Two Journeys

As I begin this incredible section of Scripture, Romans 9-11, I'd like to begin with a question of context. I want to try to establish why Paul wrote these incredible chapters. And I think that understanding the context and understanding what Romans 9:10-11 is meaning to say in the flow of Romans, will be our best opportunity to understand it in its detail as well. This is always my desire to set scripture in context and to try to see it in its place.

And as I was thinking about why Paul wrote this, in my discernment of what that reason was, I was taken back to the darkest moment in our economic history. Some call it Black Tuesday. It was October 29th, 1929, the great stock market crash. It had been preceded by Black Thursday on October 24th when millions of shares had already passed hands and the market couldn't really stand another shock, but it received it that day, Black Tuesday, as $16 million shares of stock were sold at an ever downward spiral of value, as people began to look at their stocks and think that they have no value and in fact they didn't.

There was a panic and the stock ticker couldn't keep up with what was going on and people were shooting in the dark and guessing as to what to do and they were hearing rumors and terror overtook them. And they just started dumping their stocks and it just went out of control, and it began a slide economically. The stock market bottomed out in July of 1932. The market had peaked out at 381.17 and it bottomed out at 41.22. And it would be 22 years before it would recover all of the ground. This was the period of the Great Depression, a period in which people had no confidence in the economic system of the United States, no confidence in their banks, there would be runs on banks, and people would want all their money out, and the banks would have to close down, shut down because they didn't have all the money. You remember there was one of those in the movie, It's a Wonderful Life, that they show every Christmas time. And there is Jimmy Stewart and he's saying the money is not here, it's in your house and your...

But the confidence people were terrorized. They had no confidence in the bank and this was a worldwide problem. It wasn't just happening in the US. It actually had preceded the US in Europe, for example, in Germany, post World War I, Germany was going through a terrible time economically. 1923, unemployment had risen to 6 million in Germany and the value of the Deutsche Mark, and this is really astonishing was 4 trillion Deutsche mark to the dollar. If you had $1, you could get 4 trillion Deutsche Marks if you wanted them. As a matter of fact, the value of the Deutsche Mark was so low, if you held a single Deutsche Mark in your hand, of course, you would need barrels and barrels of these to buy anything of value. The story is told of a woman who had an overflowing basket full of German Deutsche Marks and she went to buy some bread and she left the basket outside, because it was so heavy. She came back to find that someone had stolen the basket and left the Deutsche Marks on the sidewalk.

There was absolutely no confidence in the Deutsche Mark, just as in the US, six years later, there'd be no confidence in stock. They looked at it as something of no value, there was nothing behind it. Now, I am not an economist, I'm not able to probe the depths of what caused all of this, but I think it is an illustration of why Paul wrote Romans 9, 10, and 11. If you look at Romans 9:6, I think this gets to the heart of the matter. In Romans 9:6, it says, "It is not as though God's word had failed." Do you see that? That is the key to this whole section. Paul is dealing with the confidence of the people of God in the word of God, confidence that we have, that God will keep his promises, that what God has said he will most certainly do.

And so Paul is dealing with a very significant issue, he's dealing with the question of the Jews. What about the Jews? Now, if you look in context of course, Romans 9 comes right after that magnificent Romans 8.  In Romans 8 there are incredibly lavish promises of God's undying love for us in Christ and it ends with an incredible crescendo, "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors, super conquerors through him who loved us for I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the past nor any powers, neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus."

Does Israel’s Rejection of Jesus Christ Invalidate the Word of God?

There it is, the promise of God. Now my questions, what's it worth? What's it worth? It's just words printed on a page. Why? Because look at the Jews, were they not God's people? Were they not his chosen nation? And the experience of Paul and of the early church is that the overwhelming majority of them were rejecting Christ. And if the doctrine is true about the Gospel, if you reject Christ, you are eternally condemned, separated from God eternally in hell. What a tragedy then. Has God's word failed? Did God make promises to Israel that he didn't fulfill? And if the answer to that question is yes, then let me ask you Gentiles, how do you know that God won't renege on his promises to you? Is Romans 8 worth the paper it's printed on? That's the issue. And so he's taking up the situation of the Jews and their manifest rejection of the Gospel, a rejection which for the most part in the same ways they did in Paul's day continues to this very day today. Does it invalidate the Word of God? Does it invalidate the promises of God? That is the question.

The Deepest Questions: Divine Sovereignty, Human Responsibility

Now, as we look at Romans 9, we come of course to one of the most astonishing chapters in the Bible, it's an incredible thing because here we're going to come to the issues, the deepest issues of God's sovereignty and of human responsibility. We're going to come to the issue of God's sovereign election before the foundation of the world, of the people to believe in him and also the topic of the vessels of wrath and how God's choice fits into that. And it really comes down to the question ultimately concerning our own salvation.

Is it up to me? Is it my will, my actions, the inclinations of my heart, my achievements, my will, my faith saves me? Or is it on the other hand, God's will, God's actions, God's sovereign choice? That is the question. And that's the issue that people have wrestled with for centuries and centuries. Now, I recognize that Romans 9 is difficult meat to chew and swallow. I did not come here in October of '98 and preach Romans 9. I didn't begin my ministry here even though at the time I believed then what I believe now about this chapter, and I believe many things about this chapter. One of the things I believe is that it's good and helpful and beneficial to the people of God. But there is a sequence and an order. And I feel, as a church we've come to the place where we can together investigate a challenging chapter of Scripture without recriminations and doubts and anger and frustration.

But I do not imagine that everybody sitting here today is in exactly the same place and that everybody sitting here today is exactly eager and open to accept the full doctrine of God's sovereignty over all aspects of salvation. I feel that we are probably all in a different place, and I believe there's not a person in here that respects and honors the sovereignty of our God sufficiently. I think, all of us are going to have a big step up on that topic when we see God enthroned, when we see him at last. So all of us have a journey to travel. So what I'm going to urge you to do here at the beginning of the message and then again at the end is take it slowly, take it piece by piece, take it in. Read the scriptures. Be the noble-minded Bereans who take Romans 9 back home and read it for yourself and see if it's so. I'm going to be preaching, I'm going to be doing the best I can to explain it as I do other passages of Scripture, but take it slowly, and chew it, and swallow it, and think about it.

Let it transform the way you look at God, but don't reject it out of hand. Try to understand it. Now, as you look at Romans 9-11, there is the question of, is it just an addendum, an insert, something that Paul stuck in there? Some might say, yes, it's an insert, and it's a dangerous one, it'd be better if we just went from Romans eight through Romans 12, let's just skip it just, whoosh, the bridge. Alright, go right to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. But we cannot do that. This is God's word, this is not Paul speaking to us. This is not Pastor Andy speaking to us. This is God saying things to us, that we need to hear his Word. And so we can't do that.

But some have advised that, people that I respect, for example, Philip Melanchthon who is Luther's right-hand man, a godly man, careful thinker in theology, wrote to John Calvin and advised him not to preach at all ever on predestination and election. It's just going to cause divisions, it's going to cause difficulties, don't do it. And Calvin didn't agree, neither did Luther, for that matter, but preached openly on these things. John Piper, a pastor in a Baptist denomination in the midwest relates that a young pastor in that same denomination was given advice by a denomination official in how to handle Romans 9, and he said, "There is a way to preach Romans 9 so that no one knows what you really believe."

Well, I could do that, too, but I don't think that would be beneficial. I'm going to fly my flag and tell you what I really think, but I really want you to do what you should do and that's be the Bereans, they go home and say if it's so, and discern and read through the scripture. The one thing I don't want is for you to ignore Romans 9, that's what I don't want you to do as though it isn't there.

Romans 9-11 is not Superfluous

Now we need to read it and understand it and take it in. It isn't superfluous, it isn't something extra. It is what God wanted to say through Paul in this matter. Now, this is the middle of a sermon series. You may say, "I've been here for years, and I don't remember Romans 8." Well, unless you were here on that special icy snowy day a few weeks ago when I kind of recapped Romans 8… What I did was I preached through Romans 1-4, and then took a year or so break and then preached Romans 5-8, and I've taken a several year break, and now we're resuming in Romans 9. So do not suppose that I am just choosing Romans 9 now because I really want to preach on Romans 9. I do but it's the next chapter.

The Gospel is the Power of God for Salvation

And so we need to understand there's been a flow and a development in Romans 1-8, up to this point, let's take a minute and find out what it was. In Romans 1:16-17, the Apostle Paul spoke of the Gospel and that's what we're talking about, the gospel, in Romans 1:16, he says, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile, for in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, from faith to faith just as is written, the just shall live by faith." That's kind of the theme of the whole Book of Romans, it's the gospel, it's power, righteousness from God as an imputed gift, the just shall live by faith.

The Universality of Human Sin

But then in Romans 1:18 up through 3:20, he goes through basically the doctrine of the universality of sin. The universality of sin, and he takes on the pagan, the Gentile idolater's in 1:18 through 1:32. These are the ones who exchange the truth of God for a lie, and worship and serve created things rather than the creator who's forever praised. Amen.

So they make this exchange, they worship idols, they become sexually perverted, they do all kinds of evil things and it culminates in a list of sins at the end of Romans 1, that shows the heart of a lost person. But then Paul takes on the religious person. I think we know that he's predominantly talking about Jews who had received the law in Romans 2, received the law, but they weren't keeping it, therefore they were essentially hypocrites in one sense outwardly looking moral, but inwardly corrupt. They were not keeping the law of God, and so they were under God's condemnation as well. It's not a matter of hearing the law but those who keep it, and no one is keeping it.

And so he sums it all up in Romans 3 saying, "What shall we conclude then? Are we [I think Jews, Paul speaking there as a Jewish man] any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one, no one who understands, no one who seeks God, all have turned aside, they have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one…" That's true of Jew and Gentile alike. So he sums it all up in Romans 3:23 saying, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

The Heart of the Gospel

But then comes the heated core that just the center of the Gospel, in Romans 3:21-27, and that is the presentation of Christ as a propitiation, a substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. God presented Christ in our place. Jesus died on the cross. He took on us, on himself the wrath and the curse of God, and he extinguished it, he drank our cup of wrath on the cross, and by simply believing in Jesus, we can be forgiven of all of our sins. That's the core of the Gospel message Romans 3:21-27.

Justification by Faith Alone

But then he goes on to talk about justification by faith alone. It is by believing in Jesus alone and not by any good works, not by good works that we are made right with God. Paul takes that on in Romans 4, and he points out that in Romans 4 even the patriarch Abraham discovered the same thing. It isn't a matter of being circumcised. Abraham was justified by simply hearing the promise of God, he heard the promise of God, he believed it, and it was credited to him as righteousness. He was made right in God's sight simply by hearing the Word of God and by believing. Let me stop there for a moment and tell you, can you see why Romans 9 is so important? Because if God's Word can't be trusted, if it's like buying a piece of the Brooklyn Bridge, you know if somebody comes up and offers you full ownership of the Brooklyn Bridge, I would urge you to investigate first, okay?

It's not likely to be valid, it's not likely to be worth the paper it's printed on. But God has come to us and has promised us things. And Abraham heard the promise of God, he believed it and it was credited to him as righteousness. That's the way we all get saved, by hearing and believing the promise of God. Can you see why God wants you to have absolute confidence that he keeps his promises? That's the essence of our faith.

Sin and Death in Adam – Grace and Life in Christ

Then in Romans 5, he talks about assurance, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and we have this whole assurance in Romans 5:1-11, then he takes on the deep doctrine of original sin and Adam, explaining in a significant way, how it is that all of us are sinful and how Jesus's death is similar to Adam's in that through him, through this one man, all of us, are made righteous, then he wrestles with the question of our daily lives, of struggling with sin, takes on that issue and talks about the doctrine of sanctification and how we grow step by step, walking with Jesus, trusting him, putting sin to death by the power of the Spirit. He then raises the question of the issue of the law and our battle with it and our battle with the flesh in Romans 7, and how much we struggle and will struggle with the flesh, and asking questions about the law. Do we just throw off the law or do we have to keep it and how does it work?

The Spirit-Filled Life of the Believer

And then culminates with that magnificent chapter, in Romans 8, the spirit-filled life, the role of the Holy Spirit, and the fact that we are free from condemnation, and we have the Spirit of sonship crying, Abba Father, within us, and we have a promise of glory that someday we're going to be as glorious as Jesus and therefore that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. We have full assurance that God will keep his promises, and someday we will be glorious, in heaven. Romans 1-8, magnificent.

What About the Jews?

But now he wants to ask, "What about the Jews? What about the Jews? Has God promised them things as well? And he's going to go over the benefits, the spiritual benefits of the Jews in Romans 9, and he's going to talk about them, but it harkens back to the earlier understanding that the Jews are God's people, his chosen people, for he said, in Deuteronomy 7:6-8, "You are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession." And so the Jews were his people, his treasured possession and now, overwhelmingly, they are rejecting the Gospel.

Now, I want to tell you that this is so beautifully Paul's standard procedure. Paul will lay out doctrine and then he will pause, and he will ask hard questions against the doctrine he's just laid out and then answer those questions. He does it again and again. On the issue, for example, of circumcision earlier in Romans 4, he raises up the question. Do you have to be circumcised in order to be righteous? No. What did Abraham find? He was justified before he was circumcised. He raises up the question, you see. And then later in Romans 5:20, he makes a beautiful statement. There he says, "Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more." Well, what do our tricky devious little minds do with that statement? Well then, why don't we just go on sinning so that grace may increase? Let's have a grace party. Let's just sin and sin and sin so that grace can just be flowing. We want to see a lot of that grace. So we'll do the sin part and God will do the grace part.

So, Paul raises that question against his doctrine and he answers it beautifully in Romans 6, saying that we died with Christ, thus we died to sin. Then he raises up the question about the law. He says, "Well, if we're not under law, then is the law sin?" Is there something wrong with the law? No, he answers that one as well. You see what he does, he's raising questions. He does the same thing at the end of Romans 8 again and again, what then shall we say in response to this question mark? If God is for us, who can be against us, question mark? This is what he does, and we're going to see him do it in Romans 9 as well. We're going to see him raise up the very questions that will be in your mind and then he answer them.

What then shall we say, is God unjust? May it never be, he's going to raise up these questions. Well then, why does God still find fault or who resists his will? He answers that one, this is what he does. And what question is he raising against his own doctrine? Well, if in Romans 1-8, it's all based on the promises of God, it's all based on God and his ability to keep his promises. What about his treasured possession? What about the Jews? That is the question he is answering. And so he's bringing this up, he's facing the Jewish question. Now, Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, he was a Jewish man, he was a Pharisee, a Hebrew of Hebrews, he called himself, but he was God's chosen instrument to go out to the Gentiles, and so he's going out there and everywhere he's ministering he's dealing with Jewish opposition. He is facing Jews that are in his face, and so therefore he has had to test his doctrine against Jewish questions. He's kind of battle-hardened in this area. He's dealt with these questions and he's going to continue dealing with the question of the Jews, and he does it in a very beautiful way here very winsomely. Look at the beginning of Romans 9, he says there, "I speak the truth in Christ. I'm not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers those of my own race, the people of Israel."

Do you see how he identifies himself with the Jews? "…My brothers those of my own race, the people of Israel." Well, he does the same thing at the end of chapter 10, look at that, chapter 10:1-2, he says, "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved." See that? "For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, that their zeal is not based on knowledge." So again, identifying himself with the Jews, praying for them, loving them, concerned about them. And then in chapter 11, he does the same thing again. Chapter 11:1, "I ask then, did God reject his people? By no means, I am an Israelite myself a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin." Do you see how he's identifying himself? Chapter 9:1 and following chapter 10:1-2, chapter 11:1 and following, he's identifying himself with the Jews, he's reaching out to them. He wants his people to be saved, but he wants to deal with this question, the question of the Jews. He's also dealing with the possibility of Gentile arrogance. Oh, how wicked are our hearts and how prideful and how ready for us to feel as Gentiles, that we now are God's chosen people and they're out, they've been rejected. And so he's going to bring up and explain how the Jews still fit into God's plan. He's rejecting any sense of arrogance because frankly, arrogance is the very thing that destroyed the Jews anyway, that arrogant sense that they didn't need God.

Ultimately, he wants unity in the Roman church, he's going to talk about that in Romans 14 and 15. He wants one church, he wants people together, Jew and Gentile together, concerned, loving each other, so he's facing the Jewish question.

Now, the central issue as I mentioned in this text is the vindication of God and his word. Let's start with the topic of the vindication of God, look at Romans 9:14. In Romans 9:14, it asked this question, What shall we say then? Is God unjust? Do you see that question? My feeling is that this is going to be the first thought that will come into some people's minds when you get to certain passages of the scripture. You're going to think that's not fair, that's not just, that's not right. And Paul is going to deal with that question.

It matters to Paul whether you think or we as the readers of Paul's epistle think that God's unjust, that's why he deals with the question. And so this is what you call theodicy, the justification of God, showing that he is righteous in all the things that he does. That's a concern for Paul. He also as mentioned in verse 6, wants to vindicate God's word. "It is not as though God's Word had failed," so that's the center of it all. God would be justified that he would be shown to be righteous and just in all that he does, and that his word would prove to be trustworthy and worthy of your faith and your confidence.

Now behind that are some major themes, major themes. What are those major themes? Well, the tragedy of Jewish rejection of the Gospel, we're going to talk about that God willing next week and the week after. It is a great sorrow to Paul, that they're rejecting the Gospel, and it's incredibly important that Paul has that sorrow. It shows you a lot about him and about the nature of what he's talking about. Another theme, of course, is the theme of God's freedom and absolute sovereignty in election.

Not just that God is sovereign, not just that he chooses people to believe in him, but that he has the absolute freedom to do so, that he has the freedom and the right as king and creator of the universe to do whatever he wants with what he's made. This is a vision of God that's hard for us to accept, is it not? It's a struggle for us to think of a God that's that free. We like to think of ourselves as the captain of our fate and the master of our soul. Let God have all the rest, but this is mine. But the Scripture says otherwise, the Scripture says that God is the king. So not merely that there is such a thing as predestination, not merely that there is such a thing as election, but that God has the full right to do it without consulting you first. He doesn't need to have a poll. He's not running the universe by an opinion poll unlike some leaders who might seek to do that. God doesn't do that rather he is the king.

Thirdly, Paul desires to vindicate his Gospel as rooted in the Old Testament. Now it's remarkable Paul is a thoroughly rooted Old Testament scholar, he's writing these New Testament epistles, but one New Testament scholar went through his 12 epistles and counted all of the open quotations of the Old Testament in those 12 epistles, came up with 89 quotations. Of those 89, 27 are found in these three chapters, that's remarkable over a third in the three chapters we're studying here. Paul is clearly at pains to show that his doctrine is consistent with Old Testament Revelation. He is not preaching a God different than Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's preaching a continuation of what they did. It's not an innovation here, it's not a new doctrine. He's teaching the Word of God consistently.

Fourth, another theme is the danger of misunderstanding and misusing doctrine. This is a grave danger. The Jews misunderstood and misapplied the doctrine that they were God's chosen people, they thought that simply because they were the descendants of Abraham, they were fine spiritually, and John the Baptist was the one who had to say, "Do not begin to say to yourselves we have Abraham as our father. I tell you that out of these stones, God can raise up children for Abraham."

They were misunderstanding their choice, the choice as God's chosen people, they thought it meant that every single individual Jew was safe and sound to live however they wanted and they would be fine spiritually, they misunderstood that. But he's also attacking the Gentile arrogance that says, "Well, apparently we are the people now." That we're God's people now because the Gospel is doing so well among the Gentile, so God doesn't need the Jews. In both cases he's really zeroing in on pride and arrogance, pride and arrogance.

The Glory and Mystery of God’s Eternal Purpose

Romans 9-11 is the antidote to human pride. It destroys our pride and brings us low. And then finally the glory and majesty of God's eternal purpose. Above all, Paul wants all of us, you and me both alike as we study this to come with a vision of God and his greatness, and his majesty and the mystery of his purposes, and so he ends up with this incredible statement in Romans 11, "O, the depth of the riches, the wisdom, and the knowledge of God, how in searchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out. Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen." That's where he wants you to end up, glorifying God as he really is, not a pale reflection of God that you perhaps maybe learned in Sunday school, or in a false teaching sort of way, but the real God, the God that there really is, the one who sits on his throne and rules over all things.

And you know what that tells me? It tells me never, never think that you have Romans 9 down pat. I got that figured out. Never say, "I've heard some good sermons on Romans 9, I got it down." Well, let me tell you something, the one who wrote it, said, "I don't get it." I mean, that's my take on it, alright. He gets to the end of Romans 9-11, and he says, "O, the depth of the riches, the wisdom, and knowledge of God. How unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out." What does that tell you? Paul's saying in a fancy way, I don't get it, not fully. I don't reject it, I accept it, but I don't get it fully. You're not going to get it all. I won't get it all but we should study it nonetheless, shouldn't we? Should we not take in the meat of the word. Should we not chew it, meditate on it, let it have its work in us? I think we should.

Now, what is Paul's argument here briefly? I'll just give you a quick overview of Romans 9-11. It's going to go in six steps. He's going to start with talking about his anguish, his personal anguish for his lost kinsmen, 9:1-5.

Secondly, he's going to zero in on what I've told you is the key concept for this whole thing. God's Word has not failed as a key concept, and he's going to explain why it hasn't failed in Romans 9:6-29.

Thirdly, he's going to talk about the Jews that they stumble over the Gospel, personal faith in Christ, the simple Gospel, they stumble over it, while the Gentiles are streaming in and have been for 2000 years now. But in Paul's argument in his day the Jews are stumbling while the Gentiles are streaming.

Fourth, he's going to make the absolute statement and then explain it that God has not rejected his people, he's not done with national Israel. He's not done with the physical descendants of Abraham.

Fifth, he's going to give us a mystery, he's going to tell us that God uses and then ends Israel's hardening in part concerning the Gospel. God hardens Israel in part. He uses it for his ends, and then he will bring it to an end at the end of the world, and this is a mystery. And so the Jews are experiencing a hardening and then that hardening will end.

And then six, the proper response as I just mentioned, awe-struck praise of God's eternal plan.

Now, as we look at these units, the second one, I think, is probably the one that causes us the greatest interest and concern and that is, that God's Word has not failed. In Romans 9:6, he says, "It is not as though God's word had failed, for not all who are descended from Israel are Israel." In effect, what God is going to say in there is, "I never promised, I never made a promise that every single, individual, biological descendant of Abraham would go to heaven, and therefore my word has not failed." And we talked about this the last time when we're looking at Genesis and you have the contrast of Isaac and Ishmael, and then again the contrast of Jacob and Esau, but he's going to go deeper. Paul (or really God through Paul) says, "But why Isaac and not Ishmael? Why Jacob and not Esau?" And that's the very issue that we're going to be looking at over the next few weeks.

Now, as we look at this overall, what application can we take to it? Can I just strike to the heart of this matter and ask you, first of all, be patient with yourself and with your preacher, okay?  We are going through the deepest strongest texts that there are. I think it's ironic that on Sunday evenings, I'm going through Hebrew 6, which is every bit is difficult and tough on the other side of the issue of God's sovereignty and human responsibility. So if you want like a double dose of meat come tonight to Hebrew 6. I didn't plan that, God seems to have, but there it is. We're doing Romans 9 on Sunday mornings in Hebrews 6 in the evening, but this is incredible stuff.

Therefore, I'm asking you if there's something I say or something that seems to be coming out of the text, you know like, "Whoa, that can't be right." I urge you to take it back. Read it over, pray it through, think about it, give yourself time. I'm not expecting that at the end of two weeks, we'll all be on the same page on sovereignty and election.

The Benefits of Studying These Difficult Scriptures

Second of all, can I urge you to understand the benefits that come from studying this? There are incredible benefits that come from this. Now you say, "Why are we going through this?" Well, some of you aren't. You just know that we're going to go through it, because it's the next chapter in Romans, and that's a delight. We're going through it because all Scriptures is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. We're going through it because we need it, but I think there are three great benefits that come from understanding this. First is an astonishing vision of God as he really is. And I can't tell you how much that's going to help you in life, it's going to help you across the board. It's going to help you when you're facing trials, facing medical issues, facing employment issues, facing relationship struggles, facing anything you may face in this life. The first thing that helps you the most is a sense of God on his throne, ruling the universe, and that vision comes so beautifully out of Romans 9.

The second thing, benefit that comes from this is amazing security for the believer. Amen? You look at it and you say, God has spoken life to me. He's promised me in Christ that I will be raised from the dead on that final day, that Jesus will lose none of all that he has given, but raise them up at the last day. I have absolute security, because I am not trusting in myself, but in God who raises the dead and what's the third benefit that comes from studying Romans 9? Total humility.

You know when you get to the end of Romans 9 and 10 and 11, you look at that and you take it in, you accept its message, you know what it leaves you? A miserable, wretched, sinner with nothing to offer, saved by God's sovereign grace. And you know what? I think that vision helps you almost as much as the other one does.

We were studying in Sunday school this morning talking about Peter's denial and how confident he was in himself. Oh, self-confidence is the enemy of the Gospel. Romans 9 slays self-confidence and we need it done. So what I ask you to do is humble yourself, study carefully, and accept the fact that God wants you to know Romans 9, and let's roll up our sleeves and try to understand it.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Genesis 25. Abraham, the father of many nations, had a lasting legacy of two sorts, the physical and the spiritual descendants. 

This will be the last sermon I'll preach in this series on Genesis. We began this time in chapter 12 and up through Chapter 25, so in one sense, really just tracing out the life of Abraham. And in this chapter, Abraham dies, but the focus of the whole chapter is really on Abraham's legacy. We’re going to try to understand the entire chapter as a whole, not just the death of Abraham, but his legacy in the world.

After the last two presidential elections, experts say that we live in a deeply divided nation. They speak of red states and blue states. If you don't know which kind you live in, just look at maps. They are available on the internet. Doesn’t really matter, but you are in this or that kind of state, they'll tell you. And after the last presidential election, some members of the media were willing to acknowledge, it seems to me for the first time that religious and moral issues were at the core of the motives for many of the votes cast. Moral issues like abortion, fetal STEM research, gay marriage, showed up high in post-election polls in key states. Now some experts, as I look at this say that the division is so deep that it can never be repaired, that essentially we look at the world differently, that there are substantial world views so different, diametrically opposed from one another that we can scarcely co-exist in America.

And some say this is a new phenomenon. However, almost 4000 years ago, two pre-born infants shared the same tiny space inside their mothers womb. They struggled together, fighting, pushing, shoving, motion opposing motion, little knowing that their physical struggles represented forever a timeless and spiritual struggle. That struggle, in my opinion, is of far more eternal significance than any political struggle in any single nation at any moment in history. That struggle is over the existence and the purposes and promises of God himself. Now, those two infants were born and grew to be men who looked at life radically differently from one another, one would embrace and love the physical world as though it was all there is. He would live for a good bowl of soup, for an exciting hunt, for the smell of the fields early in the morning, for the love of a beautiful woman at night. He was a sinner, unconcerned with a savior, and his name was Esau. 

The other would live a reflective life, musing on how to take the cleverest advantage of any situation handed to him. He would meditate on the promises that were made to his father, Isaac and his grandfather Abraham, and he would come to cherish them as unspeakably precious. He would suffer greatly as a result of his conniving cleverness to make those promises come to pass, he would wrestle against God and win, and he would limp the rest of his life because of the struggle. He was a sinner, desperate for a savior, and He trusted him, and his name was Jacob. 

Now, pre-born Jacob and pre-born Esau inside Rebecca's small womb, struggling against each other, represent generations of believers and unbelievers sharing this small planet in the midst of the cosmos, trying to live life together, looking at things very differently from one another. We drive on the same roads, we shop in the same store. For small periods of time, we stand in the same elevators, we share a very small space together, we attend the same sporting events, some of us root for the same sporting teams, and we enjoy the same good meals and good experiences in this world, but we see everything differently from one another.

This, in my opinion, is the unifying story of Genesis 25. Big picture. This is what Genesis 25 is about. We are two manner of people in the King James version of the verse on the cover of your bulletin. We are two manner of people, it says in Verse 23, “And the LORD said unto her, ‘Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated.’” We are two manner of people. And this was Abraham's lasting legacy.

Now, as you look at Abraham's lasting legacy, he was called the father of many nations. This is, as I mentioned in Genesis 25, the final chapter of Abraham's earthly life, and he had a lasting legacy of two sorts or two kinds. 

There was Abraham's physical legacy, he was the father of many nations physically. He had lots of sons who themselves had even more sons, and so they became nations. He was the father of many nations. But he also had a spiritual legacy, a timeless example of a faith-filled life, a faith-filled son, Isaac, to carry on God's promises, and all of those unfulfilled promises that God had made to him. For example, in Genesis 12:3, that first one, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” That's an unfulfilled promise when Abraham dies here in Genesis 25, now ultimately fulfilled in that latter son of Abraham, Jesus Christ, as it says in Matthew 1:1, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham.” And so Jesus, the Son of Abraham, fulfills Genesis 12:3, that through Abraham's offspring, all peoples on earth will be blessed.

Now the significance of this chapter is how these two legacies fit together. How do Abraham's physical descendants relate to his spiritual descendants? How do they fit together? Not all of Abraham's physical descendants cherish the promises made to Abraham their father. Not all of Abraham's physical descendants have faith. But all of Abraham's physical descendants are blessed in this life in some way by God himself, and all of Abraham's physical descendants experience the kindness of God the creator, and all of Abraham's physical descendants sin and stand in danger of the wrath of God. On the one hand, you have Isaac. On the other hand, you have Ishmael. On the one hand, you have Jacob, on the other hand, you have Esau, all four appearing in this chapter. 

On the one hand, Isaac and Jacob were sinners who knew God who believed Him, who cherished and trusted in the promises made to their father, Abraham. They lived for a place in the eternal city of God. On the other hand, Ishmael and Esau, were sinners who did not know God, did not trust in Him, despised the promise is made to their father, Abraham, they lived for earthly pleasures, earthly blessings, earthly stuff. And yet all of them were descendants of Abraham. They had to coexist in God's physical world for a while.

Now, let's look at the chapter and just kind of overview it, so you get a sense of what's here. In verses 1-6, we have the account of the rest of Abraham's family. Keturah and her sons. More on Keturah in a moment. But here is Keturah, another wife of Abraham and her sons. Verses 7-10, we have at last the death and the burial of Abraham. In verse 11, the statement of God's blessing on Isaac. In verses 12-18, we have God's blessings on Ishmael, how God blessed Ishmael. In verses 19-34, collectively, we have the birth and development of Jacob and Esau. Verse 19-21, Rebecca's bareness, the story of her bareness, and Isaac's effective prayer to God concerning that bareness. Verse 22-23, Rebecca's suffering as the twins within her womb were pushing and poking and prodding, and she was in some pain and wanted to know what was going on, and so God gave her the prophetic answer we've already mentioned concerning two manner of people within her. Verses 24-26, Jacob and Esau were born and they are described. In verses 27-28, we see Jacob and Esau developed up to adulthood and they are described, and then in verses 29-34, we have the account of what I call the most expensive bowl of stew in history. That's the entire chapter. 

Now, let's dig in and see if we can understand it. First, Abraham's fleshly children. God made a promise to Abraham in Genesis 17:5. In Genesis 17:5, God said to Abram, at that time, “No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.” That's a promise. Now, at that point, he was not the father of a multitude of nations, but that was a prophetic word that some day he would be the father of many nations. It was a prophecy. Patriarchs of many nations are mentioned right in this chapter, Genesis 25, so this is a clear fulfillment of God's prophecy in Genesis 17, It's come to pass, it's beginning to come to pass by the time we have Genesis 24 written, and yet in the midst of it, God clearly identified which of Abraham's many sons alone was to be the child of promise. Look at verse 5. It says “Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac.” And again, in verse 11, it speaks of the blessing of Isaac: “After Abraham's death, God blessed his son Isaac, who then lived near Beer Lahai Roi.” And so there's clearly a singling out of Isaac, the child of the promise, he's the one who's gonna take on his father's spiritual legacy.

Now a key biblical point, essential to this sermon and to the next many that I'll be preaching in Romans 9, and that's where we're going. I preached through four chapters of Romans 1-4, took a break, preached five through eight to the long break, and now we're going back to Romans 9, and I think it seems a reasonable bridge from Genesis 25 right over to Romans 9, because the whole issue of Jacob and Esau is foundational to the argument Paul makes in Romans 9 as we'll see. I’m not gonna develop that fully today because we'll have a chance to develop it fully when we look at Romans 9. But in Romans 9:6-8, Paul says this: “It is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring.”  I think Genesis 25 is key for seeing that. We have lots of children of Abraham in Genesis 25, but we got the blessing on Isaac.

Now, who is Keturah? In verse 1, we meet Keturah. Verse 1, it says, “Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah.” She's called a wife there in verse one. 1 Chronicles calls her, however, a concubine. I don't really know what a concubine is, I have to be honest with you. I read about them in the Bible, but how they're different from a wife, I don't know. But there in 1 Chronicles, she's called a concubine: “The sons born to Keturah, Abraham's concubine: Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah. The sons of Jokshan: Sheba and Dedan.” It is a disturbing thought, isn't it, that Abraham had another wife after Sarah. Even more disturbing was I thought that Isaac was a miracle baby on both sides of the equation. So it's presented to us in Romans 4. Abraham, it says in Romans 4, “…he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead — since he was about a hundred years old — and that Sarah's womb was also dead.” You see, it's not just Sarah, but Abraham. And there Paul is really playing up the fact that God has power to give life to the dead. And he says, just as he made Abraham's dead body come alive so that he could father a child, so he will make your dead body come up out of the grave and give you resurrection and eternal life.

That's the point he's making, but both Abraham and Sarah were dead in some manner of speaking. Abraham's body was as good as dead since he was about 100 years old. Sarah's womb also dead. Well, how then does he father these children with Keturah after the fact? Well, interpreters, conservative interpreters take two approaches, one, as they say, it wasn't after the fact, this happened earlier, but it's only being reported now. So he married Keturah while Sarah was still alive. Well, that's troubling in other ways now, isn't it? Okay. 

The other is that God so thoroughly and completely healed his good-as-dead body, that he was able to go on in a rather normal way and father other children after that, but that Isaac himself was still a child of the promise, a supernatural baby that would never have been born if the Holy Spirit hadn't worked. I'm not totally satisfied with either one of those explanations, but what can you do. There is Keturah, and so we're trying to understand it.

You're saying this is what happens in this church, I come in not having any problems at all with these texts, and then I go out having deep questions, and I never even noticed that there was a difficulty here. But we need to face these things head on, even if we don't have good answers. Henry Morris put it this way: “When God heals, he heals completely, restoring the injured member or diseased organ back to full soundness again. In order to father a son in his old age, Abraham’s reproductive system had to be rejuvenated. The one-hundred-year-old man became a man of thirty or forty again, in that respect at least.” Well, that's Henry Morris’s explanation. That's good enough for me, I guess, at this point. But at least we say this: we have sons by Keturah.

Now, who are these sons by Keturah? Well, the answer is they’re six more nations. Really, six more nations. He was the father of many nations. And if you look at the names, and if you know enough of some of the Scriptures, the Old Testament, you'll start to recognize some of them. Zimran, Jokshan, Medan... Well, here's Midian, for example. Does that sound familiar, Midian? Alright there's the Midianites from whom came Jethro, the priest of Midian, who took Moses in when he was fleeing from Pharaoh and became Moses' father-in-law. But then later, things turn sour between the Midianites and the Israelites, of course. They attacked and opposed the Israelites as they were on their way to the promised land, and then later formed raiding parties and swept in so fiercely and savagely that the Israelites in the Promised Land are living up, in the Book of Judges, living up in mountains and caves, and Gideon has to come rescue them. These are the Midianites. So the clear lesson is, not all who are descended physically from Abraham are children of the promise. These folks were Israel's bitter enemies. 

And then in the same chapter, you've got Ishmael and his sons. We’ve already met Ishmael in Genesis 16, but remember at that time that his mother, Hagar, was Sarah’s maid and she became pregnant by Abraham and she was told that Ishmael would be, you remember, a wild donkey of a man, and that his hand would be against everyone and everyone's hand would be against him. Remember also in Genesis 17, Abraham's prayer for Ishmael. Genesis 17:18-21 says, “And Abraham said to God, ‘If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!’ Then God said, ‘Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers [that’s Ishmael, the father of twelve rulers], and I will make him into a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.’” Genesis 17. 

And so descendants of Ishmael are reported here in Genesis 25. And they're also very significant in the Bible. The Ishmaelites lived in Arabia, and they moved in caravans through the desert, they were desert dwellers. It was the Ishmaelites that bought Joseph from his hate-filled brothers and carried him down to Egypt and sold him to Potiphar. Ishmaelites did that. If you look at the names, Nabiath, Kedar, Tema, Dedan, they're all mentioned later in Isaiah. You probably don't know that, but it's kind of fun to get a concordance and look. These folks show up later in Isaiah's prophecy. However, like sons of Keturah, they are usually seen as enemies of God, enemies of God's people, with one key exception that I'll mention at the end of the message. 

And then thirdly, you have in this chapter Esau, Esau himself, one of the twin sons of Isaac and Rebecca, but ultimately he became the paradigm example of a faithless unbeliever, a godless man. And so all of these folks in this chapter that I'm mentioning here are physically descended from Abraham, and yet despise the promises that God made to Abraham. Keturah’s sons, Ishmael's sons, Esau, they descended physically from Abraham. They were children according to the flesh, but they are examples of pagan nations, of unbelievers, Romans 9:8, remember the key lesson. Romans 9:8 “…it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring.”

Alright, now let's talk for a moment about Abraham's spiritual children. We've looked at his children according to the flesh. What about his spiritual children? Well, they're called children of the promise. They represent the elect, the saved, the believers, the Lord's people, Christ's sheep. There's a lot of different ways of speaking of them. Galatians 3, child of the slave woman versus the child of the free woman, that's the language used there. Isaac is the example here. A first of one of Abraham's spiritual children. He is a faith-filled heir of the promises, and he's blessed by the Lord. He’s the miracle son. He’s the paradigm of a child born not by the flesh, but by the Spirit. He is the heir of all of Abraham's possessions. Look at verses 5-6. It says “Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac. But while he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.” So the sons of the concubines are not left out. But they are not heirs and they don't get the blessings that Isaac gets.

More significantly, much more significantly, Isaac is the heir of the promises God made to Abraham. He's his spiritual heir, most of which had still not been fulfilled. It says in Romans 4:13, “Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world…” Isn't that incredible? Think about that: heir of the world! The meek will inherit the earth, Jesus said. And so in Romans 4:13, Abraham's spiritual descendants, they're heir of the world, and Isaac represented that. Isaac was also especially an inheritor of a lifestyle of faith, a way of living that was different than those around him, a lifestyle of faith trusting in God and turning to God to help solve life's problems. Look, for example, at Verse 21, It says there, “Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.”

So, by the way, this is much superior to what Abraham did when Sarah was barren. You remember she gave the advice, "Why don't you go sleep with Hagar?” What does Isaac do? He said, "Let's turn this to the Lord in prayer, let's pray about this.” And how much superior is that, and God blessed in an amazing way. Isaac's prayer then displays the characteristic of the children of God. By faith looking up to God, asking Him to meet life's challenges, in prayer, trusting, not with self-confident actions or with sinful response. We also see it in Rebecca's prayer. She also is a faith-filled godly woman, and so when she's troubled by the jostling that's going on in her womb, what does she do but turn to God in prayer. And she wants to know what's going on. Verse 22, “The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, "Why is this happening to me?" So she went to inquire of the LORD.” So this is a lifestyle of faith, the way of addressing the problems of this world by faith. 

Now, especially, though, Isaac was heir of an outlook on this world, which is based in faith. We just see this world and the next one differently than people who have no faith. We see sunrises and sunsets, and meals and warmth and family — we see all of those things differently because of our faith, and especially because we know this world, this physical world, is not all there is. There's something beyond it. And Isaac was an heir of that way of looking at the world. 

And it's talked about in Hebrews 11, the faith chapter. And there in Hebrews 11, verse 9 and following, it says, “By faith [Abraham] made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. … All these people [Abraham, Isaac, Jacob] were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers [in this world].” That's just a way of looking at the world that we have as believers. This is not our home, we're just passing through. And the earthly blessings and comforts we get along the way are not the ultimate end of our soul. They come and go, but our soul lasts forever in Christ. And so Isaac lived that way of looking. For all of this, Isaac was said to be blessed by the Lord, verse 11, as I mentioned. God blessed his son, Isaac, with that outlook of faith. 

We see it also in Jacob. Now, we're not going to be tracing out the life of Jacob at this point. We’re jumping off the Genesis train before we go on with Jacob. That’s a long story that goes right to the end of the book. And God willing, maybe in the future, we’ll come back and look at Jacob. But you know his story, you're familiar with him and how he lived this. He was a conniver, he really was, he was a con artist, but he was also blessed by the Lord. Just like Isaac, Jacob would be heir of the same lifestyle of faith and of the promises made to Abraham. Unlike Isaac, Jacob was a conniver and a con artist who tried to use his own cleverness to accomplish God's purposes. But still he cherished the promises of his father, Abraham, and of God, and He cherished and trusted in those promises and lived accordingly. 

Alright, now, we've got two manner of people then, do you see it? Physical descendants, and then the spiritual ones. What is common between the two? John F. Kennedy in his commencement address at American University, June 10, 1963, this was the height of the Cold War, just eight months removed from the Cuban Missile Crisis, a time when American students were hiding under their desks regularly in missile drills, really a kind of a terrifying time in which it was really easy to forget that Russians were really human beings, just like us. And John F Kennedy preached this address, commencement address, and he said this: “… in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.” Well, that's what I'm getting at here. What do we share in common with the Ishmaels and the Esaus that we live with every day?

Well, Abraham's spiritual children, fleshly children, share some common experiences. Both experienced physical birth, obviously. They’re born physically, and Jacob and Esau, sharing that same little womb, pretty soon are gonna have to experience the stabbing brilliant light that hits the eyes for us. You wonder what that must be like for an infant, the first vision of light, the no longer muffled sounds, the first experience of physical pain perhaps, or at least at that level; breathing. They went through it together, and those experiences symbolized their physical life. They have bodily lives with physical needs, air and water, and food and warmth, protection, love, parenting, education. These would be common.

Secondly, both would face physical death. Both would face a physical death. At the end of, the other end of their lifespan waits the specter of death for everyone. Most obviously in this chapter is Abraham's death. Abraham dies right in this chapter. Look at verses 7-8: “Altogether, Abraham lived a hundred and seventy-five years. Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered to his people.” Now, this is really striking. Frankly it could have been a whole sermon into itself. Abraham was called God's friend. He walked with God, he was faithful to God, he loved God, he cherished God and God loved him, and yet he died. He died physically. “For the wages of sin is death…”, it says in Romans 6:23. And Hebrews 9-27 says, “It is appointed unto man to die once and after that, to face judgment.”

That is our lot. Even Abraham had to go through it. No one is exempt from the humiliation and suffering of death. So we've been visiting nursing homes and hospitals, I've spoken to some of those I go visiting with, and we talk about this and say, Well, I always remember as I'm walking through these halls, I'm heading towards something like this, probably, if the Lord doesn't take me in my young age. And that's humbling. We're all heading there. That's where we're going. Happened to Abraham. It'll happen to us. All of us share that.

Now, Abraham seems to have been let out easily. He lived, it says, a good full life and died full of years and was gathered to his people. These are kind of comforting words, but he died nonetheless. Remember that it says in Psalm 116:15, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” And so it's a cherished and precious thing, even if they die violently as martyrs, it's still precious in God's sight.

And both Isaac and Ishmael shared the experience of standing over their dead father's body and looking down at this patriarch, dead. What must have been going through their minds? You know, it's a scary thing when you bury your father. You know, you’re the next in line. The generation is removed and now responsibility is yours. And so Isaac took on the responsibility of being kind of the head, patriarchal head, of God's redemptive community, his covenant community. He was next in line, and it must have been a striking thing. Both Isaac and Ishmael shared that experience. Death comes to everybody, believer and unbeliever alike. 

Thirdly, both enjoy earthly blessings. God loves all human beings in some ways. He loves all human beings in some general ways. When I speak this way, I speak of the doctrine of common grace blessings. These are blessings given to people who never acknowledge God for those blessings, never give thanks to Him, don't even know he's giving them to them. But he gives them nonetheless. And so Jesus said, “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect” when it comes to loving your enemies. “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” So the sunrise and the rain, examples of common grace blessings that God gives to everybody, regardless of their spiritual standing. God loves people in this way.

Your five senses are saturated every day with the goodness of God, are they not? We should never forget that. The rich flavor of roasted meat — that's what they loved back then; the sweet fragrance of a rose, the laughter of children playing, the warmth of the sun on your face, softness of a warm blanket, the joy of seeing your wife smile or feeling your father's strong hug when you're a little child. The wonder of a line of marching ants carrying something, as long it's not part of your house, that not so much... But even that's kind of amazing and wonderful in a different way — call the exterminator. But just an amazing thing. We all get to watch it. Or the majesty of a soaring eagle riding on a thermal and never flapping its wings, I find that amazing just to watch it, and God puts that display on for everybody; everybody can look at it. 

The memory of the funny things your children said and did when they were little, or are still saying and doing now, and the happy anticipation of good times with friends, God lavishes earthly blessings on the elect and non-elect alike, on the righteous and unrighteous alike, on the believer and unbeliever alike. 

Fourth, both experience earthly pain. Both experience earthly pain and suffering. Both elect non-elect have to bury loved ones and grieve their loss as Isaac and Ishmael did. Both the elect non-elect have to struggle with family conflict as Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau all experienced. Both elect a non-elect have physical illnesses, even grievous physical illnesses, bodily weariness and fatigue. Both elect non-elect have great disappointments and plans that go awry, so you don't get what you want. 

And fifth, both are sinful and in need of a savior. Both the elect and non-elect are sinful and in need of a savior. Esau was a sinner. He had very little interest in spiritual things, seemingly no walk with God whatsoever. He was what some would call a good old boy who liked a good hunt. He liked a bowl of stew, he liked the smell of the field. None of those things are wrong because Isaac liked them too. He enjoyed the game that his son brought back, but Esau, he had pride and anger and lust and laziness and selfishness and covetousness; he twisted the truth and exaggerated and slandered his neighbors and enjoyed gossip. And more than anything, he lived a life independent from God. 

Jacob was a sinner. He cold-heartedly took advantage of his brother's hunger and swindled his brother out of his birthright. Later, he would cold-heartedly take advantage of his father's blindness and swindle his brother out of his blessing. Jacob saw the value of the promises of God, but He sinfully sought to bring them about by his own conniving lying ways. And like Esau, his heart was sinful, as are all human hearts. He had pride and anger and lust and laziness and selfishness; and liked gossip and slander; twisted the truth and needed a savior.

Most common spiritual connection between the elect and non-elect is this: neither one has any claim on the thrice Holy God for anything. We don't deserve a thing except wrath. That is common between us. “As it is written [in Romans 3]: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.’” And it says in another place, in Romans 11:32, “For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.” What does that mean? No one will be standing on Judgment Day, saying, "I made it to heaven my way." No, no, no. Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. That's what's going to happen.

So what is different between the two? Well, God's electing purpose and the lifestyle of faith that comes as a result of that. God's electing purpose. 

You know, it says, “Before the twins were born…” Look at Romans 9, you don't have to turn there, but just listen. Romans 9:10, it says, “Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad — in order that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls — she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ Just as it is written: ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’” Romans 9:10-13.

And note the key phrase there: “in order that God's purpose in election might stand.” Like I said, we'll have more time to get into that shortly in Romans 9. But Paul’s proof is that God statement to Rebecca happened before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad. It was not based on their history or track record, but based on God's purpose in election in the end. That is the ultimate difference between Jacob and Esau. Not because Jacob had something that God couldn't have given to Esau.

Secondly, though, we do see a clear distinction, and it is highlighted in Genesis 25, in the way that each of them lived, and frankly, and the way each of them believed. Look again at the most expensive bowl of stew in history: “Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, "Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I'm famished!" (That is why he was also called Edom.) [How would you like to be named after stew? I mean, that’s really striking, when you're named after stew, it's pretty bad, that's the big achievement of your life that you really like red stew, or at least that you traded your birth right for it. Verse 31:] Jacob replied, ‘First sell me your birthright.’ ‘Look, I am about to die,’ Esau said. "What good is the birthright to me?’ [Talk about tyranny of the urgent, you know? I seriously doubt that there was not enough fat stored up in his body to make it through that experience of hunger, but all he knew is his stomach was growling and he needed to eat something, and the birthright meant nothing to him.]“But Jacob [persisted], "Swear to me first." So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. [So he got some bread in addition. So that's good. Actually, Jeremy and I have talked a lot about whether the stew was even any good or not. It would be just like the devil to sell your birthright for stew that wasn't even that very good. It's a debate back and forth sometimes, and I think it's really, really good, that's kind of the devil's way, so you get enticed into more... I think it probably wasn't. That's my guess. I don't know what kind of a cook Jacob was, but does it really matter? All we know is that he looked on the stew as more valuable than the birthright. And it says,] He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.”  

That is huge, it's huge. The birthright represented the connection with the promises of God, with Abraham and Isaac, with all that God had said he was going to do with those promises that were as yet unfulfilled, and it says, the Hebrew there, “despised” means “thought little of, blew off.” It was nothing to him. Lightweight, appraised it's weight and threw it out. He despised it. And it says in 1 Samuel 2:30, “But now the LORD declares: ‘Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me [same Hebrew word] will be disdained.’” You honor God, consider him weighty and worth something, you will be honored, but if on the other hand, you despise him — and that's what it was; the birthright was God. It was His promises — and he despised it. That's why the text highlights it. So Esau despised his birthright. It's big, what he did. All Esau cared about was his stomach. He lived a godless, faithless life. Hebrews 12:16-17 says this: “See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.”

Now, Jacob was a man of faith in this one regard: he cherished and valued and yearned for the fulfillment of the promises of God. His sinfulness came in, as I've mentioned, in how he went about trying by his own strength to fulfill them. Esau cared nothing for the promises made to Abraham and Isaac. The basic disposition of soul that differed from Jacob and Esau was faith. That was the difference.

Now, key lesson from all of this: Your earthly father does not determine your eternal destiny. It's not biological, it's spiritual. Not those who are born, but those who are born again. It’s not a physical lineage, but a spiritual one that we're talking about here. Not all Abraham's physical descendants are accepted by God. This is the very issue that Paul is gonna wrestle with in Romans 9-11: Just 'cause you're Jewish doesn't mean you're going to heaven. He's gonna deal with that. That's the topic of Romans 9-11. We'll get to that, God willing, next week. So not all of Abraham's physical descendants are accepted by God.

Conversely, though, not all of Ishmael’s and Esau's descendants are rejected by God. Isn't that marvelous? Look this one up later, but listen, Isaiah 42:10-12 — I love this: “Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who live in them. Let the desert and its towns raise their voices; let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice. Let the people of Sela sing for joy; let them shout from the mountaintops. Let them give glory to the LORD and proclaim his praise in the islands.”

Kedar, Sela, who are they? Well, you know. Kedar was Ishmael's second born, Sela was a city in Edom, an Edomite place. Descendants of Esau. Isaiah is prophesying a time when there will be some from Kedar and some from Esau praising God from the heart.  He says it again later in Isaiah 60:7, “All Kedar's flocks will be gathered to you [speaking to the Lord], the rams of Nebaioth will serve you; they will be accepted as offerings on my altar, and I will adorn my glorious temple.” You say, "What does that mean? The Rams of Nabaioth. Well, Nabaioth is Ishmael's first born. Look right here in Genesis 25. He's Ishmael's first born. Some day, some descendants of Nabaioth are gonna be praising God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, praising Him from their hearts. And some day they will adorn God's glorious temple. 

Therefore, summing up, first essential issue, God's purpose in election, as we will see in Romans 9 — the secondary essential issue, hearing God's promises with faith — but the overarching issue is God's glory in the salvation of elect from every nation.

As it says in Revelation 7:9-10, “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” Through faith in Jesus Christ, in the blood that he shed on the cross, there will be people from every tribe and language, and people and nation, including descendants of Ishmael and descendants of Esau, standing before God praising Him for salvation. Amen! And so therefore, it's not who your physical father is. It’s not being born in the right family. It's being born again into the family of God.

Now, what application can we take from this? Well, first, accept this: two manners of people live in this world. Two manners of people live in this world. Don't expect all the red states to get blue or all the blue states to get red or whatever it is. It’s two manners of people are gonna live in this world: the saved and the unsaved, the elect and the non-elect. It’s the way it is. 

Secondly, understand what we share in common with people around us who are unsaved. We share all the joys and sorrows of physical life on earth from birth to death and everything in between.

Third, expect problems from living in a mixed world. Expect problems. Don't be shocked or surprised when people who are not Christians have interesting world views that are different from yours and expect problems from that.

Humbly accept this simple fact: both elect and non-elect share the same wicked and evil heart and are desperately in need of a savior. Where, then, is boasting, brothers and sisters in Christ? There is none. 

Humbly acknowledge that in some significant way, some unsaved people may excel us in some interesting and key virtues. There could be some Hindus that are more generous to the poor than we are. There could be some Muslims that are more zealous and willing to die for their faith than we are. There could be some atheists that are more intellectually acute and hard-working than we are. But let me tell you something: love for the poor and generosity to them, zeal for the faith and willingness to die for it, and intellectual sharpness and hard work do not save your soul. What can wash away your sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ alone saves souls. 

We are surrounded by Esaus everyday. Grieve for them. Grieve for them, as Paul does in Philippians 3:18. He says, “…or, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.” [Grieve for them. Paul says, “I say it with tears.” He'll say it in Romans 9, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.”] But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”

And know this, that God has the power through the Gospel of Jesus Christ to save even the most wretched looking Esau-like person. You don't know who the elect and non-elect are. You just don't. They don't wear E's on their forehead. I've never seen that. I don't know who they are. I do know that God can save a wretchedly Esau living person. He's done it again and again and again. And so this gives us tremendous hope in evangelism. It doesn't matter how entrapped in an Esau-like lifestyle they are, how enslaved to some sin they are. Jesus can free them; he can liberate them. 

Resolve not to live your life like Esau, as though this world is all there is. Don't build your life on a sandy foundation, which can, like Job, get swept away in a day, because everything physical can be taken away as Job experienced. Physical earthly blessings are blessings from God, but he can take them away or give them as he chooses and not be any less loving to any of us, and I include in that physical health, loved ones that are still alive and around us and blessing us everyday, material possessions, jobs, all that stuff is fair game. God owns it all. Don't live for those things as though they were all there is in this world. Make instead the promises of God through Christ, the center of your being. 

And finally hunger and thirst for the day when Jesus will clean it all up and there will no longer be in his kingdom, two manner of people. Listen to the prophecy He gives us plainly in Matthew 13:41-43 “The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a verse-by-verse expository sermon on Genesis 24. The main subject of the sermon is how God provides spouses for His people.

If you would open your Bibles to Genesis 24, this really is the third of three sermons on Genesis 24, the longest chapter in Genesis. And if you want to get my treatment of the whole thing, you'd have to listen to all three messages. The sad thing is there have been a number of weeks in between, so it's hard to see the flow. But in the first week, we unfolded the chapter and looked at it, section by section, looked at what happened in the account. The second week of considering Genesis 24, we looked at it theologically, got some principles from it. This really is a week of application. So it will end up feeling like a different kind of message than I usually preach. I'm not going to be going text by text, verse by verse. Not everything I say is going to be immediately connected to a text of Scripture. So it's gonna end up feeling much like application the whole way. But that's alright, because I think we need the applications to our modern life and to our everyday way of living that the Scripture gives us.

I was reading a wonderful book on courtship and on marriage called Her Hand in Marriage by Douglas Wilson, and he ends the book with a wonderful parable, and I wanna begin my message with that parable: 

            As my horse trotted wearily up the road, I could see the walls of a beautiful garden ahead. Outside the gate was an equally beautiful woman. At the sound of my greeting, she turned and dropped a curtsy. “Good sir. . . good morning.”

            I looked at her, and then at the garden walls extending out to the right and left. Behind her was the garden gate. I said, “I am very thirsty. . . for something clean.” She smiled, and her smile made me thirstier still. But she said nothing. “Is there water here?” I asked.

“There is a stream within my garden.” Her statement was simply a statement of fact; there was no invitation at all in it.

            I asked, “May I come in and drink?”

            “No,” she said. “The lord of my mother’s garden does not permit that.”

            “Why is this? Other women have let me drink from the gardens that they tend.” I glanced at the fruit-laden branches which were visible over the top of the garden wall. “You have a lovely garden, but those who let me drink had gardens just as beautiful.”

            She laughed at this, and her laugh was merry indeed. “I have no doubt that you have been in some lovely gardens. But was the water clean?”

            “No,” I said, and in spite of myself, turned my head and looked down.

            She continued with a question. “Is that why you are no longer in the gardens tended by these women?”

            I was ashamed so I did not answer her. Instead I looked past her into the garden. The path through the gate disappeared after a few feet, leaving the view of anyone on the road. “It seems like a shame for such a garden to go to waste.”

            She seemed both puzzled and amused. “How does it go to waste?”

            “Does any man drink from your stream?”

            “No, but no man fouls it either.”

            “But is that not a waste? Was not your stream made to quench the thirst of travelers?”

            “I’m afraid you are seriously mistaken. It was made to quench the thirst, not of travelers, but of the lord of the garden.”

            “Oh,” I said, “This garden has a lord?”

            “No,” she said.

            “Then I don't understand. Are you speaking in riddles?”

            She smiled. “No, I do not. The garden will one day have a lord, although it does not yet. The stream is for him alone.”

            “And who will your lord be?”

            “When my mother’s lord gives a-blessing, the one whom I appoint.”

            “How can the lesser appoint the greater?”

            “How can it not be so? When my lord comes, I will grant to him my garden. But until I do, he is just another traveler.”

            “And what do you look for? I am sure there are many who knock at your gate.”

            At this she blushed slightly but looked straight at me. “I will not have a lord who does not have a lord himself — my lord must have taken an oath of fealty to the Landlord.”

            “The Landlord? Who is he?”

            “He is the owner of all the gardens along this road. In order to come into my garden, my lord must take an oath before the Landlord to tend the garden well. He must also swear that he will enter no other garden.”

            I had never heard such words as these before. “How long must he stay out of other gardens?”

            “Forever.”

            “But what if he is born to travel?”

            “Then he is not born for my garden.”

            “I see,” I said, becoming a little angry. “Then why have I never heard of such an oath? I have been in many gardens.”

            “Yes, you said that before. But was the water clean? Were the gardens tended? That is what happens when there is no oath.”

            “So that is all? If someone takes an oath before this Landlord, you will make them your lord?”

            “No.”

            “Well, what else then?”

            “There are many men who think they can tend my garden well, and who would be willing to swear an oath before the Landlord saying so. But that does not mean that my mother’s lord, or I, share their confidence.”

            “What do you mean?”

            “I mean that I know the extent of the garden. I have a knowledge of it that cannot be gained from the road. But no man can share that knowledge until after I have made him my lord and husband. So I must have the measure of the man before.”

            “So what must a man do? It seems like much work.”

            She smiled once again. “There is much work. There is also much fruit.”

            “So what must a man do?”

            “The first thing is to—”

            “Yes, I know; He must swear to the Landlord. But after?”

            “He must return to me, and ask to see my mother’s lord.”

            “And what would he say?”

            “That depends on the man.”

            At this parting comment, she turned and walked slowly back into the garden, pulling the gate closed behind her. I spurred my horse, which began to trot down the road. I did not know what to think, but I needed to find this Landlord.

Isn't that a marvelous parable? It's an incredible insight, I think, that Douglas Wilson has into marriage and into the way that it should be. But the way that sadly it isn't. It reminds us, it seems of a day gone by, a day in which daughters were protected by their fathers and held in special purity until they were given in marriage, a day when a father stood up on that special day and answered the question, “Who gives this woman to be married to this man?” When the sweet culmination of all of his efforts for years and years results in this statement, “I do. Her mother and I have shaped and prepared this precious gift for this man. We have protected her chastity; we can vouch for her purity. Furthermore, we have thoroughly investigated him. We have found him mature and godly, fully ready to support her and the children that they will bear together. We deem that he will lead her and be a godly Christlike head to her. Therefore trusting in the Lord, I give her, I give this man, to be his wife. Henceforth, she will submit to his godly headship; she will be his.” Those days of courtship and purity seem to be gone forever, but I believe they are not. And it's in that confidence that I stand before you today. The basis of my statements come from the things we've learned in Genesis 24. 

Now, Genesis 24 consists of an account of God's gift to Isaac and that was precious Rebekah. Now we talked about how Abraham charged his servant to go and to find a wife for his son Isaac in verses 1-9. And Abraham's servant went, in obedience to his master Abraham, went on a journey, went back to Abraham's ancestral home. And he prayed a model prayer, trusting in God to lead him to the right woman for Isaac, and God answered providentially. And immediately, he wasn't made to wait, but she was provided immediately. Rebekah watered the camels. The servant, having talked to her a little bit, knew that she was the one. Then Rebekah's family learned of God's providence in verses 28-49. And in verses 50-60, they submit to God's providence. She agrees, as you heard in the reading, to go back with the servant. She sees Isaac, Isaac sees her, she covers herself with the veil. He takes her into her mother's position in the group and into her tent; they are married, and it says that he loved her. 

And so we see from that point on the unfolding of their beautiful marriage together. It's a story of God's marvelous gift, of His provision of Rebekah, for Isaac. Well, that's the way it was then. We've talked, as I said already, in two sermons about Biblical principles that can be drawn from it.

Now I want to apply it to what's going on today. I want to critique the modern scene. What is happening today? Well, first of all, recreational dating is assumed. It's just assumed that people, it's just as normal as apple pie and growing up and learning to drive and all that, that people are going to date recreationally. As a matter of fact, some Christian families consider themselves especially moral if they wait until 16 or 17 to allow their children to go out on these recreational dates. Well, what is recreational dating? Well, it's the practice of members of the opposite sex who are unprepared and or unwilling to be married, spending intentional time alone for the sole purpose of recreation.

Part of this system assumes certain privileges accruing as time goes on, usually of a physical nature, beginning with hand holding and then kissing and hugging and long times alone with no accountability, more and more privileges that used to be given only to a spouse. The Christian parents are more or less left totally out of the picture and ever increasingly so, wringing their hands as they send off their daughter in the car of a young man, hoping they trained her well enough to resist his inevitable advances. That's the modern scene. 

What is recreational dating? Well, Jonathan Lindvall says, " The essence of dating is flirting. Dating is recreational romance in which each party intentionally endeavors to cultivate the other's desire, while recognizing the relationship is most likely temporary.” Douglas Wilson, in his book that I mentioned, Her Hand in Marriage, puts it this way : “Consider how our system works. A young man notices a girl who attracts him. He asks her out and she agrees. They start going together, and one of two things happens. Either they like each other or they don’t, and both possibilities bring problems in their train. If neither one likes the other, then they have both had a bad experience. If they both hit it off, then the eventual temptation to immorality is strong, especially if they happened to pair off young — fourteen, say. ‘Glad you kids like each other! Now don’t touch anything for eight more years!’ ‘Okay, Mom!’ And of course if one is interested and the other isn’t, the possibilities for emotional snarls and interesting complications is almost endless.” 

So what happens? We go through these recreational dating patterns. And then as we get older and older, we start to feel that we're ready for our soul mate, our soulmate. In the Christian context, that means a wife, or a husband — a spouse. And so having been through all of these relationships, we're ready now to search for a spouse. That’s recreational dating described. 

What are the dangers of this system? I see four. The longer a couple stays together, the greater the possibility for serious damage in each of these four areas or in some of them. First, of course, there's sexual immorality. There is the ever escalating pressure for sexual immorality. God's standards never change. And our culture, the culture that's surrounding Christian people, is supersaturated with sexual innuendo and bad examples, and displays, whether in movies, television, printed media, whatever, all of it pulling us toward immorality. The problem... One of the problems with the church today is that we give young people just enough Christianity to make them feel horribly guilty if they should cave in, but not enough Christianity to protect them ahead of time. Part of my goal today is to help protect ahead of time. That's my desire. So first, sexual immorality.

Secondly, emotional damage. Even if there's no direct immorality, even if the couple maintains purity, the recreational dating system results in a tremendous amount of emotional pain. Proverbs 4:23 says, "Above all else, guard your heart. For from it, flows the wellspring of life." This verse commands us to set, as it were, a protective wall around our hearts so that we are protected from hurt lest our springs be stolen or corrupted, sounds a little bit like the parable we heard at the beginning. Guard your heart, protect yourself. Too many people involved in recreational dating find their hearts being stolen and hurt. And this repeated pattern results in agony, has a hardening effect on the heart.

Lindvall puts it this way. "In breaking up these two hearts that have begun bonding, are ripped apart, they each leave the relationship with at least some degree of heartbreak. They might either display varying degrees of emotional devastation, or simply toughen their feelings. Either way, they leave the relationship emotionally wounded or scarred. But soon, the pain of breaking up is forgotten as they develop a new romance with a different partner. In time, however, this relationship results in another heartbreak and more emotional wounds that leaves scars. Over a period of several years, a young person will experience a number of such emotional bonds being severed. Some of the romances are serious, and others admittedly so casual that breaking up is hardly painful at all, yet the cumulative effect is that the young people's hearts are becoming increasingly calloused. That's the second danger, emotional damage. 

The third is what some people call divorce training. Divorce training. People go from one committed relationship to the next, learning how to say goodbye to the boyfriend or girlfriend who for a time was the center of their world. Some songs even make light of this whole thing. You may remember Paul Simon's Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover: "You just slip out the back, Jack. Make a new plan, Stan. Don't need to be coy, Roy." I'm not gonna sing it, but anyway you know the song, "Just get yourself free hop on the bus, Gus. You don't need to discuss much. Just drop off the key, Lee. And get yourself free."

You just know how to do it. You know how to get out of a relationship. Well, after years of bouncing from one relationship to the next, the person has formed the techniques of breaking off a significant relationship. And the fourth is overemphasis on the emotion or passion of love. What the song sing about all the time. The feelings, which are very much there and should be part of a relationship, but are they the foundation of a marriage? Is that a good bedrock on which to build the structure, the feelings, the passions? When I was growing up, I remember watching this movie with my parents, and maybe some of you older folks have seen it, South Pacific. It talks there about some enchanted evening, when you'll see a stranger across a crowded room, and you're gonna walk across that room, and you're gonna meet your true love. And from then on, you're gonna be together. And if you miss her that night, you will have missed your life's true love. Well, that doesn't seem Biblical to me. It doesn't seem the right way to go about finding a spouse, on some enchanted evening or waiting for that enchanted evening, or endlessly reading about such enchanted evenings until finally you meet your prince. Is this the right way to do it? It doesn't seem that way. It seems rather that there's a more solid, more Biblical foundation of a young man and a young woman getting together. 

Now, the core idea of dating is that we're going to marry the one we love. We're going to fall in love and get married. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage. That's how it works. That's the order. That's in the Bible somewhere, I'm sure isn't it? I haven't found it. But anyway, that's the order.

Interestingly, though, if you still have your Bibles open, look at Genesis 24:67. Genesis 24:67. It says there, "Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother, Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her." Now isn't that amazing? She became his wife, and he loved her. You know, some godly people will say, “I didn't really know what love was until I've been married a number of years. I wouldn't really say I even truly love my wife,” they will say, “when I stood at the altar. I wanted to. I wanted to learn, but I didn't know what Ephesians 5 Christ-like love was until I got married.” And that's the love that is a solid foundation, and it takes years to develop and grow in that kind of love. The feelings that happen on that “some enchanted evening across a crowded room are important, but they're no solid foundation for a lasting relationship.” 

Now, exceptions can perhaps sometimes prove the rule. You may say, “Well, you know, that's the way I found my spouse.” That is literally true in the case of the preacher. That's how we found it. It wasn't exactly like that.  But it is possible to go through the recreational dating scene. There was no other way that I was aware of when I was growing up. This is the way it was. What I'm preaching today, I didn't know anything about, and many of you probably have never heard anything about it either. So, you know, some people actually are able to avoid the deep pain, the scarring, they're able to avoid sexual immorality, they're able to find a godly spouse, they're able to settle down and have a model marriage.It can happen. But Douglas Wilson, in his typically humorous style, critiqued that as well. He said people survive plane crashes too, some of them without a scratch, and we should all be happy about it. But this acknowledgement does not disqualify us from opposing the general habit of crashing airplanes.

So I think I agree with that humorous comment, I think that the whole system needs to be looked at again. What is happening there? What is going on?  Nowadays, there is a good, but I would call inadequate trend against Christian dating. Jonathan Harris, in his book I Kissed Dating Goodbye and other books advocating the similar themes. Some of them are better than others, but many of them miss some key elements. For example, the father's role, the Biblical role of the father in protecting the purity and chastity of the daughter before marriage, the covenant nature of marriage and the normative nature of marriage, that marriage is essential to God's redemptive plan. Not in the same way it was for Isaac and Rebekah — they were unique in God's redemptive history but still essential to God's redemptive plan. These books more talk about freedom to serve Christ and waiting until you meet the right one and all that, and those things are important, and they are lesser blessings, I think, but they miss these core values of what marriage really is. 

I'd like to advocate a better way, and right from the start... I don't know what to call it. Alright. I've had long discussions with Jeremy about the word courtship, and it has its problems (the term, I mean — “courtship”). Wilson puts it this way, "For some, courtship means that we must all become retro prairie muffins. The one being courted wears a gingham dress and a bonnet, and the one courting rides his horse over from the Taylor Ranch after church on Sunday, and there they sit on the front porch, swinging and drinking lemonade." 

Is that what courtship is? That sounds kind of old-fashioned. Well, some go even further back to the days of Camelot and a knight and the fair maiden and all that kind of thing. If you really find out what courtship was like back then, frequently she was married to somebody else, and so that whole thing has some baggage to it as well. So what term are we going to use? Courtship, others advocate the term Biblical dating, but dating has so much of a bankruptcy to it, I think, that you really almost wanna get away from that term entirely, and so we end up with the gingham dress courtship thing, until we come up with a better term. And I don't really know what that term would be. I think until we develop a culture of doing this thing Biblically, a single man and a woman getting together in a Biblical pattern, we're not really gonna have a terminology for it, but that's what I'm talking about. How does God provide spouses for his people? That's the title of the sermon. That's what we're talking about. If we wanna call it courtship, fine. If you have another term, come and talk to me after the service. I'd like to know what it would be. 

But what do I mean by courtship? Well, let me give this definition. Courtship is the process by which a young man initiates the formation of a relationship in submission to a young woman's father's authority with the goal of assessing whether God is leading the two to get married. Let me say that again. Courtship is the process by which a young man initiates the formation of a relationship in submission to a young woman's father's authority with the goal of assessing whether God is leading the two to get married.

Now, the key changes or understandings here would be, number one, the parental role, especially that of the father, but parental role, keeping them in the center of the process until the marriage is formed, and also the seeing of marriage as a covenantal relationship, essential and central to God's unfolding plan of redemption in the world. Those things are central. And so a man and woman getting together is hugely significant in God's redemptive history. It was in Genesis 24. That's why there are 67 verses in here about it. It's still significant today, not in the same way it was for Isaac and Rebekah, because you are not the son, the physical descendant of Abraham, the child, the promise. And so Isaac played a role in redemptive history that no one else in history will ever play, but it's still immensely significant. 

Now, let's talk about the issue of parental role in the Children's marriage. There are some modern expectations for Christian parents. There are some expectations for Christian parents. For example, role modeling, or along with that, along the way, some — not too much — some instruction and advice. And then at the right point, freedom and trust to make your own decisions in important matters, non-interference, total approval and acceptance of whatever decision that you make, and then money. You need to pay for the wedding, which can run on average about $27,000, okay? So there it is: role modeling, some instruction and advice, freedom and trust to make your own decisions, non-interference, approval and acceptance, and money to pay for the wedding. 

The night before Jenny was born, Christi and I went out and saw a movie. It was called Father of the Bride with Steve Martin. Bad mistake. I wish we'd seen something else. Some of you have seen the movie, but basically it's a remake of an older movie, and Steve Martin and his wife are sitting at the dinner table with their, newly returned from Europe, daughter. She's had all kinds of new experiences, she's so excited and all that, and oh, she's getting married. And he is shocked, and he goes back in time to she's like six years old with little pigtails, and she's like... Her leg's dangling, "I'm getting married." He looks and sees her, "I'm getting married." Oh, it's a shock. Now, notice that the man he never even met, has never called Steve Martin, he hasn't given any permission for any... He's just out of the process entirely. She's made up her mind, she's marrying this guy. 

However, she has some very serious expectations for him. Number one, he must absolutely, totally accept this guy, no matter what, and his parents. So they have a very humorous scene about the parents meeting and that's so interesting and very nervous scene, when the young guy comes to the parents and all that, but woe to Steve Martin, if he doesn't accept this guy. Secondly, she definitely expects him to pay for the wedding, which runs into problems because the reception is incredibly expensive, and the guest list is ever-burgeoning. At one point, he finds out that one of the people they were going to invite has died, he's deceased, and he actually celebrated a little. He didn't know the guy, but he was happy.

She is so upset, the daughter is. She says, "I have an idea, Dad. Why don't we charge admission, and then we can turn a profit?" And then she bursts into tears and runs up the stairs. The mother of the bride to be is incensed at the father for his callous attitude about the money, glares at him, and goes up the stairs to console the angry daughter. I got done with that movie and I said, “Whoa!” We didn't know the gender of any of our children before they were born, and I did not know if I was ready to be the father of a daughter. Ready or not, I am, I'm the father of two daughters. But that was striking to me. So that's a kind of a sense of what is expected of parents out in the regular world. 

What does the Bible expect of Christian parents? Well, first of all, an example. Setting an example. Abraham gives us an example here in Genesis 24. What is Abraham's example? Well, in his case, he's the father of the groom, not of the bride, but I will say this, he understands the significance of marriage in God's redemptive history. He takes initiative in the matter, he is clearly a man of prayer. He has a clear sense of the importance of the spouse being a believer in the God of Abraham, a believer in the redemptive plan. So we have Abraham as good example from the Bible.

We have some poor examples too, like for example, Isaac and Rebekah concerning Esau. He ends up marrying two Hittite women, and they drive Rebekah crazy, but they don't... there's nothing in there about their process or their role in helping Esau make a good decision in terms of who he married. 

Then you've got Laban with Leah, what a scandal that was. Jacob wants to marry Rachel, thinks he's getting Rachel, and Laban switches Leah on the wedding night. Bad example. And then there is Saul with his daughter, Michal. So the Bible is actually full of both positive and negative examples. Just because there's an example in the Bible, doesn't mean it's 100% the way to do it or whatever. There are elements and features. Sometimes it would be the anti-example, don't be like this, don't be like Laban, pulling a switcheroo. That's nothing but trouble, and Jacob and Leah and Rachel, they had nothing but difficulties. 

Alright, so what are the expectations, Biblical expectation of parents? First of all, godly role modeling. Now, I think that there's some conviction in the sermon for probably everybody in the room who's listening, and this is the one that hurts me the most. I don't stand in front of you as a perfect example of a husband and a father, but I wanna be.

I want to be. And Douglas Wilson's words convicted me more than any that I read, in preparation of this message. He said this, "Children learned by imitation. At birth, all of our children enroll in an 18- to 20-year course entitled 'How to treat a husband or a wife.' How father and mother speak to one another is constantly being soaked up by the children. Of course, this does not mean children are stuck with every bad lesson they were ever taught. Praise God for that. We all know and acknowledge that all parents are sinners, no parent is a perfect example, but even when parents sin, they may still provide a good example of how to humbly confess and acknowledge the wrong." Wilson said by way of testimony, “I was blessed to grow up in a home where I never heard my parents raised their voices to each other, 18 years of calm graciousness. When children grow up in a home like this, what single lesson can we say is learned? There is not one lesson, it's an attitude and atmosphere for the home. As fathers speak to their wives, they are training their sons to speak to their wives." So Biblical role modeling, godly role-modelling. But second, Biblical instruction. I mean preceptual Biblical training for marriage. From the time that the children come home from the hospital, training them in the words of scripture, and not just about marriage. I mean about the whole Biblical world according to the Bible, the whole thing. Marriage is a subset of what God's doing in this world. So we need to understand who God is, and what He's doing in the world. And so preceptual instruction, line by line, truth by truth, until a whole system of truth is being erected in the heart and mind of the young son or daughter. So preceptual instruction.

Thirdly, prayer. Again, from infancy, many have known that they wanted to pray for the spouses of their little children from the moment they came home. You have a daughter, you're praying for that little boy who's growing up somewhere that he'll be a godly husband to this precious daughter and vice versa. If you have little boy, praying that God would be shaping and training and preparing that little girl for the day when they'll be married. Prayer.

And then along the way, specific advice tailored to the situation that they're facing at different ages. Good advice, godly counsel, right, straight through. And then fifth, financial assistance. Maybe not $27,000, ok? But some assistance financially, to help them get their home started, because it says in Proverbs 19:14, “Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the LORD.” So those five, godly role modeling, Biblical instruction, prayer, specific advice, financial support, we expect, and they're not shocking to our modern ears. 

But the next one is a little more troubling, and that has to do with the Biblical authority of parents. What role do parents have in the formation of a Godly couple? Let's go right to the nub, let's go right to the heart of the matter. Does a father have the right to say no to a suitor that his daughter may be interested in and have that be the final word in the matter? The Bible answers that question unequivocally, yes. Our culture says, are you kidding? Absolutely not. 

And therein lies the yawning gap I'll talk about in a minute, a wide gap between what the Bible says and what we find in our free-wheeling American scene. Fathers and mothers both have a vital role in the formation of a godly couple. For example, many have heard of the Proverbs 31 woman. The Proverbs 31 woman is a high model for all women to aspire to. What's fascinating is the context of how it's set.

The Proverbs 31 woman, in Proverbs 31, is the advice given by the mother of King Lemuel to King Lemuel, concerning whom he should marry. And so his mother comes along and says this, “O my son, O son of my womb, O son of my vows, do not spend your strength on women, your vigor on those who ruin kings. [Don’t waste your time on women that are gonna ruin you.] ... A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.” So there is the mother of the king giving him advice on whom he should marry, a very important role for a mom. But fathers, I think, especially have the authoritative role as head of the house.

Now, I wanna speak directly to fathers of daughters, of which I am part. The rest of you can just listen in. Every Christmas, I and my wife, we actually physically make gifts for our kids. I procrastinate, so it's somewhat of a burden and a blessing, all mixed in. She starts in August, and it's great. There's no problem, enjoyable, and she does a great job. But I like to work with wood, and I made two desks for my daughters, a bigger desk for Carolyn and then a lap desk for Jenny. And I worked hard on those things. I was designing them, shaping the wood, doing all this thing, and as I was doing that, I was thinking, I want this thing to look really good, I don't want there to be any split wood or any nails showing or anything, I want it to be good. But it occurred to me how much more precious is the daughter herself who, with God's help, I'm shaping and preparing for her wedding day. 

Both of my daughters are the two most precious gifts I'll ever give to anyone, nothing even comes close. Jenny and Carolyn are the most precious gifts that I'll ever give to anyone. I've been told and instructed that I do need to give them, I can't hold on to them. But I am going to be giving them at some point despite... Never mind. Anyway. Say something I shouldn't, but Biblically, daughters are given in marriage. Sons leave to marry. That's the Biblical pattern. Now, Jesus said in Matthew 22, “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage…” I think that's male, female, marry and given in marriage. 

That's why it's not just an old superstition when we asked who gives this woman to be married to this man?  There's a Biblical basis for it, like Deuteronomy 7:3, “Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons” Do you see the pattern? It's there again and again. Therefore, the daughter, your daughter, is a precious gift that you're going to be giving to somebody on her wedding day. 

Now, what is the nature of the Biblical authority the father has concerning his daughter? Well, in Numbers 30, for example, it says, Numbers 30, you can look it up later, Numbers 30:3-8, it says,“When a young woman still living in her father's house makes a vow to the LORD or obligates herself by a pledge and her father hears about her vow or pledge but says nothing to her, then all her vows and every pledge by which she obligated herself will stand.  [So if he says nothing, it stands.] But if her father forbids her when he hears about it, none of her vows or the pledges by which she obligated herself will stand; the LORD will release her because her father has forbidden her.”

Now, you could say, "Well, that's just archaic." Patriarchal, yes. Is it archaic? That's the question we have to ask. Does that Biblical norm still stand? It says in Numbers 30:16, “These are the regulations the LORD gave Moses concerning relationships between ... a father and his young daughter still living in his house.” Now, the key question is, what about a daughter who's left her father's house, living on her own, who's unmarried? We have millions of women in America today in that category. But it was not a Biblical norm, and therefore, it's difficult to answer the question. For the most part, a woman living on her own, back then, would have been a widow. 

And there, in 1 Corinthians 3:39, speaking of a widow, it says, “A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the Lord.” So she's free in the matter, once she's left her father's home, she's married, but then the husband dies. She then marry anyone she wishes, but in the Lord. Well, that sounds a lot like the present situation where godly young women are trying to find husbands on their own. And I understand that that's still going to be, if we continue in this pattern, the normative sense, but I'm trying to affect generations in the future, so we can get back to our normal pattern. So I'll speak more to singles in a moment, but this is part of the issue.

Secondly, fathers also had a responsibility to protect their daughters sexual purity. In Deuteronomy 22, verses 13-21, there is the case of a man who marries a young woman and then brings a slanderous accusation against her concerning her virginity. In the account, in Deuteronomy 22, the issue is resolved by the parents of the girl, and if no proof of her virginity is found, then she is stoned to death at her father's doorstep.

Now, that is striking, isn't it? And you say, "Well, stoning to death, clearly that's no... No, we don't kill for that." Well, we don't kill for blasphemy either, but that doesn't mean we should blaspheme now that there's no longer a death penalty for it. The issue is, is there a core relationship here? That's what we have to... We have to look beyond the death penalty issue and say, in Deuteronomy 22, is there a relationship between the father and the daughter? And I think there is. And the parable we listened to at the beginning saw it was an issue of protection, of care for the daughter. Rebekah was pure in this matter. In Genesis 24, it says, verse 16, “The girl was very beautiful, a virgin, no man had ever lain with her.”  She went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up again.

And then she maintains her purity within and without, even when she meets Isaac. At the end of the account, in Genesis 24:64-65, “Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from her camel and asked the servant, 'Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?’ ‘He is my master,’ the servant answered. So she took her veil and covered herself.” There's a picture there with her covering, a sense of purity, a sense of chastity.

Now, there is, at present, a yawning gap between what is and what should be. What are we gonna do about it? That's my question. Now, I could avoid the whole topic. Nobody required me to preach a third sermon on Genesis 24. I almost avoided it with the weather last week, but here we are. And I said that I would preach on this, and I don't desire to avoid it any more than a surgeon desires to avoid operating on a tumor. We should desire life and health and fruitfulness according to scripture.

A non-Christian professor, Leon Kass, at University of Chicago was talking about courtship and what it would take in America to get courtship back going. This is a non-Christian guy. This is what he said: “It would appear to require a revolution to restore the conditions most necessary for successful courtship: a desire in America's youth for mature adulthood (which means for marriage and parenthood), an appreciation of the unique character of the marital bond, understood as linked to generation, and a restoration of sexual self-restraint generally and of female modesty in particular. Frankly, I do not see how this last, most crucial, prerequisite can be recovered, nor do I see how one can do sensibly without it.” He's a non-Christian guy. Well, if he can see it, how much more should we be able to see it? What would have to happen for all this to change? Quickly, six things.

Number one, a desire for early maturity among American youth that includes marriage. Did you all see the cover of Time Magazine, which showed the fully grown guy sitting in the sandbox playing with plastic toys, did you see that? They're talking about how people are extending adolescence even into age 20s and 30s. It's a fascinating picture. Really quite jarring. That's the opposite, I mean if you're going to be waiting until you're 36 to get married, you can see the unbelievable temptations, the years and years and years, of having to stand firm in one of the hardest areas ever. And so we would have to begin preparing young people for marriage earlier, much earlier. Secondly, a conviction that marriage is a sacred bond before God, a covenant essential to a salvation plan, that the getting together of a male and a female in an intimate relationship is incredibly sacred and incredibly important to God's unfolding plan. 

Third, an understanding that children are a tremendous blessing from God, not something to be avoided, but something to be prayed for and yearned for, a natural expected part of marriage. Fourth, a restoration of sexual purity before marriage, with the father playing the key role as gatekeeper of his daughter's chastity. Fifth, a restoration of modesty in dress, reflecting that commitment to sexual purity before marriage. And sixth, a training of a community of young men and young women who understand and embrace these things gladly. Those six things would need to happen, I think, and maybe some others, to see these principles reestablished in the church. 

Where do we start with this yawning gap? Well, I think we start with messages like this. 2 Timothy 4:2 says, “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage — with great patience and careful instruction.” So I take that phrase, beautiful in the NIV. Great patience, careful instruction. The devil has been attacking this for decades. He’s been working on this for decades. It's not gonna go away in a day, or an hour, a week, or a year, been working on it for decades. So we need great patience, but along with that, we need some careful instruction. So not just this message, but listen to... Read Douglas Wilson's books. Read Douglas — or listen to — Douglas Phillips, Vision Forum. Reb Bradley. Some of these others. Understand the vision for marriage that they're espousing. It is right and Biblical.

We need courage to be countercultural. As I was preparing to preach today, just sitting in the pew, listening to that beautiful song, how beautiful, I just said, “Lord, get rid of me today, 'cause I'd rather not preach the sermon. But Lord, help me, help me to preach in a way that will help your people.” And so, I need courage to preach this message. You all need courage to live according to it. So do I. I need the courage to train up my children in the fear and nurture of the Lord. We need courage to stand firm.

Let me give a message to parents of young children: You have an incredible opportunity, okay? We have little babies being brought into our church. You got a clean slate, you got a wonderful fresh start, a wonderful chance. Or maybe young married couples, don't have children yet. Or maybe your kids are still little and still forming and growing in this area, you have a wonderful opportunity to set the tone for the way it can be for generations to come, a generational legacy. Future of a culture of beautiful and pure brides and of well-trained godly mature husbands, ready to take them. Do it. Do it. Learn, study to show yourself approved in this area and train your kids.

Now, let me give a message of encouragement to older singles. It may be that your father, if you're a woman, single, your father is not a godly man. Maybe not a Christian. What do I do then? It maybe that these whole ideas are so new, you're not even sure that they're right. 

I think that God's grace can help you to find a godly spouse, even when the walls of Biblical norms are totally destroyed and broken around us. Even so, even in the middle of this place, the beauty of God's grace is that it doesn't just ask, what's happened up to this point, but it says, how can I live godly from this point forward? And that's the beauty of grace. I cling to it every day. I said, there's ample conviction for all of us in a message like this. I'm not asking necessarily how did I live as a husband and a father in the last 15 years. I'm asking that, I wanna know. But how can I live today? How can I walk today, from this point forward?

We opened this message with Douglas Wilson's really remarkable parable of a pure and chaste young woman, a young maid talking with a traveler on the road. She spoke of the purity of the stream flowing inside her garden. Now, this parable may have spoken to your heart with a soothing orderly wisdom, a sense of hopefulness about the future of your children and the church, or it may have been like the stabbing of blinding light, bringing nothing but pain, and making you wanna crawl into a hole. Let me say that there's two different ways to have that kind of beautiful purity. One is to do it right from the beginning, as I just urge parents to do with their children. But the second is to understand what the blood of Jesus Christ can do in your life. There's none of us righteous, no, not one.

And in Acts 10, it says, "What God has made pure and clean, let man not call defiled." God has the ability to clean things up. He has the ability to make we, who are sinners, pure. Listen to this, Hebrews 10:22, it says, “…let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” You can have your heart cleansed from a guilty conscience. Resolve to walk with Jesus from this point forward. Come to the cross. As we were singing, I was looking at the wooden cross in the structure above my head. I just looked at it, and I thought again of what Jesus had done for me, and I asked his forgiveness, and I asked his filling, and I asked him to make me the man, the husband, the father, that I need to be. Come to the cross. And it may be that your issue isn't necessarily marriage, you just are a sinner, and you've never come to Jesus. Come to the cross. All the answers are found in the blood that Jesus shed.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Revelation 12. The main subject of the sermon is the way people make murderous offerings to the spirit of the age.

 This morning, the Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, I'd love to preach expositionally through passages, I'm not going to be exegeting Revelation 12, but we'll refer to it some. As we go through this message, I still remember the feeling I used to get driving away from the abortion clinics in the winter of 1989 and 1990, when I was involved in a pro-life ministry in the Boston area, we used to go to Brookline, Massachusetts, every Saturday. And we used to go and try to engage in discussions and try to change hearts and minds, we didn't believe... We weren't involved in Operation Rescue or the groups that were blockading clinics, we didn't think that that was the way to go, but we desired to try to persuade people to talk to them if they would talk to us, and it remains the scariest hardest ministry I've ever been involved in. I've been in many countries in the world, I've been involved in evangelism, I've witnessed some scary-looking people and I've been rejected in some interesting ways but none of those things compares with the feeling I used to get, the spiritual feeling I used to get on those Saturdays.

I remember one particular in which I was called upon to lead the Ministry, and we were to be there at 7:00 AM, 'cause these appointments are set up very early in the morning, and so we wanted to be there, and I arrived and there were about 30 or 40 of our counter protesters there, the folks that we join struggle with week after week, already ready to go, but there were none of our friends there, none of my friends. And I remember coming up in this characteristic kind of interesting green Volkswagen bus that we drove and everyone knew who we were and unloading, and they came around and started yelling things at me, and I was looking for some physical material help, I knew there were some angels but I needed some friends and we were unloading in it and I was terrified, I mean, not just physically, I didn't think they were gonna hit me, although that was possible, but just the intensity of the hatred there, and every Saturday I used to drive away from the clinics too fast. I would ride down the road that connected Brookline to Boston, and I was just driving too fast and I had to control my breathing and I had to slow down. I felt like I was being chased.

And I think after that, I would go home and Christi would chat with me a little bit, I might have a little lunch and I go to bed, I'll just sleep for a couple of hours, I was so exhausted, and I think only years later, as I look back in that, do I realized what was happening, that that abortion clinic in Brookline Mass was the most evil place I'd ever been to in my life. It was pulsating with wickedness and evil, and it drained me to be near it. Now, when I went to MIT, they didn't teach me about that, they taught me about my five senses and scientific inquiry and all that kind of thing, and they would describe things that you could discern by the empirical method, you can't discern these things empirically, but I knew it was true, and the Word of God describes them. And so my message to you this morning, basically has to do with Satan's involvement in the abortion issue.

I have four basic statements that I've laid out for you in the outline, the first statement is that abortion is essentially spiritual. Having its roots in the devil's hatred for the human race. The second statement I'm gonna make is that the devil's attack on humanity took its most powerful form in his attempt to kill the Messiah Jesus Christ. Thirdly, throughout history, the devil's hatred for the human race has incited people to sacrifice their own children, and the modern abortion issue is the 21st centuries version of this ancient practice. And forth, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is powerful over the devil's attacks and will some day crush him. Therefore, abortion is temporary and will be defeated someday. Amen. That is the glorious message, but it's not yet, there is a spiritual battle to be faced. Let's look at this first proposition or statement I make.

The dark spiritual roots of the abortion issue, that abortion is essentially a spiritual issue, having its roots in the devil's hatred for the human race. Now, there are competing visions for the root issue. People will tell us there are different root issues when it comes to the issue of abortion, and they'll talk about economics, they'll talk about the cycle of the poverty, they'll talk about inner city issues, they'll talk about people who have nowhere to turn to escape that cycle of poverty, others will cite the incredible lucrative business that abortion has become even especially now with medical research some talk about money. And so they say, No, the issue is economic. Others will say it's a societal issue, it has to do with the breakdown of the family, it has to do with women feeling abandoned by the men in their lives, boyfriend's, father's, husbands, who will not stand by them in their hour of need, or by just the general breakdown of the family, it's a societal issue, they'll say. Others will say it's a moral issue. We've lost our moorings morally, we don't know what's right and wrong anymore, people are willing to do therefore immoral things, both in terms of illicit sex and the outcome, abortion, because their consciences are seared.

Others will say it's at root a judicial problem. The Supreme Court Justices in 1973 made a big mistake. Foolishly, they found something that had not even been found before the 1960s, some kind of shadow of privacy and extended it to the murder of the pre-born, so they made a terrible error and since then, 45 million have died. Others will say it's a political issue, if we could just elect enough pro-life senators and representatives and a vigorous active pro-life president, then the problem is solved. Well, sure, it would be easy for us. Wouldn't it just go to the voting booth in November, and then we don't have to worry anymore. It'll just be done. It's not that simple, but some people say it's political, others say it's ethical, it's gotta do with ethics, especially more and more with the research on fetal tissue and all that, the issue is ethics, if we had a right ethic, we understood life properly from an ethical background we would not be doing this. Others would say it's a legal struggle, if we can get enough bright pro-life lawyers go make the right case, we can win the day legally.

Some say it's educational, people just could study the biological evidences for the development of the fetus and could see how plainly human it is, education would just change everything and the abortion issue would just go away. Some say it's philosophical. They say that we just see things differently, we just have different world views, and if we could just get together on the philosophical issues, we'd be able to see this thing go away. Well, let me tell you something, each one of these things, I believe, factors into the issue. But it's not the root issue. The root issue is spiritual, the root issue has to do with the devil's hatred for the human race and for the way he induced us to join him in his rebellion against God. That's the root issue. Now, who is the devil? The devil, according to Scripture is a created being, he was an angel, he was a beautiful and majestic and powerful angel who noticed his own beauty of majesty and power and thought highly of himself and desired to kind of take over Heaven.

And the story of his ascending... Seeking to ascend is told in Isaiah 14, 13 and 14, in which it says, “You said in your heart, I will listen to Heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit in throne on the Mount of Assembly on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds, I will make myself like the most high.” But the answer comes back, “You are brought down to the grave. Down to the pit.” The devil was put under an eternal death sentence, hell was created for the devil and his angels, and so he was thrown to Earth, and being the prideful ruler being that he is, he sought to rule here on Earth, he is called the God of this age of this world, it's kind of his kingdom here, and he doesn't want any rivals, and then the Lord creates man in his image, male and female, he created them in the image of God, and he told them, fill the Earth, rule over it and subdue it. Oh no, the devil says, This is my domain. And so he wants to subordinate what God's doing, he wants to come and attack the human race, he wants to try to draw them into his rebellion so that he can rule.

So he enticed Adam to join his rebellion. Jesus's key assessment of the devil, printed in your outline there is in John 8:44, Jesus speaking to some human beings, some people who wanted to kill him, but he saw behind their murderous intent, the devil's action. He says, “You are of your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” Now, what is Jesus saying? He's saying the devil kills by lying. That's how he killed Adam, isn't it? Didn't Adam die 900 plus years later, and he died by believing a lie. The devil murders by lying. By creating a deceiving system, he's a murderer. Hates the human race. Jesus also said in another place, in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it to the full.” All the contrast. Death and life, it's so plain, the devil comes to kill. Jesus comes to give life, it's just the way it is.

And so the origin of murder is an attack on the image of God by the devil himself. He's attacking God really. Now, abortion, therefore, in my opinion, is a root issue, a spiritual, it's a subset of the devil's hatred of the image of God, that each one of us bears, he hates the image of God in us, and so it's an attack on that. Now secondly, the devil's attack on humanity took its most powerful form in his attempt to kill the Messiah, and Jesus Christ, praise God it failed in the early stages, in the end, Jesus made himself vulnerable to the devil's attack and died. You remember how the devil came into Judas Iscariot and incited him to hand Jesus over and thus destroy his own kingdom. Isn't that marvelous? The devil can't handle Jesus. But early on, he wanted to crush Jesus in the cradle, he wanted to kill him right from the start, and that was always his desire, No, the devil was put under a prophecy in a judgment, in Genesis 3, after the fall occurred, the Lord spoke a prophecy and a judgment on the serpent. You remember what he said? “The Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed at are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals, you will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head and you will bruise his heel.” Do you think the devil puzzled over those words, he will crush your head, the seed of the woman is going to crush my head. Well, I better crush the seed of the woman. I'm gonna crush the serpents slayer before he crushes me. And so there's a promised Messiah, he will be born of a woman. A seed of a woman. Now, the devil had attempted to have an alliance between him and... The devil and the woman, he wanted an alliance, but the Lord breaks that apart, I'll put enmity between you and she. There's gonna be a break there, and a seed of a woman is gonna crush you, crush your head. Biological offspring, a human being is going to be born of a woman. And so the devil's strategy was murder, and I believe that Cain's attack on Abel was a subset of that. Now, I have no way to prove that it was definitely an attack on a possible Messiah, I don't know that, but it isn't very long after, it's the very next chapter, here is Abel, righteous Abel, offering up a gift and a sacrifice, he's righteous.

Could he be the seed of the woman? And so this is what it says in 1 John 3:12, “Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him, because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous.” Well, at a simple level, it's just jealousy, but perhaps it was an attack on the Messiah, all the information we have now, is this gonna be the seed of the woman? It could have been Abel, but then the Lord expands and gives more information. He says to Abraham, through your seed, through your offspring, all peoples on Earth will be blessed. Oh, I see. So it's gonna be not just the seed of a woman in general, but the seed of one of Abrahams descendants, a woman in the family of Abraham is gonna bring forth the serpent slayer. And so what does he do? But he contrives in Exodus 1:21, “Pharaoh gives the order to all his people, every boy that is born, you must throw him into the Nile, but let every girl live.” Now, does it say in Exodus 1 that this was an attack of the devil on the Messiah? No, but can you see the devil's handy work here? Can you see his attack on the seed of the woman, he will crush your head.

 It's gotta be a boy, and so all the boy babies are gonna get thrown in the river, but let the girls live, but then we have more information when David comes, the Lord speaks through Nathan the prophet and says the Messiah is gonna be a son of David. The Messiah is gonna be a descendant of David, so the devil concentrates his attacked there, he induced two of David's descendants, kings Ahaz and Manasseh to sacrifice their own children to Malek, more on that in a minute, but that was the direct attack on the Messiah, or how about this one? Athaliah, a wicked woman, the mother of Ahaziah, she saw that her son was dead and he hoped that she had a power was gone, so she proceeded to destroy, it says, 2nd Chronicles 22, “...the whole family of the house of Judah, but Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram, took little baby Joash, the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from the royal princes, from among the royal princes who were about to be murdered and put him and his nurse in a bedroom, because Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram and the wife of the priest, Jehoiada was Ahaziah's sister, she hid the child from Athaliah so she could not kill him.”

Now, picture with me a nurse, a trembling nurse with little baby Joash, he's the only descendant of David left on Earth. The Davidic line got very thin and slender at that moment, but it was an uncuttable cord, the Word of God protected that little baby at that moment, but the devil is trying to wipe them all out, so there'd be no descendants of David left. Well, clearly the culmination to this happened after Jesus himself was born. What did the devil know? Well, had he heard the angels speak to Mary and give the prophecy that Jesus, the Son of God would be born? Clearly heard Elizabeth proclaiming as much, or Simeon, or Zechariah, or Anna speaking words into the air that anybody could hear, and information comes back to the devil and he says, this is it, this is the one. And so the Magi come to Bethlehem or they're looking for Bethlehem, they come to Jerusalem and they ask King Herod, Where is the Messiah to be born? Well, in Bethlehem, they find out. So they're gonna go and Herod says, Well, when you find him, come back and report to me so that I too may go and worship him.

But he has no intention of worshipping, King Herod has murderous intent. The Lord interferes with the Magi, they go back another way, they don't go back to Jerusalem, Herod realizes he's been out-witted by the Magi and he gives one of the most dreadful orders in history. He gives the order to kill all the babies in Bethlehem and its vicinity, who were two years old and under. According to the time that he'd learned from the Magi, he didn't wanna miss him. So he doesn't just go for Bethlehem, he's looking for the vicinity, and he's not just looking for a specific age, two years old and under, knowing full well he will slaughter innocent babies, the command necessitates that in the hopes that he can crush the Messiah and his own kingdom will be established. Now, you can say, I can see his reasoning. How can you see the devil in that? He doesn't wanna be threatened. Oh, I see the devil in it. And as a matter of fact, I think that John saw it in the book of Revelation, if you look in your text, if it's still open there in Revelation 12, verses 1-5, it's clearly a devilish attack on Jesus, 'cause you know the real jealous ruler, it's not Herod, the real jealous ruler is the devil, he is jealous of his power, he doesn't want the Messiah to crush his head, he wants to survive, he wants to reign, he wants to rule.

And so Revelation 12:1-5, “A great and wondrous sign appeared in Heaven, a woman clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet, a crown of 12 stars on her head, she was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in Heaven, an enormous red dragon with seven heads and 10 horns and seven crowns on his heads, his tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the Earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.” Now, I tell you this stance, the pregnant woman about to give birth, the devil about to devour, it sums up all that I've been saying here, the devil's readiness to attack the Messiah and kill him as soon as he's born. But this is Mary now, she is the chosen one, and she gives birth to a son, and it says, “A male child who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” This is Jesus, he's the King of kings, he's the Lord of lords, and the devil tried to devour him right right out of the womb.

Well, he used Herod to do it. Now, the dragon's central purpose to devour the seed of the woman was to crush the serpent slayer the moment he was born, so that he could not grow up and in turn crushed his head, but he failed. Hallelujah, he failed. Jesus grew and took on the ministry God had for him and completed as he said in John 17, all the work that the Father gave him to do, and went to the cross and died on the cross and shed his blood for sins. And know the devil didn't take Jesus life from him.

No one takes my life from me. But I lay it down freely, of my own accord, I have the authority to lay it down and the authority to take it back up this command I received from my father, and so the devil supposedly motivated Pilate and the Romans to kill Jesus, and so they did the physical level, but it was Jesus that laid down his life for sins, and so the second point is that the most clear, the clearest most visible attack has been the attempt of the devil to kill the Messiah, and he failed. But then there's another more general attack, and it's been going on in every tribe and language and people and nation, not a specific attack on the Messiah because there's no promise that the Messiah will come in or Latin America or Europe or some other place.

There's a specific prophecy, and the devil did what he could to extinguish the Messiah, but now this is a more general attack on the human image, the image of God on the human race. And it extends to every tribe and language and people and nation, and it extends to every time, every era. And so the point is, throughout history, the devil's hatred has incited people to sacrifice their own children, and the modern abortion issue is the 21st century's version of this ancient practice. Child sacrifice is demonic worship. It's demonic. You see, not only was satan seeking to destroy the Messiah before he could destroy him. The first, in my opinion, basic state of mind of the devil is worship me, I want to be worshipped, I want to be adored, I want to be God. That's his basic state, that's what led to all of his sin. The second basic state is jealousy, I hate God, I hate the one who threw me down to Earth and I hate all those created in the image of God, and I want to oppose him no matter what, I want to be worshipped, I hate God and the image of God.

Do you see how these two come together, in child sacrifice and demon worship, they come together, they become one. All false religious systems are doctrines taught by demons. All idols were impersonated by demons. All strange miracles and manifestations that led people toward voodoo or toward Baal worship or Molech were all demonic in essence, and nature. It says in 1 Timothy 4:1 “The Spirit clearly says, That in later times, you will see some abandoned the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” So it's the demons that teach these false doctrines, and all worship of idols is essentially worship of demons, it says in 1 Corinthians 10:19 and following, “Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything or that an idol is anything no, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons.” And then in Revelation 9:20, it says, “The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands. They did not stop worshipping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood, idols that cannot see or hear or walk.” And so all worship of idols, all false religions, is essentially demonic.

Now, child sacrifice has extended throughout history, around the world and throughout time, in the Michael Card song, the lyric went like this, "Every age has heard it, this voice that speaks from hell, sacrifice your children and for you, it will be well." That kind of ties the whole thing together, the way it worked was, if there was a fertility god or goddess, something like that, you would sacrifice your child in the hopes of a good harvest. That which was most precious to you, you could give so that you could have a good life, economically you would be protected or prosper in some way, that was the root idea of child sacrifice, and it's been there again and again. The Aztecs constantly offered their children to the sun god to aid him in his rising as though he needed help, but the Aztecs would offer their children to do this. The Incas in Chile offered their best and most perfect children to the god Inti who also in their system was the sun god.

The traditional interpretation of these children sacrifices seems to be that this act provided youth and well-being for the Inca and thereby ensure the survival and health of the entire population, sacrifice your children and for you, it will be well. Celtic and Norman are Northern German tribes, the ancestors of the English and German-speaking peoples were barbaric pagan idolaters who sacrificed their own children to the mother goddess. Now folks, this is the same religion basis of Wicca and the witches and all that, that are involved heavily in these abortion clinics, I talked to them, they were there in Brookline, they're here in North Carolina, there in all places all over the US, more on that in a minute.

But George Grant gives a summary of all of this in his book, Third Time Around, he said, "Virtually every culture in antiquity was stained with the blood of innocent children, unwanted infants in ancient Rome were abandoned outside city walls to die from exposure to the elements, or from the attacks of wild foraging beasts. Greeks often gave their pregnant women harsh doses of herbal or medicinal abort efficients. Persians developed highly sophisticated surgical curette procedures, Chinese women tied heavy ropes around their waists, ancient Hindus and Arabs concocted chemical abortifacients that were put into the womb, primitive Canaanites threw their children on to great flaming pyres as a sacrifice to their god Molech. Polynesians subjected their pregnant women to horrible torture, so that they would abort. And none of the great minds of the ancient world, from Plato and Aristotle to Seneca, Quintilian, Pythagoras, Aristophanes, Livy and Cicero, from Herodotus and Thucydides to Plutarch and Euripides disparaged child killing in any way, as a matter of fact, some of them openly spoke of it as a benefit, they casually debated its sundry legal ramifications, they blindly tossed lives around like dice."

This is the way it's been. Every age has heard at this voice that speaks from hell, sacrifice your children. And for you it will be well, Israel heard it. They shouldn't have listened. But they heard the voice, before they entered the Promised Land, God spoke in Leviticus 18:21, he said, “Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God, I am the Lord.” And he says in Deuteronomy 1:10, “Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the Fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens or engages in witchcraft.” Now, some Israelites defied these clear commands from God and engaged in worship of Molech.

It says in Ezekiel 16:21, “You slaughtered my children and sacrifice them to the idols.” This is God speaking, 2 Kings 17:17 says “They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire, they practiced divination and sorcery and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord provoking him to anger...” as I mentioned Ahaz and Manasseh did that “Manasseh sacrificed...” It says,”..his own son and the fire practice sorcery in divination and consulted mediums and spirits, he did much evil in the eyes of Lord, provoking him to anger.” And the Lord was provoked to anger. And as a matter of fact, what Manasseh and what Israel was doing at the time was one of the main reasons that the Assyrians and the Babylonians were brought in to attack and clear out the Promised Land. Notice, by the way, the consistent link in scripture in Deuteronomy 18 and 2 Kings 17, and 2 Kings 21, between child sacrifice and witchcraft and divination, strong link. It exists today in America. Some abortion clinic owners and employees in the US, perhaps elsewhere as well, are witches their Wickens... I've talked to them, Salem, Massachusetts is the big basis of witchcraft, 3000 registered witches there. A lot of those folks would go down and talk to us on Saturday mornings, we'd talk to them, if you can call it a conversation, these are some of the scariest, most aggressive evil people I've ever met in my life.

I actually think about it often and think If I can do that, I can go witnessing today, they were some of the hardest people you could ever talk to, some of the darkest too. Judith Fetrow, who's now a sister in Christ, praise God. But used to be involved in Planned Parenthood, former abortion clinic worker, she said this as a Christian, speaking as a Christian, she said, "To understand Planned Parenthood and to love your enemy and to pray for them effectively, you must understand the women who work there. We were dedicated, we were dedicated to women's rights and dedicated to abortion, that dedication took an almost bizarre, almost religious twist. The abortion clinic was our church, abortion was the sacrament, the babies were the sacrifice. I say the clinic was our church, because the clinic was where we truly worshipped women's rights and reproductive freedom, reproductive freedom says to the woman, there are no consequences, there is no sin."

Now, you may say that's just a fringe element, that's just a handful of strange, bizarre people, why talk about the whole issue like that. Well, here's the deal, I saw the insight in a quote from CS Lewis in Screwtape Letters, This is what CS Lewis said. "There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence, the other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician. With the same delight." Do you see that? So you got the magicians, the witches on the one side, openly embracing demonic worship, small number, it's true, but then you got all the materialists that say the issue is not essentially spiritual, the devil isn't at work. The abortion clinic in Brookline was not one of the most evil places you've ever been in your life, it's all in your mind, is it? Or could it be that the devil somehow and the demon somehow gain some frenzy benefit from this kind of bizarre worship? Could it be that they have made it one of the major focuses of their work here in America? I think it is. And that's why, folks, it's not going away.

That's why it seems entrenched like a Himalayan mountain can't be removed. It isn't budging, have you noticed? But if I were on the other side and say, Why don't these Christians leave us alone? Why won't they go away? Why won't they give up? Put up their hands. Been 30 plus years. Why won't they just give up? We're not giving up. You know why? Because the Lord won't give up, he hates this. And so therefore, he's going to raise up people who will stand firm and say, no, it's evil and it's wrong, but I just want you as brothers and sisters in Christ, you're sheep like me. We're peace-loving people. But Jesus said, I've sent you out like sheep among what? Wolves, wolves, you wanna see how that works, go to an abortion clinic and start talking about pro-life, you'll see what sheep among wolves looks like in the physical material realm.

The final triumph of Jesus Christ is beautiful. It's predicted, it's clearly stated. My statement is this, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ is powerful over the devil's attacks and will someday crush him, therefore abortion is temporary and will be defeated some day. Oh, how I long for that day. Just like other wickedness like slavery and other things has been defeated, this thing can and will be defeated, it's not going to be any part of God's Kingdom. I can assure you of that. And so it says very, very plainly, in the scripture, it says, Your kingdom come, your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

We have to know and understand the infinite power of Jesus Christ. It says, Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in Heaven and Earth has been given to me, therefore go and make disciples. All authority in Heaven and Earth. Yes, all authority. Jesus rules, he reigns over all things. It says in Ephesians 1:20-22, “God raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms. Far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age, but also in the age to come.” Jesus is sovereign and rules over the devil and all of his forces. And then this one in Hebrews 1:13-14, “To which of the angels did God ever say, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” The devil is relatively weak.

Relative to us, he's strong. Way too strong for us. But relative to the King of kings and Lord of lords, he is infinitely powerful. He is a mighty potentate, the devil is a created being. The devil is a defeated being, he knows he cannot stand before the awesome power of the Son of God, and therefore Revelation 12:12 says he is enraged because he knows his time is short. He can't stand before Christ. In the past, Satan was thrown down from Heaven. If you still open Revelation 12, look at 7-9, it says there, “...there was war in Heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon, and his angels fought back, but he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in Heaven. The great dragon was hurled down, that ancient serpent called the devil, or satan, who leads the whole world astray, he was hurled to the Earth and his angels with him.” So the devil is thrown down. Like Jesus said, I saw, I saw satan fall like lightning from Heaven. And so he's a defeated being, but especially he was crushed at the cross and at the empty tomb. Colossians 2:15, it says, Jesus,“...having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” And Hebrews 2:14-15 says, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death, he might destroy him who holds the power of the death, that is the devil. And free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.“

Jesus victory at the cross, and his victory at the empty tomb has crushed Satan's head. And some day in the future, Revelation 20:10 says very plainly, “And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. And they will be tormented day and night. Forever and ever.” Now, what conclusion do I take from that? Abortion is temporary. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. It's temporary. Now, it seems powerful, doesn't it? And the reason is because the devil is powerful, but Realize this, Jesus came to destroy the devil. 1 John 3:8 says, “The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.“ Now, at this point, I wanna give to you, I'm delighted to give to you a word of gentle grace, I feel bound by the Lord to preach on this topic as long as abortion is legal in our country, I hope that you feel bound to keep praying concerning this matter and acting concerning this matter, as long as abortion is legal in our country, but I also feel bound to point you, all of you to the cross of Jesus Christ for grace. Let us approach the throne of grace. It says.

There's not a person, man or woman here that doesn't need the grace of Jesus Christ, but there are some folks who perhaps need a special measure of grace even this morning, perhaps you remember some sins in this matter, perhaps you have had an abortion, perhaps you've been part of the medical community, either a nurse or a doctor has been involved perhaps in the pharmaceutical industry, been involved, and you feel guilty and you wonder if Jesus can forgive you, he can. He came to forgive sinners, he came to restore sinners like me and you to a right relationship with God, all manner of sin and blasphemy. Jesus said, will be forgiven. You know why? Because he paid it all, he paid price. Think of what Paul said in 1 Timothy 1:15, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst.” That's just part of how we feel when we're convicted by God, I'm the worst sinner. Can I ever be forgiven? The Bible says Jesus Christ came to save sinners who feel that they are the worst sinner ever. It's grace, that's what Jesus came to give. So what is our application?

Well, first and foremost, understand, our struggle on abortion is not with flesh and blood, it's not. It's not ultimately gonna be a matter of society or economy, or judicial or elections, political or ethics or morality or any of those things, all of that are gonna factor in, but our struggle is ultimately a spiritual one, and so Eric had beautifully read for us Ephesians 6 it says, “There, finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual force of evil in the heavenly realms.” That's who our struggle is against, and so put on your spiritual armor and fight in a spiritual manner, well, if our struggle is not against flesh and blood, then don't hate the people who oppose you, no matter how much they hate you. Don't hate them. Pray for them. I think frequently, what a great weapon you would be for God, if you would ever get converted, I thought about that frequently, its about the only thing that got me through some of those encounters, and I bet you some of those people have been converted, like Judith Fetrow, who used to work with Planned Parenthood, and now as a strong committed Christian working strongly for pro-life issues.

It's happened again and again. So pray for them. It's grievous to me, and I think it should be grievous to all of you when you hear pro-life people resorting to violent and un-Biblical methods to end abortion. That's not the way to go about it. That dishonors God. It's grievous also when Christians develop a bitter and hateful feeling about pro-abortion people...don't....don't. Pray for people see the issue spiritually and have a hopeful heart that God's grace can convert... If Saul of Tarsus seething with murderous threats against the Lord's disciples can be converted in one day on the road to Damascus, any of these folks can be converted. Amen. Any of them can. So praise God and be hopeful. 2 Timothy 2 says, “Those who oppose him, he must gently instruct in the hope that God will grant them repentance, leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape the trap of the devil who has taken them captive to do his will.” Pray that they'd be freed, but don't give an inch to them on the issue, we are not cowards, we don't cut and run when things get tough, Jesus is our Lord, we stand firm, we don't give an inch, but we do it in love.

Be confident. Therefore, of total victory. Thirdly, it says Romans 16-20, “The God of peace will soon crush satan under your feet. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.” I'm looking forward to that, aren't you? The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Well, I'm looking forward to that. Not just mine, but yours. I'm looking forward to seeing him low, seeing him down, the Lord has chosen to win his battle through us, isn't that wonderful? And so be confident of total and final victory, it's going to come. And fight a spiritual warfare. Using spiritual weapons. Though we live in the world, 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, “We do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world. Know they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” Is this not a stronghold in our age? This is a strong hold. But we have the Word of God and we have prayer. Use them, use them.

Andy Davis preaches another expository sermon on Genesis 24. The main subject of the sermon is how God provided a wife for Isaac after his mother's death.

This is our second week of looking at this, the longest chapter in Genesis. And as I was thinking about the lessons and just the truth that there is in this chapter, I was thinking about the theme of guidance, and it reminded me of a story that I heard from the mission field, a while ago, concerning Hudson Taylor, who may have been the greatest missionary in church history or in the 19th century, at least, founder of China Inland Mission, a great man of God. And as he was en route to the mission field — he was heading there — the ship that he was sailing on was heading towards some sunken reefs off the coast of New Guinea. The charts were unmistakable, the captain knew that that's right where they were heading. The problem was there was no wind. And without any wind, the ship was in the hands of the currents in the sea, and they were bringing the ship right toward the sunken reefs. The captain did everything he could think to do to turn the ship but there just was no control without any wind. And so he said to Hudson Taylor that, “We've done everything that we can,” and he said, "No, sir, we haven't. Four of us are Christians, and we're going to go pray that God would give us wind." 

So they went down to their berth rooms and they got down on their knees, each in their own room, Hudson Taylor prayed a very brief time. And when he got done, he was absolutely convinced that God was going to send the wind and do it quickly, so he went up to the top and talked to the first officer who was steering the ship at that point. He was a godless man, had no faith in Christ, no interest in the Gospel. Hudson Taylor told the sailor, "You should let down the main sail in preparation for wind." He said, "What good is that? There's no wind." And he said, "Well, the wind is about to come because God is going to send it." And the sailor swore at Hudson Taylor, cursed at him and said, "I'd rather see a wind I can see, than hear about one that comes by prayer." Right as he was saying those words, the top most sail started to flap gently in the breeze. The guy looked up and said, "Well, it's only a cat's paw", that means only a puff of wind, but he didn't believe it. And so he went and loosened the main sail and tied it down just in time for a pretty strong gale that came along. 

It wasn't long before that ship was moving along at six or seven knots. They were able to miss the sunken reefs and go on to China. And this was the lesson that Hudson Taylor learned from that experience. "Thus did God encourage me before landing on China shores to bring every variety of need to him in prayer, and to expect that he would honor the name of Jesus Christ and give me help, the help that each emergency required.” Now, as I think about that ship, just kind of adrift and just being carried by the currents of the sea, no control and all that, and then in answer to prayer, along comes a God-given wind, directing it exactly where it needs to go, I get a picture of Genesis 24. And not just in the creation of a godly home, in marriage, as a direct answer to a specific prayer, as we saw last week — not just that — but just all the issues of our lives. 

Now, I know this morning that I'm speaking to a group of people, among a larger group, a group of people that are anxious about the spouse that God will bring into their lives. Some of you are in that category. Some of you remember the days when you were anxious about the spouse that God would bring into your lives. Some of you have children that are anxious about that. Others have other issues to do with marriage. But you know marriage as important a theme as it is in this chapter, and it will take a central role, is only a subset of God's larger sovereign control over the events of our lives to accomplish His end and His purpose. As I look, just speaking somewhat autobiographically, there have been few things in my life that I have prayed as fervently about as the things that led up to me being married to Christi. God really had me there for a while, and it's kind of like when God has you, he doesn't let you go quickly and easily. Put me back in the oven, I'm not done baking yet. And so there was so much prayer and so many things that went into us getting together as husband and wife. But again, that's just a subset of things that we still care about, even if we're married. We care about things concerning our children, about our church, about our nation, about our world, about loved ones and friends and co-workers that don't know the Lord. And the question is, is God still sending puffs of wind, strong breezes even an answer to a specific prayer? I say he does. 

So my enemy this morning is anxiety. I'm going after anxiety, that's my enemy, because I don't want you to be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, to present your request to God and let the peace of God transcend all understanding and bring you into a haven of peace as you rest in God. Now, that doesn't mean you're gonna get your spouse today. You might — I doubt it — but it doesn't mean that you will. But it does mean that God can put you at rest in his sovereignty, at peace in his guidance and control until it happens, that thing it is that you're concerned about. 

Now, last week, we saw in this account, it's the longest chapter in Genesis, 67 verses, and all I sought to do last week is just bring us through the text. So really, this is just the second half of last week's sermon, which I draw out theological principles and draw out applications from that, but that was last week, and I just need to remind you of some of the details of the text so that it will make sense to you.

Some of you were not here last week. But in this chapter Abraham, aged, toward the end of his life, sees the hand of the Lord's blessing and everything that he's done, but knows there's something significant missing. His 40-year-old son, Isaac does not have a wife. And he knows this is absolutely foundational to the plan of God, the redemptive history. Isaac will not die a bachelor. That's not going to happen. He's got to have a wife, and so he calls in a servant and he puts the servant under an oath, commissions him to go get a wife from Abraham's home area, his home town, back in Mesopotamia. Abraham's servant takes the charge and goes, he makes his journey, and when he gets there, he prays a remarkable prayer. He prays specifically, concerning a well of water, and when the women, the young women would come, that if there would be one that would come and offer him some drink, if she would also offer drink to the camels, he would know that this was the one that God had chosen. And so, immediately after he finishes praying that prayer, Rebekah comes and the servant initiates with her and says, "Could I have some water?" And she says, "Yes, but also, could I water your camels?" Which amounted to, and I correct, 3200 pounds of water, not 320. Thank you for those of you that pointed that out, I do appreciate it.

I have forgotten much of the math I learned at MIT, I'm ashamed to say it but I appreciate it. It's good to be humble. It's good to be humbled. 320 gallons, 3200 pounds of water. A big job nonetheless. And so she offered to do this, and it was this simple act of hospitality that led her into God's plan for her life. Remarkable. Little things matter. Little things are huge. Little acts of servanthood made all the difference for Rebekah. Well, the family learned of God's providence in 28-49, and they submitted to it gladly. The servant wanted to go immediately, the next day. They asked Rebekah, "Are you willing to go with this man?" She said, "I will go". By faith. Put yourself in Rebekah’s shoes, young ladies. Would you have gone to marry some man sight unseen back in some place somewhere? Her faith is significant. It's of a kind that's similar to Abraham's. "Leave your country and your people and go to the land I will show you. And I'll provide for you, I'll meet all your needs."

And so she trusted God and went off and married this man who she had never met before. Isaac, for his part, went out into the field — he was meditating — he looks up, he sees the young woman; she covers herself with a veil — she's such a picture of purity and chastity — a beautiful picture there of righteousness. And the two come together, he brings her into his mother's tent as a sign, I believe, of her role that she's gonna play in that covenant community. She is taking Sarah's place in that way. 

The wedding ceremony itself is interestingly passed over in silence, but it, I believe, was there, and he pledged to marry her, and they had a covenant ceremony in that culture, whatever it was. Every culture is slightly different, but the core of it is the same. He pledged to be her husband and she to be his wife, and they were married. And it's so precious. At the end, it says that Isaac took Rebekah as his wife and he loved her. And he was comforted concerning the death of his mother. Just a beautiful picture. And that's the way it ends. That's the account of last week. 

Now, this week, first of all, I wanna change the order in your bulletin. What I wanna do is take three and do it at two and two at three. I wanna look first at three distinct points of view, the three different ways to understand this account. And this will stand somewhat as a paradigm for the way you can handle a lot of narrative accounts in the Book of Genesis. Secondly, we're going to look at five theological topics or spiritual issues connected with this account. And then third, we're gonna look some more at some specific applications. Let me tell you, the applications are gonna run right through the message for the most part. So it's not just at the end. I'll just probably be summarizing applications at the end. But listen throughout, I hope for God's wisdom to be speaking to you in your situation.

First, let's look at three different ways of looking at this account. The first way of looking at this Old Testament historical narrative is just as examples of godliness, that we're gonna look through, and as we read this account, we're going to learn how to be godly people, godly men, godly women. We’re gonna just learn from the people in this account. Pictures of godliness.

For example, Abraham. A godly man, submitted to God's work in his life, under the authority of God, seeing God's hand of blessing, but knowing something's lacking and wanting to be sure that the wife that is gotten for his son, Isaac, will be a godly woman who can carry on the work that God intends. 

And then you've got the servant. We don't have his name, we don't know for sure who it is, but the servant. So humble, so faithful, so obedient. A faith-filled man, a man of specific prayer, a man who loved to rejoice in what God was doing and to celebrate it openly, who would bow down before God in front of everyone and give praise and thanks to God. The servant.

Or Rebekah, as we've mentioned. Again, humble. Again, hospitable, hard-working, faith-filled, chaste, in that no man had ever lain with her. Courageous, willing to allow her faith to be transferred into courageous, bold action. “I will go,” she says. A beautiful picture of a godly woman.

And then you've got Isaac. We don't see much of him in this account, but we do see that he is submissive to God's will, he is a man of prayer and of meditation, he's a thinker. And I think if you look at the patriarchs and just the Old Testament accounts, he's one of the few men in the Old Testament who never married a rival wife. He was a one woman man. He loved Rebekah. It's not a small thing, at the end, when it says that Isaac loved Rebekah. He cherished her for their whole marriage; they had a delightful marriage.

And then also we have an example of godly marriage as a whole, and we're gonna talk more about that as we go on. But if you wanna learn some things about marriage, this is a great chapter to go to in the Old Testament. So that's one kind of whole way to look at this account. Examples of righteousness. How can we be righteous like that? But let's remember that Abraham and Isaac were not just anybody in history. We are not Abraham, and neither are we Isaac, and so they were unique folks.

And so the second way of looking at this is how God was fulfilling redemptive history. What is redemptive history? It is the unfolding of events in space and time that lead to Christ. That lead to the birth of Jesus Christ as a man. A man who humbled himself under the plan of God, who took on our sins, who died on the cross, and who was raised on the third day. This is the Gospel, and by belief in that gospel, forgiveness of sins is ours. But without Jesus having a human body, he could not have been a merciful and faithful high priest to us in service to God; he could not have offered himself as a sacrifice in our place for our sins.

And so the birth of Jesus was ultimately contingent upon a whole genealogy of marriages leading all the way up to this one that we're talking about here. Isaac and Rebekah. And so it isn't just anybody that's getting married here, but it's Isaac, the ancestor of Jesus Christ. And it isn't just any woman we're talking about here, no, this is Rebekah, the ancestor of Jesus Christ. And so here is God, faithful to His covenant promises to Abraham, fulfilling what he had said he would do, bringing Isaac a wife, who could carry on the lineage leading up to Christ. 

And if you are a saved person, this is, in part, your story. Not just that you would know how to be a godly husband or a godly wife, or how to find a spouse. That’s important. But that you would realize that this had happened, this happened, almost 4000 years ago, and as a result of that, you have salvation. Because in the fullness of time, Jesus Christ was born of a virgin and he took on a human body. So that's a second way of looking at this account. 

The third way is a little dicey, but it's really kind of fun, so I'm gonna go ahead and tell it to you. It’s the spiritual analogy way of looking at this text. There was, for a long time, a whole school or a system of interpretation, always looking for typologies and analogies in everything. But this one is kind of so clear and direct, I at least wanna bring it to your attention.

The reason I feel that it's okay to talk about this marriage this way, namely as a picture of Christ in the church, because the Apostle Paul gives us permission to look at every marriage that way. In Ephesians Chapter 5, he says, “‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery [says Paul] — but I am talking about Christ and the church.” Did you hear that? Profound mystery. Marriage, then, is a picture of the beautiful relationship between Christ and the church. Oh, what a beautiful hymn that was earlier. Wasn't that pretty? I just love listening to that song. It always makes me cry, and that's tough right before I preach, but I was able to pull myself together and get up here and preach. But just the beauty of marriage, the beauty of the picture of Christ and the church, but do you see how beautiful the typology is here? You've got Abraham, the father, representing God the Father. You've got the servant representing the Holy Spirit. You've got Isaac representing Jesus Christ. You've got Rebekah representing the church.

And you've got the mission that the servant goes, representing the worldwide evangelization. Under the direction of the Holy Spirit, you will receive power, when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and be my witnesses, and by the redemption and the regeneration of the spirit, the bride of Christ is assembled and brought to Christ. And so in Revelation 21, she's the bride beautifully prepared for her husband. It’s the Spirit that's given to prepare us, to wash us and make us clean, to redeem us and to bring us in. And so the servant brings the bride to Christ, and they are married, what a picture. So those are three different ways you can look at Genesis 24. And I think all of them contribute something to our understanding of what's happening in this chapter.

But now, what I'd like to do is zero in and look at specific topics that are important to this text, to this account, and that come forward that we can learn something about God. We can learn about his ways of dealing with us. The first is this idea of covenant faithfulness. It's in this account four times. The Hebrew word is hesed. Hesed — and it is sometimes translated kindness, covenant love, steadfast love, this kind of thing. Look at verse 12, for example, when the servant prays, “O LORD, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love [or lovingkindness, or something like that] to my master Abraham.’”

Now, what is he talking about? Well, God, you made a covenant. Please uphold your covenant. The covenant is not complete yet. He’s going to have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. That means he's got to have a wife for Isaac, so remember your promise and get a wife for Isaac — covenant love. Be faithful to your promise. He does the same thing in verse 14. As he's praying, he says, “Let the young woman to whom I shall say, ‘Please let down your jar that I may drink,’ and who shall say, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels’ — let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love [or Hesed, covenant love] to my master.”

Now, the basic idea is this. God operates with us on the basis of the covenant that he's made. The Old Covenant, the New Covenant. This was a covenant that he had made to Abraham under the stars, remember? The covenant cutting ceremony in Genesis 15. God had made a promise. Basically, on the basis of that promise, the servant is standing and saying, “God, fulfill your promise to Abraham.” And so also we have promises made to us in the New Covenant, don't we? 

How about this one for example? It says in John 6:39, “And this is the will of him who sent me [said Jesus], that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.” Is that not a covenant promise? He's made a promise to us that we will be raised up at the last day. We can pray that and say, “Oh Lord, I pray that I would not be lost, but that I would be raised up at the last day. And Lord, I pray that my children and that members of my church and then co-workers that are believers in Christ, that have made a pledge to Christ, that Christians who have trusted him would never, none of them be lost, but all of them raised up at the last day. You made the promise, Oh Lord, now, fulfill it.” Covenant faithfulness, our God makes promises and then he keeps them and they're very nitty-gritty. There's nuts and bolts to the promise. Isaac's gotta have a wife, and so please show your faithfulness in your covenant promise here and now. Please. We can pray like that and believe God is a covenant maker and keeper. 

Secondly, is this topic of God's accurate guidance. Look at verses 26-27. It says, “Then the man bowed down and worshiped the LORD, saying, [This is the servant after God answered the prayer.] ‘Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast [covenant, Hesed] love, and his faithfulness toward my master. As for me, [Listen!] the LORD has led me in the way to the house of my master's kinsmen.’” Oh, is this beautiful? What a strong testimony for the way that God navigates our lives, very much like that ship, once it had enough wind that the tiller started to respond. The ship gets navigated and goes wherever the helmsman wants it to go.

And so God directs our lives. This is a huge issue. Do you realize that in an average year, Americans spend over $200 million in consultation with fortune tellers and astrologers? Isn't that incredible? $200 million. And what is it they're seeking from these charlatans? These instruments of the devil. What are they seeking? They're seeking guidance. They wanna know what they should do. They want direction and guidance. Some people navigate by reading weekly advice columns. Bad idea, okay? Dear Abby and Dear whatever, I don't know who has taken their place, but advice columns or Dr. Phil. Tune in. Some folks will just bare their souls and tell their problems, they want guidance; they wanna know. And then there's the whole self-help book industry and counselors of the non-Christian sort, psychologists and psychiatrists, that are giving advice. That's what they do. You know why? Because people are desperate for guidance. They wanna know what to do, tell me what to do, guide me. Life is terrifying without accurate navigation.

But you know what? As a believer in Christ, you should know nothing of that terror. Nothing. You should be able to say, like the servant did, "The Lord led me and guided me here, he's guiding me." And there are verses that tell us that he'll do that. Isaiah 30:21 is one of my favorite. Where it says, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’” Isn't that beautiful? This is the way, walk in it. Or in Proverbs 3:5-6, where it says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.” 

We should rely on that. God gives guidance. He gives it through the indwelling Holy Spirit. He gives it through the written word of God. He gives guidance to his children. “My sheep hear My voice, I know them and they follow me.” I give them eternal life. Guidance.

Thirdly, we see very closely related to that the doctrine of God's sovereign providence. Providence. Things happen, coincidences occur, things line up and get clicked in and connected. It’s the doctrine of providence and a marvelous one. In 1678, John Flavel published a book, The Mystery of Providence, asserting that God's sovereign rule extends to the smallest of details, and is essentially a mystery. And so it is taught in the Bible. It says in Proverbs 16:33, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.”  Every dice roll comes up a five, or a two, or a one because God says so. God is jealous over His physical universe, He rules over all things, He's the King. Or how about this? Jesus said this, he said, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny and yet not one of them falls to the ground apart from the will of your Father.”

So what the Bible does is argue from those little things up to the greatest thing. If God cares how a lot is cast into the lap, if He cares about how a sparrow falls when it dies off the branch, how much more will He care about how a man and a woman get together in marriage? And how much more of the son of Abraham, Isaac himself? God rules over the events of our lives. It says in Ephesians 1:11, “In him we were also chosen,  [it says] having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.” Our God is a sovereign ruler and King, and it's a delightful thing to understand this doctrine of providence, this mystery of providence. Now, when it comes to dice, okay, no problem, I don't know why God would care whether it came up at five or a two or a one, but okay, I can give Him that. And birds, fine. But what about human beings? Does God actually rule over the thoughts and decisions and inclinations of the hearts of human beings?

Well, look what happens in getting Isaac together with Rebekah. The servant prays a specific kind of prayer, and no sooner is he finished than Rebekah comes up and says, "Can I help you?” I mean, is that an accident? Like William Temple said, "The more I pray, the more coincidences happen. When I don't pray, coincidences stop happening.” And so, these coincidences. Now, either God laid that specific prayer on the servant's heart, or he laid the hospitality on Rebekah's heart, or can I suggest both? And he's working at both ends, so that the two of them get together. It's a beautiful thing to see. 

Henry Blackaby talks about this kind of thing in Experiencing God. He says that God lines up markers in your life, and that you just look and see back, how has God been dealing with me? What kinds of things has he been preparing me for? What is he getting me ready to do? The Providence of God, look for it. And if you don't see those kind of wonderful, spiritual coincidences happening in your life, I say that you're not praying the way the servant did, you're not out on the cutting edge, the front line of the advance of the kingdom of heaven. 'Cause when you're involved in evangelism and you're involved in missions and you're just doing these things, you start to see these beautiful coincidences happening and boy is it exciting.

But God is a providential ruler. He rules over all things. Now, I will give you a caution, I believe it's hard to see and interpret properly the providence of God. It's hard to do. It's less certain than interpreting scripture. Interpreting scripture, I can say is something like this, but the thing David had done was displeasing to the Lord. Well, it says right there, and therefore, I know what God thought about David's adultery of Bathsheba. I don't have to worry about it or wonder, it says, but history doesn't tell us. When a tsunami happens, we can learn certain things from the Bible, but to specifically apply it to everything, is very difficult to do. 

William Cowper, the hymn writer in the early 19th century, was a man given to depression and discouragement. A great lover of Jesus Christ, a great poet, but he had, I think, probably some imbalances and issues in his life, and frequently struggled with deep depression. And at one point in his life, he was ready to kill himself, commit suicide. And he decided he was gonna do it by throwing himself into the Thames River in London. So he called for a cab, a driver, to take him down to the Thames River. However, thick fog came and surrounded the cabbie as he was driving the horse; they couldn't find the way to the river. 

After driving around for a long time, finally the cabbie says, “I don't know where we are. Get out.” He gets out right on his own doorstep. “Message received. You don't want me to kill myself.” And after that, he wrote the hymn that we're gonna be closing with today, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way.” And this is what he wrote: "God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, the clouds ye so much dread, are big with mercy, and shall break in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust Him for His grace. Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face. Blind unbelief is sure to err and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter, and He will make things plain." Now, you can't scan all of God's work in history — providence — and interpret it all accurately. You’ll miss it, you'll get things wrong. But in the end, we will look back and see God's handiwork. Our God is sovereign, He's ruling over events of life. 

Now, one of the main topics in this, of course, is how godly marriages are formed. And I wanna talk to you about four different things I get out of this text to understand how God puts marriages together.

The first is a very simple principle. God makes marriages. Do you see it in this text? God put Isaac and Rebekah together. God makes marriages. The supporting text for this is Genesis 2:22. It says, “Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.” Now, I know some of you single guys are saying, "God, do it! Just do it! What is so hard? I mean, Adam had it easy. Wake up and there she is. I mean, there's no problem, right? And frankly, even Isaac had it easy. He just went out in the field to meditate and there she is. Do that. I like that. That's good. Bring her to me.” We'll talk more about that in a minute, but God makes marriages.

A second supporting text for this is in Matthew 19:6, in which Jesus speaking about marriage says, “So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.” Point of application: single people who are sorely tempted toward anxiety in this area, don't be anxious. Cast all your burdens and cares on Him because He cares for you. Trust in him to provide that spouse, that godly husband, that godly wife. But now, I just feel duty-bound to ask a tough question. Does God make every marriage? Does he make them all? That's a tough question. What if, for example, a Christian violates God's clear principle on spiritually mixed marriages? It says in 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. … For what fellowship does light have with darkness?”

What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? Don't marry a non-Christian. And it's the same root word, “yoked together" that you get in Jesus's statement in Matthew 19:6, “…what God has joined together, let man not separate.” Now, my question is, did Jesus intend to say that God yokes together every marriage? What about those that it were done in violation to his clear scriptural principle? Well, this is not an easy question to answer. But coming at it pastorally, let's say I come to the conclusion that Matthew 19:6 doesn't refer to every marriage, just to some. These would be the matches made in heaven, "Oh, there are a match made in heaven." Do you see the gaping loophole through Matthew 19:6? Through which every troubled marriage will run? Every one? "Well, I don't think ours is a match made in heaven. I don't think God joined us together, and I think the sooner we get it separated, the better." I believe Jesus intended every marriage.

Well then, what about those that were put together in violation to God's word? Well, I think that God acts differently in putting together godly marriages along the pattern of His commands, than He does in pronouncing a couple that is standing in front of witnesses and saying, "I will be her husband." She says, "I will be his wife. We are committing to each other." In every culture, there's a way to do that. In every culture, we call it marriage. When that pledge gets made, God yokes them together, and Paul calls it a mystery. A profound mystery. From that moment forward, he upholds the oath. He has yoked them together in his mind. He reckons them or considers them no longer two, but now one. And what he does when he does that, we may not, must not separate. Now you say, "Well, divorce is a big problem in our culture.” It’s true, and this is the whole challenge of pastoral ministry. You see, before any sin occurs, a faithful pastor has to do everything he can to warn people not to commit the sin. To labor so that people are protected from the great damage that sin causes. But then after the sin, a godly pastor will labor to bring somebody to a point of repentance, and then once that repentance is there and they repudiate the sin and call it by its biblical name, then they are assured of forgiveness and grace and mercy, and the blessings of God to go on. You see? 

It's a challenge for pastors, how do you do that in one sermon? How do you do both? Well, you just need to know where you're at in that continuum. If divorce has been part of your past, understand what the Bible really says. You do other folks no good service to undo Matthew 19:6 and say, it's not there anymore. Don't do that. Say, “We sinned. We did wrong things. But from this point forward, God has blessed our union and he will continue to do so.” You see? But for those who haven't been married yet or who are struggling in marriage, work it out. Be faithful to each other. God makes marriages.

The second point I wanna make is that God makes marriages in the flow of everyday life and in a cultural context. What do I mean by that? Well, he puts marriages together in as wide a variety of ways as there are people. If we got all the married couples here and just had the rest of the afternoon and say, "Well, how did you meet? Well, how did you meet? Well, how about you? How did you guys meet?" Unbelievable. The variety of stories. Some people met, they were co-workers at a job, some people met in college, some people met in elementary school. Those are interesting folks, aren't they? Alright? But not a lot. But there are some, okay?

Some people meet at an airport, some people were on a mission trip together, some people were in a prayer group together, some people just in a youth group or a college and career group. It's unbelievably varied. You never know how it's going to happen. And I'd say to you, godly brother, godly sister, God has got somebody for you, in the end, frankly, it's gonna amount about the same as it was for Adam and for Isaac. He's gonna bring her. Godly sister, he's gonna bring that husband. In the end, you will say, God did it. God did it. He brought us together. And so, it happens in the flow of life. It happens as you're living, as you're growing. 

The third point I wanna make is that special effort and preparation is required by people. God isn't going to just... You don't just stand still in rooms, I'm not moving until she comes. Okay, I'm right here. No, you're gonna live your life and you're going to prepare yourself. You know, I think someone once said, I think it's true: Marriage is not so much a matter of finding the right person as being the right person. God sees you, He knows where you're at in your physical and spiritual development, He knows what's happening, be faithful in little, and He will enable you to be faithful in much, you see. So be faithful in your relationships now, grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ, prepare yourself as a Christian. 

But I'm gonna go beyond that. Prepare yourself if you're a single person, even if you're youth, if you're in the youth group now, prepare yourself now for your future marriage. Start praying for your husband, young ladies. Start praying for your wife, even if you're 14, 12 years old. Pray for him, pray for her. Get ready. Parents, pray for your children. I mean, they come home from the hospital, start praying that prayer. Oh God, I don't know if he or she's born yet, but watch over her, watch over him, get them ready. Pray for these things

And also learn about marriage. Study from the good godly marriages in the church, it's one of the great advantages of being in a local church. Prepare yourself, hang out with godly folks, see how their marriage is going, how It works, prepare yourself. 

And then finally, this special effort on your part should not in any way lead you to feel anxious. It doesn't undo the first point. God will prepare you. He will enable you to do the things you need to do in order to get ready for marriage. He'll prepare you and He will sustain you and He will strengthen you. 

The final point I wanna make, generally, about the text before some final applications, is concerning faith-filled prayer. It says in Psalm 57:2, “I will cry to God Most High, To God who accomplishes all things for me.” Is your prayer life anything like Abraham's servant? "O Lord, may it be that if the next girl who comes along and says such and such, that I know she is the one"? I mean, that is incredible. It is God honoring, it's in the flow of redemptive history, it's fitting into the promises of God, it is specific and measurable, and it is a ground for great worship and praise when God answers. Do you pray like that? Do you have, like some saints like George Müller, in effect, a checkbook of unanswered prayers that you're waiting on to see what God will do? I think this is a remarkable thing. As Temple said, William Temple, "When I pray, coincidences happen. When I cease to pray, coincidences cease."

Now, a couple of final applications and we’ll be done. We've understood or sought to understand God's role in marriage. I know that not every single person I'm speaking to is going to get married. It's not automatic. There are some people who are given the gift of singleness, and that's a great gift, Jesus said it that way. It's a great gift. But it is God's normal pattern. It is his normal pattern. I tell you this, God will give you one gift or the other. He doesn't give you no gift. So he will give you either singleness or he will give you a wife. Trust God to give you your gift.

Secondly, value marriage. This is so important in these days. Marriage is under great attack. I don't need to speak of the strange legislation in Massachusetts or some of the other odd things in San Francisco. I don't need to go into those things to say that marriage is under attack today. Marriage is under attack from divorce, it's under attack from feminism, which says that, at some point, in the '70s and '80s, that marriage would become obsolete. 

Well, it isn't. It's not going to become obsolete. And so we, as the church, we need to value and cherish marriage itself. Sometimes it may take courage. I read an article in a Christian young people's magazine talking about how it takes courage for young folks to still believe in marriage if their folks got a divorce. To say it didn't work out for them, they didn't follow God's ways, but I can get married and my marriage can be godly, it can be good. Key verse on this is Hebrews 13:4, “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure…” Honor marriage and keep the marriage bed pure. 

The final word I wanna say to you is really a word to husbands. Husbands, value your wives. I think that Rebekah is an incredible gift to Isaac. She's precious. She's special. She's wonderful, she's incredible. She’s going to be a fountain of blessing in his life for the rest of his life. He's gonna cherish her. It's so beautiful. Notice the odd order, different than America now. Different than America. The different order, it says that he married her and he loved her. We usually go the other way around, don't we? We love and then we get married. 

Well, I'm coming to the conclusion that the love that's mentioned here and the love that's in Ephesians 5 develops over years and years in a marriage. It's not cheap, it's not light, it's not easy. It's Christ's love for the church. A love that lays down yourself for your wife day after day. Have you told her that you love her? Have you told her that you cherish her? That she's special to you? God said that He would reward a cup of cold water given to one of the servants of God. He would never forget it, they never lose their reward. How many cups of cold water have you received from this wife? How many prayers? How many words of counsel? How many gifts of love? How many times has she offered herself to you? Body, spirit, soul, everything to help you and strengthen you in your marriage? Do you cherish her? And this community here, this believing community, this church, we are countercultural. We're flowing the opposite direction. We're upholding godly roles for men and for women. Well, I say to you, we must be a place that celebrates the role of a godly wife openly. We need to say it's a wonderful thing to be a godly wife. Indispensable. Indispensable to the sovereign plan of God.

Without Rebekah, there's no Christ. And therefore, there needed to be a Rebekah. So what I'm saying is value and cherish your wives. Value and cherish them. Tell them that you love them. You hear about the husband that says, "You know, I told you I loved you the day we got married. And if anything changes, I'll let you know. Alright?" 

I don't wanna be a church like that. "Now women, we told you, your role is important. If anything changes, we'll let you know." I think there needs to be a constant stream of affirmation and encouragement of how vital Rebekah is to Isaac. 

Final word, Jesus Christ. This is a picture of salvation, isn't it? This is a picture of Christ. Are you saved? Have you trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord? Are you trusting in Him to save your soul and not just get you a wife or a husband? Jesus Christ came into the world as a result of Isaac and Rebekah getting together. As a result of the twins, Jacob and Esau being born, as a result of a long chain of events, but the point is the salvation of your soul and mine. Are you trusting in Him today?

Pastor Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Genesis 24. The main subject of the sermon is how God provided a wife for Isaac after his mother's death.

 We're looking today, as you heard, at Genesis 24, and I stand before you, a blessed man. I'm thinking about Ephesians 1, in which it says that, as a Christian, I'm “blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” All of those spiritual blessings are mine, but I'm blessed in the earthly realms too by my wife, and the delight in having her as a wife is infinitely greater because I believe that God gave her to me. Not just that we stumbled on each other and as luck would have it, or like in some of those romance novels — which I don't read, but I imagine what they would be like — as boy meets girl and all that kind of thing, just the random swirling chance that puts a man and a woman together. I don't believe in that. I believe, rather, that God makes marriages. I believe he draws a man and a woman together, he puts them together. Now, I think it's mysterious, like it's very mysterious how God works, and I doubt that any of it, if I spoke to the married couples, those who have been married a long time or a short time, and I asked, How did you get together? I doubt that the watering of camels had anything to do with it. 

And if I were to follow the lives of single people and find out how you eventually got married, again, I don't think camels are gonna be involved. But yet there are some amazing principles here in Genesis 24. That show us that there's a God at work in this process, that God puts a man and a woman together, and yes, it's mysterious and yes, it's hard to understand. The wisest man who lived before Christ was Solomon. This what he wrote in Proverbs 30 — I love this — he says, “There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden.” “I don't know how that works,” Solomon says, "I don't know how he's acting like he's never acted before, and how she's actually interested as a result and how the whole thing comes together. I don't know, it's a mystery to me," says Solomon. It’s a mystery to me as well. But I see the Father's hand in it, don't you?

And Jesus told us when he was speaking on divorce in Matthew 19, He said, “…what God has joined together, let man not separate.” God makes marriages, that's a delightful thing, isn't it? And so therefore, the gift that I have in Christi, the gift that all of you have in your spouse, it's come to you from God, and that makes it a million times more precious. Amen? That's what Genesis 24 is about. It's about the sovereign hand of God. It’s about providence. It’s about how God causes specific things to happen at specific moments, so that a specific man knows a specific thing, and a couple gets together.

Now we're gonna look at this chapter over two weeks, this morning, we're just gonna look at what happens in this, the longest chapter of Genesis. You know that there's no way I could preach 67 versus in a time you'd wanna listen to, okay? So, what we're gonna do is, we're just gonna go through 67 verses and just find out what's here. Next week, we're gonna look at five theological principles that come from this chapter; we’re gonna look at three different ways to look at this chapter, points of perspective, so that we can gain applications; and then we're gonna really draw out some applications on how it is that God makes marriages and how God works even today.

Okay? So, let me just give a summary of the chapter as a whole. When Abraham grew very old, he sent a trusted servant to his ancestral homeland to find a wife for his unmarried son, Isaac. Once he was there, the servant prayed to God that a woman would offer him and his camels water, and that was to be a sign that that was the woman that Isaac was to marry. Rebekah at that moment, the beautiful granddaughter of Abraham's brother, came to the well, and when the servant asked for a drink, she gladly gave it to him and to his camels as well. She offered him and his camels shelter also for the night at her home. When the servant told the family why he was there, they said that the whole matter was obviously from the hand of the Lord, so what could they say one way or the other? That God was working this out. That night, the servant gave gifts of gold and silver to everyone in the family. In the morning, Rebekah said, “I will go”, and riding upon the camel, she and her maids followed the servant back to the land of Abraham. She and Isaac met and were happily married. 

That's the whole story, and it's a marvelous story, because in it, the sovereign hand of God is celebrated all the way through. And so, frankly, while the centerpiece is marriage, there's a bigger issue here, and that's just that God is sovereignly, providential at work in your life. And the things that you want the most, whether it's a spouse or for me, a fruitful evangelistically powerful, godly church, or any one of a number of good things you could desire, God works to bring those things about in answer to prayer. He's a powerful God. And so, yes, marriage is centerpiece, and we're gonna talk a lot about that, and next week we're gonna talk about principles of how God forms marriages and we're gonna get into those details. But the big picture is, a God who fulfills His promises, who is sovereign, who's at work in the details, the nitty-gritty of your life like watering camels (you don't have any camels, but anyway), the nitty-gritty of your life, He's at work in those things, fulfilling His purposes for you. Let's look at it piece by piece.

God joined Isaac and Rebekah together. Jesus said so, as I mentioned in Matthew 19:6, “…what God has joined together, let man not separate.” The basic lesson here then is that God makes marriages, he's in the business of making marriages, and this was true from the very beginning. In Genesis 2:22, it says, “Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.” That's very similar to our chapter, isn't it? We'll talk more about that next week, but God put Adam and Eve together. He made that first marriage. Jesus understood that principle. 

Well, so also God was providing a woman, a wife for Isaac. Now, the context here is significant, this is Genesis, this is one of the last chapters of Abraham's life. Who was Abraham? Well, he was a specially-called instrument of God, and it says that God had blessed him in every way, but the first blessing was the call of God, that came. Genesis 12: “The LORD had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’” That's the original call, Genesis 12.

 And later, God kind of unfolded and expanded. Abraham said, "Well, I'm gonna be a father of many nations and all that, but I don't have a son. And Eliezer of Damascus is my heir and you've not given us a child." And so God spoke in Genesis 15 said, ”This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.’ He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars — if indeed you can count them.’ [And then He spoke the word of promise, what I would say is the word of gospel promise for Abraham.] Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Abraham believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness.” And so, God would provide for Abraham descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. Well, Isaac in the course of time, was born a miracle baby to Abraham and Sarah when she was 90 years old, and Abraham was 100 years old. Now, however, Sarah is dead, she's died, she's been buried at Machpelah, the cave, and Isaac's 40 years old, and there's no indication of any worry that's saying, "We gotta get going here.” Alright, it's time for a wife. 

Absolutely essential to the redemptive plan of God. God is a God of means, and if through Isaac, all peoples on earth are gonna be blessed, he needs to have a wife. And so, Genesis 24, the longest chapter in Genesis is the answer to how Isaac, the next link from Abraham to blessing all nations got his wife.

Now, the first section is Abraham charging and commissioning a servant. That’s in verses 1-9. Look what it says in Verse 1-4, “Abraham was now old and well advanced in years, and the LORD had blessed him in every way. He said to the chief servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, ‘Put your hand under my thigh. I want you to swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac.’” Now, Abraham is old, doesn't know how much longer he will live, and his great concern is that Isaac, his son, will compromise and go the easy route and just marry one of the women that's around there somewhere.

Now, notice the father's role in getting a wife for his son. He’s involved. And notice how much Isaac trusts his father in that process. And so there's a role there for the father in reference to the son, trusted his father's judgment. Now, Abraham's grandson, grandchildren must be brought up in the covenant, they must be brought up knowing about the Lord. This is absolutely essential. Remember what it said in Genesis 18, God speaking of Abraham, saying, “Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.” In other words, essential to the choice, the calling of Abraham was the training of children, the training of Isaac, and then that Isaac would train also his children after him, so that they would remember and keep the way of the Lord and so bring about the promise.

Every Sunday, as I've mentioned before, my children and I, we read a Psalm and talk about it as we drive into church — we have about a 20-25 minute drive. This morning, we read Psalm 78, and in Psalm 78, it talks about how one generation will commend God's mighty deeds to the next, so that they will learn to fear the Lord and trust in Him, and would not turn away like their ancestors did. And I said, "Do you see," (the children and I were talking) and I said, "Do you see how important it is for your mother and I to tell you the stories about Exodus and about God and about what happened with Abraham and Isaac, and the manna, and the quail, and the rebellion in the Red Sea, and all these stories that have been your mind since you were little. Do you see how vital it is?" "Yes." “Why is it vital?” Well, it says there in Psalm 78:7, "So that they would trust in the Lord, so that their sins would be forgiven, so that faith will be formed inside." Well, that is also in God's mind and it's in Abraham's mind too. And that kind of intensive training of children cannot really be done with a Canaanite wife, with an unbelieving, a pagan wife. And Abraham's very concerned about this, very difficult to do with a mixed marriage.

Paul talks about this in Corinthians, talking about an unequally yoked situation: “What fellowship does a believer have with an unbeliever?” How in the world can you saturate your children's mind with the Word of God, if the two of you aren't pulling, yoked, in the same direction? Very tough. As a matter of fact, Isaac's own son, Esau, compromised, didn't he, and married some Hittite women. And Rebekah, Esau's mother says, "I'm disgusted with living because of these Hittite women that Esau's married. Please don't let my son Jacob get one of these Canaanite women for himself, but go back to the ancestral homeland and get a believing, a godly woman for him." So, it's the same concern; you see it. Abraham wants to be sure that Isaac has a godly and a believing wife. It's also vital in the redemptive plan that Isaac not be allowed to leave the Promised Land. He’s gotta stay there. The servant asked, "Now what if the woman's unwilling to go?" A big issue; we'll come back to it in a minute, "But what if she's not willing to come back, and should I bring your son there so that she can meet."

They didn't have the internet back then or the pictures, you know all that. So, it's really gonna be very tough, you're asking a lot of a woman here. Can he go and so that they can meet and maybe she'll like him, maybe she won't, and we can work this thing out. And he said, "Make sure you do not take my son. He must stay here in the promised land." It's vital. Abraham is not willing to compromise in this. It’s essential to the redemptive plan of God. And so he solemnly commissions his servant with an oath: “Put your hand under my thigh and swear.” It's a very solemn, a very serious oath, sworn by the God of heaven and the God of earth, the sovereign Lord of all the universe, concerning this matter. 

Now, the servant has some questions. A very reasonable question, as I mentioned a moment ago, is what if she doesn't wanna come back? We are asking this young lady to leave her country and her people and her homeland, very much like Abraham did, and go across hundreds, if not a thousand miles or more of burning sand, and marry a man she's never seen before. What if she doesn't wanna do it?

And I just love Abraham's answer. It’s so faith-filled, but it's also practical. Look at it, verses 7-8: “The LORD, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father's household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give this land’ — he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there.” Totally confident in God there, do you see? Do you see the similarity between this and his answer to Isaac, when Isaac said, "Here's wood and here's fire, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?" You remember what he said in Genesis 22: "God will provide the lamb, my son." And so he says to the servant, God will provide. He will send His angel and He will work this out; trust in Him. But practically speaking, I know you need to know. And so, he says in verse 8, “If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there.” So he's adamant about this. He says, “You've got to go and you've gotta try. Trust in the Lord, watch what he does. Alright? But don't take my son back there." And so, the commission is given, the servant swears the oath, verse 9, “So the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore an oath to him concerning this matter.” That's the first section.

The second section is this the journey of the servant and his remarkable and model prayer, verses 10-14. Now Abraham has chosen the servant wisely. It was the chief servant in his household. Some commentators think it may have even been Eliezer of Damascus, but we don't know, it doesn't say. But he was a remarkable man. And clearly from the text, a believer in the Lord, the God of heaven and earth. And so, I think that Abraham had been evangelistic within his own household. He had led this servant to faith in the true God, the living God, and we see the servant's faith on display, don't we? It's not just Abraham who believes, but the servant is a believer. Abraham has chosen well. And so he get's sent out, he makes provisions for the journey, 10 camels, that's a lot of camel-age. We'll get to that again later, 'cause they're very thirsty, alright?

But there's a lot of goods for the journey. They're taking provisions for the journey, but they're also taking a lot of good stuff. And why? Well, it's going to be a display of wealth to the young lady's father, so that he will release her to him. And so all kinds of good things are laden on this camel. Now, one thing you can't tell because the focus is so totally on this one servant, but there's a bunch of men that ride with him. They're mentioned in verse 32, so the men are there, and the image there that I get, like in World War II, when there were ships that were going over to besiege England from America, and there were Nazi submarines attacking and picking off these ships one at a time. So, what they did was they started having a convoy, surrounded by destroyers, so that they couldn't be picked off and sunk one at a time. It is a dangerous journey this servant's making. He's going across roads and deserts where there will be Highwaymen, robbers who are ready to pick off such a lavishly appointed train. 

So my guess is there's a lot of men involved here, and they're traveling back to the ancestral homeland. However, the real protection was not the men. They were there, it's reasonable to have them there, but like it says in Psalm 27, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.” And so they were trusting in God as they went, and God did protect them and watched over their journey. Now, the arduous journey itself passed over in silence, so there's no point in commenting, just that it was a difficult trip, it would not have taken a short time to get there, it was arduous and difficult.

And so, they'd come to the town of Nahor, Abraham's father's name, where Abraham's brother Bethuel lived. Notice that the servant wastes no time searching anywhere else, he goes right back to Abraham's hometown. He feels very much that that's where God is going to provide a wife for Isaac. Now, when he gets there, he prays this faith-filled model prayer. Look at verses 11-14: “He had the camels kneel down near the well outside the town; it was toward evening, the time the women go out to draw water. Then he prayed, ‘O LORD, God of my master Abraham, give me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. May it be that when I say to a girl, “Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,” and she says, “Drink, and I'll water your camels too” — let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.’” 

Now, there's some remarkable aspects of this prayer, I really love it. First of all, notice how faith-filled and specific it is. I think it's wonderful to teach children a prayer such as, "God bless the world." I'm glad that children can learn how to have a generally positive disposition toward the world and ask God that God would bless that. But I'll tell you something, you can never measure a prayer like that. Now, this prayer is specific: “May it be that when I ask such and such, that she says such and such.” That's remarkable, isn't it? Do you pray like that? Anything like that. Do you pray in such a way that you could tell whether there would be an answer or not? Faith-filled and specific prayer. It's remarkable. And by the way, what is he asking? It was a small thing that she would offer him a drink. That's no big deal. Common desert hospitality, "Could I have a drink?" "Sure, here you go." But to water the camels, now that's a whole different ball game.

Had to do some research on this. It's true, I don't know much about what camels drink. Okay? But a thirsty camel can, it seems, drink up to 32 gallons of water. A gallon of water weighs a little over 8 pounds; with the ceramic jar you're talking 10 pounds for each gallon. That would be a total of 320 gallons, or sorry, 320 pounds of water that she's moving. Have you ever moved water? You remember when we had the ice storm? We're on a well and we had no water, and we had to go get water for certain necessities. Okay? So, we had to move water and it was heavy. It’s very heavy. So, he's asking something to God that he would never ask her directly, "Please, would you mind moving 320 pounds of water for me and my camels?" That's a thing that she must volunteer, and she does. That's a remarkable thing. Very specific prayer, it's based on his need for immediate identification of the young woman that God has chosen. 

Well, God gives a providential answer. Look at verses 15-27. And by the way, one of the most amazing things about providence is not that miraculous things happen, such as as things suddenly pop out of thin air or whatever. It’s not that. What's amazing about providence is how common place things happen in remarkable timing; that's what it is. It's that ordinary things happen and they just click in at just the right moment. Now, that's what makes it so amazing. You have to know what to look for. And so it is that there's a remarkable answer here. Look at verse 15, “Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder.” I mean, God didn't waste any time. Before he'd finished praying, there she is. The first one that he interacts with. Amazing timing.

Now, when Rebekah came out so quickly, the servant was ready to move, he's ready to not just pray but to be an answer to prayer, be involved, he trusts in the sovereignty of God, but he knows he's got some acting to do too. And so in Verse 17, it says, “The servant hurried to meet her [so, he goes out to make himself available for God's answer to the prayer. He's energetic, he's going out, he's not just there like, "Lord, you gotta do it." No, no, no, he's gonna go out, he hurries, is she the one? Maybe she is. And so he says,] ‘Please give me a little water from your jar.’” Now, Rebekah's qualities are immediately put on display. She is a high quality woman, she is a good choice for Isaac. Now, the servant doesn't know this yet, but she's about to show what kind of person she is. 

First of all, her family origin: she was a daughter of Bethuel, Abraham's brother, as it turns out, Bethuel is Abraham's nephew and Isaac's cousin. That would make Rebekah Isaac's first cousin once removed. Now, if you think I know that kind of thing, I don't, but I went on the internet and found a chart where you can work it out, and she was his first cousin once removed, that was their relationship. But the key thing is she comes from the family ancestry that Abraham had in mind. He wanted somebody from home. So, family origin was there. 

Physical beauty — it says of the girl that she was very beautiful. We understand it says in 1 Peter 3, that the beauty of a woman comes from a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight, but God had also made Rebekah physically beautiful, and it mentions that Isaac would be very pleased when he saw her. It also speaks of her virginity; it says specifically, no man had ever lain with her. Nowadays, virginity is seen almost as a joke, it's almost like how quickly can we throw it away, but it's a precious and valuable thing, and that's why it's mentioned specifically here in the text, no man had ever lain with her. And so, that which is precious to God we should consider precious too, and we should protect. I'll talk about more about that next week, but it's listed as one of the qualities. 

It also speaks of her hard work. It says that she quickly worked doing a difficult task. She hurried. She drew enough water for all the camels — 320 pounds of water — a huge amount of work that she does cheerfully. We see also her hospitality; we see it many times in this account. First to offer him some water and then to extend it to the camels, and then to extend it to all of the entourage to stay with them. We see her respectfulness, she calls him, "My Lord." She uses an honorific title, she's a respectful young lady, gives him a title of honor. We see also her graciousness and her compassion, she's concerned for the needs that he may have and his entourage after their long travel. Eventually in the account toward the end, we're gonna see her courage and her faith. Now, young ladies, especially unmarried young ladies, would you have done what Rebekah did? Now, stop and think about it. Would you have just led by the Lord, traveled a thousand miles back to marry some guy you have never met, never seen, nothing, just because God was leading you to do it? That's remarkable. She had incredible faith and she had incredible courage. She was a great choice for Isaac.

Now, Rebekah, the key thing with her, was her hospitality. And isn't it amazing how God can use a little thing like that, a character trait formed in her from her youngest days to be the issue which would click her together with her husband. If she had been surly or rude or lack compassion or inhospitable, she would never have been chosen, she would not have met the request that the servant prayed. She would have just said, "Here, have some water, I gotta be on my way." She would have been surly or brusque, but instead she was hospitable. God used that to bring her into His redemptive plan. Remarkable. And so it is, everyday life has significance, how you treat a single individual who makes a simple request of you, it has significance. Everything matters. There was no way she could have known that that request and the offer to water camels would eventually lead her to the Promised Land, but so it did. 

Well, her hospitable answer leads her to a bunch of work. The Bible says in Matthew 10:42, “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will   certainly not lose his reward.” What kind of reward is she gonna get for 320 pounds of water? So, she is working hard, working hard, but notice the servant, what does he do? He stands and watches her and doesn't say a word. What is he waiting for? He's waiting for her to finish the job. It doesn't count if she does it halfway or three-quarters of the way. He’s waiting to see if God has answered the prayer and he will not know until she has watered the last camel. And when she has watered the last camel, then he goes up and he asks some questions, verse 23: “Then he asked, ‘Whose daughter are you? [Kind of an important question. And then he says,] Please tell me, is there room in your father's house for us to spend the night?’ She answered him, ‘I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son that Milcah bore to Nahor.’ And she added, ‘We have plenty of straw and fodder, as well as room for you to spend the night.’” 

Now, here's the deal. The servant knew before anyone else. Isn't that wonderful? He knew before Abraham, he knew before Isaac, he knew before any of the men, he knew before Rebekah, he knew before Laban, he knew before anybody, she is gonna be Isaac's wife. And what does he do? He bows down and he worships the Lord God. He praises the Lord: “Then the man bowed down and worshiped the LORD, saying, ‘Praise be to the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, the LORD has led me on the journey to the house of my master's relatives.’” I tell you, great joy comes from being in the center of God's will. Great joy comes from seeing remarkable coincidences happen to specific prayers done for the glory of God. Incredible joy comes from that. 

My first Christmas as a Christian, Christmas of 1982, I went on evangelism project with Campus Crusade for Christ in Philadelphia. And we went out witnessing. It was my first experience witnessing. I was terrified. We're going door to door in the streets of Philadelphia; we come to an inner city home, a town house. A lady opened the door. We talked to her about some things; she wanted to talk to us about the Lord, she invited us in. We came in and it was utter mayhem. There were, it seemed like, 50 kids in the house (there were probably more like four or five) but they're running around like little Indians. It was crazy — it was loud and the TV was blaring. And it was just very, very difficult. I felt there was no way we're gonna be able to talk to this lady, she was interested, but she didn't have a chance. We sat down at the table and my partner began witnessing to her, and I began to pray. I said, "Oh Lord," — I mean, I’m a new Christian — I said, "Lord, please, make these kids be quiet, make them... Or go out or something." Because I can't hear myself think and the lady was getting distracted every 30 seconds. Well, I don't remember, I think I got into the conversation with my partner and we're talking, but I notice about 10 minutes later, all five of them are sitting on the couch, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching. I looked over and the mother hadn't said anything in a while. She’s absorbed in the gospel. And one of the children, about six, seven years old, gets up, goes across the floor, turns the TV down and goes back and sits down. Now tell me, that's not a miracle! That was amazing! It was a specific answer to prayer. 

William Temple once said, "The more I pray, the more coincidences happen. And the less I pray, they stop happening." And so, that was a coincidence, wasn't it? No, it wasn't. It was an answer to prayer. And so it was, he's worshipping God. Let me tell you something, if you're missing joy in your life, maybe you're not stepping out in faith and serving, maybe you're not in the center of God's will, maybe you've kind of veered away from God's redemptive plan. Go out and take some risks for him, do some things that you wouldn't ordinarily do because you're a Christian and trust Him for some specific things and see the coincides start to happen in your life again. And see your joy go off the charts. Abraham's servant was the first to know, and he fell down, and he worshipped God.

Well, then the family learned about God's providence in verses 28-49. They noticed that Rebekah is a little different. First of all, she's wearing some jewelry. They hadn't seen that before — she's got the bracelet, she's got the nose ring... No comment, we'll just move on. She's got the bracelet, she got the nose ring, she’s just… looking good, in that culture. And then she goes and we meet this man for the first time named Laban. Laban is her older brother, and Laban is taking the role, it seems, of the head of the household. Now, I don't know if Bethuel is just too old or whatever, but it really seems that Laban is the one negotiating concerning Rebekah. Laban is the one who receives the gifts, and so he's taking that significant role. We will meet, God willing, in the future, Laban again, when Jacob goes to get a wife and he ends up with Laban's daughters, Leah and Rachel. And we find out what kind of man he is at that point. I'll tell you right now what kind of man he is. He is a conniver, he's a con-artist; he's the kind of man that God will use to change Jacob forever. But we'll get to Laban in due time. 

This is just right now, at this point, her older brother. And he finds out what's happening, he takes them in, the servant tells the story in verses 34-49, he goes over some details, and the bulk of this section is just a repetition of what we already knew. But he does focus on Abraham's wealth. He says, "The Lord has blessed him. He's got lots of sheep and cattle and donkeys, he's got silver and gold, he's got men servants and maid servants, he is very wealthy. And Isaac, the one that we have in mind here, is the sole inheritor. He's the sole heir, if that matters to you." Well, it mattered to Laban. In all seriousness, it's vital for a young man to be able to provide for a young woman, and the servant's message is, he can provide for your daughter, for your sister, he can meet her needs. And so the final confirmation in verses 47-48, “I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him.’ Then I put the ring in her nose and the bracelets on her arms, and I bowed down and worshiped the LORD. I praised the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me on the right road to get the granddaughter of my master's brother for his son.” Now the servant pops the question. Verse 49: “Now if you will show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so I may know which way to turn.” What is it? What's it going to be? Is it yes or no.

And so, Rebekah and her family submit to God's providence in verses 50-60. The first key to this is you have to recognize the hand of the Lord. You have to see it, you can't see events as just swirling mass of nothingness — luck and chance and all kinds of coincidences, no. This is the hand of the Lord. And so, the first thing they do is they say, "This is the hand of the Lord. We see it, we acknowledge that God is doing something." Just like Henry Blackaby in Experiencing God, to see where God is at work and join him. They could see that God was at work here. “This is from the LORD…” verse 50. 

And then they submit to the hand of the Lord, that's the next step. First, you got to see that God is acting, and then next you gotta submit to it. In verse 50-51, “We can say nothing to you one way or the other. Here is Rebekah; take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master's son, as the LORD has… [literally, it says] as the Lord has spoken.” Now, there must have been a good deal of sadness here. The key is not just submission, as though it's grim, but glad submission. I really believe the essence of the kingdom of heaven is glad submission to Jesus as the king. That's the essence of the kingdom of heaven. But they submit to the hand of God, and I'm sure there must have been some sadness there.

And then they rejoice verse 52:“When Abraham's servant heard what they said, he bowed down to the ground before the LORD.  [And then, they profited from it. Verse 53] Then the servant brought out gold and silver jewelry and articles of clothing and gave them to Rebekah; he also gave costly gifts to her brother and to her mother.” Let me tell you something, weddings are expensive. I mean, they did a study recently, somebody… investigative reporters, and they said, "We're doing a retirement dinner for a boss and we wanna get a photographer, how much is it gonna cost?" A rate was given. They call back about an hour later and say, "We're having a wedding, etcetera." The rate was three times what it was for the retirement dinner. It's very expensive to have a wedding, everybody knows you're gonna spend a lot of money. In the United Arab Emirates, for example, a bridegroom can expect to spend an average of $75,000 to get married. Lavish gifts, parties, clothing, incredible. In every culture, it's expensive. And so we see these gifts, these material gifts. 

But then the time comes to complete the task without delay. The next morning the servant is ready to go back, and so he says, "I wanna go back and complete the task that the master has given." Well, they don't want her to leave so soon, and we're gonna see this pattern later in Genesis, in due time, in the future, God willing, but Laban doesn't want them to leave, and so he's bargaining for some more time. He say, "Well, let us stay for 10 days." Finally, they just put the matter to Rebekah. And by the way, it's the first time she's asked. You may find that interesting as 21st century people. She's not been asked up to this point, but now she's asked, "Will you go with this man or not?" And she says, "I will go." And with that word, you see her heart, you see her courage, you see her faith, her willingness to follow God. 

Well, in verses 61-67, we see Isaac marrying Rebekah. “Then Rebekah and her maids got ready and mounted their camels and went back with the man. So the servant took Rebekah and left. Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev. He went out to the field one evening to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching. Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from her camel and asked the servant, "Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?" "He is my master," the servant answered. So she took her veil and covered herself. Then the servant told Isaac all he had done. Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.”

Now, the journey has passed over in silence again as they come back, but you can well imagine that Rebekah talked to the servant, "What kind of man is Isaac?” Do you think she was curious? Would you have been? I would have been, wondering what is this... What is he like? And so, I'm sure they had plenty of time to talk, and by the time she got back to that area, she was ready to meet him. 

It's a pretty dramatic first meeting. It’s more dramatic in the Hebrew than it is in any English translation. I've talked with Jeremy and others about whether I'm gonna tell you what it really says happened concerning the camel. But literally, it says, "She fell from her camel." Now, I know that that makes it seem undignified. It’s just a simple word, Hebrew word, for fall, so she sees him and down she goes. But let's let her light gracefully.

Okay. So she comes down and lands, and then she finds out that it's Isaac. “It's my master,” and notice the servant calls him “my master”, because he's the sole heir, he is also his master. She covers herself chastely with a veil. The chastity, the purity, it's so beautiful. Then he, understanding who she is, talking to the servant, he does a remarkable thing. He brings her to his mother's tent, to Sarah's tent, and it says, "And he married her.” Now, what's remarkable about this account is that the wedding ceremony itself is passed over, I really believe with all my heart they had one. This was the same group of people that celebrated greatly with a big party when the child was weaned, when Isaac was weaned, so there's no way that they're gonna skip the wedding. It just doesn't say anything about it. 

What's remarkable is that Rebekah symbolically has now taken Sarah's place. She becomes somewhat the clan matriarch. She’s immediately given a position of honor, because she's going to be Rebekah, Isaac's wife, and he's the heir. And so, he takes her and she's set up in Sarah's tent. But there's one other thing. She has to some degree taken Sarah's place now in Isaac's heart. And this is really beautiful, isn't it? It says, the final word in the chapter is, “And so Isaac was comforted concerning the death of his mother, Sarah.”

Let me tell you something, it must have been incredible to have Abraham as a father: he was called the friend of God, he was a faith-filled man, incredible life, the whole experience of Mount Moriah, but you know something, there were things that only Sarah could do for Isaac. The woman's touch, the woman's place, irreplaceable in Isaac's life, irreplaceable. And so, he's had an emptiness, a vacuum in his life ever since Sarah died, and now Rebekah has come to fill that place. And then, even more, to be an avenue of comfort and of blessing, and so she would be. Song of Songs 8:10 says, "I've become in his eyes like one bringing contentment." And that's exactly what she was, she was a fountain of contentment and a blessing. “A godly wife, who can find? Her worth is more precious than rubies or jewels.” 

She's essential to God's salvation plan. Without Rebekah, we don't get Jesus Christ. And that's where I wanna end this message today, Jesus Christ. We're gonna talk next week about theological implications and marriage and all those things in due time. But the center of this is God's faithfulness to keep his promises. Isaac needed a wife. Only God could have brought Isaac and Rebekah together in this way, to give Rebekah enough courage and faith to get on that camel and go back with the servant and marry a man she's never met before. But she does because God brought it about. God is sovereign. 

And all of God's promises, all of the flow of redemptive history, all of the words spoken to Abraham, and then Isaac and Jacob, all of it was pointed toward the coming of Jesus Christ. In Christ and in Christ alone are all the promises of God, yea and amen. Everything comes down to Jesus Christ. And my question is, just like Abraham's servant, do you have enough faith to trust in Jesus Christ, not just for the provision of an earthly spouse, not just for health or for physical prosperity. Oh no, I'm talking about something far greater than that. Do you have enough faith to trust in Jesus Christ for the resurrection of your body and the salvation of your soul? Where is your faith today?

And I believe I'm talking to two different categories of people right now. Those that have made a profession of faith in Christ already, but who perhaps are tempted to drift away from faith, I prayed for you this morning already. Perhaps already your hearts are getting a little hard. You’re turning away from Christ, you're drifting from Him. Can I urge you to come back to Christ? He is the lover of your soul. Come back again to the things you did at first, to prayer and Bible reading, to service in Him, to loving Christ. And then I believe in this large assembly, there must be some that have never trusted in Christ. Jesus Christ is a lover of your soul, He is the only savior there is, trust in Him. Put your faith in Him. All of the promises of God are focused on Him. Know Him and love Him today.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a verse-by-verse expository sermon on John 15. The sermon's main subject is Jesus's role as Savior of the world and the nature of His ministry.

Well, I'll tell you, I love expositional preaching, I do. I love to take a passage and just go through it, and I'm feeling a strong temptation to just take John 15:1-11, and just go verse by verse, but I'm not gonna do it today. This is a topical message focused specifically on some areas of spiritual growth for you, and I'm starting, as a starting place, in John 15, and I think it's a good place to begin. My two basic ideas in this message and behind the reason for the message is, number one, that someday you will be totally conformed to Jesus Christ if you're a believer in him. You'll be as righteous and as holy and as perfect and glorious as he is today, some day you will be like that. That's my first premise. The second is, you're not like that now. That's my second premise. I'm not saying that by way to insult you or anything I know about your lives other than you're sitting here listening to me today. And so therefore, there's a journey to be traveled between point A and point B, between where you are now and where you will be some day when the gospel has finished all of its work in your life.

And the year 2005, if it's gonna be a year of spiritual health and growth for you, it's gonna be a year in which God shows his faithfulness to you and his sovereign power in your life, but also a year in which you must apply yourself diligently to spiritual disciplines, to the attending of the Word, reading of the Word, to prayer, to certain other structures that God's put in your life, or you will not grow. So I believe with all my heart that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion to the day of Christ Jesus, but it's gonna take working out your salvation with fear and trembling in order to get there. And so I desire that this sermon be a very practical assistance to you in that matter.

Now, John 15:1-11, the vine and the branches, is a marvelous place to talk about spiritual growth. The context of John 15 is, in John's gospel, the whole purpose of John's gospel, is to set before us Jesus of Nazareth, that's what the unbelieving world calls him, and we can say that, it just didn't go far enough, that Jesus is God in the flesh, and that if you believe that, you'll have eternal life. That's the whole purpose of John's gospel, what a powerful book. It's written so that believing that Jesus is the Son of God you might have eternal life. In John 20:31, it says, "These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and by believing, you may have life in his name." This is the overall goal, but there's a second theme to John's Gospel. In one sense, almost as important, but it's a description of what that life looks like. There is, woven through the 21 chapters of John's Gospel, a description of what eternal life will look like. Just running through the chapters, it's like in John 2, like a super abundance of high quality wine at a wedding banquet. Or in John chapter 3, it's like being born again by the power of God. Or in John 4, it's like having a spring of water inside you welling up to eternal life, which you can drink any time you want. Or John 5, like being paralyzed for 40 years and then suddenly able to walk by the power of God. Or in John 6, to have a never-ending supply of heavenly bread you can just feed on whenever you want, spiritually in Christ. Or John 7, like having a river of living water flowing from you outward to others. Or John 8, having the light of the world so that you never walk in darkness but have the light of life; and John 9, like being born blind, you never saw that light before, but now suddenly, for the first time in your life, you can see color, and the spectacle of the created world that God has made, and that just by Jesus spitting and making mud. In John 10, it's like having a good shepherd who takes care of all your needs and protects you from all harm and will never let you go until you are finally in his presence, saved. John 11, it's like being dead for four days and hearing “Lazarus, rise!” and you're alive. I could go on, I just love John's gospel, isn't that marvelous? All the beautiful things there are in there, but it's just a sense of what eternal life is like. In John 15, it's like being connected to an eternal vine, and life-giving sap just flows through that vine right out through you into fruit, full fruitfulness, a lush and lavish vine, that's the picture in John 15.

Jesus wants you to be fruitful. And as a matter of fact, we go so far just based on principles in John 15 that you heard, if you are not fruitful in the way he thinks of, if you're not fruitful the way he considers fruit, you're not a Christian. This is not an option; you must be fruitful. And so, John 15 tells you the secret of fruitfulness. And there's a role for everyone. There's a role for the Father, the Heavenly Father, he is the vinedresser, he's the gardener; he is the one active in your life. Interestingly, another one of Jesus's parables, the father is portrayed as the owner of the vineyard, somewhat of an absentee landowner, and he rents it out to others who are gonna look after its day-to-day operation, but here, he is looking after its day-to-day operations. He is the vinedresser; he is all over your life, and not just your life but the life of the whole church, he's the vinedresser, he's looking after you.

And what does he do? Well, he does two things in the vine, he cuts off every branch that bears no fruit, and it withers in a pile and its burned; and also, he prunes every branch that is fruitful so that it will be even more fruitful, those two things the vinedresser is doing. Now, Jesus role is to be the vine, he is the vine. He's the source of life, he is just drawing up, sucking up the moisture and the nutrients from the soil and through him all of it flows out to the branches, and without that, no fruitfulness is possible. If you're not connected to the vine, you can't bear fruit. It's a simple lesson, John 15, must be connected to the mind. So Jesus's role is to provide you with strength and health and support and nutrients and water, everything you need for full fruitfulness, that's the Son's role, Jesus's role.

Well, what is your role? Well, I don't know that it could be any clearer. It says again and again that you need to abide or remain or dwell or live or continue or persevere in the mind. It's a simple word, it just means you gotta stay with the vine; you gotta stay in him. Look what it says in verses 4 and following, he says, "Remain in me, and I will remain in you," or abide, some translations, give, or dwell. "Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." Now, what does it mean to remain in Christ? Well, earlier in John 1, when Jesus is just beginning his earthly ministry, he's meeting his disciples for the first time, those, I believe, that he meets in John 1, in the middle section there, were John the Baptist disciples, and John the Baptist points and says, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world," and then he points to his own disciples, "Go follow him now; he's the one." And so they go, and they follow after Jesus, literally physically follow after him, and he turns around and says, "What do you want?" And they say, "Rabbi, where are you staying?" And he says, "Come and see." So they remained... It's the same Greek word. They stayed with Jesus that day. It's about the 10th hour. Now you're thinking, "Boy, if it were that easy, I'd love it, I'd love to eat with Jesus and sleep and walk and talk and work and just have him physically there all day long." Wouldn't that be wonderful? But that's the same word, the idea is live your life with Jesus, moment-by-moment, live with him, stay with him all day long. Go to bed, wake up the next day, do it again, walk with Jesus. And Jesus says, "You must abide in me." But the thing is, we can't. Not the way they did, not in John 1, he's gone on up into heaven, he's in the heavenly realms, he's at the right hand of the Father, he's interceding, he has sent the Holy Spirit, so our abiding in Christ is gonna be of a spiritual nature.

And so he points us to the Word and to prayer. He says, "I am the vine, and you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up and thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." And so here it is, to abide or remain in Christ, you've gotta have his words abiding in you, you gotta take in the Word, you gotta just be feeding on the Word, and you need to speak to him in prayer, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you, this is an abiding remaining, and out of this will flow fruit. And I bet you're wondering, "What is fruit?" You're thinking, "I'm not gonna be a Concord grape, am I? Is that what's gonna come out of my life?" No, that's not it. It's spiritual fruit.

I've never forgotten what John MacArthur said about fruit, I think it's a good characterization, that there's two different kinds of fruit that God builds in your life. One of them is attitude fruit and the other is action fruit, both of them are equally valid, equally important. Attitude fruit is the inward disposition of your soul, your reaction to certain things, what you love, what you hate, what you believe, what you trust, what you feel inside yourself, that's that internal fruit, that is valid fruit. And it's a great work, isn't it, that God does inside us? The external fruit is what we call action fruit, and that has to do with witnessing and prayer and giving of money to the needy and all kinds of good works that God has prepared for you to do, both of those put together are fruit. We evangelicals tend to think of fruit only in terms of souls that are won to Christ through our witness. That is a kind of fruit but it's not the only fruit there is. They're important, but not the only one. So what I'm saying is, attitude fruit, action fruit, all taken together, that's the fruit, I believe, John 15 has in mind. Without it, you are not his disciple. Do you see that? If there's no attitude fruit, if there's no action fruit, you're not a Christian. And so he says, "This is," verse 8, "to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit." Not a little fruit, much fruit. "And in this way, you will prove to be my disciples." Do you see how this is not an option? There must be full fruitfulness in your life.

Alright, well, that's just the John 15 background for the diagnostic questions I'd like to take you through. Now, what happened was, a year ago, as the ministerial staff, every year, we think about ways that we can help you grow, that is our purpose, that is what we seek to do, we want you to be maximally fruitful, we want you to have a full harvest to show to God on judgment day. And so, for the year for 2004, we were using these diagnostic questions through the Deacon Family Ministry Plan and our own personal counseling with people, just conversations to keep, in front of you, key basic areas of the Christian life. And now at the official end of the year, in the beginning of a new year, 2005, I wanna bring us back to those questions, and I wanna talk about them in a very practical way, okay? So the first one of the four are concerning personal devotions, have you been spending time in the scriptures and in prayer today? The second question has to do with family devotions: Have you been fulfilling your role in family devotions? And third, has to do with witnessing, with evangelism: Have you shared the gospel lately? And the fourth has to do with ministry: Have you committed to a pattern of ministry at First Baptist Church? Let's take them one at a time. 

First, personal devotions: Have you spent time in the scriptures and prayer today? Now, you say, "Today is a good day for you to ask, it's Sunday, and I usually have my quiet time, plenty of time on a Sunday." Okay, today means symbolically for just habitually in your life, that's what I mean by that. It begins, your health, your spiritual health, begins with the taking in of the word of God. That's how it all starts, that's how it began at the start for you as a Christian, right? Remember in verse 3 in John 15, it says, "You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you." It's the word spoken from God that makes you clean; it saves your soul. Interestingly, it says, "He prunes every branch in me, so it'll be even more fruitful." The pruning, literally, it says, "Cleans, he cleans every branch in me." In other words, the word's gonna keep working in you, just like you were justified by the Word, you're gonna be sanctified by the Word. You were originally brought into a right relationship with God through the believing of the gospel, so you're gonna keep growing as a Christian by hearing the Word, by believing and understanding it. Well, in order to do that, you have to be under the ministry of the Word, and this little time of two hours that we have this morning is not enough. Two hours, that's a joke, okay? We're not gonna be here for two hours. You can see how little time we have. I have about 35 minutes or so. I can't compete, nor do I desire to compete with the 35 minutes or an hour that you spend in the Word every single day, that is God's avenue of discipleship in your life. Are you taking the Word in? Are you reading it? Are you meditating on it? Are you memorizing it? Are you feeding on it? Faith comes by hearing the Word. Are you growing in faith by taking the Word in? Are you having a regular quiet time? That's what I'm focused on here.

Now, the top priority then in your Christian life is hearing God speak to you today, by means of the Word, it's top priority. Just like we've been learning in the Book of Hebrews, which we're studying in the evenings, on Sunday evenings. It says in Hebrews 3, "So as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." How do we hear but except by the scripture. He speaks to us. And so we learn, and we feed on it. And when we take it in we don't harden our hearts, but we do what it says, an obedient faith-filled hearing of the Word, that's what I have in mind. So you've got to take in the Word today. But it's not enough just to take in the Word, to hear the Word, you also need to speak back to God in prayer, and so the two of them are the two basic components of a quiet time: taking in the Word you're hearing from him, he's speaking to you, and then you're speaking back to him in prayer. "Ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you," that's what he says, "If you abide in me [or remain in me] my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you." So what do you wish for? Well, I wish for spiritual health and growth for you folks, that is so much more valuable than any of the things that we could wish for in a material realm. We want spiritual health and growth for ourselves, our family, for people around the world, and so ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you. So we're gonna take in the Word and we're going to pray.

Now, what I have in mind here is what we call a quiet time. I'm not talking about listening to sermon tapes while you drive. That's part of it, saturating the mind and all that, or those quick little prayers that you pray at certain moments through the day, that's so vital; but I'm talking about a concentrated time like Jesus did, early in the morning, getting up, "Great while before it was dawn," it says in Mark's gospel, and meeting with his Heavenly Father. You're doing nothing but the word and prayer during that time. You gotta do it. It's essential to your spiritual health. And I do advocate that morning's the best time. I don't think it's in the Bible but someone once said, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." I think it's "Poor Richard's Almanac," Benjamin Franklin, right? What would you rather have, a Spirit-filled day which is so fruitful and don't miss any of the things that God had for you to do because you're sharpened and alert because of your morning quiet time in which you're going through all that, or a time at the end when you clean it all up and ask God a lot of forgiveness and just get right with God at the end of the day, right? I think the morning quiet time is the way to go.

Evening is a great time as well to pray and to concentrate your mind just as you're going to sleep, and that's fine, but I'm really advocating that you get up early, earlier than you've been perhaps, and have a time with Jesus. I only ask the diagnostic questions that we gave at that time, a year ago: How many times have you met with the Lord for personal Bible study and prayer in the last 30 days? How many times? What grade would you give your devotional life right now? If you had to grade it, what grade would you give? If you looked at Scripture and your intake of Scripture, what would you say is your biggest weakness in personal scriptural intake and fervent prayer? What would you say is your greatest strength? What are you doing well? What's going well in your life that you can give God thanks for? Do you keep a Scripture notebook in which you write down notes of things that focus your mind on the Word as you're taking it in? Do you have a yearlong plan for Bible reading? Do you have a strategy for what you wanna do in the year 2005, what do you wanna read? Do you wanna read through the whole Bible in the year, through the whole New Testament? Do you wanna concentrate on maybe five key books and just really work them? All of those things are fine, just whatever God's leading you, have a plan for reading the Bible. Have you committed yourself to memorizing any scripture this year? Did you commit yourself to memorize scripture last year and got going well but didn't keep up with it? Is there a fence that's broken down in your pasture that needs to be re-established? Go back and do it again, God's giving you time, make use of it.

Do you keep a notebook for intercessory prayer needs, sharpening your intercessory prayer life so that you keep track of things that you pray for to find out whether God was faithful and to keep praying for brothers and sisters in Christ? Which of the following areas would you most like to improve upon in your life, prayer life, would you like to pray longer? You pray too short maybe. Would you like to pray more fervently with greater depth? Would you like to show more compassion in prayer? When you see a great need like we've seen in the daily news and the newspaper and the nightly news, does that draw you into prayer? And if you say no, then say, "Lord, I need more compassion, I don't seem to have enough compassion for people whose lives are being shattered. I need to grow in compassion, the way that Paul was compassionate on his own people who didn't believe in the Lord." Do you usually meet with the Lord in the morning or the evening? Are you willing to make a sacrifice to have a morning quiet time like Jesus did?

What would you say is the biggest obstacle to your consistency in your devotional life? What's hindering you with your devotions? Find out what it is and overcome. What specific goals for growth in your devotional life would be reasonable to make? And are you willing to commit to the Lord that you'll reach these goals this year? So that's the first question, are you being faithful to have a quiet time daily? 

Secondly: how about family altar time or family devotions? I believe the family is the essential building block of the church and of society. It's the first thing that God instituted in the Garden of Eden. And a family is a husband and a wife. You're a family if you're married and you don't even have children. And so you can start patterns of family devotions even early in your married life, but I think that there is a concentrated attack by the devil on the family. I think we who are believers, who know the word of God, we can see how so many of the devil’s attack focus on the family unit, a husband and wife relationship, parent-child relationship, the family is essential. And I'm not saying that a family altar time, a consistent family altar time will solve all your problems. I'm not saying that, but I'm saying it is foundational to a growing family spirituality, that's essential.

Now, what is the family altar? We take this language from the Old Testament, when the patriarchs, like Noah, getting off the ark, he builds that altar and immediately sacrifices some clean animals to the Lord. Or we see Abraham establishing an altar in every place that he went in the Promised Land. So he's establishing that altar. And so Isaac in Genesis 22 said, “Here's wood and fire, but where is the sacrifice?” He knows very well what's going on. He sees his father in a regular pattern of worship to the Lord, family worship, the family altar time. Now, I am not in any way, I'm actually exhorting you not to build a physical stone and earth altar and sacrifice animals. We're not doing that. This is spiritual, it's a time in which the family gathers around the Word and prayer and worship together as a family. And the question is have you been fulfilling your role in that? Now, I know that it's busy, I know if you've got kids, your growing family, other issues, I know it's a busy time in your life, my opinion, all the more reason to have it and to do it. We struggle with it, too. We don't do it as consistently as we should. I am rededicated in 2005 to be more faithful than I was in 2004. It's so easy to make excuses, isn't it? “Oh, we got back too late or we've been too busy. Or we had some Bible time while we were in the car,” things like... We've done all those excuses, but I don't wanna do that in 2005. I don't think you do either.

Now, we all have a different role to play. You may say to yourself well, “I'm a widow, I'm a widower. I'm aged. My kids are grown. What role do I have to play?” Or, “I've never been married, or, I'm not married now,” whatever your past, whatever is going on in your life right now, you may not be in the situation where you regularly have a family unit around you. You still have somewhat of a role to play here in the church life. You can, for example, be praying for families that are in the midst of the struggle, in the midst of the time of growing, you'd be praying for that. If you feel that your time of having a family around you is passed and you're not going to be doing it regularly, you can pray for that. You can encourage your own children in this area, grown children who have kids of their own, grandkids, etcetera. You can set an example or disciple younger folks who are just beginning to go through it, the older folks can do that.

But for those of you that are going through it, you have different roles to play, too. Fathers, it's your responsibility to take the lead in this area, to initiate, to be the one to say it's time for our family altar time, to sit down, to open the Bible, put it on your lap and lead. And wives, it's for you to show a loving and godly submission to the husband's leadership in the spiritual life, and to take his place when he's on the road and not able to be there, to continue on, to lead in that way, when he can't be there, so that the husband and wife are working together beautifully and set an example for their children. And children, you have a role to play, too, to look forward to and to enhance the family altar by your joyful participation, to make it everything that it can be. And so it's a family time, a time of family altar.

My question is: are you being faithful in your area of responsibility? How consistent have you been in the last month, in the last six months to have a family altar time? Has it been a regular part of your life? Has the Spirit shown you any ways of growth that you could grow in this as a man, as a woman, as a child, as a widow or widower? Are there ways you could grow to be faithful in this area of family devotions?

The third area is the area of evangelism. Simple question, have you shared the gospel lately? Have you shared the gospel lately? The great commission is given, the great commission of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is given five times over at least in formal form, five times over, one in each of the four Gospels, and in the book of Acts. We know the one in Matthew 28, the best. Jesus said, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Father, in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded. Surely, I'm with you always to the very end of the age." But in Mark's gospel, it says, Jesus said, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." And in Luke 24, he showed them from scripture, he said, “This is what is written: the Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” And then in John 20, on the resurrection night, first time of the week, he appears though the doors are locked, he comes and stands among them and says, "Peace be with you," and then he says, "‘As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.’ And then he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ And then he said, ‘If you forgive anyone their sins, they are forgiven, if you do not forgive their sins, they are not forgiven.’” That is John's version of the great commission. And then in Acts 1:8, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” So we have, as a church, collectively, a responsibility to evangelize the lost. Jesus said, "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost,” lost people; he cared about that. That's what he came for.

Now the question I ask is: are you fulfilling your own personal responsibility in that? I believe that spiritual gifts fit the church together as a whole corporately, to be very effective for reaching the lost together as a body. The most effective agency for reaching the lost is a well-organized local church in which spiritual gift ministries are just flowing by the power of the Spirit, very powerful. We see it in the book of Acts again and again. But I believe each individual Christian has a responsibility to be a witness for Christ. It says in Ephesians 2:10, "We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them." So he has a bunch of good works for you to do in the year 2005. Is it not possible that some of those involve the opening of your mouth and the witnessing to a lost person? I think so, that you might share the gospel to somebody that's never heard it before, and I believe that there are certain people that only you can reach in a specific way, that you can have a witness and an impact because you have been shaped and prepared for that witnessing opportunity.

And so what I'm advocating, this is a kind of a challenging thing, is that you would say every day, as you wake up, during your morning quiet time that we talked about earlier, in the morning, you say, “Lord, I pray that you would give me a witnessing opportunity today, and that you would help me overcome my weakness enough to make the most of it.” Pray that kind of prayer, and I found almost every time that I pray that kind of prayer I have a witnessing opportunity that day. And you think, “Well, it's not surprising. You're being alert.” Exactly. We're being alert. We're looking for opportunities to say something. Let me ask some questions. When was the last time you invited somebody to church? When was the last time you spoke the name of Jesus Christ to somebody you believe to be lost, somebody you believe that was not a Christian? When was the last time you did that? When was the last time that you actually sat down and went through a full gospel presentation? God, man, Christ, response with an unbeliever, and if your answer is a month, six months, six years, never, what I would say is, “Lord, in 2005, make me a witness. Change Me. Transform me,” if you feel like you need more training, then take advantage of the training times. We had numerous training times in 2004; a variety of training times, take advantage of them. We go out every month, a neighborhood outreach, go. There are creative ways. We're adopting a school, an inner city school, so that we can go and share the gospel with young children. If you're more gifted to reach out to young children, take advantage of that. There are so many different ways that you can be a witness. But be a witness for Christ.

Final question I wanna ask is do you have a ministry? Have you committed to a pattern of ministry at First Baptist Church? And I think there are two different kinds of ministry you can have in a local church. One of them is what we call a spiritual gift ministry, and the other is just general servanthood kind of ministries. Both of them need to be part of your life. Now, what do I mean by spiritual gift ministry? Well, every Christian, every believer in Christ has a spiritual gift package, it's mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12-14, it's mentioned in Romans 12, it's mentioned in Ephesians 4, in 1 Peter 4. These are important sections of Scripture that talk about how God has uniquely fitted you for a ministry. Maybe your gift is teaching, maybe it's encouragement, maybe it's administration, maybe it's giving, maybe it's faith, maybe it's prayer, maybe it's a combination of some of those in a marvelous way. I think there's as many different combinations as there are Christians. I've also come to believe that, I used to think you got your spiritual gift package the moment you're saved, let's say, I don't think that there's anything in Scripture that says when it comes. It could be you venture forth in a new ministry and God gifts you for that ministry. God gives grace. And so a spiritual gift ministry in which you are regularly, if your gift is teaching, you teach faithfully and regularly here in the local church. If your gift is of administration, you're here organizing and helping ministries be well run. If your gift is giving, you're doing that cheerfully and abundantly. You're using your gift here at the local church, that's one kind or style of ministry.

The other is what we call general servanthood kind of ministries. We have a lot of events here and a lot of things in which just general things need to be done. I don't know anybody with the spiritual gift of putting paper with masking tape on a table, alright. That's just something anybody can do. Or cutting up food into small portions so that there's a reasonable amount for everybody, or cooking covered dish or any of these things, or folding pieces of paper for an outreach, these are things anybody can do. And we need people to do those kind of things. My question to you is as you look back over 2004, how many hours did you spend serving here in the church that does not include times in which you came to worship or Sunday school or some set activity? Not counting that. Just take all that and put it aside. What's left? How many hours did you spend serving in some way through the local church? That's a question to ask. I believe God's calling on us, sacrificially, to give time. This church is very generous financially, and so many in the church are generous with time. What I'm asking to do is not just settle into a pattern which you come to church and you're thinking what can the local church do for me or being a consumer of local church ministries, but rather that God would use you to venture forth in some exciting new ministries. I can guarantee that there's some people who are listening to me right now who have a vision for ministries that we don't have, ministerial staff we don't have. But you have the vision, you have the gifts, and you can organize people to move in that direction. Let's do it in 2005. Let's see it happen.

Now, overall, as I look at this whole area, personal devotions, have you been spending time in the Scriptures and prayer today, or have you spent or are you regularly doing that? Secondly, family altar time, have you been fulfilling your role in family devotions? Third, evangelism, have you shared the gospel recently? And fourth also in ministry, have you committed to a pattern of sacrificial ministry at First Baptist Church? I look at each of those areas and say I wanna grow. I wanna grow in each one of them. I'm not satisfied with where I'm at in any of them. Well, I came across a verse recently that was like the ultimate New Year's resolution verse, and I wanna show it to you, and I'll close with that. Look with me, if you would, at 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12. And I have read Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, many times, but I never noticed this. But in 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, I found a great New Year's resolution verse. And it says this, 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12. I'm reading here in the ESV, "To this end, we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling [and listen] and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." Look at that, right there in verse 11, “that God may fulfill every resolve of good inside you.” The other translations, “every good intention,” or, “every good plan that you may have.” Do you have any for 2005, any good resolves or good intentions? May God fulfill it in you, may he make you ambitious for spiritual growth for yourself and for the church in 2005. May he give you wide-ranging resolves, and may he fulfill them by his great power and for his glory. Resolve, resolve to grow, resolve to grow in your personal quiet times and your family altar times, resolve to grow as a witness for Christ and resolve to serve here in the church, and may God fulfill it.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a verse-by-verse expository sermon on Luke 2:21-35. The main subject of the sermon is the clear confirmation of Jesus Christ as the Messiah.

Looking this morning at Luke 2:21-35 at Simeon. And I'm thinking, as I do, about the role of a night watchman, the person who's assigned to watch out through the night, whether at the edge of a camp where an army is sleeping and getting its rest or perhaps on city walls. For the city is sleeping inside, protected by the walls, but there's a watchman walking on the walls or perhaps on the bridge of a ship looking for danger, maybe icebergs, or looking for land, and I think of all of those scenarios, there can scarcely have been a more exciting night of watching in history perhaps, than what took place on the night of October 11th and October 12th in the fateful year 1492.

As Columbus was sailing westward and looking for a Western route to India, and he had already put himself, because the crew was getting mutinous, under a three-day time limit to find land, and if they didn't find it within three days, they were gonna turn back, failures. And it was the night of the third day, the next day would be the third day, but already there are indicators that they were approaching land, the flights of the birds, the kind of birds there were, vegetation floating in the water, the color of the water, the feel and the smell of the wind, and I think all of those expert sailors knew that they were approaching land, so there was a sense of anticipation and already they knew that the King and Queen of Spain offered 10,000 gold pieces and garments of silk to the first person who spots land. I dare say that only the cabin boys were asleep that night. They were all at the railing holding on and staring into the darkness, staring and looking, that somehow they might be able to have the honor and the glory, and also the material benefits, of being the first one to see land. About 2:00 AM on October 12, this man, Rodrigo de Triana, a look out on Pinta's forecastle, saw what looked like white sandy cliffs, and then he saw another array of cliffs and then a line connecting the two, and he calls out in his language, "Tierra, tierra!" Land, land! Now, there have been some false indicators up to that point, but this was the real thing, they were sailing on the eastern side, they saw the eastern side of an island that the natives called Guanahani, but which Christopher Columbus renamed San Salvador for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

And I really think that that's what Simeon was doing. I think that Simeon was like a watchman. He had a special revelation from God through the Holy Spirit, that he would not die before he saw the Christ. And so his job was just to watch day after day after day for Christ, waiting on the Lord, waiting for the Christ, waiting for the Messiah. And you know, as I've meditated about this, I begin to see something interesting, that this aspect of Simeon's life really characterizes and unifies the people of God for all of redemptive history. From the time of Adam and Eve to the time of Christ, they were all waiting for Christ to come, waiting for the serpent slayer, the seed of the woman to come to be born and to come and destroy sin, waiting for Christ, like Simeon.

And from the time of Christ until now and to the end of the world, we're waiting for Christ, for the second coming of Christ, for the establishment of his kingdom on earth and the eternal state. We're waiting for Christ, aren't we? Just like Simeon, and just like the believers in the past. It unifies all believing people in all ages waiting for Christ, waiting patiently. Simeon, I think, is an example of patience and waiting. One commentator put it this way, "The thought underlying Simon’s praise is of a slave who's been instructed by his master to keep watch through the long dark night on a high place, to wait for the rising of a special star, and then to announce it. After wearisome hours of waiting, he sees at last the star rising in all its brightness, he announces it and then is discharged from the duty of watching any longer. Simeon had been instructed to await the rising of the sun of righteousness, the star of the house of Jacob, and now, at last, the child is in his arms, he has beheld the redemption of God incarnate in Christ Jesus, and so he knows God now lets him depart in peace and discharges him from the task of further watching." But you know, I think that's great, commentator's right, but I don't think Simeon stopped watching. And even if he soon died after that, it says, concerning the gospel and all of its details unfolding, even angels long to look into these things. Oh, there's more to come. Simeon just saw Jesus as a baby, there were still great events in Christ's life yet to come, and so my guess is that Simeon kept on watching even after the Lord let him depart in peace.

"We're waiting for Christ, aren't we? Just like Simeon, and just like the believers in the past. It unifies all believing people in all ages waiting for Christ, waiting patiently."

Now, the context of Simeon's encounter with Christ is in the days right after Jesus was born of the fulfillment of the Law of Moses concerning him, the presentation of the temple. Look at Verses 21 and following, it says, "On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived. When the time of their purification, according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every first-born male is to be consecrated to the Lord’), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: ‘a pair of doves or two young pigeons.’” Now, the main idea, what I get out of this more than anything, this section, is that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was born under the law, he was a law-abiding Jew. And there were Mosaic laws concerning what was to be done with him after his birth, Jesus Christ was born under the law, it says in Galatians 4:4-5, "But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law that we might receive the full rights of sons." Now, understand that Jesus came under the law voluntarily. He didn't need to do that. He was a Son over God's house, he didn't need to be under the law like a slave or like a servant, but he came under the law in this way, to redeem those under the law and lift them up to the full rights of sons.

Now, I tell you that this is absolutely essential to our salvation. It must be, for Jesus, by living under the law as a human being, he wove a beautiful garment of righteousness, perfect righteousness, the deeds of righteousness. He took on every single temptation that was in conjunction with the law of God and knocked them aside as Samson knocked aside another Philistine charging at him. Jesus wove for us a perfect robe of righteousness. And if we don't have that robe on, we will not survive judgment day. You cannot obey the law perfectly, and so if it finds you guilty at one point, you'll be condemned for it, but Jesus, he obeyed the law of God perfectly. And he wove for us that beautiful robe of righteousness, and we stand in that by faith.

So Jesus was born under the law, and the first step for him was circumcision, he had to be circumcised according to the custom given by God to Abraham, and actually preceded the patriarchs and was given to Abraham and preceded the Law of Moses. And God commanded in Genesis 17, that all of Abraham's descendants be circumcised on the eighth day. And if they were not circumcised, they would be cut off from the people. This was absolutely required. And so Jesus had to be circumcised on the eighth day. And it was Jewish custom to give a name to the child at that point. As we see in Luke 1, the name given to John the Baptist was given at the time of circumcision, so also it was in the case of Jesus. Now, we know that Joseph and Mary did not have to wrangle over what the name would be; they had no freedom in that matter. I don't think they had potential name books like we do, boy and girl and all that, but they knew that the baby's name would be Jesus, the name given by the angel Gabriel. Now, the name Jesus means, “Yahweh saves” or “salvation is from the Lord.” And so it says in Matthew 1:21, "The angel speaking to Joseph, ‘You will give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’" So Jesus’ name means he's Savior, and so they named him, and then Jesus was circumcised.

And also, along with that came the time of the consecration and the offering of a sacrifice, and this is all again, according to the Law of Moses, it's interesting that in this brief account that we're reading, the law is mentioned directly four times. It's a significant issue that Luke is bringing up; Jesus was a law-abiding Jew. He fulfilled the Law of Moses. And so it says in Verse 22, "In the time of their purification, according to the Law of Moses, had been completed." Notice that it says their purification, so that includes the baby Jesus. And in the Law of Moses, if there's been a flow of blood, like there is at birth, etcetera, there needs to be a time of purification. And in Jesus and Mary's case, it was 33 days after the circumcision. So at age 41 days from day 41 on, then Mary is clean, ceremonially clean, and is able then to go to the temple. That's the way it worked. This is all laid out in Leviticus 12.

And so Jesus was brought by Joseph and Mary to present him to the Lord that he would be consecrated to the Lord. This practice dates back to the time of the Exodus, when the 10th plague, the most dreadful plague of all, was enacted on the Egyptians and would have been enacted also on the Israelites as well. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," but the punishment for sin being death would have been enacted on the first born of everyone living in Egypt, including the Jews, except that God had made a way for a substitute, the Passover lamb, to take the place of the Jewish first born. And so the lamb was offered, its blood was shed for the first born, and so the angel of death passed over and the first born was not killed, but then in the Law of Moses, from that point on, God claimed the first born, "All the first born are mine, the first born of every womb is to be consecrated to the Lord as sacred and special to him." It says in Exodus 13:1-2, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Consecrate to me every first born male, the first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether man or animal.’” In order for this consecration to take place, there had to be an animal sacrificed for this child so that the child would not have to die, and so they went up to offer the sacrifice, something for the purification of Mary and something also for the sacrifice of the first born Jesus so that Jesus would be consecrated. Now, in all of this, I think we see, beautifully, the poverty and the faith of Joseph and Mary. First of all, their faith, they're obeying the Law of Moses. Jesus, a helpless little babe, could not have circumcised himself he needed godly parents. And so therefore, it was essential that Joseph and Mary be law abiding, be pious, be godly and want to circumcise their son according to the command of God. And so they brought him, we see their faith, but we also, reading between the lines, we can see their poverty, because the offering in Leviticus 12 said, "If they can't afford a lamb, they can offer a second turtle dove or pigeon in place of the lamb,” and so that's what they offered, two turtle doves or two pigeons for their offering. They had nothing. They were poor, but they were rich in faith.

And so this is the context, the law abiding, Jewish couple, Joseph and Mary, bringing their newborn son to dedicate him, the offering to be made for Mary and for their purification, and also in the place of Jesus, the first born. And by the way, isn't it a remarkable thing? Do you know that all animal sacrifice, all of it, points ahead to the cross of Jesus Christ? He is the Lamb of God. He is the substitute, so all animal sacrifice points ahead of Christ. Isn't an ironic that this little turtle dove- the second one, takes the place of the substitute of the world. It is the final kind of substitute for Jesus in this way, a remarkable thing, only God could have seen to that.

So that's the context now let's look at Simeon, the patience of Simeon. Look at verses 25-27, it says, "Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout, he was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts.” Now, this is Simeon, and Simeon is unique, he's special in that God had told him in a special way, had given him a specific prophecy that he would not die before he would see the Messiah. Now, this is remarkable. Well, this is really incredible. They had been waiting since the time of Adam and Eve for the serpent slayer to come and crush the serpent’s head, and now Simeon is told, "You will not die before you see him." They've been waiting for 2000 years for God to provide the lamb, what God said to Abraham, for God to provide the lamb, for the burnt offering, for the sacrifice. And now the Lamb of God is here. Simeon is told, "You'll not die before you see him." They've been waiting 1000 years for the Son of David to come and take David's throne and reign on it forever. For a thousand years they're waiting and Simeon, he is told, "It's gonna happen in your lifetime."

And so it is. He has this special insight, special prophecy by the Holy Spirit. The ministrations of the Holy Spirit did not begin at Pentecost; you know that, don't you? The Holy Spirit was active from the second verse of the Bible, the Spirit hovering over the deep, and so the Spirit is active all the way through the Old Covenant, and this is an old Testament saint, an Old Covenant saint, who is told in a special way, "You're not gonna die before the Christ is born." But now there's kind of a second moving, the Holy Spirit says, "Today's the day, not just, you will not die before you see the Lord's Christ, you're not gonna go to bed tonight before you see the Lord's Christ. Today's the day, get up and move out." What an exciting moment that must have been as he got up.

Now, who was this man, Simeon? Well, he was righteous, he was godly; he was a law-abiding Jew. That doesn't mean he's perfect, it just meant that he loved the Lord and wanted to follow his law. He was devout, he had a heart of piety toward the Lord, he was sober-minded and serious in the things of God, but above all, I find him patient in faith. Boy, he's willing to wait. He's willing to wait on the Lord and to be patient. He never stopped trusting in the promises made to Abraham, despite the fact that there are Roman soldiers tramping all over the Promised Land, and there's a governor, and he's in charge of the local district in the area, and there's an emperor in Rome, Caesar Augustus, whose decree is able to just move huge populations. You know, Simeon never gave up, he continued to believe and to trust in God, and you also notice about him that he is Spirit-led, he's able to move at the leadership of the Spirit. Now, what is he waiting for? Well, the Scripture here says that he's waiting for the consolation of Israel. What does that mean? Well, the Greek word is the same word that we get for the counselor, the comfort of the Holy Spirit, paraclete, we could take it over into the English- he's waiting, waiting for the comfort or the consolation of Israel. This is none other than the Messiah. Remember that Jesus said, “I will send you another counselor, another comforter,” he's the first. And so he's waiting for the consolation of Israel. This can be none other than the Messiah, the Christ, and the very thing that... The vision that Isaiah saw, Isaiah 40:1, in which the Lord said, "Comfort, comfort, my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her sin has been forgiven, that her years of service have been completed, that she has received, from the Lord's hand, double for all her sins.” “Comfort, comfort my people." A double word of comfort, he's waiting for that, he's waiting for the consolation in fulfillment of the vision that Isaiah had; he's waiting for the Christ.

And so he has his own private prophecy, doesn't he? And he's believing in the more general national prophecies to the people of God through the prophets, he's waiting and the time has come now for the prophecy to be fulfilled. Look at verses 27-32, "When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God saying: ‘Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light of revelation to the gentiles, and for glory to your people, Israel.’" Oh, what a sweet moment, and I get the sense of a providential timing and intersection. The temple is a busy place, people coming and going. Josephus said there's over a million sacrifices offered at the time of Passover. Now, this wasn't a special or a unique time, but there must have been a lot of traffic, and so there he is somewhat like in a city area, how is he going to meet the little baby, how is he gonna see? But he is led in, and I believe in the Christian life, there are two great ways that God leads his people. He leads them by the written word of God, by the Scripture, and he leads by the indwelling prompting of the Spirit, the Spirit prompts and moves and you respond and go. He also leads by the written word and the two come together, don't they? Joseph and Mary are led by the written word of God, “the Law of Moses says, do such and such, and we must do it.” So up they go and they move, they travel, they go from probably Bethlehem where they work, and they go to Jerusalem to fulfill the Law of Moses, the Scripture led them to be there. Meanwhile, there's Simeon who's prompted by the indwelling Spirit and their paths intersect, the providential timing, the connection of the two, and so it is in your life, the two by the way, never contradict. They must never contradict. You have internal senses that you need to do something, it's not always the Holy Spirit, but in this case, it was. And so the Spirit led Simeon, and the Spirit led Joseph and Mary, and the two came together.

And when he saw the Christ, he knew he was not just looking at a baby, he was looking at the fulfillment of all of God's promises, the fulfillment of the prophecies, the fulfillment of the prophecy spoken to him, he saw with eyes of faith, not with eyes of flesh, he saw the Christ. He says, "My eyes have seen your salvation." When he took this baby and held him in his arms, if you'd been a passerby, not filled with the Spirit, or not knowledgeable, or not believing or anything, you're just walking by, all you would have seen is an old man, probably an old man, holding a baby, that's all. You wouldn't have seen right, you're looking with eyes of flesh. But you see Simeon saw with eyes of faith, he saw. There's a basic principle here: unless God the Father reveals Christ to you, you will not see him. Let me say that again, unless God the Father reveals Christ, you will not see him, you will see him as a moral teacher, you'll see him as a myth or a legend, a historical figure, or a great religious leader, you'll see anything but what you must see, your savior, the Savior of your soul. But if the Father reveals Christ, you will see him properly.

Do you remember what happened when Jesus, in Caesarea Philippi, asked his disciples, "‘Who do people say that I am?’ And they said, ‘Some say, John the Baptist, others, one of the prophets.’ ‘So what about you, who do you say that I am?’” You remember that Simon Peter answered, he said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Do you remember what Jesus said to him? “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.” And what I say to you is, if you're a Christian today, God's done that work in your heart, he's revealed Christ, he's not just a baby, he's not just a 30-year-old Jewish carpenter, he's not just a myth or a great moral teacher or a religious leader, he is the Savior of your soul. If you think that today, it was revealed to you by the Father in heaven, and so also it was for Simeon, he wasn't just looking at a baby and he knew it, he was looking with eyes of faith, and then he does an incredible thing. It's incredible for a preacher because of the alliteration. You're gonna love this, but all at once, you see prayer, and praise, and prophecy, all at once. Isn't that incredible? That'll preach, prayer, and praise, and prophecy all together. I saw it this morning, I don't have time to develop it, but there it is, all at once, he's praying to God, and he's praising God, and he's being prophetic concerning Christ, all of it together. What a wonderful moment. “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light of revelation for the gentiles and for glory for your people, Israel.” That's what he prays. He has a deep reverence for the sovereign rule of God, Sovereign Lord, Despotes is the Greek word. It's a really striking and an interesting word. It's the same word in Acts 4:24, when they're praying to God and they're saying, "Sovereign Lord, You made the heaven and the Earth and the sea, and all that is in them," a sense of the grandeur of God's sovereign rule. That's how he begins his praise, “Sovereign Lord.” And then the vindication of his faith, “as you have promised,” “You are a promise keeping God, you are faithful. As you have promised. Yes, Lord, yes, you kept your promise to me personally, my eyes have seen the Savior, and you kept your promise to us nationally, the Messiah has come to Israel, and You kept your…”

It is a delight to be able to open this word to you this morning. We are looking at Luke 1:46-55. Like it says in Psalm 34:3, “O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together.” Amen? That is what we are here to do today. That is what worship is. That we would magnify Christ.

More than ever before, I think we are seeing that we live in a culture that wants to minimize Christ, a culture that would like to make him disappear entirely. Do you sense that? It has been on the news this week: all different ways that they are trying to get rid of Merry Christmas. I was talking to Andy Winn, he said he is disappointed because he always liked to say, “Season’s Greetings,” and now people are thinking he is politically correct. Well, I like to say “Season’s Greetings,” too, “Happy Holidays,” and “Merry Christmas,” but I have been thinking, the real issue here is not whether Macy’s is required or not to print “Merry Christmas” on their bags, or whether the Denver Parade of Lights is required to have the pastor and his float in there that says, “Merry Christmas.” They evicted the float for that very reason. It said, “Merry Christmas” and out you go.

But that is not the issue, is it? The issue is, why do the people that surround us want to minimize Christ? That is the real problem, isn’t it? And how can we maximize or magnify Christ? How can we do that? That is the real calling. Statistics say that 80% of our culture claim to be Christians. Now, of those how many are genuinely born again? I have no idea. But far less than that, I would think. I am really not looking for Washington to mandate that those folks or anybody say, “Merry Christmas” when handing over a Christmas gift that we bought at Macy’s or any other place. That is not the issue.

What I want to know is what is going on in their heart concerning Christ, and not just theirs, but mine. Am I magnifying Christ with my life? That is what we are here to do at worship. That is our purpose today. That is why we have been singing, that is why we gather together. That Christ would become greater. And I cannot think of a better text to do it than this Magnificat. It is from a Latin word, referring to the fact that Mary’s soul magnifies the Lord.

Look at verse 46: “And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.’” Psalm 34:3, “O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together.”

What does it mean to magnify the Lord? We have talked about this before, haven’t we? We are not seeking to make God any bigger in himself–we cannot do it. He is already infinite. He is already great. He fills Heaven and Earth. We cannot magnify such a being, but there is a place in God’s universe where he is too small, and that is in your heart and in mine, and the hearts of the people at Macy’s and surroundings. That is where he is too small.

We have come together to magnify him to make him greater, not in himself, but in our estimation, that we would think greater thoughts of him, and that is exactly what was going on in Mary’s heart as she went there to see Elizabeth. She was magnifying the Lord.

We are threatened by this increasing secularization, not just of Christmas, but just of our culture. I think it is something to be gravely concerned about, because we know from history that when a culture goes in this direction, eventually it becomes harder and harder to assemble to worship, to speak the name of Christ, to share the Gospel widely.

We see it happening. What these folks want is not to remove Merry Christmas. I can tell you most of the ACLU lawyers are not offended by having somebody say, “Merry Christmas.” These are tough people. It does not bother them much, but they do have an agenda, don’t they? And that is enforced state atheism. That is what they are looking for.

For me, I would like to see Christ magnified everywhere, but I know enough to know that this is the present age we live in, and so we are called on to proclaim and to suffer because anyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer. I am not so troubled about what Macy’s prints on their bags next year—that is not what is on my mind—but I want to magnify Christ. And the way we do it is to get into the word, to look at it, to read it, to think about each phrase, to savor each part, to look at everything that Mary said in this case, as a rare jewel, something that is going to show us some aspect of the glorious God that we love and serve. That is what we are going to do together today.

My goal is to go through this Magnificat, this incredible praise of Mary and try to understand what she was so excited about, what was she so delighting in, what she was she wanting to magnify, so that we might worship Christ properly. Let us do that together.

First, let us look at some context. Now, Galatians 4:4-5 said, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who are under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

The question I am asking right now is, what does it mean in the fullness of time? What was going on in world history? What was going on in redemptive history when Mary spoke these words when Christ was born? What is the context of Mary’s prayer?

The Jewish nation had been dominated by Gentile overlords for six centuries; one after another had ruled over Palestine. Roman soldiers at that point were tramping through the Judean countryside looking for the best of the harvest or whatever they might need for their army, and the Jews could have the rest, making for difficult and unsettling times.

Puppet kings like Herod the Great, under Roman domination, were ruling unjustly and wickedly. Furthermore, there had been, it seems, no prophetic word from God for four centuries since Malachi finished up the Old Testament four centuries before. It is a long dry spell in which they are not hearing from God and the Gentiles just dominating. I am sure the Jews were wondering what had become of the promises made to Abraham. I am sure Mary might have wondered those same things.

Who was Mary? Mary was Jewish, she was a daughter of Abraham. She was also descended from David. Her genealogy, I believe, shows in Luke that she was a daughter of David as well. It seems that she was poor. She was betrothed to Joseph, and the two of them could not afford the lamb for the offering, and so they had to settle for the second pigeon or turtle dove, and so they were poor. The prospects for material prosperity were not good. She was marrying the village carpenter. He was a godly man, but he was not going to make her wealthy, not that she desired it because she was a godly woman. She yearned for the glory of God, and she was filled with the grace of God.

God had been gracious to her, and she loved God with all her heart. We also see and we are going to know more about her as we go on this week and God willing next week, that she was quiet and pensive. She was reflective and pious. She was in every respect a role model.

An element of context in Luke 1 is what happened to Elizabeth. Elizabeth, her relative, perhaps cousin, had received astonishing news that she was in her old age going to have a baby. That baby was going to be John the Baptist, and he would be the forerunner to Christ. That is amazing, but I do not believe that Mary knew about that yet. But you as a reader of Luke 1 you knew about it as you are reading. Then Mary receives her own extraordinary news. That is the basis of the context of this praise: what has happened to Elizabeth and what has happened to Mary, but especially what has happened to Mary.

What has happened to Mary? The angel Gabriel appeared to her. Gabriel, by the way, one of the only two named angels in the Bible, had appeared hundreds and hundreds of years before that to Daniel at the Ulai Canal in Babylon and spoke. Angels are timeless beings, and he appears to Mary, and he greets her in a way that troubles her.

He gives her some astonishing news: “You are going to have a son. Your son will be the Messiah. Your son will also be God’s son. He will be the Son of God. He will be therefore God in the flesh. He is going to have a kingdom that will never end.” Now, imagine, if you were a young Jewish girl hearing this. It is astonishing news, extraordinary. And her response is, predictable. “How can this be since I have never been with a man? So how is it possible for me to have a baby?”

Then Gabriel explained in Luke 1:35: “The angel answered, ‘the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. The Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God.’”

This is the central mystery of Christmas. How can Jesus be fully God and fully man? It is the mystery of the incarnation. It is explained as best as we can understand it in Luke 1:35, that the holy spirit overshadowed Mary and her body, and Jesus was conceived inside her without the benefit of a husband.

Gabriel gives her some proof, similar to Gideon’s fleece. He does not say that, but I think that is why he offers: “Even Elizabeth, your relative is with the child.” I do not think she knew that up to this point, but in a way, he is leading her, I think saying, “Go and confirm. When you find out that Elizabeth is having an amazing and miraculous baby too, then you will be able to believe what I am saying,”–not that she is not believing, because she does believe.

Elizabeth says so: “Blessed is she who believes that what the Lord has said to her will come to pass” (Luke 1:45). She believes it. Gabriel gives an astonishing affirmation and says, and this is something we should always keep in mind: “For nothing is impossible with God.” God can create a baby inside the womb of a woman who has passed her age. God can also create a baby inside a woman who has never been with a man. God can do this. Nothing is impossible with God.

And then Mary is submissive in faith-filled answer: “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered, “May it be to me, as you have said,” and then the angel leaves.

Immediately, what does Mary want to do? But get up and go find Elizabeth so that she can confirm the angel’s words, but also, they can have that kind of woman-to-woman fellowship that just men will never be able to understand. She just wants to go and just share the two of them together.

She goes to confirm and to be with Elizabeth. As soon as she gets there, Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit, and John the Baptist, not yet born, leaps inside her, filled with the Holy Spirit. It is an incredible moment as the two of them experience.

This moment as Mary walks in and in a loud voice, Elizabeth exclaims,

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!”

That, my friends, is the context of Mary’s praise. There she is. She is about to answer, and she speaks extraordinary things, incredible things, the Magnificat, the magnificent praise that she gives at that moment.

What are some characteristics of that generally? As you look across it, you see depth. There is a depth to what she has to say. It is not light-hearted or frivolous, like, “Oh, praise the Lord.” It goes deeper than that.

She is reflecting on what is happening. She is reflecting on the significance, she is a ponderer, she is in deep waters. Just as will happen in Luke 2 when it actually comes to pass, she just treasures these things in her heart. She ponders them just as she pondered Gabriel’s greeting to her to begin with.

We also see joy. The whole tone of Mary’s praise is joyful celebration with deep awe and reverence. She says, “My soul glorifies the Lord (or magnifies the Lord), and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior.” She is rejoicing in God. There’s great joy.

There’s also God-centered adoration. God is at the center of all that she has to say. She is focused on God. It is God-centered praise. His divine power, His holiness, his mercy to her and to generation after generation, and his faithfulness, God-centered adoration, she zeroes in on that, and she will not leave it like a laser focused on God.

We also see Scripture, scriptural knowledge. She knows the Bible, the Old Testament. It is just saturated with biblical imagery. Some say it is very much like Hannah’s praise when little Samuel is born, and she praises God. But it is only a little bit similar to that. Hannah is seemingly taking delight in a triumph over her personal enemy and the trouble that she has had for that. She is praising God for that.

Mary’s praise just goes so much further than that. Actually, some scholars find at least twenty different scriptural allusions in Mary’s brief praise here. She is saturated, her mind and her heart saturated with the word of God. What a perfect mother for Jesus because never was there a man that walked the Earth as saturated with the Scriptures as Jesus was. He used it for everything, even spoke it on the cross when He was dying. So, what a perfect choice, a mother who knew the Bible and who would be able to proclaim it and speak it even from infancy to Jesus.

We also see her humility. She has a sense of “why is this happening to me?” To me. There is a sense of her humble origins, a sense that I do not deserve this. There is a humility here.

We also see, I think, a note of triumph as well. All these things are characteristics of Mary’s praise.

Let us look at the content of Mary’s praise. I am going to break it into four stanzas like a poem.

In stanza 1, verses 46-49, it is exalting in God’s blessings to her personally.

In verse 50, stanza 2, she extends God’s blessings from generation to generation. She begins with herself and God’s great works to her, and then she extends it out generation to generation.

Then stanza 3, verses 51-53, she delights in God’s surprising ways, and dealing with the full and the empty. God just does unpredictable things. He does not do it the way we would do it. She just delights in that, what we will call the Great Reversal.

Then the fourth stanza, she celebrates God’s faithfulness to His covenant with Abraham. God’s covenant faithfulness to Abraham. That is the fourth part. Let us look at the first part.

First stanza, exulting in God’s blessing to her, Luke 1:46-49:

“And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior, for He has been mindful of the humble state of his servant, from now on all generations will call me blessed for the Mighty One has done great things for me. Holy is his name.’”

That is her praise for God’s greatness and blessing to her. Interestingly, she is really quiet and reflective in the angel Gabriel’s presence, but she just lets it go with Elizabeth. Again, I think there is just an ability that women have to open up and relate, to have deep friendships, to share at a level that men do not touch. It is amazing, and they just bring this praise out of each other at the human level. I believe the Holy Spirit is all over Mary’s statement every bit as much as it was over Elizabeth, but there is just a beauty of fellowship there between these two godly women.

Now the focus here is God’s goodness to Mary personally. This is where all true religion begins: God and me. Is there room at the cross for me, as one hymn says? Is there going to be a place at the wedding banquet of the Lamb for me? Is there a place for me? Do I have something coming? That is not selfish. We were created individuals and as individuals to have a relationship with God. Probably the best statement of this Psalm 139–it is great–but I love Galatians 2:20, and that personal relationship between Paul and God, Christ: “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.”

That is where it begins. Are you trusting in Christ? Do you have a place at the wedding banquet of the Lamb? Do you have blessings that have flown toward you from God personally? That is where it starts. She starts with God’s blessings to her. Her praise, it just soars because I think it is rooted in humility. I think the more arrogant you are, the more boastful, the less you can praise like this. Because you just kind of expect it: “Well, of course, I mean, it is me after all.”

If, on the other hand, you are generally humble and you sense what you truly deserve from God, then the praise just soars, doesn’t it? “Why should this be happening to someone like me?”

“He has been mindful,” she says, “of the humble state of her servant…” Not, “Well, this is what I deserve.” No, not at all. “The humble state of her servant.” And then she says something striking. She says, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For He has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.”

What is in Mary’s mind when she says “the humble state” of his servant? I have to say it is her sin. She knows she is a sinner as all godly people do. She is honest about it and her need for a savior.

“God, my savior.” Savior from what? In Matthew 1:21, the angel appears to Joseph in a dream and says, “You will give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.” What does Mary need a savior from, but sin?

I was raised Roman Catholic. What I am saying right now would be Roman Catholic heresy. No joke, they believe she was sinless. They believe that she was immaculately conceived. Ever seen the church of the Immaculate Conception? It is not talking about Jesus. It is talking about Mary and her mother’s womb, that she was in a miraculous way, kind of spared from original sin, and then she went on and lived a sinless life, and then she was bodily assumed into heaven, and she now sits as Queen of Heaven, ruling with Christ. She is in some sense a mediatrix, or female mediator, along with her son between the human race and God.

I do not share those convictions. I think it is not true, and I think this one statement, Mary would not share them either. She would say, “I rejoice in God, my savior. He has been mindful of the humble, estate of his handmaiden of his servant. I am a sinner. I needed a savior.” She believed that. She is a godly woman, she is humble, she knew the Bible, she is submissive to the will of God, but she is not to be worshipped. She is not to be worshipped. She was a sinner in need of a savior. It is just astonishing: her Savior was her own son. That is the amazing thing here. She needed a savior, and she knew it.

She also recognized from that point on that all generations would call her blessed. We would see the place of honor that she had. Can you imagine all the memories, the unique experiences that we do not have? We have no record of them—Jesus’ growing up years—but Mary knew them. She saw them. She experienced them. She saw what sinlessness looked like from birth right through age 30 and beyond. That is extraordinary, and to be able to teach him Scripture, to see him grow in wisdom and knowledge in favor with God, a man, to watch that process go on, what a blessing. God has given her great gifts.

It says, “For the Mighty One has done great things for me.” Can you say that today? Can you say it? If we were not such a… First Baptist Church, you would stand up and say, “The Mighty One has done great things for me,” and you would testify, but we are not going to do that. You notice there are no mics out here for you to do that and you sure will not stand up and do it, although if I wait long enough, I think somebody might.

We are just going to go on, but the Mighty One has done great things for all of us, but he has done some unique great things for her, hasn’t he? The Mighty One has sent an angel and the angel has told her of something miraculous that is growing inside her. That is a great thing.

Ordinarily, of the 46 chromosomes, 23 come from the woman, and 23 come from the man, but the man is not there. God created out of nothing what needed to be there for Jesus to be fully human. Created out of nothing the way he created the universe out of nothing. Created out of nothing the way Jesus created Malthus’s ear out of nothing after Peter chopped it off the night before he was crucified. Whoosh, here is an ear. Whoosh, here are 23 chromosomes. Whatever is needed, God can do. For nothing is impossible with God.

God can do that. It bothers me when people stumble over these little things that God can do. For nothing is impossible with God. The Mighty One has done great things for me. But let me tell you all the great things he has done for Mary, the number one is to forgive her sins and welcome her into heaven, that’s a number one.

She would say so, too. I think she is saying so every day right now, as she worships God her savior. That is the great thing that God has done for her.

Secondly, what about the extension of God’s blessings from generation to generation? Verse 50, “His mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation.”

Mary now widens her focus, she is not going to just say, “God and me, me and God,” but she is thinking about all the people that this is going to affect. She is thinking about generation after generation. She is a deep woman. Her meditations are deep and real. His mercy extends to those who fear him. She is thinking about this based on the words that Gabriel had said, “He will reign on David’s throne forever, his kingdom will never end.” The eternal blessings that are coming through Jesus–amazing!

She talks about the mercy of God. What is God’s mercy but his kindness to those who are in misery, those who are suffering. Sin has brought great suffering into this world, great suffering. God’s mercy alleviates that suffering. It reaches down into the lives of suffering people and frees them from their suffering. That is what mercy is.

I say to you that for all the great places of suffering in this world, and there are many, there is no earthly suffering that compares with the lake of fire. That is God’s central mercy to the human race through Jesus Christ: to be freed from the just condemnation, the eternal condemnation of our sins in hell, that we do not have to spend eternity under the wrath of God. That is mercy.

I tell you that no experience in a slum of Kolkata (Calcutta) or in an AIDS ward in Botswana, or in a refugee camp in Pakistan, or in a forced labor camp in North Korea, none of those compare with the misery of those suffering in the lake of fire. That is the central mercy that extends from generation to generation, but she says, “It extends to those who fear him.” It is not universal, but to those who fear him, like it says in Psalm 103:11 and following, it says, “For as high as the heavens are above the Earth, so great is His love for those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. It is the God-fearers. And “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” That is how we come to faith in Christ: we fear his wrath, and we flee to the savior who is Christ. And so, Mary extends her praise to think about generation after generation of God’s mercy to those who fear him.

Thirdly, she delights in God’s surprising ways with the full and with the empty.

Look at verses 51-53: “He has performed mighty deeds with his arm. He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.”

This is the great reversal. It just goes the whole opposite way of the world. The world reveres wealth, prestige, power, influence, and achievement and all that ostentation–that is what the world reveres. But God reverses it all. Because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. And Mary understands that, doesn’t she?

She is reflecting on who she is, and that God would do this mighty great thing for her. Of all the incredible women there are in the world, all the wealthy ones and empresses and well-dressed wealthy noble women and all that, he has not chosen any of those, but he has chosen the lowest of the low. He has chosen Mary, and so this is the great reversal.

Now she speaks of the mighty deeds of God. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm. His arm is mighty and powerful. Any Jew would know what she is talking about. She is thinking back to the time of the Exodus when an evil tyrant king is sitting on his throne and says, “I am not going to let the people go, they’re going to serve me until they die and then their children will serve me too.”

The tyrant Pharaoh–God topples him from his throne. He pours out plagues, He destroys Pharaoh’s army at the Red Sea. She knows all this. These are the very things that the psalmist said, “We have heard of these mighty deeds, renew them in our day, in our time, make them known.” I want to see it. She is probably like all the Jews thinking, “Hey, there’s the Romans here,” but she is thinking deeper than that, isn’t she?

Because the ultimate tyranny is not earthly, the ultimate tyranny is spiritual. Now, there were earthly tyrants. For example, there’s Herod the Great. What an interesting man was Herod the Great. Herod the Great, the one who built Herod’s Temple, he lived in a lavish and luxurious palace. Incredible. Josephus describes it: extravagant banquet halls, bed chambers for 100 guests, pool, statues, everything decorated in gold, even more than the Biltmore Estate, if you ever been there and paid $50 to go see… Is it $50? Maybe more, but anyway, just to see it. Well, I think Herod had it even more lavishly appointed palace. He was strange, very jealous of his throne, very protective, so much that he murdered his own wife and sons, and yet he kept kosher. He would not eat pig or other things, and so Caesar Augustus who knew him and they were friends, said, “You know, I’d rather be Herod’s pig than his son, because Herod had his son murdered, but he won’t eat the pig…” That is what the way Herod was. He was a tyrant, and the very same one who gave the order to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity, who were two years old and under, in order that he might not miss killing Christ. The viciousness of that tyrant.

Then there is Caesar Augustus himself whose decree was issued throughout the whole Roman world that a census would be taken for the purpose of population control and taxation. He can move huge quantities of people just with a decree like that. That is the power of Cesar Augustus, ruled unchallenged over the Roman world for 45 years, an interesting man. Himself, he did not like luxury. He did not like open displays of luxury, and yet he said, “I found Rome, a city of brick and I left to the city of marble.” That is the way Caesar Augustus was.

Was she thinking about Herod the Great and Caesar Augustus, these mighty potentates, these rulers that would be toppled from their thrones? Perhaps she was. And all the kinds of under lords under them, all the kinds of human rulers, the arrogant ones, the ones that are proud, it says in their inmost thoughts, he has toppled them all. Why can he do that?

Well, it says in Daniel 2:21, “He changes times and seasons, he sets up kings and deposes them.” That is what the Lord can do. Or it says in Daniel also that, “No one can challenge him, the powers of heaven or earth or under the earth, would say to him, ‘What have you done?’” That is our Mighty God.

God has spread a banquet table. In verse 53, “He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty.” It says in Isaiah 55:1-2: “Come, all you who are thirsty. Come to the waters, and you who have no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.”

It is an invitation to come without money and without cost. Now, do these verses teach that rich people cannot be saved? No, it just teaches that they get saved by sprawling their wealth is worthless. It is of no eternal consequence. Because Isaiah 55 says, “You want to come to the bank? Well, come without money and without cost. Don’t try to buy it. It’s not for sale, it’s a free gift.” The people who recognize that it has no eternal consequence, these are the ones who are going to come feast.

Jesus fed people literally, physically while He was on earth, but it was not what you would call the richest of fare, at least not what I would call the richest of fare: barley loaves and fish. Now, if I had to eat it, I would eat it. But if that is what you serve when I came over for dinner, I would say, “Thank you. I appreciate it.” What did you have? Barley loaves and fish? Very simple fare, but that is not what He came to do.

He is talking about a spiritual banquet. He is talking about eating forever in the kingdom of God, eating God’s grace, mercy, and forgiveness and seeing God face-to-face. That is the banquet, without money and without cost.

Imagine, by the way, if you brought your own lunch to the Galilean hillside, you would not eat Jesus’s food, would you? Or imagine if you brought your own supply of rare vintage wine to a wedding at Cana in Galilee, you would not be drinking Jesus’s wine because you would think yours is better. So, if you are full of earthly things, you do not need Jesus, you do not need him. But if you know that you are empty, if you know that you are lost, if you know that you are poor, wretched, pitiful, and blind spiritually, then Jesus came for you. That is why he came. He came to give you life. He sent the rich, the full away empty, but the ones who know they are empty, that is who he came for, and he spread a banquet for them.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the spiritual beggars for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. And blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

The fourth stanza is celebrating God’s faithfulness to His covenant with Abraham. We have been studying in Genesis, you folks know. Week after week, we have been talking about this covenant to Abraham, God had promised. He had promised, He had promised. God keeps his promises, but he had not kept it yet. She is looking back and saying, “What has happened to the promised land? What is happening to God’s people? It seems that we are under God’s wrath. The Gentiles are there all the time. Are you going to remember us?” It says in verses 54 and 55, “He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever. Even as he said to our fathers.”

After 400 years of waiting for God to speak, after Malachi spoke the final word of the Old Covenant, waiting and waiting. The people were, I think, wondering, Psalm 77. Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favor again? Has his unfailing love vanished forever? Has his promise failed for all time? Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion?

Mary answers the question here, do you see it? He has not forgotten Israel. He has not forgotten Abraham. He has not forgotten his covenant. He is going to fulfill it. He is fulfilling it now. This is Mary’s praise. She celebrates God’s mercy and grace to Mary personally.

Secondly, she extends it out, generation and generation of those who fear him. Third, she talks about the great reversal of how God opposes the proud but gives grace of the humble, how he topples rich tyrants. Sends the full away, but the meek, the lowly, the weak, the empty, these he ministers to. And how God has kept his promise to Abraham.

Now, what is the consummation of Mary’s praise? What do I mean by consummation? I mean, this is a foretaste. This is good praise, but this is nothing compared to what Mary is doing right now. This is just the beginning. Notice, by the way, that she never mentions her son anywhere in this praise. It is really kind of like Old Testament praise. She never openly mentions Christ. It is the context for why she says it, but she never speaks of it.

She is intensely Christ-focused now. There is nothing wrong with this praise. I am just saying she has a journey to travel. By the end of her life, and after Jesus’s resurrection and his ascension, she knows far more what it means that God is her Savior than she does at this point.

So, what is the consummation of Mary’s praise? I have a simple concept that Mary’s true honor and her greatest blessing is not in being Jesus’s physical mother, but in Jesus’s faith-filled disciple. That is her highest place of honor, because in that she finds her salvation and in that she is focused forever.

Throughout Jesus’ ministry, he honored her, he respected her, but also, he limited her role. Remember when Jesus’s mother and brothers come to take charge of Jesus, because they think that he is out of his mind. Do you remember that? And Jesus says, “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?” He pointed to his disciple, he said, “Behold my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

Another time in Luke 11, a woman calls out after hearing some incredible teaching of Jesus, “Blessed is the woman who gave you birth and nursed you.” And he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

That is what Jesus said. And so even there, he is saying, the greatest blessing of Mary’s life is not in giving birth to Jesus, but in hearing the gospel that He came to preach and believing that his death was sufficient for her sins, that she might spend eternity praising God, her Savior who is her son. Now, that is the consummation of Mary’s praise.

What application can we take from this? When I first wrote this message, I had ten points of application, and said, “Oh boy, probably would be like about 3 o’clock by the time we get done, and that’d be fine for some of you and not for others.” Here is the thing. Let us zero down on two things in particular. Worship the way Mary did, focus on Jesus at Christmas and throughout the year. Focus on him, by the power of the Spirit. Fill your mind with the person of Christ, with the gift of Christ, with what He came to do.

Saturate your minds with the gospel. When was the last time you read a Gospel through? Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, right straight through? Do it, maybe even do it this afternoon. You could read Mark’s Gospel this afternoon. Read through a Gospel. Fill your mind with Christ and worship God again for the giving of Christ. Secondly, understand what it means that God topples tyrants and rulers down from their thrones.

You know, I have to be honest. I play that role sometimes in my life. I play the arrogant kind of emperor king, sometimes. If somebody says something I do not like, or if I do not get what I want, or if I think about Christmas in terms of “I wonder what I am going to get” rather than “I wonder how I can serve and love,” I am playing that role. And the Bible says that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

If you feel empty right now, if you feel empty spiritually, it could be that you do not realize that you are empty, and the first step for you to say is, “I’m empty. I am not filled with the Spirit. I need God. Other things have crowded God out of my life.” He sends the full away empty, but the empty ones, he fills. And so, you come to him and say, “Lord, show me what I am. Show me that I need you. Not just the first time when I walk the aisle, or pray the prayer, but I mean, I need you now. I need you to fill me now. I am drifting from you. I need to be close to you again.”

Some of you perhaps are here not as believers in Christ, but because it is the Sunday before Christmas. I am so glad you are here. It is a delight to me that you would come, but let me ask you, do you know Christ? Do you feel his saving love in your heart? Have you trusted in him? Do you realize that you need a Savior from sin? That apart from Christ’s finished work on the cross, that you would have no hope on judgment day? Trust in him right now, even while you are sitting there and come and talk to me afterwards. Say, “I need to know more about Christ, I want to follow him, but I am not doing it.” Trust in the Savior.

We are looking this morning at just one verse of Scripture. I do not usually do that, but I am doing it this morning. One verse of Scripture, Matthew 24:14, which says, "This Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." There is so much in that one verse, and I hope we have a chance to unfold it today by the power of the Spirit.

Back in 1984, I had the privilege of going to the Urbana Missions Conference at University of Illinois at Urbana. And the opening speaker, John Kyle, said, "We are here because of the Great Commission." Well, I know he was talking about the Urbana conference, but those words stuck with me, and I think they apply to us here this morning, at least in part.

We are left on Earth by God after our salvation because of the Great Commission. There is still work to be done. We have assembled here to worship God and to give him glory and praise, but also that we might be renewed and strengthened for the Great Commission work that we have to do. It is still before us. We are here because of the Great Commission.

You know something? Sometimes I forget that. I do. I get wrapped up into my life, I get wrapped up in what we are doing. It is easy this time of year to forget it. We get involved in the busyness of schedules. I talk to my wife all the time about the most wonderful time of the year. Well, sometimes it feels like the most over the top time of the year. I do not know what we can do about it. We are all caught in a vortex, aren’t we? And we are spinning along and what can we do?

What we can do is separate ourselves out and say, "Why am I here? Why am I alive? Why has God saved me? And why has he left me here?" And the answer, at least in part, is that we are here because of the Great Commission.

I will always be thankful to God for an encounter I had with a young woman named Kim years ago at New Meadows Baptist Church up in Topsfield. It changed my life. I have no idea where she is today, I have no idea what is going on with her today, and I could guarantee she does not know she is being preached about this morning. I can guarantee that. But she changed my life.

What happened was in our small little Southern Baptist church up there (about 40 people on a Sunday) a number of them were going out with InterVarsity on a mission trip, a summer mission trip. I was working as an engineer. I had graduated from school. I was settled in my life, had a fruitful ministry, a good Bible study, different things going on: a nursing home ministry, engaged and excited, praying for missions, doing different things, giving, but just being an engineer.

She came up to me after Sunday worship and she said, "Well, we’re going. A number of us are going on a mission trip.”

I said, “Well, I know, Kim. I’ll be praying for you.”

She said, “Well, have you prayed about going?”

And I said, “Well, no.”

She said, “Why not?”

I said, “Well, it’s 10 weeks. They don’t give you 10-week vacations in the engineering world. I’d have to quit my job to go on that mission trip.”

She said, “Well, have you prayed about it? You should ask God. It’s not your life, you know?”

I will never forget her saying that. I was really taken aback. I had thought it was my life. But really what she was saying in a very simple, basic way is, “You are not your own. You’re bought at a price, and therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor 6:20).

So, I told her that I would pray about it. “Yes, Kim, I will pray about quitting my engineering job and going on a 10-week mission trip to Kenya.”

Well, I forgot about that promise. You know how you forget about promises that you did not really think you had to make. And so, I went on and about a week and a half later, I was having my quiet time and the Lord brought it to my memory.

“You said you would pray about it,” and so I said, “Alright, Lord. (I’ll try to get the attitude.) Lord, do you want me to quit my job and go on a 10-week mission trip?”

“Yes. Yes, I do.”

No question about it. There is no doubt in my mind that the Lord wanted me to quit my engineering job and go on that mission trip.

“Well, Lord, I have another question. What do you want me to do when I get back? I do not assume I am going to die as a martyr over in Kenya. What do you want me to do when I get back?”

The Lord led me to go to seminary full-time and on a path that led me eventually here. I had no plan for my life, I was just going week by week.

I hope that this message or some conversation you have with someone like Kim this morning or over the next few weeks might change your life. If God is calling on you to serve him in a cross-cultural setting, to go overseas, to do something different with your life, whether you’re a retired person or a college student or somewhere in between, or even just as a youth, you’re starting to think about your life, thinking about what God might have in store for you, get this in mind: We are here because of the Great Commission. There’s work to be done. Let’s glorify God in our body.

We are here this morning to worship God, and that is a good thing. Worship is a good thing. John Piper said concerning missions that we need to realize that missions is not the ultimate end or goal of the Church. This is what he said in Let the Nations Be Glad: “Missions is not the ultimate goal of a church, worship is. Missions exists because worship does not. When this age is over and countless millions fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more.”

So, it is for here and now that we consider missions. The ultimate end is that people who do not know him yet, who have not called on his name, might call on the name of the Lord and be saved, and that they might eternally feast at the feet of Jesus and worship. That is the whole point. Missions is not the ultimate end. Worship is.

As we look at Matthew 24, we come to an end time chapter. Now, frankly, all of the New Testament is end time, isn’t it? Because the end times came when Jesus came. But Matthew 24 is an eschatology dream. People love to read it and try to find out signs of the end and to wrestle with it. I like to do that too. I like Matthew 24. It is an exciting thing to consider the end time. The ultimate purpose of missions is eschatological, an end time purpose. We have the big picture in mind: What is God doing in the world in the end? And so, it is right for us at this time in missions to bring the two together and look at Matthew 24. What I find in Matthew 24 is a good companion verse to the Great Commission.

You know the Great Commission. It says in Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus said,

“All authority in Heaven and Earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the very end of the age.”

That is a commission. It is a commandment that we should go and make disciples.

What I find in Matthew 24:14 is a promise that the Great Commission will be fulfilled. It is Jesus giving us a guarantee that it is going to work. It is a remarkable statement: “This Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

It is a promise from Jesus Christ. We tend to focus on the command and miss the promise, don’t we? We tend to focus on the commission and miss the guarantee, and the guarantee is most certainly that this work will be done. And so, I think God deserves thanks and praise for how much of this Commission he has already fulfilled. We should be standing here and saying, “Thank you, Lord, that you have done what only you could do, that you have taken the Church from a small, kind of fearful Upper Room group, 120 or so in Jerusalem, and you have conquered much of the world. Only Jesus Christ could do that.”

What we are going to do this morning is glorify God together in three ways.

First, we are going to understand this promise in Matthew 24:14 biblically.

Secondly, we are going to recount some of God’s mighty acts over the last 200 years, to try to understand how he has really accelerated the fulfillment of the Great Commission. For that material, I am indebted to the Perspectives class. And if any of you have not taken the US Center for World Missions’ Perspectives class, talk to Bob Stevens. This is a wonderful class that you can take. He is right over here. I will not have you stand, Bob. But at any rate, if you want to know who he is, come and talk to me. But the US Center for World Mission has put together a wonderful class called “Perspectives on the World Christian Movement.” I learned so much about what God has done in the last 200 years. We are going to look at that very briefly.

Thirdly, we are going to rededicate ourselves to the remaining task.

Let us look at it biblically: Matthew 24. I told you I am just going to preach on one verse, but I just cannot take a verse out of context. Let us do a little context work.

Matthew 24:14 is found in Matthew’s gospel. Matthew’s gospel is all about the advancement of the kingdom of heaven. Specifically, it is about the King of the Kingdom of Heaven and his glory, Jesus Christ. So, from the very beginning of Matthew’s gospel, in which the record, it starts out, “The record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David,” it establishes Jesus as the Davidic king, the promised Messiah. He is the king of the Jews. But as it unfolds, it is clearer than ever as you just go on and read Jesus is really the king of the kingdom of heaven. That’s what he is because he preaches, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He is talking about an advancing kingdom.

As the kingdom advances, we find that it is a rejected Kingdom. Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey, the people are all shouting and saying hosanna, and they are laying down cloaks and palm branches. But very soon after that, Jesus goes into the temple and cleanses the temple. I believe it is at least the second time that he cleansed the temple. And he, again, joined battle with the scribes and Pharisees, with the Sanhedrin, with the chief priests and the elders, the teachers of the law, with the powers that were at the time religiously, because they were doing wrong, they were using religion for their own personal gain. They were filled with greed and self-indulgence, they were devouring widows’ homes, they were living for this world. They were looking good on the outside, but inside they were full of dead men’s bones.

Jesus takes them on, and it culminates in Matthew 23 with the sevenfold woe that he speaks on the scribes and Pharisees: “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.” He goes through this seven times, a sevenfold condemnation from the one who will be the judge of all the Earth. He has the right to do this. He has the right to speak a sevenfold woe on these false leaders and teaches. He calls them blind guides.

At the end of that, he laments over the spiritual state of Israel, focuses on the city of Jerusalem, and says,

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Behold, your house has left you desolate. For I tell you that you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

And then Jesus left the temple. That is the desolation. When Jesus leaves, that is the desolation.

His symbolic exit from the temple at that moment was very significant. You know how the Prophets did symbolic actions that showed spiritual truth? It was very significant when he said, “Behold, look now and watch, because your house has now left you desolate because you’re not going to see me again.” And out he goes, “Until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” Oh, I have to put in that hopeful thing, because some day they will say it. Amen? They will say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” but they were not ready to say it then. So, it was a rejected kingdom.

As I have mentioned before, the disciples, having no clue as to what was going on, came up at that moment and said, “Master, what magnificent buildings! Isn’t the Temple so ornate? Isn’t it magnificent?” They are kind of like country folk. They don’t get to the city much, and so they were just impressed by the architecture. That was bad timing, wasn’t it? But for God’s purposes, wonderful timing. And so, Jesus said, “Do you see all these stones? Do you see all the glory? I tell you the truth, not one stone will be left on another. Everyone will be thrown down.”

What a shock! How can it be? And they are waiting for Jesus to take up his throne, and they’re wanting to sit on the right and the left, and they’re thinking, “I’m going to be undersecretary of whatever real soon.” That is not going to happen.

“What do you mean the temple is going to be destroyed?” That does not fit. And so, they came to Jesus privately, because I think they were afraid of the answer, and they said to Jesus on the Mount of Olives, it’s called the Olivet Discourse, “Tell us, when will this happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

The threefold aspect of the disciples’ question makes Matthew 24 one of the hardest chapters in the New Testament to interpret. When will this happen? What is this? The destruction of the temple. And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? How do we unravel the strands? How does it work? It is very complicated.

Thankfully, we do not have to do it this morning. We are just focusing on one verse, remember? So, we are going to zero in on that one verse, and Jesus is beginning to answer the question. From verse 4 up through verse 14, he begins… And this is the context.

As he is discussing it, he is talking about what I consider to be uncertain signs. Look what he says in verse 4 and following. He says, “Watch out that no one deceives you, for many will come in My name, claiming I am the Christ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars.”

There are false Christs and false prophets that come just like Judas the Galilean and Theudas who appeared during the time of the census. Gamaliel referred to them in Acts 5. Have you ever heard of Theudas and Judas? Well, if you had not read Acts 5, you would never hear of them at all.

Let me tell you something, that is what makes this so magnificent. Jesus is just another religious leader, right, sitting up on a mountain saying, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” No, he is not just anybody. Because when he says it, it happens. When Judas the Galilean says things, nothing happened. He ends up getting killed and his followers are scattered. When Theudas says something, nothing comes of it. He gets killed and his followers are scattered.

Jesus is the Christ, and when he says something that is going to be true from here to the end of time, you know what, it is. That is the way Jesus is. And so, he says,

“False Christs and false prophets are coming. You are going to hear of wars and rumors of wars but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. Then you are going to be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you’ll be hated by all nations because of me.”

What are these? These are what I call uncertain signs of the end. What do we have as we take that whole section? You have political events, geopolitical events, nations rising and falling, empires rising and falling. You have famines and earthquakes and cataclysms, and you have persecution and difficulty. These are uncertain signs of the end because they are true of every generation from the time that Jesus came until now. You cannot use them to identify any one generation.

In 1526, Martin Luther, as he looked at the political events of Europe, wrote to a friend: “Now, what had happened is the Turks had conquered a section of the Hungarian empire and were just literally knocking on the gates of Europe. They were ready to overrun.”

Most people thought that the Turks were going to overrun Europe. Luther thought so too, and he said that he believed that the end of the world was so imminent that he would not have the time to finish translating the Bible into German before the end of the world came. By the way, he finished seven years after that.

Yes, he was wrong, but let me tell you something. It’s always been a passionate interest of Christians to find out by looking at the equivalent of the New York Times or The Jerusalem Daily, whatever, Bugle, whatever they had back then, looking at the headlines and saying, “What’s going on? We are definitely in the last 40 years,” or whatever. How Lindsey did it with the establishment of secular Israel. And so, he began writing The Late Great Planet Earth and all that. We are looking at the signs of the times.

Jesus said, “Let me give you a sure and certain sign. This Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” So that is a sure and certain sign of the end.

Let us look at the verse itself and unfold it a little bit. I am going to look at five aspects of the verse very briefly: First, the message in the verse. Secondly, the method. Thirdly, the mission. Fourth, the motive. And fifth, the mystery.

First, the message within the verse. What does he say? This gospel of the kingdom. The word “gospel” means good news. This good news of the kingdom is going to be preached. Good news.

What is the kingdom? Well, it is God’s sovereign right to rule over what he has created. He has the right to be king over what he made. But it goes deeper than that, doesn’t it? The fact of the matter is that the kingdom of heaven’s advancing has to do with human beings through repentance and faith, coming under the submission of the king and glad about it. They are glad that Jesus is King now. They are delighted that God is ruling. They are delighted. It is glad submission. That is where it is.

Demons are subject, remember, in Christ’s name. They are not glad about it all. They are terrified of Jesus. Kings that do not even know Jesus are subject to his sovereign rule, though they know it not. Because the king’s heart is like a water course in the hands of Lord. He directs it whatever way he pleases. But they do not know about it. It is unknowing. It is ignorant.

We are talking about glad submission to the authority of Jesus the king. That is what is going to be preached. Such as it says in Psalm 97:1, “The Lord reigns, let the Earth be glad. Let distant shores rejoice.”

Be glad about it, that God reigns. Be delighted in it. And so, we desire to be delighted in the fact that God sits on his throne, and we want to find out what his will is and do it. That is the advance of the kingdom. Now, why is it good news? Why it the gospel of the kingdom? Because God is a good king, and everything he ordains is right, and fruitfulness and beauty and order come from his reign. Amen? It is a delightful thing that the kingdom is advancing.

We skipped a little keyword there at the beginning: “this gospel of the kingdom.” Very interesting. Don’t forget that he was speaking to his apostles sitting there on the Mount of Olives, they’re listening to him say these words, “this gospel.”

Were they hearing a gospel? Were they seeing a gospel? Yes and yes. Because they were the eyewitnesses. They were the specially chosen ones, the twelve apostles. They were chosen to be in one sense the foundation of the church along with the prophets, it says in Ephesians, and how is that? Because of their eyewitness and their testimony. They saw the actions of Christ. Their minds were like little camcorders. They are just observing, and they are taking in.

Do they understand it? Well, we already said they did not understand. That is why they asked about how great the building was, remember, but they are taking it in, they are absorbing. Later, after Jesus had died on the cross and had been resurrected, and risen to heaven, “the counselor, the Holy Spirit,” Jesus says, “whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and remind you of everything that I have said to you.”

All of a sudden, “Hey, you remember when Jesus said this and things are…” They are starting to understand and to remember the events of Jesus’ life and his words exactly, and what it all meant. And so, we get the Gospel of Matthew, you get Mark, you get Luke, and you get John, you get the foundation of your faith.

“This gospel,” what does it mean?

This gospel is the key to the advance.

The Apostle Paul says in Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” And so, what is “this gospel of the kingdom”? Well, what the apostles observed. We preach a biography first. We talk about Jesus. We talk about that he was born of the virgin Mary, which we celebrate this time of year. We talk about how he led a sinless life, how he came and preached to the people of Nazareth and of Capernaum, and in the region of Galilee. We talk about what he said.

We give people who have never heard the name of Christ a history and a biography of a man who really lived and who did incredible miracles, who spoke to the wind and the waves, and they obeyed him, who fed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish, who was able to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, and to drive out demons, he could do all these things.

As one person said, “For us, he’s done all things well.” And so, we also have a record of his incredible teachings: the Sermon on the Mount, the teaching of the Good Shepherd and of the bread of life. We have all these teachings, and so we preach this gospel of the kingdom, it is a biography. So we preach a biography.

Secondly, it says, concerning method, “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached as a testimony.”

I want to take those two things and put them together. There is the preaching aspect of the advance and there is the testimony aspect of the advance. How do I understand it? Well, the preaching is the proclamation, like a herald does of the good news, so that we take the message across mountain ridges and across oceans and across rivers and other places, through great danger to a people who have not heard of his fame or seen his glory. We proclaim, we preach. We tell them the gospel. We preach that biography. We speak it, we live in a very advanced technological age on you what they tell us that preaching is soon to be obsolete. Don’t you believe it.

This verse right here tells me that preaching will be here to the end. Are you understanding what I am saying? Even though I am not like an MTV exciting thing. Do you have an attention span long enough to follow and track? I think you do. Oh, I think they undersell you all the time.

Preaching will be with us to the end. That is not just this, it’s what we did, what I did at the water cooler, the coffee breaks. It’s what I did when writing with co-workers on two-hour trips to a vendor or something. It is the preaching of the gospel. It is the verbal proclamation of Christ.

All of you can do it, but there is also the testimony part. You know what that means? It means your life has to live up to what it is you claim. Now, none of us are going to be able to do that perfectly, but we are like witnesses, and the witness cannot be discredited. We have to live up to what we proclaim, and none of us will do it perfectly. Oh, how humble we are when we see our wickedness and our sin, but we must preach and we must give a testimony by our life.

Thirdly, what is the scope? Well, there are three aspects, there is the geographic aspect, and there is the ethnic aspect, and there is the chronological aspect. It says, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world.” That’s geographic: “As a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

So, you get three aspects. First, geographic, the whole world.

Is there any part of God’s world you can say, “Well, this chunk doesn’t belong to God”? Oh no, he claims it all. He has his flag in every bit of it because, “The Earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” That verse is over the beautiful map, here, right outside. If you have not seen it, go and look above and see that it has been claimed for God. It is all his. So, the geographic scope, the whole world.

Secondly, ethnic, to all nations. This phrase has gained greater insight. We have learned more about what these ethnic groups are. I am going to talk about that more in a moment over the last 200 years. It is going to be preached to all peoples, all nations, and chronological.

This preaching, this gospel advance, is going to go on to the end of the age. Like Jesus says in the Great Commission, “Surely I am with you always to the very end of the age,” chronologic advance.

Fourthly, what is the motive? What is the motive of this gospel advance? Well, it says, “And then the end will come.” Well, I must say in the Bible, it is not the greatest statement of motive. But I think if you understand what ends God has in mind, then you will understand how this is a magnificent statement of our motive. What is the end? The Greek word is telos. What is the end that is going to come? Well, there is just the end of the world, what we call the day of God, judgment day and beyond, when God forever destroys evil and wickedness, when he purifies the world, and when we have the new Heaven and the new Earth, the home of righteousness. That end.

Do you want that to come? Are you looking forward to the new Heaven and the new Earth? Well, it says, “If you’re looking forward to the new Heaven and the new Earth, then you should speed it’s coming,” it says in 2 Peter 3:12. Speed, it’s coming.

How are we going to speed its coming? Well, this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony all nations, and then the end will come. And not before. So that means that there is still work to be done. There is still an advance, there is a border, a boundary, only God knows what it is, but there is an advance.

But perhaps there is a second meaning, the end, the telos is the purpose, then the purpose will come. What is the end purpose of God?

God’s purpose is always the same, ultimately his own glory, that he might be displayed, revealed, and made known that he might be worshipped, that is the end that will come. “Then the nations will fall on their faces before him and gladly say, ’The Lord reigns, let the nations be glad.”’ That is the end that will come, and that is our motive as well, the end of God, what his purposes are.

You know what? It will end what I consider to be the greatest injustice in the history of the world. You know what it is? It is that Jesus Christ does not get what he truly deserves for what he did, that he is denigrated, that he is thought of as an afterthought, that he is no big deal, that he is not special, not the center of your life or other people’s lives. That is a great injustice, and it will end when the end of the world comes.

Fifthly, mystery. What is the mystery? Well, you do not get it in this one verse, but you get it in the context. Look at verse 36, Matthew 24:36. Now, I know you said I am just doing one verse. I could not control myself. We are just going to look at this one other verse, Matthew 24:36. The mystery is this: no one knows about the day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the father. That is a mystery.

Like William Cowper said, in God Moves in Mysterious Ways, “God is his own interpreter.” Do you know what I mean? He decides when the nations been reached, he decides when 24:14 has been fulfilled. He is the one who is allowed to do that. Until then, we have to wake up and say, “Oh, the sun came up. There is more work to be done. I’ve still got work to do.” We are here because of the Great Commission; there’s still Commission work to be done.

In summary, the message is this gospel of the kingdom. The method is that it will be preached as a testimony. The mission is the whole world to all ethnic groups until history is over. The motive is then the end of the world and God’s purposed end will come. The mystery is that no one knows when that day will be.

I want to take a moment and look at how it has gone from that point. Jesus is not Judas the Galilean, and he is not Theudas. He is not a false Christ. Has he been as good as his word? Can we see the progress? I can see it. We started in the Upper Room, 120 believers. Now, there are countless millions who claim the name of Christ in almost every tribe and language and people and nation worshipping him. Jesus has been as good as his word. Isn’t that thrilling? He made a prediction, and it has come true.

Over the last 200 years, the gospel has especially exploded, where was biblical faith 200 or so years ago? In Europe? In the new nation of the United States? Certain outposts in other parts of the world, in Latin America, in Africa, mostly near the coast. Carey had set up his work in Serampore… That’s it. And a few other little outposts where there was trading and there were some Christians there.

Since that time do you see the progress that has been made? There is not a geographic nation on Earth that there is not a New Testament church in it. Isn’t that thrilling? That was not true 15 years ago, but the fall of the Berlin Wall has opened up countries like Albania. Other things have happened: the events in the Islamic world have opened up countries like Afghanistan. Things are happening, things are moving, it’s a thrilling thing to see.

God used four individuals to really help us understand Matthew 24:14, and we do not have time to go through them today. But let me tell you who they are and what they contributed briefly. If you are interested in more, then I have done my job for Bob Stevens and the Perspectives class saying, “Boy, tell me more about William Carey and Hudson Taylor and Cameron Townsend and Donald McGavran. I want to know more about these guys.” They have helped us understand Matthew 24:14.

William Carey basically told Protestants, “The work isn’t done. It was not just for the apostles. The Jesuits, the Roman Catholics, are sending out missionaries all over the world, but we want the true gospel to be preached, and so we need to find out how we as Protestants can advance the gospel. We need to exert ourselves. We need to expect great things from God and attempt great things for God. So, get moving, Protestants, let us get into the mission game.” That’s what he did. And so, some call him the father of modern missions.

Hudson Taylor looked at where the work was being done, and it was all on the boundaries, on the edges. He went to China, and he is there in the missionary outpost, and he is seeing that these missionaries are living comfortable lives. They are not venturing out much, there are a few converts, but not much. And he said, “What about the vast teaming unreached millions in the inland regions?”

I will never forget a quote I read concerning Hudson Taylor. As he looked at this map of China with all its provinces, he realized there was no witness in the inland regions. He was in a worship service in England. Now, when you think of 19th century England, think 21st century America. It was kind of the center of Evangelical faith, of missions’ interests, of good preaching of all kinds of things, of books and publishing, and all kinds of gospel wealth. This is what he said, his own words on Sunday, June 25, 1865:

“Unable to bear the sight of a congregation of a thousand or more Christian people rejoicing in their own security while millions were perishing for lack of knowledge, I wandered out on the sands alone in great spiritual agony, and there the Lord conquered my unbelief and I surrendered myself to God for this service. I told him that all the responsibility as to issues and consequences must rest with him, that as his servant, it was mine to obey and follow him. His to direct, to care for and to guide those who might labor with me. Need I say that peace at once flowed into my burdened heart.”

What would you feel about our worship service? Would he see a bunch of satisfied, comfortable people who are rejoicing in their own security while millions are perishing? I do not think that that is too far from what happens in America, in American churches. My feeling is let us not be that way. Let us follow people like Hudson Taylor. Say, “The work is not finished yet.” He began praying for mission teams for each province of China, and God raised them up. His watch word was this “God’s work, done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.” That is his spiritual secret.

Thirdly, Cameron Townsend. Cameron Townsend was a missionary in the early 19th century in Guatemala. He was preaching the gospel to Indian tribes in Guatemala in the national language, Spanish. He comes to one Indian household, and he is sharing the gospel in Spanish. They know Spanish—it was the national language and all of that—but finally one of them said, “If your God is so smart, how come he can’t speak my language?”

Wow! Well, that struck him. Good point. And so, he began looking into the issue of languages. At first, he thought there were 500 languages in the world. Then he upped his estimate to a thousand, and then 2,000. By the time he died in 1982, he thought there were 3,000 languages in the world. Now, the estimates are around 5,000. The group he founded, Wycliffe Bible Translators, understand how much work there is yet to be done to get God’s word into the heart language of these nations and peoples, and they are continuing to do the work.

The fourth man working about the same time as Cameron Townsend was Donald McGavran. He was a missionary in India. As he looked around and saw what was going on in India and all the complexities of their society, he started to notice cultural groups that he called homogeneous units. They were similar in language, culture, and history. They saw themselves as a group, and he said, “You know, this is probably what Matthew 24:14 means when it says, ’To all nations.’ It is not two geopolitical nations like represented at the United Nations. No, there are groups within China and within India and within Latin America that need to be reached with the gospel. God is his own interpreter but apparently, the work is not done yet, so maybe we need to look a little more closely and say that there are still some nations that have never heard the gospel.”

He came up with the idea of the hidden peoples, the so-called unreached people groups. Initial estimates, when he started looking at this idea, put it at 24,000 unreached people groups. That was in 1950. In 1980, it was down to 17,000 unreached people groups. Now, the number may be about half that. Isn’t that remarkable?

The progress is being made right in front of our eyes. It is thrilling to me. I remember praying when I was a student at MIT in Campus Crusade for Christ. We were praying for 15,000 unreached people groups. It is far less than that now. Amazing statistics about God’s glory. I could give you number after number what God is doing.

Let me give you this one, and then if you want the others to come in, I will give you the first of you, this sheet. But in AD 100, about a generation or two, depending on how you define it, after Christ, get this: there was an estimated twelve unreached people groups per church congregation. That means every church congregation needed to reach out to 12 unreached people groups. With five million Christian congregations worldwide, get this: there are at least 500 congregations for each unreached people group.

All I have to do as pastor is to find our other 499 sister churches, get together, and find that one unreached people group, and we’ll be set. We will have done our part, right? Let us get those 500 churches together and go reach that one unreached people group.

Brothers and sisters, this is doable. Do you see it? It is doable if people are willing to sacrifice. If people are willing to believe what I said at the beginning of this message, and that is, we are here for the Great Commission, we are not here for the other reasons. And it is so confusing at Christmas time. We forget, “Why am I here? What is going on? What am I doing in my life?” Five hundred congregations for every one unreached people group. Brothers and sisters with God’s help we can do it.

There is still a great work to be done, isn’t there? Look at the 10/40 window, look at the Muslim world. Are those folks going to be easy to reach with the gospel? What do you think? I think some of these unreached people groups, the price will be a martyr’s blood. Guaranteed. I have no idea, but there might be even martyrs sitting today that God might use to open up. To open up a group. And it is not just one, it is usually a history, and then little by little, they start to see what is happening and they come to faith. It is not going to be easy, but we have this promise, listen: this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Now, what application can we take this?

I want to take odd illustrations or analogies to put it together. The first is insider trading, and the second is horse gambling. That is just unseemly, right? I am not advocating either, insider trading or horse gambling, but insider trading says, “I’ve got some information about what’s going to happen, and you need to get in on this so you can make a killing.”

Do we not have that, brothers and sisters? Do we not have some inside information on what is going to happen? Don’t we need to invest in this so that we can make an eternal killing with God? I think we do. I think anything else you invest your money and your time and your life in is going to be a waste, but this is a blue-chip stock, folks. This is most certainly going to happen.

How about horse racing? We used to live in Louisville, and they have the Kentucky Derby. I never went down there. There are always around a quarter million people, and you could not get near it. Besides which, my faith frowns on gambling and so should yours. But it is a great illustration. Can you imagine, if you wanted to bet on a horse, a $2 bet, I guess is what they go for, and you went with a race three quarters or four fifths over and there’s Secretariat out in front by 50 lengths or 40 lengths or whatever, and say, “I’d really like to place a bet, can I place a bet?”

What do you think they are going to tell you?

“The window is closed. You can bet on the next race, but not while the race is going on.”

My friends, you can invest or bet or whatever while this race is going on. Jesus is winning, the gospel is advancing. Invest in Christ. This is most certainly going to happen. It is a guarantee.

There is no way that you can lose any dollar invested lighting. Each one of those lamps represents $1,000 except one of them. Jack told me it represents $500, sorry. OK, but he lit it, praise God. I said, “Jack, we’re going to light that lamp fully. And then the rest of them.”

Our goal is $50,000 for missions. Can you think of a better way to spend your money, $100, $300, a $1,000? I can’t. Invest your money because you know what happens? The way it works with Lottie Moon is that money goes directly into putting mission units, that is, families who are missionaries, on the field to advance the gospel.

Pray. Ask the Lord to raise up laborers for his harvest field. He will most certainly answer that prayer. Then go and find Kim. I don’t know where she is, but have Kim talk to you about your life. And say, “You know, our pastor thinks really highly of you.”

“Who’s your pastor?”

I do not even know if she would remember me, but just find a Kim in your life or somebody like that, to challenge you to do something dangerous, something risky with your life, to take your vacation, or to quit your job, or to take your retirement and go.

We are looking as a ministerial staff at some interesting and fascinating ways in various parts of the world for short-term mission to go on. We are already doing work in various places in East Asia, and in the Caribbean, in Haiti, and other places. There are opportunities in Eastern Europe if you are interested. Keep aware of what we are doing. We are looking at some strategic things: smaller teams sent for shorter amount of time to serve as an encouragement to missionaries. We are looking to do more and more things. Get involved.