Fitting the Mark: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 From creation to the book of Revelation, the Bible requires righteousness to inherit his promises, his benefits of life eternal, health, the necessity of necessities of life, the fruit of the Spirit like joy, peace, longsuffering and so forth, and all the rest. Remember when they came out of Egypt, God promised the blessings in the city, the blessings in the field, the blessings on the offspring, your children’s children. They said none would be barren among you. “I will bless you with food, I’ll bless you with houses, and I’ll bless you by having none of these diseases of Egypt to come upon you, if you obey my word and do right,” fitting into that mark of righteousness. But how can a human fit into that righteous goal and that righteous requirement when the Bible says there’s none righteous, no, not one, and all of sin to come short of the glory of God?

▶ 1:05 To find out how we can, let’s take a look at a man that obtained the goal, and that is Abraham. God came to Abraham in Genesis 12:2 and said, “I’m going to make you a great nation. I am going to bless you. I’m going to make your name great. I’m going to make you a blessing to other people. I’ll bless those that bless you and curse those who curse you.” I’m going to protect you from those that hate you and despise you and want to misuse you. “I’m going to protect you, and you shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” In other words, Jesus Christ is going to come through your seed, and Jesus did, he fulfilled that by coming and turning people from sin to righteousness. In Genesis 13:16 he said, “I will make your seed as the dust of the earth.”

▶ 2:10 I’m going to multiply you unbelievably many times. Genesis 18:30: “Sarah your wife will have a son,” though she’s barren, though she’s past it, she’s ninety years old and she can’t have kids anymore and she’s hobbling around and she’s wrinkled and gray. “I’m going to change her, renew her, restore her, and she’s going to have a son in her old age, and you at a hundred years old and her at ninety.” And he says your seed’s going to have tribulation four hundred years. We don’t like to hear that part of “you’re going to have some troubles.”

▶ 2:57 Now this, you got to remember, sound impossible to Abraham. Here God’s talking to one man, an old man who’s married to an old woman who has wanted a child for decades and not got one. Abraham sees himself as old, ready to be put on the shelf, ready for retirement. His wife is old besides. He sees his failures in some areas to do right. He had lied twice about Sarah being his sister, not his wife, out of fear for his own life. He put Sarah on the line twice. He ran from the land that God told him to live in because of famine, because of economic hardships. He ran. Abraham had a lot of fear. He had a child by Sarah’s maid, which caused a rift in the family, till it wound up Ishmael, the son born to the maid Hagar, mocked and bullied Isaac, who was born later, so that Hagar and Ishmael left the family to make it on their own.

▶ 4:36 So he had a child that ran away from home. He had a broken home. You think you’re the only one that has broken homes today? Jesus Christ himself was raised with a stepdad, and then no stepdad at all, just the dad died. The provider of the home was dead. Abraham laughed at God when God said Sarah would have a child at ninety years old. He laughed. Yeah. Sure. Yeah, I hear Christians all the time laughing, “Oh yeah, sure, yeah, sure,” at things of God. See, these were impossibilities to Abraham to [unclear] on his own, and yet Abraham received every one of these promises because he believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. In spite of his failures, in spite of his mistakes, in spite of laughing at God when God said, “I’m going to do the impossible with you,” yet Abraham fit into this mark.

▶ 6:09 He obtained righteousness. It was counted unto him the righteousness because he what? Believed God.

▶ 6:20 Now, isn’t that powerful? Now, what kind of faith did Abraham have? You know, today we have the prosperity faith, we have the positive thinking faith, we have the possibility thinking faith, we have the purpose-driven faith, all these P’s. You got your [unclear] faith, you got the grunt and grit and say, “I got faith.” We, we, we really look at our own faith. “Oh, do you believe? I got the faith, I got the faith, I’m a man of faith, I’m a woman of faith.” But Abraham, what kind of faith did he have? Okay, Romans 14:18, talking about Abraham, who “contrary to hope”... You know, how is he going to be a big nation when there’s only two of them? How are they going to have a child when they’re old and she’s barren? See, how can these things be, when they laughed at God and mocked God and was afraid and disobeyed God?

▶ 7:41 “Contrary to hope” means expectation. “Contrary to hope, in hope Abraham believed, so that he became the father of many nations.” He expected God to fulfill what he said he would do. “Not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead at a hundred years old and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.” Not being weak in what? Faith. What kind of faith did this guy have? “He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory, giving honor to God.” How many would you like to be strengthened in faith? Yeah. Did Abraham need strengthened in faith? Yeah. He laughed at God. His faith was really lacking. He mocked God. Romans 4:21: “Being fully convinced that God had” what? “God had promised, God was able to perform.”

▶ 9:09 That was his faith that was put onto his account as righteousness: that God had the power to perform what he promised. Not Abraham had the power. It wasn’t Abraham’s faith, it was Abraham’s faith in God’s faithfulness, and it was what counted into him to righteousness. And we can today fit into that mark by believing like Abraham believed.

▶ 9:50 Now remember, Abraham’s father was dead. You know, your dad might have ran off somewhere, died, or your mom early, you know, things can happen in life. It did not stop Abraham from obtaining the promises, because of the faith that he had in God to perform. Things don’t have to be perfect for you for God to bless your life. Now that’s a good amen. He and his family, which were three people, him, Sarah and Lot, were the only believers in Canaan land. They were the only ones that worshiped God and did not worship idols. They were the only ones that believed to live right, stay married, marry one woman, stay married and so forth. Now, Abraham messed up with the maid, but he didn’t do that again. When they had church, there was only three there.

▶ 11:09 Everybody else laughed at him, mocked at him. See, things weren’t great for Abraham here. Then Lot, his nephew, got mad, and they had a quarrel and Lot left. Now there’s two. And as I said before, he conceived a child out of God’s will, he was afraid for his life and left the land to live in a pagan land, twice put Sarah’s life on the line, and Sarah did it. She went into Pharaoh’s household and went along with the program, laughed at and questioned God. And yet, in spite of this, Abraham repented of his failures and saw past the impossibilities of the promises, because he believed God had the power to do what God said he would do. That was his faith. His faith was not in his faith. Sarah’s faith was not in Abraham’s faith or her faith.

▶ 12:37 Their faith was in God to perform what he promised, and that’s the faith that makes you righteous.

▶ 12:51 Now, church, that’s good stuff. Abraham, you remember in the Bible, saw a city without foundations, or a city with foundations, made without human hands, whose builder and maker was God. He began to see above himself, above his failures, and he began to see what God was talking about. He saw a great nation, he saw a great name, he saw that he was going to be blessed by God. He knew it was going to come. If God said it, then it’s going to happen. He saw that Sarah could have a child in her old age though she was barren. Remember, the Bible says Christ is our treasure in earthly vessels. You say, we, and the Bible says, “Christ be formed in you.” Folks, we can have Christ formed in us. This is our treasure in earthly human vessels, that Christ can be formed in, birthed in us, be born again of the Spirit of God.

▶ 14:09 These things look impossible, but if God said he can do it, then our faith should be in the fact that, not in my “good enough,” not in my righteousness, not in my faith, but my faith should be in my God, that he has the power to back up what he said, and by God, he’ll do it in my life, and that makes us righteous and fits in to the mark. Can we see today past our failures and impossibilities and see a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that Jesus is coming for? Or all we see is a failed church with a bunch of sin going on? Or do we see past and see how God sees, that he is out to make and build a glorious church? Abraham saw the great nation, the great name, the blessing, the protection and this child being born.

▶ 15:18 He saw past his failures, and I submit to you, by the kind of faith Abraham had, we can see past our failures and others’ failures and get our eyes focused on what God told us to get focused on, and then we’ll begin to obtain them. Could that be an amen?

▶ 15:40 Acts 18:10: “I am with you,” God said to Paul. “No man shall hurt you, for I have much people in this city.” Can we see that? Can we see beyond, away from our own needs and our own little schedule in life and see that God has people in [unclear], but we have to take the word to them? Can we see that God has people in California, in spite of the way California is going? Can we see beyond what California is doing and heading, and we see that God has some people, if we get the word to them, he will raise them up and change them? Some people, what, change? They don’t become religious, they change. Why? Because they get that faith of Abraham, that God can do what he said he would do. “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it,” finish it, “until the day of Jesus Christ.”

▶ 16:50 Can we see that when we got saved and accepted Christ, that’s just the start? There’s much more after salvation than just getting saved and go into heaven. God wants to complete his work in you. Amen, and form Christ in you and actually get your position of righteousness up to a condition of righteousness, where you live rightly and talk rightly. Could that be an amen? See, can we see that? Can we see, [unclear], that God can reach many in [unclear], in California, and America, the nation? Yes. America, America is a mess and it’s going downhill, but can we see with God’s eyes that God has a multitude of people in America that he will bring out if we get the word out? And the nations of the earth, you know, we go to, I’ve been to the mission field, I’ve been to the nations, and I am saddened by the fact we go over there and we paint houses for them and walls for them and repair things for them.

▶ 17:54 Folks, they’re very capable of painting and repairing, and to be honest with you, they’re very capable of preaching. But what we got to take to the nations of the world is the word of God.

▶ 18:15 When you start painting, you think that’s a mission field? You go over there and you do something that they can do. Paul didn’t go and paint buildings. He went and preached the word, isn’t that right? I mean, you’re reading the same Bible I am. And I saw people over there shouldn’t have been over there. One guy met in the airport that I knew was abusing his wife, he was a tyrant in the home, and he told me I was coming back and he was leaving, and he told me he was going to the mission field. I thought, my God, you are a mission [unclear]. You know, we get hyped up on this. “I’m going to a third world country.” You better get your own act together. Could that be an amen? And we need to take this word.

▶ 19:16 If we can’t get the word in our own life and live it in our own life and teach it, our, what good are we going to do the third world nations? And honestly, the third world nations is sick and tired of these kind of missionaries. Oh, they’ll take your money, and they’ll take your chairs that you donate, your Bibles you donate, and they’ll sell them. But what they need is the word of God. Adults, are you out there? I’m telling you some facts. God promised to complete his good work. Okay, God, you said you’re going to do the job, I’m believing you have power to do it. That is my righteousness, and that’s what’s going to lead me to what? The finished work. Matthew 9:27: let’s give some stories in the Bible where this faith worked.

▶ 20:22 Two blind men followed Jesus Christ.