I want us to contemplate a verse
in John chapter 8. We'll come back to Genesis. I just want to read this verse
to you in John chapter 8. The Lord Jesus Christ. I love
the power with which he speaks and the certainty. He speaks
as God in these. And he just gives simple declarations. He gives declarations about his
enemies, he gives declarations about what they will do, and
he gives declarations about who he is, and he gives declarations
about what he will do in the hearts and the lives of his people. and they're unequivocal, aren't
they? They're not conditioned any at all. This is what God's
children will do. It says in verse 39, to these
Jews who thought they were saved. Can you imagine this being said
in a church service today? And a bunch of Christians who
think they're all saved, so-called Christians who think they're
all saved. And that's exactly what was happening here. There
was a church service going on. The Lord Jesus Christ was proclaiming
the gospel in the temple. And this is the same meeting
in which that woman was brought there and the Lord Jesus Christ
said to this guilty woman, neither do I condemn thee, go in peace.
And those Pharisees, one group of Pharisees had left and immediately
another group of Pharisees had turned up or raised their voices
and said, we're Abraham's children, we're the children of God, we're
saved, we're saved, we're saved. And he said, to put it in the
context in verse 36, he said, If the Son set you free, you
shall be free indeed. I know that you're Abraham's
seed, but you seek to kill me because my word has no place
in you. I speak that which I've seen
of my father, and you do that which you have seen of your father.
They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. There's
absolutely no question. They have the genealogies down
pat. They knew exactly, they could trace every single one
of them. They could trace their lineage all the way back to Abraham
and back to Adam and back to God. They were God's children.
This is the declaration I want us to ponder when we go to Genesis
chapter 15. If you were Abraham's children,
you would do the works of Abraham. Not that you might do the works
of Abraham. You would do the works of Abraham. All of Abraham's faith children
do the works of Abraham. They all do the works of Abraham.
God has promised. Is it true? It is true, isn't it? All of
God's children do the works of Abraham. Okay, let's go back
to Genesis chapter 15 and let's look at some of the works of
Abraham. This is one of the works of Abraham.
The story of Abraham in the earlier chapters and Lord willing, over
the next couple of weeks I want us to look at some of the works
of Abraham. But this is one that I have just loved so much. This is the work of Abraham. This is one of Abraham's great
works. And this is the work, and this
is the event in which God says that you'll go to your fathers
in peace, Abraham. And Abraham is a recipient of
grace. And I want us to remember, Abraham
is a remarkable man. And Abraham's name is recorded
74 times in the New Testament, 11 of them are in John chapter
eight. And so this is an incredibly
significant chapter about who Abraham is. But Abraham was a
sinner. just like us. And throughout
the testimony of Abraham's life we realise again and again that
God is gracious, God is good, God is gracious to Abraham. So we've looked earlier at the
first seven verses. I read them to you earlier, and
I just want us to remind ourselves again and again that when the
Old Testament speaks of the word of the Lord came to Abraham,
who was speaking, who's the word of the Lord? This is the Lord
Jesus Christ that's speaking. Abraham had meals with the Lord
Jesus Christ. He even had a debate with the
Lord Jesus Christ about Sodom. He was his friend. He was a friend,
wasn't he? The word of the Lord came. I am thy shield, he says in verse
one, and thy exceeding great reward. Verse four, the word
of the Lord came to him. That's what we want, doesn't
it? In the preaching of the gospel, in the declaring of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we want the word of the Lord to come. If you hear
from God, you will hear in such a way that it is unequivocal. These are the words that speak
creation into existence. These are the words that speak
salvation into existence. And he says, I am the Lord, in
verse 7, that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees to give
you this land to inherit it. And then Abraham asked that question,
and it's a wonderful question, and I'm so thankful that Abraham
asked that question, asked this question, because it's a question
that I believe the children of God ask. Now there's no question
at this stage, Abraham had a remarkable history in the years prior to
this particular meeting with God, didn't he? In response to
what had Abraham done in chapter 12, in response to God's word
he departed immediately and left Haran and came down into Canaan.
But throughout Abraham's previous time, wherever Abraham went,
he built an altar. Chapter 7 of verse 12, he built
an altar. Chapter 8 of verse 12, he built
an altar and called upon the name of the Lord. And after he
returned from Egypt in chapter 13, he builds an altar. Now in
chapter 13, after being separated from Lot and receiving a promise,
he builds an altar unto the Lord. And after returning from defeating
the five kings and meeting Melchizedek, Abraham meets with God. So Abraham had this as a believer
for a long time, with a lot of history, I want us to remember this in
light of the fact that that is a question. That's a question
that I believe the children of God ask themselves. Because God,
the Lord Jesus Christ, came into this world to save sinners. And
a day, an hour, possibly a minute, rarely goes by without me seeing
something inside of myself which causes me to say, how on earth
can someone who carries around a body of flesh like that and
sins the way you do be a child of God? How can I know? How can
I know? I don't believe it's who are
in religion ask themselves very often. It seems to be the response
I get from people in religion when they say, well, I just love
Jesus. And then we say, well isn't he
amazing, isn't he? Isn't the Lord Jesus Christ amazing?
Isn't he amazing in his absolute sovereignty over all things?
Isn't he amazing in his absolute holiness? And you start declaring
the name of the Lord, the character of God, just the simple things
about his character, and you find these religious people,
as I did with three in New Zealand just last week, they just find
him offensive. They find him offensive. How
dare he dethrone me? How dare he challenge my right
to sit on the throne of my free will? How shall I know? It's a question that God's children
ask because I think they see their sins. And that's exactly
the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of people. What's the
greatest sin that you've ever committed? If you went around
this town now and stepped outside and said, what is the greatest
sin that's going on in the world, or the greatest sin that you
could possibly think of committing, what would you say? Murder? Rape? Child molestation? You could think of some horrible
things that are going on, all the things that happen in all
of the drama of war, there are just horrible things that are
going on. What's the most horrible sin in all the world? It's unbelief. And the average
religious person would say, well, that's just a piece of cake.
Doesn't matter. It's unbelief. God's children
know themselves to be sinners. And that's why I love, I love
Abraham being led of the Lord to ask this question. And Abraham
represents the faith children of God as he asks this question.
How shall I know? How shall I know? All the righteous
know that there is no righteousness in them at all. All the truly
righteous know that there is not a shred of righteousness
in them at all. And all the unrighteous never
doubt their self-righteousness, and especially if it's a self-righteousness
which is polished by some religion. It's exactly what these Pharisees
were doing in Jerusalem, isn't it? They were proud of their
religious activities, they were proud of their heritage, they
were proud of their extraordinary knowledge of the Scriptures,
and they were so proud and so self-righteous that when God
was standing before them saying, I am God, they had hatred and
murder in their hearts. How shall I know? Why wasn't
Abraham rebuked? God had said it. That was sufficient,
wasn't it? Abraham is dealt with in the
most gracious way, and if you see the graciousness of God to
Abraham, you'll understand why grace is amazing grace. Grace is electing grace. Grace
is always successful grace. Grace is always saving grace.
This notion of common grace is not a shred of that in the scriptures
at all. How shall I know? Why didn't
he rebuke Abraham? He knows our frame, says God,
in the psalm read from Genesis chapter 3. He knows we are dust. He knows our frame. He knows
us. Why didn't he rebuke Abraham?
Because we, all the children of God, will ask those questions. Paul in 1 Corinthians 9 said
he was fearful that after he'd preached the gospel and done
all those remarkable things that he might end up being a reprobate.
There was no doubt that it could happen, but such is the nature
of all of God's children. But I think most of all is that
we need to hear God's answer. God actually not only allows not rebuke him, but he gives
this wonderful answer. Just listen to this answer and
we'll be very brief. I just want to skip over the
top of these things. I want you, if you can this week, to go and
look at this Passion Scripture and you will find the Gospel
and you will find the death, burial and resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ in this picture over and over again. It's glorious. The first thing
I want us to take note of is in verse 9. God says to Abraham,
take me, take me, not for yourself, but for me. You take these emblems
of the sacrifice of my son and you bring them to me. The essence
of Abraham's knowing and the essence of Abraham's peace is
a transaction between God. and God as recorded by God. That's where our peace is. You take me. God's satisfaction,
God's place of reconciliation is the only one for us as well,
brothers and sisters in Christ, isn't it? Where God is satisfied. God saw the travail of his son
in Isaiah chapter 53. And what was the result of him
seeing the travail of his son? He was satisfied. And in that
satisfaction was the salvation of all of his people, Abraham
and us included. See, God must satisfy. He must
satisfy his holiness. He must satisfy his glory. He
must satisfy all the attributes of his name, which is why we
want to keep declaring the name of the Lord to people, because
you've got to call on the name of the Lord. And it's not just
the words, isn't it? It's all of his attributes. We
call on every attribute of God. And there's not one that I don't
love. And there's not one that I don't
love to proclaim. He must satisfy himself for you
to have rest. you to have rest for your eternal
souls. Abraham's going to be promised
here that you'll go to your fathers in peace. To lie on your pillow,
knowing that you are to meet God at a time of disappointment
and to be in peace, is not only a remarkable gift for you, What does God say? God must satisfy himself. He said take me a heifer. He says, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. Not when I see your obedience,
or your faith, or your decision, or your acceptance. When I see
the blood, God says. The blood was on the outside
of the house and the people were on the inside. When I see the
blood, says God, I'll pass over you. God, in verse chapter 22,
up on Mount Moriah, on the way to Mount Moriah, Abraham has
learnt a great lesson. in this event, hasn't he? He
says, where's the sacrifice? Isaac says, where's the sacrifice?
Where's the lamb? Where's the lamb? And Abraham declares the
lamb, God will provide himself a lamb. God will provide himself
a lamb. How shall I know? provides himself
a lamb. Take me, you take me, and then
there's a description of these five Levitical sacrificial animals. They are three years of age.
Most of the ones in the rest of the sacrificial system are
just a year old. These are at the prime of their life, aren't
they, and the ultimate, the zenith of their power. They are sufficient
for the wealthy. Efficient for the wealthy, a
heifer and a she-goat and a ram. And they're sufficient for the
very poor who have no means whatsoever. You can get a turtle dove or
a young pigeon without a whole lot of trouble or effort. And
he took these, verse 10, Abraham brought these to God. God asked
for them, Abraham brought them to God. And he divided them in the midst against the other, but the birds
he divided not. How can I know? How can I know? When the lamb is revealed to
me, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins.
The wages, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. There must be a
death and there must be a blood shed in death. The Lamb must be revealed. The Lamb must be revealed. How can I know? How can I know,
says Abraham? There is only one answer. There is only one answer from
the scriptures about how can I know. Is the reason for your
hope found in you? in any measure whatsoever, that hope will fade. How can
I know is the reason for all of my hope before God found in
the Lord Jesus Christ and in Him alone. That's exactly what
this is pictured, isn't it? As we'll see as we go on, The reason for the hope of Abraham
is not found in anything that Abraham does. It's found in Christ. It's all, salvation is all of
grace. How could I know? Let's go down
to verse 10. He took them and divided them.
He says, God says, take me the sacrifice and divide them in
the midst. sacrifice is, of course, representative
of the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified on Calvary's tree. You take God's covenant with
God and you divide them in half. In the Old Testament, you can
read about it in Deuteronomy 34, there was a sense in which
covenants were cut And the animals were laid aside and the two parties
walked beside them and they were saying as they walked between
the halves of the animals, I deserve this, if I break this covenant. It's the covenant in blood. It's the covenant in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ is divided,
isn't he? He's divided into perfect humanity
and perfect deity. But in his death, When his blood
was shed, the skies were darkened, wasn't it? In verse 12, Abraham
fell into a deep sleep and a horror of great darkness fell upon him. In that great darkness, the Lord
Jesus Christ was divided, wasn't he? He was divided from his father. In his death, he was divided
from life. He was divided from heaven's
glories in his submission, and he was divided from humanity.
He did it all by himself. All by himself. All by himself. Only the God-man can satisfy. These clean animals represent
the pure offering. Only Christ was able. Only Christ,
at the zenith of His strength, was able to bear the sins of
all of His people in the prime of His life. He was able to bear
them. Imagine the load. Imagine just
the load of my sins that I'm aware of just in this one morning. In these one few hours I've been
awake today, the load of all of the sins of all of God's people,
he had the strength to bear them, brothers and sisters. He bowed down in Gethsemane's
garden as if all the weight of their sins came crushing upon
him and the blood poured out in great drops onto that ground
and he carried them. He carried that cup and he drank
that cup and in that cup were all the sins of all of his people.
He carried them. He carried them. He alone can
carry them. He alone can put them all away
because of his deity. Only God can satisfy God. And only God can satisfy the
character of God. What's the work of Abraham that
causes him to know to bring to God God's sacrifice? You bring
to God what God is pleased with. You bring to God what God has
ordained for his satisfaction. bring in that great darkness. So what was Abraham doing when
this transaction was going on? When Abraham's salvation was
being pictured in secure, what was Abraham doing? Brothers and
sisters, he was asleep. How much work was he doing? Who
did all the work? God did all the work. It's a
transaction between God and God. The work of Abraham, but Abraham
had another work to do and we'll talk more about it next week.
In verse 11, there was one activity that Abraham had on that afternoon
before the deep and the darkness fell upon him. And when the fowls
came the carcasses. Some translations declare them
as ravenous birds. So you can imagine those sacrifices
there in that dry land and the vultures and the crows coming
down. They are pictures, of course,
of all false teachers throughout this world. from Cain on. It's Satan's great work. And notice that the birds didn't
attack Abraham. You have enough dry powder inside
of you that the tiniest spark could set the whole world on
fire. We don't need Satan to tempt us for us to fall into
sin. There's plenty within us that
is more than sufficient. It didn't attack Abraham. What's
Satan's great work? What's Satan's great work pictured
here in Genesis chapter 15? from God's sacrifice, its fullness and its completeness. Nothing but 100% of the sacrifice
can satisfy God. Satan's great work is to make
the atonement of Christ, to make the sacrifice that satisfies
God, less than complete and less than sufficient, and less than
what God declares it to be in the Scriptures. Ultimately, it's
to rob God of His glory. So Satan's greatest work is in
the pulpits of this world, isn't it? To say that the atonement
of the Lord Jesus Christ creates a possibility for people to be
saved, when God says it saves. To say, as multitudes believe,
that it will work for me fill in the blank. If I have
to do something to make the work of Christ sufficient to satisfy
God for me, then my work is more important than Christ's work.
And don't forget that the ravenous birds, just like the ravenous
birds in John chapter 8 who had murder in their hearts towards
God, they grew fat. in their self-righteousness and
in their personal wealth and their esteem amongst themselves
and with themselves in the very place of the sacrifice. Where
were they when the Lord Jesus Christ was shedding his blood
in Gethsemane's garden and was crushed by the weight and the
prospect of being made sin on Calvary's tree? They were in
the temple courts plotting how they could put him to death. The Pharisees grew fat in the
things of this world, in religion, in the temple, in the place of
sacrifice. Verse 12, let's just go down
through, look at some of these verses quickly and see the glory
of the Lord in them. When the sun was going down,
a deep sleep fell upon Abraham, and lo, a horror of great darkness
fell upon him. I can't doubt but think that
that represents the darkness that fell upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. But also it shows that Abraham's role in all of this and know that I am God. Abraham
wasn't to be at work in this particular area. In verses 13
to 16 we have these promises given. In the midst of Abraham's
sleep, in the midst of that darkness, he said to Abraham, know of a
surety that thy seed shall be a stranger. And he promises what's
going to happen to nation Israel over the next 400 years and more.
And then he says in verse 15, thou shalt go to thy fathers
in peace, thou shalt be buried in a good old age. And then he
promises that those children will come back, and they'll come
back where? They come back there again, don't
they? They come back hither again.
They come back to this place. The children of God, the true
children of God, will come back to the place of sacrifice again
and again and again. Just as Abraham did, he went
to Egypt from an altar between Bethel and Ai, and he came back
to will keep coming back to the altar of sacrifice, the Lord
Jesus Christ. In verse 17, it's just one of
those remarkable passages of scripture which speaks of the
death and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't you love
it? And it came to pass When the
sun went down and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace and
a burning lamp passed between those pieces. What's the smoking
furnace? It's just a picture, isn't it,
of the wrath of God falling upon the sacrifice. That's what it
is, isn't it? All the sacrifices in the rest
of the Old Testament almost always are burnt on an altar. And who
lit the altar? Who lit the fire on the altar?
God lit the fire on the altar. God lit the fire on the altar.
It's a picture of the fact that the wrath of God fell on the
sins of all of God's people in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the
burning lamp, the burning lamp, the light, of the Lord Jesus
Christ shines in this world through his sacrifice. And please note
with me in verse 17, the burning lamp and the smoking furnace,
they passed between the pieces. The Lord Jesus Christ absorbed
the wrath of God. The fire of God's wrath fell
on the Lord Jesus Christ and he absorbed it. And then the
light shines and what a glorious light shone on resurrection morning. He took my sins. He took my sins
and my sorrows. He made them his very own. He bore the burden to Calvary
and suffered and died alone. made a promise. The Lord made
a promise at the place of sacrifice, in response to the sacrifice. And that's the light of the Gospel,
isn't it? We're saying that the sacrifice
is done, the sacrifice is accepted. That's what resurrection's about,
isn't it? The sacrifice is accepted with God. I have made a covenant
with you and I have given. It's grace,
isn't it? It's all of grace. I have given
you an inheritance. How can I know? In closing, let's
turn to Hebrews chapter one. There's so much more in this
glorious passage of Scripture. I pray that you go and ask the
Lord to guide you and help you to see that this is Abraham's
place of peace. faith children when they ask
the question, how can I know? When they look inside themselves
and say, how can I know? I just love these first few verses
here, isn't it? God, who at sundry times and
in various manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by
the prophets. Here he is speaking wonderfully
to Abraham and wonderfully to us. Hath in these last days spoken
unto us by Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, by whom also
he made the world, who being, this is the glory of the Lord
Jesus, who being the brightness of his of his person and upholding all
things by the word of his power when he had, listen to me brothers
and sisters, what does God say? When he had by himself, by himself,
that's exactly what this picture Abraham was viewing, wasn't it?
Abraham was asleep and God performed the transaction. By himself purged
our sins. Purged. What's that mean? It means to wash them white.
Though you seem to be scarlet, they'll be as white as snow.
It means to put them away. It means to cleanse them completely. It's to cause them not to be. That's what he's done. That's
what he's done. Anything that detracts from what
God says that he's done in his Son is nothing other than the
work of the vultures, isn't it? Nothing other than the work of
the vultures. By himself, not with your assistance,
not with your acceptance, not with your obedience, not with
your addition as it's all going to work if I. God is not making
an offer, he's making a declaration. You will do the works of Abraham.
One of the works of Abraham is to come to God with the sacrifice
that God accepts, the sacrifice of his dear and precious son.
It's not enabling, as so many people do, it's not enabling
us to activate this for ourselves. God's hands as well, brothers
and sisters. He'll bring all of His children to believe. He
cannot listen. No one can pluck them out of
His hand. No one can pluck them out of
His Father's hand. That's the safest place in this universe,
isn't it? No one can pluck them. You can't
pluck them out of Him. You can't pluck yourself out
of there. That's how secure it is. God makes this covenant with
Abraham. Not Abraham making a covenant
with Him. Not Abraham doing some sort of a deal with God. All
my hope, And all of God's glory is in exactly the same place.
All of my peace, all of my peace, you shall go to your fathers
in peace. Peace is a person, brothers and
sisters. He is our peace. Amen. He is our peace. Not he plus my doing. He is our
peace. May the Lord bless these words
to your hearts and his son to our remembrance. Let's pray.