Now, we come to chapter 15, and chapter
15 just joins right on here.
God reveals Himself to Abraham more completely and
reaffirms His promise, and we come to one
of the high points of the Bible here
in chapter 15, and another one will be
in chapter 17.
Listen to this, and we'll get into it
today just a little ways.
After these things, the word of the Lord
came unto Abram in a vision.
This now is the fourth time that God
has appeared to Abram.
This is the fourth time, and now God
is developing him, you see, bringing him farther
along.
And God does well to appear to him
now, because you see, Abram has taken a
tremendous step of faith when he went out
and rescued Lot.
When he turned down the booty that the
king of Sodom offered him.
Now God says to him, fear not, Abram,
I am thy shield and thy exceeding great
reward.
And friends, that's lovely, that's wonderful.
He says, first of all, I'm your shield.
I do not know this, but let me
suggest it to you.
I think during the battle that Abraham got
in real danger, and he wondered whether he'd
come out of it alive.
And God just reminds him, I'm your shield,
Abram.
I'm your shield, and I'm thy exceeding great
reward.
You did well to turn down the booty.
I'm your reward.
I intend to reward you.
Oh, when a man today is willing just
to believe God and look to him, what
God can do with him.
And Abram said, now wait just a minute.
Now, if you think Abraham is one of
these pious boys who gets his halo shined
every morning, you're wrong.
Abraham is very practical, and he's going to
get right down to the nitty-gritty now.
And I think God likes us to do
that, friends.
I wish we could get rid of this
false piousity and hypocritical attitude that so many
of the fundamentalists assume today, and they don't
seem real to me.
Some of them, they are just way out
yonder, that's all.
Now, will you notice this man Abraham, and
this is quite wonderful.
Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give
me, seeing I go childless, and the steward
of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus.
What he's saying to God is this.
He's saying, I don't want more riches.
I don't need that.
The thing that's on my heart is, I'm
childless, and I want a son.
You have promised to make me a father
of nations, and my offspring would be as
numberless as the sand on the seashore, and
I don't even have a child or a
chick around anywhere.
And according to the law of that day,
the Code of Hammurabi, Eliezer, his steward, his
head servant, he had an offspring, and in
time he would inherit if Abraham didn't have
one.
And Abram said, Behold to me thou hast
given no seed, and lo, one born in
my house is mine heir.
This boy is born in my house.
And behold, the word of the Lord came
unto him, saying, and you know God's practical
when a man will be practical with him.
This shall not be thine heir, but he
that shall come forth out of thine own
bowel shall be thine heir.
I'm going to give you a son, Abraham.
I'm going to give you a son.
Now God took him by the hand, brought
him forth, and it was night.
You say, how do you know it's night?
Well, let me read.
Verse 5, Genesis 15, And he brought him
forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven,
and tell the stars, if thou be able
to number them.
And he said unto him, So shall thy
seed be.
This is remarkable, friends.
God said to him, First your offspring will
be as numberless as the sand on the
seashore.
And now he says, as numberless as the
stars in heaven.
And it had to be night for Abraham
to see the stars.
Now, this man Abraham actually has two seed.
He has a physical seed, and that's the
nation Israel.
He has a spiritual seed, and that's the
church.
How do they become a spiritual seed?
By faith.
Paul told the Galatians, ye are the sons
of Abraham.
How?
By faith in Jesus Christ.
You're not in a natural line.
I had the privilege of speaking to a
group of very fine young Jewish men, many
years ago, young men, in Nashville, Tennessee.
And I had known some of them before
I was saved, had been very close friends
of them.
And they invited me to speak.
And I spoke to them on the glories
of the Mosaic Law, and that the fulfillment
of it was in Christ.
But I began by telling them, I was
glad to speak to them, because I said,
I know you are sons of Abraham, but
I'm a son of Abraham also.
And they looked in amazement one to another.
And I told them how I was a
son of Abraham.
There are these two seed that we have
before us.
And this is a very wonderful thing.
And now notice what it says here, verse
6.
He believed in the Lord, and he counted
it to him for righteousness.
Now, next time, I'm going to develop this.
This is one of the greatest statements in
the Scripture.
Abraham just believed God, that's all.
And that was counted to him for righteousness.
Now, Abraham does something that is quite interesting.
And he said unto him, I am the
Lord that brought thee out of Ur of
the Chaldees to give thee this land to
inherit it.
And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I
know that I shall inherit it?
In other words, Abraham is a very practical
man again.
He believes in dealing with reality.
And I think we need to do it
today.
We need reality today in our lives, in
our Christian life.
And friend, if reality is not in your
life, there's nothing there.
Many people just play church today.
Now, will you notice what Abraham says?
Abraham says, how shall I know it?
And you know what God's going to tell
him to Abraham?
I'm glad you asked me, because I'm going
to meet you down at the courthouse.
And I'll go before a notary public.
And I will make real this contract that
I'm making with you.
And you are going to have a son.
And I will make a contract with you.
And so you meet me down there, and
I'll sign on the dotted line.
Now, there's somebody going to say to me,
or write me and say, look here, Dr.
McGee, I've been following you along in Genesis.
And so far, you've been sticking to the
text, which you surely have departed here.
Because it says nothing about God meeting him
down at a courthouse, and nothing about going
through a notary public.
Well, friends, may I say to you, according
to the law of that day, that's exactly
what God said to Abraham, and we're going
to see that next time.