The Covenant With Abraham, Part II

Good morning. We will proceed into the passage that Courtney introduced for us here, though. Just one thing before we do that we want to bring to your attention. Thanks to the work of several men in our church body, we have a new swamp cooler, and the fan on that, I just need to warn you, is much more powerful. And so that's a great benefit. I just thought I'd let you know because we also need to caution you that if you stand up and face the back, there may be some substantial impact. So just so you're aware of that in advance, I just thought you should know. So be careful. Smile carefully. All right. A few weeks ago, we went into this passage in Genesis 12, and that introduced the covenant with Abraham. We're going to step this morning into part two of that.

What we have said some weeks back when we first introduced this is that the reality is there are a great number of passages in Genesis that speak of this covenant with Abraham. And we, in previous handouts, it's not on yours today, had this chart where we listed the covenants that are in Genesis. This covenant with Abraham that was introduced in chapter 12, and we're going to look at a continuance of that here today, is mentioned, and we have listings of a few, but it's mentioned all the way almost to the very end of the book of Genesis. And what's interesting is that the Lord did not expect Abraham to pass it along But rather, the Lord directly told each of Abraham's descendants. And the Lord Himself passed along that news about this covenant, this agreement that the Lord had made. We're looking here in chapter 15 this morning, which consists of 21 verses. One of the things that we brought up last week, and I want to continue to bring it up because it's an issue that not only shows up today, but it will show up again and again as we go through the book of Genesis. So it's just kind of a principle to keep in mind.

And that is that there was and is in the Middle East a tradition of revenge. It's almost hard for us to understand it while certainly there is among various people a kind of a mindset towards I like to get revenge. Having a tradition of revenge is something we're not quite accustomed to. Having at least a Christian background in our culture, it's considered a virtue to forgive. And in cultures where there's a tradition of revenge, forgiving is not a virtue. As a matter of fact, it's looked as a negative. In a culture where there is a tradition of revenge, and the Middle East still has that culture, even today, It's looked as a virtue to maintain the correcting of some past ill, even if it's centuries ago. When this whole thing with 9-11 came up and in the Middle East, those of an Islamic background in the Middle East particularly, they started pointing back to the Crusades.

They look back at that and they remember it because forgetting it would be something that would be immoral, unethical to forget it. And so remembering it and sustaining and maintaining the resentment is looked upon as a virtue. Now, I remind you of that and the reason is because if we go through this, think about Abraham and his concern about getting involved in something and oh boy, He's thinking, if I do this or that act, and last week we looked at rescuing Lot, we're going to see this again and again. That this tradition of revenge is looked upon, that's a virtue, it's something that a moral person in this kind of a culture maintains, that tradition of revenge from generation to generation.

You don't forget, you do not forgive. Now, we're going to be turning a corner here from the end of chapter 11 to chapter 14 that we looked at last week, we were introduced to this covenant with Abraham. And while not exclusively so, a lot of the focus in that had to do with the land that God was going to show him. Remember in chapter 12, the land that I will show you. And we've seen a couple instances where the Lord says to Abraham, this is the land, this is the land.

At this chapter, we begin to turn a corner And that corner that we turn is here in chapter 15, there is an emphasis shift now to the descendants. How many descendants? Will I have descendants? Are you sure? The whole subject of descendants, which was brought up before, is now emphasized. And we'll see it as a significant emphasis even into the next few weeks here.

Abraham was now getting on in years and he was still childless at this point in time. Something else to look at here is how does God count faith? What does God do with faith? We have seen Abraham both acting in faith and also acting contrary to faith. But what does God do with that faith? He had believed what God had promised, at least it was apparent in some respects. We have seen as we've gone through chapters 12, 13, and 14 in these last few weeks, Abraham has both stumbled and grown in his faith in the Lord. Now, as we look at this chapter, we're going to see what does God do with that faith. How does God consider it? And some points to make here as we come into this is the way that faith works.

God does things because of faith or by means of faith, but the faith itself is not causative. We don't make some series of things happen by our own efforts through faith because we believe. Because we believe the Lord acts, and He acts by means of faith, but our faith isn't the thing that pushes all of God's program along. The next thing is it's not contributory. Faith is not, God does his part and I do mine and so he puts in part of it and I contribute my part and so that's how we work it together. No. Faith is not contributory. God does everything because we act in faith. That's the way it works. And the second thing, it is not counted as a work. You don't get credit for faith. It's not a merit. So those are some key things about faith as we step into this chapter.

The other thing that seems to go along as a theme with Abraham is that grace is still grace and mercy is still mercy. We've seen that God has shown grace and mercy to Abraham, and He's going to continue to do that as we go through the book of Genesis. God in grace blesses Abraham, though he doesn't deserve it, and at the same time, God in His mercy withholds punishment.

Remember the way we said to summarize this is mercy is when we don't get what we deserve. Grace is when we get what we don't deserve. Got that? Alright. We're going to see grace and mercy expressed here. Why? Because grace and mercy are in infinite supply And they're a key aspect of God's character. A key part of who God is. Not just a little bit gracious, not just a little bit merciful. God is infinitely gracious, infinitely merciful as a part of his very character. It's part of who he is.

Another thing we're going to see here in this chapter is he begins by promising protection. Remember this revenge tradition? Abraham's worried because just back in chapter 14, he had taken on major empires with the surprise night attack and a few other allies. And this revenge tradition would have said, Abraham's in trouble. He's just waiting until this thing comes back to bite him. And the Lord says, no. I will protect you. Don't worry about this tradition. I don't care how many years or how many people they have or anything else. I'll protect you. Don't worry about it.

In Genesis 15-1, God says that He is Abraham's shield. We, just at the end of the service last Sunday, sang, You, O Lord, are a shield about me. You are the one who protects me. You're my protector. And the Lord promises to be exactly that in Abraham's life. As we're going to see here, God's declaration of protection of Abraham is so that God can remain faithful to the promise for descendants. Abraham, I'm going to protect you. Why? Because I promised you that you're going to have descendants. And the only way that that's going to happen is if you stay alive. Okay? So don't worry. I'm going to protect you all the way.

He also promises great reward. He adds to the promise of physical protection. He says there's this huge reward, great reward to His promise. So why does He do that? Why does God promise that? And what does He mean by it? The great reward is by grace. It's not because Abraham deserves it. It's all by grace. God giving what is not deserved. A benefit that's not been earned. The great reward would include certainly the physical protection, but everything else that he's promised to him.

And the way we put that is summarized land, seed, and blessing. That is, there's a land that I will show you. He's shown it to him. There is offspring, descendants, and blessing of physical kinds and of spiritual kinds. Blessing that goes on and on, basically eternally.

All right, now, I just want to point out, if you're just joining with us here, your handout, which today is three pages, there's a little number on those slides that fit to the handout that is the page that we're in. So you can track with us here. Here we have a first. Abraham calls God Adonai Yahweh, Lord God or Master God.

That's the first time that he does so. And it's an interesting indicator of his spiritual growth. He recognizes that the Lord is one who has authority. Abraham knows it and recognizes it and puts it into the name that he calls the Lord. He recognizes the Lord's authority.

Something else to take a look at, and this impacts today's passage and it will impact passages for weeks to come, and that is in the culture that we find continuing throughout the rest of Genesis, an extremely high priority within that culture was you must have an heir. Now get that right, it's not a hair, otherwise I'd be hopeless. No, you must have an heir, okay? You must have an heir. If at all possible, the priority was to establish that through a descendant. A physical descendant was the priority.

So you have to get that in mind as we go through. I mean, we're going to be surprised what people do throughout the rest of the book of Genesis in order to have an heir. They do what to us would be crazy things. loony things just because of this high priority. So I think that's something that's good for us to see today. Why does Abraham bring this up as such an issue?

And as we go through the rest of the chapters of Genesis, because we're going to see this principle come time and time again. You've got to have a hair, I mean an heir. Okay? Alright. As we proceed through Genesis, including this passage, we're going to see the people of this time would go through any length. What does it take? I'll do whatever it takes to have an heir. An extremely high priority in the culture.

Now, we have here Abraham in this next verse makes reference to Eleazar of Damascus as the apparent heir. I'm not sure as we go through it that it actually was legally established at this point, but the way Abraham is looking at it is, here is my apparent heir. the only guy that I've really got, and how was that done?

He, Eliezer, even though we only find him by name here, later on he's referenced as kind of the chief servant. He was not a blood descendant, so that's not preferable. As a matter of fact, he mentions Eliezer as the next heir Not because that's something that's highly desirable, but he's just saying that's kind of what I'm left with. It's sort of a personal failure. Yeah, I've got an heir, but it's not a very high-priority choice. I'd much rather have a descendant. And for me to be stuck with giving everything to Eleazar is just kind of last resort.

In the next few verses, verses 3 and 5, We see that Abraham is looking for God to give him this blood heir. And he certainly just says outright, God, you haven't done it yet. You promised me, but I haven't seen it yet. So you start to see Abraham, he's not telling the Lord, no, you're not going to do it. But he says, I'm not seeing it. It's not happening.

So God made a very explicit promise to Abraham. And actually, if you think about this, if the Lord wasn't going to follow through on this, this was kind of high risk. But the Lord made a very explicit promise. Eliezer, his servant, born in his house, would not be his heir. He will not be your heir. That's it. It's just flat out. Don't worry about it. A blood descendant of you will be your heir. Count on it.

Now, remember, when he says the word house, it doesn't mean a house. Remember that Abraham was going on this decades-long camping trip. So when he says house, it doesn't mean he was born in a house built on the ground. It was house meaning this is my family household and kind of that idea. It's a family idea, not a physical house. God would not fulfill His promise to Abraham just minimally, not just kinda sorta, not just a little bit, not just barely. Instead, He would fulfill it completely, truly, full on, full out. God said it, that's what's gonna happen. Now, the next question has to do with stars. So are you seeing stars?

Yeah, I've seen a lot of stars. I remember one time I got bucked off a horse, fell on my head, I saw lots of stars. On the farm wrestled dozens and dozens of cattle to the ground and most of them didn't like it. And I saw stars some of those times too. But this particular time is more like looking at stars up in the sky, okay. And the other thing I remember on the farm, that's once I quit seeing the stars from falling. The other thing I remember, I'd go out at night, during a winter night, it'd be clear and go out to milk the cows. And come back in after milking, you've just got to stop and look at the stars. Because this was way out in the boonies. We were two miles away from the nearest highway. And the nearest small town, I'll give you a clue. The small town is Philo. Okay. Ever heard of Philo? Okay. Anyway, small town.

That was like seven miles away. that near a small town that had hardly any lights or anything of the sort. So you could really see the stars. And I was talking with Bill about it just before the starting of the service. And I said, you know, there was a band there. You couldn't count it. It just looked like a cloud. And it was up there. And it was phenomenal. I mean, it was amazing how many stars you could see.

The thing is, God had Abraham go out and look at the stars, and it must have been a place like Philo. Bless you. Give him an idea of the number of the descendants he would have. Go out and look at these stars, and boy, you're just going to give up counting.

Now, counting stars is not an easy task. Have you ever tried it? How do you keep track of it? Wait a minute, I counted that one. And it's hard to put a checkmark on them. It's real tough. It can vary by person, you know, how good are the eyeballs and and location, moon phase and also weather probably has something to do with it there. But estimates are that if everything was all clear and under ideal conditions, you might be able to count 6,000 stars.

But the only problem is the sky keeps rotating. You know, that's not because you're dizzy. It's because, you know, the Earth's rotation, you're counting stars and new ones keep moving into the field. So, you know, how do you keep track of the ones you lost and the ones that just entered? So that's part of the problem. It takes a while to count 6,000 stars. Nonetheless, what God intended was not that Abraham get dizzy looking at the sky changing. But he wanted him to understand the offspring that you will have will be virtually countless. You will give up counting. A great number of offspring. That was what God had in mind communicating to him here.

So, the next verses come out with this, Abraham's faith was reckoned, accounted unto him as righteousness. So we really come up with this question, how is a person saved? Here's this Genesis 15-6. It's quoted by Paul. In Romans, matter of fact, chapter 4, it's either quoted or restated three times. In Galatians 3-6, even James 2-23 quotes this verse. So, repeatedly, this verse comes up.

Salvation can be summarized like this. Salvation for all people for all time is by faith in God. Salvation always has been, is, and ever will be by faith. That faith is in God's revelation and in His provision. It's faith in God's doing. It's faith in what God has said. It's faith in what He has accomplished and will accomplish. So that He gets the credit and not us. It's faith in God's work that glorifies Him and not ourselves. Salvation will always be by faith. But God has revealed different things to different people at different times.

One thing that is a principle through scripture is there is a principle of progressive revelation. Here we are studying Genesis. Obviously, this had happened since the very first book of the Bible. Here is the first book of the Bible. They had none of the rest of the Bible to look by or to understand or anything with or to live by. So, how much is revealed? Well, only what's revealed up to that point.

From Adam up to the time of Christ, they looked forward to Christ. They looked forward to Christ's death on the cross. They looked forward to Christ's burial and resurrection. They may not have understood everything. And yet, even about the same time as Abraham, Job himself says, I know that my Redeemer lives. I know that my Redeemer lives.

So they looked forward to what Christ would accomplish on the cross. We now have a full and complete revelation in God's Word. We can look back and here we have all 66 books of the Bible. and the ability to look back and see with a great time perspective what the Lord has accomplished through Christ. We look back on what Christ did on the cross. We look back on His burial. We look back on His resurrection with an understanding of who was there and who saw what and how it took place. The next question that comes up that Abraham asks is, but how will I know? Ever wondered that yourself? This has always been a pivotal question in people's minds, but how will I know? How will I know about lots of things?

And over time, one of the things we find, and it was particularly true in these earlier times when fewer books of the Bible were available, that God provided signs of His promise, and He did so frequently for means of assurance. The rainbow that we saw a few chapters back in Genesis chapter 9, was one of comfort and assurance. When you look at the rainbow, that's a sign of God's promise. He will never again flood the earth.

Another one that's quite well known is, here's Gideon with the fleece, and this is asking for confirmation. We oftentimes think, well, he was trying to find out God's will. No, really, he was looking for confirmation, just so I know that this is true. And the Lord provided the wet and dry fleece instance. It was also an instance of Gideon overhearing two men speaking as another confirmation.

So this how will I know, God provided a sign for Abraham by his bringing this oven and torch, the smoke of the oven and flame of the torch, between the animals that Abraham had prepared. And it's not this oven. Not that kind. I'm talking about a platform of stones with a fire on top of it. Abraham was not told to go between the animals. Only the Lord was with this fire and this oven. Why? Why didn't Abraham... I mean, he had it right there. Why didn't he go through these two?

The reason is it was God who was making the promise. This was a one-way promise. And it wasn't an if kind of promise. It was an I promise and that's it. The Lord Himself was making the promise and the promise was not dependent upon Abraham fulfilling some aspect of it. It was the Lord's to do and to make. Abraham had provided these animals that the Lord said to have and prepare. And so he'd laid those out.

The three larger ones were divided in two. Now, we've got some verses here to take a look at in a couple sections. Verses 12 through 16. So let's step our way through those. Abraham had a vision which occurred while he was sleeping. And it's interesting. You think, well, why wasn't it a dream? It doesn't say it was a dream. So here's this vision that occurred while he was sleeping. And he was disturbed in part through this. It's interesting. You thought, well, why is he disturbed about this? The Lord intended ultimately to comfort Abraham, to give him assurance, and to give him a defined answer to his questions.

How will I know? Now, Abraham was given some points and some time frame for key elements of his descendants inheriting the land. Okay, Abraham, instead of the land that I will show you, now you've seen it, I'm going to give you some details as to when your descendants are going to inherit this land. That's what's next.

These events that God told Abraham are recorded historically in the books of Exodus through Joshua. So we won't get to those quite right away. Here is the Jews' captivity in Exodus and a return to the land under Joshua, the conquest. The quick summary of what the Lord told Abraham, and I'm going to add to that these names that are here. is Abraham's own grandson Jacob and the names are not in the account here but in subsequent chapters of Genesis and his sons and their families would be in Egypt at first under good conditions basically for about three decades under good conditions there in Egypt from 1845 to 1446 BC they would be there as slaves for centuries as slaves And we have there, just kind of in the drawing and illustration, an Egyptian tomb painting that was made showing the brick making activity in the years right up to the time when the Jews exited. Here is a brick of the kind that the Jews made for four centuries with the straw. And it even has the Pharaoh's mark in it. Other things we could show you, but the idea is they actually were there. They did go through these four centuries. During this exodus, they would be given goods and wealth. The Egyptians would say, good riddance, here, have some stuff. And they would give them things as they exited Egypt. That was told to Abraham.

This is kind of a chart showing the relationships of the different dates. What I'll do, rather than trying to cover the detail here, is get it into a supplement that's not available quite yet. So we'll get that to you. After 40 years wandering about, they would enter to take possession of the land under Joshua. This is sometimes called the Conquest.

So, other than the names, Abraham was given quite a bit of detail about what was going to take place with these descendants over the next several centuries, basically. Then the Lord tells Abraham, Abraham, you're worried about am I going to live through this because I've got this revenge tradition. These guys are going to come after me. Abraham's worried.

The Lord says, no, relax. I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to be your shield. He was wondering how he would survive. And the Lord says, no, you don't need to worry about that. The Lord said, I will preserve you. As a matter of fact, you will die of old age. And Abraham's going, whew. He's relieved. All that God had promised would indeed be fulfilled and Abraham could count on it. He could depend on the Lord by faith.

One of the words that pops up here, and we've seen it before and we'll see it again, is this word Amorite. There are two key things to note about it. What's interesting is sometimes it's translated Amorite and sometimes Amorites. The reality is the Hebrew is always single even if it's translated plural in the English. For some reason they always went with that. The literal meaning of the Hebrew term Amorite is actually Westerner.

Okay? It's a Westerner. Okay. So this is a camel cowboy here. It's sort of a term that was used for various people that lived in the western part of the Middle East. But the key there, in Abraham's day, the Amorite was nearly a synonym for Canaanite. It was kind of a summary term.

Now we've got the last few verses here to touch on. Let's go there. The last few verses tell Abraham something really rather extraordinary, and it is something yet in the future. It is yet to take place. You see this map up on the screen. I'm not going to do like I sometimes do and point here. You can't see what I'm pointing to. But you see the map on the screen. What this says is the land that the Lord ultimately will promise to Abraham goes not only through Israel, but up into Lebanon and Syria, all the way into Iraq and touching upon Kuwait. A huge stretch of land.

And so this is phenomenal. This is a time yet to take place. This is not taking place yet. It is yet in the future from us now. In Ezekiel 48, it says how that land is to be divided up by tribe. And again, it goes all the way, all the way over to Euphrates River. It essentially includes a half dozen different countries compared to what Israel has now. But think about this.

You might say, well, this is all great for Abraham and he lived 4,000 years ago and he was given various promises. How does that apply to me? Well, what kind of promises of protection do we have? We read certainly in the Bible about special cases where the Lord physically protected or delivered the apostles from harm, maybe from prison, that kind of thing. But we believers here in the church have been given the full armor of God. We have that promise of protection.

All we've got to do is put it on and stand firm. The Lord intends for us to take it up. Abraham was told to have faith, and his faith was accounted as righteousness. We're told to have faith. We take on these pieces of God's armor by faith as well. With it, we are able to stand. And that's really all we're called to do. Not attack. Stand. Stand the ground that's already been won by the Lord Jesus Christ.

So what about great reward? Is that money falling out of the sky? Not exactly. We have, and you have on page three of your handout here, five crowns that are described. And these are victor's crowns. This isn't diadem royalty crowns. These are victor's crowns given to an athletic contestant for the ones who win. Those are spelled out there in the New Testament, applying to us. And these are given to those believers who, when they go to be with the Lord and stand before the Lord, the Lord rewards them for these various things. We also have things that are called rewards in addition to these crowns.

And so these are victor's crowns for the athletic competition. all seem to be rewards when we go home to be with the Lord. How about promise of descendants? You have promise of descendants? Well, you and I who believe, if you're a believer here this morning, you are a descendant of Abraham.

Galatians 3.7 says that you are spiritual sons of Abraham. So you are actually the fulfillment of this promise of descendants to Abraham. How about that? More than that, Christ is the firstborn among many brethren.

This is Romans 8.29, and we're the brethren. So this is amazing stuff. The promise to Abraham is fulfilled in us. Here we are this morning, descendants of Abraham. What about that land promise? Is this a real estate deal?

Abraham's descendants were promised land in Genesis 15.18. That will be fulfilled, as we mentioned, when Christ comes again. It's a promise yet to be fulfilled, but it will be. And that land will be for the people of Israel during the millennium.

What we have in those stripes is which tribe gets what as for piece of land. But when we come with the Lord Jesus Christ, when He returns again, And by the way, that could be as soon as seven years from now. When we come with the Lord Jesus Christ, when He returns again, we will be His bride. We, the church, will be His bride. When He reigns over that promised land, that land promised to Abraham here in Genesis 15, for a thousand years. And Abraham will be there to see it.

But where will our focus be? Will we be really excited about the land? Will we have, boy, look at this great land, look at this nice chunk of land? No, our focus will be on the Lord Jesus Christ. Our focus will be on Him. And guess what? That's where He calls our focus to be right now. For us to behold Him. And to be drawn to Him. And to be wrapped in awe of who He is.

Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, we can see how you personally dealt with Abraham and how you assured him and how you blessed him. And Lord, as we look then to ourselves, we can see how we have benefited from your promise to Abraham. and that you also assure us, and that you also give us means of spiritual protection, and that you have blessings and promises for us, and that we ourselves are the fulfillment of your promise to Abraham, for you are ever faithful. We thank you for your faithfulness and for your love and your grace. In Jesus' name, Amen.