Please turn with me in the written word of God to Genesis chapter 15. I have been chomping at the bit to preach to you this morning. I've preached this text many times over the years and I've always, when I've preached in the past, I've preached the entire chapter in one sermon. But as I prepared, I was, that was my intention at the beginning. And then as I began preparing and working through it, I realized it was worth breaking it up into two sermons. You know that this ends with God's covenant with Abraham. but there's so much in our first six verses that I wanted to just pitch a tent here and spend time working through this together because there's so much rich encouragement for us. So you're in Genesis chapter 15. Our text this morning is verses one through six. Hear the word of the Lord. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying, do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward. But Abraham said, Lord God, what will you give me seeing I go childless? And the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. And Abraham said, look, you have given me no offspring. Indeed, one born in my house is my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him saying, this one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir. Then he brought him outside and said, look now toward heaven. and count the stars if you were able to number them. And he said to him, so show your descendants be. And he believed in the Lord and he accounted it to him for righteousness. Let's pray. Father, we ask that the spirit of God would give us illumination. We confess Lord that left to ourselves as natural men, we cannot understand spiritual things. We can't understand them in a saving manner, and we come before you pleading that the spirit of God would bless every last one of us, that we would understand the text of scripture, and not only that we would understand it, but that we would make application to our own hearts and lives as you would see fit. Lord, for any who are outside of Christ, I pray that just like Abram, they will be able to be reconciled to you by faith alone in Christ alone. And for us who have already been reconciled, help us to grow deeper in our faith. give us greater assurance and comfort from your truth. And we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. All throughout chapter 15, as God deals with Abram, we see something mirrored in the way he deals with Abram in the way that he deals with us. And that is what is called sometimes the dialogical principle. Now I confess that I hate to use such an impersonal forensic term to describe something that's so very intimately personal and so full of warmth. But if you ever read books about worship that are written by brothers of the reformed faith, you'll run into this term, dialogical principle. Let me explain what it is and you'll be glad that I introduced you to it. The word, the root word of the word dialogical is dialogue. that we, when we commune with God and when we worship God, we are engaged in holy conversation, sanctified dialogue. God reveals Himself to us through His Word, by the illumination of His Holy Spirit, and then we respond with prayers, with holy songs, and with our obedience. What we're engaged in is dialogue. God speaks to us and we respond to Him, and then He responds to us. Sometimes as you respond in prayer, you come for the Lord and you bring before him your complaints, don't you? And the things that are bothering you and the things that are stirring you up inside because you have many anxious thoughts. How many of you find comfort in the book of Psalms when David says, search my heart and know my anxious thoughts or even says, no, my anxious thoughts for they are many. Any of you can relate to that, can describe that that's the way you are, and that our anxieties stir up depression within us. And we come to the Lord and we bear those things to Him, and then we go to His Word again, looking for answers to our anxieties and to our questions, our problems. Perhaps we go to a dear Christian friend, a trusted brother or sister, and we bear our souls to them and seek their godly counsel and help in the midst of what we're going through. And the Lord responds to us through these means. Sometimes by giving us chastisement and rebuke. Sometimes we need rebuke for our pride or for sin that's in our life or for unbelief that is behind what's our anxieties. But that's not all that God does, is it? Thank God that he loves us enough to chasten us when we sin, but you know, sometimes he just comes back and gives us comfort and encouragement. and reassures us of His promises in Christ Jesus, and encourages us in ways we never could have expected. And that's exactly what we find Him doing here with Abraham. All throughout the text of Genesis 15, verses 1 through 6, but actually to the very end, you have God saying something, Abraham responds. God says something else, and Abraham responds. And God says something else, and Abraham responds. And He's making known his anxieties. He's making known his complaints very reverently to his God. But we should see in this God's love for you and for me as his people. Because what does the Bible say? It says, cast your cares upon him. Why? Because he cares for you. God invites you, bring your minutia to me. Bring to me all the anxious thoughts stirring up in your heart. Bring to me everything that's troubling you, that I might give you my peace that passes all understanding. Sometimes God shows us in tangible ways, these tangible reminders of his love for us so that we are encouraged and comforted as we go along. He strengthens faith that's grown weak and helps us along the way. And so as we look at verses one through six and see this dialogue going back and forth, I want to preach our text under four headings for you. We see first of all, in verse one, God's revelation. Secondly, we see Abram's complaint. Third, we see God's assurance. And fourth, we see Abram's faith. So we see God's revelation, Abram's complaint, God's assurance, and Abram's faith. First of all, God's revelation. Notice verse 1 begins by giving us the historical context. It's a time phrase, after these things. After what things? Well, after the things that happened in chapter 14. He has just gone to retrieve Lot from the four eastern kings who had conquered them and left a swath of destruction before them. He's whooped them and sent them packing. He's come back and he's met with good King Melchizedek who's given him a tenth of all the spoils of war. And then basically he sent King Barah, the king of Sodom, packing. who says, you take the goods for yourself and give me the people. And he says, basically, in a really nice way, don't flatter yourself, King. I'm not going to take so much as a shoelace from you, lest you should say you made me rich. I don't want my name affiliated with a wicked man like you are in any way, shape, or form. So take the goods, take the people, and don't let the screen door hit you on the way out. Now, he said that in a very nice way, nicer than I've just expressed it, but that's the essence of what he's telling the King of Sodom. And it's after these things that God reveals Himself to Abram and reveals Himself to him in a vision. And He says three different things in what He has to tell him in verse 1. The first one is, do not be afraid. Now, why would He tell Abram to not be afraid? You know, the command to not be afraid is a real hard one to obey when your heart's full of anxiety. But if you can, by grace, obey it, it's a very sweet command to obey, to be told, don't be afraid anymore. But what did Abram have to fear? Why was there fear in Abram's heart that had to be dealt with? The text doesn't tell us, but those time words after these things probably give us more than a hint. He has routed the mightiest armies on earth and he's done so with God's help and he's won a great victory. But what do you think was going through his mind? Once those men return back to the country and lick their wounds, they may come back with even far greater forces to retaliate. Furthermore, he's basically insulted the king of Sodom, and governments never forget an insult. And so the idea that reprisals are going to come back upon me, who am just a tent-dwelling nomad, who have no land to call my own, is their vengeance coming against me. And so there may have been fear and anxiety. He had taken a bold stand. But when you stand up for God's truth, and this is just as true today as it was in Abram's day, whenever you stand up for God's truth, it will not make you popular among men. And so the fear of reprisal is churning up in Abram's heart. And so the very first word that God says to him is, Abram, don't be afraid. And then the next phrase he gives him tells him why he shouldn't be afraid. Notice what he says. Do not be afraid. I am your shield. Now, what is a shield? It's not an offensive weapon that you use to defeat your enemy. It's not an offensive weapon. It's a defensive weapon that you use to keep your enemy from defeating you. Now here's the thing, notice what God did not say, Abram, I've given you a shield and therefore learn how to use it. If I have a shield that's made up of reinforced Kevlar, and can stop an armor-piercing round, it's no good to me if I'm not strong enough to hold it up in front of me to protect me from those who are shooting at me. Nor is it any good to me if I can hold it up for two hours and then after two hours I'm so weary and tired that I drop it to the ground and I'm open to the enemy's attack." That is not what God said to Abram. I've given you a shield, learn how to use it. No, He said something far better. Abram, I am your shield. My presence is all about you. I am in front of you. I'm behind you. I'm on your right. And I'm on your left. I'm even above you. And I'm beneath you. And I work not only when you're awake and alert and at your full strength, I am your shield while you're sleeping. I'm your shield all the time because I neither slumber nor sleep and my presence is in every place. I am about you. Now think about how great A statement, that is. If God Himself is your shield, that means He Himself is your defense. He's your defender. He is your advocate. He's for you. And He is the one who is going to bring retribution upon anybody who tries to hurt you. To have God as your shield is a great and a mighty thing. And isn't it just true that God was Abram's shield? Or is it true that if you're in Christ, He's your shield as well? What does it say in the book of Psalms? are to shield about me, my glory and the lifter of my head." Brothers and sisters, we're engaged in this present age in spiritual warfare. Sometimes we say things like, you know, I'm really going through spiritual warfare. Well, yeah. If you're alive in this present age, you are always going through spiritual warfare. Now, it may be more intense at times than at others. That's certainly true. But we're always engaged in warfare because the devil just doesn't seem to slumber, does he? And He doesn't play by Queensberry rules. He doesn't fight fair. And He doesn't take time off while you're trying to take a vacation or while you're trying to take a day off. He attacks at your weakest, most vulnerable time. And He is cruel and vicious and hateful. And if we were left to ourselves and our own resources and our own strength, we would have much reason to fear. But here's God saying, I am your shield. I am your protector. I am your defender. And brothers and sisters, does that mean that you and I will never be harmed physically by another person? I wish it did, but it doesn't. There's some of us in this room that may die martyrs. Some of us in this room may not die pretty. In fact, maybe many of us may not die pretty before it's over. But even if men destroy my body, what can they do to my soul? They can't harm it. Don't fear him who can kill your body but afterwards has nothing else he can do, but fear him who can cast both body and soul into hell. We have someone who is our shield and our advocate. To put it in Paul's language, who will bring a reviling accusation against God's elect? It is Christ who died, God who justified. Who is he who condemns? Pastor Jerry's a sinner. Big news flash. But you know what? Jesus shed his blood for me. and my sins are under his blood. And if you're in Christ, your sins are under his blood. The devil can bring a reviling accusation. The problem with his accusations is so often they're true. But the thing is you have an advocate in the heavens who is your shield, who protects your soul because everything in my flesh cries out for God to reject me, but everything in Christ cries out for God to receive me and to show me mercy and to forgive me and to pardon my sins. So to say that Christ, that God is your shield, is to say you're the most protected and defended person on the face of the earth. Don't be afraid, Abram. I am your shield. And there's a third thing he says. He says, you're exceedingly great reward. Some translations say your reward is very great. Now think about this. Here was a man who, yes, was financially rich. He had lots of cattle and livestock and servants and things like that. But do you realize that Abram didn't even own one piece of real estate? We read that in our public scripture reading from Acts, didn't we? That he didn't own even one piece of real estate. If you own real estate, you own more than he did in terms of land and property. And yet, here's a man to whom God is promising, I'm going to give you land, but he doesn't own any land. In fact, when he has to bury his wife later, Sarah, he has to buy a cave, the cave of Machpelah, in order to bury her in because he doesn't own anything himself to bury her in. And yet, here is God saying to him, you have an exceedingly great reward. a tremendous inheritance. You may not own real estate here, but you got real estate in heaven. And you have a city whose builder and maker is God, the new Jerusalem, and you're going to inherit that in the age that is to come. And Abram understood that God was promising more than just physical land. He was promising real estate in heaven. You have something ahead of you, but I would submit to you that it wasn't just that Abram was inheriting heaven. It was that Abram was inheriting the God of heaven. Do you realize that your greatest inheritance is God himself? That if you're in Christ, you are an heir of God himself. He is your inheritance. It reminds me of the fourth verse of my very favorite hymn of all time. Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise. Thou mine inheritance, now and always. That verse ends by saying, hi, king of heaven, my treasure thou art. If you're like most people, you struggle to balance your checkbook. Sometimes you work and you work and you work and all your work and you feel like you're dog paddling and you're just trying to keep your financial nose barely above the water for all your efforts. You ever feel that way? But I'm going to tell you, if you're in Christ, and God himself is your inheritance, you are richer than all the billionaires in the world combined. Because their riches can be stolen. Their riches can be lost if the stock market plunges. All the things they've accumulated can be lost. But here's the other thing, as much as rich as they may be in this present age, they can't take it with them into the age to come. But if you're in Christ, you have a treasure that no one can take from you. that is eternal, that moss can't eat, that rust can't destroy, that thieves can't steal. You have treasure in heaven and your treasure is none other than God himself. A. W. Tozer says that when God said to Abram, I am your exceedingly great reward, he declared him to be richer than every other man on the face of the earth because God himself was his inheritance. So what we see here, first of all, is God's revelation. Surprisingly, what we see next is Abram's complaint. Abram's complaint, verse 2 and verses 2 and 3. Abram said, Lord God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus? That's the question. Then he gives a declaration in verse 3. Then Abram said, Look, you have given me no offspring. Indeed, one born in my house is my heir. There's several things here. There's three different things I see in the complaint. First of all, you've given me no seed. God had already implicitly promised him He was going to give him descendants. Turn back just a few pages to chapter 12 and verse 7. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your descendants I will give this land. Now look at chapter 13, verses 14 through 17. And the Lord said to Abram after Lot had separated from him, Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, and westward. For all the land which you see I will give to you and your seed, your descendants, forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth. So if a man can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. So he's already told him you're going to have a lot of descendants. Here, he says to God, where is it? You've given me no seed. And there's a second thing implied there. The years ahead are fewer than the years behind. He says, I go childless. I continue to go childless. You made this promise to me many years ago while I was still in Ur of the Chaldees. I haven't gotten any younger since. And here I am, an old man with an old wife. And you haven't given me a single child. And the third thing is, I have no son that comes from my body who can be my heir of all the things that I own. Rather, a Gentile from the surrounding nations born into my house, a slave, is the heir that I'm going to have. Now, you might look at this and think, man, Abram sure is being ungrateful. But I don't think he is. As a matter of fact, his complaint is a reverent complaint, if I can put it that way. Let me read to you from Delroth Davis. I'm going to read to you from Delroth Davis several times in this particular morning. But this is what he has to say about this particular thing. He says this, The problem is the passage of time without fulfillment of promises. I keep on going childless. He has the promise, but nothing has changed in his circumstances. So the reassurance from God in verse one does not sedate Abram, but stirs up his complaint. Abram had the promise, but nothing had changed. Faith faces the passage of time and that time can be wearing. But this very struggle over the promise can provide a ray of encouragement. For one thing, it shows the freedom faith has to complain to God. Now, let's be clear what we mean by that. I don't mean Abram rants and raves or that he shakes his fist or stomps his foot like some spoiled brat throwing a hissy fit. You can sense his attitude in his address to God. Lord Yahweh, Adonai Yahweh. He has a complaint. He has a question. But he realizes he is a servant and Yahweh is the sovereign. There can be candor, but there is also proper respect and submission and a recognition of his place. And there's something more. The complaint itself may be a sign of faith because when Abraham brings his difficulties over the promise before God, it shows that the promises of God really matter to him. It's a proof that it matters. You've promised this, but you haven't seen the fulfillment yet. When is it going to be? What are you going to do? So we see God's revelation. We see Abram's complaint. In third place, we see God's assurance. Something very precious in verses four and five. Does God rebuke him and say, well, you doubting, unbelieving fellow? Does he respond in anger or fury and tell him, you know, you just need to be quiet, Abram? That's not what he does at all. Have you ever come to God in prayer discouraged? and said to him, I've done this many times, Lord, I don't know if I need rebuke or comfort, but whatever it is, send it my way. And then I grit my teeth and do like this because I'm afraid that he's just going to come and slap me down. Now there are times that he brings his chastisement and brothers and sisters, that's not a bad thing. He loves us and that's why he corrects us. If he didn't love us, then he wouldn't rebuke us for our sin. It's his love for us that compels him to do so. But there's so many times when I have come to the Lord that way, expecting his chastisement, that instead he sends a few roses over the wall. He's already assured us of his love for us in Christ, but suddenly he sends a brother or sister who calls you at that moment or that day and suddenly encourages you and blesses your socks off and you're thinking to yourself, that was not what I was expecting. that God sometimes reassures us and comforts us. And through these providences, it says, he's just reminding us, I love you. I care about you. I sing over you. I have not forsaken you. I've not abandoned you. You feel abandoned, but you just feel that way. I'm still here. And he's giving us these tangible reminders of his deep love for us. A love that's far beyond anything we could ask or think. Far beyond what we could imagine. Think about how much you think God loves you. It's infinitely more. That's why Paul says that he told the Ephesians, I'm praying that you will be able to apprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. I'm praying that you'll know something you can't know. To comprehend something that's incomprehensible, God's love for you. It says, I said it this past Wednesday night, it says in Prince Caspian, Lucy sees Aslan for the first time after returning to Narnia and she looks at him and says, Aslan, have you grown bigger? And he says, no child, I have not grown bigger, but the older you go, the bigger I shall seem to you. Even so it is for us as we grow in grace, God doesn't change, but our apprehension of him gets bigger and bigger and bigger. Even so, God very often turns around and gives us assurance when we think he's going to give us review. And that's what he does here for Abram. He doesn't turn around and say, Abraham, you idiot, or here you unbelieving, you know, guy, you've seen all the things I've done for you thus far. What's your problem? No, that's not what he says. Rather, he gives them assurance. And it's interesting. He gives them first verbal assurance, and then he gives them visual assurance. So let's notice this in the text. Verse 4, and behold, verse 4 is all about the verbal assurance. Behold, the word of the Lord came to him saying, this one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir. Notice there's a negative and there's a positive. Negatively, no, this servant that's in your home, who is presently your heir, that's not the one who's going to be your heir. That's the negative. Here's the positive. Someone who comes from your body. that's gonna be your heir. Now we know because we've read the rest of the story, right? We know that this is a hint, a prophecy of Isaac. Isaac's gonna be born in your home, but he's just telling him just the barest hint. Nope, you're gonna have a child at some point down the road. I'm not finished yet. But he tells him negatively and then positively, and then notice what he does. He gives him a visual assurance. Verse five, then he brought him outside. It's only now that we realize it's the dead of night. and that he's inside of his tent when this vision comes to him and God says, Abram, come with me. Walk out your tent door and look up into the night sky. Notice what he says, it's beautiful. Look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them. And he said to him, so show your descendants be. When this church sent me to a missions tour of three nations in Africa, in March of 2018. When we would go there very often, when we were driving between various places, we would drive at night. We're all crammed into this little tiny truck, like this, the whole way. And we're going in the dead of night, and there were no city lights around anywhere. The only lights you could see were the lights from the headlights pointing forward, and we had to go real slow because all of a sudden, an elephant literally could walk in front of you. And if you hit an elephant, the elephant's going to win. So, so we're doing that, but I would look outside at the night sky. And can you imagine we, we see the night sky here and it's gorgeous, but you know, the lights of powder springs in my backyard kind of drown out some of it. I have never seen anything like this where you looked up and it felt like there were four and five extra layers of stars. And I wanted so badly to say, stop, pull off to the side, turn out the lights. Let's go stand out in the field. Just look up at this. But they had King Cobras and Black Mambas there, so I decided I'd just stay in the car. But I literally for hours would just sit there in awe, looking at all those stars. Well, this is exactly what Abram would have seen. Remember, there was no electric light or gas light or anything like that to go out into the land of Canaan and look up and see just myriads of stars. And God says, count them. Go ahead, if you can. That's the number of your descendants. That's how great your descendants are going to be. He gives him not just a verbal assurance, but he gives them a visual assurance. It's beautiful, isn't it? And in doing so, remember what the Bible tells us back in Genesis chapter one, fourth day of creation, God created the sun and the moon and the stars. And what did he say? They will be for signs and for seasons. And he says, Abram, look at the stars. That's your descendants right there. Now I'm going to risk the tedium. of reading to you an extended quote from Delroth Davis because he capitalizes upon this point. But I promise you when I get done reading this long quote, you're going to be very glad that I did. I have been, my soul has been feasting upon this quote all week. And I'm just going to tell you right now, I've been waiting to read this to you all week because it's so wonderful and so great. Listen to what Delroth Davis has to say about this visual assurance that God gives. What we have here is a matter of graphics rather than logic. Yahweh seems more concerned right here to impress Abram with a promise than simply to express it to him. Most of us acknowledge the difference a picture makes. One can see a recipe in simple printed form. It usually isn't hard to understand, but one must apply one's own image of what it might look like. When we read the mere printed recipe, we are likely to say something like, that sounds good. But it's different if one opens up a copy of Southern Living magazine and sees a two-page spread of a dish in all its multicolored gastronomical glory. There's the recipe printed down in the right-hand corner. But there too is the picture of this luscious casserole or scrumptious salad or whatever. It lays a hold of your imagination and makes an impression which the mere printed recipe could not do. That seems to be what Yahweh is up to with Abraham here. The stargazing, star counting episode does not constitute a rational argument, but Yahweh seems to lay a hold of the imagination of Abraham's faith. It doesn't make the word or promise more certain, but more vivid. It's as if God is saying to Abram, here, let me see if I can give you a picture. Verse 5 shows us then that God stoops to the weakness of our faith and seeks to impress us with the firmness of his word. Remember G.K. Chesterton's hyperbole, don't believe anything that can't be told in colored pictures. Well, in the star sign, God is giving Abram a colored picture, a visual aid to assist his faith. Elohim does not do this to make his promises more sure. How could that ever be done? But to make you sure of his promises. He gives you props to support your faith, gives you some crutches on which faith can go walking. But one can almost hear the objection voiced. Someone will say that we are New Testament believers and we're beyond this childhood stage, this elementary level of Old Testament faith that needs pictures to stir up assurance. We are far more advanced now and not nearly so primitive. But if that's so, why do you mess with bread and wine? For is not the Lord's Supper Jesus' authorized picture to impress you with his fidelity to you? Will you say that you are beyond the need for that? For as you come to the table with your wobbly faith on the Lord's Day, it's as if Jesus is saying to you, here, let me see if I can give you a picture to help you go on believing. You see this bread? Just as this bread sustains your physical being, so too I will always and ever sustain you whatever your circumstances. Do you see that wine? If I went that far for you, if I laid down my life for your most extreme need, will I not go to any length to hold you up in any lesser circumstance? No, Jesus does not have you count the stars. He has you come to the table. But the picture is meant to have the same effect in the sacrament of assurance. I have been feasting upon that ever since I read it. God has given us a visual reminder of his gospel that we can see, we can hear the words of institution, you can smell it, you can touch it, you can taste it. What is this but God coming to our weakness to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified to remind us you're not accepted by God because of what you've done this week, but you're accepted before God because of the blood and righteousness of my son. And this is a constant reminder to us of the basis of our acceptance before God. And so that is how God reassures Abram. So what have we seen thus far? We've seen God's revelation. We've seen Abram's complaint. We've seen God's assurance. And now we see Abram responding to both this spoken word and this visible sign. What we see next is Abram's faith. Verse 6 is unadorned. Very, very simple, and yet the New Testament makes a very big deal about it. Builds whole systems of theology on this one verse. But notice how simple it is. And he believed in the Lord. And he accounted it to him for righteousness. See two things here. First of all, we see Abram's response to God's assurances, and then we see God's response to Abram's faith. So first of all, Abram's response to God's assurances. Notice three things about the way he responds. There's three things going on here. Abram believed God. First of all, it means that the object of his faith wasn't God's promise. It was God himself. He believed God. He put his faith in him. Hold your place here in Genesis 15. Turn with me to Romans chapter 4. Romans 4, verses 20-22. Verse 20 says, "...he," that is Abram, that's who he's talking about, "...he did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what he had promised, he was also able to perform." And therefore, it was accounted to him for righteousness." He believed that the God who spoke was also able to perform what he spoke. He was trusting God's nature to say, first of all, God is trustworthy. He doesn't lie. If He's told me these things, I'll believe Him. That's an affirmation of who God is. But also, He's an omnipotent God. It doesn't matter that I'm an old man. It doesn't matter that I have an old, barren wife. God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all I can ask or think. He can do great things. And even though it seems impossible to my reason, God has said it, therefore I'm going to believe it." Because he said it. So first of all, his faith was in God himself. Secondly, his faith was in the promise that God had made. He promised him physical descendants. He promised he would give those descendants the land. He believed that. The third thing, though, is that in saying this, you need to recognize that Abram wasn't just believing that God would give him seed. Abram was placing his faith in the particular seed that God had promised to send. Again, turn with me to Galatians chapter 3. The point I'm trying to drive home to you is this. Abram didn't just believe in God generally. He believed in God's Son specifically. He believed in the coming Messiah. Galatians 3 verse 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He does not say, and to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to your seed, who is Christ." What he's telling us is that every part of scripture is given by inspiration of God and nothing is accidental. It's not an accident that the Holy Spirit did not use the word seeds, plural, when he gave his promise to Abram, but rather he said, in your seed, singular, all families of all nations will be blessed. And what he's saying is this. Abram believed that. He believed that what God was telling him when he said, I'm going to give you seed, was he was going to give him the Messiah. The Messiah would come from him. And he was believing on the Messiah who was to come, putting his faith in him. Jesus himself said it, didn't he? He said, Abram saw my day and rejoiced. He saw my day, the day of the Messiah, and he rejoiced in his heart. In other words, Abram was saved by faith alone in the Messiah who was to come alone. That is what he did here. I have more to say about that in just a moment. But let's see the second thing. How did God respond to Abram's faith? The Bible says he accounted it to him for righteousness. The word accounted is also sometimes translated numbered or imputed. He imputed righteousness to Abram when he believed on him. In other words, it was a righteousness not that Abram earned by his works, but rather that God freely offered And Abram freely received by faith alone in the Messiah who was to come alone. To put it this way, to say that God imputes righteousness to you means that he numbers you among the righteous. Now, two applications that I want to make this morning. First, Abram was justified by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. And if you would be reconciled to God as a sinner, then you must be justified in exactly the same way. Turn with me to Romans 4. And we're just barely scratching the surface of how the New Testament interacts with Genesis chapter 15 and verse 6. But here's one place where it does. Romans chapter 4, Paul has made his great statement in the first three chapters of Romans about why we need a Savior, because we're all sinners under the wrath of God. And then he comes to verse 21 and says that we are justified by faith alone in Christ alone apart from the works of the law. But then he's proving the point in chapter 4. He's showing that the Old Testament saints were justified in the same manner as we are. Verse 1, What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God." Look at me and how holy I am and how my righteousness got me into heaven and got me favor with God. He would have something to boast about if he was declared righteous. That's what the word justified means. It's a legal term. It's a term that's used in the courtroom when the judge looks at you and says, not guilty. He's not imputing sin to you, but He's imputing innocence to you. He says not guilty, He's making a declaration. Well, when God justifies a sinner, it's God Himself declaring you're righteous and that you're innocent of all crimes and of all sins. But notice verse 3, what does the scripture say? Abram believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. In other words, if it was Abram's works that earned him his salvation, God was giving him what he owed him. But grace is God giving you what he does not owe you, and in fact, the contrary, the opposite of what he does owe you. Giving to you what you don't deserve, rather than giving you what you do deserve. Brothers and sisters, men and women, Self-righteousness is a stubborn root that's embedded deep in all of our hearts. The belief that, well, we're all sinners and we all acknowledge that, we've all sinned against God in different ways, but I'll turn over a new leaf and I'll be mighty good now and I'll be a good church member and read my Bible and pray and get baptized and do all the stuff that you're supposed to do. And all those things are good things, aren't they? And I'll be more obedient to my parents and I'll be more respectful to this person and all the stuff that we go through. And maybe over time, my good deeds will outweigh my bad deeds and God will accept me on the curve and grant me a place into heaven. You know, most people sitting in most pews and most churches in the United States believe that. If I can just be good enough, God will accept me. But if you believe that, you haven't understood the depth of God's holiness, nor have you understood the depth of your own sin. Nor have you understood what God requires in His righteous and holy law. He doesn't require you to be mostly good most of the time. What the law of God requires to fulfill it is perfect righteousness, inside and out. A righteousness none of you have, a righteousness none of you can obtain by your own efforts and your own works, no matter how good you can think you can be. I'll be the next Mother Teresa in giving myself over to the poor. It still will not make you right with God. Because even in the midst of your best works, there's still sin present with you. So that even mixed in your prayers, mixed in all your obedience, mixed in all my preaching, always there's sin. I never get in this pulpit without sin. I wish I could, but I can't. Because it contaminates everything that I touch. And it contaminates everything that you touch. That's why the Bible says all our righteousness is as filthy rags. It's putrid, stinking garbage before God. God may send you to hell for your greatest prayer. Seriously. George Whitfield said, I can't pray, but I sin. I can't preach, but I sin. My repentance needs to be repented of. It's true for all of us, isn't it? Your righteousness can't save you, but eternal life. The forgiveness of sins, a righteousness that satisfies the law is not something you can work for. It's not something you can earn. I want you to see something beautiful. Look in Romans chapter 4 and verse 5. It is the most radical, the most revolutionary words ever written in all the history of humanity. I think it's the most radical verse in all the Bible. What's it say? But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies, justifies whom? The righteous? No. Who justifies the ungodly? His faith is accounted for righteousness. Stop working. Stop trying to earn your favor before God. Stop it. Stop trusting it. Forsake it. Turn your back on it. Say it's useless. It's vain. God freely offers righteousness, which you can freely receive. It is offered as a free gift because it's the righteousness of Jesus Christ himself. Jesus righteousness as a man, that as a man, he depended upon the father. to give him fresh supplies and continual supplies of the Holy Spirit so that as a man, he could resist every temptation. As a man, he could obey every precept of God's law inside and out. And that's why God said of him publicly, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. If anyone could be saved by their works, that man was Jesus Christ. who had no sin nature, who had no fallen sinful heart, and who had a perfect record of absolute perfect obedience. But then He died upon the cross, and upon the cross, what happened? God imputed the sin of all who would ever believe in Him to Christ and charged Him as if He were guilty of committing your sins, and punished Him, poured out His wrath upon Him, and satisfied that wrath. Remember what Jesus said? He came to be numbered among the transgressors, to be counted as a sinner. Why he was numbered among sinners so that you and I could be numbered among the righteous. God put our sin upon him and he puts his righteousness upon us so that by spare, simple faith in Jesus, without your works, you can be made right before God. And all the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in you because of what Jesus has done, not what you've done. Someone has said religion is all about do and Christianity is all about done. We're accepted not by what you do, but by what has been done for you. And put it this way, it's an illustration I've used before here, but I haven't used it in a while. There's an old hymn that you're probably familiar with. It says, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. The problem for us as sinners is that we always bring something in our hands. We have two big books in our hands. These are two little books, but just imagine they're big books. This black book that's in my left hand, say that it's the record of my sins. You say, man, you're really good because that's a really small book. Well, it's written in really tiny print, okay? Microfilm, all right? And this book, the white book in my right hand, is the book of my righteousness. All the good things I've ever done, it's written in big print, large print. But we bring those things into our hands and they keep us from embracing Christ. The Bible tells us that we're to repent of our sins. By nature, I love sin. By nature, you love sin. We cherish sin. We kiss our sin. We cling to our sin. We kiss the chain that enslaves us. Look around the world. Do you not see it? People love sin. And that's why they're so hostile to us because we say, you must no longer serve sin. But I love my master. Don't want to give it up. God says, repent, turn from your sins and present yourself to me as a slave of righteousness. And people say, I don't want that. I had a man tell me once he would rather go to hell than become a Christian and lose the pleasures of this world. How stupid is that? But it's what we are by nature. So we cling to our sin. But here's the problem. Sometimes what we do when we are convicted, and this is, I think, our default nature, when we start beginning to realize that God's wrath is burning against us and we deserve his damnation and his judgment, what we do is, I'll turn over a good, a mighty leaf now, I'll turn over that leaf and I'll start being a good person and I'll accumulate enough good deeds until it outweighs my bad deeds. And God will accept me on the basis of my good works. But as I've already told you, the reality is, Your good works belong in the same book as your sins. Because they're tainted by sin. So if you come to Christ, you not only have to repent of your sin, you got to repent of your righteousness and trusting in that righteousness. But it's coming to God and say, God, I recognize I'm falling. But I repent of my sin and I repent of my righteousness and I'm going to cling to you and you alone. I'm going to trust you to do for me what I cannot do for myself. I'm going to cast the entire weight of my entire soul and all my eternal welfare upon you. And just like Abram, you're trusting Jesus to do something you yourself can't do. You're trusting the object of your faith is Him and in His promises. And what are those promises? Things like this, God so loved the world. that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Do you not want to perish in the age to come? Do you want everlasting life? Then it's an invitation. Believe on Him and He makes a promise. If you believe on Me, you will not perish. but you will have everlasting life. Come to me, all you who labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest for your souls. If anyone comes to me, I will in no wise cast him out. If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart God has raised from the dead, you will be saved. You believe his promise and you act upon it, that he's rich to all who draw near to him and seek him diligently. You'll seek his face until you find him. And once you've found Him, you keep on seeking Him. Are you here and you're outside of Christ? Someday, I picked this up this very week from the Valley of Vision. It's a book of prayers. It said this, you know, right now, Jesus is not sitting on a throne of judgment. He will be someday. He's going to sit on a throne of judgment. We're all going to stand and give an account of ourselves. But right now, He's not sitting on a throne of judgment. He's sitting upon a throne of grace. And His heart is full of love and compassion for sinners just like you. And it is His great delight, His exceedingly great joy to receive guilty, vile sinners who've done horrible, terrible things and to pardon them. He delights in doing that. He rejoices to do that. There's greater joy in heaven than there is on earth when that happens. Jesus is able to save you. He's just as willing as He is able. Today is a day of mercy. Tomorrow may be a day of judgment. Flee to Him today. Fly to Christ today. while there is hope. Embrace Him, not trusting your works, not trusting your baptism, not trusting your observance of the Lord's Supper or anything else, trusting Him and what He has done on the cross alone for the basis of your salvation before God. My second and final application this morning is do not miss the missiology of our text. Did you see it? Did you see the missiology in our text? It's right there shouting at us, screaming at us, and it has everything to do with you and me. It's in verse five. Look at the stars. Count them if you can. So shall your descendants be. Now, certainly God was promising physical descendants. And did God give him those physical descendants? Even before the Old Testament is finished, we find God looking back and saying, see, your descendants are as the stars in the sky. In other words, they're innumerable. You can't count them. That mean literally there'll be an exact number of physical representatives as there are stars. What he means is there'll be so many, you can't count them. Has God done that? Well, He already has. Even before the Old Testament was finished, He had already fulfilled that. But what you need to understand about God's promises to Abram and His covenant with Abram is He wasn't just promising physical fulfillment. There is also a spiritual fulfillment. Yes, He promised him land, real estate in Palestine. But He was promising something bigger of which the land was just a mere symbol, and that is real estate in heaven. Look at Hebrews 11 sometime and you'll see that's exactly what Abram understood God to be saying is, your inheritance is a city in heaven whose baker and builder is God. He understood that. But when he said to him, you're going to have this great number of descendants, it wasn't just his physical descendants. It was his spiritual descendants. And I want to show you this from the scriptures. Turn with me to Romans chapter nine and look at verses six to eight. But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children, because they are the seed of Abraham. But in Isaac your seed shall be called." That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. Do you hear what he's saying here? Just because you're a physical descendant of Abraham doesn't mean Abraham was your father. Physically, genetically, yes. Spiritually, no. Remember when Jesus rebuked some of the Jews who were unbelieving and criticizing Him? And He says, you're of your father. Well, we have Abraham as our father. If Abraham was your father, you would believe in Me. But you're of your father. Well, who are you talking about? You're of your father, the devil. In other words, if you believed as Abraham did, you would walk in the same steps of faith. You would believe in the same Messiah he believed in. And what Paul is saying here in Romans 9 is this. Just because someone was a physical descendant of Abraham did not mean that they were truly his son and his heir in a spiritual sense. Some among ethnic Israel were, Paul was himself. He was one who was not only a physical son, but a spiritual son of Abram, but also those who believe in Christ, whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, you are a son or a daughter of Abram. As a matter of fact, there's more descendants of Abram that are Gentiles than are Jews. Because here's the point, when God chose whom He would save before the foundation of the world, which is right out of the book of Ephesians, He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, predestined us to be adopted as sons. That's the Bible. All right, where did He choose His elect from? Was it limited only to the 12 tribes of Israel? Or was it from every tribe, out of every nation, out of every land mass? And you know the answer, don't you? Every tribe, tongue, people, and nation know they were representatives of God's elect from every single place. Turn to Galatians 3. We'll see the same thing. Galatians 3, verses 7 to 9. Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, And you all the nations shall be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. And then turn to one more place, Revelation 7. Revelation 7, verses 9 to 10. After these things I looked, And behold, a great multitude, which no one could number. Do you hear echoes of Abraham right there? A multitude no man can number of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice saying, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. What's he saying? Here's Abraham's descendants. Take their aggregate sum throughout history and from all nations, and you can't number them. And they're all going to be saved. They're all going to be converted. They're all going to believe on Christ. When we send out missionaries or pray for missionaries to be sent to a place like Bangladesh or wherever they're going, we have a 100% guarantee that there are God's elect among that people group, even if they never heard the gospel. And we have a 100% guarantee that every single one of those elect is going to be saved. Period. So we can say Jesus died for the nations because he died for every people group. Representatives out of every people group are found there. I'll never forget when Ray Gibello stood in this pulpit and he talked about God's book and he said, I'm probably not talking about the same book you're thinking about because you're thinking about the Bible. He says, the book I'm talking about, the book of God I'm referring to is the Lamb's book of life. which before the foundation of the world had the names of all God's elect from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation in it. And he talked about the great covenant of redemption in which the father and the son entered into a covenant concerning the elect. I will save these people. You know, the Bible doesn't say you'll call his name Jesus because he'll try to save his people. You will call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. And what Ray Gibello said was this, we work among the Angevay people. We've seen very few conversions. Why are we there? Why are we in Papua New Guinea? He said, we went there because we believe God called us. What makes us stay there? He said, it's God's book. It's God's covenant of redemption. Because we know that 100% of all the Angevay people whom have been chosen by God from the foundation of the world are going to be saved. He said, show me any business where you have that kind of guarantee. Not that all the peoples in that tribe will be saved, but all the elect people in that tribe will be saved certainly. And that's what keeps us there when we're discouraged. And brothers and sisters, here's a question. How many of you are Jews? How many of you are Gentiles? Then this affects you. You're part of that, those stars in the firmament. So shall your descendants be. Here we are on the other side of the globe for where God made that promise. And we have believers in this very room in Christ who have Abraham for our father. God has been true to his promise. See the missiology of the text. I told you it's good stuff. It's there. God's intention from the beginning was always to save members out of the world for his glory. Well, let's be encouraged as we press on. And as we share the gospel, it's not your abilities. It's God's sovereign grace that gives us the assurance that indeed men and women, boys and girls will be converted. Let's pray. Father, help us to understand more and more the depth of your word. Thank you for the promise that as great as the numbers of the stars, so would Abram's descendants be. And we thank you for the physical descendants that you gave and fulfillment of that promise. We thank you even more for the spiritual descendants among whom we are numbered. Bless us as we seek to make Christ known to our own community and to this world. We pray for our missionaries father, as they labor in fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant, that many will be blessed through the seed of Abraham. Bless us now as we take the Lord's supper together for we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.