[AI translation] We saw last Sunday what it means in practice to walk by faith, to live by faith, to live by faith. We saw how a believer, precisely by faith, solves the serious problems of his life, how he fights his battles. We saw how much love and courage radiates from the believer, and seeing all this, we asked ourselves: do we believe at all? Would it not be good to examine and revise what we call faith? Is it not precisely what we need to be reaffirmed in our faith? Our faith has faded, faded, faded, faded, faded: we need nothing so much as a good, thorough renewal of faith. What is happening here is the axis of this statement: "And he believed the Lord, and was justified in his righteousness." (Genesis 15:6)But why does the Scripture now emphasize this, since Abraham believed in the Lord before?! He believed when he was called out of the Lord's presence in Kashdim. By faith he left his old country, his kinship. By faith he went to seek a new home for himself. By faith he offered Lot election, by faith he came to the aid of his troubled brother, by faith he defeated the enemy kings and their troops. So he had long been a man of faith, why should it now be emphasized, "And he believed the Lord, and was justified by him"? (Genesis 15:6) Yes, Abraham had faith before, but now it is that he was so much stronger in his faith, so much more established, so completely renewed, that the Scriptures say, "On this day the Lord made a covenant with Abram." (Genesis 15:18a) So we are not talking here about the first coming to faith, but about the deepening and strengthening of an already believing man in the way of faith, the renewal of the faith relationship, the covenant with the Lord. So it is precisely what we need so much. So let's look at some of the important moments of strengthening in faith in the story.
It is not irrelevant when this happens to Abraham! Here is what we read, "After these things came the word of the Lord to Abram." This statement, or definition, expresses not simply a temporal succession of things and events, but a causal relationship, an interconnection of cause and effect. Events do not follow one after the other in a contingent way, but grow out of one another, each event determining the one that follows it and each being the consequence of the one before it. So the glorious and great event in which Abraham is renewed in his covenant with the Lord is rooted in the events that precede it, which we spoke of a week ago today, and which may be summed up as follows: in Abraham's obedience in faith. It is after these things, that is, after the battle for Lot, after the rejection of the gift of the king of Sodom, after the encounter with Melchizedek, after the faithful obedience to the will of the Lord, that a new covenant is made between Abraham and God. That is to say, the strengthening of faith comes after and as a consequence of the increased turning of the believing soul towards God, after obedient dealing with God's will. With a soul that is constantly occupied with the thousand troubles of everyday life, constantly wondering what to eat, what to drink and what to wear, or with a heart full of impure desires and impure thoughts, it is impossible to prepare and wait for spiritual strengthening! Thus says the Word of God, "...whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap destruction; and he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life." (Gal 6:7-8)
What are you reaping today? Is it not enough that you have come to worship, that the Lord's table is set, but much depends on how you have prepared for it? The blessing of this day, that is, the blessing for eternity, depends to a great extent on how you spent yesterday, and indeed the whole of last week: How did you want to turn away from the tempter, how did you want to walk according to God's will, how did you seek to be with Him, to receive His gifts, His blessings? Did you sow to the flesh or to the spirit? There can be no spiritual harvest after sowing to the flesh! "After these things," we read in the story of Abraham. After what things are you here now? A week ago you received an invitation to the Lord's hospitality, to fellowship with Him, can you now expect to be strengthened in your faith, renewed after a week such as you are here after? Shouldn't we be more seriously preparing for some of the highlights of the spiritual life, of communion with God, such as a church service, let alone communion? Surely our own spiritual unpreparedness is one of the obstacles to God's renewing us in our faith. It is not by chance that this chapter of Abraham's new covenant with God begins like this: "After these things..." - that is, in an internal, organic connection with what has gone before, "...the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision." (Genesis 15:1a)
What is a vision? Not a dream-vision, not a trance-like, ecstatic state, not an unreal imagination, but a state of man - of the believer - in which his soul is directly opened and made receptive to a communication, a revelation from a higher world. That is, a kind of inner seeing and hearing of things that cannot be perceived with bodily eyes and ears alone. Vision is an extraordinary experience of faith which comes about by the soul becoming so immersed in the mysteries of God, in the experience of inner communion with God, that the natural world is almost lost to it, and it enters into another, superhuman world by the Spirit of God. A vision is a real, spiritual encounter with the Lord in which the soul hears the word of God directly, where it no longer speculates about the Lord but stands before Him, where it is no longer spoken to it about Jesus by others but is addressed by Jesus Himself, where it is not of Him that the soul hears a message but from Him personally; when it is in whatever state: however broken, repentant, exhausted, powerless, a person spiritually reaches the source when he consciously experiences the reality of the presence of the living Jesus Christ. Do we know such a vision? Do we claim this vision, this spiritual experience, for example, when we pray in quiet solitude at home, when we gather here in the church, when we come out here to the Lord's Table?
We are often tormented by the thought that in our worship services we only sing "God is here among us", but we do not really experience it because we dare not believe in its poignant reality. Our worship has become intellectualised, our faith has become predominantly an intellectual activity, we talk so much about Jesus that we forget to meet Him. That is why a communion does not mean for us a strengthening in faith, a spiritual renewal, that is why we do not take any strength from it, because we do not come from the source, but only from a beautiful, moving ceremony! The power is not in the ceremony, but in Christ, it is not this or that spiritual practice that renews us in the faith, nor is it another believer, or even the preaching pastor, but only Jesus Christ himself! Until this "vision" becomes reality for you, your faith will always be miserable, stumbling, stumbling, until it becomes real to you, because it can only be strengthened in the personal presence of the Lord Jesus!
What is happening now in this "vision"? The Lord says to Abraham: "Fear not, Abram, I am your shepherd." (Genesis 15:1b) It is as if he were saying: "Look not to thyself, but to me. You can be as powerless, tired, weary, timid as you are - faith is precisely that you can lean on me. Your strength is not in yourself, nor in your faith, but in me! All power in heaven and earth has been given to me, not to you! Use me, put me on you as a garment, hold me before you as a shield. A shield is like a shield that covers the warrior, protects him from attack, wards off danger, hides him, keeps him safe. The Jesus Christ who paid the debt of our sins with his blood on the cross; the Jesus Christ who we know has transcended every principality, power, lordship and name that exists in the visible and invisible universe, in the world of men, angels and demons - that Jesus says: I am your shield, I cover you, I cover you, I hide you! And the one who is covered by this Jesus, like a shield, is covered, protected to the very root of his heart, to the very place where thoughts are born, where the world of fantasy lives, where emotions and passions stir! This shield protects against all enemies, internal and external! Here is how it strengthens you to offer yourself as a shield, without even having to ask! It is not necessary to ask, Lord, to be my shield, but simply to accept it, to believe that it is as it says and to live with it, to use it, to take it with us into daily life.
And now comes a very precious moment of strengthening in faith: after God has offered himself as a shield to Abraham and let him know that a great future awaits him, Abraham bursts out in long-repressed bitterness: '...Lord God, what will you give me, though I walk without seed, and the one on whom my house is in Damascus is Eliezer? And Abram said, Behold, thou hast not given me seed, and behold, the servant of my house shall be my heir. (Genesis 15:2-3) Abraham is almost complaining, and how good it is that this is finally coming out of him! Encouraged by God's gracious presence, this too is coming out of him. God's gracious presence encourages the believer to pour out his heart to the Lord and to dare to speak openly what has been a heavy burden and an unresolvable issue. There are often questions in the believer's soul with which he struggles. Why he cannot find an answer to it, or even reconcile it with the light he has received from the Lord. What he sees as contrary to God's grace, love and promises, and therefore does not dare to reveal even to God: what obscures a little before him the face of God as his father. Well, in such a vision, in such an intimate standing before God, this can also be revealed, the heart can also pour out this before the Lord, it can complain of its pain, as if this is all God is waiting for. It is for man to stand before Him in the full awareness of his own inner need, so that he can then answer it, shed light on his problems, shed light on the question. And the more openly and firmly man names his need before God, the more firmly and unmistakably the Lord will answer him, "This shall not be thine heir: but he that cometh out of thy loins shall be thine heir." (Genesis 15:4)
He answers you, too, and makes your case clear in such an intimate, one-to-one encounter. This, then, is part of the strengthening of faith: to discuss and clarify all doubts, disputes, disputable matters, burdens, in the presence of the Lord, with the Lord himself. Let us believe that we too can enjoy this freedom!
And then "...he took him out, and said unto him, Look up to heaven, and count the stars, if thou canst count them; - and said unto him, Thus shall thy seed be." (verse 5) What a fatherly love! Look up to heaven, and count the stars! When a man sees a myriad of stars in the sky before him, he does not count them long, but becomes silent and begins to worship Almighty God! Don't you understand something? Is it a very heavy task? Are you in pain? Look up into the sky and count the stars, and you will glimpse something of the glory and power of the God who created heaven and earth, who is your Father in Christ, who loves you, who says to you, "Fear not, ... I am your shield" (Genesis 15:1).
See, he tells you to count the stars because he wants to lift your faith out of the narrow horizon of earthly possibilities, out of its bonds of cause and effect, and into his world where everything is directly according to God's will. Is something impossible? Well, dare to believe the impossible. Can something be solved only by a miracle? Dare to believe that God can work a miracle. Lift up your eyes and count the stars! "And he believed in the Lord, and it was imputed to him for righteousness" (Genesis 15:6) The emphasis here is not on Abraham believing, but on believing in the Lord! This is the least and the most a man can do for the Lord, to believe in Him, to believe in Him. That's all he expects from you, but that's all he expects! You too can and must believe in Him!
Come, please come together:
Jesus, Saviour of the world, Giver of my salvation,
Son of God crucified, the price of my sin hanging on a tree:
Jesus, let me return to you, die with you, live with you.
I offer myself to you: Take my heart in thy bosom;
O open, red fountain, for I long for thee!
Jesus, let me return to you, To die with you, to live with you.
(Canto 342, verses 1 and 6)
Amen
Date: 31 August 1952.