Good morning, brethren. Let's
return to Genesis chapter 15. Genesis 15. We'll be looking
or focusing on verses 7 through 12. These verses describe the
sacrifice that God instructed Abram to prepare. And he instructed
Abraham in this sacrifice in response, in answer, to Abram's
question when he asked, how shall I know that I shall inherit this
promised land? How do I know that I'm going
to inherit this promised land that you've given to me? And
this passage, verses 7 through 12, tells us how the Lord answered
Abram's question. Now to understand this passage,
just as we are to understand any passage of scripture, to
answer this question according to the blessings of God, we look
to the Lord Jesus Christ. We look to the Lord Jesus Christ
because this promise speaks of eternal life given to the children
of God in Christ. That's what our Lord is teaching
us here. He's speaking about the promised
land. but it must be understood in
terms of our promised inheritance given to us in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It speaks of our eternal life
which Christ gives to his children. When we focus on the physical
land which God gave to Israel, that physical land of Canaan
that God gave to Abram's descendants, when that's our focus, it leads
us to fleshly and carnal reasoning, a fleshly and carnal understanding
of the scripture. And it's that carnal fleshly
understanding of scripture that led the Jews to crucify the Lord
of Glory. Because they were looking at
the flesh. They were looking at the things
of this world. The things of the flesh. And
that is completely contrary to the faith of Abraham. The faith
of Abraham. And all God's children are of
faith. The children of Abraham are children
of faith. We see by faith, not by sight. Now the way God assures His child
of the promise of eternal life is He declares Christ crucified. That's what He speaks to the
people. He speaks of Christ crucified and He forms Christ in the heart
of His people. And by that new birth, which
He gives to us, by that new birth, That's how we believe God. That's
how we worship God. That's how we know God. Without
Christ, we don't know the true and living God. We don't understand
the true and living God. What we're worshiping is an idol
of our imagination apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the Lord teaches his people
to look for that heavenly Jerusalem, that everlasting city, that eternal
life which he promises us in Christ. And that's the same city
that Abraham looked for. We'll see that in a little bit
later. So I titled this, The Answer
to Abram's Question. So after the last week we saw
in the first six verses, we were looking at the Lord's teaching
of imputed righteousness through the Lord Jesus Christ, which
he communicates and reveals to us through faith, which he gives
to his child, the fruit of faith that he bears in them. That's
how we receive and understand and have peace with God for what
he's accomplished in the redemption of Christ. And now we read in
verse 7, Genesis 15 verse 7. And God said unto Abram, I am
the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees to give
thee this land to inherit it. Now the Lord has engaged to bless
Abram. And he first reminds Abram how
that he called him, how that he called Abram in grace. And what he did for Abram graciously,
not because he earned it, but because God would be gracious
to him, saying, I called you out of Ur of the Chaldees. I
called you out of idolatry. I called you out of the darkness
and death of nature. And I brought you into the light
to do thee good, to bless thee, to bless thee. I did this. Abram
did nothing to provoke God's goodness and God's grace toward
him. That would be worse. And it's
of grace, not of works. He didn't earn God's favor. And
just like in the salvation of God for all His people, God chose
His people, God calls His people, God blesses His people in and
by the Lord Jesus Christ. They're all given in Christ. And that's how all the blessings
come is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. All the blessings of God are
given in Christ and they're all of grace, freely given by the
grace of God. Verse 8, And Abram said, Lord
God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it, inherit that
land that you've promised to me? Now, what follows is the
answer to Abram's question. That's what we're going to see
today in this text. This is an inheritance that Abram
never physically receives himself. He doesn't physically receive
it in the flesh. That's because it's fulfillment
is a heavenly promise. You think about Abraham didn't
receive this inheritance of the land in the flesh. Isaac didn't
receive it. Jacob didn't receive it. Jacob's
12 sons didn't receive it. They lived there as strangers
and pilgrims in the land, but they didn't receive it. They
went down to Egypt. And after they got to Egypt, it was, what,
430 years after? Four generations later? And even
that generation that came out of Egypt, they didn't receive
it. They all died in the wilderness, not believing. And their generation,
their children that followed them, it was delayed to them,
too, because they had to wait till the Lord, till those, that
other generation all died in unbelief before they received
it. before they received it in pictures,
it shows us that Abram looked for a city which hath foundations,
whose builder and maker is God, just like all his children of
faith do today. We look for a city which hath
foundations, whose builder and maker is God. We're not looking
to a physical land here. We're looking to Christ, who
is our life and our salvation. So God illustrates this answer
that Abram seeks through a sacrifice, through the sacrifice. And here's
the need for grace that we have. We need the grace and the spirit
of God to reveal this to our hearts, to show us what he showed
Abram. Because when Abram saw it, it
satisfied him. It satisfied him. He had the
answer that he sought. What God showed him in this sacrifice,
Abram understood. And he believed God. And he rested
in the promise of God. And Abram is the father of all
them that believe, Paul tells us. So what did God show Abram? What did he show him? Well, this
sacrifice shows us the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ. All the scripture speaks of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It all reveals to the sinner
that Christ is all and in all. Apart from Him we have nothing,
but in Him we have all things. and were made to rest in Him. And this redemption work, it
leads to Christ being formed in the heart of all His children. Because Christ is the successful
Savior, He does not fail. All for whom He gave His life
They hear His voice. They will hear His voice. There
will come a day when the Lord will call them by His grace,
by the gospel, bless them with the Spirit, to hear what the
Spirit saith unto the churches, to hear the voice of Christ,
and to believe by the grace of God, to call upon the Lord and
ask Him for grace and mercy. And so, what our Lord did in
His redemptive work, it necessitates that life shall be formed in
the heart of all His children. Christ shall be formed in the
heart of His people. So the Lord speaks of Christ
here. This is the mystery revealed. This is what's hidden. When countless
millions of people read these scriptures, they have no idea
what it's saying. They're just looking at physical,
carnal, dead letter words on a page. They don't see the mystery. But Christ is the Father's fulfillment. He's the word of promise fulfilled
to his people. That's why he shows us Christ
in all the scriptures. Abram believed in the Lord and
he counted it to him for righteousness. And we believe the Lord. We believe
the promise of the Lord fulfilled in Christ. David, over in Romans
chapter four where Paul writes of Abraham and writes specifically
of the imputation of righteousness by faith. David said, blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. He said, blessed is the man to
whom the Lord will not impute sin. And Paul asks, when did
this blessing come? When Abraham was in circumcision
or uncircumcision? And thanks be to God, it was
in uncircumcision, so that we know it's not by works. It's
through faith, which he graciously reveals in the heart of his children. That's when it was reckoned to
Abraham, when he was uncircumcised, that the promise would come to
not only the Jews who are circumcised, but the Gentiles who are not
circumcised. but believe in Christ, believe
Him. So this covenant that God makes
with Abram in this passage, we won't get into that whole part
of it, we're looking at the sacrifice here, but this covenant is made
in Christ, and it's a gracious covenant. God fulfills all His
promises to His people by grace, and what a blessing that is.
that it's all of grace, because if there's any part that depends
upon me, I will come short of it. And just to be clear, whether
you think it or not, you too will come short of it if anything
rests on your flesh. That's why God gave His people
to Christ. He put them in Christ before
the foundation of the world because there is the surety. There is
the hope of the sinner. There's perfection. He is life
and all our life and hope rests upon Him and thankfully it does. Thank God that it does because
we see by the grace of God we know what we are in this flesh.
We know what we are. And so we believe. And what we see in the first
part of these verses is a picture of Christ crucified. And then
we see in the last verse, verse 12, of Christ formed in the heart
of his child. whose iniquities are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered. Now, we're going to drive to
Christ here. We're going to drive to Christ here, let me just say,
because He is the mystery revealed. He is who we are called to preach. We're supposed to preach Him.
You know, the blood we'll see in here, the blood of heifers,
the blood of she-goats, the blood of a ram, and the turtle dove,
and the young pigeon, Their blood doesn't save sinners. Their blood
doesn't forgive sin. Their blood doesn't appease the
wrath of God. But Christ does. Christ does. He is the salvation of God and
he obtained the promises of God for all his people. In fact,
before we get into it, turn to Colossians 1, 125. This is what
Paul says. Colossians 1, 25 through 28. I want you to hear from the Apostle
why we drive to Christ and why we seek Christ here in this passage. Colossians 1.25 Paul says there, Whereof I am
made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which
is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. even the mystery,
which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but is
now made manifest to his saints, to whom God would make known
what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. whom we preach, warning
every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may
present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. That's why we drive
to Christ. That's why we see Christ in all
the scriptures. not to mention the fact that
he himself preached himself to his disciples when he rose from
the dead, preaching from Moses and the Psalms and the prophets
and all the scriptures, the things concerning him, and tells us
that ye are witnesses of these things, of my death and my resurrection. That's what we're here for. That's
why he's gathered and established his church in the earth, to be
witnesses of what God has revealed to us in Christ, what he's done
and accomplished for his people. So we're gonna see Christ, now
back in Genesis 15. Genesis 15, and we'll pick up
in verse nine and 10. And he said unto him, take me
an heifer of three years old, and a shegoat of three years
old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a
young pigeon. And he took unto him all these,
and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against
another, but the birds divided he not. What does this sacrifice
picture? Why did the Lord instruct Abram
to bring these things the way that he did? Well, this sacrifice
speaks to the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what He came and accomplished
when He was sent of the Father, even our eternal redemption by
the shedding of His own blood. You know, first off, one of the
easy things to see here is that each beast was three years old. And that immediately jumps out
to us because we are reminded, well, wait a minute, Christ's
ministry was for three and a half years on the earth. He ministered
and preached the kingdom of God for three and a half years and
then was crucified. And that's what he was ministering
during his humiliation here in the flesh. But we also see that
there's three animals who are all three years old. And that's a repetition, a repetition
of three. And every time the Lord repeats
something in scripture, it's to tell us this is important.
How many times did our Lord say, verily, verily, or truly, truly,
I say unto you? It's to get our attention, to
pay attention that this is important. We need this. We need to hear
this. And it says that these three
were each divided. Now as I looked at this and sought
to understand this by the Lord, it became clearer and clearer
to me that these three are the witnesses of the Lord. The three
witnesses in heaven, and the three witnesses in the earth.
That's why they were divided. The three witnesses in heaven
and the three witnesses which are upon the earth and but these
three unite in one to bear record and bear witness of the Christ
that this is the promised seed of God made to to Adam and Eve
in the garden. The promise seed that should
come and reconcile all things that was lost and ruined and
destroyed by us in Adam." When we sinned against God and Adam,
they're united. So God testifies of Christ. These witnesses. Now let's turn
over to 1st John 5 and see this. This is the record that our God
bears in the heart of every one of His children. He bears record
of Christ. Christ crucified, what He accomplished,
that He rose from the dead, and what He does for His people in
giving them life. It's all in Christ. So 1 John
5, verse 6, This is He that came by water
and blood, even Jesus Christ. Not by water only. He didn't
come just simply revealing the truth of God, but by water and
blood. He testified of the Father. He
worked those miracles and spoke those words which the Father
sent Him to do. and by blood, and by blood, he sacrificed himself
for the sins of his people. And it is the Spirit that beareth
witness, because the Spirit is truth." Now here he goes, the
three in heaven and the three in earth. For there are three
that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, which is the
Son of God, and the Spirit, or the Holy Ghost, and these three
are one. And there are three that bear
witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood,
and these three agree in one, which is the Spirit of God formed,
worked in you, born of the seed of Christ. When we're born again,
the Spirit of God testifies to us, The Scriptures, which is
the water of the Word, testifies to us of Christ and the blood. That is, the blood-redeemed Church
bears witness and testifies of the Lord Jesus Christ in the
earth. This is the witness which God has given us of His blessed
Son. If, and then he goes on in verse
9, if we receive the witness of men, and we do, there's times
when we take men at their word. Well, if we take men at their
word, the witness of God is greater. If you believe a man, how can
you not believe the true and living God, who is holy, just,
and perfect? For this is the witness of God,
which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the
Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not
God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that
God gave of his son. And this is the record, this
is the witness that God hath given to us eternal life. This is exactly what he promised
to Abram. He bore witness of Christ in
Abram and it satisfied Abram. that he understood, he saw, and
the witness and record of God was manifest in him, and this
life is in his son. this life. So this is what God
bears witness of. He reveals this in every one
of His children. He reveals Christ to us. He shows
us that Christ came in the flesh because we cannot save ourselves.
And He laid down His life and accomplished our salvation. He
redeemed us by His own blood. And so the record born in us
is faith. That's the record He bears in
this child. That's the record we go and testify to others. He that hath the Son, hath life. And he that hath not the Son
of God, hath not life. It's that simple. It's why God
reveals faith in us, manifests faith in us, because he's given
us record that we are his, that we are bought with a price. We're
not our own. We are the Lord's. He bought
us with his own blood. And so the sacrifice pictures
Christ, whom the Father sent. All right then, what about this
turtle dove? Well, that's the Holy Spirit,
which descended from heaven and abode upon him when he came up
out of the water. It's the witness of the Spirit.
Why isn't the turtle dove divided? Because God giveth not the Spirit
to him by measure. The fullness of the Godhead dwells
bodily in Christ, without division, without partiality, without any
diminishing of it. And the young pigeon, that's
the truth of the New Testament revealed by Christ. It's what
he came and declared, the very truth of God to men. For he whom God hath sent speaketh
the words of God. And that young pigeon, he speaks
the New Testament. He declares the New Testament
to his people. Just like pigeons are trained
to carry a message, So Christ was sent to the Father and came
with a message, not his own, but he spoke what the Father
sent him to speak. What he heard the Father speak,
that's what he spoke to us. That's what he declared the truth
of God to us. And why isn't the pigeon divided?
Because there's one message. One gospel that saves all, whether
you're Jew or Gentile. We don't have one gospel for
the Jews and another gospel for the Gentiles. It's an undivided
message. The same gospel is for all, Jew
and Gentile. So Abram did as God told him
to do. And it says back in verse 11,
Genesis 15, 11. And when the fowls came down
upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. Well, these fowls
are a picture of the enemies of God and his people whom Christ
defeated. Defeated all his enemies. But,
specifically here, it speaks of that enemy of death and the
grave and corruption. which did not touch Christ. Christ overcame death. Christ
defeated the grave. No corruption touched our Lord. He pleased the Father well in
all things, and the Father raised Him from the dead for our justification. It says in Psalm 16, 10, for
thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer
thine Holy One to see corruption. And so the point here is that
everything in this sacrifice speaks of, pictures, what Christ
himself came in the flesh to do and what he accomplished by
the grace and power of God for his people in redeeming them
by his death and in rising again from the grave for our justification. It all declares Christ. That's
what the Lord showed Abram and said, this is how you know you
have my inheritance that I've given to you. This is how we
know that we have an eternal inheritance given to us because
of what Christ did, what he accomplished for us in his death and resurrection. It's the same thing that satisfies
my heart. I believe God, that I have an
inheritance because of Christ, for Christ's sake. And that's
what he reveals in the hearts of all his people. Now, someone
might ask, well, why did the Lord have Abram do it? Why was
Abram so active in this sacrifice, which pictures Christ's redemptive
work? Why was Abram doing that? We
know Christ did this work of redemption all by himself. We
didn't help him. We didn't lift a finger. We couldn't.
We're just polluters is what we are. We're sinners and polluters.
We didn't help the Lord. He did it by himself. He accomplished
our redemption. Well, I would just say this.
Well, one, he could be a type of Christ here. We could see
that. But another thing is, where was the church when Christ did
this redemptive work? We were in him. I am crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet Christ
liveth in me. The life which I now live, I
live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me. We were in Christ. When Christ
died, we died. When Christ was buried, I was
buried. When Christ rose from the grave,
I was raised from the grave. We were in Him when all this
was accomplished, so that by His righteousness I am righteous
and well-pleasing to the Father for the sake of Christ, for what
Christ has done for me. Now this last verse is the salvation
of Christ wrought in the heart of His people. This is where
He manifests Christ in our heart, and it's verse 12, speaks of
three things that speak of Christ's salvation for his people. It
says there, verse 12, when the sun was going down, a deep sleep
fell upon Abram, and lo and horror of great darkness fell upon him. So, the sun was going down. Well,
that depicts a season, a season of sacrifice. It was the evening
when the angel Gabriel touched Daniel. About the time, it says,
of the evening oblation. The evening was a time when they
would sacrifice in the temple. And what it's showing us here
is that, brethren, we have a need. We need the atonement of Christ. The sun is setting. The hour
is far spent. The day is almost over. We need
the grace of God. We need the Atonement. We need
the salvation that God has provided in His Son, Jesus Christ. Without it, we shall die and
go to the resurrection of the unjust. Without the blood of
Christ, we cannot live. We have no life apart from Him. But Christ came and He sacrificed
Himself for His people. This deep sleep pictures those
in Christ when we were yet in darkness and in nature. This
deep sleep shows what we are when we were just slumbering
away in nature's darkness, having no thought or care of the Lord,
or having a thought or care of the Lord, but going about it
in the flesh, going about it all wrong and thinking we were
pleasing God. We didn't even know the ruin
that we were in, in darkness. We had no idea of just how vile
and corrupt we are. We often hear people today, as
they always have, boasting of their free will and what they
do for God. And they speak a lot of smack
talk is what I would call it. I mean it's just they're talking
about things they know nothing of and they boast of their free
will and have no knowledge of how corrupt and ruined and vile
we are in Adam. When Adam as our federal and
seminal head plunged us into spiritual death and ruin. And
that's how we come forth. Dead in trespasses and sins.
And so while we slept, though, Christ came and graciously laid
down His life to put away the sins of His people and to obtain
eternal forgiveness, or redemption, or remission of our sins. And
then this horror, and that word means terror, means dread, of
great darkness which fell upon Him, speaks to the forming of
Christ, what He does graciously for all His children, and showing,
forming by the seed of Christ, that new man in us, by giving
life in his child. There's a horror felt when that
call of the gospel first goes out. There's a horror. And I
was thinking of the virgins. When that call goes out at midnight,
the bridegroom cometh, wake up, wake up. And when you first hear
that message and you realize, This is all true? You mean this
isn't just a fairy tale or just good stories for me to grow up
under and hear good moral stories? You mean this is true? My life
depends upon the Lord Jesus Christ. This is true? And we rise up. We rise up. And it said at midnight,
there was a cry made. Behold, the bridegroom cometh.
Go ye out to meet him. And all those virgins were sleeping.
And they rose up. They woke up. And they heard.
He's coming, and they got themselves ready. They trimmed their lamps,
and they go out there. But only half of them had the
oil, the oil of the Spirit. Only half of them had the things
that they needed formed in them of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
the other half thought they had what they needed, but they didn't.
But those who were blessed of the Lord had what they needed
to endure to the end to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
they went in with him into his kingdom. And the door was shut,
and all the others were left without. they perished. The Spirit causes lost sinners
to fear God, that is to hear His warning, to hear what He's
saying to us, to hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches,
to not ignore it, to not think lightly and despise Christ and
think lightly of Him as we do in our flesh, But he delivers
his children from that. And he gives us a fear, a righteous
fear, a holy fear of the Lord, to know that he is God, that
he is great, that he's not this small little idol that I've kept
in my back pocket when I was in religion, playing games. But
no, God is magnificent. He's glorious. He's sovereign. He does all things. I'm not cooperating
with God. I don't have a hand in this.
All I add to it is sin and wickedness. And think they're something when
they're nothing. But God becomes magnificent and glorious, majestic
in the eyes of his people. And we tremble. And we tremble
when we see just how mighty and holy God is. You think of Isaiah,
who was already a prophet of God, and when he saw that vision
of Christ, he cried out, woe is me, I am undone, and I dwell
in the midst of a people that are just as wicked as I am. My
lips are filthy, I'm undone, and he had to be touched. with
that ember from the altar, which is Christ. He had to be touched
with that. And so do we, every one of us.
And so the Lord causes us to hear that word of God, to hear
that call go out in the night season, and to shake us, and
to bring us to see our need of him. Now, the Lord gives us a
beautiful picture of the gospel being revealed in the hearts
of his people. Turn over to Acts 16. Acts 16, here's a true event that happened, and
it also speaks to our salvation in Christ. It's what he does
in our hearts, what he does in the hearts and minds of his people.
Acts 16, verse 25 through 30. Here it is, dark. At midnight, Paul and Silas are
locked up in a jail in the city of Philippi. It says, At midnight,
Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners
heard them. The preaching of the gospel is
as prayer and as songs of praise, giving thanks and praising our
God through the preaching of the gospel. We're singing the
praises of our God. Well, they were singing and praying
and suddenly there was a great earthquake, a great shaking ensued
so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. Now you know
where this is going. This is what our Savior does
for His people. He shakes the things that we've
made, as it says in Hebrews. He shakes those things which
are made, made by man and made by flesh, those things that we
think are something, and they fall apart. Those things that
kept us bound and in prison and in darkness, they fall apart. And immediately all the doors
were open and everyone's bands, their shackles were loosed. Those
shackles on their legs, those shackles on their arms, they
fell off. And the door was open to the
prison. They were free. They were free. And the keeper,
verse 27, the keeper of the prison, awaking out of his sleep and
seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would
have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. Because he was a Roman soldier.
And they would pay the price, because they didn't know if they
just took a bribe to release the prisoners. So they would
put them to death. And that stopped taking bribes
from among the ranks of the soldiers immediately. And so he was going
to take his own life. to spare himself an embarrassing
taking of the life later. But here's the thing is this
man needs help. His life's just been turned upside
down and he needs Christ ministered to him. Verse 28, but Paul cried
out with a loud voice saying, do thyself no harm for we're
all here. What a picture that we can't
do a work to save ourselves or deliver ourselves. There's nothing
we can do to save ourselves. You're only harming yourself.
Put your hand up. Put your sword up. You cannot
save yourself. Do yourself no harm. Come here. Listen to us. We have a word
for you. We have a word. Then he called
for a light. That's the sinner's prayer, when
the sinner prays for mercy. Lord, save me. Show me, Christ. Show me your salvation. Lord,
show me how you are merciful and gracious to your people.
And he sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and
Silas and brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to
be saved? What a beautiful picture, how
rare it is to find, to meet a sinner. You meet many people that know
everything, that have heard it all before, and believe God,
and are saved, and they're Christians, and they know everything. But
how rare it is to meet a sinner who doesn't know how a sinner
is saved, who doesn't know how God justifies a sinner. And what
a blessed time it is to declare to them what God has done. in
Christ Jesus who gave himself shedding his blood for the life
of his people. So this speaks of Christ when
it says in Isaiah 49 9 that Christ may say to the prisoners go forth
to them that are in darkness show yourselves they shall feed
in the ways and their pastor shall be in all high places meaning
they're not hidden they're not hidden away under a canopy of
a forest they're out in the open up on a high hill for all to
see what God has done. They come out of the darkness
into the light that their deeds, our deeds, may be made manifest
that they are wrought in God. God hath done this, not me, not
you, God. Now Abram wanted to know, Lord
God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit the promise of
thine inheritance of this land that you've promised to me? And
how did God answer? He showed him Christ. He sent
his son to accomplish his redemption and to rise again from the grave
without corruption. And then he formed Christ in
his heart, assuring him of his inheritance, which he received
by faith. He understood it by faith and
believed God. And then Abram had the answer
to his question. He was satisfied. He needed nothing
more. He saw Christ. And Abram continued
in faith, looking for a city which hath foundations, whose
builder and maker is God. And that's what he works in every
one of his children that believe God. We look not for a physical
land here. We look for that heavenly Jerusalem. We believe God. We have that
hope of his promise. which hath foundations, whose
builder and maker is God. Amen. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you for your grace. Lord, we thank you for showing us your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, you had many, many Pharisees,
many people that were Bible scholars and writers of the law and studied
the law, and yet they never saw Christ. And when he stood before
them, they crucified him. Lord, help us, deliver us from
thinking we're something when we're nothing. Show us our need
of Christ. especially when we forget and
become puffed up and vain in our imaginations toward our brethren,
Lord, show us kindness and show us
Christ again. Humble us as is needed, Lord,
but keep us in Christ, ever looking to Him and ever trusting in Him.
Because without Him, truly we're nothing. And Lord, we thank you
for Abraham and what you show us in him, how that you manifest
and reveal faith in the hearts of your people, which looks not
to earthly things, but to the things which you've promised
to give to your people in Christ, that eternal inheritance in him.
Lord, we pray for your people here, that you would bless us
and establish us in Christ, that you would establish your work
here in this dark part of the world. You would shine forth
gloriously in the face of Jesus Christ, first in our hearts,
and then Lord, help us to go out and witness, bear witness
of what He has done, what He's done in us, and how gracious
and merciful and glorious You are. Lord, bless Your people. Turn us from darkness and turn
us to the light of Christ. It's in Christ's name that we
pray and give thanks. Amen.