Man, the title of my sermon this morning is Father Abraham.
Father Abraham.
Now, a video was sent to me a few days ago by one of my pastor friends, and it showed
a Baptist pastor saying, you know, when it comes to this conflict over there between
Israel and the Palestinians, where do we as Christians stand?
And this is what he said, we stand with Father Abraham.
We stand with Father Abraham.
And he said, if you're a born-again, saved Christian, we stand with Father Abraham.
And he said, if anyone comes to you and claims to be a Christian and is anti-Jew, they're
either lying about being saved or they just don't know the Bible at all.
Now, this is an extremely ironic statement, because equating the Christ-rejecting nation
of Israel with Father Abraham kind of shows that you don't know the Bible at all.
But here's the thing about that, I'm not preaching about that conflict this morning.
I have no interest in that conflict.
I do not support Muslims or Jews.
I support neither.
I support Christ and God's people, which are Christians.
And I am equally against both Muslims and Jews, but I love them both and want them both
to be saved.
I want Jews to be saved, I want Muslims to be saved, and until then, they are doomed
and damned and there's not one that's better than the other.
There's no difference.
They're going to the same hell, whether they're Jews or Muslims, because they need Jesus Christ
in order to be saved.
I would think that we all, as Evangelical Christians, would be able to agree on that.
But I thought about this, and here's what I'm actually going to preach on this morning.
I thought about the fact that often pastors and churches will tend to cherry-pick Bible
verses that tend to support what they want to preach and then stay away from the verses
that would tend to contradict what they're saying.
And so I could literally predict exactly what this guy is using in his sermon as a Bible
text because there are so few texts that he would be able to twist to say such a thing
that I could already tell you where he's going to turn because that's the tendency to cherry-pick.
But you know, both sides can cherry-pick.
Everybody can tend to cherry-pick verses that support their point of view.
And so what we're going to do now is instead of cherry-picking Bible verses, we're going
to start in Matthew chapter 1, we're going to start at the beginning of the New Testament,
and we are going to look at every single verse, every single passage that mentions Abraham.
Let's find out what's going on with Father Abraham.
Let's see who doesn't know the Bible at all.
Let's see what the Bible says about Father Abraham.
Now I'm not going to be able to do this all in one sermon, so this is probably going to
spill over into some future sermons, but bear with me if you say, well, I already know this.
Well, there's going to be a lot to learn because we're going to look at such a variety of passages
and some passages that I have rarely preached just because, you know, it's hard to get to
everything preaching such a big book as the Bible.
So I think there's going to be a lot to learn for everyone.
Some of it's going to be familiar, but some of it might be less familiar.
And so instead of just cherry picking, why don't we look at every single verse that mentions
Abraham because I promise you one thing, that people who are not saved are not blessed by
God and they're going straight to hell when they die and saying that they have Abraham
to their father is meaningless.
And supporting some political fight, some warfare in the Middle East between two sets
of unbelievers is not standing with Father Abraham.
But you be the judge because we're going to look at literally every verse.
There are 70, 70 Bible verses in the New Testament that mention Abraham by name.
Those are the passages that we're going to look at.
We're going to get as far as we can this morning.
And so don't panic because we're not going to do the whole thing this morning.
So you'll, you'll be able to get your lunch or whatever you're worried about.
All right.
Matthew chapter one.
Well, you know what?
It doesn't really take long for us to get to Abraham in the New Testament because he's
literally in the first verse.
All right.
Matthew one, one is everybody there?
It's going to be easy to navigate because we're going to move in chronological order.
You know, just not chronological, but you know what I mean?
Matthew chapter one verse one, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of
David, the son of Abraham, Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob and Jacob begat Judas
and his brother.
Okay.
Nothing super interesting there for this topic, but we're not going to leave any stone unturned.
Are we?
Go to verse 17.
So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations and from David until the
carrying away to Babylon are 14 generations and from the carrying away into Babylon unto
Christ are 14 generations.
Now flip over you would to Matthew chapter three because here's where the rubber is really
going to meet the road here in Matthew chapter three.
But while you're turning there, I will mention to you the significance of Abraham being mentioned
in Matthew chapter one because it is significant that it says that Jesus Christ is the son
of David and the son of Abraham.
There are lots of other people that could have been mentioned, right?
There are all kinds of, you know, Jacob could be mentioned, Isaac could be mentioned, King
Solomon could be met.
You know, you could go down the list and, and think about all the different people that
could be mentioned, but it's just Abraham and David.
And the point here is that the book of Matthew is portraying Jesus Christ as the king of
the Jews.
That's a theme throughout the book of Matthew.
He's the king of Israel.
And so that makes sense that David is the reference to the kingship because the royal
lineage is the house of David, right?
That's the monarchy, the Davidic monarchy.
And then Abraham picturing the fact that Christ came of Israel according to the flesh.
And Abraham of course represents that.
But now let's get to Matthew chapter three and get to something very significant for
this subject.
It says in Matthew chapter three verse seven, but when he saw many of the Pharisees and
Sadducees come to his baptism.
Now who, who is this?
This is John the Baptist.
John the Baptist is baptizing people in the wilderness and he sees many of the Pharisees
and Sadducees come to his baptism.
What are Pharisees and Sadducees?
They are unsaved Jews.
They are Jews who are not saved, right?
They do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
They're not going to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
They're the ones who reject him and crucify him and want nothing to do with them and they're
false prophets.
They're false teachers.
And the thing about that is that today's Judaism, rabbinical Judaism, is the religion of the
Pharisees.
The Sadducee sect pretty much went away, but today's rabbinical Judaism, if you ask them,
they'll tell you, yeah, we're continuing the tradition of the Pharisees.
And in fact, the Talmud, which is the holy book of orthodox Jews, it has a lot of teachings
and things from the Pharisees.
Those are their spiritual ancestors.
That's what they would tell you.
So John the Baptist says to the Pharisees and Sadducees, oh generation of vipers, who
has warned you to flee from the wrath to come, bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance
And think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father.
For I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
And now also the ax is laid onto the root of the trees.
Therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the
fire.
So, so far, we're in Matthew chapter three, we've learned two things about Abraham.
Chapter one taught us that Abraham is the father of Jesus Christ, amen.
Jesus is the son of David, the son of Abraham.
And in chapter three, we learned that Abraham is not the father of the Pharisees and the
Sadducees in a spiritual sense.
Now you say, well, you know, they're physically descended from him.
Okay, I'll give you that.
They are physically the children of Abraham.
They're physically the seed of Abraham in the sense that his DNA was passed on to them
somehow, you know, over the generations because they're physically his descendants.
But what is John the Baptist saying?
John the Baptist says, think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to your father.
Even if their physical ancestor is Abraham, even if they are physically the descendants
of Abraham, John the Baptist is saying, don't even think about that because it doesn't even
matter.
In fact, it matters so little.
God is so unimpressed by that.
He's just as impressed with this rock as he's impressed with you for being a son of Abraham.
He says, look, oh, you think you're so cool to think, oh, I'm a son of Abraham.
Well, you know what?
God's able of these stones to raise up children of Abraham.
It's meaningless.
Being a physical descendant of Abraham is meaningless.
Why?
Because the axe is laid to the root of the trees and the Bible says, every tree which
bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.
And so therefore, the fact that they're physical descendants of Abraham is totally meaningless.
They are getting chopped down and they are getting thrown into hell and don't even think
for one second to think we have Abraham to our father.
But then you have a Baptist preacher saying, Abraham's their father, leave them alone,
bless them, support them.
Whereas right away, we see that, yeah, Abraham is their physical father, but that's totally
meaningless because they're of the devil.
Okay, well, we'll get to that.
We haven't got there yet.
We'll get there though.
It's there.
Spoiler alert.
Go to Matthew chapter 8, Matthew chapter 8.
And look, we're not skipping anything.
What have we learned so far?
Chapter 1, Jesus is the son of Abraham.
Chapter 3, the Pharisees and Sadducees, they really think that they're the sons of Abraham.
And John the Baptist says, take that stupid thought out of your head and get saved right
now because you're going to go straight to hell whether Abraham's your father or not.
And wow, God could raise up of these stones children unto Abraham.
Now folks, don't you think that it is significant that that is literally the first sermon preached
in the New Testament?
Because when you read chapter 1, it's a genealogy and a story.
You read chapter 2, it's a story.
The first preaching in the New Testament, the first words, I mean, think about it.
You're in Matthew 3, the first preaching, the first words out of the first preacher's
mouth are just, think not to say within yourselves we have Abraham to our father.
And then you have people today still not getting that message.
Look at Matthew chapter 8 verse 10.
This is when a man, a foreign man, a non-Jew, a Gentile came to Christ and he's looking
for healing for his servant.
And look what Jesus says to this man.
He says, when Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to them that followed, verily I say
unto you, I have not found so great faith.
No, not in Israel.
And I say unto you that many shall come from the east and west and shall sit down with
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the children of the kingdom
shall be cast out into outer darkness.
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
And Jesus said unto the centurion, go thy way and as thou has believed so it be done
unto thee and his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.
Now what we learn from this passage is that someday when we get to heaven, us Gentiles,
us heathen, what are we going to do?
We are going to walk up and sit down and hang out with father Abraham.
We're going to sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven and catch
up with good old father Abraham, but the children of the kingdom, what kingdom is that?
The kingdom of Israel, the physical kingdom of Israel, the physical nation of Israel,
but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
That's talking about going to hell.
Now here's the thing about this.
It's ironic, isn't it?
It's ironic that the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who are so proud
of being the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they're not going to be with Abraham.
They're going to be cast out into outer darkness and then a bunch of Gentiles are going to
be hanging out with father Abraham.
Why?
Because we read it before the service in Romans 4.
He's the father of all them that believe.
Abraham's the father of all believers.
Let's move on to chapter 22.
Let's get through as much of this as we can.
Matthew chapter 22.
What are we doing?
What, which verses are we turning to?
Is pastor Anderson cherry picking the Bible verses that support his thesis?
Is that what I'm doing?
Am I skipping all the verses that would, that would support what the other side has to say?
Or am I looking up every single verse in the new Testament that contains the word Abraham?
That's what we're doing.
This isn't any kind of sophisticated thing that I did here.
I just went on e-sword and I just typed in the word Abraham.
I got 70 hits.
Let's go.
Here we are.
Matthew 22 verse 32 says this, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God
of Jacob.
God is not the God of the dead but of the living.
Now the, the literal significance of that verse is that it's about the fact that the
Sadducees believed that basically there's no afterlife.
They thought that when you physically die, that's it.
Whereas the Pharisees did believe in a, in an afterlife and a resurrection and so forth.
Now flip over to Mark chapter 12.
We're going to find a parallel passage.
We just read Matthew 22 32 and we're going to see the parallel passage in Mark chapter
12 verse 26.
While you're turning to Mark 12 26, I'm going to start reading it as touching the dead that
they rise.
He's talking to the Sadducees.
Have you not read in the book of Moses how in the bush God spake unto him saying, I am
the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
So again, we get a little context there that this is talking about the fact that the dead
are going to rise one day, that there is an afterlife, there is heaven and hell as opposed
to what the Sadducees believed that, you know, we just live our lives and then we just
die like an animal or a plant and then we're just gone.
Right?
And it says in verse 27, he is not the God of the dead, but of the, but the God of the
living.
You therefore do greatly err.
You guys are totally wrong because God's not the God of the dead, but of the living.
So the primary application here is that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are still alive.
They're not gone.
They're not dead.
They're actually alive because their souls are in heaven and you know, we'll see more
on that when we get to future passages on this.
But the point, because you know, Jesus talks about Abraham rejoiced to see my day and was
glad, you know, how could Abraham see what Jesus is doing because Abraham is alive.
God's not the God of the dead, but of the living.
That's the primary application.
But you know, we can take a secondary application as well and say, you know what?
God is the God of people that are actually saved.
God's not the God of the dead, the unsaved, the damned, the doomed, the spiritually unregenerate,
dead in their trespasses and sins.
God's not the God of the dead.
God's the God of the living.
God is the God of those who are actually saved.
That's why later Jesus will say to the Jews, well, you say that he's your God.
You say he's your God, but here's the thing.
He's not the God of the dead.
He's the God of the living, right?
You have to be saved in order for God to be your God.
You see, people will say that the Jews in Israel who don't believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, that they have the same God as we do.
No, they don't because he's not the God of the dead.
He's not.
Look, the Bible says if you don't have the son, you don't have the father.
No man cometh unto the father, but by me, Jesus said.
And so, no, they don't have the father.
They don't have the same God that we have because God is the God of the living.
Flip over if you would to Luke chapter one, Luke chapter number one.
We'll get into some different material here.
Luke chapter number one.
Now, in Luke chapter number one, these verses might be familiar to you because they are
about John the Baptist's mother, Elizabeth, and the mother of Jesus who is Mary.
And they're both pregnant at the same time, right?
John the Baptist is a little bit older than Jesus, and so both of these women are pregnant
at the same time.
The Bible says in Luke chapter one verse 41, and it came to pass that when Elizabeth, that's
the mother of John the Baptist, heard the salutation of Mary, mother of Jesus, the babe
leaped in her womb, right?
So John the Baptist leaped in his mother's womb just because that belly got in proximity
with that other pregnant belly.
And John the Baptist sensed the presence of Christ right there, and so the babe leaped
in the womb.
And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost, and she spake out with a loud voice and said,
blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my
womb for joy.
And blessed is she that believed, for there shall be a performance of those things which
were told her from the Lord, right?
So Elizabeth is speaking here, and the Holy Ghost is moving upon her, this is the word
of God that she's speaking, and she's talking about how blessed Mary is to be carrying the
Lord Jesus Christ in her womb, right, and to be the mother of Jesus.
What an honor, what a privilege, what a blessing.
And then she's being blessed for believing, because obviously Mary is a believer, right?
God did not choose an unbeliever to be the mother, physically speaking, of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Obviously she's a woman who believes, she's saved.
So here's Mary's response in verse 46, and Mary said, my soul doth magnify the Lord,
and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
Now one thing I want to point out here is that God is Mary's Savior, so this teaching
that Mary never sinned is a bogus teaching.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
There's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sineth not.
The only person who is without sin that ever lived is the Lord Jesus Christ, because he's
God in the flesh.
Every human being has sinned.
Mary is blessed among women, but she's among women, she's just a woman, she's a person.
She's a godly woman, she's a saved woman.
She was chosen for a very honorable job of giving birth to and raising the Lord Jesus
Christ.
I mean, what a privilege.
But she should not be worshiped or deified.
In fact, she's mentioned very seldom in the New Testament for how much of a big deal some
people make about her.
And when people did try to venerate her, Jesus actually corrected them in the New Testament.
That's a whole other subject though, so I don't want to get off on that tangent.
But notice that she's calling God her Savior.
Why?
What does it mean for Jesus to be the Savior?
The Bible says Jesus will save his people from their sins.
And so Mary is saved from her sins by believing in Jesus just like everybody else.
And so she says, my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
We're getting to Abraham, don't worry.
I'm just giving context, I don't want to preach things out of context.
For he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden, for behold from henceforth all
generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is his name.
And just for sake of time, we'll jump down.
It says in verse 53, he hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent
empty away.
He hath hopen his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy, as he spake to our fathers to
Abraham and to his seed forever.
And Mary abode with her about three months and returned to her own house.
And so Mary is prophesying about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, right?
Elizabeth and Mary are both prophesying.
The Holy Ghost is there, and there's this miraculous leaping of John the Baptist in
the womb.
And they're both talking about, wow, this is so cool.
Our Savior and the mother of my Lord is here, and wow, this is God helping us.
God is putting down the mighty from their seats, and he's exalting them of low degree.
He's scattering the proud.
He's filling the hungry with good things.
The rich he hath sent empty away.
This is what John the Baptist is going to later preach and say, every mountain shall
be made low.
Every valley shall be exalted.
He's going to lift up one and put down another.
It's talking about the fact that Jesus Christ is coming to reign and to judge the earth,
and that the first shall be last and the last shall be first.
And it says that this is a fulfillment of what was spoken to Abraham.
Does everybody see that?
He has hoping his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spake to our fathers to
Abraham and to his seed forever.
So there's a blessing upon Abraham and his seed that goes on forever.
How is this blessing realized?
How is this prophecy fulfilled?
How does God fulfill what he spake to Abraham about how he's going to help Israel?
It's by sending Jesus.
Right?
What are we even talking about?
Jesus is in the womb.
That's what we're excited about.
We're excited about Jesus being born because he's going to help Israel.
He's going to save Israel.
This is the fulfillment of what God promised to Abraham about helping Israel.
It's not about, hey, maybe we can send troops.
Maybe we can send military advisors, you know, maybe we can send weapons.
No, no, no.
It's about Jesus.
And by the way, spoiler alert, the seed there is Jesus.
When it says to Abraham and his seed, the apostle Paul is going to say in Galatians
three, well, to Abraham and his seed where the promise is made, not seeds plural, but
seed singular thy seed, which is Christ.
And if you are Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.
So the blessing comes through Jesus.
That's what this whole passage is about.
It's about baby Jesus in the womb.
Let's jump down to the next passage that mentions Abraham, Luke chapter one verse 67.
Now this is the father of John the Baptist.
So we heard from John the Baptist's mother, Elizabeth.
We heard from Jesus' mother, Mary.
Now we're going to hear from John the Baptist's father, Zacharias.
Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied saying, blessed be the Lord God
of Israel for he had visited and redeemed his people.
What's he talking about?
What's the con?
What are we talking about here?
Are we talking about some Israeli war that's being won?
Is there a physical battle going on?
Are they overthrowing the Romans?
Is there a political revolution going on?
What is this passage about?
It's about Jesus being born again, same passage, John the Baptist being born as the forerunner
of Jesus and how John the Baptist is going to prepare the way for Jesus.
And we're so excited about both of these babies because they are going to be used greatly
to fulfill the promises to Abraham and bring salvation to Israel.
What kind of salvation?
Is it physical salvation?
Is God going to restore again the kingdom to Israel physically?
Because last time I checked, that didn't happen.
In fact, after Jesus came, Israel gets completely wiped out from being a nation and the Romans
destroy the temple and burn Jerusalem to the ground.
That's not exactly us being saved from all our enemies in the way that they had in mind.
Because guess what?
The real salvation that they should have been looking for was spiritual salvation like forgive
your sins salvation like taking to heaven salvation.
And that's what this is actually about.
That's why it says he's visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation
for us in the house of his servant David.
Who is that horn of salvation lifted up in the house of David?
Anyone would know that that's Jesus, right?
Son of David, son of Abraham.
That horn of salvation has been lifted up.
We're going to be saved.
Why?
Because we believe in Jesus.
As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began, that
we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us to perform the
mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swear
to our father, Abraham, that he would grant us that we being delivered.
Don't miss this, folks.
Just let these words sink in.
That we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear.
Let me ask something.
Does that apply to the unbelieving Jews who rejected Jesus at all?
At all?
Let me ask you this.
Did they in the first century A.D., did they who rejected Jesus, unbelieving Jews, did
they get delivered out of the hand of their enemies so that they could serve God without
fear?
Or did they get totally destroyed and wiped out by their enemies so that they can't serve
God at all because their temple is dust?
That's what actually happened.
Not one stone was left upon another.
But now if we actually apply this to saved people, the ones who actually believed on
Jesus, which includes Jews who believed on Jesus, right?
Israel.
Did all of Israel reject Jesus?
No.
Many people in Israel got saved.
Multitudes of Israelites got saved.
Multitudes of the Jews got saved.
And guess what?
Those people, they got redeemed.
They got salvation.
And they're delivered from their enemies.
And they were able to serve God without fear.
And they're able to continue serving God and worshiping God without fear.
And God blessed them and preserved them and protected them and kept them.
And the Jews got smoked.
The ones who rejected Christ, they got punished.
Why would they have any blessing for rejecting and killing the Messiah?
That doesn't get you blessed.
And here's the thing.
It says that the purpose is so that they might be delivered out of the hand of their enemies
and serve them without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our
life.
And thou child shall be called the prophet of the highest.
Talking about John the Baptist is going to be the prophet of the highest because the
highest is, uh, Jesus.
For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways.
Cause John the Baptist is going to be the forerunner of Jesus, right?
Go to chapter three of Luke.
So again, Luke chapter number one, promises are being fulfilled for the nation of Israel.
Just like God promised to Abraham.
And it's all because of baby Jesus.
Right?
Why?
Because Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham.
Somebody please stop me if I skip any references to Abraham because I want to make sure that
we look at, because I mean for somebody to get up and say, Hey, we said with father Abraham
and if you, you know, if you don't agree with us on this, well then you just don't know
the Bible at all.
Well, you know what?
Let's figure it out.
I don't want to go through life not knowing the Bible at all.
So I better look up every single reference to Abraham and make sure that I understand
what does the new Testament teach about Abraham?
We looked at every reference in Matthew.
We looked at every single reference in Mark because there only was one single reference.
We are looking at every single reference in Luke.
Let's figure out what the Bible teaches about Abraham.
And folks, we're not even to the really good ones until Romans, Galatians, but anyway,
look at Luke chapter three, verse 34 or sorry, verse eight, Luke three, eight, bring forth
therefore fruits worthy of repentance and begin not to say within yourselves, we have
Abraham to our father for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise
up children of Abraham.
And now also the ax is laid under the root of the trees.
Every tree therefore, which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the
fire.
Uh, you say we already heard that one.
Well, it bears repeating and we're not skipping any.
Go to Luke three 34, which was the son of Jacob, which was the son of Isaac, which was
the son of Abraham, which was the son of Tara, which was the son of Nakor.
No comment.
Go to chapter 13, Luke 13 10.
Somebody stopped me.
If I skip one, Luke 13 10.
Let's see a little more about Abraham.
Father Abraham, Luke 13 10, the Bible reads and he was teaching.
This is Jesus teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath and behold, there was a woman
which had a spirit of infirmity 18 years and was bowed together and could in no wise lift
up herself.
Now, man, this, this has got to be miserable, right?
Can you imagine spending 18 years and you can't stand up straight at all?
I'm afraid of hurting my back cause I heard it recently, so I don't want to impersonate
this, but she's basically, you know, curled over, uh, slumped over.
She can't straighten up.
She can't set up straight.
She's hunched over and just in a very uncomfortable position, right?
But she's still dragging herself to the synagogue, even though she's all hunched over and, and,
and in bad shape physically, she's still physically there at the synagogue trying to worship God
and learn the Bible.
And so Jesus teaching in the synagogue and he sees this woman there and he has compassion
on her and it says in verse 12 when Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said unto
her, woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity and he laid his hands on her and immediately
she was made straight and glorified God.
Okay.
So this is like, you know, we talk about Jesus is the great physician, you know, apparently
he's a great chiropractor as well.
That was a joke, but you know, he basically lays hands on her and miraculously heals her
and boom, all of a sudden her spine is all straightened out.
Now, a couple of interesting things to point out here.
One is that even though she's in this kind of curled over situation where she can't get
straightened out and she's, she's crook backed and, and hunched over and she can't lift herself
up straight at all, Jesus actually called her to him.
You know, see, he doesn't, he doesn't even go to her.
He doesn't go to her into the audience and go and heal her.
He tells her, you come to me.
Because here's the thing, in order to get salvation, in order to get healing, you must
come to Christ.
You must come to Christ.
Right?
The ball is in your court if you're unsaved.
If you're an unbeliever, if you're not saved, hey, Jesus Christ died for you.
He was buried.
He rose again and whosoever will may come, but you got to come.
You've got to come to Christ.
Now obviously we're talking about spiritually coming to Christ, right?
You have to put your faith in Christ.
You have to call upon the name of the Lord, but he tells her to come to him.
He calls her to him.
And he said to her, woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity, laid his hands on her
and immediately she was made straight and glorified God.
And the ruler of the synagogue, verse 14, answered with indignation because that Jesus
had healed on the Sabbath day.
I mean, how stupid is this?
This guy obviously has no love, no compassion.
This woman's been miserable, hunched over, curled up for 18 years.
All she did was just get up and walk to the front.
I mean, they all walked to get there.
Everybody walked to that synagogue.
Everybody's going to walk home.
She's not violating the Sabbath by just getting out of her chair and walking up to Jesus.
And then what did he do?
Oh, he worked on the Sabbath.
He literally just touched her.
Like that's work to just be like, that's not work.
But they had all these weird rules that aren't in the Bible, all these super strict Sabbath
rules that aren't even in scripture.
And so then the ruler of the synagogue gets angry and says, there are six days in which
men ought to work.
In them therefore come and be healed and not on the Sabbath day.
Right?
Like this woman, it doesn't even seem like she's even there to be healed.
It sounds like she's just there just in the synagogue.
She's just worshiping God in the synagogue and he just sees her and just heals her because
he feels bad for her.
But this jerk, right, who's probably an unsaved man, right?
Probably indicative of just Christ rejecting Jews in general, right?
He's so obsessed with his rules that aren't even in the Bible, all his little kosher laws
and all his strict Orthodox Jew rules that he doesn't even see the forest for the trees
that the Messiah is standing right in front of him performing a miraculous work of healing.
On somebody that he's probably known for 18 years, he's probably seen this woman looking
like that for 18 years, he should be amazed right now.
Well, you didn't do it on the right day of the week, according to our rules.
The Lord then answered him and said, you hypocrite, did not each one of you on the Sabbath loose
his ox or his ass from the stall and lead him away to watering?
Not, not this woman being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan had bound lo these 18 years be
loose from this bond on the Sabbath day.
And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed.
Well, they ought to be.
So when, when Jesus calls this guy out and calls him a hypocrite, everybody's like, whoa,
we really stepped in it because we look like total idiots now.
And all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.
Now why did I turn to this passage?
Well, because it mentions Abraham.
Ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan had bound lo these 18 years be
loose from this bond on the Sabbath day.
So a couple of things that we can learn from this is that number one is that it's possible
to be a daughter or son of Abraham and to be bound by Satan, to be in bondage to Satan,
to be under the power of Satan, right?
So does being a physical descendant of Abraham, because when Jesus is referring to her being
a daughter of Abraham, he's talking to the Jews are so obsessed with being Jewish and
following the rules and being children of Abraham.
He's like, well, why don't you care about this woman?
She's a daughter of Abraham.
You should be so happy about her being healed and you don't want people working on the Sabbath
day.
Well, this one is gonna have a lot less work to get home now than she would have because
she's been loose from this burden on the Sabbath day.
You know, this, this bond is making it harder for her to get home.
This work is going to be done now because now she's been straightened out.
Now here's the thing.
When we see a passage like this, being a daughter of Abraham, right?
Obviously in the context, he is talking about the fact that she is physically descended
from Abraham because that's what the guy at the synagogue is interested in.
That's the point that he's making.
So here's the thing.
We say that we're the spiritual children of Abraham.
We're the spiritual sons of Abraham.
We're not denying that there was a group here that's being mentioned in scripture that are
physically descended from Abraham and that sometimes when the Bible talks about Jews
or Israelites or sons of Abraham or daughters of Abraham, that it's referring to the physical
descendants.
Nobody's disputing that.
I mean, that's, that's obvious, isn't it?
But here's what we're saying.
We're saying that that doesn't mean anything spiritually.
It means literally nothing because you can be a child of Abraham and be on your way to
hell.
You can be a child of Abraham and you can be under the bond of Satan.
You can be under the power of Satan.
You can be a child of the devil and wow, you're physically descended from Abraham.
Big whoop.
God can raise up of these stones children unto Abraham.
Doesn't matter.
And so this passage is no exception.
This woman is saved for one reason, because she believed on Christ.
That's why.
That's why she saved, you know, and obviously it's symbolic.
Her coming to Christ is symbolic of someone spiritually coming to Christ.
Her physically being made straight is a picture of us being spiritually saved when we come
to Christ, right?
We believe on Christ and we're made whole spiritually.
She came to Christ physically, was made whole physically, but either way she is saved by
faith, not the fact that she was daughter of Abraham because she's already been a daughter
of Abraham the whole time and she was under the bond of Satan.
It's only coming to Christ that actually caused her to be made whole.
Now go to verse 23.
Then said one unto him, Lord, and this is a great question.
Are there few that be saved?
You know, like, like, like is the minority saved or is the majority of people saved?
Because, you know, the Jehovah's Witnesses, they put a track on my door one time and it
said that 90% of people are going to be saved.
They claim that over 90% of people will be saved.
Well, let's see what Jesus says.
You know, are there a few that be saved?
He said unto them, strive to enter in at the straight gate.
Straight there is not with a G-H.
That would mean straight as in the woman was made straight.
This is straight as in narrow like the straights of Gibraltar, S-T-R-A-I-T.
It's a different word.
Strive to enter in at the straight gate.
For many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able when once the master
of the house has risen up.
He's saying, look, you've got to go through this gate, this narrow gate before it is too
late.
And he will try to enter in when it's too late, when it's over, when it's not an opportunity
anymore.
When once the master of the house has risen up and has shut to the door and you begin
to stand without and to knock at the door saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
And he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence you are.
I don't know who you are.
Depart from me.
I never knew you.
Then shall you begin to say, we've eaten and drunk in thy presence.
And thou hast taught in our streets, but he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence
you are.
Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out.
Right?
Oh, yeah, you taught in our streets because Jesus Christ went throughout all the cities
of Israel teaching in their streets and eating and drinking in their presence.
But he's going to, he says there should be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Verse 28 when you shall see Abraham, that's why we're here and Isaac and Jacob and all
the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out and they shall come
from the east and from the west and from the north and from the south and shall sit down
in the kingdom of God and behold, there are last which shall be first and there are first
which shall be last.
The first that shall be last are the Jews.
The last that shall be first are the Gentiles.
That's what the context, what's he saying?
Many shall come from the east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
That's the last becoming the first.
The last people we thought would get saved, the heathen, the Gentiles, they're first.
And then the first, the Jews, the ones who have the Old Testament that you would expect
to be the first, they're going to be last.
They're cast into outer darkness.
They're having weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Oh, but we're Jews, we're from Israel, you came to us.
You ate and drank in our presence, you taught in our streets.
So what?
You don't get saved because you heard the gospel, you get saved because you believe
the gospel.
Right?
The Bible says the word preached did not profit them not being mixed with faith and them that
heard it.
The word preached doesn't profit unless it's mixed with faith and the hearer.
Go to Luke 16.
Here's a familiar passage.
This is one of the most famous chapters in the book of Luke, Luke chapter 16.
Now this is definitely an Abraham story, right?
This is a big time Abraham story.
Says in Luke 16, 19, there was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen
and fared sumptuously every day.
And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores and
desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table.
Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores and it came to pass that the beggar died and
was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.
The rich man also died and was buried and in hell he lift up his eyes being in torments
and see if Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom.
Now Lazarus, excuse me, Abraham's bosom is not a place, it's a body part.
What's a bosom?
This is the bosom, right?
Remember the disciple who leaned on Jesus breast?
He was in his bosom, right?
If I put my arm, come here Fidel, you know, if I, he's always my volunteer, come on up
here.
Look, if I put my arm around Fidel here, right, where's his shoulder?
It's against my chest.
He is at my bosom.
All right, don't make it weird.
So look, he's at my bosom, right?
So this is my bosom.
So Abraham's bosom, so when it says Lazarus was in his bosom, he was pulling what Fidel
just pulled, you know, Lazarus is in his bosom, all right?
So that's what we see.
So because people have literally said that there's, you know, there's a place called
Abraham's bosom.
You know, Old Testament saints, when they died, they went to Abraham's bosom.
You know, what about, what about Abraham?
Did he go to his own bosom?
Or he's like, welcome to my bosom.
I'm the owner here.
It's stupid, okay?
It's a body part.
Okay.
They're in heaven.
Well, why can they talk to him from hell?
Why can anyone in hell talk to anybody who's somewhere else and say, well, cause it's right
there.
It's like, like they're just right there, like they're in the balcony of hell or something
and that, and you know, and that's what they believe that there's this like two compartment
hell and there's kind of a good side of it.
Folks, obviously it's in hell, it's dark, there's screaming, you're on fire.
You're not just constantly having this conversation.
Obviously God is somehow miraculously allowing this conversation to take place.
It's not like, Father Abraham, give me water for the seven millionth time.
Those that are with me can't come to you.
Stop asking me for water, please.
Try, you know, do you really think this is just a constant conversation?
Like, man, I've just been watching people burn in hell for the last 3000 years.
You know, when do we get to go to the real heaven?
When do we get to get out of your bosom, man?
Obviously because this guy just arrived in hell, God is supernaturally allowing this
conversation to take place once.
It's not just, please give me water.
No, I said no, you know, just 1000 years later.
It's a one time deal.
There's a great goal fixed.
It's called the Gulf between heaven and hell.
OK, you're sitting in it.
And so anyway, I don't want to go off on that.
But the point is, that's not the point at all.
So let's talk about what is the point.
The point is that when the beggar dies, he's carried by the angels, which obviously implies
upward movement anyway, when you're being carried by angels.
He's not like shoved on an elevator to hell to the good side.
Not that there is a good side.
You know, he's carried by the angels to Abraham, where Abraham is, which is in heaven, where
he observed the coming of Christ and so forth.
He's carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom, the rich man also died and was buried
and he lift up his eyes being in torment.
So when the unsaved person dies, they're immediately in hell.
They're immediately in torment.
He lifts up his eyes and boom, he's in hell.
And he says, Father Abraham.
Now, is this guy spiritually a son of Abraham?
I mean, he's burning in hell, right?
He's saying Father Abraham because he's a Jew.
He is a physical descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
So he calls out Father Abraham and Abraham doesn't contradict him.
Abraham said in verse 25, Son, you see that?
So he says, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip
of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I'm tormented in this flame.
But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime received thy good things
and likewise Lazarus evil things.
But now he's comforted and thou are tormented.
And beside all this, between us and you, there's a great goal fixed
so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot.
Neither can they pass to us that would come from thence.
Now, here's the thing about this.
See right there.
He's a son of Abraham.
How good does that do him when he's burning in hell?
Well, he's still the chosen people.
He's still being blessed.
Be careful what you say about him.
God's got his back.
It's absurd.
This guy's roasting in hell.
Who cares if he's Abraham?
What does he get for being Abraham's son?
The non-smoking section of hell?
No, here's what he gets.
He gets to be called son.
Son?
No water for you, son.
You will continue to burn, my son.
Goodbye, son.
Oh, man, I'm so glad I'm Jewish.
Did you guys hear what he called me?
Did you guys hear that?
It's my father, Abraham.
Great.
Really helps, huh?
It doesn't make hell one degree cooler for this guy.
Then he said, I pray thee, therefore, father,
that thou wouldest send me to my father's house,
for I have five brethren that he may testify unto them,
lest they also come into this place of torment.
Because guess what?
I'm Jewish and I'm burning in hell,
and all my five Jewish brothers,
they're all heading straight for hell, too.
They need to get saved.
Abraham, send someone to give them the gospel.
Abraham saith unto him, they have Moses and the prophets.
Let them hear them.
And he said, Nay, father Abraham.
But if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
And he said unto him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
Because guess what?
Jesus did rise from the dead, and were they all persuaded?
Nope.
Go to Luke 19.
Almost done.
We're almost out of time.
Luke 19.
Luke chapter 19.
We'll probably just finish the book of Luke this morning
and call it a day.
Luke chapter 19 verse 1.
Jesus answered and passed through Jericho.
And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus,
which was the chief among the publicans,
and he was rich.
And he sought to see Jesus, who he was,
and could not for the press,
because he was of little, he was little of stature.
So Zacchaeus was a wee little man.
And who knows the song?
All right.
Lots of people.
So he's a wee little man, so he climbs up in the Sycamore tree.
He wants to see Jesus.
He's too short.
He can't get to Jesus.
So he climbs up in a tree to try to see Jesus from afar off.
And when Jesus came to the place,
he looked up and saw him and said unto him,
Zacchaeus, make haste and come down,
for today I must abide at thy house.
And he made haste and came down and received him joyfully.
And when they saw it, who are they?
They.
Who do you think are they?
The big they.
The Jews, right?
When the Jews saw it, right, when they saw it,
they all murmured saying that he was gone to be a guest
with a man that is a sinner.
You know, why is Jesus going over to this guy's house
when he's a sinner?
He's a publican, right?
He's a guy who's a dishonest man.
He's ripping people off.
And Zacchaeus stood and said unto the Lord,
behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor.
And if I've taken anything from any man by false accusation,
I restore him fourfold.
So this guy's actually, not only does he believe in Jesus,
but he's also trying to straighten his life out
and make things right and fix things
because he's been ripping people off.
And he's saying, you know, I'm going to pay people back.
I'm going to stop.
I've gotten rich dishonestly,
so I'm just going to take half my money and give it to the poor.
And I'm just going to do these things to make things right.
And Jesus said unto him,
this day is salvation, come to this house,
for so much as he also is a son of Abraham,
the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Now, I don't want you to miss this
because this is kind of a subtle thing here in verse number nine.
Jesus said unto him,
this day is salvation, come to his house.
And then we have this kind of archaic word here,
for so much, right?
We would probably say in our modern vernacular,
in as much as, or in so much as, or in so far as, right?
Because this for so much is something that we wouldn't say anymore
in our language 400 years later, right?
So what does that mean?
In so much as he also is a son of Abraham,
for as much as he is also a son of Abraham,
in so far as he is also a son of Abraham,
just as he is also a son of Abraham,
so also salvation has come to this house.
Don't miss it.
What does it say?
I mean, look at what the words are actually saying on the page, right?
Because sometimes we might have a preconceived idea
or just kind of gloss over things
and not really stop and think about what they're actually saying.
Slow down and look at what this is actually saying.
What it's actually saying is that as much as he's saved,
he's also a son of Abraham.
I mean, those two things are connected.
Does everybody see that?
Just as he's a son of Abraham,
just as much he is saved.
Salvation has come to this house for so much
as he also is a son of Abraham.
Does everybody see that?
What's the significance here?
There are one of two possibilities here.
Either you could say, A, this guy is a Gentile physically
or he's a Jew physically.
I would say the guy is probably a Jew physically, you know,
because some people would say, well, you know,
they're murmuring that he's going to the house of a sinner.
They're mad that he's going to the house of a Gentile.
You know, if that's what the Bible meant,
that's probably what the Bible would say, right?
I mean, that's not what the Bible says.
The Bible could have said, hey, why are you going into an uncircumcised man?
That's not what it says.
Why? Because he's a publican, right?
We have to go by what the text actually says and not add things, right?
Let's go with what the Bible says.
Why do they not like this guy?
What do we know about him?
He's a publican, he's been ripping people off,
he's been getting rich, and he's been getting rich dishonestly.
That's why people are mad.
That's why they don't want Jesus eating with them.
So I think it's much more likely that this guy
is a physical son of Abraham, right?
I mean, doesn't that make more sense?
That he's an Israelite, that he's a Jew.
When did salvation come to the house?
When?
Well, it says this day is salvation come to this house, right?
Are you there in verse 9?
This day is salvation come to this house.
Today! Was the guy saved before?
Is he saved now?
For so much as he also is a son of Abraham.
Listen, the guy was already physically a son of Abraham,
he was physically a son of Abraham,
but now he is spiritually a son of Abraham.
And it's easy to just read over that,
but how could being a son of Abraham
be related to his salvation
if it's about being a physical son of Abraham?
Does everybody see that?
Because here's the thing.
He's been a physical son of Abraham his whole life.
That did not prevent him from being on his way to hell.
Did not prevent him from being unsaved.
That did not prevent him from being a rotten person.
But now, today, salvation has come to this house,
and to what degree salvation has come to his house?
To that degree is he a son of Abraham.
Because the true sons of Abraham,
the real sons of Abraham,
are the ones who believe in Jesus.
This guy is a son of Abraham
because he believes in Jesus.
Now, the people that are standing by,
they might miss this and just think like,
oh yeah, of course he's a son of Abraham.
Isn't it great that he got saved?
If you look carefully at the wording,
you will see that, no, no, no,
he's a son of Abraham
which is connected to him being saved.
How could being a son of Abraham
be connected to being saved today?
Because you're a spiritual son of Abraham.
And then the last reference in Luke
is in Luke 20, but it's something
that we've already seen twice already.
Luke 20, verses 37 and 38,
on the, you know, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,
he's not a God of the dead
but of the living, for all live unto him.
And so again we see that God
is the God of the saved.
And that, yes, there are
physical descendants of Abraham.
Nobody's denying that Abraham
has a physical seed,
that Abraham literally begat children,
that literally begat nations of people,
and that nations came out of the loins of Abraham.
But what does the New Testament teach us?
We've looked at the first three books,
which is a huge chunk of the New Testament
because the gospels are the longest books, right?
So we're like, what, about a third
of the way into the New Testament right now.
And what have we seen so far?
What have we learned?
We have learned that, yes,
there are physical descendants of Abraham,
but that is meaningless.
We haven't seen a single blessing so far.
We haven't seen a single benefit.
We haven't seen anything yet.
I mean, we will see some stuff later,
but how far have we seen anything of like,
well, I know they're not saved,
but they're still God's people, still blessed,
still, that's not what the New Testament's teaching us.
The New Testament's teaching us,
hey, you better get saved.
You better believe on Jesus.
Believing on Jesus is everything.
Salvation for Israel through Jesus.
Oh, Israel being saved from her enemies, Jesus.
Redemption, Jesus.
Healing, salvation, Jesus.
Escape from hell, it's through Jesus.
Escape the damnation to come, Jesus.
Enter through the straight gate, it's through Jesus.
Abraham's our father, meaningless.
Father Abraham, you're in hell, stay there.
Father Abraham, Abraham's my father.
Look, the only people who get any blessing
out of being a descendant of Abraham
so far in any of these stories that we've seen,
it's all about they have to believe on Jesus Christ.
And until then, they're bound by Satan.
They're under the power of Satan.
They're walking according to the power
of the prince of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
But what did the Bible say in Romans chapter four?
We read it before the service.
He said, they which are of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham, right?
Abraham is the father of all those that believe,
although they be uncircumcised.
He's the father of all those that believe.
So standing with Father Abraham, what does that even mean?
Is that about a political battle?
Is that about some turf war in the Middle East
between Muslims and Jews who both reject the Son of God,
who are both going to split hell wide open?
You say, well, you didn't do all 70 verses.
You're right. I'm not done.
Those guards never were to prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word
and we're thankful for the fact that we are
the sons of Abraham, the daughters of Abraham, Lord.
Thank you for those Israelites, for those Jews
who in the first century A.D. did believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord.
Thank you for that righteous remnant
that got saved in the first century A.D.
Thank you for that righteous remnant that got saved.
But Lord God, I pray that you would just allow
your people to see the truth of your word
and stop being deceived by this lie,
this false doctrine that somehow venerates
and exalts and glorifies people who reject Christ
because of their supposed ethnicity,
whatever that means.
Lord God, please help us to realize
that everything is about whether a person
is in Christ, Lord, and help us to get
as many people saved as we can,
help us to get Muslims and Jews and Hindus
and everyone that we can save, Lord,
because Christ is the answer
and it's in his name we pray, amen.