The God Outside Time: A Warning against the Hagar Shortcut - Torah Portion: Lech Lecha

Something you may be asking, where's God? And why hasn't he shown up in my trial yet? And the key word there is yet. Almost everything in our life and relationship with God is moderated by time. We judge our situations and God's interventions in our situations based off how much time has passed. Time even determines how much hope we have in our present situation. The longer things go by, the less hope it seems we have in whether God is going to intervene in our situation. But I want you to consider a few things today. He's not limited by time. But I understand though, because we are and we hope to place that limitation that we have being limited by time upon him. We struggle to be patient in God's timing with our situations. And then the downfall of making our own plans comes in when it doesn't seem like he's going to show up our time. But God is calling us in this time to be steadfast in trial, holding on to his promises no matter what we're facing, how long it's been going on, and how much hope you think there is to be had based off the timings that you perceive. In order to better understand God's timings in relation to our trials as well as his nature that is outside of time. I want you to journey with me to the story of Abraham, where Abraham had just saved Lot's life from his enemies and won the battle. The first person that approaches Abraham is Melchizedek. Melchizedek is a very mysterious figure in the Bible. We know that he is a priest sent of God. There's a lot of rumors about who he really is. But I want us to focus today on what he came to bring Abraham. And we read in Genesis 14:17, and Melchizedek King of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said, blessed be Abraham by God most High, possessor of heaven and earth. And he blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And Abraham gave him a 10 10th of everything. Now this is a truly surreal moment because the elements that are coming forth in this interaction between Melchizedek and Abraham, it's kind of like not supposed to happen yet. Like that's how we would sometimes think, because the timing of these elements have not been truly revealed yet. And yet here we see them with Abram. What I mean by that is this. We see that Melchizedek firstly comes and brings him bread and wine in the name of the Lord Most High. And if you know Anything about the bread and the wine and what that signifies, you'll know that Jesus sat with his disciples speaking of the bread and the wine. He said in John 6:54, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him, as the living Father sent me. And I live because of the Father. So whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. When Jesus was with his disciples at the Last Supper, we know that he explained this more precisely, speaking of the bread being his body that was broken for us, and the wine being his blood that was spilled for us, and that if we partake in his body and his blood, his sacrifice, we too can live forever and be saved through him. Now, what had just happened with Abram? We see that God sends this priest Melchizedek with bread and with wine. In a very real way. God is bringing to Abram Yeshua, he is bringing the broken body and the blood that was spilled for him. And you know, this is like, well, hold up. I mean, we know that the Messiah wasn't to come for thousands of years. So how could Abraham be saved by faith in Jesus if Jesus hadn't come yet in order for Abraham to put his faith in him yet? Genesis 15, verse 5. We read about how God brought Abraham outside and said, look towards heaven and number the stars. If you're able to number them, then he says, so will your offspring be. And he believed the Lord and he counted to him as righteousness. Remember that Abraham's purpose is to be the father of this great nation, Israel that would be born of his line. These multitudes of physical descendants creating a nation and a culture that is making a way for the Messiah to be born into. And so thousands of years later, Jesus is born into Israel from the line of Israel, from the line of David. And then he provides salvation to the Jew first, and then also to the Greek, the rest of the world, everyone else, even if they're not of that physical line of Israel, who would believe in Him. They would become grafted into Israel, as Paul said. But see Abraham, in his inclusion as the father of Israel in that sense, was included in the plan of salvation that God had for Israel. I want to submit to you that God says something interesting. God says that it is when Abraham believed in the promise that he is going to have this great offspring, that the faith in God in that promise was what declared Abraham righteous. How? I mean, think about that this, this is actually so profound because he. Because of his belief. And not just any promise, not just in anything God is saying, but in specifically the promise of the Messiah. Because Abraham's great offspring is in order for the Messiah to come into the world. And so to believe that God is able to bring forth that offspring is to believe in who the offspring is. Jesus Christ. Yeshua, the Messiah, the one who has come to die for Abraham and thereby Abraham is declared righteous because he believes in the Messiah. Believing in the Messiah is believing also in the spiritual offspring that that Messiah would bring in. Abraham's seed that God is promising him is really the fruit of Yeshua's salvation that goes into the world. Because Abraham's offspring can be as numerous as the stars in the heavens, because these people are grafted in from the nations, even by their faith in Yeshua. So this is why the promise to Abraham is so significant. It's way more than just, you're going to have a big family. It's, you're going to have a bigger family than what is humanly possible because it is going to be a not just physical but spiritual family, the household of God that is beginning in your line, Dear Abraham. Now I bring all of this up because it reveals to us how God's plan of salvation even is not bound by a timeline. We can think in our earthly minds that are bound by time that, well, you know, Jesus came and everyone after him who believes in him can be saved. And that's true. But God also being outside of time, and Yeshua, being outside of time also makes provision for those of faith who would come before. Remember in John 1, verse 1, we read, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Messiah was there in the beginning, and everything in creation was made through him. All right, cool. So Abraham gets this promise, everything sounds great, hunky dory, let's go. And then Abraham starts doubting. And you know, in some ways, like, you know, a lot of us are going to look at his life and we're going to have to say, hey, Abraham, we don't blame you. Because a lot of us would doubt, just as he is doubting, because Abraham, when he got the promise from God initially he was 75 years old. He's an old man already, but nonetheless, he believes God and it's counted him as righteousness. But 25 years goes by, he's now a hundred years old, and Sarah, his wife, is 90 years old, and they do not have children. I mean, God Promised more children and descendants than there are stars in the heavens. And we are old and we have none. How is my barren wife going to bring forth this promise? And so we read In Genesis 17:17, Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child? What would you do in that situation? In fact, maybe you are in that kind of situation. Maybe there's been a promise of God or something you've been waiting on him for. Maybe you've been facing a trial, like Abraham and his wife. Like God, we need this to happen in order for your plan to happen. God, what are we going to do? And maybe because that clock has just been ticking for a little too long, your hope is fading, just as Abraham and Sarah's hope was fading. And now you're at a crossroads. And the question is, will you believe in the promise of God or will you go your own way? Before you make that decision, I want you to consider something. Abraham here is worried about his wife being 90 years old and himself being 100 years old. These are issues of time. The clock on their life has ticked way too long for them to have any more time left to have a child. The biology isn't going to work is what they think, right? But see, because God is not bound by time in the ways that we are. Even our biology and our life and our body and our thoughts are. He is not bound by it. He is not stopped by it. So stop stopping the Lord's hand in your life by your lack of faith and your doubt. I mean, just think of this, God's plan of salvation since the fall of the garden with Adam and Eve came to the whole world. But it took thousands of years to unfold. Even from the time of Abraham, it took thousands of years to unfold. There was a world flood. God calls Abraham. God raises Joseph. God delivers Israel from Egypt. God brings them to their land. But then there's multiple exiles with their enemies coming and overtaking them. And then they return, and then they. And then a messiah is born while they're under Roman captivity. And then there's another 2,000 years that have now passed since he has come and ascended. And he has promised that he is coming back. And we're waiting, many of us, our life is like a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away forever. It is inconceivable, these timelines, as to how things have been unfolding. This plan of salvation redemption that we right now are breathing and living in. But we are but a small minute on the timeline of God's plan. And so if God is not limited by time, but we make our lives the timeline of God, in other words, we say, well, God, you have to work on my minute. You have to fit your plan into my minute. And it has to make sense in my minute. On the timeline of eternity and God's plan, are we not being proud? In fact, we don't just say let it happen in my minute, we're saying let it happen in the minute of my minute. And you know what I mean by that is we're saying, hey, this is my lifeguard on your timeline. But I want it to happen right here in this point of it. Peter tells us more about how God works in relation to time in 2 Peter 3:8, where he says, but do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved. What sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness? Be mindful of God's perspective that's bigger than yours, that sees a day as a thousand years. And what is your life then but a moment on his timeline that is important and that he wants to use. But don't make it all about you, make it all about him and his kingdom, and let his perfect will be done. Peter reminds us that this world is fading away, that all of this isn't it, even though it feels like all there is. He's saying this place is temporary. So when the world fails you, when the world betrays you, when you don't find your feet in this world because you are not of this world yet you are in this world, then remember that a new place is coming, a kingdom of God, and all of the earth as is written will be exposed. You will be avenged where the world has wronged you, but you must be ensure that you then walk blamelessly in godliness before your Father. Next we see this doubt within Sarah and Abraham starts eating away at their faith in the promise of God, and they start making plans as to what are they going to do, because they don't have children, and they don't think they're going to be able to have children. But they really want that promise of God, which they know is of God, to come true. And so they're going to try and make what God has said come true by their own worldly plans and devices. And we see in Genesis 16:2, Sarah said to Abraham, behold, now the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go into my servant Hagar. It may be that I shall obtain children by her. And Abram listened to the voice of Sarah. This should remind us of what happened in the garden when Adam listened to the voice of Eve as she handed him the fruit. And Adam did not take a stand and say, no, the Lord has a will. The Lord has commanded us not to eat of this tree. But now we see that Abraham and Sarah, they're in this same conundrum. And as Sarah hands of him this fruit, this idea of their own knowledge of good and evil being applied in order to bring about a promise of God, whereby which we know the only way for the promises of God to be made manifest is by the power of God, is by God's involvement. It's by God being there and doing the work, so he may be glorified. And so instead of inquiring by the Lord, they inquire of their own hearts. And so Abraham finds Hagar. He sleeps with Hagar, and Hagar brings forth a child. Is this child going to be the promised child that God has given Abraham? In Genesis 17:19, God saves no. But Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. And Paul talks about this whole situation in detail and has additional revelation for us that I want you to recognize in Galatians 4:22. For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now, this may be interpreted allegorically. These women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery. She is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. So Paul talks about two sons born. The one son was born by a slave woman, a woman enslaveries in bondage and the other by a woman who is free. The one was born by a man made device, Abraham and Hagar, and the other one was born by a miracle of God, Abraham and Sarah. For Sarah was beyond the years of bearing children and God comes and he equates these two sons as the two covenants. Paul says that Hagar corresponds to Mount Sinai as well as the present Jerusalem. Mount Sinai because even after the children of Israel received the holy perfect law of God, they could not keep it because they were not relying on the Holy Spirit's transformation and empowerment. They were not born again as Yeshua said, they ought to become born again from the Spirit. And see, this is also what the present Jerusalem was. The present Jerusalem was in bondage because she rejected the Messiah. She attempted to walk out the law of God without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit that the Messiah brings. For he ascends and the Spirit of God descends upon her. But now Paul says the Jerusalem above, the Jerusalem that is coming is free and she is our mother. We are to become born again of the Messiah, of the Spirit, so that we will be empowered to keep the law of God written on our hearts. And we will not be doing so by our own ability and our own strengths. We will see the promise of God as being the Messiah fulfilled. We will not try and bring about the promise of God which is salvation by our own striving and law keeping abilities. We will not be trying to bring a Hagar into the mix. Rather we will trust that God will give Sarah the offspring. His name is salvation. Jesus, Yeshua, the Messiah. And in our life, let it be that way. And so in a similar way, we can all grow impatient regarding God's promise of redemption, even trying to take it into our own hands, not believing that Yeshua's sacrifice is enough for all time to cover all sins as we confess and repent. See, we can intellectually on the one hand deny his sacrifice as many people have done, they deny the Messiah. But on the other hand, perhaps even more subvertly and dangerously, we can deny his sacrifice and the promise of God by our own actions, like Abraham and Sarah did in that moment. Yes, they believed in what God said, that there was a promise, but they didn't believe in the way that that promise would come about. And that's what happened today. Many people today and historically are believing, yes, God can save me, God can save me and they can even try and keep the law of Moses, but they can't wrap around their heads around how can God save them by the life of Someone else dying for them and that being trul enough to cover all of my sins. Is that actually possible? In fact, our brother Judah actively is struggling with that very situation as I speak right now, all over the world, attempting to keep the law of God without a sacrifice of sins, without a salvation. Unless they put faith where Abraham placed faith in specifically the fact that there will be an offspring, an offspring that will bring about salvation and righteousness. Hebrews 10:14. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. So while Abraham struggled for a moment as to believe exactly how God would bring about that promised offspring, he did repent, he did put faith in the Father, he did have relationship, and he did not desert God. And in the same way, that's what Paul warns us all about. He said, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. I want us to conclude by thinking about what was that different gospel that the church of Galatia was mixing with. We see in Galatians 2, 3, Paul tells us, but even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus so they might bring us into slavery to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. There is the slavery yet again that Paul spoke about regarding Hagar and Sarah. To not believe in the instrument of salvation that is Yeshua, his name, that is salvation that God has given us, but to rather believe in the promise, but bring it about by our own abilities and by our own means. And Paul warned that there were people, brothers who were false, that secretly brought in this heresy. A gospel, but a different gospel. See, just because someone says that they have the gospel doesn't mean it's the true gospel. Just because someone says they believe in Jesus doesn't mean they believe truly that he is enough for salvation. There are, dare I say, teachers who talk about Yeshua and Jesus, but still lay slavery upon the shoulders of their congregants and followers. The slavery to work towards that salvation by law keeping, as in the church of Galatia. The issue was that circumcision was being forced as the instrument that would save them. That if you get circumcised then you will truly be converted and saved. That is a false gospel. Not because circumcision is Evil, but because it has been twisted in that case to become something it was never designed to be. And so it is with the rest of the law of God. Whenever we take the law that is good and we use it lawfully, that indeed is good. But if we take the law of God and we twist it and use it for something it was not made for, then we are using it for evil means and gains. If we try and use the law to think that we can make ourselves eligible for righteousness by our own abilities of law keeping, we are deceived beyond measure and we will deceive others as well. To rely on yourself and your own ability to keep the law of God, to gain your own righteousness and gain your own salvation is dangerous because it does away for the need for Christ. It is a different gospel because it is a gospel that has no need for Yeshua at all. Because of course you're good enough to be good enough. You can work hard enough to be good enough. Just keep enough sabbaths, feasts and circumcise and you'll make it into the kingdom. What's the need for a Messiah? This was exactly what Paul was warning about. But of course, if you truly have faith in him, if you truly believe his work on the cross is sufficient to change you, to transform you, and to empower you, he will produce good works in you and you will be obedient to the Lord. And he is writing on your hearts by the Holy Spirit now, not by your own empowerment, but by the power that he powerfully works within you as you toil in his power and not in your own. For his burden is light. It is not like the slaveries of men that they attempt to enslave you with. And so many of you have a relationship with Christ that is suffering because of this very issue that I'm talking about, because you've heard the promise of God, of salvation. But it's become too much of a thing for you to believe in with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength. And so you take even a little bit of that and put it on yourself. And that is sin that takes away from his purity, his perfection, his perfection as the Lamb of God. It takes away the sin, all the sin of the world, not just most of it, but all of it. You believe that completely or you don't believe it at all. There is no, there's no fence. The fence belongs to the devil. The fence is the false gospel. And the true gospel is complete surrender and complete dependence upon Yeshua. And the way that you can test yourself in all of this is simply to look at the way that you treat one another. For the way that we treat one another exposes which gospel we believe in. If we believe in Yeshua truly and only in him, then we will recognize our own depravity, meaning that we will necessarily have to be humble before man and before God, because we recognize how much we need God and how much we are really not better than our brother or sister next to us, who have their own struggles, who might just look different than our struggles. But I need to be saved just as much as my brother or my sister. There is no Pharisee and tax collector where the Pharisees said, thank you God, I'm not like that guy. We all are. We're all supposed to be like the tax collector who says, God forgive me, a sinner, I have sinned, I have sinned, I have sinned. God forgive me. That's what needs to be coming out of our mouths. But if we depend on ourselves, we will naturally exalt our self righteousness. Because of course you believe that you are by your own ability, righteous enough to save yourself. That is. That's pretty amazing. So by definition, you. You think quite a lot about your own works and your own righteousness and your self righteousness will overtake you and it will destroy you. It will expose you before everyone else as a false prophet, one who believes and proclaims a false gospel whereby you become your own sav. And you will stand before God as your own savior. And we will see how that goes down. Because you will have to atone for your own sins. And the wages of sin is death. You will have to pay. You will have to die because you did not accept his death for you. And not just his death, but what it means, that it cleanses you, that it makes you whole and free and empowered not because of you and what you can do, but completely because of what he has done. Stop trusting in yourself. And so in this time, I'd like for us all to do introspection, to really ask ourselves, are we going to truly believe that God's going to come through for us in salvation and in our trials? Because these things go hand in hand. If I believe that God is going to be able to save me from hellfire, eternally into the kingdom of God, Jesus restores me to the face to face with the Father. Hallelujah. That's a massive deal. But then when it comes to my earthly situation, that is but a speck on the timeline. I'm Struggling to believe that he's going to come through for me for that because he's taking a little bit too long. He's not on my timeline. God, where are you? He never said he will be on your timeline. He never said it's going to be at the time you expect or in the ways that you expect. It's going to be on his timeline, in his ways. And you must bow the knee to it. And you will see that it is most glorious. Just like Abraham had no idea the glory that was to come. He had an idea, but no idea. He had an idea, but no idea of Yeshua dying, ascending and saving all in the world. Who would believe in him in the same way? We have an idea, but no idea. We have an idea of our God. He has revealed a lot of himself to us. Glory to God. Hallelujah. But at the same time, we are but dust and he is God, creator of heaven and earth. What do I truly know but what he's revealed to me and how much is there still about him that I don't understand? Because I am in this limited world, limited body, limited time, and he is not limited. So stop limiting him. He's going to work in accordance with his word, in accordance with righteousness and holiness. But do not limit him in your situation. Allow him to touch and heal and change in unconventional ways. Because with Sarah, it was pretty unconventional for her to become pregnant at 90 years old and Abraham being 100 years old old, that's pretty unconventional. It's pretty unconventional for a woman to be a virgin and yet to give birth, and yet that's how the Messiah was born into this world. It's pretty unconventional that he would put a Holy Spirit into a people that has so many unclean and unholy works. But he made a way even for that, by dying for us and cleansing us. He does all of this in ways that are so unpredictable by our standards and ideas and what we can imagine. And so let's start to believe him when he says that he has things planned that we cannot imagine he is going to come back. And let's let him come back at the time he wishes. Not even telling him, God, you need to come back in my life. Not even telling him on what conditions he needs to work in your life, but letting him be God and you be you. Father, I thank you for your glory. We repent. Where we have put you in boxes, where we have said, you should work this or that way and this or that time, Lord, your will and your ways are perfect. Good. And you want the best for us. Lord, you are perfectly patient with us all, hoping for us all to come to repentance. You want none of us to perish. You want all of us to be protected and in your kingdom and with you face to face. You want us all to be in the garden. You want us all to be in good health. You want us all to have children restored back to you. You want good things for us. Every good gift is from above. The Father of Lights, that is you, Lord. But Father, I thank you God, that as we submit ourselves to you, that we would not complain, but that we would submit even in that which we do not understand. And that we would trust that the day is coming, declares the Lord, where you will make the crooked straight, where you will pave the way, where you will carry us on eagle's wings, where you will open every deaf ear and open every blind eye in your ways and in your times. Father, I submit that to you. I surrender that to you. And I ask that you forgive me for not trusting you. Forgive us for going our own way like Sarah and Abraham did in that moment of doubt. But thank you that you give us the opportunity to come back to you and to put faith in you once again. We thank you that you're with us in the trial and that you take us through it. That you are with us in the fire and that we will not be burned up. We praise you and we glorify you in the name of Yeshua. Amen. Thank you for joining me. I hope that this has blessed you. I pray that the Father blesses you in your seasons and in your trials. I want to say a thank you to all of our partners who've made this teaching and every other teaching this month possible. We love you. We thank you guys. See you in the next one. Shalom.