"The Power of Faith in the Promise of God" (Audio) - Oct 31, 2004 Text: Genesis 50:12-25
“The Power of Faith in the Promise of God” Date: October 31, 2004 Scripture: Genesis 11:17-12:9
Series: “The Great Story of Creation and Redemption” Pastor: Larry Kirk
THE POWER OF FAITH IN THE PROMISE OF GOD
An old Scottish preacher said, “It's one thing to have a creed but another thing to have faith.” What did he mean? Well, it's one thing to say the words of the Creed: “I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth,” but it's another thing to live a life of faith in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.
The truth is that many people have a great creed but very little faith. Maybe it's the Christian who has been a serious Bible student for years. He's been to conferences, listened to countless Christian radio broadcasts, and is adept at arguing his favorite doctrinal issues. But when faced with the uncertainties of life, he is overwhelmed with worry, anger, or fear that reveals a struggle to really trust in God.
Maybe it's the young adult who has been to youth camps and Sunday school since childhood. If asked if she believes in God, she says, "Of course." But her easy acknowledgment of the truth of God's existence doesn't seem to affect her very deeply. Her life centers on the continuing drama of her social scene. She also worries excessively about the uncertainties of life and finds little comfort in the realities of God. There isn't much substance to her spirituality.
The problem for some who have a creed but little faith is that they are not truly Christians at all. You may think, Who are you to judge that? Well, I can't judge any individual, but Christ Himself did say, “You must be born again.” As much as the phrase “born again” has been misused, there is a spiritual rebirth that Jesus Himself said was essential to having spiritual life. Without that rebirth, our “faith” is not a life-giving power. It's just acceptance of a creed.
But, having said that, we also have to admit that even people who have a very personal and profound faith in Christ have to struggle daily to turn the creed that they confess into the faith by which they live. That's where my biggest struggles are continually experienced. In real-life challenges and difficulties, I have to fight to believe in my heart what I easily confess with my lips.
What's impressive about some of the people whose stories are told on the early pages of the Bible is that they often had very little creed but very great faith. Joseph is a great example of this. He didn't know all that we know today, but what little he knew he really believed, and his faith transformed his life.
It's very likely that Joseph would have known the stories that appear in the early pages of Genesis. Long before Moses was inspired to record them, they were probably told by the people of God around campfires under starlight. How from the beginning of human sin God had promised that although life would be a struggle, God would create a people who would stand with Him, and that one day He would send a Savior to redeem the world. He would have known how God had kept that promise, cared for His people, and worked in history through the days of Noah to the calling of His great-grandfather Abraham.
With Abraham, God had done a new thing. God chose one man and said that he and his family would be uniquely blessed. They would become a source of blessing for the whole world because, through them, the promise would be fulfilled and the Savior would one day come.
The God who worked and fulfilled His promises in the life of Abraham was at work in the life of his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob, who was Joseph's father.
At one point in the life of Jacob, he had a profound experience with God. The Lord appeared to him in the form of a man one night. Jacob took hold of Him and wouldn't let go. He wrestled with Him, demanding that God bless him. Jacob left that experience with a permanent limp, but that physical limp was a symbol of a new strength that came from a desperate dependence on God and not himself. His name Jacob meant “schemer,” but God changed his name to Israel, meaning “he who struggles with God.” In time, Jacob's twelve sons would become the twelve tribes of Israel.
Joseph had an incredible heritage, and he ended up being Jacob’s, or Israel's, favorite son. That's what caused him so much trouble. His father gave him a beautiful coat, and God gave him prophetic dreams. His brothers hated him for it. They really hated him. They planned to kill him, then changed their minds. They stripped off the coat, threw Joseph down into a dry well, and later hauled him up and sold him as a slave to a caravan headed for Egypt. Joseph seemed to get one bad break after another. Sold into slavery, he was then accused of immorality and assault and thrown into prison. God did not keep Joseph from experiencing all those things, but God was with him in the midst of them all..
Then, in God's time, from this place of darkness and forced humility God gave Joseph favor in the eyes of his masters. God raised up Joseph through a prophetic gift that enabled him to interpret dreams. He came to the attention of Pharaoh. He was made the second most powerful man in all of Egypt, having control of all the food and grain. Because of the wisdom and revelation of God, he was able to save food for a time of intense famine. His actions not only saved the people of Egypt from starvation but his own family.
His brothers were forced to go down to Egypt to get food, which only Joseph could give them. Joseph eventually told them who he was. He revealed himself, told his story, forgave them, and took care of them.
At the end of Genesis, Jacob, now Israel, died, and Joseph's brothers came to him afraid that his forgiveness had been just for his father's sake. Joseph wept at their lack of faith in his forgiveness. He revealed his heart to them, and through his doing so God reveals to us the power of faith in His promise to transform our lives.
The heart of this Scripture is found in three statements that Joseph made in response to the concerns of his brothers. Those statements are in Genesis 50:19-21: “But Joseph said to them, ‘Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.’" He reassured them and spoke kindly to them. Each one of those three statements is a revelation of the power that faith can and should have to affect the way we live our lives.
The first statement teaches us that . . .
God Wants Your Faith to Keep You Out of His Place
Look again at verse 19: “But Joseph said to them, ‘Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God?’” Joseph here brought up an issue that goes all through the Bible. In the Scriptures, putting ourselves in the place of God is at the heart of all of our problems in life.
What are some of the ways that we put ourselves in the place of God?
Well, first, we put ourselves in the place of God when we assume that we have the authority to decide for ourselves what is right and wrong.
What happened at the beginning of Genesis with Adam and Eve? Adam and Eve were given one command to obey. The tempter came and said, “If you break this command and eat from the tree that you have been forbidden, you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” There was no magic drug in the tree that would make them godlike. But in the very act of deciding for themselves what was right and wrong, what was good and evil, they were putting themselves in the place of God.
We do it all the time. Jesus tells us that the Bible is God's revelation of what we are to believe and how we are to live. So, whenever you decide for yourself what is right and wrong instead of letting the Bible decide what is right and wrong for you, you too are putting yourself in the place of God.
Whenever someone says in effect, “I know what the Scriptures teach about marriage, or sexuality, or the sanctity of life, or honesty in relationships, or sacrifice for others, but in this situation I'm going to decide for myself what I believe is right for me,” that person is putting himself in the place of God. Doing this is based on a lack of faith in Him. It is saying I do not believe in God or I do not believe that He has revealed Himself or I do not believe that He can be trusted.
There's another way we can put ourselves in the place of God. We put ourselves in His place when we assume that we have the authority to hold a grudge. That's what Joseph’s brothers feared. They were afraid he held a grudge against them. He said, “Of course, I'm not going to hold a grudge against you. Am I in the place of God?”
Joseph was saying that whenever you hold a grudge against someone else, hold onto resentment or anger toward someone who has hurt you, you are putting yourself in God’s place. You are seating yourself on His throne of judgment and taking the place that belongs to Him. What God says to you is, “That's My chair. Get out of My chair.”
Listen to how the book of Romans puts it: “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Romans 12:17-19).
One reason the Bible consistently warns us about taking the place of God is that we are not able to take His place without doing something damaging to ourselves.
Some things are like the ring of power in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Mere mortals could not use the ring of power, even in the cause of justice and goodness, without its damaging and corrupting them. One had to give it up, throw it away, destroy it, or it would corrupt them. A grudge is like that. It is a weapon of power that you cannot use without its damaging your own soul.
In preparing for this sermon, I listened to a tape on Joseph by Tim Keller. He made an interesting point. He said, “The irony is that the quickest way to become like Satan is to try to be God.” The Bible often encourages us to try to be godly and godlike, but it never tells us to try to play God or put ourselves in His place. To put yourself in the place of God is the way to actually become more and more like the devil. To refuse to take the place of God, to let Him alone be God is the best way to actually become more and more like Him.
If we have faith, not just a creed but real faith in the promises of God, that faith will enable us to refuse to take the place of God. And faith will do something else as well . . .
God Wants Your Faith to Show You His Heart Guiding His Hand in Your Story
Genesis 50:20: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Joseph didn’t excuse what they had done or why they did it. He said, “You intended to harm me.” Joseph was a real person. I'm pretty sure he not only felt rejected by his brothers but was tempted to feel abandoned by God. But Joseph believed and saw that God's heart was guiding God's hand in his story.
What Joseph saw was the truth of God’s providence. The historic Westminster Confession of Faith gives us a formal definition of providence::
God the great Creator of all things doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence, according to his infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of his own will, to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy. (From chapter V, “Of Providence”)
Proverbs 19:21 reads, “Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.” The Lord's purpose prevails! That is the point. This does not mean that God is the cause of the evil in the world. It does mean that God is in control even of the evil in the world. Evil is still evil, but God is greater than the evil, and He can bring good out of evil. That may be a mystery, but that is the message.
God wants you to understand this truth. That's why He makes it so clear and repeats it so often in the Bible. It's true both historically and personally. God is working out His purposes in all that happens. That's why we can always trust in His promises.
The ultimate example of this principle is Jesus Christ. Jesus was God in human flesh. He was goodness and truth personified, and yet at the end of His earthly life He was brutally beaten and publicly crucified. It looked as if God was either absent or impotent, but He was not. At the darkest moment of the crucifixion, God was actually fulfilling the ancient promise of our redemption, because Christ was dying for us. He was willingly taking our place, paying for our sins by His sacrifice. God raised Him from the dead to be Lord and Savior for everyone who turns to Him and trusts in Him.
The cross of Christ is not only the demonstration of God's power to bring good out of evil but is also the ultimate demonstration of the reality of His love for people such as us. God gave His Son, Christ gave Himself, to suffer for us so that we could be forgiven and belong to God, know that His love is real and that He works in love for our good and His glory in all of life's challenges and circumstances. His love is a love you can count on.
We have to choose to believe that God's hand, led by His heart, is at work in our lives. But we can do that. The Word of God that Joseph had available to him was far smaller than what you and I have. We have the whole Bible, including the promises of the Psalms and the story of Christ, His crucifixion and resurrection. Joseph's creed was simple, and incomplete, but what he had he truly believed. We have so much more. But do we believe it as deeply?
Alexander MacLaren wrote these words about Joseph:
As incomplete as his creed was, Joseph may have been a better Christian than some of us, and was so, if what he knew nourished his spiritual life more than what we know nourishes ours, and if his heart and will twined more tenaciously round the fragments of revelation which he possessed and drew from them more support and strength than we do from the complete gospel which we have. (MacLaren, Genesis, p. 316)
Let me ask you: Does what you know from the Scriptures actually nourish your spiritual life? Is your heart twined tenaciously around the revelation of God's love and God's promises that you have in the Bible and in Christ and the gospel?
There's a place in the book of Jeremiah (15:16) where the prophet says to God, “When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God Almighty.” He is saying that he took the Word of God and didn't just hear it. He ate it. What does that mean? It means he took it down into his heart and drew strength and life from it. You can do that. You can do the same thing. You can face all kinds of difficulties and learn to say, “The Lord is my shepherd. He leads me, He guides me. He is with me. Through faith in Christ, God has promised me His love, His presence, His hand working and weaving all things together for good in my life. I will trust in Him. He will be with me.”
If we believe in the promises of God, we will refuse to take His place, and we will choose to see His hand guiding the story of our lives. There's something else we will do as well . . .
God Wants Your Faith to Transform Your Life So That You Reflect His Grace
In verse 21, Joseph says, “’So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.’ And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.’” The words “He spoke kindly to them” in Hebrew are literally “He spoke to their hearts.” They had been consistently cruel to him. They tried to ruin his life, and it looked as if they had. They had been enemies more than brothers. But he was loving his enemies with practical love and real kindness.
There is a great little commentary on the book of Genesis by Derek Kidner. Listen to what he says about this:
Each statement of the threefold reply is a pinnacle of Old Testament and New Testament faith. To leave all the righting of wrongs to God (v. 19), to see God's providing hand in man's malice (v. 20), and to repay evil not only with forgiveness but with practical affection (v. 21). These are attitudes which anticipate Christ-likeness. (Kidner, Genesis, p. 224)
What Joseph did was live by faith in the face of the hard reality of a fallen world, choosing to reflect in this world the character of a good and gracious God. God wants us too to reflect His love in the world.
He wants us to understand His grace. He embedded in the story of Joseph the basic pattern that would be more completely fulfilled in the life of Christ: betrayal, unjust suffering, faith and submission through it all, then out of the depths of what seemed like a hopeless situation, an incredible resurrection and exaltation, and as a result salvation for the very people who caused His suffering. Joseph, standing before the very brothers who had sinned against him, with tears in his eyes because they were so hesitant to trust in his forgiveness, speaking to their hearts to reassure them of his love, is a powerful picture of Jesus Christ.
God wants us to receive the love that He offers us, to trust in His grace and forgiveness, and to reflect that same love to others in His name. He gives us His promises so that, rooted in those promises, we can be empowered to reveal His love.
It's been said that to love freely and lavishly, and especially to love our enemies, we need two qualities that are rarely found together in the same person. We need great humility and great confidence. How do you get those two qualities together? You get humility from refusing to take the place of God. And you get confidence by recognizing the hand of God behind the story of your life. You realize that you are not at the mercy of the choices of other people. You are in the hands of God. He is guiding your life and fulfilling His promises. In that humility and that confidence you are empowered to reflect that character of God by loving others.
It's faith that's at the heart of all of these things. Not just a creed that you remember but a living faith in the promises of God.
At the end of the book of Genesis, Joseph speaks one last time to his brothers. Listen to what he says: “Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath and said, ‘God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place’" (Genesis 50:24-25).
Joseph says, “God has kept His promises during my life, and I'm confident He will keep His promises after my death. That means that our people are going to leave Egypt one day and return to the land He promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So make me a promise. When God leads you back to the Promised Land, take my bones and carry them home.” Hebrews 11:22 talks about this: “By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.”
I've known Christians to leave wills and instructions for their memorial services that were very intentional statements of their faith in God and in Christ. Joseph was like that. His faith shaped his life right up to the very end.
In Joseph's story, God is showing you that this is what He wants your faith to be like. He wants your faith in His promise not just to be a part of your life but to be the heart of your life. We should give Him that kind of faith.
He has shown us in the cross of Christ that behind His promises there is a heart of love for us. He has shown us in the cross of Christ that He keeps His promises even when it seems everything is going wrong. He has promised us His grace, His forgiveness, His care, His presence, Himself. Let's give Him a life of faith.