Pastor Paul Chappell: Overcoming the Unknown

genesis chapter 12 and we're going to read down through verse number 9 as we begin this series today genesis chapter 12. now the lord had said unto abram get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that i will show thee and i will make of thee a great nation and i will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing and i will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed by the way verse 3 is what we call the abrahamic covenant and that's why we believe that as a nation we should be the friend of israel and it's a great concern to us when people speak otherwise because god promises to bless those that bless them verse 4 so abraham departed as the lord had spoken unto him and lot went with him and abraham was 70 and 5 years old when he departed out of heron and abram took sarah his wife and lot his brother's son and all their substance that they had gathered and the souls that they had gotten in heron and they went forth to go into the land of canaan and into the land of canaan they came and abram passed through the land under the place of shechem and the valley of mora and the canaanite was then in the land and the lord appeared unto abram and said unto him unto thy seed will i give this land and there builded he an altar unto the lord who appeared unto him and he removed from fence unto a mountain on the east of bethel and pitched his tent having bethel on the west and haye on the east and there he built in an altar unto the lord and called upon the name of the lord and abram journeyed going on still south let us pray father we thank you this morning that even when the future seems unclear and uncertain that you are lord of all and we thank you that we can learn today how to overcome the unknowns of this life and father we pray that as we study abraham's faith that our faith would be encouraged and strengthened and i ask that if there's anyone here that has never put their faith in jesus christ for their savior that this would be the day and we pray and ask these things in jesus name amen you may be seated well all of us face uncertain times and uncertain circumstances we are certainly living in a time of unrest military leaders are watching china as they encroach more and more into territories that previously they had not encroached upon and medical science is watching the advancement of various diseases of course including covet and many of us have found that it's really an unknown future with respect to all of the myriad of so-called science and how to properly respond to covet and sometimes people look at the political situation in our nation and and hearts can be burdened and disturbed over trends that we see and we wonder how people could hold to the views they hold to sometimes medically financially we come to a place where we're not exactly sure how to step next and what's god doing in all of this reminds me of the story of a missionary couple that had labored overseas for many years and and they came to the states for a great missionary conference like we'll be having here in the month of november and they were gathering together at the conference a lot was going on and these pastors from a foreign country had gathered in and so uh during one of the breaks the pastor said to the missionary we'd like to take a little trip downtown and buy some souvenirs and see a little bit of america the missionary was very busy and so he said well i can't go but here's the directions and here's my phone number if you have any problems just give me a call i'll be glad to help well less than an hour passed and one of the pastors called and he said missionary he said we are lost we don't know where we are so the missionary said all right here's what i want you to do he said i want you to go to the intersection of the streets and and look at the signs and tell me where you're at so about another minute passed by the voice came back on to the phone and the and the pastor from the foreign country said i am at the corner of walk and don't walk now i don't know about you but a lot of times in my life in ministry i feel like i'm at the corner of walk and don't walk right uh this this news says this this doctor says this this leader says this this leader says that this economist says this this economist says that and sometimes they're just like okay lord which way do i go well today we're going to learn from the life of a man who had an innate ability to listen to god and to follow the voice of god in his life abraham eighteen hundred and fifty years before christ genesis 12 records for us this man's life he was the father of the nation of israel chosen by the sovereignty of god not because he was a perfect man something you'll learn about abraham and something all of us can say about ourselves we're not perfect but thank god for his love and for the fact that he wanted to be a friend of abraham's and he wants to be your friend as well that's the nature of god god is love and god is calling abraham to leave his home his hometown the ur of the chaldees it is called this is where his journey began it really was in southern iraq and abraham is going to journey from this place all the way up to haran in modern-day syria and finally through the ancient city of dan in the north of israel and on down into the land of canaan or the land of promise this would be abraham's journey one thousand miles as he would journey on foot traveling following the voice of god as he would come into israel he would pass through the gate at the city of dan to the northern part of israel it is a gate that still exists if you visit the holy land you can see this gate today called abraham's gate what an amazing thought nearly a 4 000 year old remnant uh which archaeologically shows to us the validity of the scriptures routing of abraham having come through this place but the amazing thing about abraham was not necessarily the length of the journey it was not necessarily the architecture of the ancient days the amazing thing about abraham was just his faith that god's voice would come to him and lead him and that abraham would follow god hebrews 11 6 tells us that without faith it is impossible to please god and this is one of the reasons that abraham is called the friend of god because he had faith to follow god he was a man that was willing to follow god even when the destination was unknown to him even when he did not know everything about the journey abraham had faith to follow god abraham had faith during the journey with god and we're going to see thirdly this morning that abraham had faith to sacrifice to god everything about abraham tells us that faith was the key to his blessing well i want you to notice first of all this morning about this man abraham that he had faith to follow the bible tells us in chapter 12 and verse number four these words so abraham departed as the lord had spoken unto him one of the things we're going to learn about faith this morning is that faith is exercised it's something that must be exercised and it was exercised in obedience so abraham departed the lord said abraham follow me to a land where i'm going to make you a blessing i'm going to give you a name it's going to be awesome and the bible simply says so abraham departed hebrews 11 and verse 8 says by faith abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should have to receive for an inheritance obeyed and he went out not knowing whether he went the word obey means to hearken unto or to submit to and sometimes we so complicate the christian life but really it's just about seeing god's revelation and obeying god's voice and following god and this is what we learned from abraham that he was able to overcome the unknowns by following god day by day by day the bible tells us in james 1 22 but be ye doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves some people will come to church the bible will be open god's revelation shared the truth of god very simply presented and sometimes folks will say well whatever we'll see i'll see if that matches my schedule my life whatever but that was not mo that was not the attitude of abraham the bible says so abraham departed god said abraham follow me and abraham was a doer of the word now i can imagine the conversations abraham and sarah must have had i can imagine sarah saying to abraham so abraham where are we going anyways and abraham saying you know i'm not really sure sarah and i can imagine sarah saying well how long are we going to be gone from our home and i could imagine abraham saying we're not going home sarah i can imagine sarah saying well how far are we going i can imagine abraham saying a long way sarah it's going to be a long way i don't know how the conversation went but they were walking by faith obediently doing their best to follow the revealed will of god it was in obedience and it was in trust that they followed god you know as we are in a time right now where sometimes we don't know all the answers for tomorrow and sometimes we may face disappointment some of you were disappointed as i was with the recall and things of this nature and you think wow what's going on people seem to be content with the homelessness and the status quo and so forth and maybe you get down with things like that but can i tell you something my friend that jesus christ is still lord overall that god still has a plan for our lives and that god many times uses these trials and these things that we don't understand for his purpose that's why the bible says in proverbs 3 and verse 5 trust in the lord with all thine heart lean not unto thy known understanding in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your path i'm not telling you that abraham understood everything about his journey i'm just telling you he kept acknowledging god on the journey i'm telling you that he was willing to follow god on the journey and i want you to know that in abraham's life there were many times that he may have wondered if he would have supplies or finances in genesis chapter 11 he made that journey up to heron and as he journeyed up to heron the place where his father where his father would ultimately die it was all by faith this entire journey it was faith being exercise without faith it's impossible to please god but not only was faith exercised by abraham but i want you to notice secondly that faith is expectant faith is not only exercise but when you're walking by faith you can expect god to work in your life now notice what the bible tells us in genesis chapter 12 and verse number two i will make thee a great nation and i will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing so here we see that god says if you'll follow me i'm going to take care of you now abraham was expecting god to answer this promise and abraham's following of god abraham's faith in god ultimately produces a friendship with god and i want you to understand this very carefully it is the journey it is the journeying with god that brings about the relationship with god it's not merely in the accomplishments of the answered prayers it's not merely in being blessed it's not merely in having a great name it's not necessarily about the blessing or about the great name it's about the relationship it is the fact that god wants to get to know you the bible says and i think it's in your notes isaiah 41 8 but thou israel art my servant jacob whom i have chosen the seed of abraham my friend abraham was the friend of god now if you're here this morning you perhaps are sitting near a friend or perhaps someone invited you to church and i'm going to tell you uh that's a true friend a lot of people say hey let's go party and do this and let's do this and that but someone that really would invite you to god's house this morning that's a good friend and it's wonderful to have friends like that but the bible says there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother and that is god himself the lord jesus christ and abraham was a friend with god he had a relationship with god do you know god today do you follow his revelation through his word you see abraham had some promises he was hoping would be fulfilled but what he was going to learn was it's not just about the destination it's about the journey it's about learning how to walk with god when you're unemployed when you're not sure about the medical tasks or what to do it's about learning to walk with god when your children break your heart it's about learning to follow god by faith in the good times and the bad times you see the bible says in genesis 15 and verse 6 that abraham believed in the lord and the lord counted it for him for righteousness the fact that he believed god you see that's where it really begins when you believe on the lord jesus christ as your savior god counts that unto you for righteousness he declares you righteousness through his son jesus christ the bible says in hebrews 11 that abraham looked for a city that had no foundation that had a foundation and whose builder and founder was god romans 4 and verse 3 for what saith the scripture abraham believed god and it was counted unto him for righteousness so abraham's faith produced righteousness because his faith was in the revealed will of god and when you put your faith in jesus christ you are counted righteous because you are following the revealed will of god warren wiersbe says what does the scripture say abraham believed god the gift of righteousness came not by works but by faith in god's revealed word god is looking for people in this crazy mixed up divided a day in which we live who will look past all of the media and all of the confusion and find his revealed word and follow him that's the challenge of the day it's not merely the blessing that will come later it's the journey that we can enjoy each and every day abraham's faith produced a friendship with god but abraham's faith would require patience abraham's faith would require patience now abraham is promised in verse 2 that god would make of him a great nation that god would bless him let me tell you something sometimes the promises of god are not fulfilled on our timetable sometimes things don't happen as quickly so abraham might have thought okay i'm going to leave the ear of the cowdee and any day now god's going to give me a son god's going to give me land god's going to bless and yet in reality it was 75 years later before all of these promises would be fulfilled god was going to work in abraham's life before he blessed abraham with the fulfillment of the promises and sometimes people can get a little impatient with god sometimes we can say all right god i have my college degree give me the promotion okay god i'm 40 now right okay god i got saved i've been going to church for a while bring on the blessings because i am ready and yet god is going to teach us along the way that more than the blessings is the blessing of the relationship with him learning how to be a friend with god is god going to bless abraham no doubt is god going to bring his children to a place called heaven does god bless us with his word with the church with so many things no doubt but he wants us first and foremost to be fully satisfied with him and so we see that abraham had faith to follow that's where it all begins we walk by faith not by sight and the only way to overcome the unknown is to put your hand into the hand of god by faith and say god lead me i'm ready to follow you faith to follow but i want you to notice secondly it's going to take faith for the journey faith for the journey you see it's one thing to leave your comfort zone it's one thing to leave the ear of the chaldea that's step one that's salvation that's how we begin to begin to grow in faith but now we want to have faith for the entire journey and abraham demonstrates that for us the bible says in hebrews 11 9 by faith he sojourned in the land of promise he he spent time in this land and on this journey this faith of abraham's was a traveling faith abraham dirtying in the land he never owned land other than at hebron where he was buried it wasn't about that it was about the journey about discovering the will of god for his life it was a traveling faith i do want you to know it was a tested faith there will come times in your life when this faith is tested and in genesis 12 and 10 we see the first test i mean he's hardly left home and look what it says genesis 12 10 there was a famine in the land and abram went down into egypt to sojourn there for the famine was grievous in the land i mean they just are getting started and here's this great test of a famine and let me tell you something a faith that cannot be tested cannot be trusted let's say that together a faith that cannot be cannot be trusted so here's here's abraham and i've seen this happen someone accepts jesus things are going well boom a trial will come in this case it was a famine and all of the sudden you have this this amazing moment are you going to keep trusting god or are you going to start doubting god and many people will doubt and abraham had his ups and downs with these tests in fact the bible tells us that as the famine came they were able to experience this test firsthand in their life and you're going to see how abraham handled it let me tell you friends that testing is important out at edwards air force base we have a flight test center and that test center is given for the purpose of of taking these aircraft and and and seeing what they can handle and seeing uh how they can turn and how high they can fly and how much stress the wings can take because we want to calculate all that and place it in the computers and we want to know so that when our our our flyers are out doing combat that we have fully tested that aircraft to know the capabilities of that aircraft we want to test before we get into the battle and sometimes god's going to give you a test before he gives you a blessing or before he puts you into battle the story is told of of a test that was done by the uh federal aviation administration some years ago they had a unique way of testing the strength of aircraft windshields they devised this uh particular launch gun and they would take this uh this device and uh literally they would launch chickens into the windshields of these aircraft and and that's how they would see so if any of you've done a lot of flying you know that sometimes ducks or geese can fly right into the engine of some of these airplanes and so they were testing with this device and and the british were interested in the device as well they had developed a fast speed locomotive and they wanted to know if they could use this device to test the locomotives and so they did their test and unfortunately the ballistic chicken scattered the windshield of their locomotive it went through the windshield it went into the cabin it got all over the officers there that were driving that train and the british were stunned and so they asked the faa they said look here's what we did did we do something improperly on the test the faa revert reviewed the all of the statistics they said you did everything right our only recommendation is thaw the chicken now tests come and uh remember if you ever take that one to thaw the chicken because it went right through but we have times of testing we test equipment cars airplanes but how much more important is the test that comes to our life there are three major tests in abraham's life let me tell you about them quickly first of all there was the test of truthfulness you see when this famine came as abraham is traveling into egypt he begun becomes aware of the fact in genesis 12 that they very likely would kill him in order to take sarah unto themselves sarah was a beautiful woman and so in order to spare his life abraham says to his wife in genesis 12 13 i pray thee say that thou art my sister that it may be well with me for thy sake and my soul shall live because of thee abraham asks his own wife to tell a lie because of that pharaoh kicks abraham and sarah and their entire entourage out of egypt's land you see sometimes when we come up to a test where if we're not careful we start trying to figure it out ourself you know rather than walk with integrity and do the will of god how can i get out of this pickle how can i uh make this go away how can i deal with this problem and the test of truthfulness was a test that abraham did not pass but also i want you to see a test of generosity this is a test that he did pass in genesis 13 abraham and lot have come into the land and now they're looking over the plains and there's this uh jordanian plain it's a well-watered plain genesis 13 10 says and lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plane of jordan that it was well watered everywhere before the lord destroyed sodom and gomorrah even as the garden of the lord like the land of egypt as thou comest undazor now there truly was a place called sodom and gomorrah it was truly a place given over to sodomy and wickedness and literally it was destroyed in the bible there's no way to get around that god brought judgment and today that area is just a wasteland even to this day but prior to the judgment of god it was a well-watered plane it was a beautiful place and so all of a sudden lot and his men decided we want that that's the best place for us and here again abraham had a test and abraham at this moment says to lot you go ahead and you take that place and god blessed abraham for his patience and god blessed abraham for his generosity and gave him other land that was very suitable there was the test of truthfulness there was the test of generosity and then there was the ultimate test for this man abraham other than the sacrifice of his son was the test of waiting for his son isaac the bible tells us in genesis 13 14 and the lord said unto abraham after that lot was separated from him lift up thine eyes and look from the place where there are northward and southward and eastward and westward for all the land which thou see us to thee will i give it and to thy seed forever and i will make thy seed as the dust of the earth so that if a man can number the dust of the earth then shall thy seed also be numbered god says abraham i haven't forgotten my promise to you i'm going to give you the land i'm going to give you the seed and i'm going to bless you in an amazing way well abraham loses patience and in this test of patience abraham is now around 85 years old it's been 10 years since god originally said he was going to bless him with seed and abraham goes in to hagar the handmaid and in genesis chapter 16 even with sarah somewhat acquiescing and encouraging this act abraham lies with hagar and from that is produced ishmael and ishmael has hated the descendants of isaac ever since all of the battles in the middle east can be traced back to this relationship with hagar the descendants of ishmael the descendants of isaac and so abraham was 86 years old when he failed this test and again rather than waiting on god he did what he wanted to do according to his timing and this is amazing from the moment that he went in unto hagar god did not speak to abraham for 13 years for 13 years there was a broken fellowship because of what had taken place in that relationship finally 13 years later god returns to abraham in grace and he always does and the bible says in genesis 17 15 and god said unto abraham as for sarah thy wife thou shalt not call her sarai but sarah shall be her name and i will bless her and give thee a son and yea i will bless her and she shall be the mother of nations kings and people shall be of her and when abraham hears that in genesis 17 17 the bible says he fell on his face and he began to laugh i don't know what he said maybe he said lord i've never seen a 92 year old woman buying maternity clothes before you don't see a lot of grandmothers buying baby supplies for themselves and perhaps you and i would have the same question but let us never forget that with god all things are possible and as you face the unknown and the uncertain days in which we live let me remind you that with god all things are possible he created this world he sustains this world he took a giant down with the stone of david he has raised up the dead and the bible is clear in this instance that sarah did conceive and gave birth to a child whose name was isaac you know sometimes we can get ahead of god and abraham got ahead of god but the bible says in james 1 and verse 3 knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience but let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect or complete and wanting nothing and so we see in abraham's life he's learning how to trust god he's learning that god always has a better way ronald reagan wrote in his book an american life he said i was raised to believe that god had a plan for everyone and that seeming random twists of fate are all a part of his plan after i lost my job at montgomery wards my mother said to me that everything in life happens for a purpose she said that all things were part of god's plan even disheartening setbacks and that in the end everything would work out for the best well i think we'd all have to agree that from montgomery wards to the white house wasn't too bad of a promotion that god had a plan in his life sometimes when you're having that experience of losing the job or losing the relationship or going through the difficulty or suffering criticism from unkind people during those tests like that you might want to take out vengeance you might want to try to find your own way as the way out you might get impatient like abraham did but let me encourage you god has not forgotten your name your address he still cares for you and he will never leave you and he will never forsake you what do we learn from abraham he was a man who had faith to follow god he just followed god he was a man who kept following on the journey even when he failed he kept following the lord but the third and final thing we learned from abraham is that abraham had faith to sacrifice for god now folks some of you maybe haven't read abraham's story so what i'm about to tell you might be a little shocking but you're going to learn something about abraham today that really is the pinnacle of the story spiritually speaking you see abraham was a man that was a godly man throughout his life and career he sacrificed to god on many occasions he made sacrifices for example in genesis chapter 14 after he went and chased after lot lot had been abducted by another army and so abraham takes 318 men and they recapture lord and they have a victory abraham meets a priest by the name of melchizedek this is long before the law of moses and abraham when he meets this priest called melchizedek from jerusalem the bible says that abraham paid tithes to melchizedek this was one of his offerings of sacrifice it was a way that he said god thank you for giving us the victory and this was showing the heart of abraham on another occasion in genesis 15 when abraham was so worried about whether he'd ever have a son god said abraham i'm going to give you a son and abraham built another altar and he brought a sacrifice on the altar as a way of saying god i thank you but the most famous of all the sacrifices of abraham was when god asks something that most of us can hardly comprehend and the bible tells us about it in the ultimate request that is made in genesis 22 and i'd like you to see it with me it's in your notes there this morning genesis 22 and verse 1 and it came to pass after these things that god did tempt abraham or test abraham and said unto him abraham and he said behold here i am and he said take now thy son thine only son isaac whom thou lovest and get thee into the land of moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which i will tell thee of and the bible says and abraham rose up early in the morning you know years ago when our son had cancer i remember going through the valley of that like it was yesterday frankly the most difficult trial our family ever experienced and i was trying to pastor the church and build buildings and do all these things in the middle of it and it seemed like for a period of time there it was every report was a negative difficulty and it was a surgery and a surgery and chemo and i remember a friend of mine saying something to me and i didn't want to hear it in fact i i wasn't really thankful when he said it but he said to me something like this he said brother chapel have you ever had an abraham moment where you told the lord that you just completely yield this over to the lord and i i i didn't know how to answer that i wanted to sound like a great man of god and say well of course i mean whatever the lord wants but there's not a father in here that wants the lord to take his son i remember one day at the kitchen sink my wife was there and we were talking about larry and she had tears in her eyes and i said honey a friend of mine asked me a question and he asked me if i've ever had an abraham moment where i just laid down larry for the lord and whatever the lord wanted and i said i said terry and terry is often a stronger christian than i am i said have you had that moment and i'll never forget she said to me yes i have she said i i pray that god heals our son and by the way he did and we're thankful but she said i've had that moment that's a tough moment to come to and abraham is invited to that moment by god and god says i know you've wanted all these years you've waited all these years and decades for a son but now abraham i want you to lay them down on an altar i want you to leave this place you're at called beersheba i want you to go up to jerusalem and it's amazing because the bible says in verse 3 that abraham rose up early in the morning it appears to me and some of us that are a little older maybe this will bring some encouragement because like abraham some of us have failed sometimes on our journey but it appears to me that the older abraham's getting he's learning how to really obey god he just quickly obeys god and and he goes without hesitancy without question in fact uh hebrews 11 17 says by faith abraham when he was tried offered up isaac and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son of whom it was said that in isaac shall thy seed be blessed you see abraham believed that isaac was the promised seed of god abraham believed that god had promised that through isaac all the nations would be blessed so abraham literally believed that if god took the life of isaac then somehow god would raise him up because god had promised that through isaac all the nations would be blessed and so they come to mount moriah which is in modern day jerusalem the temple mount and genesis 22 and verse 4 says that abraham lifted up his eyes and he saw the place so far off and i don't know what abraham thought when he was getting up towards mount moriah i don't i don't know if he was wondering lord where's the sacrifice and perhaps you remember what isaac said he said well father we have the sticks and and we have the altar but where's the sacrifice and abraham said god will provide a lamb god will provide a sacrifice isaac abraham was believing but abraham no doubt as he walked up that mountain was not exactly sure about how god was going to bring this all to pass we see the ultimate request was that abraham would lay down his son but notice secondly the ultimate sacrifice that's going to be made genesis 22 and verse 9 please it says this and they came to a place which god had told him of and abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order and bound isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood and abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son i told you some of you this would be a little new a little different a little unheard of that now abraham has laid isaac on the altar he's had his isaac moment he's having his isaac moment and he takes this he takes this knife and now he's willingly about ready to take the life of his own son isaac and the bible says in verse 11 the angel of the lord called on him out of heaven and said abraham abraham and he said here i am and and he said lay not thine hand upon the lad neither do thou anything unto him for now i know that thou fearest god seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son thine only son for me and abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns and abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son god provided a ram right when abraham was willing to take the life of isaac god provides a lamb and abraham is taken off the altar and the ram is laid on the altar and the blood of the lamb was spilt as a sacrifice pleasing unto god and i want you to think about the picture of this i want you to understand that isaac willingly went to that altar he was around 18 years of age imagine that he lays down on that altar may i remind you that jesus christ went to the cross willingly for all of us it was not the roman soldiers that nailed jesus there he went there willingly he suffered and died on our behalf because of love it was not the nails that kept him on the cross it was love that kept him on the cross he could have called 10 000 angels and said take me away from here but he stayed on that cross and isaac pictures that for us for the bible says for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life and the bible says that without the shedding of the blood there's no covering for sin and jesus christ became our sacrifice when he died on the cross willingly going there as isaac went to the altar and then we see jesus somewhere else in the story we see jesus as our substitute for the bible says that abraham heard a ram in the thicket and he takes the ram and he lays the ram down as a substitute for isaac and even as the ram became a substitute for isaac jesus christ became a substitute for me and for you for the bible says that all have sinned look at i'm a sinner if you're a visitor here today i want you to understand our theology we believe that the entire human race is fallen we don't get into the red yellow black brown white all of the divisive uh race baiting that's going on in the world today we just settle it this way we are all sinners all of us are sinners and we all fall short of god's glory and we all need forgiveness and that forgiveness comes not from a church not from a pastor or a priest it comes from jesus christ and we believe that jesus christ is the substitution for us because we should have paid for our own sin we could have suffered and died but jesus did that in our stead first john chapter 4 and verse 9 says in this was manifested the love of god toward us because that god sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him herein is love not that we love god but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sin and the word propitiation means the covering and so even as the ram was the substitute for isaac jesus christ was the substitute for us neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name given under heaven given amongst men whereby ye must be saved friend hear me today your church cannot save you getting baptized cannot save you doing good works cannot cover your sin there is one covering for sin according to the bible and that is the blood of jesus christ but god commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners christ died for us now has there been a day in your life when you turned to jesus christ alone and said lord jesus i know that i'm a sinner and i ask you to come into my life and save me you say oh i come to this church quite regularly that's not the question oh my my father was a preacher that's not the question has there been a day in your life when you turned to jesus christ and said lord jesus i acknowledge to you that i am a sinner and that you died for my sin as the son of god and rose up again and i ask you to come into my life and be my savior because he laid himself down for you the question is will you believe on the lord jesus christ as your savior abraham had faith to follow god faith to journey with god faith to sacrifice the ultimate sacrifice for god and in that sacrifice we see a picture i want you to think about this fellas if you give me this final graphic here i want you just to think about what we've learned today this is the er of the chaldea in modern day iraq the original place of abraham abraham had faith and it was counted unto him for righteousness if you put your faith in christ it will be counted unto you for righteousness christ had not come when abraham followed god but he followed the revelation that he had and it was counted unto him for righteousness abraham laid his son isaac on the altar willingly isaac went a substitution came the ram and the thicket that substitution reminds us of jesus christ who though i should have suffered and died for my sin jesus went to the cross and suffered and died for me he's not willing that any should perish he doesn't want people separated from him in hell for all of eternity even though the wages of sin is death the gift of god is eternal life through jesus christ our lord he wants you to have eternal life he wants you to know that heaven is yours through christ through christ jesus our lord if you don't know him personally if you're not the friend of god through christ that relationship can begin today and let me tell you what there's no greater relationship to have than that relationship with god through the lord jesus christ if you're facing some uncertainties wondering about tomorrow learn from abraham don't get ahead of god keep trusting him on this journey and he'll provide for you every step of the way

Channel: Lancaster Baptist Church

Views: 315

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: lancaster baptist church, lancaster baptist, baptist church, paul, chappell, paul chappell, pastor paul chappell, gospel, overcomers, Genesis 12

Id: cs-v7z8nCQQ

Length: 41min 41sec (2501 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021