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Pastor Chuck Swindoll | Insight for Living – The Man Who Hoped Agains... · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: Imagine being told at ninety nine years old that you'll
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Speaker 1: father a child with your ninety year old wife. You'd
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Speaker 1: likely break out in laughter. Well, that's exactly how Abraham
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Speaker 1: responded to God's impossible promise. Yet this same outlandish situation
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Speaker 1: became the ultimate example of faith that Scripture celebrates today.
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Speaker 1: On Insight for Living, Chuckswundall explores the beautiful irony at
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Speaker 1: the heart of Christianity. We're called to trust completely and
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Speaker 1: what we cannot see to receive what seems too good
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Speaker 1: to be true, eternal life, perfect righteousness, and God's unfailing love.
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Speaker 2: In our study of the Letter to the Romans, we
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Speaker 2: find ourselves in the latter half of the fourth chapter,
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Speaker 2: where our Holy God again communicates truth for us. I
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Speaker 2: invite you to turn to Chapter four of Romans at
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Speaker 2: verse sixteen. Will begin the reading. For this reason. It
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Speaker 2: is by faith, in order that it may be in
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Speaker 2: accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed
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Speaker 2: to all the descendants, not only to those who are
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Speaker 2: of the law, but also to those who are of
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Speaker 2: the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,
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Speaker 2: as it is written, a father of many nations have
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Speaker 2: I made you in the presence of Him whom he believed,
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Speaker 2: even God who gives life to the dead and calls
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Speaker 2: into being that which does not exist. Still referring to Abraham,
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Speaker 2: Paul continues in hope against hope. He believed so that
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Speaker 2: he might become a father of many nations, according to
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Speaker 2: that which had been spoken, so shall your descendants be.
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Speaker 2: Without becoming weak in faith, he contemplated his own body
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Speaker 2: now as good as dead, since he was about one
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Speaker 2: hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. Yet
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Speaker 2: with respect to the promise of God, he did not
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Speaker 2: waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory
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Speaker 2: to God, and being fully assured that what God had
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Speaker 2: promised he was able also to perform. Therefore it was
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Speaker 2: also credited to him as righteousness. Now, not for his
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Speaker 2: sake only was it written that it was credited to him,
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Speaker 2: but for our sake, also to whom it will be credited,
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Speaker 2: as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our
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Speaker 2: Lord from the dead, He who was delivered over because
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Speaker 2: of our transgressions, and was raised of our justification.
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Speaker 1: You are listening to insight, per living to dig deeper
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Speaker 1: into the Book of Romans on your own. Be sure
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Speaker 1: to purchase our Searching the Scripture's Bible Study workbook by
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Speaker 1: going to insight dot org slash offer Chuck title today's message,
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Speaker 1: The Man who Hoped Against Hope.
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Speaker 2: Sometimes it's fun just to read a book, to relax
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Speaker 2: and enjoy it. I mean, not everything has to be
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Speaker 2: so serious all the time. And on occasion you're on
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Speaker 2: the lookout for that kind of book. Well, I've got
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Speaker 2: one to offer you, the Guinness Book of World Records.
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Speaker 2: You will not believe some stuff you read in the
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Speaker 2: Guinness Book a world record. If you like playing trivia pursuit,
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Speaker 2: it'll get you an edge on everybody else in the
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Speaker 2: game if you remember some of those facts. The most
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Speaker 2: remarkable and amazing and sometimes stupid things appear in this
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Speaker 2: Ennis Book of World Records. For example, the heaviest man
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Speaker 2: who ever lived. You have any idea how much you weigh?
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Speaker 2: The book tells us one thousand and sixty nine pounds,
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Speaker 2: not one hundred thousand, one thousand and sixty nine pounds.
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Speaker 2: When he died, he was placed in a coffin the
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Speaker 2: size of a piano. How else would you know that
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Speaker 2: if you didn't read it in that book. The tallest
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Speaker 2: man on record thirteen feet two and a half inches,
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Speaker 2: medically attested in the past one hundred years. The tallest
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Speaker 2: man eight feet eleven inches, shoe size thirty seven double A.
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Speaker 2: That's not shoes, that's skis, had to go outside to
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Speaker 2: cross his legs. The woman who had the most children
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Speaker 2: was a Russian peasant. Are you ready, ladies? She had
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Speaker 2: sixteen nine children among them sixteen sets of twins, seven
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Speaker 2: sets of triplets, four quads. We're talking litter here, friends,
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Speaker 2: not family. Now, one amazing fact I came across was
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Speaker 2: not true. Not often you get to find a mistake,
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Speaker 2: and maybe it's been corrected in later editions. But in
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Speaker 2: the one I looked at, says the oldest mother on record.
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Speaker 2: She gave birth to a baby girl in October of
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Speaker 2: nineteen fifty six in Glendale, California. She was fifty seven
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Speaker 2: years old. Now when I read that, I thought, nope,
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Speaker 2: I know of one that beat that by thirty three years.
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Speaker 2: And you knew who I was thinking about. Don't you?
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Speaker 2: Turn back to Genesis chapter seventeen, not in the Guinness Book,
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Speaker 2: but in the God's Book, and let's look at an
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Speaker 2: example of what I'm talking about. Genesis, chapter seventeen, beginning
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Speaker 2: at verse one, This is the father he soon will be.
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Speaker 2: When Abram was ninety nine years old. Isn't that a
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Speaker 2: great thought? Just stop right there, Abram is ninety nine
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Speaker 2: years old. The Lord appeared to Abram and said to him,
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Speaker 2: I am God Almighty. Walked before me, and be blameless.
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Speaker 2: Verse three. Abram fell on his face, and God talked
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Speaker 2: with him, saying, as for me, behold, my covenant is
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Speaker 2: with you, and you shall be the father of a
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Speaker 2: multitude of nations. So he really meant that, He really
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Speaker 2: promised him that. What was Abraham's response Verse seventeen, same chapter.
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Speaker 2: Then Abraham fell on his face and did just what
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Speaker 2: you would have done, man, if you would have been
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Speaker 2: ninety nine years old. He it's cocked. The Hebrew says,
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Speaker 2: the word is Isaac. That's why they named him that.
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Speaker 2: It was to be a reminder the rest of his
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Speaker 2: life that when his parents were told of his conception
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Speaker 2: and birth, the parent laughed at it. Not only did
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Speaker 2: Abraham laugh. In fact, look here at the verse he said,
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Speaker 2: in his heart, will a child be born to a
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Speaker 2: man one hundred years old? And will Sarah who is
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Speaker 2: ninety years old bear a child. Chapter eighteen, Verse one,
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Speaker 2: the Lord appeared to Abram again. This time he brought
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Speaker 2: He came in the form of three men. These apparently
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Speaker 2: were angels who came in human form, presence angels perhaps
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Speaker 2: that had been dispatched from the Throne of God to Abram.
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Speaker 2: And as he looked at them, they just looked like
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Speaker 2: ordinary men who came as visitors. They were strangers. Verse
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Speaker 2: nine of chapter eighteen tells us they said to him,
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Speaker 2: where is Sarah, your wife? Since they were strangers, how
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Speaker 2: else would they know that his wife's name was Sarah
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Speaker 2: if they had not been sent from God. So they
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Speaker 2: know her name, and Abram, no doubt, pointing over it,
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Speaker 2: says she's there in the tent. He said, I will
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Speaker 2: surely return to you at this time next year, and
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Speaker 2: behold Sarah, your wife will have a son. Watch closely.
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Speaker 2: Sarah was listening at the tent door. Can't you see
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Speaker 2: her listening to what they were saying. Sarah was past childbearing,
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Speaker 2: I hope to shout Verse twelve. Sarah laughed at herself.
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Speaker 2: She's listening on the other side of the tent flap.
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Speaker 2: She hears these guys say she's gonna have a baby. Yeah, right, sure,
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Speaker 2: after I have become old, shall I have pleasure in
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Speaker 2: my Lord being old? Also the Hebrew is a little
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Speaker 2: real here, I'll go ahead and risk it. It says literally,
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Speaker 2: Sarah laughed to herself, saying, I have become worn out?
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Speaker 2: Have I enjoyed pleasure? The idea of sexual delight? And
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Speaker 2: my Lord too is old. The whole idea is it
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Speaker 2: isn't gonna happen. It was sort of a laugh of incredulity.
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Speaker 2: This is not going to happen. H c loophold gets
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Speaker 2: the thought of what she says. The old German scholar writes,
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Speaker 2: the matter is not put very delicately by Sarah. When
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Speaker 2: you're ninety years old, until you're pregnant, you don't worry
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Speaker 2: about being too delicate about anything. Now look at this
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Speaker 2: verse thirteen. The Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh?
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Speaker 2: Please notice it's now the Lord speaking through these angels
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Speaker 2: in human form. The Lord said to Abraham, why did
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Speaker 2: Sarah laugh? Saying shall I indeed bear a child when
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Speaker 2: I am old? And look at the next question. Is
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Speaker 2: anything too difficult for the Lord? You see, the issue
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Speaker 2: really isn't Sarah, it really isn't a baby, It really
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Speaker 2: isn't being ninety. It really isn't Abraham. It's all about God.
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Speaker 2: It's all about who God is. I loved it. When
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Speaker 2: Billy Graham was asked by some critic who was interviewing him,
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Speaker 2: I mean, do you really believe that Jonah was swallowed
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Speaker 2: by a great fish without hesitation? Graham responded, I not
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Speaker 2: only believe that, I'd believe it if the Bible says
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Speaker 2: Jonah swallowed the great fish himself. There's no problem. Why
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Speaker 2: because his God is big. Because nothing is impossible with
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Speaker 2: a God who can pull off something like that, not
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Speaker 2: even something as simple as conception. To God. Eage has
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Speaker 2: nothing to do with God's power. Look at chapter twenty one.
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Speaker 2: It happens we move a year later. As we move
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Speaker 2: a few chapters, the Lord took note of Sarah, as
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Speaker 2: he had said. And the Lord did for Sarah as
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Speaker 2: he had promised. I love the way that reads as
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Speaker 2: a meter in it, as he had said, as he
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Speaker 2: had promised. So Sarah conceived. Isn't that great? Can you
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Speaker 2: believe the moment she said to Abram, Hey, Abram, I've
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Speaker 2: got news for you. She bore a son to Abraham
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Speaker 2: in his old age, at the appointed time of which
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Speaker 2: God had spoken to him. Abram called the name of
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Speaker 2: his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore
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Speaker 2: to him. Yes, look, which means he laughed. So the
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Speaker 2: boy's name was laughter. Is that a great name? As
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Speaker 2: days passed and years built up, can you imagine kids?
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Speaker 2: Can laughter come out to play today? Ishmael even taunted
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Speaker 2: Isaac with his name laughter. What a name? But by
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Speaker 2: now it's a laugh to a praise. Look at verse five.
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Speaker 2: Abram was one hundred years old when his son Isaac
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Speaker 2: was born to him. Sarah said, God has made laughter
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Speaker 2: for me. Isn't that great? This is a laughter of praise.
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Speaker 2: God has made laughter for me. Everyone who hears will
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Speaker 2: laugh with me. Who would have said to Abraham that
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Speaker 2: Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a
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Speaker 2: son in his old age. I love the thought of
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Speaker 2: that baby carriage, Sarah Abraham with a walker taking a stroll.
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Speaker 2: You have any idea how much this boy was loved
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Speaker 2: for thirty seven years. Sarah dies when she's one hundred
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Speaker 2: and twenty seven, You have any idea the affection she
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Speaker 2: had for that child, her only born child. The promise
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Speaker 2: of God she held in her hands. What does that
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Speaker 2: have to do with Romans for Everything? If you were
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Speaker 2: a Jew, you would want to know of an example
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Speaker 2: of what Paul is getting at when he says that
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Speaker 2: one is born again by grace through faith, not of works.
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Speaker 2: In fact, that's radical information. Your rabbi never taught you that.
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Speaker 2: So when Paul writes in Romans Chapter three, verse twenty eight,
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Speaker 2: we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart
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Speaker 2: from the works of the law, that would make any
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Speaker 2: Jews suck in his breath. What does he mean that
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Speaker 2: we're going to be justified by faith when all our
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Speaker 2: lives we've been taught to keep the law and live
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Speaker 2: in righteousness, and someday you will find your way to God.
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Speaker 2: Paul says, that's heresy. One fine New Testament student said
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Speaker 2: that man is incurably addicted to earning his way to heaven.
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Speaker 2: Many of you, before you came to Christ thought, in
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Speaker 2: order for you to become a child of God, you
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Speaker 2: needed to clean up your life. You needed to start
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Speaker 2: doing good work. You needed to live a life of integrity.
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Speaker 2: You needed to stop doing this and start doing that.
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Speaker 2: The vast majority of people you interview on the streets
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Speaker 2: will tell you that how do you get to heaven? Well,
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Speaker 2: I'll tell you what I'm working on it. Don't work
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Speaker 2: on it. Christ finished the work at the cross, and
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Speaker 2: the moment I received the gift of eternal life, I
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Speaker 2: am declared righteous in God's sides. Think of it this ways.
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Speaker 2: The arms that reach down out of heaven are marked
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Speaker 2: with the words grace, grace. Love that reaches up is adoration,
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Speaker 2: Love that reaches out is affection. Love that stoops is grace.
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Speaker 2: And he stoops to us in grace, reaching for us.
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Speaker 2: The arms that reach back to take his hands and
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Speaker 2: take him for his word are marked by faith, for
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Speaker 2: by grace, or you say, through faith, not as a
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Speaker 2: result of works. Lest anyone should boast now the question
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Speaker 2: why must it be like that? It's a question that
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Speaker 2: I would call a reasoning question. Why must it be
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Speaker 2: by faith? Verse sixteen begins the answer of chapter four.
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Speaker 2: For this reason, it is by faith in order that
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Speaker 2: it may be accordance in accordance with grace to uphold
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Speaker 2: the grace message from God. The only thing we have
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Speaker 2: to offer is our faith. The it see it there
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Speaker 2: in order that it may be in accordance with grace.
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Speaker 2: That's the justification, the sovereign act of God, whereby he
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Speaker 2: declares righteous the believing sinner. While we are still in
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Speaker 2: a sinning state. God sovereignly declares us righteous when we
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Speaker 2: come to the cross and acknowledge that Jesus Christ paid
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Speaker 2: the complete penalty for our sins, and there's nothing more
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Speaker 2: that needs to be done or paid or earned. Nothing.
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Speaker 2: It's called his finished work. And what I believe it
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Speaker 2: when I receive it, that grace of God is enacted
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Speaker 2: in the moment of my justification. By grace, we have
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Speaker 2: been saved through faith. You see how he puts it
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Speaker 2: so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants,
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Speaker 2: not only to those who are of the law, but
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Speaker 2: also that would be the Jews, but also who are
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Speaker 2: of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of
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Speaker 2: us all, as it is written, a father of many nations.
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Speaker 2: Have I made you because of the promise of God.
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Speaker 2: God made a promise to his friend, his child, Abraham,
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Speaker 2: and he said, I will give you a son, Abraham.
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Speaker 2: In order to accept that promise needed to set aside
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Speaker 2: human logic, human opinion, all the medical research that may
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Speaker 2: have gone into this the age of his wife, his
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Speaker 2: own age, and he trusted God to keep his word.
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Speaker 2: That kind of faith is applied in this case by
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Speaker 2: grace through faith. Julia Johnston, in the last stanza of
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Speaker 2: her song that she wrote way back when, which we've
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Speaker 2: sung since nineteen ten, concludes it with marvelous, infinite, matchless
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Speaker 2: grace freely bestowed on all who believe. Listen to those words. Marvelous, infinite, matchless,
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Speaker 2: free that's grace, that's grace. Donald Barnhouse has said it
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Speaker 2: probably better than anyone. If anyone is to be saved
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Speaker 2: by any system of works, he is never going to
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Speaker 2: have any assurance of salvation, and never will he have
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Speaker 2: any security before God. All of his time will be
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Speaker 2: spent in anxiety. Assurance and security are possible only on
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Speaker 2: the basis of the grace of God. If anyone wants
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Speaker 2: to do his part, or attempt to do any part,
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Speaker 2: he will never know whether he has done his part
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Speaker 2: or has reached the measure of the percentage that would
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Speaker 2: be necessary to get him over the line, out of
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Speaker 2: the field of the condemned and into the group of
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Speaker 2: those who were saved. Doesn't that make great sense? If
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Speaker 2: you have to earn your way. You never know when
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Speaker 2: you've earned enough, he continues. Faith in the grace of
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Speaker 2: God does not turn its attention to anything that we
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Speaker 2: have done, or to anything saying we could do. Faith
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Speaker 2: has but one object for its gaze, and that is
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Speaker 2: the promise which God has made in his grace to
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Speaker 2: do everything for the sinner, to reconcend to the account
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Speaker 2: of the Savior, and to credit the righteousness of God
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Speaker 2: to the account of the believer. As soon as we
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Speaker 2: realize that the work of the Savior is a finished work,
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Speaker 2: then there is nothing left for the sinner to do
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Speaker 2: but believe. And that's why that statement becomes so powerful
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Speaker 2: in Abraham's testimony. Watch closely now as the passage unfolds.
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Speaker 2: The one who illustrates this the best would be Abraham.
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Speaker 2: He's identified in the he of verse eighteen in hope
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Speaker 2: against hope. What does that mean? Any hope of his
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Speaker 2: wife ever conceiving, any hope of his being able to
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Speaker 2: enable that to happen. In hope against hope, Abraham believed
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Speaker 2: so that he might become a father of many nations,
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Speaker 2: according to that which had been spoken, So shall your
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Speaker 2: descendants be. Now I love this part in the process.
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Speaker 2: There was a period of time of waiting, a number
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Speaker 2: of years actually, between when God told him first he
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Speaker 2: was going to make him a father of many nations
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Speaker 2: and when he actually had the child. So there was
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Speaker 2: a period of waiting, a period when there was no pregnancy,
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Speaker 2: a period when there wasn't the fulfillment of what God
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Speaker 2: had promised. So we read without becoming weak in faith.
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Speaker 2: Abraham contemplated his own body now as good as did
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Speaker 2: meaning sexually did impotent. He contemplated his own body, his
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Speaker 2: own physical condition, since he was already about one hundred
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Speaker 2: years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He looked
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Speaker 2: at the fact apps he saw the man, he saw himself,
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Speaker 2: he saw his wife, realizing it's physically impossible for this
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Speaker 2: to happen. And so he wasn't weak in faith. But
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Speaker 2: on the other hand verse twenty, with respect to the
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Speaker 2: promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief. I
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Speaker 2: love that word waiver. It's the word to be divided
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Speaker 2: in one's mind. I love the picture of it. A
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Speaker 2: part of us at times will say, yeah, I'm sure
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Speaker 2: that's going to happen. And then when we get a
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Speaker 2: little low and we're downs. I hope it does, but
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Speaker 2: I'm not as sure. And then you know it's near payday. Yeah,
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Speaker 2: we can do it, we can make that. And then
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Speaker 2: the money runs out, and I'm not sure. You are
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Speaker 2: divided in your mind. In this case, it's about having
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Speaker 2: the child. He didn't waver, He wasn't divided. As a
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Speaker 2: matter of fact, we read he grew strong in faith.
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Speaker 2: The word means to empower his trust in God. Was
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Speaker 2: empowered over the passing of time, being fully assured that
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Speaker 2: what God had promised he was able also to perform.
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Speaker 2: I want to stick with this word waiver for a moment.
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Speaker 2: Show you a passage of scripture where it's illustrated. Look
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Speaker 2: at James one. Go back to James one toward the
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Speaker 2: end of your Bible, just after Hebrews the Little five
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Speaker 2: chapter Letter of James. Look at verse five of James one.
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Speaker 2: If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God,
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Speaker 2: who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it
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Speaker 2: will be given to him. So it's a command to
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Speaker 2: pray if you need wisdom. But here are the conditions
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Speaker 2: he must ask in faith without any There's the term again,
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Speaker 2: dividing in the mind without any division in the mind.
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Speaker 2: And for he who divides in his thinking, he who
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Speaker 2: is high and low, and high and low is like
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Speaker 2: the really not surf, but the word is surge, is
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Speaker 2: like the surge of the sea, driven and tossed by
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Speaker 2: the wind. That man ought not expect that he will
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Speaker 2: receive anything from the Lord. Think about the word surge.
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Speaker 2: We've seen the surf, most of us have, having been
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Speaker 2: at the shoreline of a great ocean, and the waves
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Speaker 2: pound that surf or that shoreline. We call that the
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Speaker 2: surf or surfing. When we ride those waves. It's out
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Speaker 2: in the middle of the sea. You see the surge.
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Speaker 2: It's in the depth of the ocean, and we often
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Speaker 2: called him swells, where the currents, the wind, the weather
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Speaker 2: have a way of mixing together and putting a boat
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Speaker 2: that's out there in a trough down low looking at
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Speaker 2: the surge above. So it is in the mind. The
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Speaker 2: mind will surge between strength of faith and the weakness
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Speaker 2: of doubt. Abraham didn't go there. Back to Romans four,
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Speaker 2: he did not waver in unbelief, but grew stronger in faith,
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Speaker 2: being fully persuaded, fully assured that what God had promised
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Speaker 2: he was able to perform his age impossible, her age impossible.
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Speaker 2: The passing of time made it even more doubtful. The
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Speaker 2: people's words, their counsel, the whole idea of logic, and whatever,
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Speaker 2: forget it, but he never wavered.
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Speaker 1: Imagine Abraham at ninety nine years old, still clinging to
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Speaker 1: God's impossible promise of a son. What sustained his remarkable faith?
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Speaker 1: Chucks Wendaul tackled this question in today's message, titled The
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Speaker 1: Man Who Hoped Against Hope. Abraham's story reveals a powerful
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Speaker 1: truth that we all need to discover here at Inside
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Speaker 1: for Living listeners consistently tell us how Chuck's biographical studies
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Speaker 1: fuel their passion for Bible stories. Chuck's deep love for
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Speaker 1: God's word and countless hours of study allow him to
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Speaker 1: bring Biblical heroes to life. And today we're excited to
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Speaker 1: offer you a deeper dive into Abraham's remarkable journey, not
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Speaker 1: through Romans four, but through Genesis, where we first encountered
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Speaker 1: this extraordinary man. Chuck wrote a compelling biography of Abraham,
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Speaker 1: and we've selected a powerful chapter to share with you.
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Speaker 1: It's the chapter that describes how Abraham received the title
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Speaker 1: Friend of God and cultivated an unshakable relationship with his creator.
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Speaker 1: We'd love to send you this deeply personal chapter about
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Speaker 1: developing a friendship with God. It'll come as a downloadable
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Speaker 1: PDF so you can read it on your mobile device
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Speaker 1: or print out a personal copy. In the chapter titled
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Speaker 1: can We Talk, Chuck wrote these words, God, like a
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Speaker 1: good friend, remains interested and available, ready to hear you
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Speaker 1: express your most private thoughts, and ready to offer help
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Speaker 1: for today. Like Abraham, you can maintain your respect for
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Speaker 1: the Almighty while turning to him as a friend. This
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Speaker 1: five thousand, Frisco, Texas seven five three four. I'm Bill Meyer.
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Speaker 1: Join us as Chuckswyndall continues to describe the remarkable impact
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Speaker 1: when we fully place our faith in God That's tomorrow
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Speaker 1: on insight for living. The preceding message, The Man who
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Speaker 1: Hoped Against Hope, was copyrighted in two thousand and seven,
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Speaker 1: twenty ten, and twenty twenty five, and the sound recording
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Speaker 1: was copyrighted in twenty twenty five by Charles Rswindahl, Incorporated.
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