matter of justification by faith runs as a thread

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throughout the entire Bible.

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Whether before the law or under law or in this age in which we live, God has always

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saved by grace.

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He explains to us in the first 17 verses how Abraham was not justified.

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He tells us in verses 1 through 8 that Abraham was not justified by his works.

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That was the common and popular teaching of that day.

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The rabbis taught that Abraham was faithful and obedient, and therefore God called him

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righteous.

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The apostle makes it clear, though, that if one is to be justified by works, then his

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justification comes not by grace but as an obligation on God's part, and that can never

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be.

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Furthermore, he quotes from the Old Testament where it clearly says that Abraham believed

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God and it was counted to him for righteousness.

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So Abraham was justified by faith, he says, not by works.

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And then in verses 9 through 12 he explains that Abraham was not justified by his circumcision.

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That of course was a very important mark to the Jews.

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It was the seal and sign of the covenant which they had with God.

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The Jews therefore felt that if one was circumcised that that was all that was required of him,

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that surely God would accept him.

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They emphasized the sign over the reality of faith.

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There are many who do that today with baptism, for example.

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For them baptism becomes the important work of salvation, and by that water one is regenerated,

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and yet that teaching is foreign to God's word.

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Abraham was not justified by circumcision.

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In fact, the Bible says he was justified or saved, we may implant that New Testament term.

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He was saved by faith 13 years before he was ever circumcised.

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So it doesn't make much sense to say he was saved by circumcision.

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And then it explains in verses 13 through 17 that Abraham was not saved by keeping the

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law.

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As a matter of fact, the law was not given until 600 years later.

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So it was rather impossible for him to be justified by obeying the Ten Commandments

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when God hadn't even delivered them to this point.

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So Abraham is justified not by the law again, but by believing the promise that God gave

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to him.

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Now we're going to begin reading in verse 17 and conclude with verse 25 for our text

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today.

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I'm going to pick it up in the middle of verse 17 where it speaks about God, the one in whom

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Abraham believed.

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It says, Furthermore, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does

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not exist?

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In hope against hope he believed.

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In order that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been

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spoken so shall your descendants be.

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And without becoming weak in faith, he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead, since he

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was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb.

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Yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong

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in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what he had promised he was able

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also to perform.

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Therefore also it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

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Now not for his sake only was it written that it was reckoned to him, but for our sake also

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to whom it will be reckoned as those who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the

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dead, him who was delivered up because of our transgressions and was raised because

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of our justification.

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Let's bow together in prayer and ask God to teach us his word.

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Now we recognize the miraculous source of the words that we are reading.

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These words were inspired and the apostle wrote them inherently by the Spirit.

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They have been wonderfully preserved for us so that we today may have a revelation from

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you.

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Our prayer, Father, is that the Holy Spirit who inspired these words would now illuminate

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our hearts to be our teacher so that we may understand what is said here and how it applies

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to our lives.

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In Jesus' name we ask for this.

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Amen.

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The specific promise that Abraham believed was the promise of a son.

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Later on that was expanded to include many nations.

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Hence we find the name change for this man, a name change that was ordered by God.

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First he was called Abram, which means exalted father.

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Later he was called Abraham, which means the father of a multitude.

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Abraham is an example to us of how practical and vital faith is to every one of us.

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By observing Abraham in the text before us today, we can learn three simple facts about

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faith.

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God wants each of us to live on that plane.

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It is very easy for us in our particular society to live on the plane of self-sufficiency.

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When we choose to live on that level, we cannot please God according to Hebrews 11.6, because

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without faith it is impossible to please Him.

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Furthermore, if we choose to live on the level of self-sufficiency, it is not very long before

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we come to the end of our resources and we become frustrated and disillusioned with life.

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How important it is therefore that you and I learn to live on the level of faith.

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We often think that faith was for Abraham and Moses and Daniel and all those great giants.

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Not so.

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Faith is for every one of us.

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Each of us needs to learn what it means to trust God for the big things and the little

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things in life.

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The first fact about faith that we see in our text today in verses 17 through 19 is

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faith's choice.

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You notice it says in verse 18 that in hope, against hope, he believed.

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What that really means is that the situation he was facing, humanly speaking, was beyond

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hope.

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And yet Abraham rested upon hope in God and therefore he believed.

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You see confronting Abraham was a choice.

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Life is filled with choices.

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The more mature that one gets, the more choices that he has the privilege of making.

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An infant has no choice in life.

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He gets up when the parent wants him to get up, usually.

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Sometimes he makes a suggestion as to when that hour might come.

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But the parent decides when to get the baby up.

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The parent decides what kind of food the baby is going to eat.

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Is it going to be pears today or is it going to be carrots or is it going to be some kind

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of pudding or smashed up bananas?

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Mom decides that.

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He has no choice in it.

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What time is the baby going to bed?

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Well, not his choice.

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It's when mom sees that he needs to go to bed.

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So you see an infant has very few choices.

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In fact, none.

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But the older the baby gets, the more choices he can make.

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A child makes a few choices and needs to because that's part of growing up.

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By the time we become adults, so-called grown-ups, we can make many choices.

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We can make choices about our education, what kind of work we want to do, where we want

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to live, the person we want to marry, the schedule that we want to keep, how many children

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we want.

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We can make choices about the kind of people we're going to be, whether people of integrity

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or not.

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We can make choices as to whether we're going to keep our word or fail to do so.

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Life is filled with choices.

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All of these that I've named though are in the natural realm.

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And you see there is another realm to life, a whole other dimension that most people miss,

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and that is the spiritual dimension.

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In the spiritual dimension, there are some choices too.

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One must choose to accept or reject what God reveals in his word, for example.

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And one can choose to trust God or to trust in himself through this life.

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It is in this realm that Abraham made his choice.

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God promised Abraham a son.

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It was a spiritual promise that had an impact in the natural realm.

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Abraham chose to believe God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.

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But when he chose to believe God, there were two sets of facts that he had to consider.

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On the one hand, there was the natural set of facts.

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Abraham was beyond child producing years.

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He was still an idolater at 75 years of age when God called him.

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He was 86 when God made the promise of a son.

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Now some of you here today are 86 or 85 or 84.

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How would you like to have that promise from God?

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God said to Abraham, at 86 years of age, you're going to have a son.

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But Abraham was nearly, and I say nearly, at 86, beyond that point in life.

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Sarah too was dead.

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In fact, Sarah had been sterile all of her life.

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She could not have children.

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She was up there toward Abraham's age as well.

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That was the set of natural facts.

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It says here that Abraham faced the facts.

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It says in verse 19, he contemplated his own body and the deadness of Sarah's womb.

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He looked at the facts, the natural facts, but he also focused upon some supernatural

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facts including the fact that God is the God of miracles.

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That is explained in the last part of verse 17.

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That's why I included that with our text today.

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He speaks about the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does

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not exist.

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God is the God of miracles and he expresses it with these two clauses.

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First of all, he's the one who gives life to the dead.

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Now that can be applied, of course, to the resurrection.

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It can be applied to the resurrection in type, in picture, of Isaac when he was taken up

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to the mountain and offered up and then in a picture was raised from the dead according

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to Hebrews chapter 11.

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I believe that God could do that, but I believe that the primary reference here is found in

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the context.

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The very word for dead there in verse 17 is used again in verse 19 where it speaks about

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the deadness of Abraham and Sarah and their inability to produce children.

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I believe that what is said here is that God is able to give Abraham and Sarah the capacity

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to reproduce.

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He's able to give life to that which is dead.

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Furthermore, he is able to call into being the non-existent.

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Some say that refers to God's creative power.

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Hebrews 11 once again tells us that God did call into existence what did not exist before.

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He did that by the power of his own will and his word.

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But again, the interpretation of this is found in the context.

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What it really means is that God was able to call into existence the reproductive cells

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required for the conception of a child.

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He is able to call into existence in Abraham's body and in Sarah's body those cells required

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for a child to be born.

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So those are the sets of facts.

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On the one hand, there's deadness.

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On the other hand, there's the God who gives life and who can bring into existence that

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which doesn't exist.

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Abraham, as he faced the facts with faith, believed God.

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Faith is almost inevitably involved in making choices.

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Think with me how that applies.

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For example, in the life of Joseph.

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On the one hand, he had the set of natural facts which said that he had been ill-treated

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by his brothers, rejected by them.

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He had been sold into slavery in Egypt.

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He had been imprisoned there falsely.

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There were some aspects to his life that were very cruel.

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On the other hand, Joseph believed in the sovereign God who could use circumstances to

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accomplish his own purposes.

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As he faced the facts, Joseph chose to believe God was in control.

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When he had the chance to get revenge on his brothers, he forgave them and said, you intended

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it for evil, but God meant it for good.

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Faith made its choice.

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Take Moses, for example, as he leads the children of Israel up to the shore of the Red Sea.

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They encamp their mountains on either side, water in front of them, and suddenly comes

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the news that coming from behind is an army of furious soldiers led by a Pharaoh who has

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been robbed of his eldest child.

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Then God said to Moses, go down there by the water and watch what I'm going to do.

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At that point, that may have seemed a little ridiculous considering the natural set of

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facts, but Moses considered the supernatural set of facts.

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He remembered what God had already done in Egypt and what God's command was now, so

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faith made its choice.

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He obeyed God, and the Bible contains the record of what happened.

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You may trace that same trace through the life of Joshua at the Jordan River, for example.

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Think about Rahab and her decision to hide the spies, or David as he faced Goliath, or

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Daniel as he refused the food that was offered to him by the king.

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Think of Noah as he built the ship, or of Gideon as he was commanded to confront the

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army of the Midianites with 300 men when they were well over 125,000.

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In each case, there was a set of natural facts to be considered, but there were supernatural

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facts to be considered, and faith made its choice.

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Now let me apply that to you for a moment, and to me, because I believe that there are

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many of us here today who are facing similar kinds of choices.

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It may be in the realm of a job or provision of money for your family.

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It may be a choice to do right, even though that choice will cost you a friendship, or

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maybe your employment.

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Perhaps you're worried today over illness, and you're trying to decide whether to worry

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or to leave it in God's hands.

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I don't know.

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I don't know what the situation in your life is.

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But whatever that situation is, consider the natural facts, consider the supernatural facts,

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the promise of God or the command of God to be obeyed, and then let faith make its choice,

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and believe God as Abraham did.

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Abraham looked at the facts, the natural and the supernatural, and made the choice to keep

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on trusting God.

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In fact, that faith grew, and that brings us to the second fact that we see about faith

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in our text, and that is faith's confidence.

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For as Abraham contemplated the facts, he actually grew strong in faith with respect

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to God's promise.

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That's what it says there in verse 20.

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He grew strong in faith as he continued to focus upon what God had promised to do for

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him.

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And it says here that the result of that was that he gave glory to God.

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Did you know that living by faith honors God?

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When we choose not to live by faith, it dishonors God.

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God today is looking for people who will dream of serving him in situations that they alone

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cannot handle.

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He is looking for a person who has a vision or a goal that's bigger than he is.

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Because you see, it's in that kind of a situation that God can glorify himself.

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When you and I get a hold of a promise of God, a command of God, and it seems impossible

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to us, and yet we say God is able, God is glorified in that.

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It pleases him.

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How sad that so often we live on a different plane than that, a different level.

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God is looking to show himself strong and mighty on behalf of those who will trust him.

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And it says that his confidence, Abraham's confidence, caused him to be fully assured

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that what God had promised he was able also to perform.

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I think that we sing so much about being almost persuaded that we've forgotten what it means

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to be fully persuaded now to believe.

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That was the hymn that Abraham sung.

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Fully persuaded now to believe.

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That was his promise from God, you'll have a son.

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And he was deeply convicted that what God had promised he had the power to fulfill.

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Faith believes what God says simply because God is the one who has said it.

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It says in verse 20 that Abraham did not waver in unbelief.

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To waver is an interesting word.

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It means to judge between two opinions.

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It means to vacillate back and forth.

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It's the same word that James uses in chapter 1.

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You remember what he says there?

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He says, when you are tested by God, pray for wisdom so that that test will accomplish

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its full purpose in your life.

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Now he says, if you lack wisdom to know how to respond to the test, then ask of God.

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Because God gives liberally, he does not hold back on wisdom.

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But let everyone who asks, ask in what?

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In faith, nothing what?

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Wavering.

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It goes on to say he that wavers is like the wave of the sea and is tossed back and forth.

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How many Christians there are who are seasick in the storm of life?

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Because they waver back and forth, can I trust God?

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Do I have to trust myself?

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What shall I do?

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And back and forth they vacillate.

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But not Abraham.

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Not Abraham.

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He did not stagger.

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He did not stumble.

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He did not waver as he considered the facts with faith.

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He trusted.

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He had confidence.

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Faith means that I trust God to do exactly what he's promised.

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Faith is the assurance that the thing God has said in his word is true and that God

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will act according to what he has said.

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It is this same Paul who writes these words in Romans 4, who later in this book will say,

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for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers

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nor things present nor things to come nor anything in all of creation will be able to

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separate me from the love of Jesus Christ.

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He said I am persuaded about that.

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Just like Abraham was persuaded.

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It's Paul who writes the Philippians and he says, being confident, persuaded of this

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very thing that he who has begun his good work in you will perform it until the day

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of Jesus Christ.

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God isn't going to give up halfway to the goal.

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It's also Paul who writes to his fellow servant and son in the faith, Timothy, and says to

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him, I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which

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I have committed unto him until that day.

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Folks, that's the kind of faith that gets results, is the faith that's confident in

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God, that doesn't waver back and forth, but that is founded upon what God has promised,

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what God has commanded.

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I'd like you to notice now the third result or the third fact, rather, about faith, and

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that is faith's consequences, verse 22 to 25.

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Very simple.

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The result of faith is that faith gets results.

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Remember that.

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If you dare to believe God, you are going to get results in your life.

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If you've not experienced results in the Christian life, don't blame God for it.

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God doesn't change from one person to the next any more than he does from one age to

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the next.

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He's the same God.

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Why is it then that God works so mightily in some people, in some churches, and not

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in others?

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Very often the answer to that is found in the realm of faith, because God will do exactly

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what we allow him to do.

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Do you remember that when Jesus went back to Nazareth, his hometown, it says that he

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could do no might, he works there because of their unbelief.

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God chooses to limit himself very often to what we allow him to accomplish, what we will

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believe him to do in and through us.

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If God seems small, it's not because he is.

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He believed in a big God who was able to bring to life that which was dead and to bring into

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existence that which didn't exist, and he got results.

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Five results I'd like to suggest to you.

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First of all, he got the result of justification.

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When God looked at Abraham's account of righteousness, he found nothing there to commend Abraham

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to himself.

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In fact, when God found Abraham, Abraham worshiped idols, just like everybody else did around

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him.

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But God called him out, and Abraham responded.

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God graciously called him out.

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Then when Abraham believed God, it says God counted that for righteousness.

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He applied to Abraham's account as it were perfect righteousness.

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That's how you and I are saved, too.

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We can't come to God commending ourselves because we're nice guys.

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We have to come to God as sinners.

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As the hymn writer said, nothing in my hands I bring.

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Simply to thy cross I cling.

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When we come that way and we come in faith receiving Christ, believing in him, we get

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results, justification.

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The second result of Abraham's faith was a son.

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Please think with me about Abraham for a moment.

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Abraham lived in one end of the Fertile Crescent of the ancient world.

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He lived in the crossroads of caravans, caravans going north, caravans coming south through

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that area, went through Abraham's land.

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Abraham had a lot of land.

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He had a lot of wells.

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It is not at all unthinkable that he serviced caravans as they came through.

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He was a pit stop or shall we say an oasis stop for the caravans as they came on their

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long journeys through the deserts.

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Oriental people are very polite and courteous.

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We can imagine Abraham inviting in the leaders of the caravans to dinner.

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They got a place to sleep and breakfast maybe for their buck.

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So they would sit around as the nomadic people did in that day and talk around the fire as

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they ate.

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Now Oriental people because they want to be courteous ask very personal questions immediately.

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Westerners tend to be coy and you know they jockey for position in their conversation

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with strangers but Oriental people are not that way.

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They are very open, very intimate.

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So the question may have gone like this, well how old are you?

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How many goats do you have?

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How many wells are yours out there?

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How much of this land do you own?

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What is your name?

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And to that question he would say Abram and Abram means exalted father.

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So what do you think the next question would be?

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How many children do you have?

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None.

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Abraham didn't have one.

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Eighty-six years of age and not a child.

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I'll bet you he heard that a thousand times if he heard it once and by this time it cuts

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and grates into his heart as undoubtedly it did Seres.

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Exalted father, I can almost imagine the guests quickly getting a Frito up to the mouth before

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they snickered.

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And then we can imagine his servants.

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Every time they speak about Abram, the exalted father who has no heirs.

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And then there comes the scheme of Sarah.

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They heard God had promised to their master a son and Sarah decided how that could occur

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and since she could bear no children she gave her handmaiden Hagar to her husband which

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was a custom in that day.

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And Hagar had a son, Ishmael.

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And then there was the friction in the camp between Hagar and Sarah and the problems that

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arose around the birth of Ishmael.

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And yet Abram was proud of that boy.

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And when the caravan leaders would ask him how many children do you have from that point

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on at least he could say one.

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Ishmael.

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And then 13 years later, Abram is 99 years old and he comes back from this encounter

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with God and he makes an announcement to his household.

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Now get this.

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Here is the fellow who for 99 years has been called exalted father but he didn't have a

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son until he was 86.

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And now he has a word from God that he has to change his name at 99.

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And now his name is to be Abraham, father of the multitudes.

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I can almost hear them laughing throughout the camp as they think about the new name

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of their master who has one son.

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Abraham believed God.

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You know what happened?

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When he was 99 years of age, why did God wait until he was 99?

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Because God wanted him to be completely dead as far as his own reproductive capability

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was concerned.

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When he was 99 and there was absolutely nothing left for Abraham, there was no possibility

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of a child in himself.

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When the natural facts said impossible, he still believed God and God gave to Abraham

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and to Sarah the ability to conceive miraculously and at 99 there was the cry of a baby in the

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tent and Isaac was born and God fulfilled his promise because Abraham believed him.

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The second result was a son, the son of the promise.

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Third result, many nations.

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And still today the many descendants of Abraham squabble in our world.

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And the fifth result I would like to suggest is that Abraham, because he believed God,

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became the father, and I put that in quotes, of a worldwide spiritual family that has spanned

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4,000 years.

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The apostle tells us in this very chapter that he is the father of all of us who believe.

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He is our grand daddy, so to speak, who has left us the example of believing God against

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all of the odds.

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Faith got results in the life of Abraham and dear friend, it will get results in your life

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too if you trust God.

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There is a very specific application the apostle gives to us.

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He says in verse 23, now not for his sake only was it written that it was reckoned to

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him, but for our sake also.

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In other words, he says there is a lesson here that we are to learn.

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He says, for our sake to whom it, righteousness that is, will be reckoned as those who believe

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in him.

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You notice it doesn't say we are to believe a cold set of facts, but it says we are to

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believe in God.

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Faith is a personal thing.

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It is not faith in theology.

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It is faith in the living God.

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And it says righteousness will be reckoned to those who believe in God who raised Jesus

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our Lord from the dead.

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It furthermore says two important facts.

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Him who was delivered up because of our transgressions and was raised because of our justification.

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To deliver up is a judicial word.

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It was used in that day of turning over a criminal to the justice system.

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Or it was used to cast a person into prison.

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Kenneth Weiss says regarding this verse, it was the judicial act of God the Father delivering

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God the Son to the justice that required the payment of the penalty for human sin.

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In other words, all the justice, the requirements of God's righteous law were fulfilled in

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Jesus Christ.

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He was delivered up because of our transgressions.

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How well that ties together with what Isaiah the prophet said.

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He was bruised for our iniquities.

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And then it says that he was raised also on account of our justification.

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In other words, showing that it was complete.

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Christ's work for sin was completed on the cross.

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That's why he said it is finished.

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But we cannot separate that work on the cross from the resurrection, can we?

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In fact, the apostle says that if Christ didn't rise from the dead, then our faith is in vain.

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The death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ go together.

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His death accomplished our justification.

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He was raised to show that our justification was complete.

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When you and I trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, that is the result.

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Faith gets results.

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Have you experienced that, friend, personally?

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00:36:52,840 --> 00:36:58,160
Or is your faith today resting in what you've done and how good you are and what your church

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00:36:58,160 --> 00:37:03,480
has done on your behalf and the rituals you've been through?

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Are you trusting baptism, just like the Jews used to trust in circumcision?

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Then be aware this morning, perhaps for the first time in your life, that if your faith

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is in those things, your faith is in vain.

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Because your church and your works and your baptism will never get you to heaven.

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What gets us to heaven is a personal relationship with God by faith in Jesus Christ.

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Will you receive Jesus Christ today as your Lord and your Savior?

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Will you establish that personal relationship by faith?

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Stop relying on all those other things and today depend upon God's promise that whosoever

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shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

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For those of us who are Christians, there are applications from this text as well.

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What facts confront you today?

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What promise will you claim from God's word?

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Is your faith wavering back and forth or is it resting solidly upon confidence in God?

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Faith makes God's dealings with us pleasant.

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Unbelief makes his dealings with us hard and heavy.

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Faith gives comfort and relief, but unbelief brings troubling and restlessness to the Spirit.

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Faith enables us to wait upon God, but unbelief causes us to rush ahead or to give up.

470
00:38:52,840 --> 00:38:58,000
I wish it were possible to look into your heart today and to see what that thing is

471
00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:00,240
that you're wrestling with.

472
00:39:00,240 --> 00:39:06,540
To see what the circumstances are that are over here on the natural side.

473
00:39:06,540 --> 00:39:11,000
I wish we could sit down together and talk about the supernatural side that you need

474
00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:12,000
to consider.

475
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:19,280
Above everything else, I pray that your faith today will choose to trust God.

476
00:39:19,280 --> 00:39:25,840
That you as a Christian will walk by faith, not by sight.

477
00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:34,960
That you will put away self-sufficiency and learn what it is to walk day by day trusting

478
00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:44,120
God for the big things as well as the little things of your life and your daily routine.

479
00:39:44,120 --> 00:39:52,640
In Abraham's case, faith saw the invisible, it believed the incredible, and it received

480
00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:55,400
the impossible.

481
00:39:55,400 --> 00:40:03,720
You can experience that too if you will face the facts with faith in Jesus Christ and his

482
00:40:03,720 --> 00:40:05,720
promises.

483
00:40:05,720 --> 00:40:07,720
Let's pray.

484
00:40:07,720 --> 00:40:17,720
O Heavenly Father, today my own heart aches that I may learn more of what it is to live

485
00:40:17,720 --> 00:40:18,720
by faith.

486
00:40:18,720 --> 00:40:27,780
God, I pray that you will deliver me from going through this life walking in the flesh

487
00:40:27,780 --> 00:40:34,200
and in my own ability, my own resources.

488
00:40:34,200 --> 00:40:39,800
Teach me what it means to trust you.

489
00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:40,800
Teach us all that.

490
00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:47,960
There are some brothers and sisters here today, Father, who are wavering.

491
00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:58,600
Put them upon a solid confidence today that will cause that wavering to cease.

492
00:40:58,600 --> 00:41:02,600
There are some here today who have focused all of their attention on their natural circumstances

493
00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:08,920
and have forgotten what it is to focus on your promises, your commands.

494
00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:12,880
Help them today to do that, to make the choice to trust you.

495
00:41:12,880 --> 00:41:19,400
Father, I feel that there may be some of your children here today who are quite sufficient

496
00:41:19,400 --> 00:41:23,680
and who are not struggling at all with any circumstances.

497
00:41:23,680 --> 00:41:27,840
My prayer is that you would shake them up.

498
00:41:27,840 --> 00:41:32,600
You would bring some circumstance into the life this next week which will cause them

499
00:41:32,600 --> 00:41:36,480
to begin to learn what it is to walk by faith.

500
00:41:36,480 --> 00:41:39,520
God, we need to grow up.

501
00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:44,040
We need to mature.

502
00:41:44,040 --> 00:41:45,640
Quicken us to do that.

503
00:41:45,640 --> 00:41:54,200
For that one who is here today without Christ at all and who is lost and bound for hell,

504
00:41:54,200 --> 00:42:00,760
oh, how I pray that that one today will open his heart and trust the Savior, be justified

505
00:42:00,760 --> 00:42:01,760
by faith.

506
00:42:01,760 --> 00:42:02,760
Amen.

507
00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:22,340
A chop in the liver has been found on the