Word of Salvation – Vol. 14 No.03 – January 1968

 

Shield And Reward

 

Sermon by Rev. Rev. A.I. de Graaf on Gen.15:1-5

Scripture Reading: John 10:7-11

Psalter Hymnal: 289:5; 386; 85; 170:2,3; 170:4

 

Brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ our Lord,

We have sung it earlier in this service:
            “Search me, and know me, O God,
             try me, and discern my heart.”

Did you realize, as you sang it, what a risky, dangerous prayer it is.  It’s like a housewife who hasn’t seen the inside of her home for three months, and then takes a guest along as she goes back and tells her: “Now have a good look around, it’s a nice place”.  Doesn’t she realize that it will not exactly be clean?  “Lord, have a good look at me… have a good look THROUGH me..!” we ask.  Do we know WHO HE IS?  And do we know the MESS we have inside, the UNTIDY HOUSE of our life into which we again invited Him?  But then whether we invited Him or not He knows, anyway!  He knows you better than you know yourself.  He knows your secret self – your desires – your lusts – your dreams.  He knows your despair AND your pride.  Your anger AND your grief.  .  The question is not so much IF HE KNOWS YOU.  The question is – today and next week and all your life – IF YOU KNOW HIM !

To realize that God knows you, knows you through-and-through, can be and MUST be outright frightening.  But One has said: “This is LIFE, yes, JOYFUL LIFE ETERNAL, to KNOW GOD the LORD, and Jesus Christ, Whom He has sent!”

And the One Who said that, has come that we might have life, and died for it!  And rose again.  And He lives NOW, to save to the uttermost all those that come to God through Him’

The question, then – as one of us professes his faith today and – as you all prepare for the Lord’s Table next week, is: DO YOU KNOW GOD, have YOU met Him, been INTRODUCED to HIM?

Or rather: do you KNOW HOW HE HAS INTRODUCED HIMSELF TO YOU?

Many are the Names He has given Himself so that we should know Who He is, this God Who meets us in His Word.  Tonight we shall deal with the Name of God in particular.  But there are so MANY Names!  Two of them we find here in our text as He comes to Abram and says:

“I am your Shield”, and “I am your exceeding great Reward”.  I would like to focus our attention especially on this part of our text today.

* * * * *

You know, not for nothing this chapter begins with “after these things”… what were they again?

Abraham had been fighting with the army of these 5 kings who had captured Lot.  And he had won, too.

But it must have been quite a thing for this old shepherd, to fight a battle like that.  And then Abraham had been offered the REWARD for his gallantry, he was offered all the spoil of the war.  But he had refused: He did not want the king of Sodom to be the one to say, “I have made Abraham rich…!”

And so he had become the stranger again.  The loner.  The one Who Did Not Belong.  That can be awfully hard and frightening.  Anyone who becomes a stranger – we saw last time – knows a bit of that.  The negroes in America, still felt as strangers in a white land, are still feeling how hard it is as still they have no equal rights after all these centuries.  Easy enough to blame the Americans but, you know, it is in our nature to suspect strangers, and that goes from BOTH sides.

That’s why you need such a LOT of grace from God to be a good immigrant and that’s why you need such a lot of grace to GET immigrants in your country.

In Abraham’s day this was worse because then there was no police force, no protection of minorities, no orderly society in which at least he would be SAFE even though people did not like him.  To be a loner then, can be outright dangerous.  BUT THEN the Lord came to Abraham in a vision, and said: “Life can be frightening, but FEAR NOT…!”  Brothers and sisters, do you know that the expression, “FEAR NOT” occurs in Gods Book 356 times?  One time for every day in a year?  Also for the year 1968, in the age of the atom bomb?  “FEAR NOT,” says God, and that while we can be fearful of every step, and hardly dare to move in a world that gets more and more dangerous… yet HE says “Fear not!”

O there’s NEED to say it, but He does!

FEAR NOT – He says to this old man Abraham who gets closer to death, and still he has no children – will not his family die out?  And what then of the Promise God gave?  But listen to what God says: “FEAR NOT!.  For I am your shield, your exceeding great reward!”  YOUR SHIELD – That is the first Name God here gives Himself, That’s how He introduces Himself here to Abraham – Abraham – did you know this already about Me, that I AM your Shield?  Mind you God says this to Abraham just after that battle.  So to say – He was still using war language.  And Abraham must have understood for what is a shield for?

Well – a shield is CATCHING UP THE BLOWS THAT WERE MEANT FOR YOU.  Well – says God – “Abraham, I know that many want to strike at you, life wants to hit you and the devil wants to hit you because you are My child and the devil hates Gods children – and maybe other people want to hit you… and accidents and unhappiness are there to hit you… especially when you have to go it alone and have no other people, no other security on earth….!  But -says God – didn’t you know, Abraham?  I AM YOUR SHIELD.  God doesn’t say: “I will KEEP A SHIELD above you…!” No: HE SAYS: “I AM that shield.”  I will do that job myself – and as I hear God say that, I marvel… for then I see another picture rise up from the pages of the Bible: Then I see Abraham… or you… or me, and above our heads – above Abrahams head too – there hangs a sword, a sword that can drop down at any moment.

No, not the sword of atomic war… it’s worse than that…!  NO, not the sword of death… it’s worse than that, too.  ‘Tis the sword of hell – the threat of eternal suffering because of my sins, the punishment which I deserved because I hated God and my neighbour.  But then hear the voice of God – of God Himself – of God the Son – crying out in the darkness of the Cross when the blows of hell rained down on HIM instead of on me.  “My God WHY hast Thou forsaken Me?” and I know that HE HAS BEEN the shield – GODS OWN SON HIMSELF the shield over me that I may go free.  “The chastisement of my peace was on HIM and by HIS stripes we were healed… We all like sheep have gone astray and went each one in his own way but the Lord has laid on HIM… the iniquity of us all…!  And then I know WHO it was Who said to Abraham: “I am your shield”, WHO it was who for sinful Abraham”… and for sinful you… and for sinful me… has come to catch the blows that we might find shelter and be saved…!  The very thing the Lord’s Table tells us about next week: That instead of ME… JESUS took the blows, the real ones, the ones that would undo me… or you.  The ones we had deserved.

HE WHO KNEW NO SIN HAS BEEN MADE SIN FOR ME THAT I MIGHT BE SAFE – THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD!  O the wonderful way in which God has said it to Abraham… to you… to me:” I AM YOUR SHIELD!”

Then to be alone is without bitterness…!  Then the loss of health or riches of the world, the loss of what all other people enjoy can yet become a blessing when you can hear your Saviour say it to you: “I AM YOUR SHIELD!”  And you know that through His death you may live forever.

But more was said to Abraham: “FEAR NOT I AM YOUR SHIELD AND YOUR EXCEEDING GREAT REWARD..!

And we remember that the King of Sodom had offered Abraham the spoils of the war, as a reward… but Abraham had said, “No!”  Now THE LORD comes to Abraham and said: Abraham, I am your exceeding great reward… I will be your treasure, Not money… Not position… Not health or youth or earthly joy… not any of all the things I could GIVE you is enough.  I give you MYSELF, Abraham, for I love you, poor sinner though you are…!

And we hear in it the sweetness of the Gospel: the Gospel of a God who doesn’t just give us SOMETHING and who doesn’t just give us MUCH, but Who gives us HIMSELF….!  Paul was to say it in wonder – as our brother who makes his profession this morning also has seen it – “My Lord, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me!”  Nothing less will do.  With nothing less need we – or may we – be content.  He Who loved me… and gave Himself for me!

Did Abraham not understand it?  That he straight after that asked the Lord: “But, Lord, WHAT THEN shall you give me – since I am childless – and your promises seem to come to nothing – it  won’t be long and Sara and I shall die and what then has come of it all?”

Oh, who are we to find fault with him?  We can hear the most wonderful promises of God, the most wonderful tidings of salvation, and yet the next day we worry as if there were no God, and we quarrel or grumble, as if we were NOT saved from sin by the deep and marvellous love of an Almighty and Holy God!  What patience God must have with us!  He had it with Abraham!  He took him by the hand, and led him outside his tent into the cool, clear night.  Look up, Abraham… can you count the stars?  Try it…!  SO numerous shall thy seed be!  Not only ISRAEL shall be that seed (and numerous THEY already are…!) but they shall give birth to THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR HIMSELF our Lord Jesus Christ, and all those believing in Him as their Lord and Redeemer shall also be children of Abraham in faith.  This morning the LORD adds another star to this firmament as another confesses his faith in Abrahams God and Redeemer.  And it is a multitude that no one can count!

Oh the small beginnings of God – they can make us laugh, they can make us weep.  But He has not forgotten what He said: “I am thy SHIELD, and I am thy great reward!”  He still says it today, that YOU shall shelter under that shield… and know yourself RICH, RICHER THAN THE RICHEST KING IN THE WORLD, that you may call this God your father through Jesus Christ your Lord.

Oh there is no doubt as to what GOD has said.  When YOU were baptized he said it to you, too: “I AM YOUR SHIELD” …and in our atomic age we may well know that no less a shield we can do with.  Shields that people can make ARE no shields, money is no shield against unhappiness, and where is the shield against death, and the punishment for YOUR sin?  There is no shield, no security to be had anywhere unless YOU too, seek shelter under that shield.  “I believe, Lord, help Thou my unbelief!”

And when YOU were baptized He said it to you, too: “I am your great Reward!”  Only I can make your life FULL and RICH.  Not what I can GIVE, but Who I AM: child of man, YOU NEED ME!  And, having ME, MY KINGDOM and MY RIGHTEOUSNESS, you will find that all other things shall – as I see fit – be added unto you.  Oh, there is no doubt as to what GOD has said.  He repeated it now, as he led YOU out and showed you again the stars of HIS promises.  He will show you – he will say it again next week, at the Table of His Covenant.  No, there is no doubt as to what He has said.  The question is – but YOU, my friend, you… what say YOU?
            Oh, for the wonderful love He has promised!
            Promised for you and for me,
            Though we have sinn’d, He has mercy and pardon,
            Pardon for you and for me!

Oh that YOU, too, then may respond… respond at last… respond again.  Even if it were in the trembling words of that old confession: “That I, with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ, – Who was my Shield – with His own precious Blood has fully satisfied for all my sins and has delivered me from all power of the devil, and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head!  Wherefore BY HIS HOLY SPIRIT he makes me sure of MY REWARD of eternal life and makes me heartily ready and willing from now on to live unto HIM.

Amen.