Genesis 22:15-18 KJV
15 And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,
16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:
17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
Hey, men, glory to God. Welcome to the program. Welcome the cafe pastor Clark Covington here with another episode of KJV cafe Such a blessed day to be here. Yeah a little chilly outside But we got the sun shining and it is just a wonderful day to be here at the cafe Amen. Oh, it's such a good day to be studying God's word Today we're in Genesis 22 continuing on with the passage of scripture Genesis 22 episodes Verses 15 through 18 verses 15 through 18 reminds a little scattered here to this morning Verses 15 through 18 and so we have in Genesis 22 Abraham's obedience to God and his blessing for his obedience Verse 15 the angel the Lord called into Abraham out of heaven the second time and Said by myself have I sworn say at the Lord for because now it's done this thing and it's not withheld thy son thine only son that in blessing I will bless thee in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven as the sand which is upon the seashore and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because That was a bade my voice and so we see in verse 18 as we kind of left off in the last episode God is bestowing a blessing on Abraham for a reason Abraham did X and was received Y right? There is like a cause and effect here and this is a lesson for every believer Obey be obedient And I'm not going to use the example of the umbrella today because I've used it too much and I'll think of another example Alright obedience here we go. Let's see if We were going to go on a trip, right? Like let's say let's say I don't think a bunch of people listen to this together so I'm assuming you're one person and Imagine you and I we're gonna go on a trip and I called you the night before and I told you It's gonna be very cold on this trip bring a jacket, right? And you thought who is this guy is this guy a weatherman? Does he know? I'm not worried about that It's been warm all week. I'm not bringing a jacket, right? And so we go on our trip and you're without your jacket. Okay, and I'm looking at you And I'm like I told them to bring a jacket, but you didn't listen, right? And your actions right are part of or a kind of a response to your actual belief Amen, and so if you had believed me you would have brought your jacket, right and You can turn that around that you called me and you told me it was gonna be cold and I didn't bring my jacket Like I'm not, you know, we can pick whoever we could use as the disobedient example here because we all are Disobedient, you know, I believe it's Isaiah speaks to that. We've all gone astray, amen So we're all disobedient. We're all sinners We all fall short all this stuff and what God's calling us to is obedience and he knows that's not easy So what he does throughout his word is give us these great examples of Obedience that at the root of that obedience is faith Right verse 16 and said by myself. Have I sworn say at the Lord for because thou has done this thing and It's not withheld thy son. I'm not only son because you have done this You're going to get a blessing, right? Now we live in the age of grace So we live in the age where we are not Works don't save us. Amen. We're not justified by our works we're justified by faith by belief amen Abraham was justified by faith because he believed God and did all these extraordinary things and By the way did them in an older age, which is pretty cool as I get a little bit older I'm excited to know that hey, you know if I start thinking of Moses and Abraham, you know They were a little bit up there when God was using them. So I'm like, you know, hey, my story is not through Maybe there's something else God's got for me in the future, but Regardless of age they were obedient, right? Moses was obedient to God even though it was terrifying what God was calling him to do Essentially be a leader and most is like I'm slow in speech. I'm not good, you know God's like well, I'm God. I can do anything. So why don't you just go ahead and do it? But here's a here's Aaron to comfort you. You know, he's your brother and with Abraham calls Abraham to leave Or well, he goes from early counties to her and from then calls Abraham to leave her and and go out away from his family To a place that God would show him to the promised land and it wasn't easy He gets the promised land and they're famine there and yet he was obedient Right even through his missteps going to Egypt lying to Pharaoh Having the child with a bond woman going to Garar and and and that whole situation there a Bomolac, I believe it was lying to the king even through his missteps he was still seeking God certainly after these missteps for sure and Listening to God obeying God fellowshipping with God I mean there's this great kind of juxtaposition between Lot pitching his tent towards Sodom and eventually Sodom's getting burned down and lots being disobedient to God And there Abraham's fellowshipping with God right before it happens spending time with God and you see kind of the the the difference in the faith level and so as we have faith in God, we are blessed by God and that is Really shown through obedience, right? Whether it's like if you believe me and I tell you it's cold you bring your jacket, right? Or whether it's you know God says I sent Jesus to die for you and You say okay, I believe you and It's really difficult because a lot of people say, you know, I don't I don't think I'm that bad, right? And we'll take a break and get more to that idea of I don't think I'm that bad when we come back for this break, so stay tuned Hey, it's break time around here. Thank you for listening to KJV cafe If you haven't already visit KJV cafe.com for more information have you ever been to a church where the preacher is screaming and yelling and They're going ballistic and I had never been to one like that that I can remember up until some years ago Right around the time Lord was calling me in the ministry because he knew I think I needed that I'm hard Headed I'm stubborn foolish sinful all the rest. I needed a good good allowed preaching to But I kept looking around like the first six months being like man These people really must think God must really have a message for them because I know the preacher's not talking to me I mean, I'm good, you know I know he's not talking to me and it took a while for me to kind of sober up to the idea That God's standard is extremely high that he is holy He cannot stand any sin and so what happened over that time and over the past really last I don't know 12 13 years in my life is that you understand what sin is it's much more encompassing than we think right? Paul writes that he doesn't understand sin until he understood coveting because Everybody covets right, you know, you go and you know if you're a guy you go into Bass Pro Shop you covet Okay, you know, if you're a red-blooded man, you know in the south or whatever, you know I don't know what you do in the north. I don't know but in the south, you know, and I'm from the north So I'm not making fun of northerners. I'm just saying I don't know the equivalent But in the south you go in a Bass Pro shop. Oh, look at that ATV. Oh, look at that boat, you know, whatever it is Okay, that's a sin coveting is a sin, you know We realize that God's standards are much higher than we might think that sin is much more encompassing Than we might believe and encompasses all of us We realize that God's standard is perfect and he cannot stand it and that he's very serious about the idea He said Jesus to pay the price for that sin on the cross at Calvary. That's why when you read the Gospels It's so troubling to read about how awful the crucifixion was how Humiliating the life of Christ was there was no room at the end to begin with and at the end he's He's counted among thieves and you know murderers and all kind the murderers getting released He's plotted against he's sold for was it 30 pieces silver. It's absolutely incredible what he had to endure The shame and humiliation But really the worst part was drinking of that bitter cup of sin for all humanity past present and future if it was just for me alone it's an awful lot of sin and I you know the it comes to my mind on occasion something horrible I did as a kid or as a young person or whatever not that I'm perfect now, but some of those things really bad I said Lord. I'm so sorry and Lord just puts on my heart. You've been forgiven That's what Christ did he paid the price and if it was just for me, it's such a high price and He had to bear that sin and by the way when he's bearing that sin That's that part in the scripture when God has to turn away from him Right when God can no longer be with him because God can't tolerate sin That's when he cries out when Christ cries out. My Lord. Why is that forsaken me? I? Mean Christ was obedient to the father unto death Christ walked with the father Christ did the father's will Christ speaks to the idea that God Always hears him. Okay, he was extremely close to the father I know the three-in-one God they're all God and there are three parts got the father son the Holy Ghost nevertheless Christ in human form must have felt Terrified of that situation and yet got it to turn away Until the price had been paid in full and now once the price has been paid. It's already done past tense All we have to do is accept Christ as Savior and if we're willing to accept Christ as Savior to say, you know what? You know, that is me. I am that one You know, I do have that problem. Lord, please forgive me This is illustrated most clearly in Luke 18 10 through 14 Two men went up into the temple to pray the one of Pharisee the other a publican the Pharisee stood in prayed thus with himself God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are Extortioners unjust adulterers or even as this publican I Fast twice in the week. I give ties of all that I possess and the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes Under heaven, but smote upon his breast saying God be merciful to me as sinner I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other for everyone that exalted himself shall be abased and he that Humbleth himself shall be exalted and that's Jesus speaking here Luke 18 10 through 14 I highly encourage you to look that up Luke 18 10 through 14. This is the principle of one one man recognizing Right the publican recognized his sinfulness and simply called out for mercy The Pharisee was too busy looking at the public and saying that one is sinful. I'm good Look at all that I do looking upon their works, right? They're saying I fast and I tie and all these things right? They're looking on their works We must come to the point Right that we believe I believe it's Romans 3 23 that we believe Romans 3 23 for all have sin and comes short of the glory of God if we can't get To that moment that Romans 3 23 moment where we realize that we're sinners It's gonna be awfully hard to accept Christ as Savior because we must understand what he paid the price for There's a reason why it's called the atonement. There's a reason why it's called the substitutionary death There's a reason as you study the character of God You see that God being fully holy required a perfect sacrifice And that's why Jesus had to be perfect his whole life never falling into any sin Sinless perfect spotless lamb Jesus never sins and he's fully man and fully God 33 and a half years He dies on that cross as Calvary and instantly The price has been paid. He's in the ground three days that signifies the full death He's risen again. That signifies his deity that signifies God's hand upon him that signifies that he is now God Walking around in the his resurrected body Right appearing disappearing all that 40 days and 40 nights then he sends up to the right hand of the father where he is today When we accept Jesus for our sins What he did on the cross we then have that price paid He is putting on our sinful garments so that we could put on his holy garments. The only thing is he's already done it So can you imagine God the father looking down on earth and seeing a bunch of disrespectful disobedient Unbelieving people walking around boastful. I mean how how God has tolerated it this long. I don't know He sees people that could care less about him his creation and his beloved son and That is a problem because this program was for us God did this for us Jesus loves you Amen. He prayed to the father. Let me not lose one that are mine. That means one that he died for and yet It is not a guarantee that anyone is saved just because you're sprinkled with water as a baby or whatever I was I think that happened to me. I wasn't saved. I was I literally the top of my class in sinfulness Probably I was all county all state in sinfulness growing up. I got sprinkled with water whatever else I had you know the right kind of clothes on or whatever it didn't mean a thing It took getting to the altar and saying Lord Jesus saved me Lord I'm a sinner. I need you now I don't understand everything but I know I need you and when you get to that point He'll save you and you don't have to be in an altar He can save you today if you're if you're not saved if you never trusted Christ a Savior today can be the day that you simply Call out to him and say Lord Jesus saved me Lord I need you and He will do it understanding that you are a sinner that he paid the price for and Now understand this once you've been saved now. You're a child of God and there are many blessings But there are many responsibilities you are to now live differently You are a new creature in Christ and part of that living differently is sharing the gospel with others that is 100% job of every believer and There's many other things that comes with being a believer But the idea of simply believing God we see it with Abraham. We see it here today We simply need to trust God. He'll do the rest tune in next time. Thank you for listening. Take care God bless amen for listening to KJV cafe, and we'll see you at the cafe tomorrow
