MCLEAN BIBLE CHURCH APRIL 15, 2012 PASTOR LON SOLOMON

MCLEAN BIBLE CHURCH APRIL 15, 2012 PASTOR LON SOLOMON >> LON SOLOMON: Well, maybe you heard the story about the third grade teacher who offered her class five dollars if they could give the correct answer to the following question, and the question was: Who was the greatest man to ever live. One student said it was Abraham Lincoln and another said it was George Washington and another one said it was Abraham out of the Bible. And the teacher said, no, I'm sorry, those are all great answers, but they're not correct. And then a young Jewish boy raised his hand and said it was Jesus Christ. And the teacher said, well, that's right. She said, but Bernie, she said of all the people in the class, I would have certainly expected you to have said Abraham. He said, well, teacher, I really do believe the right answer is Abraham, he said, but business is business. (Laughter) >> LON SOLOMON: Yeah. Hey, the Jewish people, man, I'm telling you, they're unlike any other people on earth. And they should be. Because out of all the nations on the earth, God chose these people as his special people. Now, we want to talk about that today. We want to talk about who are these people and how did they begin and why do they exist. And then after going back into the book of Genesis and looking at all that we want to bring it forward and talk about, and so what difference does this make for us. And so that's our plan. We're in Genesis Chapter 12. But just before we dig in, since it's been a couple weeks, how about a tiny bit of review. Remember a couple weeks ago we said that here in Genesis 12 we enter a whole new phase of God's dealing with the human race. Up to this point God has been dealing with the human race as a whole, but now God changes his approach. And instead he singles out a special man to establish a special race of people with whom he will deal in a special way based on a series of special covenants that he will make with them. Of course this special man is our friend Abraham. And the special race of people he establishes are the Jewish people. Now, with that little bit of background, let's pick up Genesis Chapter 12:1, and let's see how all of this happened. Chapter 12:1. Now, the Lord said to Abraham, leave your country and your relatives and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. At the time Abraham was living in Haran. We got a map. You can see it, it was a very prosperous city, a wealthy city in northern Mesopotamia. He was living here with his wife Sarah, nephew Lot, and with his large extended family. When suddenly God appears to him and says, I want you to walk away from all of this and I want you to go to a new land. I'm sure Abraham had some questions. Like, well, Lord, where are we going? And God said, I'm not going to tell you right now. And well like how long will it take me to get there? A while. And how many people with v will I know in this new land? Nobody. You see, God said, hey, Abraham, I'm sorry, but I'm not going to explain all of this to you before you obey. I'm not going to explain all

of this to you before you step out in faith. But let me tell you what I will do, Abraham, I'll tell you this, if you will step out in faith, and if you will obey me, here's what I'll do. Verse 2, I will make of you a great nation. And I will bless you. And I will make your name great. Through you shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Those who bless you, I will bless; and those who curse you, I will curse. To your descendents I will give this land where I'm asking you to go. Now, these six promises that we've just read here in Genesis Chapter 12, they comprise what we call today the Abrahamic covenant. And it's very important that we understand that all Abraham had to do to activate this covenant is to step out in faith and obey God. Once he did that, once he left Haran in obedience to God, this covenant, with its six promises, became an unconditional and an eternal commitment by God to Abraham and the Jewish people. Now, we read through it very quickly. But why don't we go back and look at the six promises that God made Abraham that we call the Abrahamic covenant. Let's look at them one at a time. Number one, promise No. 1, God said Abraham, I will make of you a great nation. Today there are 14 million Jewish people in the world, but they wield an influence that far exceeds their actual population numbers. But isn't this exactly what God said? Number two, promise No. 2, God said personally, Abraham, I will bless you. Genesis 13:2, says, now Abraham became very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold. As a matter of fact, we believe that Abraham in his day was one of the wealthiest men in the entire ancient near east. But you know what? God's blessings to him weren't just limited to material things. God also blessed this man spirit actually. God gave him a supernatural son, a fellow named Isaac, then got knit the heart of this supernatural son to the Lord, all the days of his life. Then God gave Abraham's son Isaac a godly wife, named Rebekah, and gave Abraham a godly grandson named Jacob, and a spiritual giant of a great grandson, named Joseph. The point is that the blessings of God dripped off this man Abraham everywhere he went. But folk, isn't that exactly what God said he would do? Promise No. 3; God said, and I will make your name, Abraham, great. You know, today there are billions of Jewish people and Christians and Muslims who all name the name Abraham. Abraham has become a household word across our world. But this is exactly what God promised him, I will make your name great. Promise No. 4, through you shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And there are many commentators who say that this refers to the earthly blessings that the Jewish people have brought to mankind in the discoveries they've made in medicine and science and technology, in what they've done in philanthropy and the arts. What God is really talking about here are the spiritual blessings that he is going to use the Jewish people to give the world. And there are three of them that the Bible tells us about. Number one, God used the Jewish people to give the world the written word of God. Number two, God used the Jewish people to give the world the knowledge of the one true legitimate God of the universe; and number

three, God used the Jewish people to give the world the savior of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ. The messiah himself. My gosh, the written word of God, the knowledge of the one true God, the Lord Jesus Christ; I mean, how much could God have used any one race more to give blessings to the human kind? Well, this is exactly what God promised Abraham he was going to do. Promise No. 5, to your descendents, God says, Abraham, I will give this land. You say what land? Well, the land of Canaan, the land of modern day Israel. The land where Abraham was going to go follow God and live. And you know for 1900 years, this looked like a pretty impossible promise. The Jewish people were scattered all over the world. They were living in ghettos, they had no political power, no financial power. But hey, in 1948 this happened. Precisely the way the Lord had promised Abraham. Finally, No. 6, promise No. 6, God said, Abraham, those who bless you I will bless, and those who curse you, I will curse. And the rest of the Bible makes it clear -- and it's critical that we understand this -- that this promise is not just limited to Abraham as an individual, but rather it extends to the entire Jewish race. Let's go through history for a moment and see if God hasn't been true to this. You remember Pharaoh, he cursed the Jews in Moses' day, and as a result he lost his oldest son and all of his chariots in the red sea. But on the other hand Persian king Cyrus, they were generous to the Jews and allowed them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their city and tem fell. And historians tell us that the Persian empire was one of the most stable and long-lived empires in the history of the world. God bless that empire. And then there was Haman, a Persian official who tried to wipe out the Jews. And what happened to him? They hanged him on the very gallows that he had built to hang Jewish people on. Alexander the great, when he arrived in Jerusalem, was going to destroy the city. But the head priest of the temple came out and met him and opened the Bible and showed him from the book of Daniel where he was in the book of Daniel and showed him this promise from Genesis about blessing and cursing the Jewish people. And Alexander decided to spare the city of Jerusalem and went on to conquer the world. The Romans, however, destroyed the city of Jerusalem. Twice they did it. Tore down the temple of God. They did it in 70 A. D., and then they destroyed the city again in 135 A. D. They spread salt all over the city in 135 A. D. so nothing would grow. And made it a capital offense for any Jew to be found in the city limits of Jerusalem. Hadrian did that. And historians will tell us that his rule was the apex of the Roman empire from that point on when he did this to Jerusalem, the Roman empire went straight down until it finally collapsed several centuries later. How about Spain during the Middle Ages? Spain had an enormous Jewish population and the Jews that were there were leaders in every area of society. Medicine, science, the arts. But all of that changed in 1492. You say, yeah, I know, 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Yeah, he did. But something else happened in 1492. And that is that Ferdinand and Isabella began torturing Jews who refused to convert and they expelled all Jews from Spain and con if he skated all of their belongings. Do you know in the 500 years since then, Spain has never

regained the position of power that it had when it began to curse the Jews. And finally, how about America? You know, America became a safe place for Jewish people in the 19th century. We treated Jews with kindness. We became the first country to recognize the modern state of Israel. For the last 50 years we have been the best friend and ally that the nation of Israel has on the earth. And yet, when all of the unbiblical behavior and all of the sin going on in America, how many times have you heard people say, you know, if God doesn't judge America, he's going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. So why hasn't God judged America? And why does God continue to seem to bless America? Well, I can't answer that definitively for you, but I can say this, Genesis 12:3, those who bless you I will bless, says the Lord. And I have a suspicion that our friendship and our kind treatment of Jewish people has a lot more to do with why God has continued to show grace on America than most of us realize. So let's summarize. (Applause) >> LON SOLOMON: All right. Some of you agree. Let's summarize. God asked Abraham to follow him to a new land so God could start a new race of people so he could use them in a new way. And he told Abraham, if Abraham would do this, he would establish a wonderful covenant with Abraham with six promises. Six provisions. Let me remind you what they are. Number one, he said Abraham, I will make you into a great nation. Number 2, Abraham, I will bless you personally. Abraham, No. 3, I will make your name great. Through you, Abraham, all the families of the earth will be blessed. No. 5, to your descend dents, Abraham, I will give the land of Canaan, and finally, Abraham, those who bless you and your descendents, I will bless. And those who curse you and your descendents, I will curse. Now, here was the offer. What did Abraham do? Verse 4. So Abraham went forth as the Lord had told him. You say, Lon, do you think Abraham had any misgivings, do you think that he struggled over this decision at all? Well, I don't know. The Bible never says. But I suspect he did. I mean, I can't imagine that you wouldn't have to think this through a little bit. I can't imagine you wouldn't have some internal conflict about doing this. But you know, what's interesting is that it doesn't matter whether Abraham struggled on the inside or not. All of us do that sometime when it comes to obeying God. What mattered is that when the chips were down, Abraham obeyed God. Verse 4, so Abraham went forth, as the Lord told him; and Lot went with him. And Abraham was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. And Abraham took Sarah, his wife, and Lot his nephew, and set out and thus they came to the land of Canaan. And Abraham passed through the land as far as Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanites were occupying this land at this time. And the Lord appeared to Abraham and said, to your descendents I will give this land. So Abraham built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. Then Abraham proceeded from there to the mountains on the east of Bethal and pitched his tent there and there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.

My friends, Abraham spent the rest of his life living in the land of Canaan. But you know what's interesting? Except for the Cave of Machpelah, which he bought to bury Sarah in, except for that one tiny little piece of real estate, Abraham never owned a single square foot of the Promised Land. He simply lived there by faith, building altars and worshipping God, and believing the promise of God that one day this land would belong to his descendents, even though Abraham himself never saw it happen. I love when Hebrews 11 says, Verse 9. It says by faith Abraham lived as an alien in the land of promise, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were also heirs with Abraham of the same promise that God was going to give this land to their descendents. Verse 13, all these people -- look at this -- Abraham, Isaac, Jacob -- died in faith, not having received in time and space the things that God had promised. Hey when Abraham died, he had not yet become a great nation. When Abraham died, his name was not yet great. When Abraham died, the messiah had not appeared through him to bless all the families of the earth. When Abraham died, his descend dents were not owning the Promised Land. He died in faith, not having received the promises God had made him yet. Look, but he and Isaac and Jacob were convinced of those promises anyway, and they embraced those promises from afar by -- what? By faith. Wow. What a heart this man Abraham had. I mean, a heart of faith. A heart that believed God's promises even when they looked impossible. A heart that believed God's promises even though he, Abraham, never saw the fulfillment of these promises with his human eyes. Folks, is it any wonder, then, that three times in the Bible -- you know how God refers to Abraham? He calls him Abraham, my friend. Pretty amazing. How would you like God to say, George, my friend? Susie, my friend. How cool would that be to have almighty God of the universe call you his friend? Let me just say that's not a capricious choice. God just doesn't decide to call people his friend. It's because the way Abraham lived, because the way Abraham responded to God. It's because of the way Abraham believed God that he earned his way to God calling him "my friend." God loves people who live like Abraham lived. And you know what? There have been millions of people that live in our world, but they're not in the Bible. And that God never called them my friend, because you know why? Very simple. They didn't live like Abraham lived. Now, that's as far as we're going to go in our passage right now, because we're going to stop and we're going to ask our most important question. So you all still with me? Okay. So all of you at Loudoun and all of you at Prince William and all of you at Bethesda and everybody down in our Edge community and around the world in the Internet campus, are we ready? You ate your Wheaties? Ready? Okay. Let's -- okay. Not inspiring me with huge confidence here, but this will work. Okay. All right. Here we go. Nice and loud, all of you guys, all of us. Here we go. 1, 2, 3. >> ALL: So what?

>> LON SOLOMON: So what. Yeah. That's our most important question. And so as followers of Christ, let's ask what practical lesson do we see for our lives today from what we've just looked at? You say, well, Lon, I know what practical lesson I see from all of this. The practical lesson I get from all of this is be really nice to every Jewish person you meet. (Laughter) >> LON SOLOMON: That's not all wrong. Let me just say that. That's not all wrong. But that's not the lesson we want to talk about. We want to talk about a spiritual lesson that comes out of all we've read today, a lesson about living by faith. You know, in Hebrew's Chapter 11, I want you to look at how many times God describes Abraham's life with these two words "by faith." Watch this, Hebrew's 11, 8, by faith Abraham, when called to go to a place that he would later receive as an inheritance, obeyed, and went out, not even knowing where he was going. Hebrew's 11:9, by faith Abraham made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country. Verse 11, by faith Abraham, even though he was far past age, he was enabled to become a father because he considered Him, God, faithful, who had promised. And Verse 13, the Bible says that Abraham was still living by faith when he died. You say, all right, Lon, I got this. Abraham was a man who lived by faith. But you know, he's in the Bible for goodness sake. I American, I'm not in the Bible. I ride the metro and drive the belt way and run a carpool. I mean, you know, talk to me about how I can live by faith as just a normal, everyday person. Not a Bible character. How do I live by faith? Put some handles on this for just practical people like me. I'd love to do that. Can we do that? All right. Let's talk about this. Genesis 18:14 -- stay with me -- God said to Abraham, I will return to you this time next year and Sarah will have a son. Now, remember, in Genesis 18 when God makes this promise to Abraham, Abraham is 99 years old. Sarah is 90. All right. Stick with me. But here's God promising them a son. Remember our question. Our question is: What does it really mean practically to live by faith? And our answer is: It's all about how we respond to the promises that God makes us. Here we have God making a promise to Abraham about this son -- let's see how Abraham responded. Watch. Romans 4:18: Against all hope, the Bible says, Abraham did not grow weak in faith when it came to this promise. Even though his body was as good as dead, and Sarah's womb was also dead. What that verse means is the odds weren't good. You understand? The odds were not good. Even though that was true -- look, Verse 20 -- Abraham did not waiver in unbelief regarding God's promise, but he grew strong in -- what's the next word -- in faith. And what does it mean to grow strong in faith?

Watch. Being fully convinced -- oh, man I love that -- being fully convinced that what God had promised, God was able to perform. Wow. Wow. Wow. You see what living by faith is all about, my friends? It's about being fully convinced that what God promises you and me, God is able to perform. It means taking God at his word. It means believing what God promises us so deeply that we're willing to rest in it and we are willing to rely on it, no matter how impossible it looks or no matter how unable we are to figure out what God is up to. Do you see that? That is walking by faith. But the problem with us is we're all from Missouri. We all want God to show us everything. We say, well, Lord, you know, I know you're asking me to do that or I know you sent this into my life, and whatever. But you know what? Lord, until I can understand it and until you show me how this is going to work out, and until you explain this to me, and until I get every piece of it, you know, I reserve the right to argue with you, to debate with you, to question you, to doubt you, to resist you, to even refuse to obey you until you explain this to me and I know what you're up to. Friends, Abraham didn't do that. If he had done that, he would have still been in Haran to this day. God said I'm not explaining this to you, I'm just asking you to step out and trust me and believe my promises. Abraham did it. That's why he's in the Bible. That's why he was God's friend. Folks, this is not what living by faith is all about to be from Missouri. Sorry. Huh-uh. That's living by sight. Living by faith says I may not understand it, I may not like it, I may not get it, I may not be able to figure it out, it doesn't matter if God's promise means he's going to take care of things, I'm just going to believe him and go with it. You know, a few years ago we had a gentleman coming here who was a Naval officer, a captain as a matter of fact. And he was on the fast track. This guy was an amazing guy. I knew him well. And not only was he a wonderful Naval officer, he's a wonderful believer. And he had already been selected for admiral but was out finishing the command of the ship that he was on. And just towards the end -- I mean he only had a few weeks to go -- he was refueling with a tanker, his ship and the tanker were refueling at sea, and he was up on the bridge and overseeing all of this, as the captain of the ship, and he had to go to the bathroom. And he had to like really go to the bathroom. And he held it and he held it and he held it. When he couldn't hold anymore, he said I got to run to the head, and he left someone else in charge. He said I'll be right back. Well, you know what happens next, don't you p he runs to the head, and while he's in the head, somebody made a mistake up in the bridge, and the two ships collided. At sea. Now, if you're a Naval officer, that's a big no-no for that to happen. And so he was relieved of command. He never did get that star on his shoulder board.

And you know, when I heard about it, my heart was broken. I thought oh, my gosh, all those years of faithful work, all those years of faithful studying. All those hours of sea duty, being away from his family. All of those long days and nights of command. All of it gone, poof, in an instant. So when he got back to shore, I called him. And I called him to encourage him. He ended up encouraging me. When we got on the phone, I said to him, I said how you doing? He said, Lon, actually I'm really okay with everything. He said you know, I don't understand why God let this happen. He said, but I have a promise from God. Roman's 8:28, that all things work together for good to those who love God. And he said, you know what? I thought God wanted me to be an admiral. I was happy with that. But it's obvious God wants to take my life in some other direction. And I have his promise that's going to work out for good. Lon, I'm fine. And I felt like saying to him, excuse me, O -- (Laughter) >> LON SOLOMON: Is your first name Abraham? Because this is how Abraham lived. Friends, let me close today by saying, if you're a follower of Christ here today, is your first name Abraham? Huh? I mean, do you interpret all the circumstances in life through the lens of God's promises to you? Like Abraham did, like this Naval officer did? Do you believe those promises and rely on those promises, even though it's unclear the path ahead, you can't figure out what he's up to? Folk, to put it another way, do you go through your day believing God, or doubting God? You know, God's made us a promise about every single thing in life. I don't care what happens in your life or my life, there's a promise from God in the Bible. So the question is, when stuff happens, are we going to believe God's promise, or aren't we? There's no middle ground. There's nothing in between. That's it. Abraham said, I'm going to believe God. That's all. I don't need to understand it, I don't need to know it. I don't need to explain it. I don't need to be able to figure it out. God promised it to me, I'm a believer. And I'm going to do what he asks. That's how God wants you and me to live. That's what it means to live by faith. And don't forget, Abraham didn't even know where he was going when he left Haran. He didn't even know where to tell them to forward his mail when he left Haran. What he knew is that God had promised to go before him and that God had promised to hold his hand all the way and that's all Abraham needed to know. Folks, if you're a follower of Jesus Christ today, God has promised to go before you and me, and to hold our hand, and to take care of us everywhere we go. And all he wants us to do is to stop questioning him and stop analyzing him, and stop arguing with him, and stop debating with him, and just trust him.

That's how you become a friend of God. And may God help us do that. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, you know there are many of us here today who are right in the boat that Abraham was in. You've set things into our life, you've asked us to do things, you've changed our circumstances radically, and perhaps suddenly. And we don't understand it, we don't like it, we don't want it, we don't agree with it. Makes no sense to us. So we have a choice. Just like Abraham did. We can live by faith, or we can live by doubt. We can trust you, or we can argue with you. Lord Jesus, that same promise that that Naval captain had is our promise; that you do work all things together for good. Help us believe that like he did. And help us rise above our human Missouriness and just say, okay, Lord Jesus, just like Abraham, I'll go with you and I don't even know where I'm going. But the important thing is, you do. And that's good enough for me. Lord, work deeply in our hearts and teach us how to live by faith and then give us the courage to do it. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. And what did God's people say? >> ALL: Amen. >> LON SOLOMON: What did you say? >> ALL: Amen. >> LON SOLOMON: Amen. Have a great week. Live by faith. See ya. (Music) *** This transcript is being provided in a rough-draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) or captioning are provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ****