From Faith To Fear, Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhart challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. A long term blessing into your life. Just a moment of faith. Long term blessing. Notice he said it's personally going to happen to you. There's going to be a great nation and everyone on the earth has the opportunity to be blessed through what you're going to do.

You know that's exactly the same as it happens to you and me. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhart. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana.

Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhart now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. Of all of the heroes that you find in the Bible, the only one that God called his friend was Abraham. In fact, in Isaiah 41 in verse 8, God speaking to Israel said, You are descendants of my friend, Abraham.

In 2 Chronicles chapter 20, Israel speaking to God said, Didn't you give us this land to your people, the descendants of Abraham, your friend? And even in the New Testament, in James chapter 2 in verse 23, James writes, And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. And he was called the friend of God.

That's right. If God had a Facebook, he would have invited Abraham to be his friend. Abraham is an extremely important person. He is claimed by three of the world's great religions.

He is extremely important to us. The Apostle Paul uses Abraham as the premier example of what it means to be a person of faith. So I would like to begin a series of messages on the life of Abraham. Let's begin by opening our Bibles to Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis chapter 12. When we get to chapter 12, we will run into a man named Abram. His name has not yet been changed.

He lives to be 175. And for the first 99 years of his life, he is known as Abram. He lives in a place called Ur, a city, Ur of the Chaldeans. It's in Mesopotamia, the Fertile Crescent, modern Iraq.

He is a typical normal in every way that we can see member of his society. His name, Abram, means exalted father, but I don't think it was because of great spiritual implications. It was probably a term that his father used for one of the pagan deities that they worshipped. They had many deities in Ur. The one who was the most famous and most powerful, ironically, his name was Sin. And Sin was the moon god of Ur. Sin was known as the Lord of Heaven and the divine creator. We see that there is something unusual happening in chapter 12 because it's so abrupt. God speaks.

That's an amazing thing, just out of nowhere to this man. Now, the Lord said to Abraham, not to a group of people, not to a city, not to a family, to one person. Notice that God seeks this out. Abram is not at all seeking God. God is seeking him. Chuck Swindoll says, by an act of pure grace, God dipped his hands into the idolatrous hole that was Ur to select Abram out of all the people.

What an unusual thing that happens. The question you might ask yourself is, why? Why Abram? The answer is, we have no idea. And the reason is, it's really arbitrary. It's up to the Lord. Heaven knows the reasons, but we certainly don't.

There's nothing about his life up until now that we have in record that would mean that he deserved this in any sense of the word. He is a lot like we are. Now, the Lord said to Abram, go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land which I will show you. And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you. And the one who curses you, I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Five times in that short segment, God says, I will. I will.

I will. What we have here is, interestingly enough, is that a covenant is being made. That's a very big word, very important word in this culture. Covenant means an agreement. There are covenants that are made between individuals, people, countries, kings. There are covenants between God and people. This is known as famously the Abrahamic Covenant. God will repeat it through the story in Genesis.

But notice something. God simply says what I will do. That means that this covenant is unconditional. There is no conditions that have to be met for this covenant. Some covenants are conditional. In other words, if you go to the book of Deuteronomy in chapters 28, 29 and 30, he's talking to the nation and he says, I want to make a covenant with you. And I'll tell you this. If you obey me and walk close to me, I will bless you. But if you don't, I will curse you.

That's conditional. This is unconditional, but it's not even the first unconditional covenant in Genesis. Turn back with me to Genesis Chapter nine. Genesis Chapter nine in verse 11. And this is called the Noatic Covenant, the second stage of it. Notice this is unconditional in verse 11. God says, I will establish my covenant with you and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood. Neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, this is the sign of the covenant which I am making between me and you and every living creature that is with you for all successive generations.

So that's to us as well. I set my bow in the cloud and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come about that when I bring a cloud, he says over the earth that the bow shall be seen in the cloud. And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And never again shall water become a flood to destroy all flesh. And when the bow is in the cloud and then I will look upon it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. The rainbow, the idea that God says, I will never, ever judge the earth with a flood again. It's unconditional.

It'll never happen again, no matter what. God said, because I'm going to keep that. This too now and back in Chapter 12 is also unconditional and the scope of the covenant is amazing. God promises Abram a national unconditional blessing. Now, what's interesting about this is and look at it in verse two, he says, I will make you a great nation. Now, we'll know in just a moment.

We'll read it. But Abram is 75 years old. His wife is in her mid 60s.

They have no children. Now, you might be thinking, I will give you a child. No, he doesn't start there. God says, I'm going to make you a great nation. Now, if you're Abram, what are you thinking? A great nation. Yeah, I'm going to make you a great nation. By the way, often when God makes his promises, he's going to ask Abraham to do something he asks you and me to do a lot of.

Wait. There is no greater test of faith than waiting. And God knows that. And by the way, when did they become a great nation? Not until Joshua led the armies back into the promised land, which was promised.

That's a long, long wait. But God says, look, I will make you a great nation. Then he says something else. He says to him, I promise you personally unconditional blessing. He says, and I will bless you in verse two and make your name great and you shall be a blessing. I'm not only going to make you a great nation, he said, but what I'm going to do is I'm going to unconditionally bless you as an individual. And that's kind of amazing because he was blessed.

Turn the page and look at Chapter 13. In verse two. Now, Abram was very rich in livestock and in silver and in gold. And then turn with me to Genesis 23. And the kings of that area of the world are speaking about Abram. And in verse six. This is what he says to him. He says, hear us, my lord. You are a mighty prince among us.

That's his reputation. Now, one more page, Chapter 24 and verse 35. It says the Lord has greatly blessed my master so that he has become rich. He has given him flocks and herds and silver and gold and servants and maids and camels and donkeys. Personally rich, personally wealthy.

We don't know what his status was in Ur. But we do know that he's become extremely rich at a relatively early time after God has made this promise. He didn't have to wait near as long to become blessed that way as he did for this idea of national blessing. And then in verse three of Chapter 12, the Lord says, and I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you, I will curse. And then these words. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Wow. Everybody shall be blessed. He promises them an international, unconditional blessing in God's grand plan to redeem mankind from their sin. God is going to build a nation and build a people all around one man's faith. The apostle Paul was so struck by that when he writes Romans, he said, this is the example I want you to understand. James picked up on on the verse I read earlier that God spoke to Abram and Abraham believed God. And it was reckoned to him as righteous.

That's amazing when you think about it. Here's this man in Ur, the Chaldeans. And God makes this tremendous blessing with him.

He what he has and what he has to offer. We know from an earlier spot, by the way, he leaves Ur. And if you would go into the Chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews, the writer had something else. It says, by faith, Abram left when God said, go by faith. And then it says at the end of that verse, but he did not know where he was going.

Think of that. He did not know where he was going. God said, I want you to go, OK. Now, you thought somewhere you'd say, where?

Just imagine these conversations you're having with family and friends. In fact, I'm sure if you look in verse four, something would have come up. It says, so Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him and Lot went with him. And now Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. He goes from Ur to Haran and now he departs again. He's 75.

Think of that. This is the big moment of his life. This is when his life's going to begin.

This is when there's going to be the biggest change. He's 75. This past week, reading some material about this, I read the story that there was a widower who was 75 years old and he thought he'd never remarry. But then he found a 75 year old widow. And he was struck by her. He just was absolutely and completely in love with her. He thought that would never happen in his life.

But he said, I will never let this opportunity go by. And so he decided to propose and he wanted to do it in the right way. So he came up to her and he got down on his knees and he said to her, I want to ask you just two questions, just two. And he said, will you marry me? And she smiled. She said, yes. And he was so struck. And she looked at him posing. She said, but you said you want to ask two questions? He said, oh, yes. Will you help me up?

Because you're 75. You see, please understand something. When he leaves Ur and goes to Haran and that's like a northwest up through Syria and then working his way back down to the promised land or the land of Canaan. He's going about a thousand miles. He's walking.

He's 75. It's an astounding thing of what he has done. It says also then that Abram took Sarah, his wife and Lot, his nephew, and all their possessions that they had accumulated. And he says, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran and that they set out for the land of Canaan. Thus, they came to the land of Canaan. It was his father who suggested that they go to Haran first.

And the reason for is probably very simple. It's the one other place that sin, the moon goddess worshipped other than in just Ur. And I'm sure the father wanted to go there. And the father, by the way, doesn't leave there.

He dies there. You see, one of the things that's interesting is if you remember this, but look back to verse one again, he said, Go forth from your country and from your relatives. And from your father's house. He wasn't to take his relatives. He was supposed to go on his own.

Guess what he did? He did what you and I often do when God commands us to do something. He partially obeyed. He obeyed some of it, not all of it. By the way, he regretted that. Not only the idea that the father and God took care of the father in Iran, but just think of the complications that occur with Lot.

Enormous consequences because of Lot. So he partially obeyed. Well. Then he takes off or leads for the promised land.

Notice what happens then. It says Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem to the oak of Morah. Now, the Canaanite there was in the land. Canaanites, by the way, do a study on them. They are evil, fierce people. Probably in a sense, no one more despicable in the Old Testament as a people than Canaanites. Now, remember, Abram probably didn't know much about him, but once he encountered the Canaanites in the land of Canaan.

He thought, oh, these are brutal people. Notice when that first happens, what God does. Verse seven, the Lord appeared to Abram again. And he said to him, to your descendants, I will give this land. That's all he said. Notice once again, God goes to the promise to your descendants, I will give this land. It's going to be yours. Don't worry.

Wow. How reassuring that must have been. Notice how he responds. And so he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. And then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel. And he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built a second order to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abraham journeyed on, continuing toward the Negev, which is south of Jerusalem. He's now coming all the way down through Galilee, down in the Judah and heading south into the Negev. He's going right where God had told him. Notice twice how he responds to God. He worships God.

It's amazing. The first point out of those verses is this faith, a moment of faith often brings long term blessing into your life. Just a moment of faith. Long term blessing. Notice he said it's personally going to happen to you.

There's going to be a great nation and everyone on the earth has the opportunity to be blessed through what you're going to do. You know, that's exactly the same as it happens to you and me. Now, God doesn't call us individually like he called him. But he does call us. He calls us with the gospel.

He calls and we have a chance to respond. And if we do respond to the gospel by faith, what's the long term blessing? You see, my sins are forgiven. That's what a blessing. He'll never leave me nor forsake me. What a blessing.

His spirit will indwell me. What a blessing. I am heaven bound. Assuredly. What a blessing.

Notice it's all unconditional. That should have us have the same kind of response that Abram did. We should worship. And I don't mean on Sunday morning with music. I mean, we should worship. We should be a thankful people. You see, we should offer up praise and thanksgiving to God all the time. A moment of faith brings about long term blessing.

What a great thing. But there's a second lesson to learn in this chapter. And that is this. Fear brings short term failure.

Right in the middle, like everything going well, something happens. Verse 10. And now there was famine in the land. That's it.

Now there was famine in the land. You think that's an accident? No. It's a test. Now, by the way, it's not a test, so God will figure out how devoted in his faith Abram is. It's a test to expose to Abram. How devoted he is. It's always that way. By the way, God never tests you so he can find something out.

He tests you so that you can find something out. There's a famine in the land. Now, I understand this. Abram is from Ur. It's in the Fertile Crescent. Two thousand years before Christ, Ur had to be one of the richest areas for food supplies in the world. He probably never really was involved much in famine in his life. But there's a famine in the land.

Now, the strange part is this. He trusted God not knowing where he was going and literally walked a thousand miles trusting God. He then faces the Canaanites and he realizes just how formidable they are. And once again, God retells him the covenant is unconditional and I'm going to give you this land. And he worships God again. And now there's a famine.

And God's not in the picture at all. Abram's decided, I'm afraid. I need a plan. In fact, this is now there is a famine in the land. And so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there for the famine was severe in the land. He just got the Canaan. Just think how long it took him to go from Ur.

Well, look at it this way. You're walking from here to Chicago. How long is it going to take you to get there? Now you get there and say, I think we got to go somewhere else now.

Why? Well, there's a famine in the land. There's no accident that his solution is Egypt. Always in scripture, Egypt represents the world.

And that's why the children of Israel were enslaved in Egypt for 400 years. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.