God is faithful to His Promises to Abraham

Well, lovely, Abby. Thank you so much. That was absolutely gorgeous. Thank you, and nice to see you all, and good afternoon, everyone. And thank you for that sermonette about time. Much appreciated. And so, let me—what I do is I have a little apia that I then start my clock down. And then, when it gets to 50 minutes, a trap door opens and I disappear. Now, I'm just joking, but I like to watch my time. And I really appreciate you all. And really, it is a pleasure to be in Fort Worth. Kathy and I are looking forward to come down.

As it was mentioned yesterday, we've—we already closed on the home, and we are looking forward to come down straight off the Pentecost. So, the truck is coming to our home, God willing, if they don't break the promise. If they stick to time, they're coming in on a Monday off the Pentecost.

And then, hopefully, later in the week, maybe Thursday or Friday. If not, I told them if they don't make it there, they must come then on Monday, not on Sabbath. So, but anyway, whatever. We will then get unpacked and be at our home. And then, we look forward to be serving you from God willing that first week off the Pentecost.

And I really want to thank Stan and Penny. It's been a pleasure to work with them. The handover has been—he's been extremely smooth, and they are lovely people to work with. I really take my hat off. Really, they've done a tremendous job, and they're doing a tremendous job. You're all lovely brethren here, and we are very excited to Kathy and I to coming to serve and to be your helpers of your joy. That is our intent and our goal, and that's what we want. We want you all to be in peace and happiness, putting God first, putting Christ first, and keep going on towards the Kingdom.

So that's what we want. We want you all to be joyous, enjoying the walk, because we live in very difficult times. And coming to church needs to be a joyous time for us all. And I want you all to love coming to Sabbath services. And I want our young people to love coming to Sabbath services. This is their church. And you know, brethren, God has a wonderful plan for you and I. God is building a family of sons and daughters. And just like we rejoice when we see our children and our grandchildren serving in the church in lovely ways, sometimes we know they're human beings, they fail, but you know, they're learning, and over time they'll get better.

But which parent, which father, which mother, does not want his children to succeed? Obviously, we all want our children to succeed, to be happy, to be a success, and to, if possible, to exceed what we are doing. Now, God wants his children to succeed. You and I are his children. We are his beloved children so much that he gave his only begotten son for us. So, he's got a wonderful plan and families. There's nothing better than a family that teaches us the love of God for us like we love our children. There's nothing more meaningful than that. As parents, we learn that our children, even though they're not little angels, right? We really want them to succeed, and we want to forgive them, and we want them to come right with time.

Which parent doesn't want that? And even if you look at the story of the prodigal son, even if a child is going the wrong way, you always welcome him or her when he comes back with love and care.

That does not mean that you're condoning sin by no means, but that fatherly and motherly love is an amazing thing. And if we think of God in those terms, then we'll start understanding the outgoing concern and love that he has for us. And therefore, families give us a wonderful perspective of God's graciousness, kindness towards us. And you know, God started this plan, obviously you and I know, that started long before time began.

And I appreciate the sermonette talking about time, because we know before time began, and as we notice in Genesis 1.14, as it was mentioned in the sermonette, the sun, the moon, and the stars are there to give us time as we measure it today, days and months and years. So before time began means before the creation of these heavenly bodies that form our heavenly clock. And so to God, time is nothing because it's eternal.

And as mentioned in the sermonette, when we're younger, well, time seemed to be a long time. Now time flies, and much more to God. Time even flies more. So God started this plan actively through a family. Did you know that?

There were many individuals that were, or a number of individuals, they were obedient to God. Not many, not many, but the real kind of beginning of this family plan, let's call it, started through a family, and that's why his family is called the fathers of the faithful. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Have you thought about it? That it's a family. Grandfather, father, and son, you know, a family, a generation. And so because Abraham believed and trusted God, when God told him, get out, out of the land, and go to this place, and I'll bless you.

And he believed and trusted God, and because of his belief and absolute trust and faith in God, he left. And as we read, and we'll read a little later in the scriptures, it was imputed to him as righteousness. So today, brethren, we want to look at God's promises to Abraham, but from the point of the spiritual blessings. Yes, there is also a side of it, which are the physical blessings. And yes, we in the United States of America are the benefactors of those physical blessings. But it is not because we Americans are better than other people. We're not better. We are human beings who are failings.

But God is blessing other nations through that family, and he's seed which is Christ.

And because of the faithfulness of God, because God is faithful, when God says yes, he's yes. When he says no, he's no. So because of his faithfulness, he is blessing, and he has blessed us. However, you and I know that we are stubborn. We are disobedient. Look at the fruits of our nation.

All other nations look to America as the example. And so other nations, like for East Brazil, they're following us with these LGBT and all these things, because that's the example of America.

Disgusting!

But we see we should have been a godly, positive example to the world, and we have been a bad example. So God is removing that fence of protection, and we will suffer the consequences. You can read in scriptures like the Thessalonians and the Leviticus about blessings and cursings, which are nothing else than God removing the protection and allowing the laws to take their own consequences. It's like gravity.

You know, if you have something here and he says, I don't believe in the law of gravity, doesn't exist, well, and you let it go, you'll have consequences. And if a jaw, if it is a jaw with of crystal, and he says, well, I don't believe in the law of gravity, so leave it, leave the jaw alone and let it go. I have faith. Well, regardless of your faith, the law of gravity will act. So there are laws. There are laws. But today I want to focus on a point of God's love towards us, like you and I have as a father towards our beloved children, your beloved children. You have a unique love for your children. You only want the best for your children. I think you all agree with that. Look in Psalms 111 verse 3 to 5. Psalms 111 verse 3 to 5.

His work is honorable and glorious, and His righteous endures forever.

He has made His wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious. God is full of grace. That's what gracious is all about. God is gracious and full of compassion. He has given food to those who fear Him. He will ever be mindful of His covenant. You as parents, me as parents, we all as parents want to be gracious towards our children. We love them. Sure, now and again, we have to lovingly correct them, but we want their best.

But again, God says He is mindful of His covenant. What His covenant is is a covenant, a promise that He made to Abraham because He trusted and believed in God. And that is going to carry through to us through a seed which is Jesus Christ, that through that family, all other nations, all other families will be blessed. So that family of which we descendants, American people, American brethren, should have been an example. But we failed. But the time will come when in the future we'll then be given an opportunity to be a right example when Christ comes back. That's a whole different topic. But the point is, God is gracious and He is mindful of His covenant.

And what is His covenant? His covenant to Abraham was that through you and your seed, all nations will be blessed because all nations will ultimately be children of God.

You see, God as talking about time, as a time to do different things. Everything in His time and order, like we are in the sermon, there's a time for this and a time for that and a time for the other. God also has, let's call it, a time plan which is revealed to us through His holy days.

Everything is done in His season, in His time. And part of His plan is what?

Turn with me to Titus chapter 1 verse 2. Titus chapter 1 verse 2, right at the introduction of the book of Titus where he says Paul is a bondservant of God and he says and he says, in hope of eternal life brethren, you and I have hope.

When you talk to people that are teachers, let's call, or coaches of large enterprises, show the managers of those enterprises the importance of a vision. We need to have a vision.

We need to have a hope.

A hope is very important and God has given us eternal life which God who cannot lie, He cannot lie. He's faithful. He's yes, He's yes, He's no, He's no.

Promised before time began. In other words, before the creation of the earth and the moon and the stars, before that creation He has this plan, this goal, this vision that He wants sons and daughters in His kingdom and they will have eternal life. That's His plan. And you know what?

He has the power to ensure that He will succeed.

He has the power to ensure that He will succeed and He has done everything possible for it to be a success because the difficult part was Christ becoming a human being and dying for you and I.

And that He did. Done. The rest to God is nothing.

But the important point is that you and I individually don't turn our backs on Him because you and I are free moral agents. God does not want robots. Turn left, beep, beep, turn left, turn right, beep, beep, beep, go right. No, He wants you to have the freedom of choice and to the soul to turn left because, as we heard in a message yesterday, we want His principles, His laws, like laws of gravity, internalized in our hearts, in our minds through the sanctification of His Spirit so that we have the same mind as He has, the same Spirit as He has. He wants to internalize that in us. But because you and I are free moral agents, what happens? We have a carnal mind, a human nature, and you know what? I want my way.

Like you say to your children, I want you to do this. No, I want to do that.

So we have to have a little conversation with those children. You know that happens.

How many times does God tell us, do this? And He says, No, I want to do that. You and I are the same thing. And so, in His loving kindness, He gives us time so that we all may come to repentance.

Because that's what it is. God's forbearance, you read that in Romans, is there for us to come to repentance. He gives us time and time. But there won't be a time when time will run out, you know, like that little sand, little clock that the sand just runs out. And it'll be a day of judgment. We know that. But God, He's gracious towards us. Now, the church published an excellent booklet that I refer to you called, What Does the Bible Teach About Grace? I really recommend you to study this booklet carefully. I really recommend you to study this booklet carefully.

Because forgiveness of sin is not the only point about grace. You see, sometimes we say, oh well, forgiveness of sin is grace, and therefore that's it. Grace is far greater. Is God's all-outgoing caring, graciousness, loving kindness towards you and I as a loving, eternal dad towards us.

And that's why we've got families that teaches us these lessons. Because every time we are loving towards our children, we're learning to be loving like God is. Now, God started this process of developing through families, like I mentioned, through Abraham. So I want to turn to a few scriptures and I want to dig out of some of those scriptures, some really important points that you and I may have overlooked. So we're going to start with Romans chapter 4. Romans chapter 4.

In Romans chapter 4, in verse 1 through verse 4, we read, What then shall we say that Abraham, our father, has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. I want to draw an important point here about the word justified. It is really critical. The Protestant world changes this world, a big part, the Protestant world changes this word to something. I want you to understand that justified does not mean justified. Justified means that you may just with God. In other words, your sins are forgiven and you are reconciled with God by grace, by his mercy, by his compassion and love, like a father and a mother may forgive their children because they love them. That does not mean that the Lord has done away. I want to make that absolutely clear.

Justification is by faith, by trusting in God and he, because we trust and believe in him, and therefore we will obey him, but that trust and confidence that he is forgiving us, gratus, because you know, Christ died for us while we were yet gratus, but that does not give you card blanche to sin.

Now that we have been justified freely, we are now even more accountable to make sure we walk the right way according to what he wants. And that's why he gives us the Spirit so that we have what the Bible calls it the sanctification of the Spirit, that through God's law, he is His laws and His principles in our hearts and in our minds, we internalize God's law and now we practice the way.

But you see, it's a process. First we're justified by Christ's blood, by Christ's faith.

Then we receive God's Holy Spirit because we commit that to walking that way.

And then through God's Holy Spirit, God's mind, God's thinking, God's essence pricks our consciences through that still small voice and says, George, don't do this, or whatever your name, put your name in there, don't do this.

And then we go the right way.

So, brethren, that's what justified is all about. It's not saved. It's just forgiven, and the relationship is now healed between you and the Father by grace.

Yes, that's one part of grace. So it says, but verse 3, verse 3, for what does the Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness?

The act of entrusting God was accounted or imputed or credited to him as righteousness. It's important for us to understand this act of belief, of trusting in God, was imputed to him as righteousness.

And then he goes on and he talks more about that, and then he looks at it in verse 5 through 8, and he says, you know, what a blessing it is when you don't have sins imputed onto you, but it's righteously imputed onto you. Look at in verse 7 and 8, which is quoted from Psalm 32, verse 7 and 8 of Romans 4. It says, Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.

God does not impute sin on you and I, because you and I believe in him, and we want to walk on the right way. We're walking in the light. Now, for me and I and you to say, we have no sin. You read that in John. If you and I say we have no sin, we lie us.

But we walk in the light.

The example is, I walk in the light here, but I may trip. Maybe something on the floor, and I may accidentally trip. Did I do it deliberately? No, I don't want to trip, but I'm walking in the light. That's the same thing. We're human beings. We're flesh and blood.

We walk in the light because we want to please God. We want to do what's right, but we may occasionally trip and sin. So if we say we have no sin, we lie us.

But we don't want to have sin. We want to live the right way. That's putting it into this context.

You see, so then we're talking about, you read, it's a section that you need to read and meditate about it. It says, listen, this is for us to be in the kingdom of God. He has eternal life. Look at verse 16. It says, therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, and it was not only to the Jews, but also to those who are of faith, which is the Gentiles, like Abraham, was, for years before he was, this was promised to him. He was not even part of the selected people. He believed, he trusted, and was imputed to him as righteousness.

So this is important for us to understand. And then it talks a bit later on in verse 20. It says, it did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief. When God says, leave this piece of land and I will bless you, he did not doubt it. Straight away, he picked up bags and he went.

And he said, but what strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what God had promised, he was also able to perform. And you and I need to be fully convinced that God has promised his life. He is able to give us eternal life.

There's no doubt in that. And so it goes, and it says it, and then it continues in verse 22. And therefore it was accounted to in for righteousness. Now, this is an important point.

It was accounted to him for righteousness.

It was not his righteousness.

It's God's righteousness. This is difficult for us to understand.

And then he says, verse 20, now it was not written for his sake alone. That is, it was imputed to him. But also it's for you and I to understand God is imputing, is crediting us. Think about you have a credit on your bank account. Bang! A million dollars. Well, this is more than a million dollars. You got a credit on your bank account. Eternal life. Gift. Gratas.

While you were yet, all you needed to do is to believe. That's why when you baptize, you believe, and you make a commitment.

You did not obey any law that paid for that.

There's no law that paid for your sins. What paid for your sins is crushed blood. Gratas.

By crushed blood, not because you paid one million dollars to God. No.

Does that mean you don't have to obey God's law?

Of course not. We have to obey God's law.

You see, the Protestant world confuses the word justified with saved. You are justified by faith. Look at chapter 5 verse 1. Therefore, having been justified by faith.

What does the Protestant world say? Oh, well, you...

Now, you're justified by faith. You're made right with God. You're reconciled with God. This is the ministry of reconciliation, and this reconciliation is through the blood of Christ. It's not because of what you do. It's because He loves you, He loves us, and He wants us as His children in the kingdom of God, and He wants to give us all the glory as children of God, and that is...

And look at verse 5. Now, the hope does not disappoint. I'm reading Romans 5 verse 5. Now, the hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in your our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Now, you know, you read in Acts 5 verse 32, God gives His name right. Yes, God has forgiven us. God has, because we believe in Him and we have faith in Him, and we made a commitment that we repent and we change, we're going to live a new life.

We baptized. We received God's Holy Spirit through the laying of hands by the prayer asking God to fulfill the promise of the Father. God's Holy Spirit given to us. Why? Because we now are trying to obey God, and that is exactly the plan of God's Holy Days, you know. Passover, Christ paid for us with His blood. We've got to believe in that. Days of 11 bread. We've got to now obey God, and then comes Pentecost. What does it mean? We're receiving God's Holy Spirit, which means God's Holy Spirit is in us, begotten us, and from that moment onwards, we have access to the Father through the Holy Spirit. We'll read that in Hebrew standing a little moment.

And what are we talking about here is the love of God, the loving kindness of God that He wants you and I in His kingdom has been poured to us into our hearts, into our minds, so that you and I imitate Him and become like that through the power of the Holy Spirit, and God's Holy Spirit is given to those who are paying. Acts 5 verse 32. Look at verse 8, still in Romans 5, but God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we're still sinners, Christ died for us. You see, it's by grace, by faith. How much more than having now been justified in other words, being made right with God, being reconciled with the Father by Christ's blood, we shall be saved. We're not yet saved. We shall be saved, future tense, from wrath through Him, through Christ.

How? Let's continue reading. For if when we were enemies, we reconciled to God in which justified made it peace, ministry of reconciliation, to God through the death of His Son, much more than being made that peace with God the Father, we shall be saved by His life.

How? Because He's our High Priest.

He's Pentecost, and in fact, after the the wife sheath, He is now as excess, the wife sheath, He was as excess as half. The wife sheath represents, you read the section in Leviticus 23 about the wife sheath. He's as excess as half as our High Priest, and then you read the section about the offerings of the two loaves. Have leaven, right? You go and read Leviticus.

There's two loaves which represents us with leaven. Now, no offering is allowed to have leaven, except that one. Why? Because it represents you and I from the day of Pentecost having direct access to God's throne with leaven, because you and I are physical human beings.

With leaven now, that means with but covered by Christ's blood. And He was our Priest, as our mediator, allows us to have access to God's blood. That means through His blood, through His body, as we read in Hebrews chapter 10. We'll look at it in a moment. And we now, after Pentecost, symbolize that we now have to remain faithful and go through the sanctification of the Spirit and become better people until the resurrection, which is when you and I will then be changed to corruptible, which means without sin.

No more leaven, symbolically, of course. So, brethren, it's not our own self-righteousness. Look at Romans chapter 10. Look at Romans chapter 10 in verse 3. You see, Paul is here talking about the people of his own nation, the Jewish community at that time, and he says, brethren, my heart is a xylah and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. And Romans chapter 10 is an amazing bit of Scripture. I recommend you to read because it's so deep and profound. And he says, for I bear them witness that they have zeal for God. Those are not equal to God, but not according to knowledge. You and I can say that we are in the Christian world today. Our Christian community out there, many of them have great zeal for God. There's a lot of good people out there, but they're not being called yet, but they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

For they, verse 3, be ignorant of God's seeking to establish their own righteousness, seeking to establish their own self-righteousness.

You see, it's not our self-righteousness, it's God's righteousness, which is because we trust and believe in Him.

And therefore those people have not submitted to the righteousness of God. That's why you and I have to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, which is God's righteousness, not my righteousness, not your righteousness.

Everything starts to make very profound meaning here, brethren.

You see, the whole thing is the job of the high priest, and this is the Hebrews. So if we just glance through a few points in Hebrews, so the first one is in Hebrews chapter 6. In Hebrews chapter 6, Hebrews chapter 6, verse 13 and 14 says, For when God made a promise to Abram, because he could swear by now and great, he swore by himself, and then later he's talking about two immutable things, one, that he's impossible to God to lie, and two, that he is... And he says, Now we've got the which is an anchor for our lives, both short and steadfast, and which enters the presence behind the veil. So this hope we have, we can enter the presence, God's own holy of holies, behind the veil, where the forerunner as Christ is the forerunner, enter for us, having become our high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. So he's our priest, and as high priest, and he's interceding for us, and he's mediating. You read that in chapter 8, and he's mediating for us, and you read in chapter 8 that he says, Therefore we have this new covenant in which he's given us the new covenant, which is right. Look at it in verse chapter 8, verse 9 and 10, that is the covenant that is writing his laws in our hearts and our minds. So we have God's laws and minds to go with. And then, a little later, we read in Hebrews chapter 10, in Hebrews chapter 10, that he says, and you read there another amazing bit of scripture that he says that God is not happy with what he says in verse 5, sacrifice and offering you the not a ziah, but a body you have prepared for me. In other words, the Father prepared a body for Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ became a human being, and it was the word that became a human being, and he died for us and became a sacrifice for us. And therefore, that is all. You read that verse 14, but one offering is perfected forever, those who are being continuous, present tense, being sanctified. How? Through the sanctification of the Spirit. We are being sanctified. And then, he's after writing God's law in our hearts. How? Through God's Holy Spirit. He's the one we have. Christ died for us, for Selvah. He was accepted in our behalf during the days of 11 bread, the Sunday during the days of 11 bread, as our wave chief.

Then, He gave us His Holy Spirit, symbolized by Pentecost. We now have access to the throne of God, and that you read in verse 19 of Hebrews chapter 10. Let's read Hebrews chapter 10 verse 19. Therefore brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He consecrated for us through the veil that is His flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God. So you and I, now, whenever we pray through our mediator, our high priest, which is Christ, we have access to God's Holy of Holies, by a new and living way. Why? Because it's Christ's body through the veil, which they could not do only on the day of Atonement, and that was only the high priest, but now we can. You read that section, therefore have confidence. You can do this. And therefore, He says, verse 24, and therefore let us turn to another in order to stir up love and good works. So this is very, very important, brethren.

His official ceremonial sacrifices, as you read in Galatians chapter 3 verses, from verse 8 through verse 24, 26, etc., they were only a tutor pointing to Christ. They were only an example pointing to Christ, because the real sacrifice is Christ. It's Christ that can and now that we have Christ saving and forgiving us, we have access to the Father. We are reconciled. We are justified. We are made right by that faith of Christ. Yes, it's the faith of Christ, not my faith. Otherwise, it would be my works.

And that will talk more about it as well in other times, but it's the faith of Christ.

So, remember, God wants to forgive us because of His loving kindness and of His grace. Look at Micah chapter 7. We're going to read verse 18 through 20, right at the end of Micah.

Micah chapter 7, verse 18 through 20.

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sin into the depths of the sea like a stone. All our sins will be cast in the leprosy.

You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abram, which you have saved our fathers from the days of old. And brethren, we have a promise. God is faithful to His promises to Abram. God is the Master Potter. He is making us His children, and He calls us, some of us now, even few, respond. Even fewer will be faithful to the end, which is symbolized at Christ's coming, which is symbolized by the day of trumpets.

So fewer will be faithful to the end. That's why it says, called, chosen, and faithful.

But the point is, God has a wonderful plan for mankind. He wants you there. He wants me there.

Brethren, that is an opportunity for us to rejoice. It is a wonderful hope to have the glory of God.

And He has a great job to His universal chiefing of Jesus Christ. He is the man from A to Z, the Omega, the beginning and the end, the author.

And at the end, Christ will tell the father. He will hand the father everything, and he will say, mission accomplished.