Word of Salvation – Vol.39 No.29 – August 1994

 

Abram Believed The Lord

 

Sermon: by Revd. D. Baird

Text: Genesis 15:1-6

Reading: Galatians 3:1-9

Hymns: BoW 104a, 191, 444, 247, 55, 167.

 

Beloved Congregation,

How many times has someone said to you, “It’ll be OK – just trust me!’  Whether we do trust that person or not depends on who that person is.  With some people only a fool would trust them.  Even the way they say it gives them away.  `Just trust me!’  Not on your life, mate!

Whether you can trust that person or not doesn’t depend so much on the strength of your faith.  It depends on the strength of their character.  Are they trustworthy?  Can they be relied upon?  Can I place my confidence in that person?

We have read this morning of a discussion between Abram and the Lord.  And we read here “Abram believed the Lord.”  There we see faith.  But it is faith IN THE LORD.

The Bible speaks of Abram as a man of faith, even as the man of faith.  In fact he is called the father of believers.  “Understand then, that those who believe are children of Abraham” (Gal.3:7).  “All those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith” (Gal.3:9).  In Abram you see what a believer is like.  A believer is someone with confidence in the Lord.

So we have this dialogue between Abram and the Lord which ends with the amazing statement in verse 6.  But before we get to that we need to go back to what the Lord said to give Abram such confidence in Him.

Theme: “Abram believed the Lord”

1.   Questions and Fears

2.   Covenant Promises

3.   Faith credited as Righteousness

1.   QUESTIONS AND FEARS

The Lord makes the move and speaks to Abram in a vision.  That means Abram goes into a type of trance and sees things that you might see in a dream.  He is not asleep and it may not even be night-time but his experience is something like a dream.

In this vision the Lord says, ‘Do not be afraid Abram.’  Is Abram afraid?  Or likely to become afraid?  What of?  The Lord is telling him there is no need to be afraid.

It could be that he is conscious of his precarious position in the land.  It was after certain things had happened that the Lord spoke to him.  He had just stuck his neck out for his nephew Lot.  Lot became a prisoner of war because he lived in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Abram took his 318 men, raided an army of four kings and rescued Lot and his family.  318 men is a very big household, but it’s not a very big army.  Those four kings, after they had licked their wounds could come back.  You can understand that Abram would be feeling a bit fearful and insecure.  He still doesn’t own even a square foot of this land.  He is just moving around from place to place.

But that is not what he speaks to the Lord about.  His big problem is that he is childless and doesn’t have an heir (verse 2-3).  Of course, any couple who cannot have children may well be upset about it.  But Abram had something more specific on his mind.

When the Lord called him to go to this unknown land, the Lord had said: “To your offspring I will give this land.”  In fact He also said: “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you… and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen.12:7).  But how is this promise going to come true?  Abram doesn’t have any offspring and his time is running out.  The promise still awaited fulfilment.  That’s what he was struggling and wrestling with.  At times he was sure: ‘I will have a child; the Lord said so!’  But at other times he thought, as he does here: how are you going to do this Lord?  I am 100 years old!

This is the struggle of faith God’s people are involved in.  In principle it is the same now as it was then.  We live at a later stage of the Lord’s program but for us too there are promises which are not yet fulfilled because God’s timetable is different from ours.  Is the Lord Jesus really going to come back to take charge of this world?  How is He going to finally overcome my sinfulness and change this body to be like his?  When He returns will He own me as one of his?

When we have these queries the Lord is happy for us to bring them to him.  That is part of the struggle of faith.

2.   COVENANT PROMISES

The Lord had earlier called Abram to leave his own country in order to live in the land of Canaan.  At that time the Lord made a covenant with Abram, which involved some very great promises.  Promises which stretched way into the future and went right around the world.  Promises of blessing not just for Abram and his children but promises of blessings for all the nations.  “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (3:8).

As we look back on all of this we know this was the promise of the gospel of Christ.  Paul, writing to the Galatian church said, “God announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: all nations will be blessed through you” (3:8).  At the time Abram didn’t know the details of what God was doing, as we now know them.  But obviously God was doing something very important.  Through Abram’s descendent all the peoples on earth would be blessed.  God took Abram outside and said in verse 5b: Can you count the stars?  You won’t be able to count your offspring either.  Obviously God had something big in mind.  From the New Testament we know that the offspring promised to Abram was not the Jewish people, but all Christians.  “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal.3:29).

These promises to Abram are an announcement of God’s program for the world.  They are an announcement that from Abram a new nation would be created and through that nation the Christ would come.  Through Christ the blessings of the gospel would go round the world.

Abram was told something of God’s great plan and he believed God would do it.  And he could already SEE something of God’s blessing.  He had become rich and he had been protected.

But… there was no child!

And the whole announcement, the whole promise, meant there had to be a child.  Without a child there are no descendants, and without descendants the promise falls flat.

That is what Abram was struggling with.  He was not just concerned whether he would become a father or not.  His concern was God’s program and God’s promise.

We live at a later stage of that program, but we have the same struggle.  Given all that God has announced, why don’t we see more happening?

And that’s why God gave this vision to Abram.  It was a fresh announcement to reassure him that God’s program was on track.  And it was an announcement that should reassure us too.  Because at every stage of history we need that reassurance.  God’s program is on track!  Believe it!  And so this promise to Abram is also a promise to us, because we are very much part of God’s program.  In fact, we are part of its fulfilment.  We are in one of those nations which has been blessed through the gospel.  So this promise which God gave to Abram is also very much for us (verse 1b).

With this promise the Lord always says to his people:
 –  ‘I am continuing to work, as I have promised.  Maybe at the moment you can’t see it but it is still true.  Besides, Christ has come, hasn’t He?  Have confidence in what I have said.
 –  ‘I am favouring you.  There is no reason to fear.  Be contented with me as you live in the world.  I am more precious to you than even all my gifts.
 –  ‘As I have called you to be mine, I am with you.  Continue to pursue the pilgrimage you have begun.  In my time I will certainly fulfil all my promises.’

3.   FAITH CREDITED AS RIGHTEOUSNESS

Now we see Abram’s response to the Lord’s reassuring promises.  In verse 6: ‘Abram believed the Lord’.  That’s what faith is.  Knowing what the Lord says is true.  Accepting it.  Trusting it.  Counting on it.  Acting on it.  That’s what Abram did.

That’s why he is called “the man of faith”.  Not because HE was such a great person.  Not because HIS faith was so wonderful.  But because what the Lord was doing was wonderful, and he accepted it.  Faith focuses away from itself and places confidence in someone else.  So ‘Abram believed the Lord and He credited it to him as righteousness.’

Abram did not know all the details of how God was going to bring salvation to the world, but he believed God’s work of saving grace.  Although he didn’t understand it all, he trusted the Lord and so was received by God.  His trust in the promises was credited to him as righteousness.  He was accepted as if he was righteous.

We know the details of what God has done.  We know a lot more than Abram did.  We have a Bible full of explanation as to how God accepts those who believe through Christ crucified and risen.  We may well have heard hundreds of sermons about it.  The only question is: what are we doing about it?  Are we accepting it, trusting it and acting on it?  Because only then may we claim to be children of Abraham.

So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham the man of faith. (Gal.3:9)

The gospel which God announced in advance to Abram is the same gospel we have now.  Believe the Lord and it will be credited to you as righteousness.

CONCLUSION

Someone might say to you, “Just trust me.’  Whether you do or not depends on who they are.  You will want to know whether they are trustworthy before you commit yourselves to them.

A Christian is someone who ‘believes the Lord’.  When the Lord says, “Trust me”, how do you respond?  Can the Lord be trusted?  Is He trustworthy?  Well, let’s trust Him then.  It will be credited to you as righteousness.

Amen.