When all men are dead, let me
now say, O Israel. May thy rich grace and power
be to thy people as I see them now. God's love for me, oh, woman,
can't be held in. Ah, last verse. When in life man should dream, All right. turn first of all to 2 Corinthians
chapter 3, and then we'll return to Genesis 13 after we read a
verse or two from 2 Corinthians chapter 3. We have clearly seen, and I think
we've clearly seen in previous studies have that
Abram is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I believe throughout
our studies of Genesis we'll see many more pictures of Christ
as we continue to study Abram and Abraham's life. Since the
scriptures are they which testify of Christ, then we've got to
see him from pages from these passages. Christ said, Moses
wrote of me. And this is the account given
by Moses, Genesis, the first five books. Since Moses wrote
of him, then this must have something to do with Christ. And I am convinced
that true spiritual understanding is to see Christ from the Scripture. You've heard the old saying that
a person cannot see the forest for the trees? You've heard that
old statement, haven't you? Well, most people cannot see
the Word through all the words of Scripture. You understand that? You see
the forest, you see the whole picture, don't you? in spite
of all the trees. You see the Word, you see Christ's
face. 2 Corinthians 3 says this, verses
12 and following, "...Seeing then that we have such hope,
or one hope, Christ is our hope." We use great plainness, boldness
of speech, not as Moses, which put a veil over his face. We
don't veil the Word of God, we don't hide it. He said there
in chapter 4, if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are
lost. We're not hiding it. We're not handling the word of
God deceitfully. See, we have one hope, Christ. We use great
boldness, a plainness of speech, not as Moses, which put a veil
over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly
look to the end of that which is abolished. Their minds were
blinded. until this day remain at the
same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament,
which veil is done away or taken away in Christ." You've seen
that before, haven't you? It would help to refresh our
minds about that again. To this day, even, their minds
are blinded. The veil is still there in the
reading of the Old Testament, which veil is taken away in Christ. You can see clearly. Read on. Even unto this day, when Moses
is read, the veil is upon their heart. They read the stories
of Abraham and talk only of Abraham. When it's Moses wrote of me,
Christ said, Abram, rejoice to see my day. And we'll see it. We'll see his day and Abram's
day. Verse 16, Nevertheless, when it, or that is, when the
spirit, when the heart, when the heart shall turn to the Lord,
the veil shall be taken away. Now, the Lord is that spirit,
the Holy Spirit. And where the Holy Spirit of
the Lord is, there's liberty, freedom to see, understand. But
we all all of us with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory
of the Lord." What's the glory of the Lord? Who's the glory
of the Lord? God is shining. He goes on to
say that in the very next chapter. We see the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in a face. We need to see a face in all
these pictures, don't we? It's like a mosaic. It's like
a tapestry. You look at it from behind, it
looks like a mass of tangles. But if you look at it the way
it's supposed to be seen, you see a picture, don't you? You
see Christ. Read on. Behold him as in a glass, the
glory of the Lord. That's Christ. We are changed in the same image
from glory to glory, even as by or through the Spirit of the
Lord. changed into the same image.
And so many types of Christ in the scriptures are also types
of the believer. We're changed into the same image.
We are Christ's body. Christ and his people are one.
Christ, he's the heir, we're the joint heir. He's the son
of God, we're sons of God. So, changed into the same image,
and that's what we're going to see here in our story tonight. Now back to Genesis. Back to Genesis. Look at chapter
12, first of all, just a little brief review. And as we said
before, Christ must have the preeminence. He must have the
preeminence. And we will look at a type of Christ
first, and then we'll see how Abram typifies the believer in
Christ. Now, you remember the story here
in Genesis chapter 12, when the Lord called Abram? The first
five verses there, look at it again. We saw Christ clearly
from these verses. Now, the Lord had said unto Abram,
in a previous meeting they met beforehand, and the Lord 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."
And this is a type or a picture of the covenant that God the
Father and God the Son had before the world began. They met together,
and God Almighty was to exalt one chosen, as it were, from
among the people, the psalm says. Christ left his father's left
his father's house and went to a land of sin and shame. Look at verse 2. And I will make
of thee a great nation, he says to Abram. I will bless thee,
make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And that's
Christ, isn't it? Christ of Christ, a whole race
of creatures, a nation of people, a race of creatures comes from
him. And he is the blessed man, the
blessed man whom the psalm speaks. He has been given a name which
is above every name. God has made his name the greatest
name. And he says, Thou shalt be a
blessing. Christ is the blessing of God
upon his people. All people of God are blessed
in him, and all spiritual blessings or in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. Verse 3, And God says to Abram,
I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that cursed
thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blest.
And all those that bless Christ are blessed by God, and all those
that curse Christ are cursed by God. Paul said it, Cursed
is every one that loveth not, if any man loveth not the Lord
Jesus Christ, let him be a curse, and he shall And it says that
in thee shall all families of the earth be blest, and in Christ
as a people out of every tribe, kindred, and nation under heaven. And then verse 4 and 5, And Abram
departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him. And Christ our Lord departed
his father's throne, and came into this land, and like our
great high priest He had some names on his breastplate. We
were with him. Wherever he went, whatever he
did, we were with him. We were in him. We were being
represented by him. We were, as it were, his brother,
like Lot was to Abram. Read on. Abram was 75 years old. He was an old man. Christ is
the Eternal One. Verse 5, And Abram took Sarah
his wife, Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that
they had gathered. and the souls that they had gotten
in Heron. And they went forth to go into the land of Canaan,
and into the land of Canaan they came." So Abram was successful
in bringing his family into the Promised Land, and so will our
elder brother. He'll bring us all the way to
fair Canaan. Chapter 13, the first four verses,
we saw this. Chapter 13, verse 1. Abram went
up out of Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had, and lots
with him into the south. Abram was very rich in cattle
and silver and gold, and he went on his journey from the south
even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the
beginning, between Bethel and Hai, unto the place of the altar
which he had made there at the first. And there, Abram called
on the name of the Lord. And this is a picture of Christ
also, Christ who is very rich. He's the heir of all things,
isn't he? He is called the one who has unsearchable riches. And it says there that he returned,
Abram returned to the place where his tent had been at the beginning.
After Christ left this place, he returned back to the Father's
throne, where he was with the Father and had the glory in the
beginning. And what did he do there? What
did Abram do when he returned back? Well, he went to the altar
and called on the name of the Lord. And our Lord Jesus Christ
went back to heaven, to the mercy seat itself, where he makes intercession,
calls on the name of the Lord our God on behalf of his people.
That's a picture of Christ, too. It's all a picture. if we had
eyes to see. And he calls and ever lives to
make intercession for us. Then Abram was a type of Christ
as being a peacemaker. You remember the story how Lot
and Lot's herdmen had a strife with Abram and his herdmen. It wasn't Abram. You can believe
that. It wasn't Abram. It was Lot and
his men. and the rest of them. Look at
verse 8 and 9. But it was Abram who was the
peacemaker. It was Abram who made overtures
of peace to Lot and his men. It was Abram who settled the
dispute. And here Abram is a picture of
Christ again. Abram said unto Lot, Let there
be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen
and thy herdmen. But we be brethren, we be men,
brethren. Not the whole land before thee."
And he went on to say, if you go to the left, I'll go to the
right. You go to the right, I'll go to the left. So, what happened
here was Abram gave Lot the choice land while he took the rest. And in doing so, he humbled himself. He humbled himself and exalted
his brother. And in doing so, God blessed
him more greatly. Abram's the one that received
the greater blessing, didn't he? This is a picture of Christ,
who is the blessed peacemaker. Christ himself said, blessed
are the peacemakers. They shall be called the children
of God. And isn't Christ the one who
makes peace by the blood of his cross? The only one who can. We, by nature, our enmity against
him. And he comes and makes peace
for us, doesn't he? He reconciles us to God. And he, as Abram, he took the
bad part and gave us the good. He took our sin and we got his
righteousness. He, like Abram, humbled himself
to exalt us to the fair land. But God has given him a name
because he did that. God gave him a name and the greater
blessing. And then after Abram became a
peacemaker and humbled himself in favor of his brother. Listen
carefully. After Abram became a peacemaker
and humbled himself to do what he did to exalt his brother. That's when God appears to him
again and confirms this covenant with him again. Now I want you
to turn to, we'll read verses 14 through 17 first. This is
our story tonight. Let's read here and then we'll
turn to John chapter 12. Verses 14 through 17. The Lord
said unto Abram, now I feel like that Abram Well,
I'm certain of it. He was calling on his God at
this time. After this strife, after this problem, after Lot
left him, his dear brother, and all these people left him, after
they got the good land and he was made to dwell in the hillside
and the mountains, poor land, he was somewhat troubled by the
things that had transpired. calling on his God. You know
he was. You know he was. And he asked her, calling upon
his God, his Lord, his God answered him. Verse 14, and this is what
the Lord said. Said unto Abram, after that lot
was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from
the place where thou art, northward and southward, eastward and westward. for all the land which thou seest,
to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. And I will
make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if any man,
if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy
seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land
in the length of its and in the breath of it, for I will give
it unto thee." Now, turn to John chapter 12. Turn over there. John chapter 12 and John chapter
13. Is there any coincidence? Genesis
12 and 13, John 12 and 13? I think you're going to see some
Marvelous coincidences here. Now, just as God was glorified
in the calling out of Abraham, God was glorified. You see, God
was going to create a race of people from the loins of Abram
called his people, Jews, Hebrews, his people, a new people. God was going to create and God
was going to get greater glory than he had up to this point.
And just as God was glorified in the calling out and the sending
of Abram and everything about Abraham, Abram's faith was a
gift of God, Abram's life, Abram's offspring was a miracle of God. Just as God was glorified in
Abram, God is chiefly glorified in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
look at John 12. John 12. God is chiefly glorified
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 27. Remember I said that
Abram must have been somewhat troubled by what had gone on,
and called upon the Lord, and the Lord confirmed to him that
covenant. that he was going to be glorified
in him and his seed was going to inherit. Verse 27, our Lord
says, Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father,
save me from this hour, but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from
heaven, saying, I have both glorified it. and we'll glorify it again. I'm about to glorify it as never
before. As never before. And as I said,
Abram was troubled by leaving his father's house, but the Lord
confirmed his covenant with him and assured his heart. Abram
was troubled by his brethren leaving him and there being a
strife, but the Lord appeared to him again and confirmed his
covenant with him. Our Lord here somewhat troubled
by the thoughts of going to the cross, being made sin for us,
with all his brethren leaving him, the Lord comes to him and
confirms to him this covenant once again. Are you with me now?
This is meat, strong meat, good meat. I've already tasted it.
Look over chapter 13, John chapter 13, and then we saw, hang on
to your seat, Brother Grissom would say, watch
it now. Then we saw how Abram's brother and his kindred strove
with him and forsook him. That was in chapter 13 of Genesis. Look here at John 13. John 13.
Look at verse 31. Therefore, when he was gone out,"
who? That's Judas. When he was gone out, you remember
when it said, when the lot went out from him, and the Lord appeared
to him? When he was gone out, Jesus said,
now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself,
and shall straightway glorify him." Little children. Now he's talking to his seed,
his little ones, and then he goes on to chapter 14 to say,
I go to prepare a place for you in my Father's house of many
mansions. I'm the heir, you're my seed, and you're going to
have it. You see the correspondence there? After Abram had proved
himself, after Abram had brought Lot with him, after Abram had
been peacemaker, after Abram had humbled himself, after Lot
forsook him, God again confirmed his covenant with him. After
the Lord Jesus Christ had proved himself, After the Lord Jesus
Christ had brought all his people with him, after the Lord Jesus
Christ had made peace for us, after the Lord Jesus Christ had
humbled himself even to the cross, after he was forsaken of all
his brethren, then the Lord confirmed again his covenant with him. I glorify thee. And then back
to the text. And since Abram humbled himself, And all this, when the Lord appears
to Abram, is because of this incident that happened here between
him and Lot. Since Abram humbled himself,
God gave Abram a new name. Over and on in chapter 17 is
when it happened, and he came to him and said much the same
things that he did here in chapter 13. But after Abram had humbled
himself and took the lesser and gave his brother the greater,
God gave him a new name and blessed his name and blessed all his
seed in him. And that reminds me of Philippians
2, doesn't it, you? Since Christ humbled himself
and took upon himself the form of a servant, God hath highly
exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. and
blessed his people and all his people in him as well. Now, look
at verse 15 in the text. The Lord said to Abram, All the
land which thou seest, to thee will I give it. Psalm 25 says,
The earth is the Lord, and the fullness thereof. Psalm 24. The
earth is the Lord, and the fullness thereof. The Lord who? The Lord
Jesus Christ. He owns the earth. All things
were created by him, and all things were created for him.
All right, look at the verse again. To thee will I give it,
and to thy seed forever. Christ is the heir of all things. We are the joint heir. And the Scripture says the meek
shall inherit the earth. A new heaven and a new earth.
A new earth. and we will have it forever. Forever. Not this one. Not this
one. The earth, the world has this
one, and they're going to get what it has coming to it. But
we shall inherit the new earth, and it shall be ours forever.
Verse 16, And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth,
so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall
thy seed also be numbered. And again, God promises Abram
and his seed, Abram, that his seed will be as the dust of the
earth, and that they will be innumerable. Listen to this verse in Revelation
7 concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. After this I beheld, and lo,
a great multitude which no man could number. of all nations,
and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne
and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in
their hands." So this is speaking of Christ very clearly. He said,
I'll make thy seed as the dust of the earth, and they'll be
innumerable, and innumerable hosts. Look at verse 17. He says,
Arise, walk through the land in the length of the breath of
it. I'll give it unto thee." Our
Lord walked this planet, didn't he? Verse 18. So Abram did. He removed his tent and came
and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built
there an altar unto the Lord. Abram came and he dwelt and built
an altar. Christ came The Chosen One of
God, Father of the Multitude, walked this planet, came and
dwelt among us. He didn't build an altar, he
became the altar. He became an altar. And lo, he's
coming again. He's coming again, and will walk
through the land, and in a new earth which he creates, he shall
dwell with us forevermore." Look over at Galatians 3. I'm sure some of you thought,
when's he going to get to this? Because the Apostle Paul makes
direct mention of Genesis 13 here in Galatians 3. You see,
Christ is all. As I started out this message,
he is all. to him give all the prophets
witness. Moses wrote of him. They are they which testify of
me, Christ says. So just as Abram represents Christ,
Christ is all, the seed is Christ, too. Abram represents Christ,
so does the seed, so does the altar, so does Bethel, so does
everything, so does Isaac, and on and on the pictures of Christ
go, because Christ is all. that is spoken of so many times
throughout Genesis. Paul speaks of it here in Galatians
chapter 3 verse 16. Now, to Abraham and his seed
were the promises made. Now he saith not, and to seeds
as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ. It's all Christ. Well, Abram,
who was Abram's seed? He really had one seed, one son,
didn't he? One son. Who was it? Isaac, right? The son of his old age, the son
of promise, the miracle son. Isaac, the one he took up and
put on the, about, and it took, and bound him and put him on
the altar. And what a picture of Christ Isaac is. Right? That's Abram seed, and we're
going to see a lot more of Isaac as a picture of Christ later
on. All right, back to the text,
very quickly. Very quickly. I've been 22 minutes. Nobody could possibly be tired,
couldn't you? Genesis chapter 13. And very
quickly, very briefly, I want you to look with me at Abram
as a type of a believer. As I said, Christ must have the
preeminence. We spent the first major portion
looking at how Abram is a type of Christ, and everything in
that passage is a type of Christ as well. All right, back in chapter
12, Abram is given promises by God. Promises after promises
to Abram, right? You notice how it doesn't say,
God doesn't say to Abram, now if you'll do this, I'll None
of the promises are conditional, are they? You see, any conditions
anywhere, the Abram, if you will just take the first step out
of error, I'll meet you halfway. No, this thing was sovereign,
the sovereign mercy and grace and calling, electing grace of
the Lord, of the God, of God, the Lord God, calling Abram out
of darkness into his marvelous light, calling him out of idolatry. to worship and know the true
and living God and his cry. And this is a picture of how
God calls his people, chooses his people, and how that he doesn't
require anything of us. It's not conditional. This salvation
is not conditional. The only things our salvation
is conditioned on is the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ,
right? And so Abram's calling and election
and choosing and the promises are not conditioned on him. Step yet. Right? All God said was, Abram, get
out. I will, I will, I will, I will,
I will, I will, I will, and you shall. There it is. And what happened? Abram left.
See, his faith was a result of God's call and God's sovereignty,
right? And he made promise after promise
after promise. And what we have here to Abram
is what God does to his people. And what Abram heard was, is
God's oath and his covenant. His oath and his covenant. And
later on, you see an altar. That's the blood in it. And Abram's
going to go through a lot, and that's what supported him, his
oath, his covenant, his blood. But promises after promises have
been made to the people of God, promises of a future land with
God, promises of all things working together for their good. Those
that bless you, I'll bless. Those that curse you, I'll curse.
All things work together for the good of God's people. He
gives Ethiopia and Saba, Egypt, for our ransom. Whole nations
and people. Like his Israelites who traveled through
the land and God removed all the enemies from them and cursed
all those that cursed them and blessed all them that blessed
them. That's the way God does his people. Promises of all things
working together. And in spite of, though, in spite
of God's goodness and God's sovereignty and God's mercy and God's grace
and God's love and God choosing Abram out of a multitude of people,
Abram sinned against his God. Abram fell and fell terribly
and brought reproach upon his God, his faith, his family, himself. Remember when he denied his wife
here in chapter 13? And you know, we'll see how he did it again.
Just a couple of chapters later, he did it again. How could he
do such a thing? He's just a man, that's why.
He's just a sinner. That's all he is, a sinner saved
by grace. And that's us. We have fallen,
denied the faith, denied our God, but thank God he cannot
deny himself. He cannot deny his son. He will not deny the blood which
is ever before the Lord on our behalf. Does that support you,
Abram? It does me. And Abram fell and
we fall. Abram fell again, we'll fall
again. But what is our hope? God's covenant. God's promises. God's son. God's promises which
never fail us. All right, look at the next thing.
It says that, well, in Abram's fall, we noted how that Abram
fell terribly, and that's all in the last part of chapter 12. And you know, God never brought that up. I couldn't help but see this. God never said a thing about
that. It was as if Abram's sin and iniquity, he didn't remember
it. God didn't even bring it up.
Abram found. Oh, he brought it to Abram's
mind and heart, and granted him repentance, and he made him feel
shame and guilt for what he'd done, but God never brought it
up. God didn't say, you ungrateful fellow, you look what I've done
for you. Didn't bring it up, did he, John? He just brought
Abram back. Didn't bring it up, but brought
Abram back. Back to the altar, back where it started again,
and confirmed those blessed promises all over. Back to Bethel. Back
to Bethel. We're going to see the same thing
in Jacob. Same thing. Jacob's where the Lord met, or
Bethel's where the Lord met with Jacob, and gave him all those
promises, and Jacob went wild, and what happens later on? He
brings him back to Bethel again. Bethel means the house of God.
And that's Christ too. And God never mentioned Abram's
sin. It just merely brought him back to Bethel where he remembered
the covenant to him. Then Abram's trial in chapter
13. This is a picture of the believer who undergoes trial
and temptations. And it was tough. That was a
tough incident in Abram's life. You know it was. He went through
a rough trial. His family and his friends and
and forsaking him and leaving him and him getting the rough
end of the deal, seemingly. God's people never get the rough
end of the deal. They get across. But that's the
good way. That's the good way. But after
that trial, after that trial, that's when the Lord appeared
to him again. again. And that's when Abraham
built another altar. Look at it back down in chapter
13, verse 18. It says, Abraham removed his
ten and came and dwelt in the land and built there an altar
of the Lord. Everywhere he went, Abraham worshiped
the Lord by sacrifice, didn't he? That altar, whenever you
see an altar, you know that that means There's blood being shed.
There's blood being shed. And this blood in this altar,
every time Abram needed peace of mind, he went to the altar.
Everything he underwent, God brought him back to the altar.
And a sacrifice was made, and a covenant was confirmed, and
he had peace of mind and peace of heart all over again. And
that's a picture of the gospel, isn't it? No matter what we go
through, Though friends and family forsake us, for the scripture
says, even though my mother and my father forsake me, yet the
Lord will take me up. He brings us back to the gospel
once again and confirms with us that everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things and sure, is to the seed. To the seed,
which is Christ. All right. Stand with me. Thank you for eyes to see Christ
from the scriptures. Else we would not profit one
bit. We only go away trying to emulate
Abram when we don't need to imitate a man. We need to look upon the
God-man. We need to look to Christ. We
don't need to look to men. Men fall. We need to look higher
than that. You can look to the rock that
is higher than us. And these men merely show us
the pit from which we were digged, and how you called us and saved
us by your grace and brought us to Christ. Lord, thank you
for that everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.
Ordered in all things and sure. This is all our hope. This is
all our hope, although you make things, things aren't as we might
would have them there exactly the way you have ordained them. Let us have peace and comfort,
strength in knowing and knowing this. You're Lord of all. You
own it all. We're in your hand. We're bought
with a price. Thou art the seed and we are
your seed. And you've given all things to
us. We join heirs with Christ. Forgive
us of our sins, Lord. Bring us back again. the Lord's Day to worship again. Lord, we thank you for the church
and your people. We especially thank you when
you bring those from afar that we know or know and love, or
those we have not known previously and yet heard so much about. This one you brought our way,
a dear daughter, our sister, our dear brother Bill. Lord,
we pray for him even now as he recovers from his sickness and
from a long and difficult journey. A man who has hazarded his life,
given his life and given up his health for the ministry. A man
that we know you love, a man we love and esteem very highly.
We ask your blessings upon him right now at this moment as we
speak. Ask that you bless him and give him many more years
of fruitful ministry through preaching of your word. Lord,
we thank you for bringing Janine our way. Ask your blessings upon
her. Give her and Vicki journey and mercies. Tomorrow is a journey
away from here. Bring her back to us. Thank you
for all your saints everywhere. And ask your blessings upon your
church. In Christ's name, we've met together
tonight. We're going to have a few refreshments downstairs
in honor of our special guest and sister. Make sure you speak
to her. Thank you.