Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. He has weaknesses.
He has failures in his life. That's so important for us to understand. You see it all through Scripture. It doesn't matter if it's David or Peter.
It doesn't matter. You see weaknesses. God goes out of His way to give you an authentic view of people.
And Abraham certainly had his own weaknesses. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. There is an old proverb that's used in the timber or the lumbering industry.
It simply goes like this. A tree is best measured when it's down. Carl Sandburg used that exact line when he wrote his epic biography of Abraham Lincoln. You see we should hesitate to admire and sometimes deify people who still have years before them.
And with those years the potential of completely disgracing themselves and ruining their reputations. But when the tree is down we can judge the greatness of a life with confidence. I want you this morning to see the mighty redwood that was Abraham down lying horizontally before us. In a sense I simply want to give his eulogy. His many imperfections reveal that he was a man with a nature just like ours. And yet nearly half of the people on the planet today judge him as great. Muslims, Jews, and Christians all venerate him. But should we say that he was great?
Emphatically yes. And I say that not because of the research I did or studying his life. But I say he's great because God says he's great.
He not only is a friend of God but God said he is a very special man when it comes to faith. Let's see what God says about him. Open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11.
And the first thing we're going to see in verse 8 is this. When he was called he obeyed. When he was called he obeyed. Notice what the writer of Hebrews says. By faith Abraham when he was called obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. Those first two words describe Abraham. By faith.
By faith. Notice he obeyed not because he knew where he was going, he didn't. Not because he had a printout of what his future would hold, he didn't. Not because he could calculate the return on his investment, he didn't. Not because he didn't have any other options in his life at home. He was likely a very prosperous man living in a very wealthy city. For 75 years he had spent nurturing relationships with his family and with his friends. And oh, by the way, yes, he was 75. And by faith he left town.
Wow, so much more than that. No destination. No travel agency. No AAA membership. No map.
No GPS. No social security. No police to guarantee his safety. No accommodations.
No prayer support from home. And yet when he was called, he obeyed. 75 year old man. And by the way, we know that he ended up in the land of Canaan. But he walked there. He walked in a further distance than if you and I were to leave today and start walking to Chicago.
75 year old man. 600 miles to Haran. 400 more miles to Shechem. He walked a thousand miles.
By the way, this is the Bronze Age. Have you thought about that? Have you thought about, let's just say this, his footwear? I mean, he didn't go to North Face and get hiking boots. You know, none of that.
He just starts walking. Not knowing where he was going. What does that tell us? To me, it says this. God's rewards await us when we're willing to step out not knowing all the details.
You see, I think that's a challenge to us. A lot of us will say, well, I'm willing to do something for God, but I need the details. Let me explain something. If you have all the details, it's not faith. If you have all the details, that's just a rational decision. And I'm not against rational decisions. But that's not faith. You see, when God calls, he just obeyed. He just went.
Sometimes that can really pay dividends. And I are both grateful that neither one of us knew a thing about Metairie, Louisiana. All I remember is I went down to the seminary. There were churches on the board, and one of them said, Metairie, Louisiana. I signed up, told her there's some place in Louisiana named Metairie, and I signed up. But I'm kind of glad I didn't know.
No, I did check you out a little bit beforehand, I will say that. But the point is I'm glad I didn't know. You see, that's the way God operates. If God's calling you, you obey. And that's what Abraham did. And it wasn't without peril or cost.
It always has peril and cost to it. Secondly, what he was promised, he believed. Notice verse nine. By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob and fellow heirs of the same promise, for he was looking for a city which has a foundation whose architect and builder is God. The writer of Hebrews says, look, he never really got to a great place. He knew ultimately there's going to be a great place just like we do.
And the writer of Hebrews talks about, in a sense, the heavenly Jerusalem. But Abraham never really realized any of that kind of thing. Imagine, he gets there and he doesn't know the language. He gets there and he doesn't know the culture. He gets there and he doesn't know anybody.
You see, that's what happens. How does he do this? The promises of God sustain them. He believed them. God said, I'm going to take you to a land. And he said, OK, then you're taking me to a land. And God also said to him over and over again that through you, an heir is coming. Through you, the promise is going to be given. Through you, the covenant is going to be fulfilled. And so Abraham just believed it. Whatever he was promised, he believed.
I want to sort of get a little bit closer insight into that. Turn with me to Romans chapter four. You see, the Apostle Paul confirms what we had said in the introduction. He also saw Abraham as a great man.
The Apostle Paul in Romans is the first one to really, in a sense, be able to articulate the gospel of grace. And how does someone stand justified before a holy God? And the prime great example that he uses is not David. In a secondary way, certainly not Moses.
He uses Abraham. Abraham, and he'll say why in a moment, look at verse 13 of chapter four of Romans. For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For of those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified. He said for the law brings about wrath.
But where there is no law, there is also no violation. His inference there is the thing about grace is it requires faith. That's the whole point of grace. Grace is unmerited favor. Grace is a free gift. All you can do is receive it. All you can do is believe and receive it. There's nothing else you can do.
It has none of the tentacles of religion. The whole idea that you need to earn it, you need to work for it, you'll deserve it if you do this, if you do that. None of that's there. There's no point in it and that was Abraham. Then Paul writes this, for this reason it is by faith in order that it may be in accordance with grace. So that the promise will be guaranteed. He says to all the descendants, not only those who are of the law, but he said to those who are of faith of Abraham, who's the father of us all.
What a great light. The father of all believers, Abraham. He said, as it is written, a father of many nations, he said, have I made you. In the presence of him, he said, who believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. In hope against hope, he says, he believed so that he might become the father of many nations. According to that, he said, which had been spoken, so shall your descendants be. Without becoming weak in faith, he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead, since he was about 100 years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb. And yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in the faith, giving glory to God and being fully assured that what God had promised he was able to perform.
That's what he did. Paul says that's an amazing thing. Maybe a better way to describe it, Eugene Peterson in his paraphrase of the Bible in Romans 4 says this, this is 19 through 21, according to Peterson. He said, Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say it's hopeless. This 100 year old body could never father a child, nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up. He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He says, no, he plunged into the promise and he came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what God had said.
That's what he did. Abraham was a great man because what God promised he believed. And Abraham was a great man because when God called, he obeyed. Now back to Hebrews 11, verse 17.
The third point is this. When Abraham was tested, he trusted. When Abraham was tested, he trusted. Again, by faith in verse 17, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son. And it was he, he said, to whom it was said in Isaac, your descendants shall be called. He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back, he says is a type.
We looked at that last time. But no matter how you see that, it's astounding to me is faith. Remember when he and Isaac were going to go walk up and worship and make the sacrifice. He told the servants, we'll be back.
Right there, there's his faith. Normally when you take a person up, you lay them on an altar and you slit their throat, you don't come back together. But he said, we'll come back. Why? He said, even if I slay him, God will raise him up.
Why? He said he's the child of the promise. God told me something, I believe God for it. And by the way, often God's tests are not easy. You see, this in a lot of ways seems when you first read it, irrational.
But it wasn't. You see, God does this often. As we called it, the let go test. You see, what did he love or who did he love more than anything else on this planet? Isaac. God says, are you willing to let go?
He said, yes. Let me ask you that. Is there anything in your life or anyone that you would not let go of for God? Think about it for a moment.
Be honest with yourself. Is there anything or anyone in your life that you would not let go of for God? Because if you say, yes, there is something, then I'm saying to you, you really don't know God at all. You don't know what his character's like. You see, you don't know what kind of goodness is intrinsic to God. God would not, in a sense, ask Abraham to murder a son. You see, just for the sake that I'm asking you to do it, God always has a godly good agenda.
He never has something else. You see, and we withhold that. And so often what God does in our lives is he tests us by asking us, will you hold loosely something that you have tremendous value in?
The let go test is difficult for all of us, to say the least. And so when he was called, he obeyed. And when he was promised, he believed. When he was tested, he trusted.
One more that's not in Hebrews, but one more that shows his character. As he was blessed, he shared. It's one of the great things about him.
And that's so important because this guy was loaded. This is a rich, rich man. In his world, he would be in our world a billionaire. He is an extremely rich man. He is a man that has flocks and herds, silver and gold, servants, cattle, donkeys, camels, sheeps and goats.
He's an extremely wealthy man. But as he was blessed, he blessed others. Remember the story with Lot? Who was promised the promised land? Abraham.
So when they got there, they had so much affluence because of their herds, they had to divide. So what did Abraham do? He said, Lot, you choose what you want. Well, Lot doesn't even have a right to. But that's how generous he is. There's something else about Abraham, and sometimes this bothers some folks.
It shouldn't. But Sarah died. And when Sarah died, Abraham married Keturah, one of the concubines. And she had several sons to him. And he took care of all them.
None of them, because they were concubine sons, were allowed to inherit anything. Everything he had went to Isaac. So what did he do? He gave gifts to his sons. He set them all up. Why did he do that? He's a generous man. That's who he is.
God blesses us materially to enjoy and to share the blessing. And that's exactly what Abraham did. He had six sons to Keturah. And he made sure all of them were well taken care of. And so he's a great man, because when God called, he obeyed. And when he was promised, he believed. And when he was tested, he trusted.
And as he was blessed, he shared. But there's something else about him that I really enjoy, because I can identify with this. He has weaknesses. He has failures in his life. And that's so important for us to understand. You see it all through Scripture. It doesn't matter if it's David or Peter.
It doesn't matter. You see weaknesses. God goes out of his way to give you an authentic view of people. And Abraham certainly had his own weaknesses. When he was afraid, he retreated. Remember, there was a famine in the land. And Abraham, instead of staying in the land and waiting on God to provide, decides to run to Egypt. And then you know the whole story of what happens to him in Egypt. And then Hagar goes back with him to the land of Canaan, and then Ishmael is born.
And there's all those complications. But the point was that when he was afraid, he decided that he would retreat. And there's another thing. And I think this may have been a more consistent characteristic of Abraham. When he was threatened, he lied.
When he was threatened, he lied. Now remember, he went before Pharaoh and said when he got to Egypt that Sarah was so beautiful. The Egyptians, see how beautiful she is? She'll become part of Pharaoh's harem, and then they'll kill me. So Sarah, we got a deal here.
You just say you're my sister, and they'll leave me live. And that didn't go too well. But then, by the way, he got back into the promised land.
He ran into Abimelech. And the same thing happened again. He didn't learn his lesson the first time. And what did he do? He lied again, the exact same lie.
But there's something even more intriguing about this as a characteristic. I want you to go with me now to Genesis 26. Genesis 26 and verse 1. Now listen how this reads.
I think you're going to realize, wow, this is familiar. Now there was famine in the land. There we go again. Except this isn't about Abraham. This is about Isaac. Now there was famine in the land besides the previous famine. He said that it had occurred in the days of Abraham.
This is an all new famine. So it says, so Isaac went to Gerar. And Gerar to Abimelech, the king of the Philistines. Philistines, by the way, the seafaring guys. They live on, a lot of people, historians will say the Philistines were the first Vikings. They raided people, plundered people.
They were very good seamen. And so he goes and runs into the land of the Philistines. And the Lord appeared to him and said, do not go down to Egypt.
Been there, done that. You see, don't you dare go down to Egypt. There's a famine in the land. He said, stay in the land which I shall tell you.
Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you. And he says unto you and your descendants, I will give all these lands and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham and I will multiply your descendants of the stars of heaven and give your descendants all these lands and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. There is the Abrahamic covenant repeated to Isaac. The whole covenant, the same thing.
You're going to get it all. He said, because Abraham obeyed me and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes and my laws. And so Isaac, he says, lived in Gerar. When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, now this is Isaac, she is what? My sister. What?
She is my sister. For he was afraid to say, my wife, thinking the men of this place might kill me on account of Rebecca because she's beautiful. What? Now, understand something here.
Two things. One, when Abraham had done this, Isaac wasn't on the scene. So this wasn't something that Isaac, Isaac never saw this before.
And I'm pretty sure, now listen to this carefully, there is no such thing as she's my sister Jean. OK, there's not a gene that says you have to say when you meet somebody that threatens you, your wife, your sister. I don't think he inherited it. It's not a genetic thing. Where do you learn to do that?
You see, I think what happened was that was his father's propensity. 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.
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