Our Father Abraham
Our Father Abraham
Utawala Baptist Church
28-01-07
Scripture reading Hebrews 11:8-10
Definitions:
Grace getting what you do not deserve.
Mercy not getting what you do deserve.
Faith According to the simplest conception of it, faith is a personal confidence in God.[1]
Hebrews 11:1
Ephesians 2:2-9
Salvation is by the grace of God
Obtained by faith in the promises of God and the finished work of Jesus Christ.
Applied by the Holy Spirit
We are saved by grace
Kept by grace received by simple faith in the Word of the Living God.
Very Simple
No wonder man creates Cults and Sects:
Faith + works
Grace + Works
Works = Human effort
Ephesians 2:9
We must be very careful not to add anything to the finished work of Christ.
What is this finished work?
Genesis 3:15 >>>>>>>>>> John 19:28-30
Faith of Abraham
Genesis 11:31-32
Introduced to Abraham
Father of the Faithful
Father of the nation of Israel
Claimed by three faiths:
Jewish
Christian
Muslim
Prominence of Abraham and descendants
Genesis 1 thru 11
2000 years of human history
At least 20 generations
11 brief chapters ending with 11:30
There were no chapter and verse numbers in the original manuscripts.
Genesis 12 thru 50 actually 11:31 – 50.
400 years
Entirely devoted to Abraham
His son Isaac
His grandson Jacob
And His great grandson Joseph
The rest of the OT deals with the history of the nation of Israel that sprang from Abraham always focusing on the coming Messiah.
The rest of the bible focuses on Jesus Christ Abraham’s greater SON directly.
This shows the important place Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph held in revealing God’s plan of salvation.
In the history of these four men we see God’s wonderful plan of redemption.
Bible Theme
SALVATION THROUGH GRACE OBTAINED BY FAITH!
Bible contains information on many subjects.
These subjects are only introduced to reveal the plan of salvation and their bearing on it.
Book of Redemption
Why the importance given to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph?
We must remember why the Bible was written
The Bible is a book of redemption. God’s plan of redemption had to come through Israel the seed of Abraham.
God in His sovereignty gave us His Word through the Nation of Israel.
God gave us His Son Jesus Christ through the nation of Israel.
The Holy Spirit devoted only 11 chapters to the first 2000 years of human history.
God wastes no time on the past!
But speaks almost entirely of the future!
Genesis 1:1 only one verse tells us where the world came from.
One chapter where we the human beings came from.
All the rest of Scripture deals with where we will spend eternity.
Natural sinful man is more concerned with the past!
Genesis 2:7 one verse tells us where we came from.
All God wants us to know about where we came from is in that one verse all the rest of the Bible tells us where we are going wither heaven or hell.
God clearly wants us to think about the future not dwell in the past!
The future is the important issue!
Where will you spend eternity?
Natural man is very interested in the past.
Investigates the origin of the earth with little interest in where it is going.
With all his investigations into astronomy, geology and other sciences what does he learn?
THOUSANDS OF FOOLISH THEORIES OF EVOLUTION.
He writes many books and fills many libraries with these unproven ideas.
No though for his future abode or the one Book the Bible which can tell of these things.
Instead of searching the Scripture for God’s plan he invents his own.
Bible easier to believe!
Genesis 1:1
Genesis 1:27
Easier to believe than the theories of man made science.
God expects us to believe His Word.
He will not argue with a speck of dust like us.
How can we question the Creator as if He has to tell us why or how He did what He did?
IN THE BEGINNING……. Take it or leave it!
If we can believe God all alone from the beginning of time spoke the universe into existence from nothing at all and set it moving in order and precision. If we can believe that we can believe anything HE says!
Then we can believe:
He could part the sea.
He could walk on water.
He could calm the storm.
He could cast out demons.
He could change water to wine.
He could make a fish swallow a man and release him on land three days later
WHAT HAS THIS GOT TO DO WITH ABRAHAM?
It shows the reason God gives such prominence to Abraham and his three generations of descendants in the Book of Genesis.
As well as the reason natural sinful man attacks Creation and the Book of Genesis more that any other Book or doctrine in the Bible.
HOUSE AND FOUNDATION!
Matthew 7:24-27
I repeat the Bible is a Book of Salvation which gives a small look at the past and deals mostly with the future! The all important future ETERNITY!
The Plan of Salvation
In the history of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, God reveals this plan of future salvation.
In this plan are four important steps.
Romans 8:28 to 31.
In verse 28 Paul tells us:
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
God has a purpose in view in the salvation of every believer, and everything which happens to a believer is part of a definite plan to bring the final purpose to pass.
In verse 29 Paul tells us what this purpose is:
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren.
God’s purpose is ultimately to make every child of God just like the Lord Jesus. Before God is through with His children, every one of them will be like the Savior Himself.
In the next verse, verse 30, we come to the steps in this process.
Romans 8:28 we learn that God has a purpose with believers.
Romans 8:29 we learn what that purpose is and that believers are predestinated for it.
Romans 8:30 we read
Notice in this passage four words, four steps in salvation:
1. Predestination
2. Calling
3. Justification
4. Glorification
According to this passage, salvation begins in God with predestination and ends in Christ in glorification. Between these there is calling and justification.
Four Steps—Four Men
Now to return to Abraham, I am sure that Paul must have had in mind the four men in Genesis who completely dominate the book from chapter 11 to 50; for these four men correspond exactly to these four steps of faith.
Abraham is the great example of divine, sovereign predestination.
Isaac becomes the great example of divine calling. You will remember that Ishmael, the firstborn of Abraham, was Abraham’s choice, but God said, “In Isaac shall thy seed be called.” So we see that “whom he did predestinate, them he also called.” Then we come to
Jacob, the great example of divine justification.
Jacob certainly had nothing to commend him to Almighty God. He was justified by divine grace alone. God Himself said, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”
Then follows Joseph, the great example of glorification. Sold by his brethren and left for dead, he becomes ruler of Egypt at the, right hand of the king. In these four men, therefore, we have a perfect picture of the four steps of salvation: predestination, calling, justification and glorification.
I want to press again upon each one of you the necessity of a personal acceptance of this grace of God. I said that depraved man delves only into the past, while God wants us to think of our future. May I ask you, how much thought have you given to your future? Only a few more days or years at the most before you must leave this life. What then? Then an endless eternity. Oh, my friend, be wise and think of the future, and follow the example of Abraham of whom it is said that he considered himself only a pilgrim and stranger here below and “looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
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[1]Chafer, Lewis Sperry: Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids, MI : Kregel Publications, 1993, S. 7:146