Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1082
Delivered
“And when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be you perfect. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” Genesis 17:1,2.
BELOVED, all Scripture is the Word of God but some Scripture is expressly so. Much of its teaching comes through inspired men but some of it was spoken by God’s own mouth, directly and without instrumentality. Such are the Words now before us which were of old spoken to Abram by the Almighty God. These sentences ought for this reason to be regarded with peculiar reverence and considered with double attention. The glow of Divinity is fresh upon the lines— bend, then, your souls to the understanding of them.
If a letter were written to you when you were far from home, you would value every line of it. If your fond mother had asked a friend to write it in her name and had dictated the expressions which he should employ—and if there were inserted in the body of the letter several sentences with this preface, “and your mother expressly says”—then you would treasure up the exact words and repeat them to yourself again and again, would you not? All God’s Words in Scripture are pearls, but this is one of the fairest of them! They are all diamonds, but such Words as God speaks from His own mouth I may call the crown jewels of Scripture!
Look, then, at the text. We will read it again: “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be you perfect. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” Happy was Abram to have such intimate communion with God! These sacred visits were the grand events of his life. But we need not envy him, for God has appeared unto us in a yet more glorious manner and the appearance is abiding. Behold, in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ the tabernacle of God is among men and He does dwell among them!
And, in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit the Believer has obtained an intimacy with God which none of the older dispensation attained. The Lord was to the former saints as a wayfaring man who tarried but for a night—but it is our privilege to pray, “Abide with us,” and our joy to know that wherever two or three are met together in the name of our Lord, He is there and will manifest Himself unto them. Permit me, therefore, to encourage you to pray that the Words of the Lord to Abram may be Words for you, pressed home upon your own spirit and sounded in your souls with power, as from the lips of the Lord Himself!
Then shall our meditations be sweet, indeed, and we shall be blessed with faithful Abraham. O, Spirit Divine, make it so, we entreat You!
I. The first thing we shall speak about, upon this occasion, is SURE RELIANCE. The foundation of it is laid before us in the text. True confidence leans alone upon God who declares Himself to be Almighty God, or God All-Sufficient— for such is an equally correct rendering of the passage. All true faith hangs upon God, as the vessel upon the nail. Strong faith realizes the all-sufficiency of God and that is the secret of its strength, the hidden manna on which it feeds and becomes vigorous.
The Lord is all-sufficient in power to accomplish His own purposes. He is all-sufficient in wisdom to find His own way through difficulties which to us may appear to be like a maze, but which to Him are plain enough. And He is all-sufficient in love so that He will never fail us for lack of mercy in His heart or pity in His bosom. God is God All-Sufficient! Simple as that Truth is for us to speak and for you to hear, it is a deep, unfathomable mystery and did we really grasp its Truth and dwell upon it, it would have a very wonderful effect upon our whole conduct.
Remember that Abram was 99 years old and as yet had no child by his wife Sarah—yet he had received a promise from God that there should be a seed which should spring out of his loins. He was long past the natural term of life in which it was likely that he would be the father of a son. So, also, was it with his wife Sarah. Abram, for a while overcome by unbelief, thought it best to take to himself, at the suggestion of his wife Sarah, her handmaid Hagar. And now, for some few years, Abram had possessed a son named Ishmael and it is probable that he thought that this son would answer God’s promise and that somehow or other the blessing would come through him.
But the Lord had not so determined. He took no pleasure in the carnal policy which led to Ishmael’s birth. The Lord meant the language before us to be a gentle but unmistakable rebuke for Abram, for He said in effect, “I am God All-Sufficient—quite sufficient to fulfill My own purposes without your help—quite able to achieve My own denials without such a questionable expedient as that of Hagar and her son Ishmael.” That is, no doubt, the Divine intent in the declaration of all-sufficiency. Hear, then, these words if you, also, have been at any time distrustful—and let them sink into your souls—“I am God All-Sufficient.”