The Engineer's Report on Abraham's Body

SPEAKER A You once to every time in the sight of the good or evil sky don't break on you that I choice of life forever with that darkness. And. SPEAKER B The Bible assures us in Ephesians two, verses eight to ten, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Welcome to faith to faith Here are your hosts, Ettienne McClintock and Braedan Entermann. SPEAKER C Dear listener, greetings and a warm welcome. Thank you for joining us on the program again today. Braedan and myself are delighted to have your company. And just as we start, we just invite you to bow with us for a word of prayer. Gracious Father in heaven, we're so thankful for your goodness toward us. We're so thankful, Father, that we can have freedoms to spend time in Your Word to understand more about the plan of salvation and what Jesus means to each one of us and fathers. Now, as we look at the example of Abraham, that great man of faith, the father of the faithful, we pray for enlightenment of Your Holy Spirit. Baptize us afresh and lead us into all truth. May Jesus be revealed is our prayer in his name. Amen. SPEAKER D Amen. SPEAKER C Well, Braedan, just recently there was a terrible tragedy in Italy. There was a bridge that collapsed that used to take about 60,000 vehicles a day. Now, this bridge was built as an engineering marvel in the 1950s. And interestingly enough, there was an engineer that viewed this bridge and said, this is not an engineering marvel at all. This is a tragedy waiting to happen. And back in 1979, he had filled out an engineer's report to say that this bridge is unsafe and it shouldn't be used for traffic and for human traffic as in vehicles, that is. So what happened is we see that this bridge just collapsed and there was about 43 people that lost their lives. Cars plummeted down this bridge. It's a bridge that's almost a kilometer long, so about 3000ft the way they measure it. And 250ft of their bridge actually collapsed all of a sudden. Now, the interesting thing is that they say there's 1.5 million bridges in Italy. And as I reviewed that, they believe that there's many more bridges which have erosion taking place. And the concrete that they've been produced with no longer really works like it used to. It's not as strong as it used to be. Then France has also brought out a report that said that they've got 840 bridges which are at risk of collapse and they need immediate attention. So this is a very big problem. SPEAKER D It doesn't make me feel too comfortable with driving on bridges. SPEAKER C Well, a family member of mine has just actually gone to Europe to travel around there, and Italy is one of the ports of call, so I'm telling them to stay off the roads, stay off the bridges. Yeah, they'll fly everywhere. SPEAKER D And because the day following this tragedy was actually a public holiday and just no one's celebrating on this public holiday, everyone's in shock and in grief at the loss of these precious lives and over something that people put so much trust and confidence in. Like, how many times have we driven over a bridge or through a tunnel and put absolute confidence that this bridge will get us from A to B? SPEAKER C You don't even drive over it with fear and trepidation. You just assume that the bridge has been made, has been designed by engineers who knew what they were doing and therefore the bridge would do. Even if you're driving beside a big, heavy truck, the bridge will hold you up and you'll be fine crossing it. I mean, how many bridges do we cross? Just on the way here, I crossed some bridges, didn't even think about it for a second. SPEAKER D One truck in particular pulled up just in time before the truck was going to plummet off the edge down to a certain death below. Just imagine that something that you have put so much confidence in just crumbling before you and just seeing it all break in pieces. SPEAKER C Now, apparently, when this bridge actually did collapse, there was a terrible storm. It was a storm that was the last thing to actually weaken the structure to the point where it actually collapsed. And quite often in our lives, things might be going well for a while. And it's not until those storms hit us all of a sudden that sometimes things are brought out of ourselves that we realize I didn't realize that those terrible things or those nasty things or those evil things were in myself, in my human being. So today's program, we want to look at this. We want to look at the story of Abraham and see how Abraham was justified in the book of Romans. Romans, chapter four, there's a chapter that's a beautiful chapter that unpacks the faith of Abraham because it says that Abraham was found according to the flesh. And what did Abraham find and what did Abraham find in regards to his flesh? His flesh meaning his fallen human nature, because we are told that the flesh is know. Jesus, when he went to his disciples, he said, the spirit's willing, but the flesh is weak. So Abram had the same inherent flesh that we have. It was a weakened nature. And it said, did Abraham discover that he was able to be justified, to be made righteous through his flesh, through the works that he could do through his flesh? He said certainly not, because Abraham was actually accounted righteous by believing God and believing his promises. But in the process, we see when we get to Romans, chapter four and verse 19 where it says, and not being weak in faith. So this is Abraham. Abraham was strong in faith. He did not consider his own body. Now, what do you think that means? Abraham did not consider his own body? SPEAKER D Well, in this context, God has promised him and Sarah a child. And that would be okay if they were in their twenty s or thirty s or forty s, yes. But they are nearing 100 years of age. Sarah's Womb has so she's 90 and Abrams about 100. They can't have children. They've tried their whole life, actually. So not only are they past the time of being able to produce children yes. They've never been able to have kids anyway. So they're actually barren. Twice barren. There's no possible way that they can actually have children. And so when God says that you're going to have a child, it's amazing. When we've, and we've considered this in our programs previous, abraham does some brainstorming how he can solve the problem, how he can get from A to B, and he's deciding how he can use his body to accomplish that. And so that's where Sarah suggests that Hagar the maid servant be given to Abraham and they will have a child together. SPEAKER C So they'll fulfill God's promise through surrogacy. SPEAKER D Through surrogacy. And it was a plan that they thought would work, but God didn't acknowledge that plan. He actually reaffirmed later on and no, no, Sarah herself will have a child. And they were confronted with this very strange thing. God was saying that something would happen that was impossible to have happen. Yes, they couldn't have a child. And so when it says here, Abraham did not consider his own body, and if we actually continue on here, verse 19, it says, and not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body. Already dead since he was about 100 years old. And the deadness of Sarah's womb, basically, rather than looking at the limitations of his own body and the limitations of Sarah's body, he believed that if God the creator of the universe has promised to do something, he's fully capable of doing it. Regardless of whether you're a hundred, regardless of whether you're barren, regardless of whatever it is. If God has made a promise that he will give you a child, you don't need to look to the limitations of your flesh because God will achieve it anyhow. And we may not have any idea how he will, but he will because he's the creator God. SPEAKER C That's right. Yes. So the whole promise there of actually having a seed from himself and from his wife Sarah was a promise of God, but that was actually a means to an end, because through that seed, the deliverer, the Savior, would come. Because Abraham was actually promised more than just a descendant. He was told that there would be many descendants and there would be many kings and many nations that would come from him. But ultimately the promise was that through this seed another seed would come, singular, as we read in Galatians chapter three, where Paul's very clear that seed is actually Christ. That was referred to there, that Abraham would then be enabled to inherit the promised land as an everlasting position. Now, God had already told Abraham in Genesis there that he would actually die. So there had to be a resurrection. And the only way the resurrection could come was through someone who would pay the price for our sins, otherwise we'd all be locked in the grave for all eternity. Price would be paid and then there would be a resurrection. And this resurrection can only come through Jesus Christ. Now, if Abraham looked at his body and said, yes, I think I can do it, he would have something of which to boast before God, as we read there in Romans chapter four and verse two. But he'd already tried that, hadn't he? Like you just said, before they gave that a shot, god had promised, well, we're going to help him fulfill the promise. We can't do it the conventional way. We'll be unconventional, we'll be a modern family, we'll use surrogacy and we'll take hagar and we'll have a child. But God doesn't recognize that the promise seed is not going to come through our own works. It can only be established by promise. And then Abraham then goes beyond the fact, but now he's so old now, that all hope for anything, relying on himself or relying on his wife to achieve the outcome that God has promised, they've moved beyond that. So he no longer considers his own body, like it says there in Romans chapter four and verse 19, because it's already dead, he's hundred. Sarah's womb is dead as well, we are told. Now they go beyond that and it says that their faith grows so strong because of the promises of God in verse 20 that he does not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but he is strengthened in faith, so he realizes that God is able to do something exceedingly above his own natural capabilities. Now, I want to step back just to a verse in verse 17, because there's an interesting part in a second part of the verse. It says that God who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did. So God has promised, you will have a descendant, you will have a seed. Did that descendant or seed exist at that time? Not at all. It didn't exist. All the existence of it was merely in the promise of God. SPEAKER D Which is so interesting, because when we make a statement about something that as though it existed and it doesn't exist, we call that a lie. SPEAKER C That's right, yes. SPEAKER D It's like, I have a million dollars in my bank account. I don't. And that would be a lie for me to say that, but when God says something, he makes a promise. He makes a pledge about something that doesn't exist. His very word is so powerful that it actually makes it reality, right? SPEAKER C So we see that example in creation, don't we, when God said, Let there be light, was there light before he spoke? No, there wasn't. But as soon as he spoke it, he commanded it. It stood fast. The Bible says he spoke and it was done. So it's the same way here with Abraham. He's waiting for Abraham to believe His Word, because the only thing that interferes or delays anything, quite often our relationship with the Lord is our unbelief. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C Now, Abraham did believe initially, but then he got distracted because there was a bit of a delay in what he thought should happen. So then he decided to help God. But when the time came and he fully believed, god was able to do that, and we know that he had a son, it's remarkable that God, in spite of ourselves, in spite of our physical body, our designs, our shapes, our weaknesses, he's able to fulfill his promises to us. Now, I want to ask you this question because we hold Abraham in high regard. He is the father of the faithful, and we are of the like faith. If we believe just like Abraham believed, and walk in the same steps of faith as Abraham did, as it says there in Romans chapter four. But was Abraham an ungodly man? SPEAKER D Through the story, we have the record. We don't have all of the record, but we see quite a number of times where he demonstrates ungodliness, and ungodliness is any behavior or thought or behavior that's contrary to God's character. And here we have a moment where he totally denies his relationship with his wife. He actually lies as well. SPEAKER C It's a half truth, but it's still a lie, because the most important relationship there was the marriage covenant. SPEAKER D That's right. And so he actually, just to save his own hide, lies about the relationship he has with his wife and is willing to have Pharaoh take her to be his wife. To be his wife. And he doesn't stand up to protect his wife. He demonstrates cowardice and dishonesty and unfaithfulness to his own wife. SPEAKER C So there's a number of commandments broken there. It's not just about the lying. It's also about the unfaithfulness to his wife. And he only doesn't do it once. He does it twice, because with Bimelek, he repeats the same thing again, and then God, through a miracle, actually protects him in spite of his weakness at that time. So the Bible tells us in Romans, chapter four and verse five, that God actually justifies the ungodly. So we now remember Abraham as a man of faith, strong in faith, because he demonstrates that towards the end of his life, well, when he was about 100 years old and onwards, but before that he did some ungodly things. That's right now we're saying this not to denigrate Abraham because we hold him in high regard. He's an example of what we want to be as well in a relationship to the Lord. He was a friend of God. But if we are finding ourselves ungodly, these are exactly the people that God can use. He uses weak people. Now, I want to go to another text. This is just in Romans chapter sorry, I just want to go to another text. This is in one Corinthians chapter one, where God actually explains to us that he uses the things that typically men would not look at to use because they seem defective and they don't seem to be able to fit the requirements of the responsibilities or the roles. And then one Corinthians chapter one, verse 27, it says, but God has chosen. So what is God chosen? The foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty. And it says and the base things of the world, the things which are despised, God has chosen and the things which are not to bring nothing to the things that are. Now, God chooses these things. He chooses weak things. And out of these weaknesses, he says that people were made strong. We even have that in Hebrews chapter eleven of verse 34 that says that these people, these giants of faith like Abraham was out of weakness, were made strong. Why? Because they claimed the promises of God. And the promises of God is based on His Word, what he's promised, what he's spoken. And the creative power of God is in his word. So when we receive that and believe it, we receive the benefits of it. And it's the same way with Abraham. SPEAKER D And it's same with the apostle Paul. Jesus said to him, my strength is made perfect in your weakness. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D And it's so interesting because God is calling us to be and to do something that is just mind bogglingly impossible. God is calling us to be holy. The Bible says in Peter it says, be holy, for I am holy. God is calling us to be and to do something amazing. But the problem is when we are confronted with the vision of what God wants us to be, kind of like when Abraham was confronted with the vision of you're going to have many descendants, we immediately look to ourselves and try. SPEAKER C To look at our own body and go, that's not going to happen. SPEAKER D That's not going to happen. And then we will try to problem solve and brainstorm to get around it. And we actually forget that God is not interested in us just coming up with some plan. He's actually wanting to do a miracle in our lives. And I want to just point out an analogy here. When it says that abraham did not consider his own body. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D Or the deadness of sarah's womb. Just imagine etin. If you were at the olympics and we're just thrown out there on the track to do a marathon to represent this country. SPEAKER C Okay. SPEAKER D How are you going to feel, mate? SPEAKER C I've probably got 30 kilos too much on me to start off with running a marathon. I'm running at about half the pace that these guys typically would run because they're running close to 20. They're probably just shy of that at times, and sometimes they're at 20. For me, that's almost at 100 meters sprint. But these guys are doing that for over 2 hours. There's no way I can do that because looking at my body shape, I'm just not capable of producing that. Maybe if you said to me, try the javelin or the shop where I go, oh, maybe I can get close to it. But then I look at these guys. They are giants. They are huge men with a lot of momentum behind what they do. I don't even think I could qualify for that, to be honest. SPEAKER D Well, if I was put into a position where I had to represent the country, our country, here in australia, let me pick one. SPEAKER C Weightlifting. SPEAKER D Weightlifting. I would feel so uncomfortable because I would very, very naturally, just like you just did, consider my own body, I would look at it, and I would make a quick analysis. I wouldn't even have to think about it. I would know that I'm not cut out for this. SPEAKER C What about a few years of training behind you? Do you think it will make a difference? SPEAKER D Probably not. I can't put on weight even if I try, but yeah. So I would feel very, very vulnerable in that position. I'd look at the limitations of my body, and I would look for the exit, and I would exit the building right. Because I know that I'm not cut out for that. And it would just end in embarrassment. Trying to lift just such even a little weight off the ground, I'd be struggling with it. We naturally look to our bodies. There's so many different circumstances that even our listener might be able to relate to. When you're invited to do something or encouraged to do something, and you look at your body shape, your height, your strength, and you go, no, I'll back out of that one. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D It was very natural for us to assess our own limitations. And then make a judgment call on it. But god is not calling us to follow him in our own strength and based upon human strength, he tells a couple who've tried to have kids for their entire life and can't. Now they're too old to have kids. And he says, you're going to have kids. And so rather than looking to the limitations. And trying to work a way around that, abraham came to the place where he embraced the fact that he couldn't, and he started to believe that God could. SPEAKER C Yeah. That's incredible. It's almost like looking going back to our original story of that disaster that happened at the Genoa, which is the bridge in Italy that collapsed. It's like someone who has been flunking their exam studying engineering, civil engineering, and they keep on flunking it, and then someone goes, Listen, I think you can design a sturdy bridge will never collapse. And we're going to have trucks and heavy equipment, everything go over this bridge. Matter of fact, it's going to go over at a rate of 60,000 vehicles a day, come and design this bridge. And then you look at yourself and go, I have flunked every single exam. I can't even count properly. SPEAKER D I can't even make a leg. SPEAKER C Now someone's telling me that a bridge is going to be designed. That's almost the mindset you've got to look at for Abraham, because Abraham now realizes, look, there's no way that they can fulfill the promise of God. He's got to go beyond that. So something else over and above what he's able to do needs to happen. And how does that happen? By the promise of God and by the word of God that God said, I will do this. SPEAKER D Because it's interesting. You were saying that there was an engineers report this that was brought out was it in 79? SPEAKER C 79. So almost 40 years. There was an engineer that it collapsed. SPEAKER D The report brought out that this was not everyone thought it was an engineering marvel, but this engineering report said that this is actually a hazard. This is not structurally sound. There's problems with it. And it seems to be that people didn't pay attention to that engineering report. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D And years rolled by. So much confidence was placed in the engineering, the structure. People had so much confidence that it would never fall. And here we are only 40 years later, and it fell. SPEAKER C The engineers report has actually proven to be correct, although it took almost 40 years for that to happen. SPEAKER D And are you going to Romans two? SPEAKER C Well, you can go to Romans Two. I was actually going to the building on the rock and what Jesus said about that and what that means, but go ahead with Romans two first. SPEAKER D So romans two. Sorry. Romans, chapter three, we have God's engineering report. SPEAKER C Okay. SPEAKER D When he's looking at our lives and from his divine assessment, being the engineer of the universe, the one who formed us and fashioned us, this is his engineering report. Looking at the planet, he says, there is none righteous. No, not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seek after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good. No, not one. Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues, they practice deceit the poison of snakes, or ASPs is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known, and there is no fear of God before their eyes. SPEAKER C So that's the engineering report. SPEAKER D That's the engineering report. When God makes an assessment of you and me in our own selves and in our flesh, he says, that's what you're like. And in fact, in Job chapter 14, the question is asked who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing? SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D No, not one. No one can. And so here we are. That's not a really nice list to read through. It really confronts our pride as human beings, and we're confronted that there's actually no one who's capable of being and doing good in a genuine, pure sense. But Abraham, just as like we all do, we struggle to be confronted with the engineering report. We ignore it. Some people have ignored it for their entire lifetime, and only at the very end of their lives. They embrace the engineering report from God and just recognize that they have nothing that they can contribute, that there's nothing that they can do to save themselves or to become what God has called them to be. And in humility, they call that God and saying, god, please save me. Please help me. And so Abraham came to the place eventually where he embraced the engineering report. He had to learn it the hard way. Don't we all like to choose the hard way so often? SPEAKER C Unfortunately, yes. SPEAKER D He embraced the report, and he recognized that the only appropriate thing to do now is not to go trying to find another hagar or to find another servant. Or he comes to the place where he says, okay, I believe that you, God, will give me a child. I do not understand how you're going to do it, but I believe you will. He no longer just trusted in his own body or looked at the limitations. He just said, god, you're bigger than my limitations. I know that you can bring life out of this dead body. And in a similar way, God is wanting us to realize that our dead bodies, spiritual lives, which are there's no righteousness, there's pollution, there's darkness. God says, I can bring life, spiritual life, God's character, out of that dark place if you're willing to let me and trust my promises. SPEAKER C So it's really recognizing our own deficiency in our inability to deliver on what the requirements are. This engineers report back in 1979, this man, to actually come to those conclusions, would have had a framework to judge it by. He would have looked at the materials he used. He would have looked at the length of the span. He would have looked at how strong the materials were, different places, their durability and all those things, the support from above. And he would have said, this doesn't meet the criteria. Now, the way we determine that is actually by the law of God. And you read there in Romans, chapter three, verse 19 says that we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. So the engineer report is based on a standard. We also have an engineer's report, as you just read it there before. And the standard that was measured against is the law of God. It's a law of self sacrificing love. We put God first above everything else and fully trust Him and then the other one. Our relationship to one another is also manifest in self sacrificing love, which is the second part of the law. You have to love your neighbor as yourself. And we all have sinned and fallen short of the standard. But ultimately God says, I will build that bridge. Your bridge won't last. You may look like you succeed for a little while, but when the storm comes, all of a sudden the bridge is going to collapse. Then you recognize the fact that your bridge was never good enough. Trust me, I've promised that I will do it and I will succeed in doing it. Matter of fact, look to my son there. You can see my success already. So that's beautiful. Now the other thing I wanted to just touch on is Matthew, chapter seven and verse 24, because we're talking about God's promises that whatever God says, he will fulfill because in his word, there is creative power. He calls those things that do not exist as though they do. He gives life to the dead. But Jesus here in his Sermon on the Mount, he's now just wrapping up his Sermon on the Mount. Matthew, chapter five, chapter six and chapter seven. So we're at the end of chapter seven. From verse 24. It says, therefore, Jesus says, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. So these people, when they built their engineer, the engineers, when they built the original engineers, actually built a faulty bridge. It would last for a little while, but it wouldn't last the lifetime of the bridge that it was supposed to. So then we look at the opposite of that, verse 26. But whoever who hears these sayings of Jesus but does not do them, he will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. Now, the guy who built his house on the rock in verse 25 says the rain descended, the floods came just like the storm came to that bridge, and the winds blew and beat on that house. And it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock, but the one who built on the sand. So the one who heard the words and then ignored them, he just didn't. SPEAKER A Do them. SPEAKER C It says, the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell, and great was its fall. In the same way, we see that those poor people who drove over their bridge, 43 people, lost their lives simply because a report wasn't believed that was actually written. An engineer's report back in 1979 that said, this great engineering marvel that you claim to be marvelous is actually not marvelous at all. It's a death trap. And it's the same with us. If we believe the engineers report in Romans, chapter three, we will also no longer look to our own body. But just like Abraham did by faith, we will look to Jesus Christ, who is perfect, who is our justification. And as it told us there in Romans chapter four, and the very last verse, it says that Jesus was delivered because of our offenses, he was delivered because of our sin, and he was raised because of our justification. So, dear listener, we pray that God would bless you as you come to a realization of your own need before the Lord, and then not look into yourself, but look into Jesus Christ and his promises for salvation and eternal life is our prayer. We look forward to catching up with you next time. God be with you. SPEAKER B Thank you for joining us on Faith. To Faith. If you would like more information about today's program or if you have any questions, please contact 3ABN Australia Radio by Phoning. 02 4973 3456. Or you can send an email to [email protected] You can also contact us on our 3ABN Australia radio Facebook page. We'd love to hear from you.