Overview
Rev. Jon Ryan teaches righteousness as God’s view of the believer through Jesus Christ. Using Abraham as a central example, he shows that righteousness is reckoned through believing rather than earned by works, and he encourages believers to follow Abraham’s footsteps of obedience, trust, growth, and return to God.
Transcript
Seeing Yourself as God Sees You
I'm so blessed that I get to share the word with you on the subject of righteousness. If you take your Bibles please and turn to 1st John chapter 3. What I want to help you to to accomplish this morning and throughout the weekend is to see yourselves the way God sees you. When God sees us, he sees his son Jesus Christ.
Because we are his sons. We just learned some great things about what it is to be his sons and we've been learning throughout the weekend. And so we want to rise up to to hold ourselves to that image that God has of us.
Not the image that we might otherwise carry of ourselves. In 1st John chapter 3 we read, Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew him not.
We are the sons of God. We have all that God has written in his Word. We can walk with the authority that God's Word tells us that we have.
Now, righteousness really is to not allow yourself to be ashamed of who you are. To not carry around the sins, the mistakes, the missteps that you had. Because that's not what God looks at.
He sees you as you're his son. You're his daughter. He wants you to to understand that.
If you go to, well you don't even have to go to Romans 10, 9 and 10. We know that verse very well, those two verses. You know when it says that if we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart that God hath raised him from the dead, we're saved.
So we gained our sonship right there. For with the heart man believeth unto what? Righteousness. It doesn't say by our works we gain righteousness, but with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.
And with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Look at Psalm 103 please. Psalm 103.
This is God's perspective. He says, I'm gonna pick it up in verse 8 and take my glasses off. I see better without my glasses.
I just think they make me look nicer so I like to wear them. I gotta do anything I can to try and make this look good. Psalm 103, 8. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him or respect him.
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Now there's four directions in this world. We have north, south, east, and west.
And if you travel north from here, you're going to go through several states. You're going to go through the country of Canada and eventually you'll get to the North Pole. And if you continue in the same direction, as soon as you cross the North Pole, you're heading south.
But if you go west from here, you're going to go through several states. You'll go into the Pacific Ocean and around and you'll go over to Asia and continue and you'll still be going west. You'll never start going east.
Amazing how that works. God has cast our sins as far as the east is from the west. That means they never touch.
Look at Isaiah 43, please. See, we want to gain God's perspective. We want to see ourselves the way he sees us.
In Isaiah 43 and verse 25, I, even I, am the he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins. I'm going to show you this in specifics, that God does not remember our sins. And he doesn't want us to remember them either.
Please turn to Romans. Now we're going to go to Romans. Righteousness, the word righteousness, occurs in Romans than more than any other book of the Bible.
And we'll see that we're also going to look at the great man Abraham because in this book of Romans, now righteousness appears in the book of Romans 35 times. Five times seven. Five is the number for grace.
Seven is the number for spiritual perfection. It's God wants us to see. This righteousness comes to us by believing.
It's God's grace. We know when we read in Ephesians that it's not of works lest any man should boast, but by grace we are saved. We just confess Romans 10, 9, and 10.
And we are made righteous. Now in the book of Romans, the chapter 8 has more uses of the word righteousness than any other chapter. And the whole of chapter 8 is about Abraham.
The first occurrence of righteousness in the Bible is regarding Abraham. Here in Romans 3, in verse 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So we've sinned.
All of us. There's none of us without sin. And yet we've been redeemed.
Wasn't that wonderful what we just learned? Verse 25, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God. So God's vision is that he doesn't see our sins. He doesn't look at them.
They're as far as the east is from the west. He remembers them no more, which is hard to picture with God because you think he knows everything. And certainly he can remember all my sins.
But that defeats you. No, it's perhaps a figure of speech because God does know everything. But he doesn't want you to remember your sins.
He doesn't want you to look at yourself as though you've made bad choices. Even though you have. Even though I have.
But we're to start each day anew. We're to see ourselves moment by moment as he sees us. He looks upon us as his wonderful little children.
Abraham Believed God
That's his care. That's his love. Look at Romans chapter 4, verse 1. What shall we say then that Abraham, our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God.
For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him, or reckoned unto him, for righteousness. Abraham is a great man. Abraham has this chapter devoted to him.
Abraham comes up in 26 books of the Bible. God holds him up for us to look at. He tells us we're to follow in his steps.
He calls him the father of all them that believe. God wants us to understand, as this man understood, that he was righteous. Look at verse 4. Now to him that worketh is the reward reckoned, or reward not reckoned, of grace, but of debt.
But to him that worketh not but not but believeth on him, let me read that again, but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. So God wants us to see it's not of works. There's nothing we can do to earn it.
He's just given us his gift of Holy Spirit, and by that he made us righteous. Let's look at, jump to verse 12. And the father of circumcision, to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith, are believing of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.
We're to walk in the steps of Abraham. Now the New English Bible says we're to walk in the footprints of Abraham, which you don't really get to see this illustration if you're just from down south here. But I grew up in New Hampshire, and in the wintertime, down here everybody looks forward to the wintertime, it gets a little cooler, but up there you get lots of snow.
And sometimes you can wake up in the morning and there's a foot or more snow that's fallen overnight. And you have to begin to figure out how to negotiate your way around with this snow. Even just to go out to the mailbox.
The first one to go out the door has to blaze a trail, has to march and trudge through the snow to go and get to the mailbox to retrieve the mail. And then when they come back from the mailbox, they don't take another path. They're walking through where they've already trudged through the snow.
And subsequent times, when they go until the snow is melting away or cleared away, you're gonna walk, if you've got to get someplace, in the path that's already made. In the footprints that have gone before you. Well that's what God is saying here.
We don't have to blaze the trail of new every time. We can walk in the footprints that Abraham has laid for us. Isn't that tremendous? How gracious is God? Look at Genesis chapter, well let's go before we go there quickly, but turn to Acts chapter 7. I want to look with you at Abraham and I want to help you to identify some of these footprints.
He's the father of all of us that believe. We're to walk in his footprints, walk in his steps. And he is the one that first was called, you know, righteous by God.
To walk and to be counted or recognized to him righteousness. In Acts chapter 7, the great man Stephen is standing before the leaders of Israel. They've called him on the carpet and he's going to present to them a thumbnail sketch of the Old Testament.
And he starts with Abraham in verse 2. And he said, men, brethren, and fathers, hearken. The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia. Before he was in, it says Charon, it's really Haran.
And I'll just give you a little reason why. It's because Haran was one of Abraham's brothers. Abraham's father was Terah and then he had this brother Haran, a brother Nahor and Abraham.
And unfortunately Haran or Haran died prematurely. And he had a son named Lot. And so Abraham or Abram at the time and Sarai raised Lot as their own.
Lot was their nephew and they raised him as their own. And then God's going to tell him, in the next verse, verse 3, and he said unto him, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and come into the land which I shall show thee. And we read in the Word, we read in Genesis, we read in Hebrews, other places, that Abraham obeyed.
And he left. He's 70 years old when this happens. He and his wife Sarai have never had children.
Although they've wanted children, but God has promised them that they will have children. And he tells them, you need to take this step. You need to separate from your kindred.
That's a hard thing at 70 years old to just move away from your family. And go to the land I will show you. He didn't tell him where it was.
He just said, I'll show you. And Abraham obeyed. There's a footprint.
Abraham obeyed. He went, not knowing whether he's going to go. And God has started to lay the footprints here.
So he's first called in Haran, and then they get up, they go along the Euphrates River, and they get to a city, which I believe was named after Abraham's brother. We do that here. We have, you know, Washington DC, Lincoln, Nebraska.
Even here, you know, I think this is either named after Cocoa Puffs or Cocoa Krispies. But we name our cities after great people. So here Abraham was, you know, they get to the city and probably named after his brother.
And they stay there for a little while. Go to Genesis, please. Genesis chapter 12.
And we'll pick up Abraham. What the word says here. Abraham 12, verse 1. Now the Lord, what's the next word? Had said.
Past tense. We just saw that Abraham was first called in Ur of the Chaldeans. Stephen was recounting this.
Other places we can see this. But the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land, a land, that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shall be a blessing.
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Now again, I want you to understand, this probably was a difficult thing. At 70 years old, to uproot from where his family was, where he lived all his life, and to separate.
Why is God asking him to separate? You know, to move away from his family. You can see maybe going to a different place. But to separate from his family? Well, I'm not gonna have you turn there, but in Joshua 24, verse 2, it says, Abraham's father.
Now this would have been the man that raised him. This would have been the man that taught him about God, his father, right? Where did he learn? He didn't just learn it because he was hanging around. Somebody had to teach him the word, to teach him to love God, to respect God.
But in Joshua 24, 2, it says, Abraham's father was an idolater, served other gods. So God needed him to separate from that. He needed him to get away from that.
And Abraham obeyed. Now, he couldn't stop his father and his brothers from following him. They followed him when he left Ur of the Chaldees and went up to Haran.
And they stayed there for a number of years. Abraham was 70 when he was called in Ur of the Chaldees, stayed there for five years until his father died. And then Abraham continued to move.
And it says here that God said he would be blessed. And the sevenfold promise of all this that would come to Abraham. So verse 4, Genesis 12, 4. So Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken of him.
Walking in Abraham’s Footsteps
And Lot went with him. And Abram was 75 years old when he departed, not from Ur of the Chaldees, but from Haran. So he's 75.
And again, this is a great footprint, if we can call them footprints in the word that we're looking at, that he was willing to do what God asked, no matter what. He left his family. And here it says Lot, who they had raised as his own son, his brother's son, his nephew, Lot went with him.
And they traveled over to the place that God was going to show him. Verse 5, And Abram and Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran. And they went forth to go into the land of Canaan.
And into the land of Canaan they came. So here they're moving along. And they're going to get to where God wants them to get to.
And let's pick it up, Romans, verse 9. And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. So I wanted to mention something to you here.
It says in verse 1, it says the Lord had said unto Abram. So that was number one, the first time God had talked to him. Number one means commitment.
It means God first, right? So number one, Abraham was told by God some instructions. Leave your kindred and go to where I'm going to show you. And so he goes, as God told him.
He's committed. He's respecting God's Word. And then here, in verse 7, it says, and the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said unto thy seed will I give this land.
And there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. Here's the second time that God's spoken to him. First time is he gave him some instructions.
The second time is he's following these instructions, and God said this is the place. Because Abraham was going to keep traveling west until he got to where God told him. And so he gets there, and God says, this is the place.
This is where I wanted you to come. Verse 8, and he moved from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. And there built an altar unto the Lord, and the Lord called, built an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.
And here's the next verse, and Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south. And there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was grievous in the land. Now this is an interesting thing, because Abram's just got to the place, God says this is it.
They've been traveling quite a distance. There's hundreds of miles from Ur of the Chaldees to where they've just arrived. God says this is it, this is the place, and then we read the next verse, he's leaving.
Abraham didn't always do everything exactly right. He makes a mistake here. He's going further south.
Now it seems logical by the five senses, because there's a famine. Everyone in that part of the world would travel down to the fertile Nile River, the longest river in the world. The fertile valley where they could get sustenance, where they could get food.
And this is the influence of man. Sometimes we can be influenced by those around us, to think that we need to go in a certain direction. We need to move in a certain way.
We need to do what they're doing. Otherwise, maybe our needs not going to get met. But that's not the way it is.
God is so much bigger. Keep a finger here, and go to Genesis 26. Genesis 26.
By the way, these chapters from 12 to 26, this is a big portion of Genesis. It's all about Abraham. And here in Genesis 26, verse 1, and there was a famine in the land beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham.
And Isaac, Abraham's son Isaac, went unto Abimelech, king of the Philistines, unto Gerar. And the Lord appeared unto him, Isaac, and said, Go not down into Egypt. Dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of.
Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee. For unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I swear unto Abraham thy father. And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give thy seed all these countries, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
Now Abraham had taught his son how to live and respect God, and to walk with God, and he told them, don't ever go down to Egypt. Because God tells them, don't ever go down to Egypt. And here God is reminding Isaac, because there's a famine, a similar opportunity, don't go down to Egypt.
So what do you do if there's a famine, and you know, nothing's growing, there's apparently no rain, how are you supposed to take care of things? Look at verse 12. Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year, how much? A hundredfold. That's maximum increase.
See God's not limited by what the man would discern as good, a good growing season, or not a good growing season, a hundredfold increase. And the Lord blessed him. Go back to Genesis 12.
That's another footprint, is that we just, we don't have to be so influenced by the world around us, and think that God won't supply our need. God will take care of you, He'll take care of me. That's what He's all about.
He loves us. My God, did you hear the man of stations? My God, God is, His love is so vast, vaster than the universe. He will prosper us, that's His heart's desire.
We just need to trust Him. That's, that's what God wants. Trust Him.
You'll recognize that you are righteous in His eyes. Look at Genesis 13. Now just to recount a little bit what happened here in Genesis 12, He goes down to Egypt, Abraham and Sarai, and Abraham's got some fear.
He tells Sarai, don't tell them that you're my wife, because they'll kill me. Now Abraham's 75 years old, his wife is 65 years old, but she, they have to be some good-looking people, because he's concerned they're gonna take this woman and, and just out me. You know, he tells them, tell me you're my sister.
It's not a lie, Abraham and Sarai had the same father, but different mothers. But it's a fear-based decision. See, fear has gotten in.
This famine's here, you know, I know God told us to be up there, but this famine's here, and, and, you know, I don't want to take, take you from me and kill me. You know, sometimes we can get caught into these situations, but we're learning, we're going to learn how we don't have to be caught, how we can rise above whatever the challenges are that come toward us. So in chapter 13, and Abram was, his wife was returned to him, and the Pharaoh said, why did you not tell me that she was your wife? And he actually gives him a lot of sustenance.
Verse 1 of chapter 13, and Abram went up out of Egypt, excuse me, he went up out of Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had, and lot with him into this, into the south. And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. And he went on his journey from the south, even unto Bethel, catch this, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Ai.
If you find yourself out of fellowship, go back to where you were in fellowship when you last remember. Now it doesn't mean you have to go find, I know I was standing over here in public when I was in fellowship. I better go back there.
No, it's, we go back there in our mind. When was I last tracking with God? And what a great footprint, right? He just goes back, he's not just going back indiscriminately. God told me to stay here.
I got distracted, I went down here to Egypt, almost lost my wife. We're back here, okay, we're gonna start again. What a great thing we're supposed to do, right? We just, this is how we walk as those that are righteous.
Returning to God After Detours
Well, it goes on to say unto the place of the altar which he had made there for first, and there Abram called on the name of the Lord. And it says, verse 5, and Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents, and the land was not able to bear them that they might dwell together, for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. And there was a strife between the herdsmen of Abram's cattle and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle.
And so jump down to verse 8, and Abram said unto Lot, let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and betwixt my herdsmen and thy herdsmen, for we be brethren. Is it not the whole land before us? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. This is a very important statement, because here Abraham is doing all that God told him to do.
He's gone to the land that God told him to go to, or God showed him when he got there. But right now he's completing what God told him to do, to separate from his kindred. Look at what it says in verse 13, oh no, verse 14.
And the Lord said unto Abram, this is the third time that God talks to him. Three is the number for completeness. Abraham just completed what God told him to do, because it says the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him.
Isn't that great? God's talking to him again, he's done everything that I told you to do. Separate from your family, from your kindred, go to the place I'm going to show you. That's another great footprint that we can follow, is we can't just do half the word and rationalize our way out of the rest of it.
We're to do all the word. We're not to hold part of it because of whatever rationale we have. We hear from God and we do the word and that's when we get blessed.
And that's when Abraham gets blessed here. It says the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward, eastward and westward, for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. Now this is, that phrase is going to come up a lot.
God calls those things that be not as though they were. Unto thy seed forever, and I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. And walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee.
Then Abram removed his tent and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord. That's in the same area. He's not left the area.
So this is a big deal is that we just do everything God says and that's how we get blessed by God. That's how we're able to tap into all the abundance. We don't rationalize our way because of some fear or what other people are doing.
We just do what God calls us to do. Now chapter 14, I'm not going to go into this chapter, but here Lot is separated and there's an attack that comes. Four kings against five kings and they attack the land that Lot has chosen to live in.
And Lot is taken captive. The four kings won the battle and they travel. It's about a hundred miles north that they go and one of Abraham's servants tells him that his nephew Lot was taken captive.
And Abram takes his trained men, these men that are with him, that he has gained some of them that he brought from Haran, and they go, with God's blessing obviously, and they go and they pursue and they win back all that was lost in this battle. All the booty that these four kings had taken, including Lot, and they bring them back home. And see, God has taken care of them.
So he's just gone. This battle had taken place, four kings, five kings, and here he's gone and taken all the spoil. You might be a little concerned after you've stolen that from, you know, you don't want to take a bone from a dog.
How about taking the booty from these four kingdoms that they've taken to be their own? But he takes that, comes back, runs into Melchizedek, who's the king of Salem, it's the king of Jerusalem, and he gives him tithes. You know, he's blessed for this man that stands for God to give him, you know, 10%. This first place tithe comes up.
But he's just acknowledging that God's his sufficiency. God's the one that takes care of him. And then chapter 15 opens up with the fourth time that God talks to him.
It says, And after these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram. This first time fear not has come up. Well, what could he be afraid of? Maybe that these four kingdoms are going to come back down to him.
But he doesn't have to worry about that, because God has promised he'll take care of him. He's walking with the father. And so God assures him, don't worry, fear not.
I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And now this is another great footprint here, because Abraham's on talking terms with God. And he's going to just open his heart to God and say, what about the child you promised me? He says in verse two, And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of mine house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed.
And lo, one born in my house is mine heir. We just heard some great things about that from Reverend Nup. And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
And he brought him forth abroad and said, Look now toward heaven and tell the stars if thou be able to number them. And he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. This phrase is amazing.
This phrase continues to come up. So shall thy seed be. And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness.
So God, in the fourth instance here, the number of the world. He's saying you don't be afraid of the world. Fear not comes up when the fourth time God talks to them.
You don't have to be afraid of what's coming at you from the world, because God is our shield. He's our buckler. He'll take care of us.
And then you just need to trust that the promise I made to you is true. I'm going to keep my word. Well, we can be tempted at times, even when we have these promises, when we get into a situation.
You know, he's now 85 years old. Sarah is 75 years old. You know, it's been a long time.
And so what happens in the next chapter, 16, verse 1, Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bare him no children. And she had a handmaiden in Egyptian whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing.
I pray thee, go into my maid. It may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abraham hearkened to the voice of Sarai.
Here's another important footprint. Always take a drink when your mouth is dry. That's my footprint.
Sarai is blaming God. Sarai is blaming God. The Lord hath restrained me.
And so the world, the world has, in their laws, said it's okay for you to go into the wife's handmaiden and have a child by her. It'll be your child. That's the world standard.
That's not God's standard. But Abram hearkens unto her. And so they go and they have a child.
They have this child. His name is Ishmael. Go to the last or second last verse in this chapter, verse 15, And Hagar bare Abram a son.
And Abram called his son's name, which Hagar bare Ishmael. And Abram was fourscore and six years old when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram. This is a big mistake.
We're still dealing with this mistake today, 4,000 years later. This wasn't God's solution. See, when we try to, at the close of Reverend Nup's teaching, he read Philippians 3.9, which said not having mine own righteousness.
God’s Promise and Abraham’s Growth
When we try to just bring the Word of God to pass by our own ability, it's not going to work. That's not how it's done. We've got to trust God.
Sometimes we can get impatient, but God, don't you realize this? I'm 85. Sarah's 75 years old. Sarah's, from the time we're introduced to her in chapter 11 of Genesis, she's barren.
It says that she, it ceased to be with her after the manner of women. It says it in different ways, that she's never had children and she thinks she's never going to have children, except that God's promised otherwise. Now, we're at the fourth time that God talks to him.
Read the next verse, Genesis 17, verse 1. And when Abram was 90 years old and nine. So the verse before said he was 86, now he's 99. 13 years, not a word's written about it.
But we go to Hebrews 11. I'm not going to have you turn there. It says, as it's listing these great believers in Hebrews 11, that these all died, not having received the promises.
But they, they held on to these promises. They saw the promises of God. It says that they might have had opportunity to have returned to their homeland, but they trusted that God would take care of them.
You don't have to turn there, but I'll read it to you. I just kind of hashed it to pieces. Hebrews 11, verse 13.
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly if they had been mindful of that country from once they came out, or the Chaldeans, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
But now they desire a better country, that is in heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God. In the Amplified Bible it says God's not ashamed to take these men as his surname. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.
Whose God do you serve? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. That's how he's identified himself. So they could have had opportunity to return, but they didn't.
So back in Genesis 17, he's 99 years old, and he's not returned. He stayed there. He's continued to stay where God told him to be, until the next thing happens.
And here's the next thing. Chapter 17, verse 1. When Abram was 90 years old and nine, the Lord appeared to him. This is the fifth time.
Five is the number for grace. Appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am the Almighty God. El Shaddai.
First occurrence of that word, that title for God, in the word. The God who bountifully supplies. Walk before me and be thou perfect.
It's in the tense of continue to be thou perfect. To continue to be thou mature. Obviously he's not perfect.
He's made mistakes, but to have that mature walk where he's respecting God. Continue to walk the way you've been walking. God understands our souls, understands our frame, that we're going to make mistakes.
We're going to not do everything perfectly, but that's not what he looks at. He says continue to be thou perfect. Verse 2. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and I will multiply thee exceedingly.
And Abram fell on his face. And God talked with him saying, as for me behold my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name anymore be called Abram, but thy name shall be called Abraham.
For a father of many nations have I made thee. God changes his name from Abram to Abraham. He adds the fifth letter in the Hebrew alphabet to his name.
Five is the number for grace. Look at verse 15. And God said unto Abram, as for Sarai thy wife thou shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.
The same fifth letter. The letter for grace. The fifth letter in the Hebrew alphabet is added to Sarah's name.
This is the fifth time God's talking to him. Look what it says. Verse 6. And I'll make thee exceeding fruitful, and will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee. I'm gonna read these next couple of verses. You count how many times you hear the phrase thy seed after thee come up.
Verse 7 I'll read again. I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, and their generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I'll give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession.
And I will be their God. And God said unto Abraham, thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou and thy seed after thee, in their generation. This is my covenant which he shall keep between me and you, and thy seed after thee, every man child among you shall be circumcised.
How many times? Grace upon grace upon grace is associated with this fifth time that God's talking to him. And he's establishing that you and Sarah are going to have a son. You and Sarah, my promises are true.
I promised you children, as many as the stars in the sky, as many as the dust on the earth, you're going to be blessed. And then he tells him this token of this promise coming to pass will be the circumcision. And the circumcision represents the works of man.
Abraham in Romans 4 says he considered his own body now dead when he was about 100 years old. He's 99. And the deadness of Sarah's womb.
But that didn't stop him, right? It says he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief. God tells him this, and he tells him to circumcise himself and all of his children, all of his household, because that circumcision represents the dead works of man. To put it bluntly, you may as well cut off your penis, the tip of your penis, and throw it away for as much good as it's going to do you.
You can't bring the promise of God to pass by your own ability, but by my grace. That was what it's supposed to be. See, God's grace is what's going to handle this.
And they're going to have this son. You know, years later, Joshua's going to be on the brink of going into the promised land. In Joshua chapter 5, they're right on the, they can see Jericho.
And Joshua has all the men in Israel circumcised, which is a dangerous thing to do when you're in the sight of your enemy, because you're incapacitated for a number of days. But the purpose they did that was because, how are they going to go take all this land back that God had originally given to Abraham? It wasn't going to be by their own ability, but by God's grace. And then, we read shortly after that, the walls of Jericho fell down.
Not by their ability, but by God's grace. That was the teaching that was to go along with circumcision. By the time they got to the first century, they didn't have the teaching anymore.
So, God says, circumcision doesn't avail anything. Neither does uncircumcision. You've missed the point.
It's not just the act. It's not your works that make you righteous before God. It's His grace.
Righteousness, Sonship, and Eternal Rewards
That's what we're to recognize. And so, let's go to Romans. Back to Romans chapter 4. In fact, when you get there, I want you to see something here.
It says in Romans chapter 4, verse 17, as it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations. Before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth, or makes alive, the dead, and calls those things which be not as though they were. You know, Abraham was right to consider his own body now dead.
He knew physically he wasn't functioning any longer in that capacity. And neither was Sarah. But God makes alive those things that be dead.
Verse 18, who against hope, believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. Do you recognize that phrase? See, that's the phrase. God's not afraid to say what's going to happen before it happens, because He knows.
We learned He knows the end from the beginning. Verse 19, and being not weak in believing, he considered not his own body now dead. He did consider his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old.
Neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He recognized that they were both not functioning, but that didn't limit him. Because it says, he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in believing, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what he, God, had promised, he was able also to perform.
And therefore, it was imputed to him for what? Righteousness. See, God recognized who Abraham was, and how he lived, and how he was so willing to understand and embrace the words and the promises that God had made. Now keep your finger here, and I'm just going to show you one other quick verse in Hebrews.
Hebrews 11. This, you know, we read at the beginning, or I share with you at the beginning, that God casts our sins as far as the east is from the west. He remembers them no more, correct? Here in Hebrews chapter 11, it's listing all these great men and women that believe God, and among them is Abraham.
Look what it says in verse 17. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. Now this is, again, almost a big mistake.
Here you got the promisee, and he's ready to just give him as a sacrifice to God. But God's going to help. God recognizes Abraham's heart.
Abraham's heart. By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises, offered up his only begotten son. Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac.
But here it says his only begotten son. Because God doesn't look at the mistakes. God doesn't look at our sins.
He doesn't even count that. We make mistakes. They can be big mistakes.
We're still dealing with this mistake. But God doesn't look at it that way. He sees his only begotten son, that he offered up.
Amazing. That's God's perspective. That's how God sees us.
We're to see ourselves that way. We can walk in righteousness. We don't have to look at the mistakes we've made.
We just move on. We wake up each morning and say, I'm a son of God with all power. I'm righteous.
I'm redeemed. I'm sanctified. I'm justified.
I can walk with God. And as I walk with God, I will reconcile men and women back to Him. Let's close Romans 4. He staggered not, verse 20, staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in believing, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform, and therefore was imputed to him for righteousness.
Verse 23. We usually stop at verse 22. But verse 23 is outstanding.
Now, it was not written for his sake alone. Oh my God. Abraham, none of this was written when Abraham was living.
None of the word was written. Abraham lived before Moses received the Ten Commandments. But this was not written for his sake alone.
That must mean that part of the reason this was written was for Abraham's sake. At the resurrection of the just, you got to picture this. God must be going to take Abraham and say, come here, son.
Let me tell you what I think of you, what I thought of you. I've held you up throughout all time and told people to look at this man and follow him, to walk in his steps. I've held you up and said, and put you in 26 books of the Bible and said, this is the way to walk.
This is the man that believed that he was righteous in my eyes. This is how you're to walk. I said that you staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.
Maybe if Abraham were to assess his own life, he wouldn't say that. But see, this is God's perspective. I said that you were fully persuaded.
I called you in Galatians, faithful Abraham. I've pointed to people to walk in your steps. The only other person we're told to walk in the steps of is Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ would have followed in the steps of Abraham and brought this far. He brought the rest of the way all the way to God. How does God look at you? What does God think of when he looks at you? What's going to happen at the gathering together when he takes you as his sons? They read the sermon.
He takes you as his sons and daughters and says, let me show you the impact of your life and gives you all the highlights of men and women that you've got to impact. And maybe you don't even realize you spoke to somebody. I was out here in the back as the songs were playing, as Rick was just playing his songs before they started.
And one of the workers was walking by, dancing to Rick's songs. I mean, it's amazing. We don't even understand how big our lives are, but we need to see our lives as righteous before God.
Don't look at yourself any different than that. Decide that you're never going to condemn yourself again. And what was that phrase that Reverend McNally said? When we condemn ourselves, we're trying to overrule God.
You know, that's not the way it is. We are justified, redeemed, sanctified, righteous, and we have the Ministry of Reconciliation. Thank you.
Key Takeaways
- God calls believers His sons and sees them through the accomplished work of Jesus Christ.
- Righteousness is reckoned through believing rather than earned through human works.
- Abraham provides a pattern of obeying God, trusting His promise, and continuing to grow.
- A detour or mistake does not prevent a believer from returning to God and continuing forward.
- Seeing oneself as God sees the believer supports confident, faithful living and service.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does righteousness mean in this Sonship Conference teaching?
Righteousness is presented as the believer’s God-given standing through believing, allowing the believer to see himself or herself as God does rather than carrying shame over past sins and mistakes.
Why is Abraham used as an example of righteousness?
Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. His life also provides practical footsteps of obedience, trust, correction, growth, and persistence.
Can a believer return after making a mistake or taking a detour?
Yes. The teaching uses Abraham’s life to show that a believer can return to God, resume walking in faith, and continue growing in the promise of God.
Scripture References
1 John 3:1; Psalm 103:8-12; Isaiah 43:25; Romans 3:23-25; Romans 4:1-12; Acts 7:2-3; Genesis 12; Genesis 15–17
This text was prepared from the source transcript. Please verify scripture references against your own Bible.
