Good morning, every one of you. I'm privileged this morning to bring you a portion of God's Word. And I know some of you in this church, especially among the young people, have been here a few times, and I'm very glad to be here with you this morning to marvel and bow before the Word of our God. which comes today from the book of Genesis chapter 15. Genesis chapter 15 will be the words of our text. It is indeed a familiar passage, Genesis chapter 15, giving us the mountain peak of the experience of Abraham's relationship with God. A story that had already started many years back. Abraham was once called Abram. And now he's turned into Abraham, the father of many nations. He was called in chapter 12 to leave his own family, his own possessions, his own nation, and to go in a place that he did not know, having no idea which direction and God was pointing him. As we know from Hebrews 11, already there Abraham had shown faith. His promise was that in him all families of the earth will be blessed. God sent him seven blessings. And that name that he will bear, the father of a multitude of nations, was the promise that he was clinging to. And yet Abraham, as from chapter 12, the story unfolds, arrived in this land, the promised land, which is already affected by a famine, threatening the promise. Sarah was getting old. He had to separate from his son-in-law, Lot. He has no child. At least Lot could have taken the inheritance inside of the family. No, he's gone. And so concern grows in Abram as he sees the striking contrast between the promises of God and his circumstances. He's stripped of everything, and he meets this enigmatic figure of Melchizedek, who is a priest of the Most High, and he gives him the tent. And he refuses, as he rescues his son-in-law Lot, he refuses to get the spoils and the wages and the reward from the king of Sodom. Dangerous situation. He almost risks his life. to save his son-in-law, who now departs again. And we come now in chapter 15. God has noticed something. God has noticed that Abraham goes empty-handed. God noticed, and He brings a solution to his problem. Let us hear from verse 1. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward. But Abram said, Lord God, what would you give me, seeing I go childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? Then Abraham said, Look, you have given me no offspring. Indeed, one born in my house is my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir. Then he brought him outside and said, Look now toward heaven, and count the stars, if you are able to number them. And he said to him, so shall your descendants be. And he, that is Abraham, believed in the Lord, and he accounted it to him for righteousness. Thus far the reading of God's word. Let us pray. Oh God, Forgive us. Forgive us when in our little eyesight, as we look at our little circumstances, as we are surrounded by all sort of challenges, we fail to look up and to see your promise. We fail to go beyond our state, our condition, our little dots and to see Your greater purpose for mission. And so we pray this morning that You will be with Your servant, that Your Word may be preached, that You will change our hearts, that You will grant each and every one of us in this room to put our whole self into the whole of Christ to cast our cares to you, and to be filled with confidence and faith over your promise, and to obey you as a result of your marvelous grace. We ask you these things in the precious name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. So as I was saying, 10 years had passed since Abram had received this promise. And now the promise has grown in Abram into a multitude of descendants, as we just read. This is the third time that God reveals Himself to Abram. And as I said, his faith has already started in the moment that Abram, out of obedience and faith, he leaves his own land, and yet now he's declared in our text justified by that faith. It is as if God is looking at his whole life of Abraham and he declares him righteous. And as we know, Genesis started with Adam, after Adam to Noah, and we see that God does covenant that gets narrower and narrower. And now we come to the covenant that God makes in this chapter with Abraham. And although the covenant seems to go narrower and narrower, and focusing on the faith of one man, as we see in this same passage, the implications are global. to the ends of the earth, to a countless number of people who will believe. From the heart of one man, the mission of the gospel will be brought to every nation under heaven. And so, Abraham is brought before this, and we are brought this morning. That from the heart of one man, faith will bring us into the mission. of God. And so Abraham has many concerns. How will this promise work out? And then later, God will give a sign of this covenant, which is the sign of circumcision in chapter 17. The pledge that God will do as he promised is based upon the faith of Abraham. Nothing else but his faith. And so in this chapter we see there's a continuous back and forward before God and Abraham. And it's a chapter full of questions. Abraham is full of questions and this tells us that perhaps contrary to the way that we grew up and we thought that asking questions is wrong, is a sound of doubt. No, it is good to ask questions as Abraham tells us. It is good to ask questions, especially in light of the unlikely situation that we find ourselves and Abraham found himself. In fact, in verse two and three, we see that this galaxy of faith that God presents to Abraham, it is in sharp contrast with this unlikely situation that Abraham is going through, which teaches him patience, teaches us patience. Abraham's natural reaction to the comforting words of the Lord is to complain and object and say, how this promise work itself out? He recognized that God is supremely sovereign in Abraham's life. He recognized that this God is covenanting with him in a special way. But what would you give me? God? He's exasperated. He can't hold it any longer. After all the things he has lost, the many years that have passed by ever since God first spoke to him, and despite all the outward blessings that Abraham has received and the favor of man, something deep inside is still missing and bothers him. He says, I continue childless. All these blessings have no sense if all that I live behind will go to a slave, not a family heir, but a slave who is bonded, is not free. I was working in battle and they almost killed me. What will it be of me? Dying without a son. See how he's so self-focused. He looks inside himself. He looks around in his circumstances. He feels he's alone. He has no son. And the contrast between all the promises that God has given him and the reality that he's facing is too sharp. The promised offspring that God gave it to him is nowhere. All that there is is a barren house, a deserted Canaan, He has no family anymore. He left his dad, he left his son-in-law, his wife is getting old. And the consequence of all this, as I said, is that the heir of his house will be a slave, Eliezer of Damascus. Although he was a loyal servant, he's a runaway slave, he's a foreign. He's not part of his family. He will inherit all of these possessions, flocks and property, not under my name, and I will die. And you might find yourself today in similar circumstances. And perhaps you say, this must be a clear evidence that I do not have faith, that I am not worthy enough to approach God. Well, let me tell you, if you're like me, You're in good company. Because faith is always mixed with doubt. What Abraham is doing is not be driven by unbelief, but he is questioning. He's not questioning God's integrity. He's questioning how the promise will come to pass. It is a legitimate question. When we do not have all the answers that we are looking for. We do not see how all this will work out in our life, and yet we believe. We cast our care upon Him because He cares for us. At one time or another, some of us may have felt the burden for the missions. And Abraham, for example, was called to leave his house, his family, his land, and go to places unknown. And in the mission fields, we obey and we live, we take away, we give up everything and we follow Christ into His worldwide missions. And we say, we have been obedient here, now God will bless me. And instead, we reach there and obstacles of all sorts arise. We get a culture shock, a spouse that doesn't share the call that we may have, economic hardships, 12, 20, 30 years of wait to see some fruits. And we start to believe that perhaps we cannot be of any service to God. We start perhaps to believe that the promise will not be fulfilled. I was watching this movie that just came out. which is called silence. And he tells of these missionaries, okay, they're Catholic, Jesuits, we don't like that. But they go all the way to Japan and they try to bring Christianity there and they get a position after a position. Some people are nailed to a cross and placed before the oceans as the waves come and drown them. facing all sorts of hardships, and they're tempted to resign and give up. But you see, crisis is not incompatible with faith, as long as this faith is a fighting faith, a battle for true faith. Many of us have an idealized, I suspect, view of faith. Unless everything is perfect, unless everything is in place, I cannot approach God. I cannot believe. I am not worthy of His presence. But God says, Come as you are, just as we sing this morning. Just as I am, I come, O God. Filled with doubts and many doubts, I come to you and I cling to Jesus Christ. Because you see, this galaxy of faith that shines is also surrounded by the darkness of our unbelief still. Always mixed. In Abraham, in Sarah, in the next chapter, what would Sarah do? Well, perhaps we should do it our way and fulfill this promise through the slave and he gets the slave to Abraham. All the patriarch and so on us. If you are like me, an imperfect man, you have this. Fears, wants, limits, childlessness, sickness, or even accomplishing great things, having built business and family and everything, and you come to a point as a preacher, you find yourself saying these words in Ecclesiastes 4.8, you have no son or brother, no end to all your toils, eyes not satisfied with riches, for whom are you toiling and depriving yourself of pleasure? And yet God uses these very limits, these very wants, these very empty spots within us. Despite our unlikely situation or actually exactly because of our unlikely situation. There is for us a galaxy of faith that opens. Why? Not because of the unlikely situation below, but because of the immense promise above. Look up and what do you see? God appears to Abraham and he sees and he says, I am your protection. Do not be afraid. Yes, your circumstances are turbulent. Your situation is questionable. Yes, famine had threatened the promise of the land. Sarah, yes, she is old. Your son-in-law has left you after this dangerous battle. You are still a stranger and pilgrim walking through the promised land. And yet, do not be afraid, do not be shaken, because I am your shield. God identifies Himself as a shield. Where else do we see shields in the Scriptures? As in Ephesians, Paul tells us to put on the shield of faith. But also, in the second connotation that God gives to Abraham, He says, I am your reward. You didn't take any reward from the king of Sodom for the spoil of your battle. I am. I am your reward. God is your reward and all of your wants, all of the things that are withheld from you. They're meant to drive you to find your satisfaction and your all and all in me alone. I am your reward. Whatever your situation is, whatever your wanting may be, why don't you cry out and go to Him and find your reward in Jesus Christ? Not because of anything that you have. Abraham had nothing. Do you think that this reward is because of his mighty battles, because he was able to deliver a lot? No. These rewards look ahead. It's out of sheer grace of God that will be poured out upon him after test, after test to prepare him. And yet God pours out His reward out of sheer grace with an offspring, a son. Your heir will not be your slave, Abraham. Your heir will be your very own son. So you see that God is like a soldier, captain, Lord of hosts, who gives Abraham his reward, which is not material. It is himself. It is God himself. And so we need not to fear. We need not to listen to the lies. As we look at our circumstances and we think that God has abandoned us. No, we've got to put on that shield of faith. And whatever situation, whatever unsafety you may go through, childlessness, and mission may be the last thing on your mind, and yet God comes and says, I am your safety. All that you try to do is to keep the status quo and protect yourself from danger. God comes and takes that away, creates a want, and you cry out to Him, and He gives you everything, and He helps you. Not by necessarily removing your obstacles. Sometimes it's exactly through these hardships that, through this wants, We discover that nothing can satisfy us apart from Him. And we give up everything. And the work of mission starts in our heart as we obey, as we discover and answer the calling of God. We realize that what we lose, what we cast away, we take aside, any temporal rewards, And we look at heavenly treasures and rewards. And here is the promise again, verse 4. Your very own son will be your heir. What? How can this be? My wife is old, advanced in age. But you see, faith must wait upon the Lord. Leave your situation in the hands of God. And so what does God do to help Abraham to get out of his comfort zone, to get out of his being stucked? As he only looks inside of himself, as he only looks around himself, God brings him outside, out of this laments and looking at his own situation. And he says, look up, put your head up, Lift your head. Look beyond your nose and look toward the sky, the heavens. Even beyond all the impending needs that are before you. There's something far greater in view, Abraham. You're part of something far greater that you have not even considered. Count the stars. If you're able. Look at the stars. Now of course this is a rhetorical question. Nobody can count them. You watch these videos that these days they put of beautiful creation and you look at the stars or like I was in Amsterdam I went to see Van Gogh Museum and there is this beautiful starry starry night and again what do they tell us? The beauty of God's creation but for us it's kind of foreign because in our day and age we have all the pollutions from cities. We do not know what it means to be in the desert thousands and thousands of years ago in the middle of nowhere and be faced before this beautiful, marvelous galaxy. And what is he saying? He's using that as an illustration, as an example. of something greater, of his descendants. And so I invite you to arrest yourself from your present circumstances and the box that you have placed yourself in, perhaps in many days, perhaps in months, perhaps in years, and look above to his promises. Connect the dots of His promises. And the greatest promise that Abraham was looking and connecting the dots was the cross. Was the seed. Not just the physical seed, but the coming of One who will be the Savior. Who will save him from his sins. The One in whom he has placed his faith. Jesus Christ. Same one who created the heavens and the earth and he upholds them with his hand, the galaxies. He is the one who will later on come and give his life at the cross. There's something far greater than our little garden that we are busy building. And so in the mission fields. Many people. can see very little results of their works. Many endeavors, they are discouraged and doubt comes. We do not see fruit. We do not see how this will work out. And yet God has a far greater, bigger plan beyond your little Spot your little dot. God is at work bringing the Gospel to every nation under heaven. And His purpose is accomplished. And the Word of God is going through the ends of the earth. And some of us will not realize this until we are in heaven. You may have heard of missionaries who go in foreign lands. And they go, for example, in India. This man stayed for 30 years, 40 years ministering. He saw probably Five, ten converts face persecution. Complete hardening of hearts. No fruits at all. He dies there. And many years later, many, many years later, here comes the stars. Here comes innumerable multitudes that through a chain of individuals and people Receive the Gospel. Watch at the bigger plan of God. Our little ministry is connected with this greater picture. This star stands almost as a sacrament to us. A sign pointing to the promise of the One who created the world out of nothing. And Abraham has the privilege to witness this. And the children of Abraham are in that sky. The multitudes of people. The millions of others who are and will be or where part all is people. Only by faith. All true believers. Us included. So shall your offspring be. You complain and ask for one heir, Abraham. Not only that will come physically through Isaac, but I have a nation in mind, Israel. And I have all nations in mind through the gospel and the gospel going through the Gentiles. to us in 2019. Imagine God's promise as a house. And you leave your own house on the basis of this promise, and you discover that such a house will be yours in 400 years from now. What would you do? Would your faith waver? You see, we are so impatient, especially in this day and age. Our culture points us to have everything now, immediately. But God does not have to work according to our expectations. His way is always the best way. And Abraham's seed will come. That's what matters. That's what was enough for Abraham to rejoice in seeing Christ. The day that Christ will come and that all nations will have some of that seed from one offspring, the firstborn among many, every nation, from every tribe and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord. And they will come in Hebraim to the same confident response that we see in verse 6. As he look up now beyond his circumstances and what is below, he looks above and now he develops into a confident response. That is seen by God. God sees that faith of Abraham and he says, this is perfect. Despite the imperfections of Abraham, God sees that faith has enough. And that is the same for us. Here is Moses who is writing the book of Genesis and he is giving a comment of the whole conversation between God and Abraham. And he says, Abraham believed in God. This is the first time in the entire Bible that this word, believed, is used. And it is implied entrance into a state of perpetual belief, not just one moment decision. And it is a faith that is not in itself what is counted as righteousness, but the object of that faith, which is God. Through the seed, the coming seed, Jesus Christ. No more complain, no more objecting, no more wavering. Abraham now relies in God to fulfill what He promised. He submits to His direction and puts his faith in God, the Lord Almighty. God sees that. And He counts that. He reckons. He considers and regards. Abraham acts of belief. as righteous. Abraham believed in God, and God counted his belief in God as righteousness. That is the understanding of Romans 4, verse 3. God considers Abraham and his faith as reliable. Moses is not saying that faith is righteousness. We have no righteousness of our own, nor that Abraham had some inherent internal personal righteousness in himself that makes him worthy before God. We saw all the doubts that led into this ladder. No, God is calculating the faith of Abraham. in God and in the coming seed, Jesus Christ, as righteousness. And this is the heart of the gospel. This is the heart of the same gospel that we believe. Same faith that saved Abraham thousands and thousands of years ago can save you now, today. As you reach out to me, says the Lord, we are counted as righteous. The gratuitous justifications from all of our sins, from all of our doubts, from all of our faltering. You see, the promises of God are not of any good unless you embrace them. You have to respond with them. Because without faith it's impossible to please God. You have to act upon the promise written in His Word. Stop debating. Questioning is good. But like a child, that type of questioning. Bow flat in the dust before Him. Submit to Him, whatever your circumstance. That is the mission of the church. To make disciples of all nations. Out of the same salvation we receive, now we obey by faith, we go into all the world and we declare the righteousness of God revealed by faith through Abraham, the father of all the faithful. That is what we are to do. We represent God as Abraham was representing God as he reaches people and nations and all nations will be blessed through him in his lifetime, but also through the gospel and through salvation, to the ends of the earth. And what it is of all this complaint? It vanishes away. And it is nothing to be found in Abraham. It is all to be found in God. He has no good works. He has no human endeavors that he can do. All that he can do is depend upon the Lord and bow flat before Him. He can't even speak. He sees all these stars and he believes. He simply believes in God. This is what You said, Lord. And I'm bowing before You. But by faith alone in Christ alone, we submit to God. And we declare with the saints of all, here I am, O Lord, send me. Accomplish Your purpose. through all these stars, through the many millions that shall come into Your kingdom. Let it be done according to Your Word. I believe beyond what I see in this galaxy that is before my eyes." So you see that faith in God brings us beyond our unlikely circumstance to embrace the immense beauty of God's promise, a galaxy of faith which is all believers, which are a light into the nation. You're not made to be under the table, you're made to shine over the room, shine like a city on a hill. This is His church. that shines by that faith, that shares their gospel, that makes disciples and today shines still after thousands of years. And those who are yet to come, those many nations who do not possess a Bible today, Daniel tells us, those who are righteous, once again, nothing because of some inherent righteousness in them? No, because of faith. Justified by faith. The righteous will shine like the stars, Daniel. Like the stars in the heavens. This is the universal plan. To be fruitful and multiplied and fill the earth. This command given Let's not just refer to making kids. No, the Great Commission. Go, make disciples of all nations. Go into all the world. In fact, Abraham's story tells us that the innumerable clouds of witness, which fills the constellation of God's story, includes us today. Galatians 3 verse 8 says, if you turn there with me, Galatians 3, verse 8 says, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham. Preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, this is our mission. to bring about the fulfillment of these words ever since the day of the Apostle Paul and beyond until Christ comes back. The eternal questions, the never dying questions that hits us today, today still is this. Are we advancing the Great Commission? Is God delayed in fulfilling His promise? When people mocks us, Christianity seems to go down in North America. People belittle the Christian God. Stand fast and wait upon the Lord. Be a light wherever you are. And although apparently the unfulfilled circumstances seem to go against faith, be assured of the starry bright future the spies are deadly present. We are elect and chosen sons of Abraham, not because of being born in a Christian family. We are his people if we have the same faith that Abraham had. I do not care if you think that just by going to church, just by having received the outward sign of baptism, just by having done certain things, you may think, yes, I am. Sons of Abraham. Oh, remember what Jesus said to the Pharisees who said, we are sons of Abraham. They had everything. They knew the Bible. They knew Genesis 15. But yet they had no faith. They only were driven by unbelief day after day as they listen and they go to the synagogue and listen and listen and listen. And yet their heart is still of stone. It is time to bow before the living God. God tells you today, it is only by faith, nothing in yourself, no righteousness you bring, only doubts. And yet with all your doubts, God tells you, come to me, just as you are, and receive His promises. Be part of this painting, this constellation of galaxy that God is building across the world through His gospel. We, the dots and the stars in that starry, starry night as the light of the gospel continues to shine in every nation. This is such a universal scope, and yet it starts with your heart. It starts here, as you believe. Take away all of your doubts and your complaints, and you just stand silent before God, and you say, I believe. Lord, help my unbelief. I believe in this seed. I believe in the seed that is coming, Jesus Christ. I embrace Him. By that same faith, no matter my age, no matter what I've done in the past, God is willing to receive you. Come to Him. Come to Him. And you will be part of this galaxy of faith. Let us pray. Oh God, we bow in the dust. We bow Recognizing, Lord, that many times in our life, continuously, even as believers, we have often found ourselves looking at our little garden, our little circumstances, placing everything under our own man-made box. And we have forgotten to lift up our eyes to Your promise, to Your Word. Lord, we ask You that You will forgive us. You will forgive Your church that many times stands before four walls, and yet You call the church to go and to be part of this greater plan of God, to be excited about the work of missions, to be outgoing, going out of our ways to share the gospel with the unbelieving people around us. And I pray, Lord, that You will change us today. Give us a new heart for those among us who do not yet know You. For those among us who yet do not experience the grace of God, who still try to claim the Mount Sinai through their own righteousness, I pray that they will see their sin, and that they will cling to Jesus Christ, to the coming seed that has come indeed, that is placed before their eyes and our eyes, Lord, that we will embrace Him by faith. The same faith that Abraham showed. And that is enough to make us righteous before You, not because of anything in us, Lord, but because of Your declaration. I do not condemn Him. He is mine. And Lord, we are Yours. Establish the works of our hand, we pray. Despite the unlikely situations below in this earth As we go through dark times and the star seems to fade, and yet, Lord, give us faith. And grant us to obey, and to follow You, and to fulfill Your work of mission. It is in Jesus Christ's name that I pray. Amen.