Grapevine Ministries
Messages from the bible to uplift and encourage those that need a word from the Lord, to strengthen their faith. Ps Phillip Barker is an itinerant pastor in Perth, Western Australia.
Grapevine Ministries
Unlocking Scripture's Wisdom for Spiritual Growth
What if following the footsteps of biblical figures could transform your spiritual journey? This episode of Grapevine Ministries explores the profound role of imitation in faith, using scriptural examples like Matthew 16:24 and 1 Corinthians 11:1. I share my personal experience of reading the Bible from cover to cover, overcoming challenges, and discovering rich insights that have strengthened my daily Christian walk. Join me as we reflect on how learning from Jesus and other godly leaders can guide us on our path.
Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are in the world - Welcome to Grapevine Ministries.
Welcome back to Great Mind Ministries. So today we're going to do things a little bit differently. I spoke about this last week, and the easiest way of doing this is if we have to make sure that we do this according to Matthew 16.24. Christians are those who follow Christ, who learn from him, who follow the examples that he set. But it's not just Christians and Christ that we follow. We follow other godly leaders and the same way we follow Paul. 1 Corinthians 11.1,. As Paul said, be imitators of me as I am of Christ. In other words, as Paul's life imitated the life of Jesus, we should follow him, and I believe that this also applies today with our local pastors, spiritual leaders. Remember, your leaders are those who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. It talks about this in Hebrews 13.7. The Christian life is a life of following. We follow Jesus, we follow after others who are following him. But it's not only the New Testament that gives us worthy examples of who to follow, that gives us worthy examples of who to follow, because we always have to be aware of following the wrong person. So today I'm going to look at the faith of Abraham and following him.
Speaker 1:Now it comes from Romans 4, and this morning, the Lord willing, we will finish an overview of this wonderful chapter. Now, a dear friend of mine gave me this and set a challenge for me to try and get me to have a deeper understanding of what the scripture was all about, and so I had to read it. Well, I didn't have to, but the challenge was set for me to read Romans 4 every day and, where possible, read it aloud, and to do this for two consecutive weeks. So I'm going to give you the same challenge and I did this once before setting a challenge with you and all it is is that it's a reminder of the fact that we need to make sure that we can actually strengthen our faith by being encouraged by others. It's not really a command or a challenge or anything like that, anything like that. If we put it another way, it's basically more along the lines of that. We inspire others to do things and others inspire us to do things, all related to the Word of God. That's, realistically, what I'm doing to anybody who's listening to this and anybody who gets revelation knowledge out of this message that they would pass it on to someone else and hopefully they will receive the same sort of message out of it or something similar.
Speaker 1:I'll give you another example. I mean, I always make a point of reading the Bible every morning. I go through my devotionals and I always try and you know, work on a different plan and fulfill not only the plan but what it's actually telling me to do as well. In doing that, the thing is that I will get some inspiration from that to actually help me in my everyday life as I walk as a Christian, more able to help others when others approach me and ask me about things in relation to the word of God. And it goes back to a sermon that I heard many, many years ago, where the question was put towards the congregation that you know had we actually read the entire Bible from cover to cover? So how many people had done that? And there was a very small number of hands that went up, and I'll be totally honest with you, mine wasn't one of them. Mine wasn't one of them, and so I decided that I would take that challenge up myself, without any further encouragement, I decided to read the Bible from cover to cover.
Speaker 1:Now, I had several attempts at this. So, in full disclosure, I would say that I failed miserably on several attempts. What I learned and I hope that this will help others is that if you try and read it like a book, like a novel or a story of some kind, from cover to cover you'll crash and burn because you've got to realise that the first five books of the Bible are realistically the most treacherous, as getting through All the begats and you know you're looking at numbers and Deuteronomy and you know the complexity of what they're trying to put across would put anybody to sleep. So I learned from a you know I picked this up from a Bible that I was given from some very dear friends of ours, and what I started doing is I would read a chapter in the Old Testament and then I'd jump forward and read a chapter in the New Testament.
Speaker 1:But I keep a record of what I'm doing and over the extent of a year I literally read the entire Bible and in full disclosure, I will also tell you that I read more than the entire Bible, because sometimes you get stuck on a particular passage of scripture or a particular chapter or even one of the books, and you get stuck on it because you think, wow, this has got some real golden nuggets in it. So I want to actually do that, and that's what I did. And I mean there were certain things like, you know, matthew, one of the gospels you know, and also james, and so so I I sort of ended up with my favorites and I may have read them more than just a few times, but I still managed to complete from gen Genesis to Revelation in an entire year, and that's why I talk about this at the beginning of all my sermons, that I am teaching on everything between Genesis and Revelation and everything in between. If it is the written word of God, then I am going to speak on it. And this is where I'm getting back to this particular passage of Scripture, and it's Romans, chapter 4. I don't know why, in particular, this friend of mine wanted me to read it, but from my perspective, what I got out of it was following the faith of Abraham. You could do no wrong. Now you've got to remember everybody's saying oh, okay, but that's Old Testament, we're under a new covenant, we're under the New Testament, so we're no longer under law, we're under faith, which is true, but you've got to understand that Jesus came to fulfill the prophecies and he did that. But he didn't say I've fulfilled all that is written in the Old Testament, and I mean, sorry, the Old Testament, and that's no longer relevant because it's a type in the shadow of the New Testament anyway, because it's a type in the shadow of the New Testament anyway.
Speaker 1:And there are many references through the New Testament that point us back to the scriptures in the Old Testament. This is one in particular. So, through Romans, chapter 4, the main focus is Abraham. So, lord willing, I'm going to be able to get through this, but I can't guarantee that. But we'll see how we go. Now, paul, when he's talking about Abraham, he mentions him by name seven times. Paul also uses the pronoun he, him, you another 26 times to refer to Abraham, and that means that Abraham is mentioned more times than there are verses. So you can see what Paul's doing here. Paul's burden in this chapter is really quite simple. He wants to show us all that the gospel that he is proclaiming is no different than the gospel in the Old Testament.
Speaker 1:Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. We believe God and it is counted to us also as righteousness. Genesis 15.6 says this Abraham believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness. And that was true of Abraham and it's true of us today. Romans 4.5 says this To the one who believes in him, who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. The only thing that is different is the object of our faith, for Abraham never knew of Jesus by name and I doubt that he fully understood the need of sacrifices for sins. He fully understood the need of sacrifices for sins, but what Abraham did know, he believed. He had a direct promise of God to bless him and his offspring and he believed and God counted it to him as righteous. Now, the object of our faith is not a direct promise from God to bless us and our offspring. The promise that God has given us is to believe in Jesus the Messiah, to believe that he was crucified for our sins and to believe that he was raised for our sins and to believe that he was raised for our justification. And we know that if we believe in Christ, we will count our faith as righteous. This comes before any religious work or effort that we do.
Speaker 1:Paul made the point in Romans 4.10 that Abraham was counted righteous before he was circumcised. Paul makes this point in Romans 4.13 that Abraham was counted righteousness before the law was given to Israel, because our justification for the law doesn't depend on our circumcision or baptism or keeping the law or following some sort of rule. No, we are justified by faith alone. In fact, that's the whole point of Romans, chapter 4. Look at Romans 5.1, where we have a summary of the chapter. Paul writes this Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord, jesus Christ. In other words, paul was saying this. This is my interpretation, all right. Therefore, this is the conclusion that we must draw from Romans 4 and also from the life of Abraham that we are justified by faith and the call of our verses this morning is to be a follower of faith of Abraham. So, in your own time, just read through this section, right? I highly recommend you read the whole chapter to get it in its right perspective Romans 4, 18 to 25.
Speaker 1:No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness, but the words it was counted to him were written for our sake alone, for ours also is counted for. Righteousness is counted for righteousness. It will be counted to us who believe in him, who raised from the dead Jesus, our Lord, who was delivered up by our trespasses and raised for our justification. So here's my first point I'm trying to get through at the moment believe in god's promise, which is verse 18 to 20. This is exactly what abraham did. He believed in god's promise and it was wasn't easy and it isn't easy for us today.
Speaker 1:Romans 4, 18 and 20. In hope, he believed, against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told. So shall your offspring be. He did not weaken in faith when he was considered his own body, which was good as dead since he was about 100 years old, or when he was considered the baroness of Sarah's womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew stronger in his face as he gave glory to God. Now let's ask the question do you remember the promise that God gave Abraham? The Lord took him aside at night and told him to look up into the dark sky and try to count the stars, and the Lord said so shall your offspring be.
Speaker 1:This is Genesis 15, 5. Now that it wouldn't be so difficult to believe, except that he was a bit on the old side, just a tad. In less than three months, revealing everything here, I'm turning 67 years old, I'm the father of two children and at the moment praise God, there'll be more I have two grandchildren and I can hardly think of being a father again. But Abraham was nearly 40 years older than me and when God told him that he would be a father of a multitude of nations in Genesis 17, 5, he was childless at 99 years of age and his wife Sarah was 90 years old. 99 years of age and his wife Sarah was 90 years old. I have a regular listener who is 94 and I can assure you that Glenis could not even fathom the thought of having a child at her age. Children simply aren't born to 90 plus year old people. That's a fact, because even in the Guinness Book of Records, the person who holds the oldest mother who gave birth without artificial fertilization was 59. Dawn Brooke was her name. She lived in the UK. Now, also, if you want to get pedantic with artificial fertilization, the world record is someone who is 66 years old. Both of those records are amazing, but they're still a long way short of being 90 and, from what I know from the Bible, these statistics are wrong.
Speaker 1:Abraham had every reason in the world to doubt the promise of God, and yet we read in verse 18 that he believed in the hope. He believed against hope. That's when all natural hope seems lost. Abraham continued to believe. Now, it's not that Abraham refused to think about things. On the contrary, he thought about them very hard. Look at verse 19,. Romans 4, 19. He did not weaken in faith when he was considered by his own body, which was as good as dead, since he was about 100 years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. He considered the reality of the situation. He thought about his own body. He thought about how old he was. He thought about the possibility of being a father. His conclusion his body was as good as dead. That means that there was no way that he was able to father a child at his age.
Speaker 1:Verse 19 speaks of how accurately he evaluated things. It's like he took out a pen and paper and tried as hard as he could to do the maths. It wasn't like the 50-year-old who had you know, could go out and complete. It just wasn't viable. You can't get a 50-year-old ex-basketball player to go out and compete with a 20-year-old. It just especially if you're playing against someone like Michael Jordan it's just not viable. He knew full well that he was washed up. His fathering days were well and truly over. But when he considered Sarah's body, he came to the same conclusion she was barren, she was 90. Conclusion she was barren, she was 90. If she had have given birth to a first 90-year-old person in her life, there would be little hope that she would be able to give birth or let alone survive the pregnancy.
Speaker 1:But in these insurmountable difficulties, abraham believed. It's hard to even imagine faith that strong to actually be able to look at everything in the natural and then jump straight into the supernatural and just say but God, see, it didn't weaken his faith. He didn't waver in his faith. Instead, he grew stronger in his faith and it's so doing in the Lord. He gave glory to God, and that's in verse 19 and 20. Romans 4, 19 to 20. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promises of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God. The very things that could have pulled him down into unbelief. The fact of his life that were working against the promise of God, like his age and his wife's age, had no effect upon his age. And Paul is calling us this morning to be followers of the faith of Abraham.
Speaker 1:Now in life, all of us, there are seasons of blessings and there are seasons of trials, and I know that some of you are facing very difficult trials in your life right now. Some of you are experiencing difficulties with your children, some of you are facing challenges in your marriage, and certainly I know for a fact that there are problems and difficulties in people's lives that I know nothing about, but they're heavy upon your heart. Perhaps there are financial difficulties financial difficulties. Perhaps you have some major life decisions that are still stirring in your mind and perhaps you have some relational conflicts that you are facing. I'm simply asking you if you are going to follow the faith of Abraham, are you going to trust in the promise of God?
Speaker 1:Now, unlike Abraham, you haven't received any direct revelation from God about your situation. I believe this is why my friend Julie set this chapter and this challenge for me, but, just like me, you do have promises in the Word of God. You have promises in Romans that you can turn to. How about the promise of Romans 8.28? One of the most famous, well-loved promises in the Bible, romans 8.28. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Are you willing and are you going to trust in this promise? Are you going to trust that God has promised to work these trials in your life for good, trials in your life for good?
Speaker 1:Now, you may not understand how in the world this might come to pass. You could sit down with pen and paper in hand and try to figure it out and you may figure that there is no way that you can get through your situation. That's right where Abraham was. There was no conceivable way that he saw God fulfilling that promise. And yet he didn't weaken in his faith and he didn't waver in his faith. He became stronger in his faith. He gave glory to God.
Speaker 1:I don't know about you, but you know trying to emulate the faith of Abraham is a tall order. And let me put it another way. I mean, let's just say, as a young swimmer, someone comes up to you and says you have the potential to be a gold medalist in the Olympic Games, to be a gold medalist in the Olympic Games. And yet when you're swimming and you're competing locally, you're getting beaten all the time. But someone plants that seed in you and all of a sudden you get that revelation, knowledge that you can achieve that. But in the natural, nothing looks like that.
Speaker 1:I don't know firsthand experience, but I can tell you right now, okay, that all of those swimmers that go to the Olympic Games, there was a time in their life when they couldn't even place in a race, let alone win one. And so there are great swimmers in the world, there are fantastic swimmers in the world, but there's only 1% in the entire world's population that have the ability to be able to compete in the Olympic Games. And out of that 1% of all the swimmers in the world, only 0.005% are going to stand on the diocese with the medal around their neck. And even when you miss out on the medals, a lot of people forget that you are in that 1% club. You know? Oh, he missed out on a medal. He's shattered. His world's come to an end. Excuse me, where were you okay, when Peter stepped out of the boat? All right.
Speaker 1:There was 12 disciples, but only one went to Jesus when he was called. And everybody says, oh that. He took his eyes off of Jesus, he lacked faith and he started to sink. But everybody forgets the simple fact that he actually stepped out of the boat in the first place. Nobody else did that. He was walking on water as Jesus was, was walking on water as Jesus was, and it says time and time again in the scriptures greater things will we do than he has done. So if he's walked on water, if he's raised the dead, if he's made the lame walk, he's brought sight back to the blind, he's opened up deaf ears, then the potential is there for us to believe in God's power working through us. Romans 4, 20 to 21,. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promises of God. Belief made him waver concerning the promises of God, but he grew strong in his faith and he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
Speaker 1:It is a powerful passage of scripture and even though I've read it many, many times, not until I was set this challenge did I truly understand what was actually being spoken about in that passage of scripture. I mean, I could go on and on and on. I mean there are so many different passages. I mean Genesis 18.1,. He lifted his eyes and three men were standing in front of him. Genesis 18.2,. As it turned out, there were no ordinary men, in fact, one of them was identified as the Lord. No ordinary men, in fact, one of them was identified as the Lord. Genesis 18.10, right through Genesis.
Speaker 1:Then we look at Luke 1.35-37. Yes, I'm getting excited. I'm getting excited because I've actually received a revelation, knowledge out of that passage of scripture that was just not necessarily randomly given to me, but there was hope and faith behind it. Luke 1.35-37 says the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God. And behold, your relative, elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren, for nothing will be impossible to God.
Speaker 1:I can go on and on, and on and on. You know so many passages which convince us and tell us very, very clearly. Look at Romans 4.20. Abraham was strengthened in his faith, and I mean I could cover this over three or four messages. You need to believe in the scriptures. Your messages you need to believe in the scriptures. Verse 20 to 24 in Romans 4 says that is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness. But the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone, but also for ours.
Speaker 1:If I can do nothing else, I want to encourage you, and I haven't covered even half of what I wanted to talk about today, but I'm going to set the challenge with you now.
Speaker 1:Right, let's see if you can get some revelation, knowledge, or at least some inspiration and some understanding of this powerful passage of Scripture. So Romans 4 is the passage of scripture. So Romans 4 is the passage of scripture. Read it aloud at least once a day, every day for two weeks, and see whether you are inspired as much as I am, knowing that God will do what he said he would do, because he cannot lie and the word is alive and living in us. And as long as we continue to be in his word and our faith will be strengthened and we will be right standing with our Father, strengthened, and we will be right standing with our father and we can be overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony, because god is going to do great and mighty things in our life, because jesus christ dwells within us. Thanks for listening and we'll talk to you next time and hopefully I won't be as excited and I can just bring a powerful message on the word of God, amen.
