Galatians 3:6-7 (KJV)
Even as Abraham believed
God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
Know ye therefore that
they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
The subject I am
attempting to explore right now is based out of Galatians 6:1 (KJV)
Brethren, if a man be
overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit
of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
There is an assumption
made in the verse that I believe is worthy of thought – the assumption is that
a person can be spiritual and can know it.
I want to try to help us
get a grip on identifying whether we are spiritual or not by examining the
lives of key persons in the Bible, what was and was not spiritual about them.
None of us, I imagine,
would argue that Abraham was not a spiritual man.
- · Abraham spoke with God
- · Abraham is called the friend of God
- · Abraham worshiped God, building several altars
- · Abraham prayed to God and got his prayers answers
- · Abraham obeyed God even when it must have been difficult to do so
But that thing which
illuminates all of this, and is most explicitly said about Abraham is simply, “…Abraham believed God, and it was
accounted to him for righteousness.”
That simple description
is repeated three times in the New Testament,
Galatians 3:6-7 (KJV)
Even as Abraham believed
God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
Romans 4:3 (KJV)
For what saith the
scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
James 2:23 (KJV)
And the scripture was
fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for
righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.
As well as once in the
Old Testament,
Genesis 15:6 (KJV)
And he believed in the
LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
The story of Abraham
begins in the book of Genesis chapter 12 and continues all the way through the
New Testament. The last mention of him is in 1 Peter 3:6
The Bible says Abraham
believed God. And it was that faith, which God accounted to him for
righteousness and by which we may be may the children of Abraham.
I listed for you a
number of remarkable things in Abraham’s life but I want to pocus on three
areas in particular where Abraham believed God.
Abraham believed God
first,
I. FOR A SPACE
Hebrews 11:8-10 (KJV)
By faith Abraham, when
he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an
inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
By faith he sojourned in
the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with
Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
For he looked for a city
which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
A. Abraham’s first act of faith involved a
walk.
He left all that he had
ever known:
· His home
· His family
· His place of employment
To go – well - he didn’t
know where.
Mind you, he was no child.
By this time Abram was
already married many years.
He had no children
because, apparently, his wife was unable to bear children.
He left everything he
was accustomed to and all that he was comfortable with to follow God and lead
his wife into unknown adventures.
B. I know a little something about that.
It was May of 1981.
I was about to turn 23
years old when I left my job as an ironworker, to train for the ministry.
My wife and I had just
lost the first of two children in
miscarriages.
I packed up the little
bit we had left into a 33ft park model
trailer, I was making $50 per month payments on and hitched it to a 1979 Chevy pickup my father in law
had paid off for me so it would not be repossessed.
And we headed off to Virginia.
Neither of us had ever
been to Virginia. We had no idea what we were getting in to.
· We suffered flat tires on the pickup
· A blinding snow storm in Wyoming and
· Ended up in Westminster, Colorado, just north of Denver.
We stopped in Denver so
I could try to get an ironworking job there. I didn’t know if I would get one,
but my union dispatch hall had told me there was work in Denver and in Houston.
They advised me to go to
Denver and, if I did not have a job in 7
days, figure I was half way to Houston.
I got a job on the 7th
day and never made it to Virginia at
all!
All along the way Anita
kept a sweet spirit and reminded me that we were on an adventure.
C. Abraham left the Ur of Chaldees and ended
up in the Promised Land.
But I want you to notice
that Israel was not his final destination.
Hebrews 11:10 (KJV)
For he looked for a city
which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
· Abraham wasn’t home when he got to Israel.
· He was home when he got glory.
Abraham believed God
secondly,
II. FOR A SEED
Romans 4:18-20 (KJV)
Who against hope
believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to
that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
And being not weak in
faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred
years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb:
He staggered not at the
promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
A. I was in Bible College when I heard about
these preachers of the past who had “life verses.”
You know? A Bible verse
they had picked out to describe their life and relationship with God.
I decided I wanted one
for myself – but how do you pick one?
If you do it too
lightly, it might not be the one you stick with. How weird would that be to change
your life verse mid life?
I was doing my regular
devotional reading one day when I came across Romans 4:20
He staggered not at the
promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.
I feel like I did not
find that verse but that it found me.
I’ve staggered a few times since, but I have never given up
on the ideal of that verse.
B. What Abraham didn’t stagger over was a
promise of a baby for he and Sarah.
Mind you, we know that
Abraham and Sarah did “sway a bit” if they did not fully “stagger.”
Sarah proposed, and
Abraham agreed, to try to have a son through another woman.
The act was immoral, and
it did not work out well at all.
There is no question
that Abraham failed in the issue with Hagar and Ishmael.
But I want you to notice
that:
· He never quit God
· He never stopped listening to God
· He never stopped worshiping God
· He never stopped praying to God
He did go down to Egypt
a couple of times, but
· He never returned to his old home or way of life
And in God’s own time,
God gave them a son, Isaac.
You know, life throws at
us some pretty tough things sometimes.
· Some of us have faced disappointments
and discouragements that are nearly
unbearable.
· Some of us carry loads
that are unimaginable.
· Some of us have heartaches
locked away in our souls that someone else couldn’t possibly live with
Abraham believed God
despite it all and just never quit on God.
Abraham believed God
thirdly,
III. FOR A
SAVIOUR
Galatians 3:16 (KJV)
Now to Abraham and his
seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of
one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
Remember I said that
Abraham wasn’t home when he got to Israel?
He looked for a city
whose builder and maker was God.
Abraham really never got his
promised son when Isaac was born.
There was no way that a
nation that came from Abraham’s children; even through a child so miraculously
given as Isaac was, could be a blessing to the nations of the world.
Abraham knew something else was
at play in the promise from God.
We know that promise was
fulfilled, not in Isaac, but in a son of Abraham’s seed that would come
thousands of years later, Jesus Christ.
· Jesus Christ blesses all nations with the promise of
salvation for all who will believe in Him and call upon Him.
· Jesus Christ blesses all nations by reconciling the saved of
every nation to God the Father and
· Jesus Christ blesses all nations by making of all those who
are saved a peculiar people, a new kind of people, united in a local church
One of our greatest
troubles today is that we Christians think it is our business to bless
everybody.
· They ought to be blessed with how holy we are
· They ought to be blessed with how kind we are
· They ought to be blessed with how evangelistic we are
Truth is, we’re just
supposed to be the conduit that gets Jesus Christ to them.
If they are blessed, it
will be Jesus who does the blessing.
Conclusion
What does Abraham teach
us about being spiritual?
He teaches us that being
spiritual is, first and foremost, not about works but about faith.
A spiritual person is a believing person.
He trusts God for things
that, may appear to be just earthy,
· a home,
· a piece of property,
· a little baby to round out the family
in reality he has his
eyes fixed on things much grander, much more meaningful and much farther into
the eternal future.
A spiritual person walks with God every day, and he is blessed for
it.
But he knows the
real blessings only happen after he crosses to the other side of
eternity.
And he is happy to wait
for them there.