"THE BLESSING OF ABRAHAM"
“THE BLESSING OF ABRAHAM”
Galatians 3:6 - 9; Galatians 3:13,14; Luke 19: 1 - 10
These scriptures furnish a wide platform from which to announce the gospel; that is why they have been read this evening, the thought being, too, to link on certain remarks, certain evangelical testimony with Abraham. It is convenient to link the passages in Galatians with Luke 19 in this respect; it opens a door to speak a little on Luke, who is peculiarly the evangelist; he makes more of Abraham than any of the other so-called evangelists, and yet his object is to reach the whole of our race. Hence he alone records for us what the multitude of the heavenly host were saying in regard to Jesus as He was born. They said, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men”, Luke 2: 14. Following on that, Simeon took Jesus in his arms as a Babe — for Luke loves to dwell on the babehood of Christ — and blesses God in regard of Him, saying, “mine eyes have seen thy salvation”; and then, putting the gentiles first, he says, “a light for revelation of the Gentiles”. So that Luke has a wide outlook; he presents Christ in relation to mankind; and yet he brings Abraham in; and so does Paul, enlarging on the subject in his doctrinal way, showing that the blessing of Abraham had the gentiles in mind. The promise to him was that he should be heir of the world — a very wide thought — not as circumcised, but uncircumcised.
So that he stands in relation to the race of mankind, but the race more particularly as divided up into nations. And this opens up a very important truth, namely, that in Abraham’s setting, the reconciliation of the world is seen. You can understand the heir of it would think favourably of it and especially [p. 69] that through him it should be blessed, all the nations should be blessed. How favourably he would take account of them, but not any more than we today who are, as his sons, blessed with believing Abraham. We also look upon the nations favourably, whereas he who is national in his outlook confines himself in his thoughts to some special nation. Such a one is not characteristically a son of Abraham. It was through Abraham the nations were to be blessed, so how could he but think well of them? So Jehovah says of Abraham to one amongst the nations, the Philistine king, Abimelech, “He is a prophet, and will pray for thee”, Genesis 20: 7. And so it is that the sons of Abraham now are enjoined to pray for kings. We are enjoined by Peter to “honour the king” (1 Peter 2: 17); he is concerned about the government of God; but Paul exhorts us to pray for kings, and to give thanks for them, too, and for all in authority. This, he says, is acceptable to God, “who desires that all men should be saved”. And so the Spirit of God proceeds to tell us that God is One, that His mind is one, and that that mind is favourable to all the nations. The Mediator of God is One — not two there are not two mediators; no nation has a mediator of its own. The sons of Abraham regard the nations and their rulers, and there is one Mediator, “the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus”,
1 Timothy 2: 5. That is how every true christian — called conveniently in Galatians, every true son of Abraham — is universal in outlook and sympathetic with men, desiring as God does, but in his little measure, that no one should be lost, but that everybody should be saved. And that is why we are here tonight, sympathetic with God, and as I said, understanding that the governmental ordering of God is in favour of the gospel. It is intended to make a way for the gospel. God could not allow the terrible state of things that exists in the world to continue, beloved [p. 70] friends, were it not that He had some purpose of His own to reach. Why should He raise up four great monarchies to rule the world in the times of the nations save that He had some great purpose in mind? And that purpose is to make things as tolerable as possible, so that the truth may have access to the nations, that the highways in the world should be open to the evangelists, the servants of God, and not only so, but that it should be understood that God is not against the nations but that He is for them. He is sending down His rain and causing His sun to shine in His kindness, so that men should not be prejudiced against Him, but that they should rather be thankful; that there should be occasion for thanksgiving.
And so there is with Abraham intercession for the nations, and indeed a sort of military establishment, not to provoke war, but to rescue needy ones out of the world. Such was Abraham; he was confederate, too, with certain ones, not surely to be a mere worldly man, but in view of what I am speaking of; in view of the great war at that time, he was watching, considering for God, and as the opportunity arose, he rescued his brother, at great hazard, at great cost and fatigue; and not only that, but he asked God about Sodom, the wickedest city of the day. We are living in a day of great cities; it is a city period and there are wicked cities, too. We as christians are not against cities, against cities in which we reside; we do not close our eyes to the wickedness that is going on, but still, like Abraham, we are concerned about them. Abraham says to God, “Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?” Genesis 18: 24. He does not ask God to deliver the fifty righteous out of the city; why did he not do that? He was thinking of saving Sodom. And God says, ‘I will do it’, “I will spare all the place for their sakes”. Now, think of that, beloved friends. How it reminds us of the need of sympathy in regard to men in spite of the wickedness. He says, I will save it, I will forgive them all, if there are fifty righteous. You see how the great heart of the patriarch expanded and acted on light in principle. He was heir of the world — what a place he had! He was a prophet and a priest and he took advantage of his office, of his great access to God, to intercede for the wickedest city of the day. Did he mean to condone the wickedness? Not at all. He was thinking of the righteous, but then he asked about the wicked, he asked God to spare the city, and God said He would do it for fifty righteous; He virtually says, I am thoroughly with you; you are entirely according to My mind; I will do all I can, for that is the order of the day; it is a question of the salvation of the world. There is no change, beloved friends, in spite of the terrible state of christendom, there is no change in regard to the heart of God; it is a question of salvation — that God is “not willing that any should perish”. Think of what counsel goes on in heaven (I speak reverently)! Some of us think of heaven as a far-off place with little or no idea that it is a place of counsel, that it takes notice of what is current on earth. This is a great occasion in heaven, this occasion here now. I am not speaking theoretically; I know well that it is; and heaven is intent on this matter. There are other places like it. Meetings of this kind are being held for hours to come throughout the world, as the sun goes to the west; for many hours to come heaven is intent on all these meetings and God is saying as He did to Abraham, I am thoroughly with you in all you are doing; I am holding things for you, while the times of the nations are running their course, so that you might carry on; and I am carrying on. And so it is, beloved friends, if there is one here tonight who is not a [p. 72] christian, not a son of Abraham as a believer, this is your opportunity. Heaven is intent that you might turn to God and as soon as you do, there will be joy there, history will be made there; as soon as you turn to God and repent, even as you sit there in your seat, you make history in heaven. You may not make much history on earth, as far as the world is concerned; the event will not be recorded tomorrow in the papers, but it will be in heaven, and not only so, but there will be a movement there. Such is the attitude, beloved friends, of God in regard to this matter.
And so the apostle brings out here, as I read in verse 6, “Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness”. The allusion is to Genesis 15, a chapter in which, as some of us know, we get for the first time the “word of Jehovah”. Now that is what these meetings are intended to be; they are to be occasions for the word of God; it is a question of the word of God. We have indeed in one of the terms covering the gospel in the Acts, “the glad tidings ... of the word of the Lord”, Acts 15: 35. God would speak and He spoke to Abraham in chapter 15 of Genesis and it says Abraham believed what He said. Now some of you here may say to me, ‘I cannot believe; I have tried, and I have tried, and no change has happened’. But then, perhaps it has never occurred to you that what you are unable to believe is what God says — in other words, you are not just taking God at His word. It says, “The word of Jehovah came to Abram” and the passage in Galatians citing the chapter says, “Abraham believed God”. Why should he not believe God? If I do not believe God, I cannot really believe anybody; I am inconsistent in believing anyone if I cannot believe God; but Abraham did believe God and God so valued that act of faith that He reckons it to him as righteousness. Is that not simple? And so he is called here “believing Abraham”. There are two phrases that go well together — a “repenting sinner” and “believing Abraham”. Abraham is held out in that way, beloved friends, as a leader; he is a leader in faith and he is honoured as the father of all believers in that sense; God, I say, so honours him that He regards him — He reckons him — as the father of all believers. He “believed God”, the apostle says, “and it was reckoned to him as righteousness”, Galatians 3: 6 (see also Genesis 15: 6).
Now may I not urge you here such as I have referred to, who say ‘I cannot believe’ to face this matter? If you say ‘I have not been hitherto able to believe’, or if you say ‘I have not been hitherto interested enough’, will not you face it now, for God is speaking? God speaks now through men. The Holy Spirit sent down from heaven is the power by which the gospel is preached, as Peter says, and the voice of the preacher, energised by the Spirit, is the voice of God. It is not a question of the speaker being infallible, the point is that it is the word of God, that God is speaking. What I am saying to you now is the word of God; I have no hesitation in saying that. “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness”.
And that is intended to be God’s word for any indifferent one, or for any exercised one here. It is the word of God; do not put it aside. It is a terrible thing to resist the word of God. Many fell in the wilderness because of not hearkening to the word. That is why they fell, not because of bad conduct. It is a terrible thing to refuse to hearken to the word of God.
And so the apostle goes on to say in verse 7”Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying,
[p. 74] In thee shall all nations be blessed”. Now that verse 7 is what I have been already alluding to and I would urge it upon you, “they which are of faith”I believe most of us here are of faith. I have not the slightest difficulty in preaching to the Lord’s people; I have more pleasure in speaking to them than any; they are the best listeners, characteristically, to the gospel, and it is well that they are. We need it every one of us needs the gospel. So here those that are of faith are reckoned as sons of Abraham and blessed with believing Abraham. Now, as I have said before, Abraham has a great place with Luke. Luke records what John the baptist said to the Jews who were claiming that they were sons of Abraham after the flesh. He disallows that, he challenges that, but he holds Abraham in his place, he gives Abraham his full place. He says, “God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham”, Luke 3:8. Abraham will have children; if I am not one of them, others will be; God will see to that. And Luke in his record draws the curtain aside from the unseen world, and shows you Abraham. There he is and he has got a bosom and there is a person in that bosom. You see how God brings Abraham to us in the gospel of Luke. It is really to bring the truth down to our level, that we might see in a man of like passions with ourselves the confessions of God, the interests of God, and the place there is for the blessed. So that Lazarus is in Abraham’s bosom. You say, ‘Well, that is only a figure’. Well, it is a figure, but then it is Abraham, you see, and Abraham understands the Scriptures, too. They were not written in his day, there is not a line of Scripture spoken of in the book of Genesis — I mean to say as to the time it is treated of — the history was written by Moses some hundreds of years later, but Abraham understands the Scriptures. That is to say, if you find your place, as I hope you never will, as I hope no one here ever will find himself [p. 75] in such a position as the rich man, who in hell lifted up his eyes being in torment — if you find yourself in such a place as that, you will discover that a man like yourself will condemn you there, and he will condemn you by the Scriptures. Here is the poor sufferer, the Christ-rejecter who is in hell in sufferings — let nobody make little of that; it is the truth of God — and he says to Abraham, “I have five brethren”, Luke 16: 28. He remembered that, the memory does not die. He remembered — the poor sufferer for whom there is no hope at all; he had left the region of hope for the region of eternal doom, and he remembered his brethren, and he speaks to Abraham about them. And Abraham says to him, ‘Those brethren of yours have Moses and the prophets; and if they do not believe Moses and the prophets, they will not believe a person who rose from the dead’. Now, look at that. Here we are tonight. If it were a person come back from the dead who was standing here instead of myself, his testimony could be no greater than the testimony that I am presenting to you. It is a testimony by the Spirit of God come down from heaven; it is a testimony from the Scripture, and Abraham says to the doomed man, to the lost soul in hell — “They have Moses and the prophets” and “if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead”, Luke 16: 31. You say, ‘That would not be my case’, but it would be your case if you should persistently refuse the testimony of God — the gospel preached by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven; you would not believe even if a person rose from the dead. Abraham says you would not and Abraham is quoted by the Lord Jesus as saying so, and Jesus says the truth and Abraham says the truth; and if you reject what I am saying and die tonight, you will find your place where that poor lost sinner found his place — in hell. Hell is not Gehenna;
[p. 76] it is Hades; it is a place of torment, anyway, soon to be “the lake of fire”, in which all the rejecters of Christ, all the ungodly, all the refusers of the gospel, will find their terrible lot eternally.
And then the apostle goes on to say in Galatians, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law”. Think of the preciousness of that statement, “being made a curse for us” — not only that He died for us, but He was made a curse for us. What does that mean? Well, it means that we were subject to the curse — not only to death, but to the curse of God. The allusion of course is to the Jew, upon whom the curse came. But then the principle holds, Christ was made a curse for us, so “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith”. Jesus hung on a gibbet. Men put him there, of course, but it was under God they did it; “him, given up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God” they crucified and slew. God turns it round and says, That is what man deserved and My Son died vicariously, and now He is not willing that any other one should die like that, but that all might be saved and come to repentance and be like believing Abraham, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it says, “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles ... that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith”. It may be there are some believers who, through imperfect teaching, or it may be through worldly associations, have as yet never received the Spirit, and yet this is the great blessing attaching to the gospel. I would urge believers to see to this matter. I call you believers — not by courtesy, but by fact, for you do have some little faith in Jesus, but you are remaining in the world, or perhaps through bad teaching, you have not received the Spirit. The Spirit is a gift, but not an automatic gift. God’s [p. 77] gifts are not automatic; God gives what He gives of His own volition and in His own time. He loves to do it, He glories in doing it; His glory shines in doing it. And He would offer Him to you tonight; that is, He is for you, the Holy Spirit is given to all those, we are told, who are subject to Christ. If you have not got the Holy Spirit, you should look into your history; you will find that the real cause is insubjection to Christ; you will have been insubject to Christ. This often works out in insubjection to your parents; you have light and yet you turn away from your father’s house; you turn away determinedly from the place of divinely appointed rule, and you are not happy and you have not got the Spirit. You are not a saved person characteristically; you need salvation in the sense of the reception of the Spirit, He is the power of God here to keep us out of the world, for Christ “gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world”, Galatians 1: 4.
Well, now, in Luke 19, we have an illustration of a son of Abraham, of what the term signifies. Some of you here might be a little interested, and might like to come in with us as sons of Abraham. “Abraham’s sons” in Galatians really means “God’s sons”. The truth is brought down to us today, that we are all sons of God “by faith in Christ Jesus”, Galatians 3: 26. Glorious statement that we christians delight in, and we would love to have you join us. We would say, indeed, as Moses did, “Come with us, and we will do thee good” (Numbers 10: 29), not that we can do it of ourselves; but God is with His people. They have come into the good of heaven and are, characteristically speaking, really and truly the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Now this man Zacchaeus is a good example. He is a little man; he is a rich man, a tax-gatherer, and he wanted to see Jesus who He was; that is a true mark of the work of God in a soul. If God is working [p. 78] with you as you sit there tonight listening to me, you will want to know who Jesus is. It is a very great matter at the present time, because there are so many voices in the world; the Lord Jesus says to His disciples — “Who do men say that I the Son of man am?” (Matthew 16: 13); this one said that, and another said something else, but the Lord says, “But ye, who do ye say that I am?” and so I say to you tonight, ‘Who do you say Jesus is?’ Your salvation depends on a right answer, because there is so much darkness abroad as to the Person of Christ. If you do not believe that He is the Son of God, if you do not believe that He is “Over all, God blessed for ever”, you are a unitarian and you cannot be saved. There are such people as that, persons who do not believe in the deity of Christ cannot be saved. There is no salvation aside from faith in the Person of Christ; and then the next thing is there is faith in His work. There are those who believe in a bloodless religion. Christianity depends on the blood; “without shedding of blood is no remission”. Christ suffered vicariously, He died vicariously; it would be derogatory to Him to say He died otherwise, that He was buried otherwise than vicariously. But He died and He was buried and was raised again according to the Scriptures, and faith in Him in this sense is salvation. “By which also ye are saved”, says the apostle.
And so Zacchaeus is one of these sons of Abraham the first great mark with him is that he wanted to see Jesus who He was; it was not a matter of curiosity; why should he be so concerned? Well, because God had something to say to him in spite of the fact that he was a man that would take more than he deserved in his tax-gathering. It is such men that God takes up, you see, to show that He can save people in spite of such conduct as that. However bad your history, God says, ‘I can save you in spite of that’. If you [p. 79] were to go over the list of the people God has saved, you would be surprised and impressed with the wonderful selection He has made — and why? So that you, however bad you are, should be saved, too. Your badness should not hinder you. Bad as you are, you may have some little thought about Jesus right down in the bottom of your heart — some little hankering after Christ — and you will be glad to get out of your associations, glad to get out of things that hold and darken you. God knows that, God values that, and, if He were speaking to you personally, He would give you credit for that. This man wanted to see Jesus who He was. Was that nothing? It was something and the Lord knew what was in his mind, and He saw him running ahead. He was a little man. It is interesting to notice the people of Scripture that are spoken of as running; this is one of them. I think heaven saw this running: “he ran before”. There was something in that man that the Lord knew about and that was not of nature, it was of God. He wanted to see Jesus, who He was, and so he climbed up into a tree. The Lord moved on, too. This man made no mistake as to the way the Lord was on — many of you do — many of you do not take account of the way, but he made no mistake, and Jesus came actually to that tree, and when He came to it, He stopped and looked up at Zacchaeus. That is exactly how it is here with you tonight. A crisis has come in your history and the Lord is looking on you and He would say to you, ‘Come down, come down from that position’. Your position is wrong, and the Lord says to you tonight, “Come down”. He called this man by name. Do you not think heaven heard when the Lord said, “Zacchaeus”.
Oh l all heaven was in that; that man became famous at that time and so will you as just turning to God now in repentance; you will become famous in heaven — “There is joy in the presence of the angels [p. 80] of God over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15: 10), one repenting sinner; a repenting sinner is a characteristic man; he is not merely an historical repenter; he is a characteristic repenter, and heaven records, registers all these people, repenting sinners; there are myriads of them there; and so it is here when the Lord says that Zacchaeus is to make haste and come down. He called him by name and He says moreover, “Today I must abide at thy house”. I hope what I am saying has appealed to some heart here. Some may think in their heart, ‘The Lord is very gracious to me in telling me these things and I think I will move’; but Zacchaeus made haste, and I urge you to do the same, whatever position you may be in — it may be an exalted position in which you have set yourself up; whatever it be, leave it; you are looking down on Jesus in it. I believe most of the religious organisations today look down on Jesus, I do indeed, and I tell you why: it is because man has had a finger in them — man as such, and if he has a finger in anything, it will result in looking down on Jesus. Men like to dress Him up, so to speak, in their own clothes, to make Him respectable as they regard respectability, but it says of Jesus that He sat just as He was on the well, there was no change, no attempt to alter anything, and moreover it says of His disciples, they took Him just as He was in the ship, there was no attempt to alter Him at all. I do not believe there is a single organisation of men, beloved friends, that does not look down on Jesus. Though they have Jesus, they have Him according to their own thoughts; they make Him respectable according to their own thoughts. I do not mean to say that Zacchaeus intended to be disrespectful, but there he was in a false position looking down on Jesus, and Jesus looked up to him in grace; how many He has looked up to, making due allowance for them, out of Rome or any of these organisations, calling them out!
[p. 81] The Lord will do anything in His own way to get at your soul; He wants you; He wants to extricate you from a false official position if you are in it. He says, ‘Make haste and get out of it and come down’. Zacchaeus did so, and he received the Lord in his house. What a great matter if some of you did that tonight! Some of us here would just love to surround you and speak to you, we would love to hear you saying, ‘I receive the Lord at this moment’. A man said to the Lord, “help mine unbelief” — he said it with tears (Mark 9: 24). He had said to the Lord, “If thou couldest do anything”, but the Lord replies, ‘The “if thou couldst” is “if thou couldst believe”’. It is a question of faith, and he says, “I believe”; he says it tearfully; it appealed to Christ — “Help mine unbelief”, he says to the Lord, and the Lord did; a crowd ran up at that time, and the Lord saw the crowd running, that is, as one might say, a crowd of thoughts; the devil would fill your mind; do not listen to what is being said at all; but the Lord cast out the demon, as the crowd ran up, to forestall the workings of the devil who would shut out the light from your soul, that you should not be a believer.
And so Zacchaeus received the Lord gladly. What a time it was! Luke loves to paint these beautiful pictures of buoyancy in the salvation of souls; Zacchaeus received Him gladly. It was a buoyant time, a time of reception, of extension of hospitality to a great Personage. There were complainers, they complained about this; ‘He is a sinful man’, they said. ‘Did not the Lord know that?’ Of course He did. Zacchaeus says to Him, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor”, and further, ‘If I do anyone an injury I restore him fourfold’. He told the truth. We cannot believe for a moment that the Spirit of God would record it if it were not true; it was true, and the Lord says, “he also is a son of Abraham”.
[p. 82] Now you see I am going over this ground, so that any of you who may be concerned by the words I am speaking, may see how you come into this thought of sonship of Abraham, that you might be blessed with believing Abraham; that you might belong to the household of faith, which means all christians, all of us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; we belong to that household, and we long to see you join us. It is on the principle of faith, and the Lord says, “he also is a son of Abraham”. Were there not others? There were millions, but “he also”. How the Lord would love to say that to you — that little word ‘also’. We want you, the Lord wants you, heaven wants you also, with all the myriads.
You will be blessed, as I said before, with believing Abraham.