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That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. God says to Abram, I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing.
Well, to be a nation, you have to have what? Kids. This guy has no kids.
He didn't even have a kid, a child. And God makes this beautiful promise. You know, you know, you're going to have a nation will come out of you. We follow that further down to verse seven. The Lord appeared to Abram and said to your descendants, plural, I give this land.
And there he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. Again, descendants are mentioned. Children, offspring, many of them. Go to chapter 13, verse 14. And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, lift up your eyes now and look at the place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, westward, for all the land which you see, I give to you and to your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants could also be numbered. All of these are wonderful, glorious, gracious promises.
But so far, that's all they are. Promises. There's no children. God, where's the kids? These are really cool promises. Thanks for being my shield and my reward.
I don't have any kids yet. And by the way, the clock is ticking. Put yourself in Abram's sandals. When God called him in chapter 12, when he left Haran, he was 75 years young. In chapter 16, we're told he is 86 years old.
So in chapter 15, the chapter we're presently at, he's probably around 85 years old. It's been 10 years. I was old then. I'm still old.
In fact, I'm older. Where's the kids? These are beautiful promises, but there's no children. And then he points. He goes, the only heir that I have is Eliezer of Damascus. Now this is interesting. Who did Abram take with him because his brother had died? Lot. So in effect, Abram adopted Lot as his own, raising him.
Now he's raised by now and he's out on his own. But according to the law of that era and that geography, Lot would have become the heir of Abram. He doesn't mention Lot. He mentions a guy named Eliezer of Damascus.
Now here's a thought that you might find interesting that some of the commentators bring up. Damascus was known as the commerce capital of the world at the time of Abram. And it is thought that Eliezer of Damascus was a man in charge of one of those houses of commerce, or banking house, so that to say the phrase Eliezer of Damascus is like saying in our vernacular, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Bank of the West. So he might be simply saying this, look, Lord, these are great promises and I love your words and the vision is really cool. And I'm really appreciative for all of the wealth that I have and all this land you promised, but what good does it do to have the wealth and the land and the promise without the kids? And when I die, the bank's going to get it anyway. Eliezer of Damascus.
It might all go to them because of the tie-in. It could refer to that possibly. What will you give me, he asks? And verse 3. I love this.
I love, love, love how this flows. Then Abram said, look, you have given me no offspring. Indeed, one born in my house is my heir.
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. Okay, so the chapter begins in panic, fear, right? He's fearful, Abram's fearful. The fear, the panic is met with a promise of God. Abram hears the promise of God and offers a perplexity to God. Okay, cool, but I don't have any children. Now, how does God deal with his perplexity?
With a promise. Not an explanation. This is beautiful. God didn't say, okay, look, dude, this is why it's taken so long. Okay, this is why I'm waiting.
Now, I'm going to explain to you what I'm doing and why this is just taking years and years and years. And here's the explanation. Here's the reason. God gives no reasons. God gives no explanation. God gives another promise.
You know why? When we're really down and out, you can't live on explanations. What you really need are promises. That's what gives you hope.
I want to give you an example. I will never forget the afternoon I came home from church, came to my house to find that my young son who had been playing on top of a wall, fell down and cut his tongue almost in half with his teeth. So he's leaned over a bowl. The bowl is filled with blood. And Lenya looks at me and says, do you think he's going to have to go to the hospital?
Nathan's eyes are looking at me when she asks a question. He's going. He does not want to go.
And I said, absolutely, he needs to go. So we take him to the hospital. The doctor took one look at him. And do you think the doctor looked at Nathan and said, now, Nathan, let me explain to you what has happened.
That anterior dorsal surface has been incised, damaging and bringing trauma to the lingual nerve. And the paresthesia that you feel is, do you think he did that? He didn't give him an explanation or a reason. He gave him a promise.
He said, Nate, look at me. A few stitches. That's all.
And you'll be fine in two weeks. That's what he needed. That's what we live off of. Not explanations, promises.
Here's the perplexity. God answers it with a promise. Now, something about this promise. It's sort of the same promise, but a little bit different. It's exactly the same, only different.
Let me explain. He repeats the promise, basically. He takes the same promise and he repeats it to him again.
This shows me that God is loving and patient. He's not harsh with Abram. He didn't go, Abram, you idiot. You doofus. I mean, how many times do I have to tell you this?
I can't believe it. Here goes again. He's very patient with him to repeat the same promise. He has been telling him for 10 years. He repeats the promise. That's gracious.
Haven't we come across a promise that we've forgotten and God is gracious enough to remind us of that? We read it in the Word and go, oh, yeah, I remember that. I got it. Okay, Lord, I got it. And we walk out and the very next day we've forgotten it.
And then we might, you know, we read something else and it's that same promise, but a little bit different. Oh, yeah, I'm reminded of that. Several years ago when I was in college, I was running out of money. I was unable to buy groceries, but I did have a little bit of groceries in the cabinet. Hamburger helper is what I lived on in those days because it was easy. And I could cook a pot of hamburger helper and it would last all week or two weeks. You know, I'd cook it and then I'd eat a little bit and leave it on the stove and come back to it the next day and heat it up and eat a little more and keep it on the stove, tinfoil, and then come back.
And it lasts me a week or two. But I'd run out of hamburger helper. And one time in particular when I ran out of everything, no money, no hamburger helper, I had peanut butter. That's what I had, peanut butter and a little bread. And so I made peanut butter sandwiches and then I rationed it down to just a slice of bread with peanut butter and jelly on top of that. And then the bread ran out and so it was spoonfuls of peanut butter. By the way, only Skippy peanut butter. I'm just kidding.
So just peanut butter. All the while I'm reading the Bible, reading the Bible, reading the Bible, getting really worried, getting really worried, getting really worried, reading the Bible, getting worried. One day I go to the mailbox. It was just after tax season and my IRS check came in the mail. And when I saw the check from the IRS, I jumped up and I just, you know, shouted like hallelujah. Everybody in the neighborhood probably thought, this guy's nuts.
But I was so excited. The IRS came through. And you know, I had been listening to a Bible study tape and reading the word and something came to my mind.
Well, now wait a minute. How do you know that that check is really good? And I'm thinking, what do you mean really good? It's from the government. It's a government check.
It's got to be good. Government checks can't be bad. And it was like the Lord said, boy, when you read the promise in my word last week that I would take care of you, you didn't jump up and down and get all excited. One check from the IRS and you're all excited because you believe their promise. What about my promise?
Busted, man, busted. But God is gracious to repeat the promise. Second thing God does is clarify the promise. He clarifies it.
He says, no, Abram, listen carefully. You're going to have in your own body, God says, from your own body, a child is going to come. It's like God comes down to his level and says, Abram, let me tell you a little bit about the birds and the bees. This is how children work.
They're not like heirs in a banking situation or in a servant situation. From your own body, this heir is going to come. So God repeats the promise. God clarifies the promise. The third thing, notice, God expands on the promise.
You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we return to Skip's teaching, the question of God's existence has serious implications from his presence and participation in our lives to the reality of life after death to the basis for human morality. And in his book, Is God Real?, Lee Strobel, former atheist and legal editor of the Chicago Tribune, weaves together the latest evidence from a range of brilliant scientific and philosophical minds to answer the most consequential question of all time. This resource will equip you to address your own doubts and respond to others' questions about God with confidence. We'll send you a copy of Is God Real?, along with two messages Strobel preached on this topic at Calvary Church as thanks for your gift of $50 or more to reach more people with God's love through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give. Now let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching. Verse five, he brought him outside and he 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.
God takes him out on a clear Middle Eastern night. Before there were great cities and before there were great electrical displays that are in our cities so that you don't have light pollution. Those were the days you could look up in the sky and you could be anywhere almost and see this brilliant display and probably it was the time of month where either it was a waning or a waxing crescent of the moon. So the moon was dimmed. The stars were shouting in their brightness and he goes, now check that out. Just look up. It's going to be like your kids.
You won't be able to number them. I'm going to suggest that you do the same when you are feeling down and out and forsaken by God and you haven't seen God's promises. Just take a little drive, get out of the city, go to the mountains or out toward the west side and just stop the car and look up and realize dad did that. The one that I am trusting in, the one that I am placing my faith in did that. And sometimes it's the up look that gives you the better outlook as you realize what God can do. I love studying and considering the universe.
I always have. Because when Abram looked up in that sky, he saw only a very tiny minute portion of the galaxy that we call the Milky Way galaxy. It's where we live. It's our home, the Milky Way. It's our address in the universe. And it's just one of billions of universes. But we live in the Milky Way. But the Milky Way galaxy is, by our standards, quite large. It's 10,000 light years by 100,000 light years in dimension. Relatively flat, but 10,000 by 100,000 light years. That means light traveling at 186,000 miles per second, it will take 100,000 years for it to get from this end to that end of one galaxy where we live.
Just one. If you could travel at the speed of light, just think of this for a moment. You could travel at 186,000 miles per second. You could circle the Earth seven and a half times in one second. You could sail past the moon in one and a half seconds. If you wanted to go all the way to Venus, it would only take you two minutes and 18 seconds to get there. You keep going four minutes and 30 seconds, you'll sail past Mercury.
Seven and a half minutes, you'll reach the sun. But if you want to go from one end of your galaxy to the other, it will take you 100,000 years going 186,000 miles per second. And Isaiah 40 talks about God as if to say, how big is your God? Isaiah said that God can measure the universe with his fingers, the span of a hand. God looks at the Milky Way galaxy, we go, whoa, 100,000 light years. And God says, oh, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Once you go 100,000 light years, you haven't even gotten out of the yard yet. Because I have billions and billions of other galaxies, and yet God looks down at all the galaxies and goes, it's only about that big to me. So every now and then it's good just to get perspective because we get so narrowly focused and to look up and go, wow, God did that.
God can handle my situation. So he expands on the promise, he clarifies the promise, and he repeats the promise. Verse 6, key verse. So he, Abram, so he believed in the Lord, and he, the Lord God, accounted it to him, Abram, for righteousness. Once again, read that verse. It is one of the key verses in all the Bible. In fact, circle it, underline it, memorize it. At least memorize it, I won't tell you to write in your Bible.
But why not? And he believed in the Lord, and he accounted it to him for righteousness. Now, the word believed is in the Hebrew, amen.
Same root, amen, amen. God made a promise, and it's like Abraham said, amen, right on, I believe that. Now, this is so important, because there is a result that comes from Abram just listening to God's promise after he repeats it, clarifies it, expands it, and he just goes, okay, I believe that promise, I believe it. Because the result is God allows that small act of faith to be counted to Abram as righteousness.
Now, I'm making a big deal out of this, you know why? The New Testament makes a huge deal out of this. In Romans chapter 4, in Galatians chapter 3, and in James chapter 2, those three places, this story and this verse is highlighted as the pivotal verse to explain the major doctrine that if you're a Christian, you hold too dearly, justification by faith. That we're not saved by good works, we're not saved by keeping rituals, we're not saved by belonging to some Christian organization, we are saved, made right with God, purely by believing God, like Abram, who believed before the law of Moses was in existence, who believed before circumcision was in existence, who certainly believed before there was baptism or churches or any of that. He just believed. Now, that's so important, you gotta look at just one of those passages.
You ready? One of those passages. Turn to Romans chapter 4. What Paul is doing is answering a question.
Here's the question. How was Abraham, the father of faith, he is called, the father of those who believe, how was Abraham justified, saved, made right with God? Was it by his works? Was it by keeping the law? Was it by being a religious person?
Was it by trying hard and being sincere? Because once we find the answer to that question, we'll be able to answer the second question, how are we made right with God? How are we saved? By the keeping of the law?
By knowing all the law? Or has it come by faith? So he begins, What then shall we say, verse 1, chapter 4 of Romans, that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, then he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say?
Abraham 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. But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. You know how most people think that we're saved? Most people think that salvation is sort of like putting a frog in a pan full of milk. Here's that poor frog in the milk, and the milk is slippery, and he can't get out of the pan because the sides are too high, so he's struggling and paddling and paddling, but if he paddles long enough, he turns that into butter.
And by his hard work over a long period of time, the frog will be able to get on top of a hardened surface, the butter now, and jump out. That's how people think we're saved. And so what Paul is saying, because it is what happened to Abraham, is that's not what happened. He just simply said, Amen, I believe that. I really in my heart believe that promise, and God said, That's all that I will require to make you right with me, to give you a relationship with me.
It's justification by faith, not by works, lest anyone should boast. You know how boring heaven would be if Abram or anybody else got there by working hard and being zealous and being religious? How boring heaven would be. You'd have to listen to that for billions of years.
Well, you know, when I was, when I used to, and then this happened, and then I, and it's like, ugh. You know what those conversations are like on earth. Imagine in heaven. Bleh. No, we're all going to go, I'm here by his grace.
He did this. That man with the five wounds, that's how I'm here. There's only two basic religions in the world. There's only two. Every belief system can be divided into one of two systems. I don't care how many cults.
I don't care how many different religions and different expressions and different books. It can all be divided into two separate categories. One is the religion of human achievement. I do, I work, I practice, I pray. The second category is the salvation by divine accomplishment.
That's this. Jesus did it all on the cross. Paid the debt we could never pay. And he says, do you believe that from your heart, in your heart, believe, which means to adhere to, commit to, but it begins by saying, yes, I believe.
Are you willing to do that? Because if so, I will take all of what Jesus did and I will apply it to your account. By the way, the word accounted in Romans 4, laggizimai, it's a banking term. It means to put something to the credit side of your ledger. Okay, so look at your life this way.
Here's a picture of your life. You've got two columns. One is the debit side, one is the credit side. On the debit side, it's our sins, our sins, our sins, and it fills it all up. Our sins, our sins, our sins.
We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. On the credit side, on your own, what do you have to put there that will balance out all of the sin? You know, a lot of people say church, sincerity, good works, rituals, and God will say, I'm sorry, you can pour all sorts of stuff into that category and it won't balance out the debt side. The debit side is too great.
You can never buy your own, cancel out the debt. So what God says, I got the solution. I am willing to count all of the sins ever committed by every person, and I know what they are, and I am willing to declare that anyone and everyone can be made right with God by putting what my son did to their account. And all they have to do is believe that that's the one God sent. Believe in their heart that God raised them from the dead and they will be saved.
We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, remember that when you give $50 or more to help reach more people with the gospel through Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you Lee Strobel's book, Is God Real? And two of his sermons on the same topic preached at Calvary Church to help you answer life's most consequential questions about God's existence. To request your copy of these resources, call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. For more from Skip, be sure to check out the many resources available at connectwithskip.com slash store. Come back next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.
