Romans #8 - Start Here: Faith Comes First for Abraham

[Music] nice [Music] well howdy if you got a bible go to romans chapter four we're taking about a year we're going through this amazing epic fantastic book of the bible today we're in chapter four so let's have a little participation here i'm a little tired and this is not a library so you're welcome to be involved so i'm gonna ask you a question if you had to pick one word to summarize 2020 what might that word be well let's quit one at a time kids come on horrible awful strange chaos awesome okay we're all coming to your house after church all right how about fear would any of you pick fear i thought of a lot of potential four-letter words that's the one i finally landed on was fear fear has controlled our politics our economics our relationships people are isolated they're scared uh welcome to election season welcome to covid season welcome to the planet is officially on the decline cycle amen and everyone is gripped with fear because we don't know what the future holds but it doesn't look very good and so we're all scared and isolated and fearful and here's what i know fear never let anyone into the will of god god never blesses fear god only blesses faith and faith is trusting that there is a god over what we see and he sees what we don't see and he can get us through what is in front of us and the bible says that god has not given us a spirit of fear behind fear oftentimes at work is a paralyzing demonic force a spirit and the bible says that perfect love casts out fear so the way you cast out a demon so you replace it with the holy spirit the way you cast out a spirit of fear is to have faith in the love of god and so we're going to talk a lot about faith today and what does it mean to have faith in god and what does it mean to live by faith in god and what does it mean to have a god who is faithful amen and so to do so we're going to look at the life of abraham and how faith comes first for abraham in romans chapter 4 verses 1 through 12. and what paul here is doing he's taking this old testament character abraham and establishing him for us as the father and prototype of faith when you want to mass produce something you start with a prototype and abraham is for us the prototype of faith here are some examples what's that on the far left it's the model t that was henry ford's first mass-produced car it was the prototype and to this day i think that came out in 1908 to this day we still have cars built on that similar prototype we have four wheels steering wheel motor transmission exhaust radiator and also seats unless you drive a tesla congratulations winner winner chicken dinner you went next level okay uh on the bottom right what is that that's the wright brothers at kitty hawk flying the prototype that would become the airplane thankfully ours is a little better probably don't need to wear a mask on that one looks like plenty of fresh air but what you have you have this long sort of tube and then you have a rudder and you've got wheels and you've got a motor and you've got a seat so the prototype remains many many years later on the top right that is lisa that was the first personal computer for sale in 1983 how many of you love the 80s all right yeah we just you kids know we had mullets and we wore pastels and the holy spirit was not involved in any of that there was also it was also guys in leather pants with hairspray trying to be tough in rock bands there's never been a tough guy in leather pants with hair product i'm just throwing it out there it was all the demonic counterfeit that we talked about a few months ago so what this was this was the first computer it was ten thousand dollars for your first personal home computer and it had very little capacity your your alarm clock probably does more than that personal computer right now and the point is that we start with a prototype for faith the prototype for faith is abraham three major world religions point to him as the father or founder or prototype of faith jewish people christian people and muslim people all say that he is the father of their faith three major world religions claim not all rightly but all claim to descend from his faith and follow in his footsteps this is why when jesus came along in john chapter 8 he's arguing with the jewish people and they said we have abraham as our father so he is the prototype and even if today if you were to take a poll on planet earth the number one person who would be chosen as the prototype or father of faith would be abraham so we're going to look at abraham's relationship with god starting in romans 4 1-5 as the pattern and precedent and prototype for yours and mine and ours what then shall we say was gained by abraham our forefather according to the flesh that's during his life in his physical body here on planet earth for if abraham was justified declared righteous uh made right with god entered into relationship with god by works by something that he did by his performance his morality his spirituality his obedience he has something to boast about because he participated in it but not before god for what does scripture say and then the apostle paul quotes the old testament book of genesis and he quotes genesis 15 6. if you want to just pray about it i'm thinking we're going to finish romans around next labor day i'm thinking after that we might do the book of genesis we might do the book of genesis but genesis 15 6 says abraham believed god and it was counted or credited that's a accounting term for economics to him as righteousness or right in the sight of god this verse is so important it's repeated multiple times in the new testament now to the one who works you go earn it you labor for it his wages are not counted as a gift but is due so he distinguishes between works and grace that which you earn and that which is just a gift and to the one who does not work but believes that's faith he's going to use believe and believe throughout this section to talk about faith in him who justifies the ungodly who's ungodly we all are we all are if you say i'm not you're the you're the most ungodly congratulations you just cut to the front of the line because pride is the worst sin of all gotcha and if you don't agree ask your spouse two or three witnesses we got you i'm just telling you how this works his faith is counted or credited or reckoned as righteousness so when he talks about believe god he's talking about faith faith let me define it for you it's an internal conviction that leads to an external action faith is something that you believe in here and it affects how you behave out there faith starts in here but it doesn't stay in here so for example uh here in the front row is my my wife and best friend grace i had faith that god wanted us to be together and i had faith that we should be married that resulted in a wedding and a life okay so conviction in here leads to action out there and ultimately there is among theologians historically a bit of a debate because here in romans paul says that we are saved by grace through faith not by works in james another book in the new testament penned by jesus own brother he says that faith without works is dead and some would think that they're in conflict even the great protestant reformer martin luther thought that perhaps they were in conflict they are not what paul is talking about is the internal conviction what james is focused on is the external action paul is talking about how people come into relationship with god james is writing to people who know the bible and know god but they don't do anything for them their faith is just in here not out there it's private not public it is theoretical it is not practical and it starts in here and it works out there good tree good fruit uh the holy spirit the fruit of the spirit new nature new lifestyle relationship with god new life in relationship with god that's faith and then he's talking about the faith of abraham now abraham's name is interesting it's curious because it means father of a multitude and as an elderly man who first meets god at age 75 he has no children so how can he be a father when he has no kids and the father of a multitude when he doesn't have one child that's going to be god's faithfulness and abraham's faith is in that god he is also called a friend of god and so what we ultimately want for you to be like abraham is to have faith in god so you can be friends with god this is largely about relationship when it talks through the bible over and over about people walking with god that is faith in relationship when our kids were little i would take them by the hand we had a relationship they would have faith in me to lead them they didn't know everywhere we were going or everything we were doing but they had faith that their father was in relationship with them that knew what they did not know that saw what they could not see and would lead where they needed to go the faith walk with god is that it is i am his child he is my father i trust him and we have a relationship that's the language of friendship also he's called the father of faith and it's going to use this language a lot of abraham father so let me just say something very practical how many of you are fathers any dads in the house i got five kids if you are a father you are to be the leader of faith in your family abraham is the father of our faith and his family follows him in his faith i i was thinking about it this morning it's very easy to overlook the obvious and that the reason that his family for generations had faith is because he led in faith we're going to talk about this at real men on wednesday i would encourage you men to come back on wednesday at 6 30 and we're going to talk about what it means to have abrahamic like faith that leads your family because faith is not just for you it's for you to lead your family into the purposes of god okay and that's what we need we don't need more government we need more men we don't need more government we need more men and these are the only two options you either get rid of the men and then the government has to take their place or if you have good men you need less government and ultimately that's why we say here we open our bibles to learn we open our lives to love so that lives and legacies are transformed that abraham is the father of faith that spiritually we look to him as a father in the faith and we want the men to be fathers in the faith and their faith to continue through generations that's the whole prayer and goal and so he is a tremendous example for all of us though imperfect in addition his name has remained perennially popular his name abraham appears about 300 times in the bible and even in the more modern years we have people who are named abraham it's actually a very popular name can you think of one famous american with that name abraham lincoln so we call him one of our fathers in america and abraham is one of our fathers in the christian faith now when it comes to abraham's story god first shows up in his life around genesis chapter 12. abraham's just a pagan having a regular old day god shows up and introduces himself hi i'm god okay he doesn't see this coming he's not looking for god god's looking for him how many of you that's your story you were just living your life and god just showed up it's like hi i'm in charge now okay who are you i'm god okay good to know he just shows up and abraham's about 75 years of age about 75 years of age and abraham begins by god just speaking to him and what abraham has is he as god speak to him and then he trusts what god says faith comes by hearing the word of god when you hear what god says you need to believe what god says until you see what god does faith precedes sight god tells you to trust him until he shows up and does what he promises to do now that being said regarding abraham when god first showed up in genesis 12 and he's about 75 years of age did he know a lot about god or very little about god very little the bible wasn't written he didn't know this god he didn't have a relationship with god nobody that he knew knew this god he had very little knowledge but his faith in obedience was it small or great it was great so here's the thing you and i do we tend to know more than abraham we do do we tend to believe less than abraham we do see we tend to have more knowledge but less trust he his his knowledge was minimal but his trust or faith was massive it's not just what you know it's what you believe and how you live in light of what god says the problem with some of you are like i wish god would just speak to me he probably already has you need to believe and obey you may not need more information from him you may need more me may need more faith in him and more obedience to him and so the story of abraham really is an incredible story and god shows up in genesis 12 and begins telling him over and over and over leave everyone leave everything start over at 75 how many of you are out or near 75. raise your hand okay raise your hand how many of you don't want to start over right now right now if god said start over you're like no i mean he he he's telling him leave your country leave your city leave your extended family leave your wealthy affluent extended family the business the land uh all of the employees everything you've inherited leave it all leave everyone and everything you know okay god where am i gonna go none of your business am i going to do none of your business well what's the plan it's none of your business trust me how many of you at 75 you wouldn't do that how hard is it to get a 75 year old man out of a chair let alone to reset his life let me say this just because you're old doesn't mean you're done and let me say this one of the worst things that happens is that people not only retire from their job they retire from their faith you older saints we need you in the fights die with your boots on die with your boots on right and you might be 75 years old and god might be like i got a new calling on your life in a ministry so you know what you do you take a nap you get up you try that's what you do that's what you do so so what i'm going to do is i'm going to summarize genesis 11 26 through 25 11. i'm going to look at how god spoke and then abraham believed i'm going to see show you how god initiated and abraham responded and i'm going to summarize it for you it's uh if you go to realfaith.com you'll find the sermon and audio in video you'll find the sermon notes it's all in there you'll find a free study guide it's in there you'll find the sermon transcripts so i'm going to move fast and if you're a nerdy note taker that's totally fine i've got it all taken care of for you but the whole point of abraham is that jesus christ needs to come to the earth so all of history is driving to bring us to jesus so god shows up in genesis 12 and he tells abraham i'm going to give you a son i'm going to make you a great nation i'm going to give you a great name and i'm going to bless you so that you can be a blessing to the nations of the earth the point is when god blesses you it's to bless others god gives you money it's to be generous to them god gives you love it's to love them god gives you forgiveness it's to forgive them god gives you wisdom it's to help them god gives you ability it's to serve them we are to be the conduit of god's blessings not just the recipient of god's blessings well at this point he's 75 his wife is very elderly and very barren they have never had any children and he is telling them i'm going to bring a son who's going to bring a nation who's going to bring jesus because your son will lead to the son of god now his response is legendary it says at 75 without kids he packed everything up he left everyone and everything he obeyed god and started over that's massive some of you have recently moved here you're in the middle of your abraham journey we're in the fastest growing city and county in america and many of you are trying to figure out okay god where are you leading us and why are we landing here and is this our promised land and why is it so hot you're trying to figure all this out and they'll tell you it's a dry heat so is hell it's still hot i'll just tell you and i always like to say june july august to the beast the false prophet of the antichrist they just unleash hell on the valley that's the way it is some people say you'll get used to it no you won't you won't you won't that's why they got a pool you're going to feel like you're on fire and you need to jump in the second thing that happens is in genesis 12 god comes and says i'm also going to give you a land you're going to leave this land get a new land it's the land of the promise it's the promised land and it's the nation of israel the nation of israel is the only nation that god literally establishes the borders of he tells us that's israel the reason that there's so much conflict over israel that was the land that was promised to the descendants of abraham through whom would come jesus the son of god to be the blessing to the nations of the earth so he's going to give him a great piece of land and then it says that abraham built an altar there and he worshipped god there are times in your life that you got to just stop and build an altar and worship god and what i would say is you need to build an altar in your house and what that means is read the bible pray worship god meet with god in your house when you're in your car going to work you need to turn that into an altar you got to listen to bible teaching or you got to listen to bible reading or podcasts or worship music or just pray to god that ultimately you need to build an altar your place at work you need to have a habit of meeting with god and inviting god's presence into the midst of your day and when god speaks to you the key is to stop and worship him now abraham doesn't see everything god is going to do but he believes everything god says he will do and what you do is you worship while you wait see sometimes in the waiting we get very anxious and we take matters into our own hands it's like well i need to do something you do you need to worship while you wait you need to worship while you wait and that's what abraham does number three in genesis 15 we are told abraham was told by god that he would have numerous descendants and a land and god keeps repeating the promise and this has been over the course of many years how many of you have been waiting for god you feel like he said he's going to do something but he's not done it yet abraham is in the waiting pattern how many of you oftentimes feel like god is late just be honest hey god i don't know if you got like a watcher up there if not you could rapture one and maybe you know show up on time seems like you're late a lot it always feels like god is late but god is always right on time and there's a difference between god's will and god's timing so god keeps telling abraham his will but god hasn't arrived yet because it's not god's timing faith trusts in god's will and god's timing some of the greatest mistakes in my life are knowing god's will but getting ahead of god's timing how many of you have done that well i have right sometimes you're young and you're like i feel called to ministry great but is that god's timing are you ready this happens all the time with single people god wants me to marry them that's god's will what's god's timing after you get a job sir that's when it is that's when it's god's timing how do you know pastor mark because i'm a dad i see these things real clearly if you're unemployed it's not god's time that's for sure so there's god's will and there's god's timing and god keeps showing up over the course of many years and declaring his will and abraham is waiting and worshiping waiting on his timing and it says simply then in genesis 15 6 the scripture that paul quotes here in romans 4 abraham believed god he says god you said you're going to do it i don't know when you're going to do it i don't know how you're going to do it but i know you're going to do it i trust you i trust you number four god shows up in um no number five god shows up in genesis 17 and says you're going to be the father of many nations you're going to have a son he is going to be a blessing and through him will come the blessing of jesus christ all of this will happen in the next year at this point he's 99. he's been waiting 24 years it's a lot of waiting so god says one final act of faith trust me your wife sarah's going to give birth to the son i promised you everything's going to happen as i told you so in faith i just need you to do one more thing circumcise yourself he's 99. this is great faith how many guys would be like i don't need that level of faith i'm good how many of you be like okay god if you give me a son then i'll pray about circumcising myself but how about you you just go first no trust me not only that he says you got to take all the males in your household relatives employees servants and they all need to circumcise themselves this is leadership hey guys good news god's got a plan for us awesome okay everybody grab a flint knife [Music] how many of you guys don't have that level of faith amen theologians have often debated why does god require that here's what i'm telling you if god can get that aspect of a man then he's totally surrendered that's what i'm telling you okay so what abraham you should see the guys faces this is so funny every guy's like no blinking dude leaving amazing okay he's out he's out thank you for joining us sir didn't even make eye contact so he's 99 how many of you at 99 don't want to start your family if you're 99 i'm not going to ask you to raise your hand because we can't ask you to do anything but if you're 99 how many of you don't want to have a baby can you imagine going to the store you're like i need diapers adult or child yes yes that's a lot of diapers and what it says is that he believed god even at 99 years of age and then at 100 25 years after the promise god was faithful sarah his wife gives birth to his son they name him isaac which means laughter because god gets the last laugh when god told sarah you're going to have a baby and she's a barren elderly grandmother of age she laughed at god hahaha god you're funny god's like ha ha ha ha baby grandma the moral story is god always gets the last laugh so isaac is born as the son of the promise now this being said the question is was abraham saved by something that he did or something that god did if it was something that he did it was works he could boast god i helped i participated you know you did your part i did my part and what it says is he was saved by god's works not his works by grace that ultimately abraham didn't save himself and what happened was years after people read the scriptures and they looked at the laws the first five books of the law have 600 laws in them and so the jews decided well if you do the right things and don't do the wrong things then god judges you and the good people go to heaven and the bad people go to hell and the point is if that's the case then you can boast god i made it i earned it and we didn't furthermore the law was given 500 years after abraham lived so it wasn't like abraham got up every day and read the old testament and did it the old testament wouldn't come until moses started writing it 500 years later furthermore this entire argument is nullified in genesis 15 when god entered into covenant relationship with abraham the old testament language is literally the cutting of a covenant so they would take an animal they would sacrifice it separate it you would pass through the animal that was dead and it was saying i oath in the sight of god to follow through with the deal terms and if i breach this agreement god and you can kill me it was a death sentence that's how serious somber and sober some covenants were well in genesis 15 god sacrificed the animal god passed through usually two parties would enter through the sacrifice in this case it was only one because this relationship was solely by god not abraham's participation for those of you know the story what was abraham doing while god was covenanting sleeping he did nothing you can't have less participation than a guy who's asleep so god saved him entered into relationship with him covenanted with him while he was asleep the moral of the story is sometimes god does his best work when you're asleep sometimes god gets you out of the way we stay up late at night all anxious and frantic oh my gosh something needs to be done because i go to bed so i can go to work that's why the bible says that he gives his beloved sleep in the psalms that sometimes sleeping is an act of faith if some of you don't sleep well it's maybe because you don't trust god to work when you're asleep abraham trust god and how do we know he trusts god he sleeps well faith has some very practical implications and applications sometimes it's like it's out of control you're in control i'll go to bed see in the morning i'm sure you'll figure it out in addition abraham if he was saved by his obedience to god's word being a great guy let's just evaluate his life did he make any big errors okay we'll talk about we have nothing else to do let's talk about this so god told him here's the promised land that's the land that i promised for you for the nation of israel to bring jesus is the blessing of the nations of the earth what did he do at the promised land he gave it away god had to bring it back in addition god said through your wife sarah i'm going to give you a son what did he do with his wife what did he do he gave her away how many times twice how many of you ladies are like no after one and done son that's it that's how it's going to go how many of you if you're if your husband gave you away once there would not be an opportunity for a second chance of giving you away and abraham in those moments he didn't have faith he had fear he's going into a place and his wife is elderly but she's very beautiful and so the ruler sees her and says oh she's very beautiful and abraham is now filled with fear rather than faith and he's saying well if that guy's powerful and he wants her he might hurt me so i'm going to pretend that she's my sister and then give my wife to this guy now let me say this it's not his sister but even if it was he's still not a good brother amen how many of you if your brother's like oh you want her you're going to hurt me bad day for you sis that's a bad guy so he gives his wife away so what does god do brings her back and then it happens again and then god brings her back the point is that sometimes we actually sabotage god's will for our life and then god salvages what we sabotage you see god sometimes saves us from us so ladies let's have this conversation so looking at his life worst thing he did hagar that's a girlfriend if you have a wife should you have a girlfriend no the wives are clear on this the men are like i don't know it's in the bible i need to pray about it no you don't so what happens is at 75 they're told that eventually they're gonna have a baby they wait a while no baby cubs who comes up with a crazy idea to go get another wife sarah the wife comes up with the worst idea ever oh maybe a girlfriend will fix it never happened so abram's like what honey you want me to find a young girl and sleep with her and get her pregnant well i mean you know i'm willing to serve the family you know so all right and there's a lot of people are gone this is a terrible story and there's a lot of dudes going hmm bad idea you're naughty knock it off okay so what happens is he takes a gal named hagar she gets pregnant with a son could there be any potential conflict in this house first wife's second wife older wife younger wife bear and wife baby wife baby mama drama that's where we're at now we're in a full-blown jerry springer episode now there's a paternity test there's security guards with neck tattoos pulling the girls off of each other because they're pulling hair it's a total situation so here's hagar i have a baby you don't god said he was gonna bless the son must be this son now the conflict is will she have a son does she does sarah get a baby she does rat ro two wives two sons which is the son of the promise is it isaac or ishmael it depends on who you ask like every crazy family like every crazy family and here's the point men if you sleep with the wrong woman you could cause pain for generations you could cause pain for a millennium i got no amends from the men nothing a lot of the wives are like yeah law dudes are like okay so what happens is the arabs are descendants of ishmael islam is from the descendants of ishmael they re-read the entire genesis story that that hagar and ishmael are the inheritors of the promise that they should have the nation of israel that their religion should rule and that they are the children of the promise the reason we have geopolitical conflict the reason that we have wars over israel the reason that we have islam and global conflict one dude slept with two women it's a long time family feud so it's adorable when american politicians are like well let's have a meeting and sort it out yeah you've never had two pregnant ladies you can't reconcile that it's a family feud forever and ultimately isaac is the son of the promise god promised that he would work through isaac to bring forth israel the nation to bring forth jesus the blessing to the nations of the earth and what he says is this was by grace through faith when he says it was credited or counted to him that's grace and he believed god that's faith that abraham believed god faith and it was credited or given to him counted to him gifted to him as righteousness but ultimately it's by grace through faith in jesus christ which i'm telling you everybody in the history of the world who has a relationship with god it's by grace from through faith in jesus christ it's the same for the old testament and also the new testament and so what he's saying here is it's a gift that abraham didn't work for it's a gift that ultimately jesus the son of god would earn for him so abraham's going to have a son leading to jesus as the son of god so i was going gonna do this uh as an illustration let me pick somebody i'm gonna pick you sweetheart come on up come on up she didn't know i was gonna do this um how old are you sweetheart you're 12 and what's your name abby here's 100 bucks cool thank you i'm going to sit down good to see you okay so [Applause] what is that that's a gift did she earn it no okay okay no now you're looking at me like you want a hundred bucks i had a guy in the last service he's like i want 100 bucks i was like well then get a job sir you're a grown man you know like i'm not bernie sanders i'm mark driscoll we don't do that here you gotta go to work so so i don't write the mail i just deliver it so that's the truth what he's saying is this is that if abraham went to work and earned his salvation he could boast but instead jesus would go to work and he would earn it and give it to him as a gift see it's a gift that's what salvation is it's a gift the reason that we throw parties at this church the reason we give away candy to kids the reason that we give away bibles is because we believe in not just a theology of grace something that lives in here but a lifestyle of grace some fun out there that grace shows up in generosity and that's where the bible says it's more blessed to give than receive and god is the most blessed because he's the biggest giver of all time and so ultimately what he's saying is for abraham this is how it works and some people say oh it's so easy to become a christian all you got to do is just you just gotta receive jesus now it's actually really hard because you've got to be humble enough to come empty-handed and needy and receive a gift that you did not earn and cannot boast in and worship god because he's been generous to you amen so he uses abraham as a case study before the law and then he's going to look at david as the second case study after the law was given and so then he tells us about david's relationship with god romans 4 6-8 just as david also speaks of the blessing you need to know this god likes to bless people he does he blesses people who are in relationship with him that's who god blesses when god made adam and eve it says one of the first things he did he blessed them every good thing we have is a blessing from god just as david also speaks the blessing of the one to whom god counts or credits righteousness apart from works that's grace by grace through faith and then he quotes psalm 32 1-2 blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven forgiveness is the issue and whose sins we are sinners are covered blessed is the man against whom the lord will not count his sin in bringing abraham and david together he was going to give abraham a son who would bring forth jesus the son of god and david is a king who would bring forth jesus as the king of kings it says in matthew chapter 1 verse 1 that jesus christ is the son of david the son of abraham he says right at the beginning jesus comes from the family line of abraham through the family line of david the son who would come forth the son of god the king through whom would come the king of kings that's jesus all of history is pointing to jesus all of scripture is pointing to jesus everything's about jesus when you understand jesus you start to understand everything if you don't understand jesus you understand nothing okay we start with jesus now let's talk a little bit about david his name means beloved of god god loves him it doesn't mean that he's lovable it means that he's loved his name appears about a thousand times in scripture abraham's appears about 300 david about a thousand to this day he is one of the most popular names every year for babies there's a lot of guys that are hearing this live and online their name is david they're named after the great king david he ruled in israel as king for 40 years that's a long time it's hard to be president for four imagine being king for 40. during his rule it was unparalleled unprecedented peace and prosperity he had a great military mind and he was economically blessed by god as was the entire nation to this day the city of jerusalem is known as the city of who david when they name the capital city after you you're a big deal like if you come back next week in scottsdale it's called marksville it's been a good week for me amen something really great happened the city of david the uh books of first samuel and first chronicles tell us about his life and his reign he also wrote perhaps half of the book of psalms it's 150 chapter book in the old testament prayers worship songs and and he is considered to be the man after god's own heart he is a warrior poet he is a king artist and he writes upwards of half of the prayers and worship songs in the book of psalms what that means is that when you would go to church in the old covenant most of the songs you would sing were written by david that's a big deal you're worshiping god with the words that god gave him furthermore his life is legendary when he's a little boy he's a shepherd and what does he kill lions tigers and bears oh my okay if and i was thinking about it if your kid has to do that you're probably not a great parent i'm just throwing it out there like if your parent if if i meet one of you dad's like my kid's really good at killing bobcats coyotes and rattlers at my house i'd be like you're a terrible dad if that's what they have to do for their chores if on the fridge it's like killing anyway so he's a tough kid but he's most well known for doing what killing goliath the little jewish boys just like the little christian boys they grew up ah they love david because he's the little tough guy when my kids were little we would dress up and act out the bible stories my son's favorite two stories david and zacchaeus zacchaeus what he's a little guy who wanted to see jesus so he climbed it up in a high tree my kids would use this as an opportunity to disobey and to climb on things my sons would climb up on bookshelves they would stand on the table they would stand on the countertop in the kitchen i'd be like what are you doing you're not supposed to climb on stuff dad we are acting out the story of zacchaeus we are trying to organize our theology please do not get in the way of our bible study i raise very small attorneys and they they used it as an opportunity to climb and stand on things but their favorite thing was to play david and goliath guess who was goliath i was every day i got murdered by my sons over and over and over dad you sit there and we're going to throw things at you and then you die okay great this is what we're doing [Music] little boys love david he grew up to be king the most powerful and the most blessed king in the history of the nation of israel there was a low point to his life though let's talk about that once again it's a belt-related issue you will see a theme all right so david what was his big his big fail ashiba yeah here we go he should have seen that this was going to be a problem he's up on his roof and what's interesting we like to live as high as we can because we like to look down on everybody else and feel like god this is this is why we fight to get to the top of the condo building that's why we want the house up on the hill the more money you make the higher up you get to go well david was literally at the top he was literally at the top looking down on everybody the only person looking down on him was god so he's looking over his kingdom and he sees a gal taking a bath on a roof her name bathsheba should have known this is a problem when bathsheba is in a bath that's god turning on the check engine light right warning warning warning so bathsheba's in the bath he looks at her now david had already violated god's commandments in deuteronomy 17 it forbid a king from being polygamous and having multiple wives and david had multiple wives he was a passionate man but just like you and i he had a shadow side there's you in the spirit there's you in the flesh he was passionate for god and for women that's a problem you can't just say this is how i am it needs to be how you are under the control of the holy spirit it needs to be you in the side that god made you not the shadow side well he gets into his shadow side his passion takes him from god to women he sees bathsheba taken about have you seen the veggie tales on this the veggietale says that king david stole somebody's rubber ducky that's what it says it was worse than that he stole somebody's wife it's much worse he then seduces her sleeps with her impregnates her she's married to another man you ride the hit time is this wrong a lot of women said yes a lot of dudes were checking sports scores okay is this wrong yes should you be looking at naked people you're not married to what about if it's from your rooftop or on your phone pastor mark please move forward okay so um so what happens is he sees the gal he seduces her he impregnates her and then her husband is a warrior he's a soldier he's off in battle he is putting his life on the line to defend the king and the kingdom he is the portrait of absolute loyalty and david is not and david realizes she's pregnant he's at war he's gonna know this ain't his baby so i'll bring him home and then he'll sleep with his wife and then his wife and i will come up with this great scheme where she will sleep with him and then she will tell him that it's his baby and he'll never know that i committed adultery and that he's raising my child okay now some of you don't know the bible very well and when you walked in if i asked you do you want to be like david you're like yes i'd be like no especially us married guys please don't be like david so uri the hittite comes home from war and he is such an incredible man of character what he says is all my brothers in arms who are off at war are not able to be with their wife it would be unfair and unjust for me to enjoy my wife therefore i will abstain from relations and i'll go back to war with the men david has two choices i repent or i murder that man what does he choose murder that man you could see where he's saying abra or abraham and david neither of them could stand before god and say i lived a great life you're welcome then to stand before god and say i need great forgiveness and he devises a plan that uri the hittite would be exposed in battle and killed in war and he was and he was if if it was saved by works behavior morality obedience who should be saved uriah not david not david these sins continued into his family not only do our children inherit sometimes our faith but sometimes our flaws as a result his son amnon committed incest his other son absalom murdered a brother his other son solomon who built the temple that he got the prototype for he got the plans for was an idolater his son absalom sought to overthrow him ultimately died which broke his heart he was oftentimes also motivated not just by the spirit of god but by the enemy of god satan prompted him to take a census and to count all of the soldiers in his nation because he was proud he wanted to know how many people do i rule over and how many men do i lead and god said no son these are my people not yours these are my soldiers not yours this is my nation not yours i know the head count you don't need to know and he was prompted by satan and he disobeyed god and he he counted that he had 1.5 million active duty soldiers in his little kingdom now i looked it up on the internet i don't know if it's true because everything on the internet's a lie but what i read was that today we have about 1.3 active duty military in the united states of america what that means is thousands of years ago in his little tiny nation he had more soldiers than america incredibly powerful successful man but sometimes driven by passion and sometimes driven by pride nonetheless god forgave him and god blessed him and what he quotes here is psalm 32 1-2 blessed is the man against whom god does not count his sins but forgives them here's the point god forgave david there's no relationship without forgiveness you can't have relationship with god or anyone else unless there is forgiveness unless god forgives you you have no relation with him unless you forgive them you have no relationship with him abraham was not a good man he was a forgiven man david was not a good man he was a forgiven man is adultery wrong can god save an adulterer yes and yes is murder wrong yes can god save a murderer yes and yes is pride wrong yes but can god save a person who is proud yes these things are wrong but god is good and even as he got older david still was not perfect sometimes we tend to like sometimes here's how people tell their stories i was really bad i met god and i've been really good and the older i get the better i get david did he finish well not really on his deathbed as an elderly man he was very cold so they brought a bunch of virgins to sleep with him to keep him warm i would vote for a blanket that's what i would vote for i just don't think the optics are good at the very least in addition on his deathbed the the the sons come to him they're like dad any final dying wishes any final dying wishes he's like the billy graham or the mother teresa in his day he's the legend of faith he's he's had an amazing run here's what he says yeah there's a couple of guys i need you to kill grandpa what isom i mean what can you imagine billy graham on his deathbed uh yeah there's a couple guys at cnn i'm gonna need you to shoot him in the head and hide the body what probably shouldn't have said it like that but it made the point what god gives grace to him all the way to the end okay so he moves from abraham to david to you these are prototypes and precedence before and after the law of faith and here's what he says about your faith and our faith journey with god he says uh romans 4 verses uh 9 through 12 please amen well i i'm 50 i can't read that fast okay is the blessing then so this blessing of god is it only for the circumcised the jewish people or also for the uncircumcised those of us who are the gentiles for we say that faith was counted to abraham as righteousness how then was it counted to him was it before or after he had been circumcised i'll explain all this in a moment it was not after but before he was circumcised he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised the purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised so that righteousness would be counted to them as well and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father abraham had before he was circumcised so again he's talking about internal conviction leading to external action in the language of a walk that's obedience predicated upon gifted righteousness and the question is does everybody come into saving relationship with god the same way that the jewish people and the gentile people both come to god in the same way to the saints in the old testament and the new testament and our present day do we come into relationship with god in the exact same way and the answer is yes and what he's saying is there's a difference between a means of relationship with god and a sign of relationship with god the means of relationship with god is god gives you grace and you trust him by faith it's not what you do for god it's what god does for you and ultimately faith is in the person and work of jesus christ abraham was trusting in the coming of jesus david was trusting in the coming of jesus we are trusting in the second coming of jesus the big idea is this if you want a relationship with god you need jesus you say what do i give him give him your sin and he gives you his righteousness give him your worst and he will give you his best give him your shortcomings and he will give you his son okay it's all about jesus amen and what he's saying is the means of relationship with god is grace from god and faith in god and then there are signs that point to this relationship in the same way my wife grace and i are in a covenant relationship and a ring is a sign pointing to the reality of the relationship so i'm wearing the ring we're married if i take the ring off are we still married yes yes because the sign points to the relationship the relationship is real whether or not the sign is visible in their day the sign with circumcision in our day it might be something like baptism so can you go to heaven if you love jesus and jesus loves you without being baptized yes because you have the relationship whether or not you have the sign should you have the sign yes can you have the sign without the relationship some people do the jews would be circumcised or some people will get baptized but they don't really know and love jesus they don't trust him the key is you need both but it's the means that saves you not the sign that saves you that being said if you do love jesus you should want the sign to point to the relationship just like a husband or wife should want to wear a ring for us that is baptism we're going to have baptisms december 5th and 6th if you do belong to jesus you've not been baptized let us know and we'd love to meet with you and baptize you but the question is this the jewish people saw that abraham would circumcise so they start circumcising their males and they're thinking that circumcision is the means of salvation not the sign so they go back here to abraham at age 75 god saved abraham they had a relationship 24 years later at age 99 he circumcised himself the relationship preceded the sign of the relationship by 24 years this is why we don't baptize babies we don't put the sign before the relationship we put the relationship before the sign that's what he's talking about and what he's asking here is are all people to follow abraham's prototype precedent and pattern of faith yes so let me ask you a question was abraham a jew or a gentile yes most people don't know this i've got this in the notes in accent in nehemiah new testament old testament book it says that his father comes from ur the chaldees which was the capital of babylon godless pagan horrible nation we looked at it when we studied the book of daniel they came together to try and build the tower of babel heaven on earth without god these are godless people god picks a babylonian and the son of a babylonian a guy named abram it says you're just as bad as everybody else but i'm going to start with you because here's the thing god could start with anybody god could start with anything okay there's hope for us and what he says is i'm going to be your god now and then 24 years later at age 99 he circumcises himself and that begins the jewish nation through his son who then comes forth as isaac he was a gentile and a jew and so he is the father of faith for jews and gentiles jews and gentiles now what happens a little bit later is that god gives him the son he gets the son he's wanted his whole life it's the son of his beloved wife sarah this boy grows up to be healthy and strong and belong to the lord and he loves his mom and dad and his mom and dad love him and now isaac is a grown man he's not a young man and abraham is an elderly man and god shows up to give him the greatest faith test let me say this your faith is like a muscle it gets stronger the more you use it the your faith grows through hardship and adversity that some of you are in a season right now where god is bringing you into a season or a circumstance that is a next level faith requirement it is more than you have ever endured and sometimes people say i can't handle this i can't do this you can god would not allow it to come if he did not have faith sufficient to get you through it and perhaps the reason god did not allow this to be revealed previously or to occur previously maybe even it was a trauma from the past that was triggered in the present is because now your faith is finally strong enough that you can make it through this i want it to encourage you god shows up and says that son you really love here's what i need you to do i need you to kill him how many of you are dads how many of your dads how many of you if god told you to murder your kid god this is the kid i waited 25 years for this is a this is our this is our son he's supposed to inherit the promised land and be the nation and jesus is supposed to come to save everybody we kill him we kill the whole plan hebrews 11 says that abraham trusted god so deeply that he believed that even if he killed his son that god would raise him from the dead that is profound faith and so not only is abraham the prototype of faith his son isaac is the prototype of jesus i want to compare and contrast how jesus is the greater isaac and the story continues i'll summarize it and then i'll show you these two correlations tell your son to submit to you so he has to walk willingly he's an old man he can't make his son do anything his son is a young strong man tell your son to carry the wood on his back does that sound familiar i'm going to take you to a place where you're going to sacrifice your son it's a place that later the temple was built same region and as he goes to slaughter his son the angel of the lord shows up when an angel of the lord shows up it's usually an angel which means messenger when the angel the lord shows up it's usually jesus christ jesus shows up and says this was just a test you passed i will provide the sacrifice god says here's what i'm telling you sometimes there are people and things that god wants us to lay on the altar and be willing to sacrifice and it doesn't mean that we have to sacrifice them sometimes god doesn't call us to sacrifice them but sometimes we need to be willing to sacrifice them and it's a test to see if we love god more than them and abraham passed the test so god didn't make him slaughter his son isaac and jesus were both born in accordance with the promises given many years prior isaac and jesus were both born at the appointed time after years of waiting isaac and jesus were both born of miracles isaac and jesus were both firstborn sons positionally isaac and jesus were both dearly loved by their fathers isaac and jesus both left their fathers homes beersheba and heaven respectively isaac and jesus both journeyed three days isaac went from beersheba to moriah jesus went from the cross to the empty tomb three days journey isaac and jesus were both escorted by two men to their place of sacrifice isaac was joined by two servants jesus was joined by two thieves isaac and jesus were both young men who carried the wood for their sacrifice on their back isaac and jesus both willingly submitted their lives to their father isaac and jesus were both laid down as an offering for sin isaac and jesus both asked their father a question where is the lamb and why have you forsaken me jesus is the angel of the lord who spared isaac and died for sin isaac was promised that god would provide and jesus was that provision isaac was raised from the dead figuratively jesus was raised from the dead literally and both isaac and jesus both went forth to be with their bride rebecca and the church respectively the bible's all about jesus history is all about jesus faith is all about jesus salvation is all about jesus grace is all about jesus if you have jesus you have everything if you don't have jesus you have nothing if you know jesus you know what you need to know and if you don't know jesus you don't know anything faith not only gets you into heaven faith gets you through this life i don't know what tomorrow holds but i know the one who does and just like a kid reaches up and takes a hand of a father to lead and guide them faith is trusting that the father sees what we don't see and will lead us to where we need to be i'll close with a little summaries or pastor because i love you about what real faith is looking at these men of david and abraham number one real faith comes with risk and loss how many of you walking with god in obedience by faith it involves risk and loss abraham lost his home his business his land his family he lost a lot and he risked a lot if you're looking for the easiest most guaranteed secure success path i promise you you can't walk in faith number two real faith is not perfect faith abraham's faith was not perfect david's faith was not perfect but their faith was in a perfect god the bible says even when we're faithless he's faithful their faith was imperfect but the object of their faith the god of the bible he wasn't is perfect amen and god does perfect work through imperfect people that is a great encouragement number three real faith struggles to trust both god's will and timing both men abraham and david they struggled with god's timing number four real faith has always been in jesus christ they were looking forward to jesus coming we're looking forward to him coming again sometimes people will think that the old testament in the new testament their different paths to relationship with god they are the same jesus is the way the truth the life no one comes to the father but by him and it doesn't matter what year they were born real faith results in obedience not perfect obedience but obedience they had to do some things that god asked them to do number six real faith grows as god proves faithful i don't think that at the beginning of his faith journey that abraham had the faith to sacrifice isaac it grows over time and let me say this to you older saints you can retire from your job but please don't retire from your faith okay we need you we need those of you that are seasoned veterans in the faith battle to help train up the next generation of troops and lastly real faith sees beyond this life hebrews 11 the great treatise on faith in the new testament says that abraham was looking forward to a country that was made by god and a city that was ruled by god faith not only gets us through this life it gets us into eternal life faith has not death as the finish line but the starting line faith sees into eternity and it continues the walk with god into forever now i'm going to bring up my wife grace and i'm just going to close with an illustration and have her pray for us some of you you're in the thanks baby um some of you are i'll take a break okay you're good so um that was not a fight that was just working it out so um some of you are in the middle of your faith journey and sometimes when you leave things and you haven't received the next season that time in the middle can be really scary and we had a time like that we had our but now that i look back on it um we had kind of our our abraham season we uh we we knew our city we were near our family i've got 22 my mom and dad have 22 grandkids they all live in the same area except for our five kids that we moved away we knew our city we knew our family was nearby we knew our church i knew my job we just built our forever home the kids had a great school i'd worked my whole life to get it set up and then god literally spoke to us at age i think it was 45. grace was in the kitchen i was in the bedroom and god said you're released resign i was like okay god well where do we go silence what do we do silence where's our church silence what's my job i'm 45 i got five kids silence what's the plan how many of you if god's like trust me or like show me the plan and i'll figure out whether i'm going to trust the plan i was like you can't trust the plan you got to trust me and i'm not going to show you the plan i like plans i like plans so grace comes running and she's like god spoke to me it's like he spoke to me as well we left everyone and everything that we knew for nothing and no one that was certain or even anticipated and then god led us to arizona so this is our promised land if you're new here we hope it's a promised land for you god we then had to find schools for our kids elementary middle school high school college and got provided we needed to find a house god provided we decided to plan a church god provided i had no we had no anticipation that not only would this season be different that it would be better that we left what we had for what we did not know and then what god has given is actually the best and most blessed season of our life and uh right now to own a building to be open to preach the gospel of jesus christ freely it's something that was not going to be possible for me and our whole family loves and walks with jesus and they all walked in faith and it was a struggle along the way so if you're married or you got kids the faith journey includes the whole household and family but i will tell you that i have great hope and encouragement for you and we want to serve as an encouragement for you that god didn't leave us or forsake us that in fact he pursued us and he blessed us and to see you guys is just evidence of god's grace to us and you're part of god's blessing and you're part of the people that he's brought together to be an extended family and we love you very much and it's a great honor to be here with you and so thank you i'm going to bring the band up and have grace close us in prayer and it's it's really crazy the average church in america is running 36 and this weekend i think we're over 200. that's blessing that's grace and what paul says in when you get blessing and grace don't boast worship the difference between boasting and worshiping is who you brag on so i'm going to have grace pray and we're going to brag on god amen amen thank you god that you are a good god lord i just pray that we would see these examples that you've given us in your word as you allowing messes to glorify you ultimately lord that our lives are messy our lives are hurt and broken and yet you have a path forward for us lord i pray that our faith would be such that we look to you who knows everything you know the future lord that we would not look at the future with fear but that we would look at the future with faith in a god who loves us more than we can ever imagine in ways we don't deserve but lord you do you love us so i just pray that you would grow our faith that you would meet each of us where we're at and help us walk forward in the clear path that you have for us in jesus name amen

Channel: Real Faith by Mark Driscoll

Views: 6,451

Rating: 4.961165 out of 5

Keywords: Mark, Driscoll, ministry, thetrinitychurch, scottsdale, arizona, bible, teaching, gospel, theology, jesus, biblestudy, faith, bibleverse

Id: bcMFBO39yXs

Length: 69min 1sec (4141 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 02 2020