God Speaks to Abraham, Part 1

Genesis chapter 17. This morning God speaks to Abraham. I want to read to you the verse we're going to cover today. That's verse number one of Genesis 17.

I knew that I would not get through all 27 verses, so I decided just to take one at a time. Just joking. Now when Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless. We're going to stop right there. There's so much here that I figured that this is enough for one day. Abraham is 99 years old. Anybody here 99 years old this morning? Nobody. Anybody in their 90s this morning? Nobody. Oh, there is one. Yes. 95, almost 96. All right. That man right back there is 95 years old.

He's four years younger than Abraham was when God came to him in Genesis chapter 17. Can you imagine that? 99 years old. It's been 13 years since the birth of Ishmael. How do we know that? Well, it says in the end of Genesis chapter 17, 15 that Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him. Thirteen years. God has not spoken to Abraham in 13 years. I wonder what must have been going through his mind. Thirteen years is a long time. And all of a sudden God appears and God decides to speak once again to Abraham.

And what God says to him is very significant to what God is about to do. So as we examine point number one, God speaks.

Two things I want to cover with you this morning. Number one, the revelation. Number two, the requirement.

In Genesis chapter 17, God is speaking in every verse except for two. It's a chapter about God communing with Abraham, revealing what Abraham needs to know. And Abraham needs to listen and then obey. So as God speaks, there is a revelation that Abraham needs to have. A revelation that you and I need to grasp. Because God was about to tell him something. God was about to do something in his life. In order for that to be accomplished Abraham needed to know more of the character of God and that's what the revelation is all about.

The Lord appeared at the right time, at the right place, in order for Abraham to be able to understand God as God wanted to be understood by Abraham. God is the all powerful one. He is the almighty one. And isn't it good to know that when we go to him in prayer, we go to him with confidence knowing that he can do what we cannot do. And without him we can't accomplish anything. Christ said, without me you can do nothing. We believe we can do something. That's our problem. We really think that our own talent and skill and giftedness will allow us to do what we want to do.

And God says, without me you can't do anything. For he is El Shaddai. Abraham would need to know that because he was 99 years old. He was wondering whether or not the promised child would ever come. Sarah was 89 years of age and now as the book of Romans, the book of Hebrews tells us now their bodies were as good as dead. Couldn't function like a thriving 20 year old or 25 year old. They're up in years. So God comes to him and says, Abraham, I am almighty. I am El Shaddai. I can do anything. Those had to be comforting words for Abraham.

It had been a long time since he heard from God. He hears this day in Genesis 17 and God reveals to him something he needed to know that he is the almighty one. That's the revelation. Now the requirement, walk before me and be blameless. Divine illumination requires human obligation, not reservation, not hesitation, nor speculation. Did you get all that? Very basic yet very profound. One deals with conduct, the other deals with character. Here it is, walk before me, Abraham. Remember in Genesis chapter 16 when Sarah came to him with the opportunity to enact the promise of God through the handmaid Hagar.

They both thought it was a good idea, but nobody consulted God on it. Nobody prayed about it. Nobody said, hey God what do you think about this? They just did it. You see when God says walk before me, he says walk as though you really understand I exist.

Listen very carefully to what I'm going to say. Most of us as Christians are practical atheists. Did you know that? We live every day as if God doesn't exist. We get up and don't spend time with God because we're not sure God exists. We go to work and we do our work for ourselves not for God. We do what we do as if God is nowhere around. When God says to Abraham walk before me, you walk in my presence Abraham.

You walk living as if you really believe I am there with you. Because if you had done that in Genesis chapter sixteen, you would not have committed adultery. I want you to commune with me Abraham. I want you to walk before me. I want you to live as if I really do exist Abraham. I wonder if you live your life every day as if God truly does exist. So important. So important. I'm afraid that there are so many times we live our lives and no one observing us would ever be able to tell that we walk in dependence upon God.

I wonder if your family knows that you walk with God and walk before God. I wonder if your people at work really know that you are really committed to God. That every thought and every word and every action is all about God because he is before you. He is present with you. My challenge to you today is that every moment of every day that you would live in the presence of God, practice the presence of God. If you do, you sin less because you know he's watching. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere. We know he's with us.

The Bible says so. Lo, I am with you all the way even to the end of the age. I will never leave you nor will I forsake you. God is with us so we need to live our life as if he is right there beside us every single moment. That'll revolutionize your conversation, won't it? You won't be talking about people behind their back near as much, will you? Because God is listening. God is there. You want to please him. God says, Abraham, I'm the almighty one.

What I want you to do is I want you to walk before me. I want your conduct to be very, very clear. So clear that everybody knows that you're in subjection to me. I hope that's the case for you. I hope that's your desire this morning. That's what you want to happen. And then he says, and be blameless. If you got a King James version it probably says, be perfect. I like that word. Be perfect. Now listen very carefully. If you walk practicing the presence of God you live a blameless life. If you don't walk practicing the presence of God you live a sinful life.

If he gave us a subpar standard our imperfections would abound and give us an excuse not to be as God wants us to be. God gives us the highest standard. He gives us himself. God doesn't say, I want you to be as your pastor is. I want you to be as your Sunday school teacher is. I want you to be as your elders are. No, he says, I want you to be like I am. I am the standard. Not frail man. Not sinful man. The perfect God is the standard. I want you to be like I am. Be perfect as I am perfect. Be as perfect as my law is perfect.

It's the Hebrew word that means without blemish. It's a word that means spotless, clean. Abraham, if you walk practicing my presence you'll live a clean life. Now some of you people are saying, that's impossible. That's why God says, I am El Shaddai.

Before he said, be blameless. If he wasn't El Shaddai, you couldn't be perfect. If he wasn't the almighty one, then you would not be able to accomplish what he's asked you to accomplish. And so therefore he sets the standard at his level and not your level. What does that mean? How does that happen? Let me talk to you for the rest of our time this morning about this word blamelessness.

And I want you to notice six things about it for the believer. Number one, blamelessness is the position of the believer.

Blamelessness is the position of the believer. Go with me if you would to Ephesians chapter one, verse number four. We'll begin with verse number three.

It says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. There's the position. He chose us in him when? Before the foundation of the world that we would be a holy people, that we would be a spotless, blameless kind of people. That's what he wants us to be. Now how can that happen? Turn with me to First Peter chapter one.

First Peter chapter one tells us, verse number 18, Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your feudal way of life, inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

We were purchased by the unblemished, spotless blood of Christ. Second Peter one, four says that we are partakers of the divine nature.

Because we are partakers of his divine nature, his nature is spotless, his nature is blemish free, then we become blameless before him because he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Do you know that you stand before Christ completely spotless today? If you know him as Lord and Savior? Because you've been washed in the spotless blood of the Lamb of God and become a partaker of that spotless nature. So, blamelessness is the position of the believer. Number two, it's the promise of the believer.

It's the promise of the believer. Over in Colossians chapter one it says this, Colossians chapter one we'll pick it up in verse number 19, For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him, and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross, through him I say whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet he has now reconciled you in his flesh and bodily, through death, in order to present you before him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.

God purchased your redemption in order that he might present you holy and blameless before him. The promise of the believer is that one day we will stand before Jesus Christ completely blemish-free. It says over in Ephesians chapter five, those familiar words, That he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and blameless. See now wait a minute pastor, I know many Christians who are as you say positionally blameless.

I also know that there are many Christians who are promised or all Christians are promised blamelessness, but they don't act that way in front of me. They don't live a blameless life. They don't live a spotless life. Their lives are filled with blemishes. Well that's why you need to understand that not only is blamelessness the position of the believer, and the promise of the believer, it is the prayer of the believer. The prayer of the believer. Philippians chapter one, turn there with me if you would please.

Philippians chapter one, verse number 10. Philippians chapter one, verse number 10. Pick up in verse number nine, In this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ. Paul's prayer for those of Philippi is that they would be innocent people, that they would be spotless, blameless, free from fault kinds of people for how long? Until the day of Christ.

It is the prayer of the believer that his life be blemish free. Now earlier Paul said work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Work it out. It doesn't mean you earn your salvation, but it means that there is a practice that you are to engage in. So we move from the promise of the believer, excuse me, the position of the believer to the promise of the believer, to the prayer of the believer, to the practice of the believer. The practice of the believer is to live a blameless life. Now listen very carefully.

How do we do that? We do that by not grumbling and complaining. Why is that? Because we are the children of God. We bear His image. And because we bear His image in a crooked generation, in a twisted, perverse generation, people who have twisted the truth to satisfy their own purposes, we have got to live truth. And in order to do that we must not grumble and we must not complain. Now listen very carefully. This is so important. God wants us to practice living a life that is beyond reproach. That the world can't look at us and say, well look what they're doing.

Look how they behave because we are to be lights to them. That's what Philippians 2 says. And whenever you grumble, whenever you complain, do you know what you do? You slap the face of a sovereign God that says, your plan, your purpose is not what I want and I reject it. That's what a murmuring, complaining spirit does. So we need to practice, practice blamelessness. Pray for blamelessness because it's the promise of the believer and it's the position of the believer. Number five, it is the pursuit of the believer.

It is the pursuit of the believer. Second Peter chapter 3, verse number 14, Therefore beloved since you look for these things, be diligent, be zealous, be eager to be found in Him in peace, spotless and blameless.

There's our word again. Because Jesus Christ is coming back again. Because there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth. Make sure that you prove yourselves diligent. Pursue blamelessness. Make that your chief aim in life. Live a life that's spot free. Live a life that's clean. Live a life that's fault free. Live a life that's free of any kind of defect. Say pastor, how can we do that? We're always going to sin. That's right. You're always going to sin. You will. But the aim of your life is not to sin.

The ambition of your life is to live free from sin. I've noticed something about people who say that to me. We all sin. Pastor, we can't live that kind of life. Those are the kind of people that condone and want to keep some of the secret sins in their life. They want to keep them. They want to hold on to them because those sins are dear to them. We need to humble ourselves before God, the almighty one, the all powerful one and say, God, I'm praying to you. I am coming to you because I need you to help me live a spotless life.

I can't do it on my own. I know that that's where I am positionally. I know that's where I will end up when I stand before you. But Lord, right now as I live on earth in amidst a crooked and perverse generation, I need to live a life that is free from defect. So when people see me, they see God because I bear God's image. Is that the way you are? Is that your pursuit in life? Pursue blamelessness. Whatever keeps you from practicing his presence, whatever keeps you from recognizing that God is with you, flee it.

Avoid it because it will keep you from being blameless and spotless. Blamelessness is the position of the believer. It is the promise of the believer. It is the prayer of the believer. It is the practice of the believer. It is the pursuit of the believer. Number six, it, are you ready for this, is the pleasure of the believer. It is the pleasure of the believer. Listen to Psalm 119, verse number one, how blessed are those whose way is blameless.

That's a blessed man. That's the man who finds joy in life. How blessed is the man whose way is spotless, is blameless, is beyond reproach or above reproach. That's the blessed man. How about you? Is that the way you are? Turn with me to Revelation chapter 14.

We'll close here. I love tying Genesis into Revelation on Sunday mornings and Revelation into Genesis on Wednesday nights. It is so good to see how God is teaching us through the book of beginnings and the last book of the Bible about the important truths of life. Revelation 14, the Lord, the Lamb, is on Mount Zion and with Him stands 144,000 Jewish evangelists. Listen very carefully. When you get to Revelation chapter 14, you realize that what God did in Revelation chapter 7, when He branded 144,000 Jews, He sealed them.

He promised to protect Him. These 144,000 Jews have gone through the seven year tribulation and have gone through unscathed by all the pursuits of Antichrist. They have survived the seal judgments. They have survived the trumpet judgments. They have survived all the judgments that God has put down upon the earth. They have survived what Antichrist has tried to do because they are untouchable by God. He has sealed them. He has protected them. And they now stand with Him on Mount Zion because it is a vision of the victorious.

And these 144,000 Jewish evangelists are victorious. And John gives us a description of them. And listen to what he says. Verse number 4, These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as firstfruits to God and to the land. And no lie was found in their mouth. They are, what? Blameless. Isn't that good? They're spotless. That's why their testimony is so effective in the tribulation.

That's why there is a conversion of more people in that seven-year period than in any other time in the world because I can't name you 144,000 pastors today that are blameless. Can't do it. And neither can you. But God says 144,000 Jewish evangelists never been defiled with a woman.

No deceit found in their mouths. They follow the Lamb wherever He goes. And where are they going? Where's the Lamb taking them? He's taking them to the tribulation. And they are pure. They are spotless. They are blameless before the Lamb of God. My friends, that should be our ambition in life because their pleasure in life is to be with the Lamb, stay with Him on Mount Zion. Just like our pleasure is for God to speak well of us and to be with Him. That's the pleasure of the believer. Make it your aim this day to live a life of blamelessness, to walk before God and be blameless.

That's what God told Abraham to do. And that's what God tells us this day we need to do. Our challenge is to leave here walking before Him that we may live a clean, blameless, spotless life, a life without blemish. If it couldn't be attained, God would never require it. But because it can be attained as we walk in the Spirit, as we do not fulfill the lust of the flesh, God is glorified. And the world will see Jesus Christ in your life. Let's pray together.