Major Texts of The Bible: Abraham’s Righteousness | Genesis 15:6 | Pastor William Hixson

looking at the Lord God of the Bible and

Abraham.

And this was 4,000 years ago

when this event happened,

recorded in the Bible

and repeated in the New Testament 2,000

years ago.

And when God says something once, he

means it. when he says it several times,

he really means it. [clears throat]

There's special texts in the Bible that

are repeated in different places.

They're that significant.

And this is one of them. This particular

verse.

Now, some of you know the context here,

some of you do not.

But I want to focus right now just for

this moment. We're talking about Abraham

or at this time Abraham.

He wasn't Abraham yet. He had no

children.

Been married a long time, no kids.

So Abraham wasn't a Ara wasn't Abraham

yet.

But here in verse six, it says,

"Responding to God's revelation and

promise,

and he believed

in the Lord,

and he, that's the Lord,

counted it to him

for righteousness."

That's our focus

this verse.

If this verse is new to you, we're glad

that we can introduce it to you. If it's

old to you,

you still need to look at it again

because it's extremely important

theologically.

It's extremely important spiritually.

And that's where we are today.

For 49 plus years,

I've been doing book studies on the

Bible.

Usually in the Sunday evening and

Wednesday Bible study, I would do Old

Testament and Sunday morning New

Testament.

For all those years, we usually most of

my ministry has been doing book studies

where you start at the beginning and

just keep going till you're at the end.

Whether it's a whether it's a couple

months or a couple years, wherever it

is,

I believe in that kind of Bible study.

It's been a blessing to me to do it. It

forces you to study things you wouldn't

study or preach things you wouldn't

preach on and get the whole council of

God.

But after 49 years, I think it's time

for a break.

So, for a little while, we're going to

do something else.

Uh, I don't know exactly what to call

this particular series.

Great text from the Old Testament.

Great text from the New Testament.

I'm struggling with just what should I

call this particular series.

But I knew I do know verses like Genesis

Genesis 15:6

15:6 should soak into our souls.

This is extremely important

everybody here to let this verse and the

truth of this verse soak into

your souls.

And many people, even Christians, live

in the New Testament and are almost

totally ignorant of the Old Testament.

They don't read it. They don't study it.

And many preachers rarely preach from

it.

Uh that's a big mistake. We need to know

the whole council of God.

And so what I'm looking at this morning,

I've decided instead of calling it a

great text from the Old Testament, I

want to go a little broader than that

just to help us put this into

perspective.

Most of us know that Moses was the

editor of Genesis and the author of

Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and

Deuteronomy.

Genesis recording things that happened

before Moses was born.

But the the material was there in the

aid sections. These are the generations

of the different divisions of writings

that came down to him. So Moses is the

editor of Genesis.

But Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and

Deuteronomy, he was the author of those.

I mean, I know God was the author, but

Moses was the one God was using for all

five things.

And these five books of the Bible are

often called the penetuk.

They're the five books.

And if we really want to understand

what's going on with these five first

five books of the Bible,

some of them you some of you may never

have read one or maybe when you got to

Leviticus you bailed out.

But these first five books of the Bible

I'm going to call foundational.

They're the foundation

for the rest of holy scripture.

Now, if you buy a house, you better look

at the foundation.

I remember we were looking at a house

and I like the house a lot. We were

thinking about buying it before we

bought the house we live in and I went

downstairs and the foundation did not

look good at all.

That was a deal breaker for me. I didn't

want to get into that.

And a little later, we were look

shopping for another house. When my

mother-in-law came to live with us, we

were thinking about buying a house

instead of just having her move in with

us. And then we were looking at another

house and the foundation didn't look

good. I don't know much about buying

houses, but I know one thing. I don't

want to buy a headache.

I don't want to buy a money pit.

So, the foundation is important when it

comes to houses and it's it's very

important when it comes to the Bible

study.

Now when it comes to the foundation of

the church, it says no other foundation

can be laid than that which is laid,

which is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is

the foundation of the church. If you

don't if you're not building on him, if

your church isn't building on him,

you're not on a foundation.

He's the foundation of the church. But

the penetitute, the first five books of

the Bible are the foundation of the

Bible. So Jesus is the foundation of the

church, but the penet is the foundation

of the Bible. God revealed that first

and God's built on that ever since.

The New Testament talks about Moses and

the prophets. Why? Because Moses was the

first human writer of the inspired word

of God.

that we have in our Bible.

So

I hope that this is helpful helpful.

This is foundational. [clears throat]

Many people never ever look at the

foundation enough. They don't look

closely enough.

They're not they're not understanding

the Bible because they spend all their

time in the New Testament and very

little time in the Old Testament other

than the Psalms. And all of it's

important, but you you

got to spend time on it.

God wrote the Bible. He knows what he's

doing.

So,

let's make uh let's let's make a

decision for 2006

2000. No, that's too late. Let's make a

decision for 2026.

I'm going to read through

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and

Deuteronomy. I'm going to examine the

foundation of the Bible.

I'm going to at least do that.

And that's that's a that's a challenge.

Personally think it's good challenge to

try to read through the Bible, the whole

Bible in a year. You can do it. It's

some of us have done it many times. But

we want to read the Bible. We want the

Bible to read us. It's not how fast you

go, but it's important.

So in this series of messages, I'm not

going to go verse by verse. I'm praying

that you'll go verse by verse in your

Bible reading as your pastor for 2026

that you'd pick out the penetitute and

get a good foundation for this next

year. But for my message series, I'm not

going to preach through Genesis. That

takes a long time. We've done it in this

church three I think three times since

then

and we've taught Exodus, Leviticus,

Numbers, and Deuteronomy here.

But what I'm doing in this series is

I hate to use a food illustration since

Thanksgiving. We're all still too full

from that. But have you ever been to a

buffet?

I I trust you have.

You might have been at a buffet at

Myrtle Beach. They got some seafood

buffets there.

I'd name names, but I won't.

If you go to Amish country in

Pennsylvania, there's the Shady Maple

Buffet, Amish restaurant. It It's 200

foot buffet.

200 f feet of buffet.

Cost you 20 bucks. But so don't eat for

two days before you go.

>> You don't eat for two days after eating,

>> right?

But what what is the strategy if you do

a buffet

having some experience in this.

What is a strategy if you go to a

seafood buffet or Amish buffet or

Chinese buffet or salad buffet? I've

been to a salad buffet in Florida.

It's all salad. Different kinds of

salad.

You take it. That was great. They went

out of business, but wish they'd stayed

in business.

I'll tell you what I do when I go to a

buffet. I stand back all the other

people and I look,

I observe. I don't take anything. I go

through everything and oh yeah, I want

some of that. I don't want that. What's

is there anything better? I I look

I survey.

I don't even take my plate with me. I

just serve

and then

I start shopping for food.

So what I'm doing is I'm I've surveyed

some of these books and I'm I it's like

a buffet. I'm just I'm not going to

teach the whole book. I'm going to dip

into it

which I think is important places for me

and for you.

So I hope that that helps you.

Now um

this is important.

So, let's go back to Genesis 15 and

let's uh read a little of the text now

and we'll get started.

after these things. after these things

is after

Lot got captured and carried off

and Lot was living in Sodom and Abraham

and his friends

attacked the people who carried them

off, rescued everybody

and they brought back

all the stuff that was stolen and all

the people that were kidnapped.

And in chapter 14,

Abraham is confronted with a couple of

things. Melchisedc

and he gives a tenth of everything to

Melkisedc

where the idea of tithing which is an

Old Testament concept is very clearly

referred to.

So he gives a tenth of the spoils to

Melkisedc. And in chapter 14, the king

of Sodom comes out

and uh the king of Sodom and says um

um give me the people

and you can have all the stuff.

Cuz you see the king of Sodom and four

other kings just got whipped in battle.

And Abraham with his friends, 400 men

plus, they did what all those kings

couldn't do.

So the king of Sodom knew that he owed

Abraham big time.

So he said, "I want my people back.

Thank you. Thank you for getting my

people,

but [clears throat] you can have all the

stuff.

You risked your life. You deserved it."

What's Abraham's answer?

Those of you that know chapter 14,

he's basically saying, "I am not taking

anything from

not a shoel.

I'm not taking anything

except for the people who went with me

that aren't in my family, the other

neighbors that went with me in this

battle. You give them their share.

I'm not speaking for them.

But as for me,

nothing.

interesting uh conversation that they

have in that section. And Abraham was

very clear. There's no way I'm giving

you bragging rights and you're saying I

made Abraham rich. I don't want your

money. Don't want your stuff.

God will take care of me.

Now, that was a pretty big thing.

Abraham gave 10% to MelkiseDC, who was a

king priest out of worship. Thank you,

God, for getting me through this alive

and rescuing my nephew lot. And then he

gave all the other stuff to the people

there that he rescued and except for the

other people that went with him. How

much did he get? Zero. He got nothing.

He got nothing financially.

Risk his life.

He got nothing.

Now, after you make a decision like

that,

sometimes you have I think you obviously

did the right thing, but sometimes you

might have a little second guess.

So, that's where chapter 15 comes.

After these things, and that's the

things I just talked about,

after these things, the word of the Lord

came to Abraham in a vision,

saying, "Fear not, Abraham.

I am your shield and your exceedingly

great reward."

You did the right thing. You don't need

their money. We don't want their money.

you did the right thing in rescuing your

nephew and you did your right thing in

uh uh uh in not taking the money.

So that's the background God is saying,

"I'm enough. I'm your shield. I'm your

protector and I'm your reward. I'm your

provider. You got me. You don't need

it."

Now Abraham hears that and Abraham

remembers something.

I've been [clears throat] waiting on a

kid for 10 years.

I have no children.

I have no heirs.

So even if I keep all the stuff, even if

I have all this stuff and you're

providing for me, there's nobody to give

it to when I'm gone.

So he Abram said,"Lord God, what will

you give me seeing I go childless and

the heir of my house is this Eleazar of

Damascus?" Now Eleazar was one of

Abraham's servants, but he wasn't his

son.

So Abraham thinks, I don't have any

children to give anything to.

So, I'm doing the right thing and you're

going to provide for me and you're going

to protect me, but still I don't have an

heir.

Some of you may be in that condition

and that's okay. That's where Abraham

was. That's not a terrible place.

And Abraham said, "Behold, to me, you've

given no seed. I'm waiting, Lord.

When's the baby going to show up?

And he's going back to Genesis 12.

In you all nations of the earth will be

blessed. Well,

I'm going to make you a great nation. I

don't have a nation. I don't even have a

one child.

And behold,

one born in my house is my heir.

So, you promised I got the promise

from you and that's all I got. The

promise.

Have you ever lent people money and they

promise you to pay you back, but that's

all you get is the promise?

Yeah, they promise. They never get

around to paying. And so, what Abraham's

doing here, he's just reminding God of

the situation and how much time has

passed.

And here's God's answer. Behold, the

word of the Lord came to him, saying,

"This is not going to be your heir.

But he that will come forth out of your

own loins shall be your heir."

I know you're old. I know your wife's

old, but you're going to have a baby.

Now, God doesn't mention his wife here,

and that was something. And Abraham just

assumed, "Oh,

well, you promises to be, but maybe not

Sarah's going to be involved, so he gets

into trouble in chapter 16."

And God has to switch it. No, if I

promised you something, I promised your

wife, too.

But anyway, God says in verse four,

"Behold, the word of the Lord came to

him, saying, "This will not be your

heir, but he that'll come forth out of

your own loin shall be your heir." And

he brought him forth abroad and said,

'Look now toward heaven and count the

stars if you be able and number them.

And he said, "So shall your seed be.

You're worried about not having any

kids. Listen, you're going to have

millions of descendants."

And he believed in the Lord. There's our

text. What did he believe? He believed

what God said

and he that's the Lord counted it to him

for righteousness.

Now this text

is incredibly

important.

It's so important. It's foundational

and it's actually found in three

different verses in the New Testament in

three different books.

Why I say it's foundation.

So in three different places at least

this verse is referred to

and it's explicitly expounded and

applied

in the New Testament.

So the important thing for us is to look

at this verse and know it well. You

can't know the New Testament. You can't

know the theology of the New Testament

if you don't know this section.

It's just kind of vague.

Now,

let's think about this.

First, I have three points this morning.

If I know this in its context and in its

exposition and application in the Old

Testament, God help me when I read it to

apply it to the New Testament.

What's it mean? What's it mean? He

believed in the Lord and he the Lord

counted it to him for righteousness.

What does it mean? It means what it

meant.

Even when it's recorded in the New

Testament, it means what it meant.

And there's an expansion obviously, but

the expansion does not diminish the

original meaning. It means what it

meant. The New Testament writers and

21st century pastors

have to understand it means what it

meant.

That's true of the US Constitution,

right?

What does the Constitution mean?

It means the same thing your deed to

your house means. It means what it

meant.

what was the author's original intention

and so quite important

uh you can't change it.

You there's people that want to change

it. They want to have a living

interpretation of the constitution

always be changing it which means you

have no constitution just the opinion of

who's doing stuff

>> at the time. Would you want your house

deed to be interpreted that way? There's

a living interpretation

of your deed to your house.

You're not the only one that can live.

You can't do that for your OU or Hawking

College transcript.

I know it says a D, but it means an A.

No,

sorry. It's your transcript. It means

what [snorts] it meant.

you flagged that course. You're

embarrassed about it, but now the

employer finds out you flagged the

court.

So, first three points in our message.

Number one, what it meant originally to

Abraham

is recorded in the book of Genesis. What

it meant originally to Abraham is

recorded in the book of Genesis. Number

two, how is it used in the New Testament

2,000 years later? And number three, why

is it important for you and me today?

That's where we're going in the time.

So, there's so much backstory here. I

can't even get to all the backstory,

but what God did to res in his response

to Abraham's question is very important.

Having questions and having facts

are not incompatible with faith.

Abraham asks a legitimate question and

God gives him a wonderful answer.

Now there's a broader perspective here.

Uh

I am so thankful for this and I want to

just think about this with you just for

a moment.

The banishment from the Garden of Eden

was not God's final word to mankind.

The day you eat of it, you'll die.

That's it. No more history. No more

human history.

The banishment from the Garden of Eden

was not God's final word to man. God the

creator promised he'd bruise the

serpent's head. And even though the

serpent would bruise, the woman's seed's

healed.

worldwide judgment at Noah's flood was

not the final word from the creator

could have been.

It wasn't.

So, exile from the Garden of Eden was

not God's final word, although he said,

"In the day you eat, you'll die." Uh,

extermination by the flood was not God's

final word, although only eight people

survived.

and segregation by linguistic barriers

at the Tower of Babel was not God's

final word. None of those were God's

final answer. None of those were meant

to be the ultimate fix of the sin

problem.

Ratification of the Abrahamic covenant

is where we come to God's answer

to the sin problem.

the ultimate answer to the sin problem.

A baby's born. God incarnate becomes a

savior.

And when we see this verse in the New

Testament, we're realizing this is not

an offthe cuff thing. This was planned

before the foundation of the world and

known 4,000 years ago.

So the fresh beginning was not now

you're out of the garden, the sweat of

your brow, you got to uh eat of of the

ground and you're going to have trouble

in childbirth.

That wasn't a new that was a new start

and it was not the ultimate new start.

Neither was Noah's flood. We're down to

eight now. New start. Neither was the

scattering at the Tower of Babel.

It's the [clears throat] Abraham

is the new star.

All the others

were just to get us to here.

All the rest of the Bible comes off of

us.

I'm thankful for this new story

because Jesus is the ultimate seed of

Abraham

in which all the earth will be blessed.

one writer on this. It's I have a large

volume in my library that deals with Old

Testament and the New Testament. And

this writer said, "He represents God's

fresh beginning with the fallen world,

the display of God's mercy in God's

judgment. Abraham is one of the ungodly

whom God chose as a vehicle for his

saving purpose. a solitary, weak, and

defenseless individual who's made so by

the divine judgment on the human

unedited

human race. The childless, homeless,

wandering Abraham is the antithesis of

Adam who enjoyed the security and

fruitfulness of the garden. In this

fallen and frail figure, God the creator

takes up a fresh his a fresh surprising

work of blessing the world which now

stands under the curse.

So what a wonderful new start this is. I

hope you see Genesis that way. Do you

see this as a fresh start?

The the ultimate fresh start.

Now with that, let's see how this is

used in the New Testament.

Go with me to Romans chapter 4.

Romans 4 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 4.

Romans 4 · chapter mention

Paul uses it.

Remember chapters 1:3 of Romans. None

righteous know not one. All have sinned

come short of the glory of God. By the

deeds of the law, will no flesh be

justified in God's sight? For by the

laws and knowledge of sin, the ten

commandments aren't the answer.

Everybody's rejected creation. Everybody

fails when they try to obey the Bible.

And the answer is, of course,

in verse 21 of chapter 3. But now the

righteousness of God apart from the law

is manifested, being witnessed by the

law and the prophets, even the

righteousness of God, which is by faith

of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all

them that believe. There's no

difference. For all have sinned and are

come short of the glory of God, being

justified or declared righteous freely

by his grace through the redemption

that's in Christ Jesus,

whom God has set forth to be

propitiation through faith in his blood,

to declare his righteousness for the

remission of sins that are passed, to

declare, I say at this time, his

righteousness, that he might be just and

the justifier of him who what? Believes

in Jesus. Now, slip down to chapter

four. uh Paul of chapter 4 of Romans,

Paul says, "How was the first Jew saved

and the most famous Jew saved?

Not by works,

but by faith."

Not by works that they were doing for

God, but by faith in what God has said.

So in Romans chapter 4, it says, "What

Romans 4 · chapter mention

shall we say then that Abraham our

father is pertaining to the flesh has

found? For if Abraham were justified by

works, he has something of which to

glory. but not before God. What says the

scripture? There's our verse. Paul's

using it.

Paul's applying it to the legalist of

his day.

Abraham believed God and it was counted

to him for righteousness. Now to him

that works is the reward not reckoned of

grace but of debt. But to him that works

not, but believeth on him that justifies

the ungodly, his faith is counted for

righteousness.

What does Genesis say? Abraham believed

God and he counted it to him for

righteousness.

It's an interesting that same word

counted is used in Genesis when uh

when Judah

saw his daughter-in-law

thought she was a prostitute.

It says he counted her

of prostitute.

He didn't know, oh, that's my

daughter-in-law in disguise.

She had available.

So, he took one look at her and how she

was dressed and he said, there's a

prostitute.

He counted her a prostitute.

And it's the same word here where God

counts us. How does God look at you,

Christian?

Is he looking at all your sins you've

done? And there's Bill Hixon. There's a

there's a hard to draw to.

No, he looks upon me the way he looks on

Jesus.

Jesus's righteousness is put to my

account.

And so Paul is arguing here that the

first Jew, Abraham, and the best Jew,

David,

were justified by faith and not by

works. That's his argument.

Of course, David, he's the big sinner

with his adultery and murder.

He didn't have any righteousness that he

could brag about too much after that.

And so he says the best, the first Jew

and the best Jew. He's getting to David

in verse six.

Even as David describes the blessedness

of the man unto whom God imputes

righteousness apart from one

saying, "Blessed are they whose

iniquities are forgiven and whose sins

are covered. Blessed is the man to whom

the Lord will not impute sin." He's

quoting what? Psalm 32. Comes this

blessedness verse 9. on the circumcision

only or uncircumcision also. For we say

that faith was reckoned to Abraham for

righteousness. That's our section. He

was counted to him righteous. How was it

reckoned? When he was in circumcision or

uncircumcision. Abraham was not

circumcised in Genesis 15. He's not

circumcised till Genesis 17.

Years later,

God pronounced him righteous.

before he was circumcised.

It's very important because some people

trust in religious rights.

I'm baptized so I'm going to heaven.

That's no different than saying I'm

circumcised. I'm going to heaven.

Religious rights cannot save you. Even

if they're God-given and even if there's

something you should do.

You're not baptized. I hope you're not.

I hope you get baptized. I'd be glad to

baptize you if you know the Lord, but

prison won't save any more in

circumcision. He said,

still something you should do,

but it won't save you.

So God took circumcision seriously.

Moses got in trouble not circumcising

his son.

Talking the Old Testament,

but circumcision doesn't save. Religious

rights don't save. And there were people

in Paul's day that were thinking it was.

He says, "No, no, that's not the

program. The first Jew and the greatest

Jew were saved by grace through faith,

not through religious rights."

Now, if you want to impress an American

about something, uh, that's not George

Washington. That's not Abraham Lincoln.

That's what we're dealing with here,

right?

That's not Abraham. That's not David.

So that's where he's at. That's in the

book of Romans. So Paul quotes our text,

the major part of his theology. Turn to

Galatians chapter 3. We'll see it

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

appearing in Paul's letter to the

Galatians.

Galatians chapter 3

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

and verse 6.

And I don't have time to teach all this,

but Paul gives three arguments for the

gospel of grace. The autobiographical

argument is in chapter 1. The

theological argument is chap chapter 1

and two. The theological argument is

three and four. And the practical

argument is five and six. Paul has got

an airtight argument for the gospel of

grace rather than the Judaizers version.

And so you need to know the Bible when

you get to the uh biblical argument or

the theological argument. And Paul says

in uh chapter 3 verse 6, even as Abraham

believed God and it was counted to him

for righteousness. Oh, there's our verse

again.

It's in Romans 4. Now we see it again.

Know ye therefore that they were of

faith the same are the sons of Abraham

in scripture pursuing that God would

justify Gentiles through faith preached

before the gospel to Abraham in you all

nations will be blessed so then they who

are of faith are blessed with faithful

Abraham.

So Paul is very clear it's salvation is

not by religious rights even god-given

ones. It's by faith through grace

or by grace through faith is probably

the better way of putting it. Now go

back to James chapter 2

James 2 · chapter mention

and we see it again.

James and Paul are fighting different

errors. They're like two uh two uh

karate masters back to back fighting

different enemies. And not going to get

into all that, but James chapter 2:14,

"What does it profit, my brethren,

though man say he has faith and has no

works?" Can that kind of faith save him?

The faith that doesn't produce any

works?

If a brother or sister be naked or

destitute daily food, and one of you say

to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and

filled." Notwithstanding you give them

not the things that are needful for the

body, what does it profit? Even so,

faith, if it has not works, is dead. be

being alone. It's a dead faith. It's not

saving faith. It's not living faith.

Yeah. Man may say, "You have faith and I

have works. Show me your faith without

your works and I'll show you my faith by

your works." You do well to believe in

one God. You do well. The demons believe

and tremble.

You know, demons are

demons are higher than atheists

in their theological comprehension.

That's how bad atheism is. You're worse

than demon.

You're in greater darkness

than demon.

Trying to insult anybody that's an

atheist that hears my voice. I'm just

saying you are in

deep trouble.

You believe there's one God.

Even the demons know that's true.

So their doctrinal statement is way

beyond yours.

Your doctrinal statement there's no God.

Their doctrinal statement is there's one

God.

And they believe that and tremble

because they know we're in big trouble.

Better do all the sin we can because

it's going the party is going to be over

three times.

The demons believe and tremble. But will

you know, oh vain man, that faith

without works is dead? But saving worth

it? Saving faith is not without works.

Saving faith produces good works.

Was not Abraham our father justified by

works when he offered up Isaac his son

on the altar? See how faith wrought with

his works and by works was made perfect?

And the scripture was fulfilled which

said Abraham believed God and it was

imputed to him for righteousness and he

was called the friend of God.

So James uses the same verse. Do you see

how important Genesis 15:6 is?

Genesis 15:6

It's repeated three times in the New

Testament,

Romans, Galatians, and the book of

James.

Whether Paul's dealing with legalism or

antonyomianism or any other kind of ism,

he's back to this verse.

You see, the Bible connects wonderfully.

if it's read properly.

Warren Wearsby said, "Promises do us no

good unless we believe them and act on

them."

Promises do us no good unless we believe

on them, act.

And he goes on and says, "We're not

saved by making promises to God,

but by believing God's promises to us.

We're not saved by making promises to

God.

Salvation is believing God's promises to

us.

Isn't that what Genesis

15 is saying? Abraham believed God. He

believed what God promised

and was counted to him for

righteousness.

Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't make

promises to God. I'm not saying that.

I've decided to follow Jesus. I think we

should make promises to God. But you

know the problem with our promises we

break them sometimes. How many promises

have you made to God broke?

Salvation is not by our promises to God.

Salvation is because believing his

promises to us.

God help us to know that

there's a Lutheran uh Old Testament

scholar. He's with the Lord now, but his

name was HD Leopold. He taught at the

Capitol Seminary in Columbus back in the

1940s.

In writing on this verse, he said this.

Remember, he's Luther. It is nothing

short of amazing to find in the

patriarchal age so clear an answer to

the question, how can a man be justified

in the sight of God?

He's expounding on Genesis 15:6.

Genesis 15:6

And he had said here is the first

instance of the use of the word believe

in the scripture.

So in the first instance of the word

believe in scripture you see this whole

thing Abraham believed God and it it was

counted to him for righteousness.

You want to be righteous in God's sight

you got to believe God.

You got to believe God's promise.

[clears throat]

And Bruce Walke, Hebrew schol modern

Hebrew scholar, I think he's still

living. He said the back on Genesis

Genesis 15:6

15:6, the divine reck reckoning

qualifies Abraham to become the

recipient of a land grant to be

transmitted to his descendants.

He's going to talk about all that in

Genesis

15.

the descendants. Oh yeah, they're going

to go down to Egypt and be slaves.

They're going to come back. He said

descendants.

Harold Stiger said, "The p purposes of

the Lord are to be wrought out in

Abram's descendants in this land and in

no other."

you know, United Nations or the United

Nations, but the people that were

thinking about the Jews getting a land

of their own. At one time, they

suggested a place in Africa.

It's not the program.

That's not the program. God outlined the

program.

But thank God that Abraham believed the

promise about God and about the land and

about his descendants.

I mean, land without people isn't

worthless, right? I mean, think of an

agricultural economy. If you don't have

somebody to work the land, the land's

not doing you any good. It's a it's a

it's a it's a it's not an asset if you

don't have someone to work the land.

That's the whole book of Ruth. Land

without somebody to work the land

in an agricultural economy is a deficit,

not an asset.

So the land has to be worked. You have

to be lived on and worked. So God's

promising Abraham descendants in a land.

And he's promising your descendants are

going to get this land. And Abraham's

living for the future, not the present.

All he did was live in tents, waiting

for the promise, waiting for the babies

to be born, waiting for the and knowing

he's not going to see everything in his

lifetime.

Are you living in the present?

Are you living in the future?

Knowing the future and what God promises

his people should determine how you live

in the present.

Abraham

lived in tents.

He was willing to do that. He left the

house in a Caldes.

If you heard me say, archaeologist the

founder of Caldes and they even had

indoor plumbing 4,000 [clears throat]

years ago.

He left that to live in tents.

He wasn't thinking about the present as

much as the future. [clears throat]

And

Abraham was counted righteous when he

believed what God said.

James Denny was a Greek scholar over a

hundred years ago. He said the whole

Pauline gospel could be summed up in one

word. God justifies the ungodly.

and a Greek scholar at Robertson,

Southern Baptist Greek scholar almost a

hundred years ago when he was writing

whatever parallel exists between baptism

and circumstancism as here stated by

Paul argues for faith before baptism and

for baptism as the sign and seal of the

faith already had before baptism.

Absolutely right at Robertson.

Baptism won't do you any good if you

don't have pain.

Now, let's apply this now. Let's just

apply it a little bit. Are you saved?

Are you saved?

Are you righteous in God's sight right

now? As righteous as Christ in God's

sight right now, because you Christ

righteousness put to your account.

Do you believe what God said? Do you

take God at his word?

This is so important. This is so basic.

It's amazing that people can go to

church, go to church, get baptized, go

to church, even be a member of the

church, and they don't even know the

gospel.

Part of it's the preacher's fault.

They're not clear if there's fog in the

pulpit.

There's going to be fog in the pew.

And many are churchgoers, but they're

not Christians yet.

And that's that's all right. That's

that's good. If a person's not a

Christian yet, we want them in church.

We want as many up in here we can get.

But don't be satisfied

to meet God and say, God says, "Why

should I let you in my heaven?" Well, I

went to church.

But did you believe on my son?

No, I never got around to that.

Were you born again? No, I was never

born again.

Heard a lot of sermons though.

You know, it's very important.

We need to all believe what God says. I

hope everybody here is not a member of

our church would become a member of our

church. But church membership cannot

save you.

If you make a false profession,

fool the preacher, fool yourself.

William Kerry said, the missionary,

famous missionary William Kerry said

something interesting. He said, "I'm not

afraid of failure.

I'm afraid of succeeding in things that

don't matter."

Wow, that's a convicting statement.

succeeding at I'm not afraid of failure.

I am afraid of succeeding in things that

don't matter. Boy, does the devil throw

us a lot of things that don't matter.

And he lets us succeed.

Now, that doesn't mean all we got to do

all we should do is read the Bible and

witness and go to church. I'm not saying

that. I'm simply saying life is a full

life and it it's important to have a

full life. But

you can fool yourself. I'm good at this

and I've succeeded at this. So, life is

good. Just totally ignore your need for

the Lord Jesus Christ.

Many people today,

many people today could not say in God's

presence,

I'm a I've been a Bible reader.

They couldn't honestly say that.

And God wants us to not only know his

word, but to fellowship with his people,

but also to share the gospel

with people who are not yet his people.

But many people are very uh loose in

their connections with even God's people

or God's word. Someone said this, I just

read it. McDonald's can mess up your

order a hundred times and you still go

back. One wrong thing in a church and

you quit.

Well, there's going to churches aren't

going to do it right. The preachers not

always going to do it right. The

Christians aren't going to do it right.

You got an excuse now. Somebody didn't

shake my hand. Somebody didn't look at

me right. Somebody said something wrong.

I'm out of here.

But you go back to McDonald's. I was at

McDonald's for a tea this morning to

keep me awake.

I keep going back.

So somebody might say, "I don't need

Christ. I don't need the Bible or the

church. I'll save myself." You know

nothing of the Bible if that's your

idea. I do the Ten Commandments. You

know nothing of the Bible if that's your

idea.

You can have good intentions and good

desires to do the right thing. You can

even do the right thing and hurt other

people.

That's how goofy this world is.

I was reading today about a a fellow,

some of you may have heard of him. I may

be mispronouncing his name. He was

Thomas Midglay. He was an American

mechanical and uh chemical engineer. He

had a 100 patents to his name.

And his goal as a scientist was to do

good. He wanted to find things that

would help people.

And this man meant well. He died in 19

can't read my writing whether it was 94

or 44,

but he meant very well. But two of his

inventions

hurt more than anything else.

He invented leaded gasoline.

He invented Freon

and he was trying to solve problems with

his leaded gasoline. He solved that

problem but created another problem.

And with Freon, it was the same thing.

It solved one problem but then created

other things.

And he contracted polio in 1940. So it

was 44. And he invented a device to help

him get out of bed.

This guy was always inventing stuff,

even when he had polio. But then thei

device he invented, I'm sure it was a

good one, but somehow he messed up and

strangled himself

with it in his device.

Now, some say he committed suicide, some

said it was an accident. I don't know.

But either way, smart people

can with good intentions can mean well,

can be brilliant, can be sincere, to

want to help others, and want to do the

right thing and still mess up. Why? It's

a fallen world.

We're not omniresent. We're not

omnisient. We're not omnipotent. Only

God is that.

And even Paul said, "When I do good,

evil

is present with me." He was writing as a

Christian. Not talking about his

BC days. He's talking about as a

Christian.

[clears throat]

When I read this, I think of the hymn

that says, "Oh, to be saved from myself,

dear Lord.

Oh, to be lost in thee.

Now, the application of this sermon is

you have saving faith.

You have a faith that God recognizes.

Not talking about church or the pastor.

You have a faith that God recogn

God's made a promise and you said, "I'm

putting both feet on this promise. I'm

standing on the promises.

I take God at his word and he will make

me righteous. He will declare me

righteous. That will be my legal

standing. Being justified by faith, we

have peace with God through our Lord

Jesus Christ. And he who knew no sin,

that's Jesus, was made to be sin for us

that we might be made the righteousness

of God in him.

As the himmwriter said, dressed in,

speaking of Jesus, dressed in his

righteousness alone, faultless to stand

before the throne.

If you know that and you believe that,

you got your ticket for eternity.

[clears throat]

Martin Lloyd Jones, a congregational

preacher of the 20th 20th century, said,

"Nobody is good enough. The issue is not

our goodness. The issue is God's good."

There's a good God.

that wants to deal with people like you

and me. That God came and died at the

cross of Calvary

that he could take our sin and we could

get his righteousness.

So I hope that this this section has

been a help to you and I hope like Paul

you and James you will apply Genesis 6

156 to your life.

I don't want to have a fuzzy faith.

I want to have an informed faith.

I don't want to have fake faith. I want

to have real faith. I want to have a

God-given faith. It's a gift from God

where all of a sudden I trust him in his

word

in a way I never did before.

I take God at his word that he'll save

me for Jesus' sake.

I take God at his word that

those who trust in Christ will be saved

regardless of their past and their sin.

Oh, to be saved from myself, dear Lord.

Oh, to be lost in thee. Oh, that it

might be no more I but Christ that lives

in me.

If you're not saved, may God save you

today, right now. Where are you sick?

You can. He can do that.

But you hear Genesis 15:6, Abraham

Genesis 15:6

believed God. It was counted to him for

righteousness. Abraham got Christ

righteousness the moment he believed

God's father.

Still the way it works. There is no

other way.

Father, we thank you for your grace in

our lives.

If there's anybody here in this church

today or that's listening on YouTube or

online,

we pray that doesn't yet know you. We

pray

we bring them under deep conviction of

sin

and then look to the one who died for

our sins,

who took our sin that we could have his

righteousness

and put their faith in him and his work

for themselves.

and with tears in their eyes and in

their heart

they save me God

for Jesus sake.

Amen.