Thursday, August 24th | Man of Promise: Conclusion Recap

Welcome back, everyone. Today is Thursday, August the 24th. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm Jon Galantis. You're listening to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. If you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearViewTodayShow.com.

That's right. You guys can help us keep the conversation going by supporting the show. You can share it online, leave us a good review on iTunes or Spotify, anywhere you get your podcasting content from.

We're going to leave a link in the description, so you can do just that. The verse of the day today comes from Romans 4, verses 24 and 25. It shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. A lot of big words. I know some of them.

I know some of those. Basically, Romans, I think, is such a good... There's a reason why people always point new Christians to Romans is because it's the layout of salvation. It's going to be imputed to us who believe in him. That's your participation. I don't even want to say contribution, but that's your participation in salvation is that you believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. That's what God did. Your participation is you believe in it. Then Jesus was delivered up because of our offenses.

It's almost going backwards. He was delivered because of our offenses. He was killed. God raised him up from the dead. Now you believe, and he was raised.

Why? Because of our justification. There's a lot of theology that goes into Romans.

I love that distinction, too. He was delivered up because of our offenses, because we were in debt. We needed that rescue. He was raised up because of our justification. Not only are we forgiven for our sins, but we are made right in God's eyes.

It's not just like we have a blank slate. No, we're credited with Christ's righteousness. That's that great exchange that takes place. Jesus took our sins and gave us his righteousness so that through his death, we have the forgiveness of sin. Through his life, through the resurrection, we have the promise of eternal life with him one day.

That's right. Extremely important for us to remember. Got a question today on the text thread. First of all, happy date-iversary Tuesday. We talked about that earlier this week. Tuesday was your wedding anniversary. Tuesday was the wedding anniversary. This is our dating anniversary.

They're very close to each other. I was thinking about that, because I remember our wedding anniversary, obviously, and our dating anniversary. I keep both those dates in my mind. I wonder if our parents did that, too. Did my parents keep track of their dating anniversary?

I don't even know if my parents remember their wedding anniversary. It's been so long. I don't know. I'll ask them.

I didn't know if that was a modern thing, if we keep track of that, or if that's been an ongoing thing. I'm going to text my mom, and then I'll say her answer on tomorrow's show. Got a question in from Grant R. I've been looking forward to this one. David, you're going to want to turn the mic on, because I know this is one that has to do with violence and aggression.

David's, as they say, cup of tea. Who is one celebrity you're convinced you could beat in a fight? Easy. Tell me, buddy. Tell me.

I'm ready. It'll be much easier for me to list actors or people that I think I couldn't beat in a fight. Chris Hemsworth.

Done. You're beating him in a fight? Beat. The only people I don't think I could beat in a fight are Jason Statham. Yeah, I don't think you could beat him, either. And that's it.

Just that one guy? Maybe Jason Momoa. Action star. Hang on. You 100% could not take Momoa. Yeah, I couldn't take Momoa.

Oh, this guy. Probably not The Rock. You're not taking him. I could beat Christian Bale in American Psycho. He was very thin. No, we're not picking movies. If you're going to pick that, go Christian Bale in The Machinist.

That's when he weighed 90 pounds. No, for real, though? Yeah, for real. Because you're not beating any of those guys.

Those guys are ripped movie stars who train. Peter Dinklage. Hey, listen. Have you ever seen Elf?

I don't know. You could take Peter Dinklage. He took Buddy the Elf to town. He clocked on Buddy the Elf. Flipped that man right on the table.

Wolf Arrow is like 6'6". Peter Dinklage, man. I don't think you could take him. You guy.

I don't think you could. McCully Culkin. Currently, you're in Home Alone with the kid. You could take him. More problematic than you wanted to fight a child. Yeah, two grown criminals couldn't take McCully Culkin. That's true. You get a paint can right through the face. I'm going Charlie Cox. Absolutely. There is no way that you could take Charlie.

No, sir, there is not. Number one, you can't even see. You won't beat Charlie Cox. Matt Murdock can't see.

Charlie Cox 100% has working eyesight. I didn't say I could beat Daredevil. I could beat Charlie Cox. Here's the story. Here's why I want to beat up Charlie Cox.

I want to and I can are different things. I paid $120 to meet him at Boston Comic Con and he flirted with my wife. I gave him a hug. I was like, dude, oh my gosh, Daredevil. This is the greatest show. I want you to sign my comic book later. He was like, yes, absolutely.

Good to see you, man. And he's British, isn't he? Oh yeah, girls love that. He hugged Ellie and he was like, what is your name? And she was like, my name's Ellie. He was like, oh, that is such a lovely name. And her neck got so red and flushed. I was like, who the heck do you think?

You can not go tell my wife she's got a lovely name. I was like, you put up your dukes right now. I didn't say that, obviously, but I wanted to fight right there on the Comic Con floor. You put up your dukes right now. But then I was like, this guy's Daredevil, though.

I don't know. So I've been training. He's British, though, so what you should have done is just pulled out a glove and slapped him across the face. And slapped him across the face with it and said, meet me at high noon.

That's right. I'm convinced I could take Charlie Cox. Who could you take on a fight? Here's the thing, I've never in my life, shocker, I've never actually been in a fight.

Like, fisticuffs, never done that. But you're a big dude, though. Yeah.

And you're pretty strong. I'm pretty confident I could take Michael Cera. I think so. I think I could probably take him.

He's got the little guitar. Yeah, I think I could probably take him. I don't know, this guy with glasses and a radio show just came up and he hit me in the head. Yeah, I could probably take Michael Cera. Okay, so Michael Cera, Charlie Cox, you're landing on Macaulay Culkin, that's your answer? But child Macaulay Culkin.

Either Macaulay Culkin or Peter Dinklage. But in all honesty, my answer is, who can't I beat in a fight? I think lots of people.

Many people. We're not even thinking about actors. Celebrities, I'd say MMA stars are celebrities.

Oh, yeah, I can beat a bunch of them. So Conor McGregor, you're going to take him? In a heartbeat. In a heartbeat.

In a heartbeat. What's that Ronda Rousey? You can't take her?

You're going to take yourself to the yard. She already got took. She don't need to get... Who took her? I don't even remember, but she got messed up. Hold on, let me see, who took Ronda Rousey? Ronda Rousey could 100% watch the film with you. Did she get beat? Yes.

Terribly. Don't look up pictures. While Jon's researching that, let us know who you think you could beat in a fight. What celebrity do you think you could take? Holly Holm. Yeah, she got beat by Holly Holm. Gosh.

I think if the gloves were down... Oh my gosh. Yeah, sorry. I told you it was better than that. She did get beat. Sorry, I'm not going to interrupt you again. That's one of the only women MMA fights where I was like, oh, I can't watch this. Yeah, that was bad. Sorry, Ryan. Go ahead. If you think you could take a celebrity in a fight, let us know who it is. 252-58-25028.

I got one more. Hugh Grant. Yeah, you could probably take Hugh Grant. He's old now. He's old, yeah.

Sorry, go ahead. Who's the guy that plays Professor X in the old movies? Patrick Stewart.

I could take Patrick Stewart. All right, now we're going to fight senior citizens. We're going to break because this show got silly. We'll see you after this. Hey there, listeners. I'm Jon Galantis.

And I'm Ellie Galantis. And we just want to take a quick second and talk to you about Dr. Shah's and Nicole's book, 30 Days to a New Beginning, daily devotions to help you move forward. You know, this is actually the second book in the 30 Days series, and the whole point of this devotional is to help us get unstuck from the ruts of life. You know, when it comes to running the race of life, it matters how you start, but a bad start doesn't ultimately determine how you finish the race. You can have a good finish even with a bad start, and that's where this book comes in. No matter who you are or where you are in life, you're going to get stuck.

Instead of going out and buying some gadget or some planner, like I know I've done several times. I know that's right. 30 Days encourages you to find your fresh start in God's word. Life doesn't have a reset button, but our God is a God who does new things. His mercies are new every day, which means every day is a new chance for you to start over. You can grab 30 Days to a New Beginning on Amazon.com. We're going to leave a link in the description box below, and if you already have the book, let us know what you think about it.

That's right. Send us a text, 252-582-5028. Share what God has done in your life through this devotional. Hey, maybe we'll even read your story on the air. Ellie, you ready to get back to the show?

Let's do it. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. If you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text, 252-582-5028. That's right, and if today's your first time ever joining us here on the Clear View Today Show, we want to welcome you, let you know exactly who's talking to you today. Dr. Abbadan Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of Today Show. You can find all of his work on his website.

That's AbbadanShah.com. And on today's episode, as we're looking back at Dr. Shah's sermons and sort of picking out some of our favorites, I'm excited about today's episode because it comes from a series that we really heard from a lot of people how impactful this series was. We started in, I would say, 2021, I believe was the year, or it might have been 2020. I think it was 2021 where we started with the first gospel series, these echoes. It's a series that we do every December where we look at Christ as reflected through the Old Testament, this promise, this echo of who Christ would become or who he would manifest himself to be in the person of Jesus as demonstrated through the Old Testament.

So we started the first one, which was the first gospel, and that's being turned into a book right now in the final stages of getting that processed. And that comes from Genesis 3.15. Right, absolutely. It's Evangelion. That's what they call that. Did you know that? I did.

That's where I got my middle daughter's name from. Really? Yeah. Evangeline? Maybe. Maybe, but that's not immediately obvious to me.

And then the second one we did was Man of Promise, which is echoing who Christ would manifest himself to be through the story of Abraham. Yeah. Yeah. So exciting. So let's jump into today's episode.

I'm excited to hear more. So God is about to do something, and so stay with me for the next few moments. He tells him, take now your son, your only son, whom you love, you think you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.

At first glance, it seems like a cruel joke of some deranged deity. But if you've been studying the Bible for some time, you know what God is doing. He is giving Abram a visible demonstration of what he will do one day through his own son. Abram takes his son Isaac and goes up to Mount Moriah. By the way, 2 Chronicles 3, 1, Mount Moriah was the same spot of ground on which the temple was built in the time of Solomon.

Same ground. So take your son to that place where the lambs will be sacrificed one day and sacrifice him. You see, God is teaching Abraham about what he was going to do one day through his son.

So Abraham went the very next day. He took this son, Isaac, went up on that mountain. Isaac asked God, Father, where is the lamb? I see the fire.

I see the wood. Where is the lamb? Well, God will provide. What is God teaching Abraham? That one day God will provide salvation through his son. And then he lays him down on the altar. And as he raises his knife, Genesis 22, 12, and he said, the angel of the Lord said, Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. And Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering. What's the next word?

Say it louder. Instead. You know what God was teaching Abraham? That one day Jesus will die instead of us.

He became our substitute. God's wrath was poured upon his son. He took the punishment of sin instead of us. Gave his life on the cross. God is teaching Abraham that one day another father will raise his knife against his son and there will be no one there to stop his hand.

And his son will die. Jesus died for us. Isn't that amazing that what God is doing in their life, that pink copy is representing what's happening on the original? But is that all there is to it?

No. Listen to verse 14. And Abraham called the name of the place the Lord will provide as it is said to this day in the mountain of the Lord it shall be provided. One reason we go through these trials in your life where things are taken away, listen, don't miss this, it is to help us understand how God the father felt when his son was crucified. One reason we go through these trials is to understand the heart of God. The best way of knowing who God is and how he feels and how he works is walking in his shoes, our problems in life, our testings in life are to help us walk in God's shoes.

Now we don't like suffering, we don't like testing, it's like no, no, no God, just give me an A plus and I'm done. God says no, you're going to go through this. God can you give me a relationship now?

No, you're going to have to go through this until you're ready. God can you give me money now? God can you bless me here?

Can you fulfill your problem? No, you're going to have to go through some dark times because I'm teaching you who I am and how I work in this world, but there's more. You know what it says here in Genesis 22, take now your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love. Abraham had to truly understand, do I really love this child? Now Hebrews chapter 11 verse 17 tells us something very important. It gives us a hint of what God was doing other than showing Abraham his eternal plan of salvation. Other than showing Abraham his heart, God was also showing Abraham his heart. Listen to Hebrews 11 verse 17, by faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son of whom it was said in Isaac, your seed shall be called. Verse 19 concluding, that's where we got the title of our message, conclusion. He concluded, he reckoned, he reasoned and what did he reason? That God was able to raise Isaac up.

It is not just that he had the power but that he loved Isaac far more deeply and purely and eternally than Abraham did. Now I know this message is deep but I want you to stay with me. The problems you're going through life is to help reveal what's really in your heart. When you say I love my family, I love my spouse, I love my children, I love my parents, I love the people in this church but do you really understand what love is? Don't raise your hand but here's a question, why do you love your spouse?

You say we went to Christmas service and now our marriage is in trouble. Why do you love your spouse? Husbands, why do you love your wife? Because of how she makes you feel?

You think that's love? Husbands, why do you love your wives? Because of how she cleans the house and cooks or works and brings money. Why do you love her?

I'll give my life for her. I hear you but what is the true motive of your love? Wives, why do you love your husbands? You fuss at them all the time about not loving you properly. Why do you love your husband? Are you afraid of being lonely? Are you afraid of growing up, growing old by yourself? You know sometimes we don't realize the way we treat and talk to our loved ones is a great indication of what our real motive is.

We just don't want to face it. We want to quickly move past that and talk, oh, I love, I love, I just want to do. Why do you love your children? Because they make you happy? I assure you there will be many times they won't make you happy. What are you going to do now, not love them? Well, if they ever needed a kidney, I'll give it to them.

Oh, I hear all that. What is the motive of your love? So they'll come and see you in the nursing home one day?

So you can have the perfect family as you sit together and say, here are my kids. Who are you showing it to, to your loved ones, to your family? Do you have some vision in your life of what a family is supposed to be?

So you're making these people endure? And you call it love? You know, if we're truly honest, we'll realize we're really some very selfish, self-centered scoundrels. And that's why we have a relationship problem because the other person knows, I don't think you truly love me.

Oh, you love me, but not the way you claim to love me. The problems we go through life is to help reveal the selfishness. I mean, this man a year earlier gave his wife away to Abimelech. Do you think he understands how to love Isaac?

Help me at least say amen or no. He doesn't understand. We go through these problems in life because God is revealing the depth of our wickedness. And as we understand who we are, we begin to see how our love gets tainted by the world, the flesh and the devil. God tests us to teach us to love those in our lives more dearly, more purely, more properly and more eternally. And that's when we drop the facade and say, oh, you know, I love you so much.

You know, that's what Jesus did with Peter. When he came back, he said, do you love me? Do you love me?

Do you love me? Lord, you know all the things, you know what he was saying? I give up because I know how wretched I am.

What a wretched man I am. Talk to people who have been walking with God. I was talking to my brother right there and he said, yeah, the older you get in life, the more you realize how much you need God's grace. You know, early years in my life I was saying, man, I'm the best thing that happened to Christendom. I'm going to, God really lucked out when he called me. Now I look back and I go, gosh, why did God even give me all the blessings he has knowing what a wretched man that I am? Paul, what a stalwart of faith, what a powerful apostle, and yet he says, what a wretched man that I am. The longer you live the Christian life, the more you understand who you are and how much you need God's grace so you can love people properly and eternally.

Such a beautiful, beautiful picture of sanctification, of growing in your faith, of growing closer to God. You know, I said this on an earlier episode this week, but the more difficulty I've gone through in my life and, you know, my life has certainly been blessed, the more difficult seasons that I've weathered, the more clearly I've been able to see God working in those seasons. The more clearly I've been able to see, and oftentimes it doesn't happen until I'm looking backward. It doesn't happen until I'm looking back and examining, you know, what was going on and all the different factors that were taking place and all the things that had to happen in order for those situations to be resolved. And I can see God clearly with his hand in those situations working all things together. Well, I like how Dr. Shuss said, like, the more problems we go through in life, the more we start to, the more those problems reveal in us, like, the depth of our own selfishness. Like, the things that you go through in life, we tend to think are pointless.

They're just attacks from the enemy, and I just have to endure them and weather them. And we talked about it a little bit in yesterday's episode, but God has to give express permission for all those things to happen, which means something good has to come out of it. Our problems aren't things for us to grit our teeth, test our faith, and then, OK, cool, you passed the test.

I'll just try to rest up and enjoy my blessings until the next test comes. The problems we go through in life reveal to us the depth of our selfishness, our sin nature. And the better we understand who we are, the more we're going to see the holiness and the perfection of God.

Because when I see myself more clearly, then I start to see, OK, all these things that I'm not, God is exemplifying in his totality. That's who he is. That's his character.

This is my character. And now I see this wide chasm of space between us. Golly.

I need God. That's where that realization comes from. You know what I mean? Dr. Jon talks in that message about waiting, about having to wait on God, because obviously Abraham and Sarah had to wait on God, wait on a child. And they're getting older and kind of up in years, and it's sort of like, OK, is this a joke?

We're sort of past the point where we can have kids. And God's like, is anything impossible for me? You're right.

No. That laughter that you have that you don't believe what's going to happen, I'm going to turn that into laughter of joy, because you're going to welcome a child, and you're going to remember that I'm faithful every time that you look at your little boy named Laughter. Isaac means laughter. So it's just that evidence of those difficult seasons in your life might just be waiting on God. Might just be where God hasn't said no. He also hasn't said yes. He said wait. His delay is not a denial. Telling you to wait and do things in his timing is not him refusing you the things that you want or need in life.

Just because he's making you wait, that doesn't mean that he's forgotten you, or he's changed his mind, or he doesn't really care how you feel. And I think that's one of the things that we don't understand that Abraham grew to understand, is that he knew that when it was time to sacrifice Isaac, God not only could raise him up from the dead. He was like, OK, I've got to sacrifice my son, and I know God can raise him up. But Abraham came to understand that God wanted to. That was his desire was to raise him up.

And I think we believe in our hearts that God is ultimately indifferent to our problems. He has the power to do it, but I have to convince God to do it. So I've got to pray really hard. I've got to read my scripture, build up these brownie points, and I've got to convince God that my prayers are worth answering. And hope that the answer that you want is the one that happens to line up with what he's already doing. Right. And when those prayers either go, and I'm putting it in quotes, unanswered, right, because God is delaying or God is saying to wait, typically I'll take things into my own hands. I make a big mess, and then God has to come and clean it up. But he has to do that by showing the depravity and showing the selfishness of not waiting on him, not understanding who he is. Yeah.

This is on a smaller scale. This is your little kid coming to you and saying, Daddy, Daddy, I'm hungry. I want lunch. Daddy, I'm hungry. OK, well, if you give me just a second, I will go in there and fix lunch for you. Daddy, I'm hungry now. I want lunch.

OK, if you wait just a minute, wait just a minute, and I will go in there and I'll fix lunch for you. So, little boy goes in there, takes matters into his own hands, because of course it's a little boy, goes in there and tries to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. You've got a loaf of bread torn up all over the counter, and peanut butter on the walls.

Smeared on the walls, handprints. And jelly all over the dog, and craziness. And Dad walks in, he's like, hey, if you would have only waited, I was going to make you a pizza. I was going to make you a pepperoni pizza, or whatever the kid's favorite meal is. I wouldn't make that for you, because you jumped the gun.

Not only do you not have what you wanted in the first place, but now you have a mess to clean up. And I think also one reason that we go through trials is not only to understand the overarching narrative of God's redemption plan, but to understand we have been talking about who he is. You know, I said a minute ago, it was a foreshadowing of Christ.

Typically, that's where I would stop. I would be like, oh, I see, there's this overarching story that transcends Abraham. So he wouldn't have gotten it, but he gets it in his context.

But then for us, it's this. Well, no, not really, because he's also demonstrating to Abraham, yes, this is a foreshadowing of Christ, but to what end? Just so that you know it's coming? Just so that you can have faith in it? It's also to understand God. I think Dr. Josh said it. The best way that you get to know someone is to empathize, is to walk in their shoes, to see life through their eyes. And so Abraham, having to go through this, understood, okay, one day God is going to sacrifice his son, and there's not going to be anyone there to stop him.

There's not going to be anyone to say, hey, hey, stop, stop, just kidding, I'll take care of it for you. He's going to have to actually pay that price. So that empathy, that understanding of who God is comes in, even though Abraham didn't have to go through with it like God did, or like Jesus would have to, there's still an understanding and there's still a comprehension of who he is in the grand scheme of this thing. And then narratively, we see it played out in the Bible. But it's not just something, and I think this is something that Dr. Shaw has been kind of hitting on lately, is it's not something that just transcends them. They didn't get it.

It's just for me to understand. No, they got it. No, they understood it very well. Much more than we give them credit for. They're smart, smart people back in the Bible.

We're flawed. I mean, the Bible doesn't shy away from Abraham's flaws. But they understood very well the part that they were playing in the gospel story. And that's why I love that Dr. Shaw used this as our series through Christmas, here at Clear U. When you think about Christmas, Abraham is not the first story that you jump to. Like here, like, Christmas time, time to talk about Abraham and Sarah. What?

No, that doesn't make any sense. I mean, yeah, they had a baby born, but when you see it in light of God's plan, when you see how God was working and how God was revealing himself to Abraham, like, hey, you know, one day I'm going to be sending my son, the promised one, the Messiah that you know about, that you are looking forward to. And that baby is going to be born. And that's what we celebrate at Christmas.

But it's much more than just the birth at Christmas. It's here's the rescue mission of God to the world. God's rescue of humanity. I love it.

It's beautiful. If you guys enjoyed today's episode, if you have questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028, or you can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. You can partner with us financially on that same website. Scroll to the bottom of that page, click that donate button, and be part of what God is doing through the Clear View Today Show family. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clear View Today.