Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Spiritual Foundations Pt.2

Hallelujah! We serve a faithful God, amen? Let's turn to Hebrews, chapter 11. We'll continue our study here on the Spiritual Foundations. We all know that the foundation is the most important part of the building. We don't always get to see a lot of it, doesn't get all the glory; but without it we're incapable of standing and the Scripture says without faith it's impossible to please God and those that come to Him must believe that He is, that He's a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). So as we meditate on the foundation principles of faith and making sure that our hearts are stirred and prepared in this hour, that we're standing upon biblical faith. Not tradition. Not something that our parents had and we've been raised up here in the church and we're now going through all of the motions but each one of us digging our own wells and having our own personal relationship with Father. Do you have your own personal understanding of the God who is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him? Have you pressed in and known His joy? And as the Scripture says, we've tasted of the Lord and found out He's good (Psalm 34:8). Nothing else in life can satisfy. If you have religion you're still searching, and it's a tragic thing to see those who have gone years and years with religion and then find themselves in need and lacking what's sufficient to finish the course.

So the Apostle starts off in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, and the biblical definition of faith that we were talking about on Wednesday night, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We talked about those very important words, the aspect of substance being the assurance or the foundation or the substrata. Faith gives us that foundation. Faith is able to call things that are not, as though they were. Faith is more real than the perceivable and yet we're dealing in a generation, of course natural man wants, because of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he's been locked into the sensual realm. He wants to be able to understand and comprehend. That's what that fruit in the midst of the garden opened up, it opened up natural reason and sensory perception and truth being of the forensic nature. It dropped him a level into the animal realm instead of being able to be a spirit being and walk in faith and have communion with God. Man began to analyze and needed to prove everything in test tubes instead of be able to walk with God in the cool of the garden and believe that He would be able now to provide all that he had need of, and to see the fruits watered from the dew; but now man had to go out and work by the sweat of his own brow. Faith brings us back to that place of innocence, and trust, and reliance in a Heavenly Father, the giver of every good and perfect gift. Those that come to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.

So we ask the question this morning then, what are we trusting in? Are we trusting in our own abilities? Are we trusting in, as we've shared many times in the past as we've taught on this, are you trusting in faith and having faith in your faith, or do you have a relationship with God? Are you believing for a principle to work, or are you believing for your Heavenly Father to meet all of your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus? So when the Apostle speaks to us here he says it's the title deed, or the guarantee, the assurance. It is the assurance, it's a fact of those things that we are now hoping for. And this is where the paradox comes in and people have trouble a lot of times. Faith is the reality of what we still haven't received, because now we are hoping for it, or favorably expecting as the word hope means. Faith is the reality of what you're favorably expecting. It's more real than the thing itself because the thing itself is going to burn someday. The thing itself, many times, especially if it's in the natural, can be corrupted and rust and thieves can break in and steal it, but the reality of God's promise, the reality of the source being the heart of God and His good pleasure to give us the Kingdom is the ultimate reality. That's where Father wants us to walk. And as we stir our hearts in this study, the question that we have to ask ourselves of course this morning is, do we have that rest? Because the one thing we're going to see is that true biblical faith always brings supernatural rest. A peace, Jesus said, that I give that the world is incapable of giving (John 16:33). A peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7). Faith causes us to be able to be anxious for nothing, but in everything through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving we let our requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God that passes all understanding keeps our hearts and our minds through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6,7). Are you walking in faith this morning? Do you have that absolute assurance? Faith is the assurance, the guarantee of what we are favorably expecting. It is the evidence. And that word we saw is an interesting word in the Greek, and it's just meaning the proof, it's the final determination of what is real and what is not. Your faith is the proof. You see a lot of us are waiting for the pain to leave our bodies. We're waiting for the miracle check to appear in the mailbox, we're looking for the turn around of our loved one, or whatever it is. Beloved, that's not the reality. Faith is the reality. Faith is the evidence, faith is the proof of what we are favorably expecting.

The proof of things, he goes on and says in this first verse, the proof of things not seen, perceived by the natural senses. Now if that's the case, then we have to relate to that person that we're believing for the miracle to occur in their lives, whether it's a spiritual miracle, a character change, whatever it is, we have to relate to them in the way that God has already decreed they are. How many of you are glad that God relates to you today in faith? Are you? How many of you realize that by faith we receive the promise and the provision, but also by faith God relates to us, and He sees us righteous by the blood of Jesus; and how many of you are not always performing righteousness, and yet God relates to us. And we as we mature spiritually, we learn to relate to God based upon faith and not our own performance, our own perception of ourselves. The real trick is learning to relate to other people or to circumstances that way, and to call things that are not as though they were. Now some people get a little bit distorted in this and they begin to fabricate things, and they actually out of their own heart speaking things and remember these are limited to what God has promised. Faith is not saying something about somebody that God hasn't said. Faith is not saying something about the circumstances that God has not said. Faith cannot originate in your heart. Faith does not originate in your heart. Faith originates in the purpose of God, the will of God. Faith doesn't start with your perception, but God's declaration. So many times we as Christians are no different than the world with their positive thinking, in that we try to initiate rather than determine what God has declared and walk in obedience. By faith, Abraham obeyed. Abraham didn't come up with this great idea of leaving his family and going out and becoming the father of many nations, Abraham was called. Abraham was sent like Gideon. You know he is in the faith hall of fame. Gideon, go in this the power of thy might, have not I ...? (Judges 6:14) And so we realize that when we're sent then, God graces us and gives us the faith, the capacity to fulfill His purpose. One of the most important things in each of our lives is determining what's God doing here, what's God saying? What is it that God is wanting to do in my life at this particular moment? Because see faith can work in a lot of different ways, faith can cause you to sleep in the boat, or faith can give you enough strength to row; and the key is determining what God is doing at this moment in your life. What is it that He's trying to get you to understand so that you might rest?

It's very important--turn back if you would a couple of chapters, and the 4th chapter of Hebrews. We want to deal with another principle this morning that we had just started on when we finished for Wednesday night. We talked about the fact that the great patriarchs had died in faith not having received the promise. You see a lot of people seem to think that faith will always change the perceivable, but it's not, it's the proof of what isn't seen. Faith does not always change the perceivable, but true faith will always affect the eternal for the purpose of God. We all know the different stories, and we won't talk about those right now, but we all know the testimonies. We realize that there were those that were delivered from mouths of lions, and there were those that were devoured and the Scripture tells us here that they all died how? In faith, faith doesn't always change the perceivable. Many of us get discouraged because the environment doesn't change. Beloved, what faith needs to change is your perception, and not only the perception of the environment, but the perception of your Heavenly Father that He has you there for an eternal purpose and for your good. How many of you find that a little harder to believe? And you see this is where the maturation process takes place to where faith will ultimately bring you into your Garden of Gethsemane to where you will pray, and this is where faith will always take you, to where you will pray, "Father, if it be possible, let the cup pass, nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done." That's the ultimate expression of biblical faith. We think the ultimate expression of biblical faith is being able to stand and change the circumstances, to be able to stand up at the bow of the boat and speak and say, "peace be still," and watch the storm bow. Those are exciting moments. Those are promises of God that we should believe for, to be able to step out of the boat in the midst of the storm and walk on the waves at the bidding of the Lord Jesus. What a great testimony! Most of us have never experienced anything like that. In lesser manifestations of the glory of God we have experienced the other part of that story, haven't we, we got our eyes off Jesus and beginning to sink we cried, "Lord, help!" You know what, most of us are distraught at moments like that, "why couldn't I have finished the journey of walking on the water? Why was it that I wasn't able to rest in the back of the boat?" Oh but beloved, listen to what the Scripture tells us here, they died in faith! (Hebrews 11:13) I want to tell you something, you ought to rejoice in the fact that there was faith in you to cry, "Lord, help," amen? And that He's delivered us to fight another day, and that He's preserved us for an eternal purpose. The very fact that we were able to cry out to Him is the indicator that we are His children, sons, heirs, and joint-heirs with Christ Jesus. So don't measure yourself by the degree that you've been able to change the circumstances of life, but begin to measure yourself in the degree that you're able to depend on Him, and be at peace where you are.

It says, "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, [we're in Hebrews 11:13 now] but having seen them afar off." You know it's discouraging sometimes when the promise is way out there. Faith believes for the immediate, faith is something that's expecting the momentary, miraculous provision of our Father and yet it says, they saw these things afar off, and then I love the next phrase in this verse, and were persuaded of them. Abraham was fully persuaded that what God had promised He was able to perform. How persuaded are you this morning? This is the word we're going to talk about this morning, being fully persuaded. Letting God work in our lives to where we can have that persuasion that we don't become anxious, and we don't begin to move in our own strength because the promise is afar off. To our natural perception it's afar off. This is the best place you can find yourselves, in a position where it is beyond your control. And God in His mercy wants to bring everyone of us into those places in our lives so that we can be trained, we can be proven and tested as Abraham was as to whether or not we're really believing in God; because the fact of the matter is, we have the capacity to manipulate our circumstances and call it God. Many of us are able to draw upon natural resources of our own prowess, whatever it might be, intellectual, our will, our physical abilities, whatever it is, and call it God. And what I want to show you this morning is that God wants to bring everyone of us, our Father wants to bring everyone of us back to that innocence of the garden to where He provides everything and we have no boast, no trust, and no hope in anything but Him.

So it says that they were persuaded and that they embraced these promises, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. I want you to get that into your consciousness. If we're going to begin to move in biblical faith, beloved, you're going to have to come to the habitual awareness, confessing constantly, "I'm just a pilgrim here, I don't do it the way everybody else does it, this that's temporal is not important, it's what's eternal, the eternal promises, the eternal purposes, that's what we're living for." Because you see, without that we're not going to be able to have true biblical faith, we're going to begin to move into this mingled seed, if you please, of wanting to trust God, believe God, confess the biblical principles, and yet manipulate circumstances through that force, that power that resides in every one of our members, the knowledge of good and evil. And so here He is, working in our lives, wanting to bring us into this place of walking by faith and not by sight. He was persuaded of these things verse 13 tells us.

Go over to Romans 4 for just a second. Into Romans, chapter 4, (we were going to go to Hebrews 4, we'll be there in a second) but go over to Romans 4 for just a moment and let's ask ourselves the question now how persuaded are we. They were persuaded of them. An interesting passage of Scripture of course in the 4th chapter of Romans, and talking about the life of Abraham and his receiving of the promise and verse 18 says, "Who against hope believed in hope." In other words, there was no natural cause for hope, and against all apparent hope, he believed in what? Hope! Where did that hope come from? All the natural hope said, forget about it. And yet there is a spark that begins to rise up inside of us, and everything in the natural says, "you're going to fail, you're going to die, it's never going to work, it will never be for you, you'll never be free." But there's a spark that rises up in us and says, "there is a hope, there is a rest at the moment like this for the people of God." And at that moment we have a decision to make, to absolutely divest ourselves of all of our own desires and abilities, and to say, "Father, I've come to the place where it's beyond me, if you don't do something, I'm going to die." Or you can begin to change your course now and the seduction of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil will provide you a way of escape. You will come to that place in your life. Are we going to respond like Abraham?

Where did this hope come from? How was it that he was able, at this moment to believe? We're going to go into Genesis in just a second and look at the specifics, but before we go back and study the specifics I want you to see the general overview of how God sees the man Abraham. You see, in the natural Abraham failed numerous times. Aren't you glad that God doesn't account to us the process, but only the fruit of the result, which is righteousness? How many of you know that in the process we make a lot of mistakes, don't we? In the process we can point at a lot of failures, and what keeps a lot of us from walking in faith is the fact that we're looking back at our failures instead of the promise of God and what ultimately is going to come from this thing. And we say, "I might as well give up, I failed a hundred times." I want to tell you something, your hundred failures will not outweigh God's promise! Faithful is He who promised, who will do it, praise God, if you'll finish the course, if you'll not faint, in due season, the Scripture says, you will reap, (Galatians 6:9). Praise God! You see what's happening is God is just trying to bring you to your end. God is trying to get you to start trusting in Him and not your own abilities, and in His mercy, He'll continue to let you stay in this process of failing in your own ability until you can come into the rest of God. Here's the final declaration of the man: He against hope believed in hope, he became the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken. That was the promise, you're going to be a father of many nations. Well he didn't do anything to help it out. "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" (Romans 4:19, 20). Staggered? This dude fell man. Aren't you glad how God sees you?

You see if I was writing the chronicle, I wouldn't have said this that he didn't stagger, I would have said that the dude blew it constantly. And God brings us into this process of failing in our own strength, thinking we know and that we've received counsel that would solve the immediate problem. God promised, we don't have it, Sarah wants a baby now, let's use Hagar, good idea! No, it wasn't. So when we begin to see this process and study Abraham's life, I'm going to make some observations in Abraham that I don't want you to be mistaken what I'm saying when I point out all of his failures, any more than we need to be mistaken when we observe our own failures. This is how God sees us. Can you say praise God for that?

He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith, giving glory to God and was fully persuaded. We just read that over in the 11th chapter. Fully persuaded! This is interesting here, I have a note here in my margin that this is an aorist tense in a passive voice. Don't have a clue what that means, but what it means is this: convinced once for all, praise God. Amen? Convinced once for all, from that moment. You see there were a lot of failures, but there was a moment when he was convinced once for all. That's faith, that's fully persuaded. It never became an issue in his mind again, but you're going to see there was a process of coming to that point. And so we realize then that in the Greek here the language that the Holy Spirit chose, He was pointing to that moment in time. It wasn't just a universal belief in God, it was a moment in time that he became once for all convinced. You see you'll find out as you study his life, he believed, and then he didn't believe, he believed but it wasn't sufficient, he got back in the flesh. He believed but it wasn't sufficient to cause him now to rest. In fact, he laughed at the promise of God, and then he became fully persuaded. God's account of your life and mine is based upon that moment of full persuasion and not all of the failures. The moment that we really are able to trust in Jesus and rely in those promises as being more real than anything that's observable around us.

Well let's look at his life for just a moment back in Genesis and then we're going to come back to Hebrews 4. But if you look at Abraham's life, the scenario of the call on Abraham in chapter 12, I want to run a scenario for you; get through here as quickly as we can, and yet show you what I'm talking about, Genesis, chapter 12. We know according to God's testimony of Abraham in the faith hall of fame in Hebrews 11, that Abraham left his country in faith, and the faith was evidenced in the fact that he obeyed, he believed God, and he went out not knowing where he was going. So that's God's testimony, that's the official record, eternal record of what took place here. What that final testimony says though doesn't give us all of the incidents that were involved in this. And you see in chapter 12 that he was told to leave all of his family, but what happened? He took Lot. You're going to see one constant, and that's the fact that every time you add your own ingredients, you're going to have to eat humble pie. God makes a declaration and we add to it, or detract from it. But in the life of Abraham we'll see that it was spoken to him, and he obeyed...mostly. And his little obedience became a Lot, and that's what we face in our own lives, and yet it doesn't hinder the promises of God. I want you to see this. He didn't fully obey and yet God made him very rich and prospered him. He didn't fully obey, but God blessed Ishmael anyway. You can't judge by outward prosperity, provision that you're in the perfect will of God. You can only judge by the degree of your absolute obedience. God's merciful, and He will even give you the opportunity, as He did Moses to enjoy the pleasures. Hebrews says that Moses forsook the wealth, and the pleasures, and the sin of Egypt for the presence of God. But then he got another opportunity when God said, I'm not going with these people, they're stiffnecked (Exodus 33:3). He said, I tell you what, I'll send you up into the promise land, but I'm not going with you. And Moses said, listen, I made this decision a long time ago man, if you don't go, I don't go. I'm not interested in the blessings, I'm only wanting to know You. It's Your presence that is my treasure and is my strength (Exodus 33:15). How many of you would rather have a life of ease and prosperity, or a life of conflict and trial, but be aware of the presence of God in it? Ease and prosperity without the knowledge of His presence, or adversity and trials knowing He's with you. Well I'd really rather have prosperity and ease and know He's with me. That's very rare.

So what we're looking at here is Abraham's partial obedience. Now see we read he was fully persuaded. He obeyed God going not knowing where he was going, this is the final declaration, but in reality, because of his fear, he took something familiar along with him, and of course if turned into a trial, didn't it? And because he began in fear, fear continued in his life, and they went into Egypt and he had to tell a lie about Sarah and tell her, say you are my sister so that they don't kill me on your behalf (Genesis 12:13). And God miraculously intervenes and sets His people free. God delivers us in all of our ignorance and our weakness. He knows our frame and that we're but dust but don't think that your deliverances and your victories equate to character, they are consequences of the promise. And what God is trying to do is for us to by faith seek character changes that will bring us into the conformity of the image of Jesus, which then ultimately will say, "not my will, Thy will be done." I can go into Egypt and not have to make the provision before God has spoken and say, "let me tell you what we're going to do, we're going to connive, we're going to lie, this will preserve us." You go in there saying, "if God wants me to die, I'll die, if He wants to deliver me, He'll deliver me. I'll speak only when God has spoken to me." So Abraham is learning this in his life. We can't give him any flack this is new. He's doing better than I would have done.

Here he goes and we find that he's delivered now from Egypt into chapter 13. God blesses them in the prosperity, then there begins to be conflict between Lot's herdsmen and his; and then one of the great expressions of faith that we find, where Abraham just says, look, we're not going to allow strife to be between us, you choose whatever you want--you tell me whether or not this is a declaration of faith--you choose whatever you want, I'll take what is left over (Genesis 13:8, 9). How many of you, that's your natural tendency? You see Abraham was beginning to find out--you can see it in his character right here--he was beginning to find out that the circumstances weren't what it was all about, it's the presence. I brought this kid along because of my own fears, I disobeyed God, God has blessed me in the interim, He's preserved my life and delivered us from Egypt, I'm beginning to get the point that God is sufficient, and now here's the test. Conflict--look, you choose to go wherever you want, I'll take over. There's fruit now in his life beginning to manifest through these trials, of reliance upon God. And we all know the story, don't we? Lot lifted his eyes up, he saw the plains of Sodom, fabulous prosperity, all of the gardens that looked like Eden, the Scripture says, and Lot says, I'll take that down there (Genesis 13:10,11). And Abraham went, oh man, bummer, I was hoping he didn't see that. No, he was beginning to understand the richness of the presence of God in that that contrasts what's victory and treasure to the world.

Faith will never perceive the world as a treasure, it will never gauge its success by anything the world endorses. And so the Scripture says, "Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom" (Genesis 13:12). Faith never pitches its tent towards Sodom. It never looks to the natural and says, "that's God." Then verse 14 speaks volumes, "And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him..." There are things in our lives that God wants to separate from us so that we can see clearly. He allows us to go through life, and He blesses us. He was a prosperous man, he was delivered miraculously; but the time is coming in all of our lives, and it's not just a one time event, that God must separate from us things so that we can see more clearly. It's important that we understand that and faith will embrace that, and count it a greater treasure than all of the treasures of Egypt--the treasure of suffering with Christ, of identifying with Christ, of the reproach of His lordship in our lives.

And so God speaks to him now that Lot had been separated and He said, "For all the land which thou seest, [verse 15] to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever." "Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee" (Verse 17). And so the promise is made and Abraham doesn't have a clue what God is saying to him. He's going back to the original call and thinking this seems to be the fulfillment of that, and God is going to give me a land that's separate from that that He's called me from, and He's going to raise up a seed. I don't understand it yet, but let's just wait and see what God has. So we see the battle of the kings and his encounter with Melchizedek, down in verse 18 of the 14th chapter. Because of the deliverance and the preservation, the king of Sodom wants to bless him. Verse 22, "And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth; That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich."

You see there's going to be a time in your life, beloved, when you're going to work with that kind of an attitude. God's done that in my life, but I think I've sometimes abused it. But I've had that encounter with God, and I've made that same covenant with God, and I've lifted my hand before Him. And I say to a fault many times, and I won't get into any of the specifics at this particular time, but I think I've over-applied this, and not realized that God does use men as sources at times. As I begin to study and see the full ramification and see how God would use a Cyrus, how God would use the wealthy widows in the life of Jesus. So whether you have papers from a governor, or you have support from another source, it wasn't always some type of totally supernatural provision, but God was able to use men.

The key here that Abraham's moving in, what I'm trying to get across to you today is this: let God initiate it, let God be the source, and not you trying to manipulate and use. Will you be able to stand in that last day and say, "I want to tell you one thing, everything that's been done in my life has been done by God. Anything that's good for the Kingdom, it's God, no man has done it. It's not going to be said that any other man made Abraham rich. I want God to receive the glory." You see beloved, it's that spirit that motivates you. It's that same thing that we just dealt with in Africa, where we wouldn't allow all of the natural promises and provisions. These people that helped us, helped us totally in this spirit that I'm talking about. We told them up front, "listen, I want to tell you something: there will be no compromise, it will strictly be done for the glory of God; we're not interested in any political tricks or promises. All we want from you, if you want to help is speak the word of the Lord, and let God order the steps." Faith and not sight.

So he makes that declaration, you come into chapter 15, and it says, "After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." Now listen very closely to verse 4, "And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This [Eleazar] shall not be thine heir [he's been a faithful servant, we're not able to have children, the provision of the household, we can leave these things to him, He said, no] but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir." "And he believed in the LORD [verse 6] and he counted it to him for righteousness." He believed in the Lord. He did. The word same and the word moved his heart. He believed, listen, he believed that Eleazar was not going to be the heir, he believed God. God spoke specifically to that, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And so he's walking now saying well praise God, God's going to bring some seed from my own loins and it's not going to be Eleazar and praise God.

Chapter 16, "Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar." A what? An Egyptian. What's Egypt a type of? And said you know there's a worldly answer to this. We have a problem, and there's a worldly solution. The promise said out of your own bowels--didn't say anything about me--out of your own bowels, and so why don't we do this, because you know I'm getting older, I want a child, I want one now. Now! Abraham, I want one now. I want a child now. The promise was made, God promised, I want the baby now! Drip, drip, drip. How many men have lost course because of that dripping? Now don't make a mistake here, Sarah was a good helpmeet, but Sarah was no more perfect than Abraham was. Don't draw strength from your helpmeet's weaknesses. So what we're looking at is after a period of time we now, listen, we now take the promise and begin to analyze it through a microscope. Here's the promise, it's not manifesting in our time and in our way. Is there any latitude in this that we can move and help God out? Maybe God wants us--you know God helps those that help themselves. How many have heard that old adage? No, God let's those fail that help themselves so they can learn to trust in Him.

Oh, we're going to talk about faith without works being dead. This isn't just a lay-on-the-couch-and-God-lavish-us doctrine. You're going to get your hands dirty. You're going to find yourself at the point of sheer exhaustion, physically. Faith isn't just tiptoeing through the tulips with a banjo. Listen. "...Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai." Not good.

You say, "well wait a minute, doesn't the Bible say that there was a time when Abraham hearkened to Sarah and it was good?" Yeah, God told him to, there's a difference. "And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian..., And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived...." Now see here's the whole process that happens, see in this time-the handmaiden is my chattel, my property, everything that she has belongs to me. She's going to have the child, and I'm going to take it, it's mine, she's mine, the child's mine, and I'll raise this child as my own. And she will be so appreciative that she was able to sow into the Kingdom of God, and so thankful for all that we've provided for her and cared for her, and she'll humble herself and be thankful, or not. Now if God had initiated it, that's exactly what would have happened, but when you deal with the flesh, let me tell you something, you're foolish if you think you're going to ever get anything other than a fleshly response. If you're going to sow into the world, you're going to reap destruction. It may not be immediate, but I want to tell you something, you sow to the flesh, you're going to reap destruction. You don't have to be a genius to figure it out. How many people believe these lies of the devil, they are the exception, this is different, these are really good and fine people. Flesh is flesh, and not only that--we'll get ready to unhook here for this morning--you have two things working against you if you're going to make this kind of a decision. Those of you who are going to mingle this seed, those of you who are going to try to adapt some of the world's principles to the promises of God, let me tell you something, you not only have the absolute character of the world, you also have the fact that God's against you and He'll use them to bring you down. Things that they and the devil wouldn't have even thought of, God will say, "what do you think about this?" That's another principle we can show you in the Scripture, we're not going to do it right now.

So you find out that the story goes on and the child is born and Sarah's now despised in the eyes of Hagar, and mocked. It wasn't what she was planning on. Well it fulfilled the promise, it was out of Abraham's loins, that should be sufficient. The angel declares, chapter 16, verse 11, "...shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren." He's going to be a thorn in your flesh.

Chapter 17 starts off with some principles that I think can change our lives if we'll hear them this evening. Ishmael is now 13 years old, Abraham 99, and "...the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee." "...And my covenant [verse 13] shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant." And God said unto Abraham [verse 15], As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her." "Then Abraham fell upon his face [verse 17] and laughed..." "And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!" (verse 18) First it was the servant, now it's Ishmael, how many other provisions is Abraham going to make for God's promise? He said no, not Ishmael, "...Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac." How many of you know what the name Isaac means? Laughter.

Check it out. We're going to end with this this morning. I want you to think on this this afternoon as we come back. Fully persuaded that what God had promised, He was able to perform. Staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what God had promised He was able to perform. That's the final declaration of who this man was, but he lived every day of his life following the birth of that child being reminded that he laughed at God. Every time he called him. Isaac! I despised God, and yet He blessed me. Isaac! I moved in the flesh, and yet the promises of God are yea and amen. Isaac! I hearkened unto my wife instead of God, but as a father pitieth a child, so the Lord pities those that fear Him (Psalm 103:13). The end of the declaration may be that we were fully persuaded, that we staggered not, that we gave glory to God, but the fact of the matter is, many of us are limping just like Jacob, many of us have to daily recite the name, Isaac, and remember when we laughed at God and mocked God. You see faith isn't without the consequences that we have to bear of our unbelief. That's where we going in Hebrews 4 this evening. You see the whole thing, beloved, is this, and I'll put it to you in this one capsulized verse to prepare us for this evening's service: the children of Israel entered not in because of their unbelief. The word unbelief there means they were unable to be persuaded. God, through circumstances, through His promises is constantly trying to persuade us to do it His way, and yet we're always adding to this thing. He says don't fear, and we make all kinds of provisions for our fear. He says don't take any coat or script with you on the journey, and so to obey we don't, we just wire money ahead. And He's wanting to bring us to this place of being our daily bread, sufficient to the day is the evil thereof, take no thought for the morrow, for the things of the morrow will take care of themselves (Matthew 6:34). I want to bring you, and it's all found in this verse beloved, I want to bring you into rest. You are not in rest or in faith until you have ceased from your own labors. Now we're going to identify what our own labors are this evening. We've been looking at them in the life of Abraham, and our labor is anything that's trying to help God out, anything that's a reaction of fear, anything that's denying God's provision to give us immediate ease, and comfort, and delight. But the fact of the matter is as you study this life of Abraham and this promise that's made, you're going to call him Isaac. Some people say he was named Isaac, laughter, meaning joy or delight. I don't believe that. The promise was a delight, the name was an indictment. And I want to tell you something as you read into Romans a little further, the real test was going to come on Mount Moriah. I wonder if it helped Abraham at all when he raised that knife to obey God, and said to his son, Isaac, I love you, and I won't laugh at God at this time. I wonder if the reminder of having laughed gave him the ability to obey this time.

Father, we thank you for the word of God and we ask that You would remind us where You've brought us from. That we wouldn't be caught up with all of the failures, but we would look ahead at what the final declaration of this journey would be. I wonder if the book was still being written if we might find our name in Hebrews 11. Now we have read it there, just not specifically, it's those that were afar off, their faith being joined to ours, they hadn't yet received what we have today, the proof of things not seen.

Father, we live in a day when the natural mind mocks You. They've moved into the subatomic realm. They manipulate Your matter. They say, "where is God?" But as the utterance came this morning, their knee will bow, and their tongues will confess that You're Lord; but until that moment, we're sojourners, we're pilgrims, we're walking among a people that don't see the way we see; that are soliciting us at every turn to deal with reality, and we've just read in Your word that there's nothing more real than faith. It is the evidence, the proof, the source of things not seen and without it, it's impossible to please You. So Father, we ask that You'd stir us again to take our gaze from the things that are discernible and perceivable, and look into the unseen, the invisible God, the city whose Builder and Maker is beyond comprehension and perception. And let us make a boast in their mockery, and let's count it a higher treasure to be mocked with Jesus, than to be embraced by the world. This is the faith that it's going to take to finish the course. Help us to understand that, Father, as we go on in this study. We're not talking for faith to get a better job, faith to get our bodies healed, we're talking about faith to finish this course when everything around us opposes and we stand counting You faithful; seeing that that's afar off, being persuaded of it, embracing it that we might stand. Put that faith in our hearts, Father, that we can endure, and we'll give You the praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand before the Lord this morning. Thank You, Jesus!

Janet's going to play for us here. Gary's making a quick turn-around trip to Richmond, a close friend is in critical condition, and he feels impressed that he should go lay hands on him and pray for him. You might believe just as he's on his journey that God would empower him, that the name of Jesus would be lifted up. Father, show Yourself mighty. Oh, we bless You, Jesus. And send us, Father, we ask in Jesus' name.

Let's sing it together, "Bless the Lord, Oh My Soul," and just worship Him this morning. We bless You. For He has done great things. Hallelujah! You have Lord. Hallelujah! Father, we ask that You would open our eyes now, and that You would give us the ability to see our own hearts. It's easy to look back at Abraham, now we ask You to illuminate our hearts and let us understand the journey that we've been on. Father, we delight that Your word says about us that we are fully persuaded, but we haven't yet finished this course, so we ask for the wisdom to understand in the very next decision that has to be made, how can we most honor You? Give us the grace to obey, in Jesus' name. Amen. Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "I'm fully persuaded." Go in peace, God's love go with you.

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