The book of Genesis, the Bible
itself, talks about Abram extensively, which means a whole lot. The scriptures start with Abraham
in Genesis chapter 12. And really, Abraham, it never
stops talking about him in some way. It goes all the way through
the whole Bible. Abraham and his children are
throughout Scripture. And so this is a very significant
person in how God has used him to teach us the truth about himself
and about his son, our Savior. So it's very important that we
understand as much as we can about what God is saying here
through Abraham and his life. But I want you to turn to Genesis
with me, and we're going to read this through. The thing about Abraham, though,
I want to give you this as kind of an introduction. Abraham is
also the father of many people throughout
the world. Ishmael was his first son, Isaac,
and then after Isaac, you know, Esau and Jacob were born, and
all the sons of Jacob. He had a bunch of kids. So many, in fact, that God himself
refers to them as an exceeding multitude. He's going to multiply
them exceedingly. But because he had so many, each
one of those families throughout the earth and throughout time
have claimed a special relationship to God through Abraham. And so,
one of the big questions is raised in the Bible, which we need to
answer, is who is Abraham's seed? Who is Abraham's seed? If we
understand that, we would actually see, I won't have time to do
all this today, but we'd actually see that a lot of what's taught
in many churches today is not correct. And a lot of things
that are taught outside of the churches about Abraham also is
not correct. If you go into the Jews' religion,
you'll find out that's wrong. If you go into the evangelical,
which I grew up in a church that taught dispensationalism, actually
they didn't teach it. They taught it without teaching
it. They sort of implied it. And that's also incorrect. And
then if you go into a lot of the Reformed churches, you'll
hear about covenant theology. That's also incorrect. But all
these things stem from a misunderstanding of Abraham and his children.
And so when we look at this today, one of the big questions we're
going to have is, who is Abraham's seed? And I want you to think
about the answer to that question from Scripture. Don't just pull
out what you have in your head. Pull it out from Scripture. And
then I guess the next question we're going to have here is this
covenant that God made with Abraham in chapter 17. Who did he actually
make that covenant with? Who was that covenant made with?
And then third, we're going to see here, what did God promise
in that covenant to those people he made the covenant with? When
we look at this, we're going to, I think, understand the beauty
of God's revelation of the gospel. But before we begin, let's pray.
Dear Lord, we pray that you would help us today as we look into
the scripture to understand our Savior, understand His heart,
His people, your eternal purpose of salvation, and your purpose
to glorify Him. Lord, we pray that you would
reveal yourself to us today from your word as much as we can handle. We know, Lord, that we can't
understand anything without Your Spirit. We know we're ignorant,
confused, sinful. Apart from You, we know nothing
of the truth of God. But Lord, we pray from Your Word
today, You would open our hearts and minds and give us this eternal
hope that You gave to Abraham. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
In Genesis chapter 17 verse 1 it says, Now, no man has seen God
at any time. We know that. Don't we know that? God told
Moses, you can't see me, otherwise you will die. And that's what it says in John
1.18 where it says, no man has seen God at any time. But then
it goes on to say, but the only begotten Son who is in the bosom
of the Father, He has revealed Him. So when it says the Lord
appeared to Abraham, we know that that must be the Lord Jesus
Christ incarnate before He was born into this world. the God-man,
the only one to whom God reveals Himself. He is the image of the
invisible God, in Colossians 115 it says. So it says here
that the Lord Jehovah, in the person of His Son, who is one
with the Father and the Spirit, He appeared to Abram and He said
to him, I am the Almighty God. Now, the Lord Jesus is Almighty.
You know He is from Isaiah 9, 6, where it says, His name shall
be called the Mighty God. And in Revelation 1, verse 8,
He says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the
end, the Almighty. And so there's no doubt that
the Lord Jesus is Almighty. He has all power in Himself as
God. But he said to Abram, walk before
me and be thou perfect and I will make my covenant between me and
thee and will multiply thee exceedingly. So we see here right away that
God has a covenant that he made with Abraham. It was between
It was between God and Abraham. He says, between me and thee.
And then he promises him this, I will multiply thee exceedingly. That means he's going to give
him many children. And through those children, more
children, and so on. In verse 3 it says, And Abram
fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, As for me,
behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of
many nations. Now when the Lord speaks to Abram
and tells him his covenant is with him, we see that God has
drawn up a covenant, an agreement. An agreement that He promises
to fulfill. He made that agreement Himself.
Between Himself and His people. And so that covenant was made
up with, it says in the Bible, in Galatians chapter 3 verse
7, that covenant was confirmed before by God in Christ. Galatians 3.17. So we know that
what God has promised to Abraham here and from Genesis chapter
12 and so on, that God made a covenant with Abraham and he confirmed
it in Christ. So the covenant was actually
made on Abraham's behalf and his children, whoever those are,
and the Lord Jesus Christ. But when the Lord spoke to him
It says he fell on his face because God's word always humbles us,
doesn't it? When the apostle John saw Jesus
in the book of Revelation, it says he fell on his face as a
dead man. When God reveals himself to us,
it humbles us. It causes our self-conceit to
be taken away. We realize that we're nothing.
Isaiah said that in chapter 6 of Isaiah. And so many others, Job,
Peter, Thomas, they all said the same thing when they saw
the Lord Jesus. They were greatly humbled. And if the Lord Jesus
speaks to us, He's going to greatly humble us. But He doesn't just
humble us, because He also lifts us up And He gives us His promises
from the Lord Jesus Christ, and those promises give us peace
and rest and joy in Him. So even though He humbles us,
it's not to break us down and destroy us, but it's to build
us up in the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we give Him
all the glory. That's the purpose here. But
the first promise that God gave to Abram was that he was going
to multiply him exceedingly. He was going to have many children.
But look at verse 4. He says, So Abram was, at this
point, a father of one. Remember Ishmael? But now he
says, I'm going to make you a father of many nations. And verse 5, "...neither shall
thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be called
Abraham. For a father of many nations have I made thee." That's
what the name Abraham means, a father of many nations. We
might ask, which nations? Which nations did God make Abraham
a father of? Well, we could point to Ishmael,
and we're going to see that in a minute here. And we could point
to Jacob, all the people that came from Jacob. That's at least
two nations. And so, but there's many nations
here, so there must be additional nations not mentioned. So he
says in verse 6, And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and
I will multiply, I'm sorry, and I will make nations of thee,
and kings shall come out of thee. So this is pretty amazing, isn't
it? Nations. He's going to make nations of
Abraham and kings are going to come out of Abraham. Not just
insignificant people, but very important people. So there's
three things that God has said so far. First, exceeding fruitful. I'm going to make you so many
children. Second, nations. Nations, not
just people, but nations. Not just one or two, but many
nations. And third, kings are going to
come out of Abraham. So that's what you see in verse
6 here. Nations, kings, many people. Verse 7, he says, and I will
establish, and we're going to read two verses now, and I will
establish my covenant between me, God, and thee, Abraham, and,
notice, thy seed after thee in their generations. Now sometimes
when we read seed in scripture, it just means one. But here it
means many. It's plural. Because He said,
Thy seed after thee in their generations. Their generations. So He's looking down through
time and He's seen many people over many generations. God's
going to make a covenant with Abraham, between God and Abraham,
and these seed from Abraham. So that's the first thing here.
It's not the last time this covenant is mentioned. It's not the first
time or the last time. It's mentioned in Genesis 12,
13, 15, 18, 21, 22, and so on. Several places. It's even mentioned
again to Isaac and Jacob in Genesis 26 and 28. So, this covenant
is not an insignificant part of Scripture. Psalm 105 refers
to it. 1 Chronicles has a copy of what's in Psalm 105 referring
to this covenant. And this is what we're going
to see here. So let's read this carefully in verse 7. Notice,
for an everlasting covenant. And notice what else. Not only is this covenant between
God and these people, but it's also an everlasting covenant. And, he says, this is what it's
going to be. First, to be a God unto thee,
and to thy seed. Not just to thee, Abraham, but
to your seed also. And verse 8, And I will give
unto thee, here's the next part, and to thy seed after thee the
land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan. And for
how long? For an everlasting possession,
and I will be their God. So now we see something very
amazing. God not only says that he's going
to be Abraham's God, And He's going to make this covenant for
everlasting. But He's also saying, I'm going
to give you and to your seed this land of Canaan for an everlasting
possession. And that naturally raises a number
of questions in our mind, doesn't it? How can the land of Canaan
be an everlasting possession? The physical land of Canaan.
Because Jesus said, heaven and earth shall pass away. But my
word shall never pass away. In Matthew 24-35. And so we know
that there's something about Canaan that's not eternal. And so we wonder, what does this
everlasting Canaan mean? What is this all about? And so
it does. It raises a number of questions
in our mind. And these questions are meant to be there so that
when we look further in scripture, we can understand it. And so
he says he's going to give them this land. He's going to be their
God. And this is to Abraham and to his seed. God's going to be
their God. God's going to give them this
land. An everlasting covenant. An everlasting possession of
this land. That's a pretty amazing thing, isn't it? Another question
that comes to mind is that in Hebrews chapter 11 it says that
Abraham never received the promise of Canaan while he was in this
earth. Wow! How could God's promise here
be true if Abraham never received the land of Canaan? He was a
stranger, it says. And he looked for a city which
has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. So these questions
now are beginning to form in our minds, as I'm sure they have
before. And if you listen to a lot of
the exposition about these words, you'll get some pretty fantastic
explanations. But let's consider these things
for a little bit here. Let me go on a little further.
We're going to read through the next few verses, and then we'll
circle back and deal with this covenant. Because I've entitled
this message, God's Covenant with Abraham. But in verse 9
he says, And God said to Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant,
therefore, thou and thy seed after thee in their generations.
This is my covenant which you shall keep. Now God's giving
you something to do in this covenant. He says, Thou shalt keep my covenant,
therefore. He says, this is what I want
you to do. Every man-child, verse 10, every
man-child among you shall be circumcised. And you shall circumcise
the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a token of the covenant
betwixt me and you. He that is eight days old shall
be circumcised among you, every man-child in your generations.
He that is born in the house, or bought with money, or any
stranger of which he is not of thy seed. which is not of thy
seed. So not only your own children,
but even the people living in your house, even strangers who
are with you, circumcise every male. And this is going to be
a sign of the covenant. So the covenant, God made it
with Abraham and his seed, his children, many generations, to
be a God to them, to give them the land, And to be God to those
who gave the land to, and the sign would be that they circumcised
all the children, the male children at eight days old. That's the
sign of this covenant God made. Verse 13. He that is born in
thy house, he that is bought with thy money, must needs be
circumcised, and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an
everlasting covenant. So now God says circumcision
is everlasting too. Don't these things begin to create
a charley horse in your brain? Verse 14, it does mine. So now
we see that there's something about this covenant sign, which
if you don't keep it, then you're not included in the covenant. Verse 15, And God said to Abraham,
As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but
Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give
thee a son also of her. I will bless her, and she shall
be a mother of nations, and kings of people shall be of her. Now
this is very amazing. Sarah? Abraham was 99. Sarah was, at this point, about
90. Almost 90. Sarah? And she's going to be
a mother of not just one nation, but many nations? How can that
be? She only had Isaac. And he had
two sons. There's two nations there. Pretty
amazing, isn't it? What is God saying here? Verse
17. And then Abraham fell upon his
face and laughed. I wonder if he laughed partly
out of unbelief, partly out of just wonder of it, to think of
it. He knew who Sarah was. He knew that she was now past
the age of childbearing. He knew his own self. This is
quite amazing. How is this going to happen?
And he also wondered about the fact that God would so bless
them and give them this son through Sarah, no less. And this son
would be part of this covenant. Amazing. So he says, he laughed
and said in his heart, shall a child be born? God reads the
heart, doesn't he? I like that. He said, Shall a
child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? And shall
Sarah that is ninety years old bear? In verse 18, And Abram
said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee. You see,
Abraham had a care for his son Ishmael. His care for him was
so great that he prayed to God for Ishmael. O that Ishmael might
live before thee. He thought maybe that if This
covenant was only with his children and Ishmael was somehow not included
that God's just going to terminate Ishmael. But he prayed for him. So look what happens. And God
said, "... Sarah thy wife shall bear thee
a son indeed, and thou shalt call his name Isaac." And I will
establish my covenant with him, with Isaac, for an everlasting
covenant, and with his seed after him. Wow! Now God is explicitly
stating, I'm going to make my covenant with Isaac. And as for
Ishmael, I have heard thee. Behold, I have blessed him. But
now notice, God is not giving the covenant to Ishmael. I have
heard thee, behold, I have blessed him." Notice God's blessings
to Ishmael. I will make him fruitful. That's just what God said He's
going to do to Abraham in verse 6. Exceeding fruitful. And I
will multiply him exceedingly. Just like He's going to do with
Abraham. Twelve princes shall he beget. Remember, Abraham was
told he was going to have kings among his descendants. Twelve
princes. And I will make him a great nation. Wow. That's a pretty big promise
God's making to Ishmael. Why did God make this promise
to Ishmael? Well, it says over in, I think
it's chapter 21, or 22, I can't remember which one. It says that
God blessed Ishmael for Abraham's sake. Because he was Abraham's
son, God blessed Ishmael. That's why. He gave him all this.
Only for that reason. But he says in verse 21, in contrast
to Ishmael, which Sarah shall bear unto thee
at this set time in the next year. And he left off talking
with him, and God went up from Abraham." Now this is quite amazing. We've covered a lot of ground
here, and it's very difficult for us to really do justice to
all of this, and get it all fit in this short time that we have
together. But I want to consider this now with you, because it
is so significant in Scripture. Now the first thing I want to
consider is how many different seeds did Abraham have? Well
we know he had Ishmael. And we know he had Isaac. And
we know Isaac had two sons, which were Esau, the oldest, and Jacob,
the younger. So he had Ishmael, Isaac, Esau,
and Jacob. And then under Jacob he had 12
sons. With a daughter, Dinah. So he had these children by Ishmael,
Isaac, Esau, and Jacob. And then under Jacob, most of
the rest of the Bible has to do with the sons of Jacob. So
Abraham had a seed, which was Ishmael. And we know that God
didn't give the covenant to Ishmael, but he did give it to Isaac.
And we know when God got to Isaac, and he had two sons, Esau and
Jacob, that God didn't give the covenant to Esau. Why? He was
the oldest. Because God's purpose of election
needed to stand that it would not be of works, but of grace.
It answers it in Romans 9, verse 13. Even though Isaac's wife,
Rebekah, had twins in her womb, Esau and Jacob, while they were
in the womb, God said, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I
hated, And he said, I'm going to make the elders going to serve
the younger. Esau is going to serve his younger
brother, Jacob. So Esau, by birth, had the birthright. And by birth, you would think
he had the covenant. But no, God says, no. It's going
to go to Jacob. And through Jacob, that's where
the covenant is going to stand. So now we have Abraham's son,
Ishmael, and Abraham's grandson, Esau. And with neither of those
sons, God made a covenant. He didn't make a covenant with
Ishmael, didn't make a covenant with Esau. He wasn't going to
give them the land of Canaan. And He wasn't going to be their
God. Those are the things God promised to Abraham. So what
we see here is that the first thing when we answer the question,
how many seeds did Abraham have? What type? The first one is he
had natural children. Natural seed with which there
was no covenant made. Ishmael and Esau are the natural
seed of Abraham. And they were blessed. God even
said He gave Mount Seir to Esau. And so this land that God gave
to Esau and all these children to Ishmael had nothing to do
with the covenant. It was just blessings because
of Abraham. And Esau even despised his birthright. Remember? He sold it for a bowl
of soup, stew. So he hated his birthright, whatever
that birthright meant. Which meant the covenant, but
he cast it off. And Jacob wanted it so bad, he
did everything he could to get it, and he got it. But that was
God's purpose before they were born. So the first thing is we
see that Abraham had natural children who didn't receive the
covenant. Secondly, we see another group
of children, and those are the ones with whom God made this
covenant. Isaac, Jacob, and all of Jacob's children, called the
children of Israel, because that's another name for Jacob. And so
I call that group of people Abraham's privileged seed. The natural
seed, Ishmael, Esau, no covenant. Then privileged seed, covenant. And through them, lots of children.
But then there was another seed. And I want you to see this in
Romans chapter 9, if you want to turn there. So the first two
seeds are Abraham's natural children. And the second seed was Abraham's
privileged children, with whom God made a covenant. And yet,
there's a third seed we need to talk about here. Romans chapter
9, it says in the very first verse, Chapter 8 of Romans is
talking about this amazing assurance that God's people have. All of
their life will be ordered to bring about the good purpose,
the eternal purpose God has for them, to conform them into the
image of Christ. That's in Romans 8, 28. Everything
that happens in their lives will work together in order to achieve
God's eternal purpose. In fact, every tribulation and
persecution and everything in their life will only serve to
work to that purpose. And nothing, nothing can separate
them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
That's Romans 8. But he says here, Well, what
happened then, if nothing can separate them? He says in Romans
9, he's going to address that issue with these privileged seed. He says, I say then, I say the
truth in Christ, I lie not. My conscience also bearing me
witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual
sorrow in my heart. Why? For I could wish that myself,
Paul says, I could wish myself were accursed from Christ. For
who? For my brethren, my kinsmen,
after or according to the flesh. So Paul was a Jew. He was a descendant
of Abraham through Jacob. And he had brothers in the flesh,
my kinsmen according to the flesh. And he said, I have great heaviness,
so much sorrow for them because I myself could wish myself a
curse from Christ for them. And then he goes on, verse 4,
"...who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and
the glory, and the covenants..." We just talked about a covenant.
"...and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the
promises, whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the
flesh, Christ came, who is over all God, blessed forever." What
amazing privileges God gave to them. They had the covenants,
the promises, the adoption, the national adoption, the national
covenants, and all these things were given to that nation of
Israel. And they had the law given to them. Christ even came
through them. The fathers, Isaac, Jacob, and
Abraham were all theirs. They had so many privileges. And in Romans 3, we're not going
to turn there, it says, what advantage then hath the Jew?
What advantage? Well, he has a lot of privileges.
These are the privileges. Notice how the law is a privilege. What does the law do? How is
it a privilege? It forces us to own our guilt. It reduces our pride and self-conceit
to nothing so that we have nothing to glory in and we're left helpless,
utterly incapable of doing anything to please God. And then we hear
in the law that God himself in Christ would remove the sins
of sinners and establish his own righteousness. Now that's
an amazing privilege, isn't it? To hear the gospel preached out
of the part of the law that points to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the arc in which the law was placed, those two tables of stone
that we broke. But he fulfilled that was in
his heart. He delighted in them. And in his offering of himself
on that mercy seat, he obtained eternal redemption. All that
was prefigured in the law. And they had this. What a privilege
to be under the hearing every part of their lives. When they
woke up, when they lay down throughout the day, their whole life. from
childhood, was talking about God's purpose. And that law humbled
them and it left them, it should have left them, like the publican,
God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Look at me as you look on the
propitiating sacrifice and receive me for Christ's sake. But they
didn't. They didn't do that. And so Paul is lamenting that
here. This is the second seed, the privileged seed. But now
look. Verse 6, because he's going to
address this big question. Why then in Romans 8, if everyone
who is in Christ is so secure that they cannot be taken from
him, no matter what, and everything in their life works together
for good, they'll have the hope God gave them, the promise God
gave them. Why? What happened then? He says in verse 6, "...not as
though the word of God had taken none effect." It's not because
God made a covenant and promised these people something He didn't
give them. God's promises didn't fail. His word didn't fail. His covenant
didn't fail. That's what He's saying in verse
6. "...not as though the word of God had taken none effect.
For they are not all Israel." which are of Israel. You see
that? They're not all part of this
third seed called Israel, which are of the second seed which
was called the physical or the privileged Israel. the national
Israel." So he goes on, "...neither because they are the seed of
Abraham..." Because they were. Those who were born to Jacob
were his seed, no doubt about it. "...but not because they
were the seed of Abraham through Jacob are they all children."
Notice, "...but in Isaac shall thy seed be called." That's quotation
from Genesis chapter 21. And it's reflected in Genesis
17. God said, I'm going to make a
covenant with Isaac, but not with Ishmael. And then in verse
8, this is the conclusion. That is, "...they which are the
children of the flesh." It's not by physical birth. It's not
by national association. It's not because you're related
to Abraham. There are no spiritual blessings
for anyone because of their natural birth. Period. And yet, when
you hear people say, well, God's going to give the nation of Israel
the land of Canaan in the future and that's the way God's got
it all planned. That's not true. That is not
true. There's nothing more special
about that circle of land in Israel and the people living
there now Nothing more different about them than there was between
Esau and Ishmael. They're the same. One was a child
of Jacob, the other one was a child of Abraham through Hagar. But
they're not counted for the seed because they're Abraham's children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. Then he goes on. For this is
the word of promise. the word of promise, at this
time will I come and Sarah shall have a son, Sarah, which was
Isaac, and not only, we're going to deal not only with Isaac and
Ishmael, not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by
one even by our father Isaac, For the children, being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God, according to election, might stand not of works, but
of him that calleth. It was said to her, The elder
shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. There you go. God's purpose is
what determined the difference. That's why one was given the
covenant in this way, that he's speaking about here, and one
wasn't. So now we still have these questions
to answer, and we certainly aren't going to have time to answer
them all today. But I want to summarize this
with you so far. What we've seen is that so far there's three
different seeds, isn't there? Ishmael, Esau, that's the first
one, the natural seed. And then there's Isaac, Jacob,
and all of Jacob's children. That's the privileged natural
seed. And then there's this third category,
which are called the children of promise. And they're the spiritual
seed of Abraham, the children of promise. And we could talk
about this a long time, but I'm not going to go further than
this scripture. And then there's one more seed, which again, we're
not going to spend a lot of time on today, which is the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is the most important seed of all. Who was Abraham's
son to whom all the promises were given? We've covered this
in Galatians 3 and 16 and 19 and others. It was the Lord Jesus
Christ. God made a promise to Abraham,
and he made it to Abraham concerning his seed, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the unique spiritual seed of Abraham. No other seed like him.
One seed. The Lord Jesus Christ. Four different
seeds here. Natural, privileged, spiritual
believers, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Those are the four seeds.
Now, back in Genesis 17, God made a covenant with Abraham.
He said, I'm going to be your God. And I'm going to give you
the land. And I want you to put this sign
on you. And the land was an everlasting promise. And the circumcision
was an everlasting sign. So the next question I have is,
what does this mean? How can the land be everlasting?
And how can circumcision be everlasting? Because God said it was done
away. I don't understand this. Has that ever occurred to you?
Has it ever bothered you that those things He says are everlasting
on the one hand and yet it doesn't seem to be everlasting? That
does cause us a problem, doesn't it? That God would say those
things and yet we wouldn't be able to understand how it all
fits together. But now we have to turn to the
New Testament because there's a very, very important principle
here. And I don't want you to miss this. I have seen this throughout
the few years of my life. And the few years have been more
than many of you in here. So I'm trying to help you understand
something that's very important here. In order to understand
the Bible, some men start with the Old Testament, and they build
a doctrine, and then they go to the New Testament in order
to explain the doctrine they've come up with in the Old Testament.
For example, God said He's going to give this land of Canaan to
the Israelites forever. That means that therefore God's
going to have to give it to the Israelites forever in the land
of Canaan. And so they spend money. They
send it to the nation of Israel now. And they have a political
agenda. And they go on about their lives
trying to produce this nation in Israel. Because as soon as
that nation is given, good things are going to happen. They started
with the Old Testament. They built a doctrine, and they
went to the New Testament, and they completely ignored God's
revelation of what that meant in the Old Testament. And that
is a fundamental error. Always, always start with the
New Testament. Understand the doctrine that
the New Testament says is taught in the Old Testament, and then
look back through the Old Testament with wonder. Say, wow, I never
would have seen that. Not in a million years! If you
read Genesis chapter 17, for a million years you will not
understand the gospel. Unless you go to where it's revealed
in the New Testament. In Galatians chapter 3 and 4,
in Romans chapter 9, in Luke chapter 1, and throughout the
scripture. Acts chapter 2 and 3. We could
just go on and on. It's revealed throughout. But that's a problem I want you
to avoid. Don't go to the Old Testament and establish your
doctrine and then twist the New Testament to fit that doctrine.
I remember listening to a man who's no longer living for a
number of years and finally coming to the realization, you know
what he's doing? He's using the Old Testament to establish his
doctrine, and then he's trying to say the New Testament has
to fit that. And it was upside down. You have to reverse those.
Start with what Christ said, and the apostles. And then you'll
understand the truth, and then look back and see how all of
these figures and shadows and things exactly predict all of
that. And then you'll go, wow! God
wrote the Scriptures. No man could have done that.
I couldn't have seen it in a million years. That's the first thing. We have to let the New Testament
explain the Old. And it seems like a very basic
thing. I know most people would agree with that statement, but
the fact of the matter is, as those people I mentioned earlier,
don't do that. The Catholics don't do it. The
dispensationalists don't do it. The covenant theology people
don't do it. There's a whole bunch of people, most of the
people in Christendom today, who fail that test. It's a very
simple thing. But let's look at this together.
Now, there's several things that God calls in the Old Testament
everlasting. And this will surprise you. This
will surprise you. First of all, in Exodus chapter
40 verse 15 and other places, God refers to the priesthood
of Aaron as everlasting. Wow! That would have surprised
me, wouldn't it have you? Aaron's priesthood? Everlasting? There's no animals being sacrificed
today. Who knows who Aaron's kids are? How could we have a
priesthood? It's gone. It's over. It's done.
And God brought it to an end. Why then was it called everlasting?
I'll just turn to a couple of scriptures so that you don't
just believe me. Look at Exodus chapter 40. Let's see if I can
find this here. This unfamiliar Bible. Exodus chapter 40. He says in verse 15, And thou
shalt anoint them, talking about Aaron's sons, Thou shalt anoint
them, as thou didst anoint their father, that they may minister
unto me in the priest's office. For their anointing shall surely
be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations.
Isn't that amazing? An everlasting priesthood. Look
at Look at the Day of Atonement in Leviticus chapter 16. Now,
the priesthood was everlasting according to that scripture.
And look at Leviticus 16 and verse 34. He says this about
the Day of Atonement. And this, the Day of Atonement,
the whole thing that was just talked about in Leviticus 16
where the priest went into the holy place once a year and sprinkled
the blood of the first goat and then went out and confessed all
the sins over the second goat and sent that out in the wilderness.
And God says in verse 34, "...this shall be an everlasting statute
unto you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel for
all their sins once a year, as he did as the Lord commanded
Moses." That's amazing, isn't it? Look at Exodus chapter 27.
Exodus chapter 27. So the priesthood and the day
of atonement everlasting? Exodus chapter 27 says this,
in verse 21, In verse 21, Exodus 27, So now
we have all of Aaron's sons going about the service of the ministry
and the tabernacle and God says it's going to be forever. Look
at Exodus chapter 31. A couple pages over, in verse
15. In chapter 31, verse 15, he says
this. 6 days may work be done, but
in the 7th is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whosoever
doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to
death. Wherefore, the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath,
to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual
covenant. Isn't that amazing? Perpetual.
Just like these other things. It goes on and on. And we just
saw in Genesis 17 that the land was an inheritance that was going
to be an everlasting thing. That's repeated several times
throughout Scripture. Since we're right there in Exodus
32, look at verse 13. Exodus 32.13, Now look at Exodus
chapter 12. So the priesthood, the day of
atonement, The service of the sanctuary?
The Sabbath? And the land? Forever? Exodus chapter 12 and verse 14. He says this. And this day, and
that's the Passover. He's talking about the Passover.
This day shall be unto you for a memorial, and you shall keep
it for a feast of the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep
it a feast by an ordinance forever." Amazing. The Passover? We don't
keep the Passover, do we? Did we miss something? Did we
make a wrong turn somewhere? And then, look at, well, back
in Genesis 17. Since we're going back there,
look at this. Genesis 17. In verse 13, notice this. He says, in Genesis 17, verse
13, "...he that is born in thy house, he that is bought with
money, must needs be circumcised, and my covenant shall be in your
flesh for an everlasting covenant." So circumcision was also an everlasting
thing. And then, I'll just read these
other two with you. There was an everlasting nation.
In Jeremiah 31, 36, it says that. And then there's an everlasting
kingdom. Remember, David's kingdom is going to be everlasting. What
does it all mean? Well, the thing is, is that in scripture, when
God gives these things, He's giving us... And you have to
bear with me for a while. We won't have time to develop
this fully to your satisfaction, perhaps. But I'll mention some
scriptures. First thing is, when we read
the word everlasting in the Old Testament, understand it means
one of two things. First of all, it means that God
is going to give something that fulfills that thing that's mentioned
as everlasting. He's going to give it in its
fulfillment in the new covenant that's going to come later. And
when it's fulfilled, it will be an everlasting thing. And
therefore, when the new covenant comes, That thing that is promised
as everlasting, it will actually be everlasting because then it
is fulfilled. And so we can go down all the
list of things that we just looked at there. For example, the priesthood.
Is the priesthood that Aaron, God said, is going to be an everlasting
priesthood? Is that everlasting? Well, it's
everlasting in the sense that Aaron's everlasting priesthood
is fulfilled in Christ, who is the everlasting High Priest.
Because it says in Hebrews chapter 5 that Christ didn't glorify
Himself to be a High Priest, but He was called by God a High
Priest, just like Aaron was. So Christ fulfills Aaron's priesthood
in that sense. And the Day of Atonement. It
was said to be everlasting in Leviticus 16.34, and yet we know
that the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled it when He says in Hebrews 1.3,
when He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down on the
right hand of God. And the tabernacle, remember,
it was an everlasting service. And yet, in Hebrews 10, verse
12, it says, And every priest standeth daily ministering, oftentimes
the same sacrifices, which could never take away sins. But this
man, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat
down on the right hand of God. So all these things have a correspondence. The things that are called everlasting.
Christ is our Passover, is he not? And the Sabbath. The Lord
Jesus is our Sabbath because he by himself has worked out
our salvation in his own work. in Hebrews chapter 4. Everything
in the Old Testament that God gave either in covenant to Abraham
or in the Old Covenant through Moses has a corresponding fulfillment
in the New. And it's not just me saying this,
that's what the Bible says. When the Bible says that Christ
is a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, he
then says, now that was before Aaron. And Aaron and his sons
paid tithes to him. He's greater than Abraham. Look
guys, this one had to come before. And because it came before and
yours is faulty, because it never could perfect anyone, then yours
is done away. Because now the true has come.
And that's what the law pointed to. It was just a shadow of things
to come. But now that the good things
have come, there is no purpose for the shadow. And so a lot
of people would say, well yeah, but Israel is going to get the
land. What about the land? You haven't shown me where the
land is fulfilled. Didn't God promise to give Canaan as an
everlasting possession to the Israelites, meaning Abraham's
children, the natural, privileged children of Abraham? Didn't He? Isn't that why we have a bunch
of premillennial dispensationalists running around trying to get
money over to Israel? And building things, looking
for red heifers and all sorts of weird things? That's what
they do. Literally. There's millions of
people doing that. What about the land then? Because
God said it. By golly, I'm just going to stand
by what God says. You're just spiritualizing things. That's what they claim. We just
take God's word as it stands. He said the land. It means the
land. He said forever. That means forever. There's got
to be a people over there in that land forever therefore.
How do you deal with that? Well, God deals with it. God
deals with it. And I wish we had time to do
this. I think I'm going to have to
give this a part two in order to give you the rest of this. Let me just give you a hint.
Let me turn you to Hebrews chapter 11 and leave you with this. And
then we'll expand on this more next time. Hebrews chapter 11. I'll mention this and I'll mention
a couple scriptures for you to consider. Hebrews chapter 11. What is this land? How could
it be everlasting if it were really fulfilled to Israel? Even
those people that hold that view? They'll admit that, well, it's
going to end sometime because God's going to destroy the world.
But they still claim it's everlasting. Anyway, Hebrews chapter 11. Listen
to these verses. Listen to how Abraham lived his
life. In verse 8, "...by faith Abraham, when he was called,
to go out into a place which he should after receive for an
inheritance..." Now this is an inheritance now. "...therefore
it's going to be given to him." He obeyed, because he believed,
and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he
sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country." He's
walking around in this land of promise, as in a strange country.
Dwelling in tabernacles, or tents, with Isaac and Jacob. The heirs
with him of the same promise. The same promise God gave to
Abraham, He gave to them. And they all lived in tents together.
For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder
and maker is God. He kept looking. For what? The
land of Canaan? Palestine? Mediterranean on the
left and Syria on the right and all the war and everything going
over there? Is that what he's looking for? No. It was a city
which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Through
faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed. and
was deliberate of a child when she was past age because she
judged Him faithful who had promised. That's the definition of faith,
judging God to be faithful to His word. Therefore sprang there
even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars
of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore
innumerable." Notice in verse 13, these all died in faith,
not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,
and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed
they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say
such things, they like them that say such things declare plainly
that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful
of that country from which they came out, They might have had
opportunity to return, but now they seek, they desire a better
country. That is, a heavenly. Wherefore
God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared
for them a city. Oh, you see it? The fulfillment
is a heavenly fulfillment. Now, we talked about the four
seeds, remember? We talked about the spiritual
seed of Abraham, who are believers. And we talked about Christ, who
is that unique seed. And let me just quote this scripture
for you. And think about this. In 1 Corinthians 3.21 it says,
All things are yours, the world, things present, things to come,
life, death, Everything is yours. And then
he says this very important thing. And you are Christ's. You are Christ's. And remember
who Christ is? He's the seed to whom the promises
were made. He's the heir of all things. God has put everything into His
hand. And why did He put it into His hand? Because as the Son
of God He needed these things? No. as the heir of all things,
in order to give it to His seed. His seed are those who are His. You are Christ, and the Spirit
of Christ is given to His seed. If Christ be in you, the body
is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If you don't have His Spirit,
you can't be His seed. But if you're His seed, all things
are yours. So think about those verses and
we'll continue this next time. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank
you for your word. Help us to be among those that
you've chosen and set your favor on from eternity. Lord, make
us so. Give us this mercy. that we might
see the inheritance given to your chosen, and we might glory
with your nation, that spiritual nation, the holy nation, given
from eternity to your Son, that He might redeem and have as His
own. And thank you, Lord, that His inheritance is ours, because
we're His and He is ours. Thank you for this amazing truth. that our hope is in glory, it's
not on this earth. And we live now by faith, looking
to Jesus, who has already entered heaven for us. In his name we
pray, amen.