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DWDP-Gen 15: 1-6 Abrams Faith Credited as Righteousness · More Than Medicine

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: Hosted by author and physician, Dr.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Robert Jackson.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: Papa, can you tell me a story?
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_02: Do you really want me to tell you a story?
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you go get your brother and your sisters, and I will tell you a story.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Devotions with Dr.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: Papa.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: Gather round, grab your Bibles, and let us look into the written word which reveals to us the living word, who is our Lord Jesus Christ.
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  SPEAKER_02: Well now we're at Genesis chapter fifteen, verses one through six.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: Your rewards shall be very great.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: Abram said, O Lord God, what will you give me since I am childless?
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  SPEAKER_02: And the heir of my house is Eliazar of Damascus.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: And Abram said, Since you have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: Then behold the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This man will not be your heir, but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: And he took him outside and said, Now look toward the heavens and count the stars.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: If you are able to count them, and he said to him, So shall your descendants be.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: Then Abram believed in the Lord, and he reckoned it to him as righteousness.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: Now start back at Genesis chapter one, verse one.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: Let me ask you a question.
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  SPEAKER_02: Does the word of the Lord ever come to you?
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  SPEAKER_02: You see in verse one it says after these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision.
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  SPEAKER_02: Probably not in a vision.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_02: The word of the Lord doesn't come to you and me in a vision, but it does come to you and me in multiple other ways.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: And as I introduce this God someday as a Bible teaching podcast and devotions with Dr.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: Papa, every time I introduce this podcast, I say to you, let us open the written word which reveals to us the living word who is our Lord Jesus Christ.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: And every time you hear a pastor stand in the pulpit and proclaim, Thus saith the Lord, the word of the Lord has come to you through that pastor preaching, through my podcast, and every time you hear a radio Bible teacher or a podcast Bible teacher or a Sunday school Bible teacher, the word of the Lord has come to you.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: Every time you pick up your Bible to read it, or you read a gospel tract, the word of the Lord has come to you, and you have to understand that the word is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intent of the heart.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: Now let me ask you another question.
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  SPEAKER_02: Why do we send our children to school?
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  SPEAKER_02: Have you ever pondered that question?
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  SPEAKER_02: One reason is to teach them to read.
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  SPEAKER_02: To read what?
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  SPEAKER_02: To read the Bible, God's holy word.
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  SPEAKER_02: Everything else they learn is just fluff.
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  SPEAKER_02: Reading the Word points them to Jesus, whom to know aright is eternal life, whom to imitate creates spirit filled Christians, and the best citizens, and the best husbands, and the best wives, and the best parents, and the best grandparents, and the best employees who serve as if unto the Lord and not as man pleasers.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: So are you teaching your children and grandchildren to read the word of the Lord every day?
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  SPEAKER_02: Are you reading the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby?
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  SPEAKER_02: Or do you and your kids and grandkids spend all your time on your devices, turning your brains and your hearts to mush?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody knows everything about their friends and neighbors' business and about pop stars from Facebook, but they know nothing about Abraham or Moses or Jesus' disciples, as Gomer Powell used to say for shame for shame for shame.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_02: Amos the prophet predicted there would be a famine in the land of hearing the word of the Lord.
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  SPEAKER_02: I walked in an exam room one day at my office and sat down and this grandmother said to me, watch this.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: Then her five-year-old granddaughter rattled off all the books of the Old Testament and then the books of the New Testament from memory.
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  SPEAKER_02: That grandmother and her granddaughter were both equally proud of that accomplishment.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: What are you teaching your grandchildren?
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  SPEAKER_02: When and how will the word of the Lord come to your children and grandchildren?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_02: If it's going to be, it's up to me.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_02: Say that with me.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_02: If it's going to be, it's up to me.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_02: And if it's going to happen in your family, dear listener, it's up to you.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: Now still in verse one, of what was Abram afraid?
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  SPEAKER_02: Was he afraid of retribution by the five kings he had just slaughtered?
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  SPEAKER_02: Or maybe his pagan idol worshiping neighbors?
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  SPEAKER_02: Who knows?
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  SPEAKER_02: Maybe he was still in shock from meeting Jesus in the form of Melchizedek.
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  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
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  SPEAKER_02: But God said Do not fear, I am a shield to you.
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  SPEAKER_02: Your reward shall be very great.
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  SPEAKER_02: Would you be comforted if God showed up in the middle of the night and said this to you?
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  SPEAKER_02: Of course you would be.
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  SPEAKER_02: You bet your sweet little Bippy you would be.
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  SPEAKER_02: Listen, Psalms eighty four and verse eleven promises that the Lord God is a son and shield.
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  SPEAKER_02: The Lord bestows favor and honor.
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  SPEAKER_02: No good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.
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  SPEAKER_02: Study how you walk, and make sure that you walk in righteousness.
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  SPEAKER_02: And when you walk in righteousness, the Bible promises that the Lord Himself bestows favor and honor, that He will be a son and a shield to you, and that no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.
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  SPEAKER_02: But then he promised Abraham's reward would be great, which is a repetition of his former promise to make him a great nation and make his name great.
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  SPEAKER_02: And then in verse two and three, this perplexed Abram since he had no offspring, no children, only a man's servant named Eliazar.
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  SPEAKER_02: And in verse four, God spoke to him and he said, O contrario, Abram, he said, This man Eliazar is not going to be the one who will be your heir.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: And in fact, he says, This man will not be your heir, but one will come from your own body, and he shall be your heir.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: And in verse five he said that your descendants will be as many as the stars.
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  SPEAKER_02: He said, Look up into the sky and see and count the stars if you can.
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  SPEAKER_02: And he says, Your descendants will be as many as the stars in the sky.
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  SPEAKER_02: And then in verse six is a pivotal Old Testament verse.
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  SPEAKER_02: And notice what God did not promise to give Abram.
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  SPEAKER_02: He did not promise him health or wealth or fame or fortune.
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  SPEAKER_02: God gave him what he needed the most.
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  SPEAKER_02: In fact, he gave him what you and I need the most.
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  SPEAKER_02: He gave him righteousness.
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  SPEAKER_02: God credited to Abram's spiritual account righteousness, and it says that he did so because of Abram's faith.
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  SPEAKER_02: Now let's read verse six again.
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  SPEAKER_02: This is one of the critical verses in the Old Testament.
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  SPEAKER_02: You need to know this verse by memory.
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  SPEAKER_02: Genesis 15 and verse 6.
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  SPEAKER_02: Then he, that's Abram, he believed in the Lord, and he reckoned it to him as righteousness.
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  SPEAKER_02: Now this means he believed God's promise.
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  SPEAKER_02: And God credited, he reckoned to Abram, he reckoned this faith to him as righteousness.
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  SPEAKER_02: He credited to Abram's spiritual account, the very righteousness of God because of his faith.
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  SPEAKER_02: Now, what does that have to do with you and me?
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  SPEAKER_02: Well, it reminds me of a verse in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 5 21, where it says that God made him, talking about Jesus, made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
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  SPEAKER_02: What a wonderful verse.
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  SPEAKER_02: What a lovely verse.
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  SPEAKER_02: You see, God laid on him the iniquity of us all.
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  SPEAKER_02: That's what the prophet Isaiah says.
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  SPEAKER_02: God made him who knew no sin, the perfect, pure, and holy Son of God.
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  SPEAKER_02: He made him who knew no sin to be sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
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  SPEAKER_02: Now here's the bugaboo.
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  SPEAKER_02: Mine and your self righteousness is considered by God to be filthy rags.
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  SPEAKER_02: Filthy rags in Bible parlance, in Bible speak, describes the cloth that a woman used to collect her menstrual flow, or that a patient with an abscess used to collect the corruption from his abscess.
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  SPEAKER_02: And God says that your self righteousness is filthy rags.
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  SPEAKER_02: Would God accept the filthy rags of our self righteousness?
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  SPEAKER_02: No, of course not.
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  SPEAKER_02: There is nothing you or I can do to erase a single sin.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: But like Abram, we can by faith trust in the work of Jesus on the cross, in paying our sin debt, in taking our place, in taking our punishment, in dying our death.
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  SPEAKER_02: And in that throbbing moment of trust, God would lay on him our iniquity and transfer to us his righteousness.
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  SPEAKER_02: Credit to our spiritual account the righteousness of Jesus Christ, in the same way that he credited to Abram righteousness, not because of any merit that Abram possessed, and not because of any merit that you or I might possess, but simply because we trusted in the blood of Jesus.
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  SPEAKER_02: Simply because Abram trusted in the reliability of God's promise.
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  SPEAKER_02: Now let me ask you this.
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  SPEAKER_02: Is that fair?
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  SPEAKER_02: Is that equitable?
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  SPEAKER_02: No, it's not fair, but it is just.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: And God is the justifier of the just when He lays our sin on His Son and credits His Son's righteousness to our account.
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  SPEAKER_02: For by grace, dear brothers and sisters, by grace are you saved through faith.
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  SPEAKER_02: And that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God and not of works, lest any man should boast.
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  SPEAKER_02: Whether in the Old Testament or the New Testament, all are saved by faith.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: Faith in the promise of God, faith in the completed work of Jesus Christ.
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  SPEAKER_02: My friend, God has promised to you eternal life in Jesus Christ, whom to know aright is eternal life.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: Run, run into the arms of Jesus, that he may wash you clean in his blood, grant you his righteousness, and transfer you from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of God's beloved Son.
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  SPEAKER_02: You're listening to devotions with Dr.
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  SPEAKER_02: Papa.
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  SPEAKER_02: If you like what you hear, I pray that you would follow, like, share, tell your family and friends, and we'll be back again next week, continuing to study about the life of Abram.
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  SPEAKER_02: And until then, remember, Jesus loves you and your doctor loves you.
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  SPEAKER_02: And until next week, I pray that the Lord will bless you real good.
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  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine.
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  SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, Instagram, or web page at Jackson Family Ministry dot com.