this series on the life of Abraham. And the life of Abraham, by virtue of Abraham, was called to live by faith. And we, the people of God today, are called to live by faith as well. The next verses that occupy us this evening, because here we see the grace of God shining and sparkling And anytime that we have the grace of God, we should find our hearts leaping within us. I will tell you that if you're a child of God, you are interested in the grace of God. Because you are a child of God by virtue of that grace. In fact, everything that you have, is due to the grace of God. Any good has come by virtue of the grace of God, and you are absolutely nothing apart from the grace of God, and you can do nothing apart from the grace of God. Now that great hymn, Amazing Grace, has been called the Baptist national anthem And I can tell you why Baptists regard that hymn so very highly, why we esteem it so very much. It's because it celebrates this grace of God and it presents to us this truth that you and I, that I have just talked about, and that is you and I are absolutely nothing apart from the grace of Almighty God. And so God's grace is truly amazing, and it should be of great interest to us. And I say to you that we see the grace of God here in these first six verses of Genesis chapter 15, and I now read these verses to you. After these things, I think that phrase probably has quite a bit of importance, after these things, And, of course, we're talking about the things in chapter 14, and I'll remind you of those in just a moment. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram. Well, we're already confronted with the grace of God, aren't we? It's a marvel, isn't it, that God would speak to frail, fallible, sinful creatures. I tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that this is no small thing that the Eternal Sovereign God would speak. And here God speaks to Abram. Now you may be saying to me, well, Pastor, I sure wish God would speak to me. Oh, He does. He does. This Bible that I hold here is God speaking. And oh, would to God that we could appreciate what we have in the Bible. Every time you take this Bible in your hand and you open it up and you read, God is speaking. And I say to you that this is a great token of the grace of God. God speaks. You and I wouldn't know anything about God at all if God did not reveal himself to us. And so we're already face to face with the grace of God. 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. And there's another manifestation of the grace of God. God promises to be Abram's shield. and his great reward. In fact, that's point one of my sermon tonight. And you may say, well, what does it have to do with me? Well, child of God, I'm telling you that the same God who promised to be Abram's shield and Abram's great reward has pledged himself to be your shield and your great reward. But Abram said, Lord God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus? Then Abram 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. He's talking about Eliezer of Damascus. Eliezer was a servant whom Abraham had adopted. He was adopted by Abram, but he was not his own son. And God clearly says here, this one shall not be your heir, but look at verse four, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir." Then fasten your eyes on this verse, verse 5. He, that is God, brought him, that is Abraham, outside and said, look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them. And he said to him, so shall your descendants be. And here in verse 6, we have one of the great texts of Holy Scripture. And in fact, this particular text is quoted quite often in the New Testament, four times, I think, in the New Testament. Verse 6, And he, that is, Abram, believed in the Lord, and he, the Lord, accounted it to him. for righteousness. And so tonight our theme is grace on top of grace. And I want to call three manifestations of God's grace to your attention in the time that we have together. I first of all want to call your attention to this matter I mentioned a moment ago and that is God promised to be Abram's shield and great reward. And You notice how God prefaced this remark. He said, do not be afraid. Now I'm assuming that Abram was afraid because God said to him, don't be afraid. Abram was experiencing fear at this particular time. And there's a great deal of debate among the Bible scholars and Bible commentators about Abram's fear. Why would Abram be afraid at this particular point in his life? And most commentators seem to think that we have to go back to chapter 14. I called your attention a while ago to that phrase, after these things. And you find that back in chapter 14, Abram was involved in a military campaign against the kings who had taken his nephew Lot into captivity. And the thinking goes that Abram, after that military campaign was over, might have begun having second thoughts about the whole thing, and he might have started saying to himself, these kings that I defeated in battle are going to come after me, sure enough. That's a Mulberry Grove phrase. Sure enough, these kings are going to come after me. And perhaps that was part of Abram's fear. And you remember also in chapter 14 that Abram had refused the reward that the king of Sodom had offered him. We talked about that. And many Bible commentators think that Abram might have been having second thoughts about that reward that he turned down. Have you ever done something that was just very generous and altruistic on your part, and then later on you got to thinking about that and said, hey, I shouldn't have been so generous. Maybe Abram, after Abram was a wealthy man, but he could have been wealthier. And after the king of Sodom offered him this great reward and Abram turned it down, maybe Abram was thinking to himself, I made a mistake. I shouldn't have turned down that reward. And so that, those are the things that happened in chapter 14. And now after these things, the Lord appears to Abram and a vision. And he says, Abram, don't be afraid. I'm your shield and I am your great reward. And so he comforts Abram regarding the fears. that were gripping him at this time. Now, aren't you grateful for this Word, the Word of God? Because, ladies and gentlemen, this Word does for us what God did for Abram on this occasion. This Word comforts us. You know what it is to have fear, don't you? You know what it is to have anxiety. You know what it is to live in dread. And God comforts His people. In fact, somebody just went through the Bible one time and counted every time, every occurrence of the phrase, fear not. He found 365 occurrences of the phrase, fear not. And he said, that's one for each day of the year, fear not. Fear not. Well, I'll tell you this, every day of the year will bring anxiety to you of some kind, won't it? Every day has some sort of anxiety connected with it. Do you fly through a single day, just sail through a single day without having some kind of anxiety, some concern, some burden, some issue cross your mind? Ladies and gentlemen God has comfort for every anxiety and he's got comfort for every day of your life and We should be so very thankful that the Lord says to us even as he said to Abram don't be afraid Don't be afraid Abram didn't need to fear these Kings because God said to him I'm going to be your shield. I'm going to be your protector I have already said to you, ladies and gentlemen, that God is the shield of His people today. Now, it may be that some of you are doubting this. You may be saying, well, if God is my shield, then He's got holes in Him because this thing came through the shield, and this thing came through the shield, and the other thing came through. Barry made reference in his prayer a while ago. We don't understand what God's about, why things come to us that do come to us. God's ways are mysterious. But I assure you tonight, when you finally get home to heaven, you will be amazed. You will be astounded at how many times God protected you. Now, I know some of you are planning on rushing into the presence of God, and some of you are pingering God's face, and you're planning on saying, God, why did you let this happen and why did you let that happen? I think before the words get out of your mouth, you are going to be amazed How many times God protected you God is your shield when you don't even realize that he's being your shield And I'm saying to you tonight Not only is God the shield of his people, but God is also the great reward of his people God said to Abram Abram you don't need the wealth that the king of Sodom can give you because I am your wealth and Can you get that home to your heart tonight? Can you just let that soak into your mind tonight? God is your wealth, child of God, and that's the greatest wealth that there is. Now, we shouldn't be opposed to the wealth of the world. I've always thought that I should be rich. God and I have a disagreement about that. I said this morning that you can disagree and not be disagreeable. Well, God and I disagree, but we're not being disagreeable. I'm trying not to be disagreeable toward God. I believe I should have wealth because I'm one of the few people who knows how to use it. I mean, I'd get a bang out of spreading money around to further the cause of Christ. And, well, I could go on and on about that. Christian people shouldn't be opposed to wealth, per se, but Christian people should recognize that no matter how much of this world's wealth they possess, their greatest wealth is in God. Now, do you want to know about your wealth in God? Read Ephesians chapter 1, the first 14, 15 verses there, and there you will find your spiritual blessings detailed, laid out for you. There is your spiritual wealth, the wealth that you enjoy through Jesus Christ. Now, wasn't this a gracious thing for God to say to Abram, Abram, don't be afraid. I'm your shield. I'm your reward. You think that's a gracious thing for God to say to Abram? What do you think? I obviously haven't convinced you. Let's go back and I'm going to start over. And I don't want you to leave here tonight without being convinced, so this could be a long sermon if I just have to keep starting over. Are you convinced now? Was this a gracious thing? Everybody's convinced. This is a gracious thing. God says to Abram, I'm your shield. I'm your reward. God says the same thing to you tonight, child of God, not only in this text, but several other texts as well. God says the very same thing. Is this a gracious thing, do you think, for God to say to you tonight, I'm your shield and your reward? Well, we've got more grace. That's just one level. That's just one manifestation of grace. Here is the second. our manifestation of grace, and that is that God promises to give an heir here to Abram. And after, this is rather comical, after God speaks to him there in verse 1 and says, Abram, I'm your shield, your exceedingly great reward. We would expect to read that Abram fell down and worshiped God, but he was filled with adoration and praise and he fell down in worship of God. But when God spoke to him, that just gave Abram the opportunity to vent Abram had this frustration built up and what he essentially says here to God is, well, what good is your promise to be my shield when you haven't kept your other promises to me? And what good is your promise to be my reward when you haven't kept your other promises to me? And in particular, Abram's talking here about the promise of an heir, the promise of a son. And he says, God, you haven't fulfilled your promise of a son. And here I am supposed to rejoice in your promise to be my shield, your promise to be my heir, to be my reward. I'm supposed to rejoice in this when you haven't kept the promise about the heir. And he brings up this matter of Eliezer. He says, look, Lord, he says, Lord God there in verse 2, what will you give me seeing I go childless and the heir of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? Verse 3 look you have given me no offspring Indeed one born in my own house is my heir. He's referring to this adopted son Eliezer And then look at what God says to him or what God does in verse 5 Verse 4, God says to him, this one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be. And then God takes him outside, verse 5, and he points him toward the heavens and he says, count the stars, Abram, if you're able to number them, so shall your descendants be. Now, I'm going to wax bold this evening and say that there's a lot more there than meets the eye. In fact, I want to go so far as to say that there was a physical level to that promise. God says to Abram, Abram, I'm going to give you descendants. There's going to be someone who's going to come from your own body and I'm going to give you descendants through that one. But there's also a spiritual level here. There's a spiritual track here. And in fact, I want to go so far as to tell you that when God spoke to Abram along these lines, he was actually preaching the gospel to him. Now, that requires a little thinking. Let's work that out just a bit. God was promising something on the physical level, and God fulfilled that promise. Because, ladies and gentlemen, even though Abram was an old man at this time, God gave him a son from his own body and through that son, Isaac, God gave Abram many physical descendants. But I tell you, all the physical descendants of Abram that have ever lived are not sufficient to exhaust this promise that God gave him when he pointed him to the stars of heaven and said, so shall your descendants be. It requires another level. And I'm talking about the spiritual level. Now, some of you have never gotten tapped into this. And when you think of Abram and his descendants, you're still thinking in terms of physical descendants today. And you've never gotten over to this level of spiritual descendants. And ladies and gentlemen, this is the true fulfillment of the promise because there was another one who would spring from the body of Abraham. Not just Isaac. There was another one who would spring from the body of Abraham. One of those many descendants, physical descendants, would be the Lord Jesus Christ. And through the Lord Jesus Christ, God would give Abraham spiritual descendants. And do you understand tonight that if you're a child of God, You are a spiritual descendant of Abraham. Abraham is your father. You're one of his descendants. And you are one of his spiritual descendants, listen, by virtue of the Lord Jesus Christ and his saving work on Calvary's cross. And listen, When God took Abram out there and pointed him to the stars of heaven, God was conveying to Abram that his true seed would be the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord Jesus Christ would be the one who would make all these spiritual descendants possible. And Abram had the gospel preached to him. And I tell you, that's more grace. That's more grace. Some of you will say, well, pastor, what's it have to do with us tonight? Have you had the gospel preached to you? Has someone talked to you about the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you been in a church service where a man of God has proclaimed the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ? God preached the Lord Jesus Christ to Abram on this occasion. And I tell you, my friends, that was grace that God preached to Abram, the Lord Jesus Christ. And every time you hear about the Lord Jesus Christ, God's being good to you, God's being enormously good to you. Some of you don't know where to find goodness. You say, well, if God were good to me, this wouldn't happen to me. And you're looking over here at some part of life that's particularly aggravating and irritating. Some of you are saying, well, if God were really good to me, this would happen to me. And you're looking at something that's very pleasant and desirable. And I'm telling you, my friends, that the greatest goodness that God has to offer is the goodness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And when you hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, God is being enormously good to you because that gospel and that gospel alone can save your soul from eternal destruction and make you right with God. God was being good to Abraham. He preached the gospel to him. And God is good to you every time you have the gospel presented to you. And then we have yet another installment of the grace of God here, and I'm referring now to that sixth verse. We've seen two installments. God promised to be his shield, his exceedingly great reward. That was installment one. And then God promised him an heir from his own body. And the ultimate fulfillment of that was in Jesus Christ. That was installment number two. And then my friends look at verse six and here you find installment number three. Here's grace on top of grace. Abram believed in the Lord and God accounted it to him for righteousness. Now, that is both a confusing and thrilling verse of Scripture. And I have to tell you, I have wrestled with this verse. I just want you to know I've earned my keep these last few days. I've wrestled with this verse of Scripture. It's confusing. It's confusing because it seems to indicate that Abram was not a man of faith. He was not, we would say, a child of God until right here and right now. And here's what makes it confusing. We have already found instances that indicate that Abram had already come to faith. And so, here's the dilemma. How is it that Abram had faith before this? And we know he did. Read Genesis chapter 12, the first few verses. I tell you, Abram was a child of God before this. I'm referring to Genesis 15, 6 now. I'm telling you, Abram was a child of God before this. Abram had already looked forward in faith to the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so how is it that Abram could have faith before this and God say, and we have God saying here in this sixth verse that Abram believed in the Lord here and it was accounted to him for righteousness. It's confusing. I'm satisfied with the answer that I finally reached. But I don't think I'm going to tell you. I think I'll just let that be your homework this week. My answer is God used this instance to state clearly the faith of Abram as justifying faith because God had more clearly pointed Abram to the coming Messiah. And this verse is here in order to highlight this doctrine of justification by faith. And my friends, that doctrine God always wants tied to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so even though Abram was, we would say, saved before this, God used this particular instance to highlight saving faith because God has spoken more clearly in this passage about the coming Messiah than ever before. And saving faith, God always wants to make it clear that saving faith, saving faith is tied to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's my answer. Now that can still be your homework. See if you can come up with a better answer. And so here we have the final installment of grace in these verses. And it is a bit confusing for the reason that I gave, but it's also thrilling because what we read here is that Abram received righteousness. God imputed righteousness to Abram. Some of you are so caught up with material things and sports and family get-togethers and vacations and trips And you may find yourself saying, why is this man even bothering me with all of this? Oh, I tell you, my friends, listen, this is the most important issue in all of this life. I want to tell you tonight, hear me, you will not get into heaven Unless you are 100% righteous You're not going to get into heaven unless you are as good as God is Now I know when I say that some people almost have some kind of reaction I've actually had people respond in in this fashion, say, well, you just made heaven a ghost town. If I have to be one to get into heaven, you've just made heaven a ghost town because there's nobody who's perfect. Now, my friends, you're getting there. God demands 100% righteousness of you. God demands that you be as perfect as he is to get into heaven. What chance do you have? Do you have that kind of righteousness? Now, some of you are looking over here at the person next to you or the person over there. I even know people who stay out of church for this reason. They say, well, you've got so-and-so ghost down there and I know he's not what he ought to be. And my friends, the issue is not how you stack up with your acquaintances, with your neighbors, with your friends, with your family members. The issue is, how do you stack up against this holy God? And this holy God says, you have got to be 100% righteous. You have got to be perfect to get into heaven. And you're looking at this guy and saying, well, he's not perfect. Wrong measuring stick. God's the measuring stick. How are you ever going to measure up? Well, my friends, you don't have the righteousness, but Martin Luther said, because we don't have the righteousness ourselves, we have to have an alien righteousness. And you understand what an alien righteousness is? If you were to go home tonight and unlock your door and sitting there on your sofa would be a funny little green man with a head that looked like a fishbowl and had antennas sticking out and he was beeping, you'd say this is an alien. He's come from the outside. My friends, I tell you that this God who demands righteousness has sent us the righteousness that we need from the outside. There's an Aeolian that came to this world centuries ago. His name is Jesus. And while you don't have the righteousness that God demands, will you listen to me tonight? While you don't have the righteousness that God demands to get into heaven, Jesus Christ has that righteousness. And it can be yours. And here you are saying, well, pastor, all I've got to sin. God demands righteousness. and all I've got sinned. I want to tell you Jesus Christ not only has the righteousness you need, Jesus Christ went to the cross expressly for this purpose, to pay for our sins. And pay for them he did because he received there the wrath of God. Now here is Christianity and there's nothing like it in the world. Christianity means Jesus Christ gets my sins and I get his. righteousness. And the only way I can stand acceptably before this holy God is clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And I receive that righteousness and that atoning death by faith. By faith. And faith is not a good work that I do to earn it. Faith is simply the mechanism that God has appointed for me to receive it. And ladies and gentlemen, if you're without that righteousness tonight, you can receive it. And when you come to Jesus Christ in faith, God counts His righteousness as yours. and you can then stand acceptably before this holy God. Some of you will say, that's the strangest thing I ever heard of. Shouldn't it be? Paul put it like this in 2 Corinthians 5. Does this sound familiar? He who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And we sing it. What's that old hymn? dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne. Thank God. Let's bow together for prayer.