Genesis chapter 12. We're continuing
our study in the book of Genesis. I've entitled today's message,
The Promise and the Life of Faith, because this is all about God's
promise and the life of faith we see in the life of Abraham.
You've probably heard of Abraham. If you've heard anything about
the Bible, you've probably heard something about Abraham. Most
people know something about Abraham. He was the father of the nation
of the Jews. Remember that? He was a very
old man. When the Lord called him, I say
very old. Perhaps that's a... Maybe some
people are offended by that, but he was pretty old. He's older
than I am now, when the Lord called him in Genesis chapter
12. We're going to read through some
of this. I want to read from the first verse of Genesis chapter
12 all the way through the fourth verse of Genesis 13, so we get
the context here. But before we do, I want to ask
the Lord to be with us. Let's pray. Our gracious Heavenly
Father, we pray, Lord, that as you spoke in times past by the
prophets to your people, and have spoken in these last days
by your Son, that by your Spirit you would speak again to our
hearts concerning your Son, so that when we read your Word it
would not just be information, it wouldn't just be a lesson,
but it would be life. And we pray, Lord, that you would
apply this grace to all of us here today, that the hearing
of your Word would produce faith in our hearts. In Jesus' name
we pray, Amen. Faith does come by hearing, and
hearing comes by the Word of God. That's from Romans chapter
10. Faith comes by hearing. That's
why it's so important that we hear the Word of God. God is
pleased to give us hearing, give us faith. And he does that by
hearing his word. He doesn't do it in any other
way. You don't walk in the forest and suddenly meet God. You hear
his word. He speaks from his word and he
gives you faith. And that's the way that we are
given life. And that's the principle. So
when we read about Abraham, it's very important that we see God's
message because it's the message. It's not just the words on the
paper. It's the message that gives life. The message of what
God told Abraham. We're going to see something
about Abraham that maybe you haven't ever considered before.
Something so big that maybe your mind can't even wrap around it.
The fact of the matter is what God told Abraham was God's purpose. His purpose from all eternity. And He revealed it to this man,
and He keeps revealing it throughout Scripture. And this is what we
find here, although it's not clear so much when we read it,
it's explained later throughout the Bible. So I want to look
at this very carefully with you today. And hopefully we'll get
through a good portion of this, and you'll hear from the Lord
today if you are given that grace. May God give us that grace. Look
at verse 1, chapter 12. Now the Lord had said unto Abram,
Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from
thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee. Last week
I explained to you that when God called Abraham, this is God's
call to Abraham, get out. It wasn't just a call to go leave
your house, like leave your mom and dad and your brothers and
sisters. It was a call from idolatry. It was a call from the worship
of false gods to the worship of the true and living God, to
the truth. And his father and his father's
family were idolaters. So it was to leave that idolatry
and all those that served those idols and go to a place God was
going to show him. To a land that I will show thee.
And in verse 2, And I will make of thee a great nation, and I
will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be
a blessing. So God's going to make Abraham
a great nation. A nation is a lot of people.
And He's going to make His name great. And He's going to bless
Him. And He's going to be a blessing.
When the Lord blesses us, it's for us to bless others. He doesn't
give us blessings privately. He gives us blessings that we
might give to others. Jesus said it's more blessed
to give than it is to receive. And when God gives us anything,
it's to glorify Him. And in so doing, we want to seek
honor for God's name, don't we? And we seek honor for God's name.
We seek honor for the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we seek honor
for Christ, then we speak the truth about Christ and people
hear it and they receive a blessing. Verse 3. And I will bless them
that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee. And in thee
shall all families of the earth be blessed. Now the word families
there doesn't just mean all different families, all of the families,
but he means all the different kinds of families. All the different
nations of the world. That's explained in the New Testament.
Not just the Jews, but also the Gentiles. Not just those born
to Abraham by his own children, but those throughout every nation
who believed in the Lord Jesus. So Abram departed as the Lord
had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. Lot was his brother's
son, his brother Haran's son who died. And Abram was how old? He was 75 years old when he departed
out of Haran. That's why I said he was an old
man. He's older than I am. That's old even in today's terms.
Abraham lived to be about 175, I think. But he was 75 here. God called him when he was old.
That's a comfort, isn't it, as you get older? That it's never
too old to hear God's call. You're never too old. You're
never too young. You're never too old. God isn't a discriminator
of age. He can save the weakest. the
youngest and the oldest. He can save the most foolish
and those who are wise in this world. He can save all men. Verse 5, And Abram took Sarai
his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance
that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in
Haran. And they went forth into the
land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came. God
had told him, go to a land I'm going to show you, and this is
that land, it's called Canaan. Verse 6, And Abram passed through
the land unto the place of Sycam, unto the plain of Mori. And the
Canaanite was then in the land. The Canaanites were the descendants
of Ham, Noah's son. Verse 7, And the Lord appeared
unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. And there builded he an altar
unto the Lord, who appeared to him. God says, I'm going to give
you, I'm going to give your seed this land. What is a seed? We know what a seed is. You plant
it in the ground and you grow things. But in human terms, a
seed means your children. So Abraham was going to have
children. And God was going to give the land to his children.
But when God speaks about Abraham's seed, this is where it gets a
little complicated in the Bible. He's not only talking about his
children who would be born to him through Isaac, and Jacob,
and so on. But he was talking about children
who would be called his children because they would be his spiritual
seed. Born by God's Spirit, given faith,
and because they believed what Abraham believed, they were called
his children. They were called his children,
his seed. And God promised, I'm going to give you this land.
What land? The land of Canaan. And God eventually did give them
that land. But he's also speaking about another land, too. Because
whenever God gives promises to Abraham, he's speaking about
two different things. First, a physical promise, and
then a spiritual promise. And that's the one I want. I
don't want the physical, I want the spiritual promises. Because
that's the big promise. So, verse 8. And Abram removed
from Thenson to a mountain on the east of Bethel. The word
Bethel means house of God. And he pitched his tent, having
Bethel, the house of God, on the west, and Ai, or Hai, on
the east. And there he built an altar to
the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. An altar is
a place of worship. What do you do with an altar?
You put a sacrifice on it, and God receives your worship if
he receives your sacrifice. Abraham built an altar to the
Lord because he came there in this place between the house
of God called Bethel and Ai, which was going to be destroyed,
which was a place of ruin and destruction. There between those
two places, Abraham worshipped God on the altar. And the altar
is the place where the sacrifice is. In Hebrews chapter 13 it
says, we have an altar. And that altar is the Lord Jesus
Christ, who offered Himself to God for His people. And we come
to God looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting only Him and
worshipping God because He gave Himself for our sins. And those
who come to God that way are coming to God and worshipping
God like Abraham through an altar. All of God's people come to Him
through Christ. Like Abraham did, building an
altar. We don't build a physical altar,
because we know that Christ, the Lord Jesus, is the only altar. The only one who offered himself
to God. But the Lord appeared to Abraham.
The Lord appeared to him. That's the only way we can worship
God, is if God appears to us. God has to appear to us. And
so it says here, and Abraham journeyed going on still toward
the south. And there was a famine in the
land. Now, a famine is a time when they don't have any food.
Very hard to live. And so, this is a time of trying. When I mean trying, I mean a
difficult time. A time of trouble. When trouble
comes to us, God sends that trouble. And trouble is sent to do what?
Why does God send trouble in the lives of His people? He sends
trouble to Refine our faith. To try our faith. When I say
refine, we don't normally do that. When I was a kid we made
these lead sinkers that we would go fishing with and we melted
them on the stove. And the metal got hot and it
turned to liquid. And you could see some black
stuff rise to the surface. It was probably bad for you,
but we did it. We didn't know better. But in the olden times, and even
nowadays, they heat up metal to get it purified, to remove
the parts of that metal that aren't the pure part. So silver
is refined, and gold is refined. They remove things that aren't
the gold or silver by heating it up and letting it float to
the top, because the gold is heavier, and they skim that stuff
off. Faith is like gold. God purifies our faith through
trouble. And when trouble comes to us,
the way God purifies our faith is He first proves that our faith
is something He has given us. Trials make our faith stand.
The Lord Jesus prayed for Peter when Peter was about to, when
Jesus was about to go to the cross. And Peter was going to
deny Him. Peter didn't think he was, but
he was. He was going to deny the Lord
Jesus three times. And Jesus said, I've prayed for your faith,
that your faith fail not. God upholds the faith of His
people. That's what trying does. He proves that that faith is
genuine. It's God-given, because it can't be shaken. But, He also
shows the weakness of our faith when He tries it, doesn't He?
How many times have you found that when trials come, it seems
like You come unhinged and you forget the Lord. It's like you
weren't even thinking about the Lord. All the troubles upset
your life. And finally, in the middle of it, then you cry to
the Lord. Because your faith is weak. And that's what happens
here. Look what had happened here. It came to pass in verse
11. that after there was a famine,
it was grievous, came to pass when he was come near to enter
into Egypt, because of the famine, he left Canaan and he went down
to Egypt. When he was come near to Egypt,
he told his wife, Sarai, Behold, now I know that thou art a fair
woman to look upon. She was beautiful. Therefore,
it shall come to pass when the Egyptians shall see thee, and
they shall say, this is his wife, they will kill me, but they will
save thee alive. So Abram said to Sarai, Say,
I pray thee, thou art my sister, that it may be well with me for
thy sake, and my soul shall live because of thee. Now it was true,
Sarai was related to Abram. She was his sister by the family
relationship indirectly. But even though that was true,
that wasn't the important thing here. It was true that she was
his sister, so in a sense he didn't lie. But the problem was
when he was telling Sarai to say that I'm his sister, what
that meant was that I'm not married to him. And the Egyptians would
look at her, she's a beautiful woman, let's give her to someone
else to be his wife. So in verse 14, it came to pass
that when Abram was coming to Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the
woman, that she was very fair. And the princes also of Pharaoh
saw her and commended her before Pharaoh. Pharaoh was the king
of Egypt. And the woman was taken into
Pharaoh's house. That's bad. And he entreated Abram well for
her sake. In other words, Pharaoh treated
Abraham well because Sarai, thank you for your sister, And he had
sheep, Abram had sheep, and oxen, and asses, and menservants, and
maidservants, and she-asses, and camels. Abram had a lot of
stuff. And so he got more stuff from Pharaoh because of Sarai. But look what the Lord did. Verse
17. Abram was weak in faith, therefore
he exposed his wife, his own wife, to possibly be taken as
another man's wife by saying, she's only my sister. That was
a bad thing that Abraham did. And he was weak in faith. But
God protected Abraham. In the trial of his faith, God
upheld his faith. proving it was genuine, also
showing his faith was weak, it was mixed with unbelief, and
also showing God's faithfulness to preserve Abram throughout
this and Sarai in order to fulfill his promise. Now that is God's
goodness, isn't it? Look what it says in verse 17.
The Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues
because of Sarai, Abram's wife. And Pharaoh called Abram, and
said, What is this that thou hast done to me? Why didst thou
not tell me that she was thy wife? Why saidst thou, She is
my sister? So I might have taken her to
me to wife. Now therefore behold thy wife,
take her, and go thy way. And Pharaoh commanded his men
concerning him, and they sent him away, and his wife, and all
that he had. So this is what happened. You can see God keeping
Abram from messing things up. His wife being taken as the wife
of Pharaoh. What a mess that would have been,
wouldn't it? God had promised he was going to multiply Abraham
and give that land to his seed. How would this be if he didn't
have his wife? Pharaoh had her. So God protected Sarai and Abram
from his unbelief. Do you see that? How God was
good to Abram? And how God kept his purpose
being fulfilled in spite of Abram's sin here? This is God's goodness
in our life. In spite of all that we are,
God saves His people. Romans 8.28 says, For we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose. That's God's
promise. He works everything in the world
for His purpose to save His people and bring honor to Himself. And
we see that here in Abram's life. And then in chapter 13 verse
1 it says, And Abraham went out of Egypt, he and his wife and
all that he had, and lot with him into the south. And Abraham
was very rich in cattle and silver and in gold. And he went on his
journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where
his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai. What was
this place? unto the place of the altar which
he had made there at the first, and there Abram called on the
name of the Lord." What is the name of the Lord? The name of
the Lord means all that God is. But what is that name? Is there
some name that we call God by? Remember what it says in Matthew
121, His name shall be called Jesus. Which means Jehovah is
salvation or Jehovah saves. For He, Jesus, shall save His
people from their sins. What is the name by which God's
people know Him? Because God promised that those
in the covenant of His grace would know the Lord. He said
this is one of the things in that covenant. They shall know
the Lord. They shall all know the Lord.
How do we know the Lord? We know Him by His name. Psalm
9 verse 10 says, They that know thy name shall put their trust
in thee. Remember the verse, Thou shalt
keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because
he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever,
for in the Lord Jehovah is salvation and strength and salvation. The
name of the Lord Jehovah is Jesus. That's the name of the Lord.
That's the name by which we know God. We know God only through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said to the Pharisees about
God, He says, You've neither heard His voice nor seen His
shape at any time. John 5.37 And in John 1.18 it
says, No man has seen God at any time. No man. The only begotten
Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared
Him. The only way we know God is in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Why is that? How can He be God
and how can we see Him and yet not see God if He's God? Because
He's also man. He was born into this world.
That's where we get back here to Abraham. Notice how God preserved
Abraham in this trouble. He tried his faith. He proved
that it was genuine, that it was upheld. Because when he comes
back here, what does he do? Between the house of God and
the place of destruction and ruin, Abraham worships God. at the altar. This is describing
every child of God. In this world we live. We live
between glory and the city of destruction, which is this world
and all that's in it. God has called us out of idolatry
to come to Christ. Jesus said, coming to me, all
you who labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. So we come. We come in believing the Lord
Jesus. We see that all of our salvation
is in Him. And when we come to God that
way, we worship God on the altar He's provided, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Between heaven and where we are
now, we worship God. We worship Him publicly in an
altar. We've gathered here together to worship God. But we worship
Him in our heart. Jesus told the woman at the well,
the Father seeks those who worship God in spirit and in truth, by
the Holy Spirit in us, by the truth of the gospel of his salvation.
And so we see that in Abraham's life. God preserved him, he kept
him, he tried his faith, and he brought him back to worship
God. As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, Colossians 2.6
says, so walk ye in him. How did you receive the Lord
Jesus Christ? When you received the Lord Jesus Christ, you had
nothing. You were a sinner, and you were lost and ruined, and
you knew nothing. And you said, Lord, save me.
I see that my sins deserve your wrath, and you cried like the
publican, God, look upon the Lord Jesus Christ for me, and
receive me for what you see and find and receive from Him. That's
what you did if you received the Lord Jesus. You called upon
God. As you have received Him, so
walk ye in Him. We live by faith, we lived by
faith, and we continue living by faith. And this is what Abram
did. Do you see that? Now I want to go back to the
beginning of chapter 12 and point out a couple of things to you
just briefly here. I want you to notice the promise that God
made to Abram. This is very, very big. Very,
very big. And I wish that I could explain
this as it ought to be explained to you so that we can understand
this. When you think of Abram and Abraham, think of this. God
made a promise to Abram and Abraham. I call him Abram at first because
that's what his name was. But later his name was changed
to Abraham, and that's how he's mostly referred to in scripture.
But God made a promise to Abraham. What was the promise God made
to Abraham? Well, look at verse 1 here in
2. He says, I'm going to, in verse
1, the Lord said to Abraham, Get thee out of thy country,
and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, to a land
that I will show thee. And then remember over in, when
we read a little bit further in verse 7, So the first thing
God promised Abram was what? Land. And we naturally think,
well I understand what that is. There's a nation in the world
called Israel. And they live over there by the Mediterranean
Sea. Syria is on the east side. Below them, some other countries. That's the land he must have
been talking about. Well, the answer is yes, he was talking
about that land, but he was also talking about another land. When
God speaks in scripture, he often gives us the truth with a picture. Have you ever seen an artist
painting that he had some kind of a deep message in? And you
look at that picture, maybe it's the Statue of Liberty, or maybe
it's Mount Rushmore, where you see the heads of the presidents
carved out on that mountain. There's a picture there, and
the picture has a message in it. God also is an artist. He draws pictures in scripture.
But he draws pictures with people and things. God gave a promise to Abraham
and he gave him a promise of land that he would give to his
seed, his children. And so, I want you to see first
of all that God's promises to Abraham were physical. Because
in three things. First, the land. And then second,
look at verse 2. And I will make of thee a great
nation. God made Abraham a great nation. Many people were born
to him. He had one son, Isaac. Well, he actually had two, but
God said, I'm only going to recognize Isaac as your son. And through
Isaac, he had Jacob. Jacob had 12 sons, and all the
children of Israel came through them. A great nation. Many people. God said, I'm going to make your
children as the sand of the sea. There's so many. As the stars
of heaven. As the dust of the earth. I'm
going to make that many. That's a lot of people, isn't
it? And God did that. That nation, God said, He's going
to make them many people, a great nation. And then He also said
in verse 3 of Genesis 12, And in thee shall all families of
the earth be blessed. So, get these three things. Land,
a great nation, and blessings to all the families of the earth.
That was a promise God gave to Abraham. And we see it fulfilled
in that physical nation of the Jews. They were given the land
of Canaan. And there were many of them.
So many that scripture describes them like the sand of the sea.
That's a lot, isn't it? And He also blessed the whole
world through that nation. How did He do these things? Well,
I want you to see first of all that God actually did this. Look
at Joshua. Because Joshua tells us that
the Lord actually fulfilled this promise. Look at Joshua chapter
21, verse 43. Remember Joshua? He was the captain
who went into the land of Canaan. And with the armies of Israel,
they wiped out these people that were in that land according to
what God told them to do. Joshua 21, verse 43. And the
Lord gave unto Israel all the land which He swore to give to
their fathers. And they possessed it and dwelt
therein. You see that? Did God actually fulfill the
promise that he gave to Abraham that his seed would inherit the
land? Well it says right here, The Lord gave to Israel all the
land which he swore to give to their fathers, and they possessed
it. Look at verse 44. And the Lord gave them rest round
about according to all that he swore unto their fathers. And
there stood not a man of their enemies before them. And the
Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. There failed
not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the
house of Israel, all came to pass." Do you see that? Did God
fulfill the promise to Abraham that he would give to his physical
children the land? And that he would subdue the
enemies in that land and give them rest in that land? According
to Joshua, he did. During Joshua's day, he said
there failed not anything that God promised to Abraham. He fulfilled
everything that God promised to the nation of Israel here
at this time. He gave them the land and subdued
their enemies. So God fulfilled that promise.
Look over at Joshua 20, I'm sorry, chapter 23. Look at chapter 23. In verse 14, Joshua 23-14, "...and
behold, this day..." Joshua tells the children of Israel, all the
people, these children of Abraham, he says, "...behold, this day
I am going the way of all the earth." Joshua is about to die.
"...and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls
that not one thing has failed of all the good things which
the Lord your God spake concerning you, all are come to pass to
you, and not one thing hath failed thereof." Nothing that God promised
Israel through Abraham failed. Everything that God promised
to Israel through Abraham came to pass when Joshua brought them
into that land. And you can look even further
at this in Nehemiah chapter 9 in your own time. The point is here
that God gave physical promises to the nation of Israel because
of Abraham. He promised them the land, he
promised them that he would multiply his seed, and he promised them
that through them all the families of the earth would be blessed.
And God fulfilled that promise. God promised He's going to make
Abraham's children like the sand of the sea, like the dust of
the earth, like the stars of heaven. So many, they couldn't
be numbered. He says in Romans chapter 9,
so I'll read it from there. He says in Romans 9, 27, Isaiah
cries concerning Israel, Listen to these words carefully. Though
the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the
sea. A remnant shall be saved. A remnant
is a very small part. Like Denise makes quilts and
sometimes she has to trim off a little bit of the things and
you get these little pieces of cloth and she just throws them
aside. That's the remnant. God promised that even though
the number of the people born to Abraham, called the children
of Israel, were as many, innumerable, as the sand of the sea, yet God
was going to save a very small remnant. That's God's promise. So God fulfilled the promise
to Abraham of the land and the number of people. And then, remember,
how did the nation of Israel bless all the nations of the
earth? How did he? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ was
born. And when the Lord Jesus Christ was born, that was the
fulfillment. The Lord Jesus, in His coming, He blessed all
nations of the earth, didn't He? Whosoever believeth on Him
hath everlasting life. Isn't that a blessing? That is
the blessing. So in all these three ways we
see that the nation of Israel, God has already fulfilled all
of His promises to Abraham to that nation. But there's a spiritual
promise here. And that's the promise you and
I need. Because we weren't born to Abraham physically. I wasn't. If you check your DNA, you might
find you weren't either. But it's good that it doesn't
matter what our DNA is related to Abraham. Because it's not
our physical relationship to Abraham. It's a spiritual relationship
that God creates. A spiritual one that God establishes
before we're born. And that's the one I want to
look at just briefly here. Turn to Luke chapter 1. The book
of Luke. You would not expect to find
this in the book of Luke. But I want you to see this, what
God has said here about His promises to Abraham. This is Zacharias. Remember Zacharias had a son
named John, John the Baptist. Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth
were old and they couldn't have children and God gave them a
son. And Zacharias named him John, remember? In verse 67,
right after God enabled Zacharias to talk again, right after John
was born, and he wrote on a piece of paper, his name will be John,
then Zacharias' father spoke these words. In verse 67, Luke
chapter 1, verse 67. He spoke these words by the Spirit
of God, so we know they're God's words. He says in verse 67, "...and
his father, Zacharias, was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied,
saying..." Listen to this prophecy. "...Blessed be the Lord God of
Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people." What does
it mean to be redeemed? It means to be bought out of
slavery and prison and death. And we were redeemed by the price
of the blood of Christ. God's people were redeemed by
Christ's blood. He hath visited and He has redeemed
His people. And He has raised up a horn of
salvation. What is a horn of salvation?
Well, in the Old Testament, when they wanted to show their strength, he would
say, we're going to push you with this horn. Because animals
that had horns, like a bull, he had these horns, you couldn't
resist it. First of all, the bull is huge
and strong. But when he sticks that horn
into you, you can't stop it. It's too much force. That's the
strength. And so he says here, he's raised
up the strength of his salvation for us in the house of his servant
David. because the Lord Jesus descended
from David. Verse 70, look at this. "...as
he spake by the mouth of his prophets, which have been since
the world began." That's a long time ago, isn't it? Ever since
God's prophets have been speaking, He's been speaking about what
Zacharias is going to speak here. The promise. The holy prophets
have spoke this since the world began. What was it? What was
His promise? Because it has to be the same
promise He made to Abraham. Verse 71, that we should be saved
from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us. Do
you have any enemies? What are your enemies? When I
was a kid going to school, people at school were my enemies. They
seemed like they would always want to fight or something. That
was my enemy. Or my brothers and sisters who
always wanted to fight. They were my enemies. Or people who made me want to
do what I didn't want to do. They were my enemies. Everyone
was my enemy. But that's not the enemies he's
talking about here. Who are our enemies? My sin is my enemy. And we're going to see that in
a minute. Satan is my enemy. Death is my enemy. These things
that destroy me are my enemies. So he says here in his promise
that God has sent his Redeemer, the one who's strong with salvation,
according to his promise by the prophets that we should be saved
from our enemies. And from the hand of all that
hate us, to do what? To perform, actually accomplish
the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. Verse 73, what is that? The oath
which he swear to our father Abraham. That we, that he would
grant to us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness
before him all the days of our life. And if you go on, you see
in verse 77, "...to give knowledge of salvation to his people by
the remission of their sins." You see what the God's promise
to Abraham was here? Because he says this was the
oath he made to Abraham. It was to deliver us from our
sins. Look at the book of Micah. Micah chapter 7. Listen to this
verse in Micah chapter 7. Because we just read about this.
In Luke chapter 1, what is the promise God made to Abraham?
The spiritual promise that's important to us as Gentiles.
Verse 18 of Micah 7. Who is a God like unto thee? Who is a God like unto thee?
There's no idols like you, Lord. Who is a God like unto thee that
pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant
of his heritage? What is iniquity? What does it
mean to pardon iniquity? It means to release the one from
the punishment of his sins. It means to take away his sins
and forgive them as if they were never there. God passes by the
transgression of the remnant of his heritage. What is a remnant?
It's that small part of all the nation of Israel, a small part. And all the people of the world,
a small people, a small number of people, are called by God's
name like Abraham, and they're forgiven all their sins for Christ's
sake. He says, He passes by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage. He does not retain his anger
forever. Why? Because he delights in mercy. In the very nature of God, he
fulfills his covenant to his people. Look at verse 19. He will turn again, because he
turned from us and our sins, but he will turn again And He
will have compassion upon us. And listen to what He will do.
He will subdue our iniquities. What does it mean to subdue?
You've got a bad enemy, like David had Goliath. How did David
subdue that enemy, Goliath? Well, he hit him with a stone,
with a sling, sunk into his forehead, and he fell over dead. And then
he chopped off his head, stood on his body with his head in
his hand and his sword. That's subduing his enemy, isn't
it? And the Lord says he's going to subdue our iniquities. How? Well, listen to what he
says, how he's going to do it. He will subdue our iniquities
and thou will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. That's what God did when he brought
Israel out of Egypt. Pharaoh chased after them through
the Red Sea. God opened the Red Sea. Israel
walked through on dry land. Pharaoh said, this is our chance.
They charged in with their chariots and horses and all their army.
God brought the sea back over them. He subdued their enemies
in the Red Sea. God says in his promise to Abraham,
he's going to subdue our iniquities in the sea of his judgment and
his forgetfulness. Verse 20. now will perform the
truth to Jacob, the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn
unto our fathers from the days of old." All the prophets from
the beginning of the world, according to Zechariah and Luke 1, prophesied
of the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham that God would destroy
our enemies and subdue them under his feet, in our feet, and deliver
us from them, and save us from our sins, and from the wrath
of God, from the curse of his law, from death and hell and
everything, and bring us to God. That's the promise to Abraham. Remember the promise he made
to Israel? The land, Canaan, the people multiplied, and the
blessing to all the world. The land was Canaan, the people
of Israel were multiplied, and the Lord Jesus was born to that
nation. But in the fulfillment of that promise in spiritual
ways, what do we see? What is the land that God gives
to His people? What is that land? That land
is eternal life in Christ. I want to read this verse to
you from Psalm 142, verse 5. Psalm 142, verse 5, it says,
I cried unto thee, O Lord, I said, He's praying to the Lord now.
Listen to what the one who's praying to the Lord says. Thou,
speaking to God, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the
land of the living. What is the portion? Well, when
you're born to your parents, and your parents have a lot of
money and land and so forth, they leave it to you when they
die so that you will have it. It's your inheritance. And the
child of God is praying to God. He says, you are my refuge and
you are my inheritance in the land of the living. Christ the
Lord is our inheritance. The land of the living is the
life we have in Christ. Christ is our life. Jesus said,
I'm the way, the truth and the life. So the land of the living
is our life in Christ. It's that eternal life. That's
the only place eternal life is. There's no other life but His.
So the land given to us is the land of eternal salvation in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember the land of Canaan?
How did the people of Israel obtain that land? Well, they
came in and Joshua, the captain, he was the captain. He led them
and God destroyed their enemies. How do we obtain the land of
salvation? The Lord Jesus Christ is our
captain and he goes in and he gives himself up to suffering
and shame with the load of our sins and bears the wrath of God
for us as our substitute. And he takes away our sins. He
subdues our iniquities and casts them into the sea of God's judgment.
And God says, I will remember them no more. He subdues them. And so, as Joshua took possession
of Canaan for Israel, Christ takes possession of eternal life
for his people by his conquest, by his victory and triumph over
our sins, and the devil, and death, and hell, and all of our
enemies. And that land was also called
a land of rest. Because when God brought them
into that land, remember they sent in spies and they went in
and they found these grapes. They were so huge that two men
were required to carry one cluster of grapes. It was a land watered
by God. The land of Canaan was a land
of plenty and a land of rest. They didn't have to do any work.
God just said, I'm going to rain on it and it's going to be for
you. You just get everything. It's a land flowing with milk
and honey. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
has done everything for His people. Those who believe Him rest in
His salvation. And God has given us every blessing
in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And all these blessings
were given to us in Christ before the world began. The land, and
the plenty, and the rest. And all these things are in the
Lord Jesus Christ, because He's the One God gave all the promises
to. I'm going to take you to one
more verse or two. Look at 2 Timothy, chapter 1.
And then I'll close with this. 2 Timothy, chapter 1. God gave
promises to Abraham, but it says in the New Testament when He
did, He was really speaking to His seed, the Lord Jesus Christ. He not only had physical children,
But he had a child whose name was the Lord Jesus. He is God,
but he was born as man to Abraham, and he is the mediator between
God and men. Look at 2 Timothy 1.9. It says here that God has
saved us, and he has called us with a holy calling. When did
the Lord save us? According to the promise about
Jesus, He shall save His people from their sins. When He died
on the cross, He saved us. When did He call us? When we
heard, with God-given ears of faith, that Christ was all of
our hope as sinners and we looked to Him and trusted Him and found
that all of our salvation was in Him. He saved us and He called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, nothing we did,
nothing we're going to do, but according to His own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus That's the one
God promised it to, for us, before the world began. That's amazing,
isn't it? Before you and I were born, God
made a promise to His Son to give eternal life to those He
gave to Him. Look at Titus 1. There's the
last verse. Paul, servant of God and an apostle
of Jesus Christ, Titus 1.1, according to the faith of God's elect, And the acknowledging of the
truth which is after godliness in hope, verse 2, look at it
carefully, in hope of what? Eternal life which God that cannot
lie promised before the world began. Were you there when God
promised that before the world began? I wasn't. And you aren't
either. But God promised it to somebody.
Who did He promise it to before the world began? Who was there?
Who did He speak to? His Son. His Eternal Son. He made a promise to His Son,
the Lord Jesus. I'm going to give eternal life
to all those seed, that people that I'm going to give to you
to save. And when you save them by your
own obedience and blood, I'm going to give them eternal life.
And He promised us, and He saved us, and then He called us, not
according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ before the world began. Let's
pray.