Waiting by faith is the most challenging lesson in the school of faith, requiring active endurance. Genuine faith is tested by its focus on God's glory, willingness to wait, biblical basis, and production of joy and peace, as illustrated by Abraham's premature actions in Genesis 16. Patience, a key component of waiting by faith, builds character, leads to fruitfulness, enables one to reign in life, and produces happiness, as seen in the covenant established with Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 17. True faith involves cooperating with God's power to transform one's inner life, leading to maturity and contentment.
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We want to turn tonight to the great subject that I started last week in Genesis, sixteen and seventeen, how to wait by faith, what it means to wait by faith. We've been looking at faith in the life of Abraham, so let us just ask God's blessing. Our Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we would come to thee and ask in his name that the eyes of our understanding may be enlightened, that we may behold the grace of our Lord Jesus.
Give us a fresh view of him. May thy name be glorified in our midst for his great name's sake. Amen. The most difficult school of all is the school of faith. Now we were enlisted in the school of faith when we became God's people. And there are five basic lessons in the school of faith that we all need to learn. First of all, how to walk by faith. And we studied that in Genesis chapters twelve and thirteen. And then how to war by faith. And we studied that in Genesis chapters fourteen and fifteen.
And now the most difficult of all are to wait by faith. To wait by faith is much harder than to work by faith or to war by faith. Because when we are warring or walking, we are doing something. And basically we are doers. We like to be doing something. But waiting by faith is something else. Wait, I say in the Lord, the psalmist said. The prophet Isaiah said, They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. Now in the Bible, waiting is not passive endurance.
It is active endurance. It is preparation for the next step. And you have a good illustration of this in Acts chapter sixteen. So we're seeking from Genesis chapter sixteen and seventeen... to ask three basic questions. And we dwelt with the first one last Lord's Day evening. I'm going to review it in a second. And the first question is, how do we know what real faith is? The second and third questions that we want to deal with tonight are, how important is patience? And then the second question is, How can I draw on the resources that God has made available to me?
Now, if I can learn these last two questions well, but first of all, let me quickly review the four ingredients of genuine faith. What are the four tests of faith? And we dwell on this in the book of Romans, and then we came back to Genesis chapter sixteen and took a good look at the life of Abraham in Genesis sixteen, when Abraham ran ahead of God, when he listened to Sarah, and when he produced an Ishmael. And the first test of faith is found in Romans chapter four, verse twenty.
He being not weak in faith but giving glory to God. In being strong in faith, he gave glory to God. In other words, test number one, is it for the glory of God? Am I doing this for God's glory, or am I doing this for my own glory? Romans chapter four, in verse twenty. The second is found in Romans chapter ten and verse eleven. Am I willing to wait? That familiar text, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed we read in Romans ten verse eleven but it's a quotation from Isaiah chapter twenty eight and verse sixteen where we read whosoever believeth in him shall not be in a hurry he shall not make haste he shall not be in a hurry can I afford to wait am I willing to wait test number two and genuine faith is willing to wait on God.
Test number three, Romans ten, seventeen. Now faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. In other words, do I have biblical basis for what I'm doing? Do I have a biblical basis? And then finally, test number four, Romans chapter fifteen, verse thirteen. Now the God of hope, fill you with all joy and peace and believing. that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. And here in this text we find we have joy and peace, for they are the products of genuine faith.
So when I'm making a step by faith, it must be according to the word of God. It is not impulsive. It must be to the glory of God. and furthermore it must produce joy and peace. And joy and peace are produced in the midst of turmoil when this is taking place. Now we took these and we applied them to the life of Abraham in Genesis chapter sixteen. And we wanted to take a look and to see whether he passed the test. Test number one. Abraham did. Was it for the glory of God?
No, it was not. It was for Sarah or Sarai, his wife. No one can ever say, not to the glory of God, I'm going to take another wife. You can't say that. You can't say that. You see, not to the glory of God. I'm going to help God out of this dilemma. That doesn't work. You see, faith is living without scheming. That's what faith is. Faith is living without scheming. That's faith. Test number two, was Abraham willing to wait? Well, you know.
No, he wasn't willing to wait. He wasn't willing to wait God's time. Test number three, was what Abraham did in Genesis sixteen based upon the word of God? No, it wasn't. You see, in Abraham's life, when God revealed himself to him, it usually was prefaced with a word. Now the word of the Lord came unto Abram saying. But you don't find that in Genesis sixteen. It was a word of Sarah. In Genesis fifteen, God could say to Abram, No other surety. In Genesis sixteen, Sarah, he says to him, It may be.
What a difference. It may be of Sarai and nor of a surety of God. But then the fourth test. See, he failed the first three. How about the fourth one? Did the birth of Ishmael bring joy and peace? All right. It brought turmoil in the house of Abram. Family problems are caused by sex, not of faith, but of unbelief. Church problems. are caused by impatient steps of unbelief. And then I gave you this little statement. True faith means that I am doing what I am doing for the glory of God based on the word of God, willing to wait on the timing of God, and filled with the joy and the peace of the Spirit of God.
Now that brings us to the second lesson in how to wait by faith. And that is the importance of patience in the believer's life. Now, the reverse of that is the high cost of impatience. And I'm usually paying the high cost of impatience rather than recognizing the joy and the importance of patience. Now, in the Little Epistle of James, which is a practical book in the New Testament, James presents to us four vital ministries that patience wants to perform in our lives.
Now friends, unless we learn patience, we will never learn much of anything else. Never. If you want to be a musician, you have to learn patience. You want to be a Greek scholar or a Latin scholar. You have to learn patience. Anything that I'm going to learn, I'm going to have to have patience. It took patience for me to learn to read. It took patience. It takes patience to learn to operate a computer. It takes patience to learn to play a piano.
That's why God wants to teach me patience. He wants to teach me patience. Now there are four important ministries of patience. And I invite you to look with me at these four ministries of patience in the Epistle of James. And then we're going to turn to the seventeenth chapter of Genesis. And we're going to put these four ministries of faith to work in Genesis chapter seventeen. Number one. James chapter one verses two through four notice what it says my beloved brethren counted all joy when you fall into various trials knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience but that patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing lesson number one that patience wants to perform in my life is Patience builds character.
Patience builds character. People who lack patience lack completeness. Now they may have many gifts, but nothing ever really gets put together. Patience or people who lack patience. Their life is something like trying to load mercury with a pitchfork. Ever try to do that? a person who lacks patience. Cohesiveness is missing in the life. But when people learn patience, patience builds character and character brings completeness.
Trials in the Christian life do not work against us. They work for us. And that's what James is telling us in lesson number one. Patience builds character. He says you're my brethren. Count it all joy when you fall into many trials, knowing that the trying of your faith work are patience, but that patience have our perfect work. Now, the Christian who is fighting the will of God and walking by sight, all of these things work against him and not for him. Therefore he lacks this completeness.
This is one of the tricky things about the life of faith, beloved. No matter what test or trial may come into our lives, if we are living by faith, that trial or test works for us and never against us. Now James says, let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Now that word perfect, in the Bible it doesn't mean sinlessness. It means maturity. It means completeness. Oh, how we need that today. How we need maturity today.
People get out of balance so easy today. And you meet people who are out of balance. Now note verse five in James one, if any of you lack wisdom. Let him ask of God, who give us to all men liberally, and abrade us not, and it shall be given him. You know, when I'm going through a trial, my first prayer is, Lord, take away the trial. Lord, please change this, or please change that. James here says, don't pray for that. He says, pray for wisdom.
That's what James is saying. And I asked myself the question, why do I need wisdom in trials? I'll tell you why, but I don't stupidly waste the opportunities. That's why I need wisdom in trials. I can waste the opportunities. The trials of life, beloved, are obstacles to the unbelief in me. But they are opportunities. to the belief in me. To genuine faith. There are opportunities. Unbelief says, oh, that's a problem. Genuine faith says, my, what an opportunity.
What a difference, you know. Faith says, here's an opportunity. Oh, God, give me the wisdom to use this opportunity wisely. You ever study the great characters of the Bible? Those men who really... were great warriors for God. Joshua, Caleb, David, Joseph, Jeremiah, Paul, and we have a long list that we could use. What really was the secret of their success? They were people who had the wisdom to use their circumstances to the glory of God. That's who they were.
They didn't fight their circumstances. They put their circumstances to work for them. Patience produces character. That's the first lesson in the book of James relative to patience. But then the second lesson is in verse twelve of James one. Blessed is the man that endures temptations. For when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him. Blessed is the man that endures. Here is that word, patience.
Now, patience not only produces character, but patience will crown you. It will crown you. In other words, when he's approved, he shall receive the crown. Now usually we think of these crowns when they're mentioned in the Word of God as rewards that we're going to get at the judgment seat of Christ. And it may be so. But may I suggest that there's a great verse in the book of Romans chapter five. It's verse seventeen. It says, They who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one man, Jesus Christ.
And that reign in life by one man is right now. We reign in life now. So who is a patient man? A patient man is a man who can control his own spirit. The Word of God has much to say about that. In the book of Proverbs chapter sixteen in verse thirty two it says, He that ruleeth his own spirit. is greater than he that take us a city. I play tennis with a young man, and he's a good tennis player, a lot better than I'll ever be, because he started as a boy, and he learned the right move.
I started in that area of life. You know that I'm a, there are three stages to life. You see, there's youth, And there's middle age and you're looking good. When people come up to me and they say you're looking good, I know where I'm at, you see. However, it was in that second stage in the latter part of it that I started to play tennis and I enjoy playing. But this young fellow that I play with, well, he's very good. He has a temper. Boy, I've seen him just get as angry.
I thought he'd break a real expensive tennis racket. And I'd stand there and quote, he that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city. And I'll tell you, I've done a great work with that text in that young man's life. You see, I'll have to quote it more often. Now he's getting married. But anyway, he that ruleth his own spirit. He that ruleth his own spirit. Get it. He's greater than he that taketh a city. But in Proverbs twenty-five and verse twenty-eight, it says this. A man who can't control his spirit is like a city broken down without walls.
And a city that is broken down without walls, anything comes in and anything goes out. and you've watched people who can't control their own rule their own spirit anything is liable to come out and anything is liable to come in too James says blessed is the man that endureth trials for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life there are people who do not reign in life they are victims rather than victors James says Patience makes you a king. That's what he said.
It takes you out of the pit and it puts you on the throne. It places a scepter in your hand and you reign in life by one man, Jesus Christ. I remember when I taught the book of Romans just a few months back and I enjoy chapter five in an immense way. And in chapter five, I took that expression, reign in life by one man. And we changed the words of a hymn. There's a land that is fairer than day. And by faith I can enter it now.
With my will freed from death I can sing. Ex-king death. Leave the throne. Leave it now. We reign in life by one man, Jesus Christ. Not only does patience build character, but patience makes you a king or a queen. Now there's a sad word, friends. You can't control most circumstances of life. Don't argue with them. Don't fight them. Don't sweat them. You can't control them. The only thing you can control with the help of God is the kingdom of God.
inside of you if you learn to control that kingdom inside the things around you won't matter now it doesn't mean you won't you'll be oblivious to the things around you oh no the genuine Christian isn't like that it means that it won't matter when the problems arise if I have that inner control and God knows I need it we shall not be torn apart by them. Faith or patience produces character. Faith or patience makes you a king.
The third lesson in the book of James, James chapter five, verse seven. James chapter five, verse seven says, Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman, waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it until he received the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient. Establish your heart for the coming of the Lord draweth near. The third great blessing of patience, it produces a harvest. That's what he says. Faith produces a harvest.
Now when I plant some seed, I expect a harvest the next day. But you know it doesn't work that way. The farmer doesn't plant one day and harvest the next. There is a period of time for the harvest to come in. Patience produces a harvest. Now my tendency is the one instant consequences, instant results. And I find a lot of others in the same category. But there's no such thing as instant results when it comes to the work of God. You see, here in America we are so spoiled.
I'll never forget when we landed in Uganda and I was picked up by Mert Walcott. And we went to the border. And at every border when you go from one country to another... Out come the passport and all the other things. They can go through your suitcases. They can turn them upside down and inside out. And it can be a real plague. When we got there, it was hot. It was in the middle of the day. Mert Walcott just sat in the car in the impatient fill. I said, Mert, why don't we go do something? He said, you don't rush right up here. They'll think you're in a hurry. And it'll take a lot more time.
He said, we'll just wait here about ten minutes, and then we'll mosey in there. And he said, it'll make all the difference in the world. Oh, I learned a lesson there. And we went through that border crossing from Uganda into the Congo. It was a breeze. Why? One man there had patience. Patience produces a harvest. Here in America, we're so spoiled. We can get almost anything we want by just going up to a machine and putting the right coins in and pressing a button. You see, now we want our Christian life to be the same way.
We want to be spiritual giants overnight. But God says, no, it takes time to produce a harvest. I need to learn that. It takes time. It takes time. And usually you can tell someone who thinks they're a spiritual giant when they're saved a few months and they've learned one or two things. It takes time, beloved. And you see, there's a real problem here for Philip. I expect people to learn in twenty minutes of my teaching what it took me twenty years to learn.
Patience produces a harvest. Lesson number four, James chapter five, verse eleven. It says, Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. Lesson number four is patience produces happiness. Patience produces happiness. The happiest people you know are those people who have learned to control that inner person. Paul said to the Philippians, I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.
He didn't have that overnight. I have learned. It was in school. I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. Now that word content comes from the root that has the word contained. Are we self-contained or are we God-contained? To be self-contained means that self is a big issue. To be God-contained means God's glory is a chief joy and resource and delight among us. heart. I am carrying with me all the time the resources I need for happiness.
A beloved if happiness depends on something other than the work of God in your life, you are very unhappy. If your happiness depends on circumstances, you're not happy. If your happiness depends upon thing, money, people, you're going to be unhappy because money is going to disappoint you. You're never able to get enough of it. And people are going to disappoint you. We must learn to live in the inner person. Paul, when he wrote to the Corinthians in two Corinthians four, he said, though our outward man perished, yet our inward man, our inner man, is renewed day by day.
Oh, here are four ministries of patience in this practical epistle of James. Patience produces character, beloved. Patience makes you a king. Patience produces a harvest. Patience produces Christian happiness. Now if I'm impatient, I could lose my character, my crown, my crop, and to keep it in seas, my cool. But rather, I'd like to say my Christian happiness.
I can lose those four things. Now let's go to Genesis chapter seventeen. Boy, it took a long time to get there. Genesis chapter seventeen how do we get this kind of patience that's the question when we come to chapter seventeen of Genesis in chapter sixteen oh my we found that Abram he he didn't pass a one of the tests of Romans the test of Romans four the two in Romans ten and the one in Romans fifteen but now We come to this great subject of patience.
How do we get it? Well, first of all, keep this in mind. You can't manufacture it. Every time I say to myself, now, you need more patience. I get more impatient. I get more impatient. You see, I'm my own worst boss. I don't want to obey myself. You want to know something? You're not any different. Because the Bible says, as faith answereth the face in water, so the heart of man to the heart of man. You look in the mirror, and what do you see? Exactly what's before the mirror, and nothing else.
That's what you see. As faith answereth the face in water, so the heart of man, to the heart of man. Now it's interesting, in Genesis chapter seventeen, it's now thirteen years after Genesis sixteen. thirteen years have transpired God had been silent for thirteen years and now God speaks again to Abram oh isn't that great isn't that great my there's a lot to learn here now the interesting thing about Genesis chapter seventeen There are four brand new names in Genesis seventeen that don't appear in the Bible up until this point.
Four brand new names. And we want to take a look at these because they're important. First of all, verse one. And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am the Almighty God. Walk before me and be thou perfect. James says, let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect an entire lacking nothing God now says I am the Almighty God walk before me and be thou perfect and then he says and I will make my covenant between me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly and Abram fell on his face and God talked with him saying as for me behold my covenant is with thee and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
See, first of all, there is a new name for God. God Almighty. That's the first time you find it in the Word of God. Perfect. That's the word that is used in James. Let patience have our perfect work in order that you might be mature, that you might have integrity. Now, beloved, this is the name I need. The name God Almighty. I am not Almighty. And I've never met any man that is. But God is. I cannot change my character.
But I can cooperate with God and see my character change by His mighty grace working in me. That's what God is saying to Abram in this passage. I'd like to ask a question. Did Abram make mistakes? Oh, yes, he did. Did he pay for his mistakes? Yes, he paid dearly for the mistakes that he made. But was Abram handicapped by God because of his mistakes? No, he wasn't. No, he wasn't. You see, some people conceive of the will of God like a machine.
If one part fails, everything comes to a screeching halt. You see, but the will of God is not like a machine. It is more like a body. If one of the members of my body fails, the other members join in sympathy to help that member that doesn't function properly. They compensate for it. Have you done what Abram did? You see, what did he do? Well, he ran ahead of God. Have you ever done that? Well, you're looking at someone who did.
I've run ahead of God so often. Did you ever make a wrong decision? Abram did. In the flesh. Did you impulsively do something that you shouldn't have done? Yes, I'm sure you did. And then the devil comes up to you and he says, you're finished. You're finished. You might as well quit. Turn in the machine. Put it on the junkie. And a lot of times that's the way we treat someone. who has had a misfortune in their life. We want to relegate them to the junk heap.
God didn't relegate Abram to the junk heap. And beloved, he hasn't, he didn't you when you fell either. And that's why he says to us as believers, if a brother be overtaken and a fault, ye who are spiritual. restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. God said, Abram, you're not finished. I'm Almighty God. You're not finished, Abram. I can accomplish my purposes even through your mistakes. Now I have to quickly add something from the Book of Romans.
We do not sin. that grace may abound. We don't do that. And I'm not teaching that. You see, we do not disobey God to see how great God is. You see, because God can show us how great is chastening him. And if you think that God can't whip, you're just kidding yourself. God knows how to chasten, you see. Abram learned when he heard those words, I am Almighty God. He learned that God hadn't put him on the shelf. If I am yielded to God Almighty, it is God who works in us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Abram fell on his face. Oh, if he had done this before, it would have been different in chapter sixteen, but he didn't. But then there's a second name change in verse five. You see, Abram's name is changed to Abraham, from exalted father to father of many nations. Notice verse five. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham. For a father of many nations have I made thee, and I will make thee exceedingly fruitful. You see, patience not only builds character, he learned that God is the almighty God, the God who builds character, but patience makes you fruitful.
Be patient unto the coming of the Lord, the husband and waiteth. He says, Abram, I'm going to make you fruitful. I'm going to make you fruitful. You see, oh, how blessed this is. I'm going to make you fruitful. I'm going to, I'm not going to exalt you, is what God said. I'm going to use you to become the Father of many nations. For patience produces fruitfulness. Not only does it produce character, friends, but also fruitfulness. I'm going to change your name, but not to exalt you.
but to use you to produce a multitude. Oh, it's a beautiful thing, beloved, to be fruitful and multiply. We as Christians are not to duplicate ourselves. We're to reproduce ourselves. And there's a big difference. The church does not grow by addition. The church grows by multiplication. And multiplication comes from Nutrition. Nutrition. God Almighty said, I may be the Father of many nations. And in the next group of verses, you read this.
I will, I will, I will, I will, and it is God who's doing the talking. Oh, thank God for name changes. God comes in a new name. Abram's name is changed to Abraham, but now notice verse fifteen. And God said unto Abraham, as for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. You see, Sarai's name now becomes Sarah. God never recognized Hagar as Abram's wife. He never did. See, that's another thing about patience.
Patience not only produces character, and patience produces a harvest that patience will make you a king or a queen. Sarah means princess. A princess. God says, I'm going to put you on a throne. You see, oh, it's wonderful, beloved, when God changes names. Sarai, as scholars tell us, could mean contentious. One who could not control herself, she becomes Sarah, the princess, who is listed among the heroes of faith in Hebrews chapter eleven. Ah, isn't that great?
In verse seventeen, Abram laughs. Then Abram fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? And shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? And then in verse eighteen, what do we have? We have one of the most tragic prayers in the Bible. Oh, that Ishmael might live before thee. But when you come to verse nineteen, you have a fourth new name. The name of Isaac is introduced in verse nineteen. And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son. Indeed, and thou shalt call his name Isaac. and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his seed after him.
Isaac means laughter because patience produces joy and happiness. That's what the book of James said. And Isaac means laughter. Now the four ministries of patience are all wrapped up in these four new names. You see, patience produces character. I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be perfect. Then patience produces fruitfulness. Your name is Abraham, the father of a multitude. Then patience makes a king or a queen out of us.
You're not to be Sarah the contentious, but Sarah the princess. And then patience produces happiness and joy. For Isaac means laughter. But we can't stop here. Because there is one name in Genesis chapter seventeen that is not changed. Ishmael. There is no change for Ishmael. You see, the flesh is a flesh and it will never be anything else but the flesh. God is not going to change our flesh in this life.
Too often I find myself praying, Oh God, bless Ishmael. You know, my own way, my own flesh. And God will never do it. He will never do it. God says, I'm not concerned with the Ishmael in you. I'm concerned with the Isaac in you that I want to bless. that new nature that is of him. Paul picked this up in Galatians chapter four, you remember. In the great work there in Galatians four, he takes up Hagar and Ishmael, the bond woman and her son.
It could only produce two things, the law and bondage. But then he takes up, in contrast to that, Sarah and Isaac. which produce grace and liberty. So when you put them all together, Abraham represents faith, and Sarah represents grace, and Isaac was born by grace through faith just like us. Now Ishmael wasn't. We studied chapter sixteen last week.
Ishmael wasn't. So beloved, stop pampering the flesh. Stop pampering the flesh. Stop pampering the old man. Stop catering to the old man. Stop feeding the old man. Beloved, we pamper the flesh and we pamper it all the time and we try to get other people to pamper it for us. And I'll give you an illustration. If I say something from the platform here that you know is the truth, but it doesn't set right with you, I can tell you what you're going to do. You're going to go pampering the flesh.
You don't like to hear it. And instead of letting the Spirit of God take it and work it over in the life and mold it into the glory of God, you're going to