East Cooper Baptist Church June 23, 2013
Genesis 12:1-4a Jim McVicar
The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show 2 you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” 4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him;
Genesis 12:1-4a. Note Genesis 12:1, and 4a: “The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” “So Abram left as the Lord told him…”
Dr. James Packer: “What were we made for? To know God. What aim should we have in life? To know God. What is the eternal life that Jesus gives? To know God. What is the best thing in life? To know God. What in humans gives God most pleasure? Knowledge of himself.” Did God recognize a hunger for meaning in Abram (Abraham)’s inner life? Was he dissatisfied, even discouraged by his culture, disturbed by the evils of his society and the shallowness of their religion? Similar to Paul in Acts 17:16-34: Athens: Greatly disturbed by their idols, even an alter inscribed To An Unknown God.
Dr. John Piper: “The great tragedy of the universe is that while human beings were made to glorify God, we have all fallen short of this purpose and Rom. 1:23 “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man”— especially the one in the mirror. This is the essence of what we call sin.”
Romans 1:22 ‘Although they claim to be wise, they became fools.’
Psalm 14:1 ‘The fool has said in his heart there is no God.’
Psalm 46:10 ‘Be still and know I am God.’
Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones: “We must come back to the soul and to God who made it. We were made for Him, we are meant for Him, we have a correspondence with Him, and we will never come to rest until, like that needle on the compass, we strike that northern point, and there we come to rest - nowhere else.”
1. Called to a Life Changing Faith a. Rom 5:1, ‘Justified through Faith’. Rom 1:17, ‘The righteous will live by faith.’ b. Heb. 3:7-4:13 “A generation of Israelites in the desert: On the fringe of blessing for 40 years but because of unbelief died in the desert!” c. Heb. 11:6: ‘Without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to Him must believe He exists and rewards those who earnestly seek Him.’
Elisabeth Elliot: “God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience.”
2. Called to a L ife of Obedience Gen. 12:4, “Abram left…” Heb. 11:8, “obeyed and went…”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons.” Matthew 10:38-39, “Anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Romans 12:2 (NLT) “Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.”