Welcome to our program. Now today
I'm going to be continuing through Hebrews chapter 11, the Hall
of Faith, and I've entitled today's message, Covenant Promise and
Faith. Now we're going to pick up in
verse 17, which talks about Abraham and Isaac. It speaks of that
great event recorded in the book of Genesis chapter 22, where
Abraham was tested by God. God told him to offer up his
only son, Isaac. Isaac is called Abraham's only
son because he is the only son that was given to Abraham and
his wife, Sarah. Abraham had another son, Ishmael,
but Ishmael was the child of an illicit affair between Abraham
and his bondmaid, Hagar. He was the child of the flesh,
but Isaac was the child of promise. He was the miracle child who
God gave to Abraham and Sarah when they were way past childbearing. And it was through Isaac, the
child of promise, not Ishmael, the child of the flesh. It was
through Isaac that the promised seed should come. The promised
seed, ultimately, is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the
Savior of His people. Now, all that means this. Salvation
is the result of a covenant. A covenant between the Father
and the Son made before the foundation of the world. It's a covenant
of redemption. It's a covenant of grace. Because salvation is by grace.
It's a covenant of promise. It's based upon a promise that
God has given to save sinners through Christ alone. And down
through history, God revealed other covenants. He revealed
a covenant to Abraham. That was a specific covenant
of promise given to Abraham that the Messiah, the Anointed One,
the Savior, the Redeemer, would come through Abraham according
to the flesh. And as time unfolded, different
details of that promise and how God would bring it about were
unfolded and revealed. For example, Isaac is the child
of promise. Later on, we see that it's through
Jacob and his 12 sons, and it was through specifically his
son Judah that the Messiah would come. He's called the Lion of
the tribe of Judah. Later on, through David, King
David, as history unfolds. But it's a covenant of promise.
Now, everything that is said here about these Old Testament
believers is based upon that covenant of promise. their belief
in the salvation of sinners by God's grace in the promised seed,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. And it says here in verse 17,
by faith. Now again, that means by looking
to the promised Savior, looking to Christ, believing God and
obeying God, by faith. Abraham, when he was tried, that
means when he was tested, he offered up Isaac. And he that
had received the promises offered up his only begotten son." Now,
you've got to know how much that brought grief to Abraham, because
here God had finally given him a son, and then God tests Abraham. He tests his faith. This wasn't
mean or cruel of God to do so. because God had made promises
to Abraham, and God had proven Himself to Abraham personally
how faithful He was to carry forth His promise. So I want
you to read the next verses because this is the key. Now read verse
17 again. It says, "...by faith Abraham,
when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received
the promises offered up his only begotten son." Abraham who'd
received the promises now. He offered up his only son, verse
18, of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, God had promised Abraham
that it was through Isaac that his seed would be called. It
was through Isaac through whom the Christ would come much, much
later on. But Isaac would live, he would
marry, he would have children. And they would have children,
and they would have children, and on down the line, until that
time that God had appointed before the foundation of the world that
the Messiah would come according to the flesh, made of the seed
of David, according to the flesh. You see, David was a descendant
of Abraham through Isaac. So he was through the seed of
David. Now Christ was not born of the
flesh, that is, through the aid of man. He was born of the Virgin. by the Spirit, but even Mary,
his mother, was a descendant of Abraham through Isaac in the
tribe of Judah. So he says, "...of whom it was
said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called." It was through
Isaac that God's promise of grace was going to be fulfilled in
bringing the Messiah, Christ, into the world to save his people
from their sins. And then verse 19 says what Abraham
was thinking all this time. It says, accounting, Abraham
was accounting. Abraham concluded that God was
able to raise him up even from the dead. Having received the
promise, having seen God fulfill that promise in Isaac, Having
seen God's power and grace, Abraham concluded that if he sacrificed
Isaac, God having already made the promise, that God was able
to raise Isaac from the dead. And it says, from whence also
he received him in a figure, in a type. Now, that may seem
a little difficult to understand, but here's what he's saying.
Abraham knew that Isaac was a type of Christ. Abraham knew that
in Isaac, the Christ would come. And just like Abraham, he took
that boy up on that mount, Mount Moriah, which some say later
on became Mount Calvary. And he put that boy on the altar,
tied him up, bound him up, and he raised that knife, and he
was going to sacrifice that boy, and God stopped his hand. And
when God stopped his hand, he loosed Isaac. Isaac got up, and
he asked this question of Abraham. He says, well, Abraham, Isaac
had asked this question before Abraham. He said, Father, where
is the lamb for sacrifice? And Abraham said, Son, God will
provide himself a lamb. And God did provide himself in
the Lamb of God, Christ, who is God, the God-man. Well, Isaac
was a type of Christ, but Isaac was spared. You can only take
types so far. Christ, the Lamb of God, was
not spared. The Bible says he spared not
his own son. So God was teaching a lesson
there of his faithfulness and love to his people. But you know,
after Abraham got Isaac up off that altar, he looked over and
there in the thicket there was a ram for the sacrifice. Blood
has to be shed. And that lamb, just like all
Old Testament sacrifices, typified Christ, the Lamb of God. And
Abraham knew. Abraham looked to Christ and
he knew that God was going to keep his promise. So Abraham's
whole activity there, his faith, was all based on a covenant of
promise, a covenant of faith. Now next he goes to Isaac in
verse 20. He says, By faith Isaac blessed
Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. You know the story of
Jacob and Esau, where Jacob fooled Esau, deceived Esau into selling
him his birthright. And it says Isaac here blessed
Jacob and Esau. Esau received some blessings,
but he didn't receive the birthright. The birthright went to Jacob.
Now, God told them before the boys were even born, they were
twins. Jacob and Esau were twins. Esau was the elder. He came out
of the womb first. Jacob came out holding on to
his heel. In fact, his name means heel holder or supplanter. Jacob
was a conniver. And Jacob connived around with
his mother to get the birthright from Esau, and he did. But Isaac
blessed them both. It was Jacob who received the
birthright. But in doing that, Isaac proved
his faith in the covenant of promise. In other words, he knew
that he had to carry on the legacy of the gospel. The legacy of
the covenant through Jacob. And that's why Jacob's name is
put first here. Jacob was the younger. Now, God
had already come to their mother and said, the elder shall serve
the younger. That's according to God's election
of grace, that the purpose of God, according to the election
of grace, might stand. Paul writes in Romans 9. But
God blessed Jacob and Esau. They both received blessings.
They both received a lot. But Jacob had the birthright.
And that birthright meant that Jacob would be the spiritual
father, the spiritual leader of the family. It says in verse
21, by faith Jacob, now it goes to Jacob, by faith, by looking
to Christ, Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons
of Joseph and worshipped leaning upon the top of his staff. This
refers to the event when Jacob was dying and Joseph brought
his two boys, he had two sons. had Manasseh and he had Ephraim.
Now again we see an example of God's electing sovereign grace. Manasseh was the oldest, Ephraim
was the youngest, and Joseph brought them in that way. He
brought them so that Manasseh would receive the blessing of
Jacob's right hand. Jacob would put his right hand
on the head of Manasseh, and he presented Ephraim so that
Jacob would put his left hand on the top of Ephraim's head.
But it's told back in Genesis 48 that when Joseph brought those
two boys, that Jacob, because God had revealed to him again
the elder shall serve the younger, he crossed his hands and he put
the birthright on Ephraim and not Manasseh. God's electing
grace. And it was all according to the
covenant of promise by faith Jacob when he was dying. He blessed
them both. And he was leaning up on the
top of his staff in his old age. And that staff represents the
shepherd's staff in which we lean, which guides us. It says
in verse 22, it goes to Joseph. It says, By faith Joseph, when
he died, made mention of the departing of the children of
Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones. That refers
to the event when Joseph was dying, they were in Egypt. Egypt is the land of bondage.
Egypt represents the world in opposition to God. It's a land
of idolatry. But God had brought the nation
Israel down there by Joseph. And all the tribes of Israel,
all the sons of Jacob were there, the sons of Israel, came down
by Joseph. And Joseph delivered them from
the famine by becoming second in command of Pharaoh. Well,
Joseph lived in that land, and when he died, He made mention
of the covenant, the departing of the children of Israel. God
had revealed to Abraham, years before that, that his children
would go down into a land not their own and be put into bondage,
and then later be delivered and go back to the land of promise.
Joseph knew that, and he heard that, and he believed it. He
knew that the blessing of Abraham was not going to be fulfilled
in the land of bondage. So he told them when he died,
he says, take my bones back to the land of promise when you
go there. And what he was doing, he was showing his belief of
the covenant of grace. He was looking to Christ. He
knew there was no life in the land of bondage, no eternal life.
So he says, when you go, when you depart from Egypt and go
back to the land of promise, the land of the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, take me with you. Because that's where I want
to be buried. I want to be buried with the
people of God. I want to be buried with the family of God. I want
to die in the faith. That's what he's saying. And
he did. He died in the faith. He was looking forward to that
promise. Now, in verse 23, the Bible here
turns to Moses. It says a lot about Moses. You
know, Moses was raised up to be the deliverer of Israel out
of Egypt. You know how the story goes.
After Joseph died, later on, a Pharaoh came into power in
Egypt, and he didn't know Joseph. In other words, he didn't have
any regard for Joseph. And he put the children of Israel
into bondage. They became slaves, the Hebrew
children. And they were multiplying. And
Pharaoh made a decree that all the males in the Hebrew family
were to be killed, all the newborn males. Moses was born. His mother
prepared an ark of bulrushes and sent him out into the river.
And Pharaoh's daughter found him. And she engaged Moses' actual
mother to nurse him and raise him. And Moses was raised up
to be the deliverer. He was raised up in the house
of Pharaoh. learning the ways of the Egyptians. Some say he
became in line for the throne of Egypt, but he was also raised
by his mother and taught the ways of the Hebrews, taught the
ways of the covenant God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And it says
here in verse 23, by faith, now that is by believing God's promise,
by looking to Christ. Somebody asked me one time, how
do you know Moses knew about Christ? Well, Christ said that
he did. Over in John chapter 5, in verse 39, the Lord confronted
the Pharisees who claimed to know the Scriptures, the Old
Testament. And he says, you do search the
Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, but they
are those which testify of me. The Scriptures are about me,
Christ said. The Scriptures from Genesis to
Revelation, Old Testament and New, are the words of God concerning
Christ, who He is, what He did, why He did it, and where He is
now. It's about Christ and Him crucified. Christ is the living
Word of God, and the written Word of God is about Him, reveals
Him. He's the God-man mediator. He's
the sovereign Lord of the universe. He's the creator. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And without Him, nothing that
was created was created. He's the one who came to earth
and became incarnate. He took into union with His deity
sinless humanity. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. He's the substitute, the representative,
the redeemer, the surety. He's the Lamb of God. He's the
Ark of God. He's the Tabernacle. All of these
things concern him and salvation by him. He's the one, all the
blood that was shed in sacrifice in the Old Testament pointed
to Christ, whose precious blood was shed as payment for the debts
of his people, his sheep. He said, I laid down my life
for the sheep. And in his bloodshedding, he satisfied law and justice.
He paid our debt in full, and he brought forth a righteousness.
He's the Lord our righteousness, Jeremiah called him in chapter
23, in verse 6. And all of this is about Christ.
Well, back there in John 5, when he told them, he says, they are
they which testify of me, these scriptures, he knew they would
invoke Moses. They said, we follow Moses. And
he said, you have one who would judge you, even Moses, in whom
you trust. And he made this statement in
John chapter 5. He says, Moses wrote of me. Moses wrote of Christ. He knew
the covenant promise that God had made to Abraham concerning
the deliverer who was to come. who would bring the people out
of Egypt, bring them back into the land of promise, and they
would exist there until, ultimately, until Christ would come. Well,
so it says, by faith, Moses, when he was born, he was hid
three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper
child. Now, this is speaking of the
faith of Moses' parents first. They believed the promise, and
they saw that he was a proper child. What that means is that
it was revealed to them that Moses was to be the deliverer.
They saw that Moses was a child favored of God, he was a proper
child, and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. They
were not afraid of Pharaoh's commandment to kill all the firstborn.
So they hid him three months, and after that, she put him in
that ark and sent him away to save his life. And she knew that
God was going to take care of him. I believe that. His parents
knew that. And then verse 24, by faith Moses,
when he was come to years, when he was come to age, he refused
to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Now, he forsook Egypt. Now, you know the story how Moses
killed an Egyptian and he had to run away. He was about 40
years old. And it says, but here in his
mind when he saw these issues come forth, it says in verse
25, that choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of
God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. He saw his
people suffering. He knew they were the chosen
people of God. He knew they were the covenant
people of God. He'd heard the covenant promises
that God had made to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob and
to Joseph. And he, in his own heart, He
said it's better to be with the people of God than to be rich
and powerful in Egypt, in this world. So he chose rather to
suffer affliction with them, with his own people, his covenant
people, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. And look
here in verse 26. Now here's a good commentary
on what Moses believed and what he knew. Verse 26. Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater
riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto
the recompense of the reward." In other words, in Moses, when
his decision to leave Egypt, identifying with the people of
God in their affliction, in their suffering, he was looking far
beyond the physical and into the spiritual. He esteemed the
reproaches of Christ the affliction, the persecution, the hatred of
this world for Christ. He says, that's more valuable
to me than the riches in Egypt. To be esteemed, highly esteemed
among men is nothing, less than nothing, compared to being in
Christ. And that's what Moses is saying.
He had respect unto the recompense of reward. What reward? Not a
reward that Moses would earn. Not a reward that he deserved,
but it's a reward that was revealed in the covenant promise revealed
to Abraham. Now, the Bible teaches us in
Romans chapter 4 that that reward given to Abraham was not of debt. It's not something he worked
for or earned, but it was of grace. So Moses had respect unto
the recompense of reward, the reward of grace. What is that?
Eternal life and final glory based on the precious blood and
imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the
reward. It's of grace. Verse 27. says,
by faith he forsook Egypt. By looking to Christ, by believing
God's covenant promise, Moses forsook Egypt, not fearing the
wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
Now, you know, when Moses first left Egypt, he was afraid of
Pharaoh because he killed an Egyptian. It says he feared what
Pharaoh would do to him. But when God revealed himself
to Moses on the Mount, He came back to Pharaoh, and he didn't
fear him then. He walked right up to Pharaoh with Aaron, and
he said, let my people go. He says, the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, the I Am, which was revealed to him in Exodus
3, and so he saw him who is invisible. He had respect unto the God of
promise, the God of Abraham. And it says in verse 28, Through
faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest
he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them." Now that
refers to the last plague that was put upon Egypt. You remember
when Moses went back with Aaron and he confronted Pharaoh several
times, there were ten plagues sent upon Egypt. The last plague
was that God said that he was going to destroy the firstborn
of Egypt. You know, a lot of times we see
that our words come back on us. We say something and we get what
we say. We spew it out to somebody else,
but it comes back. Well, that's what happened to
Pharaoh. Here, Pharaoh issued a decree when Moses was born to kill all
the firstborn of the Hebrew children. Well, the last plague is that
God said, I will kill all the firstborn of Egypt, but he revealed
to Moses. He said, you tell the Hebrew
children, he says, you tell them to find a lamb, a lamb of the
first year, a young lamb, prime of his life. And he said, you
find a lamb without spot and without blemish. Take him out
of the flock, a lamb without spot and without blemish. And
you sacrifice that lamb and you put the blood of that lamb on
the doorpost of your houses and go inside the house. And he says,
you cut that lamb up, and you cook it, and you kill it and
eat it, and you eat it with bitter herbs. And he says, when I come
through with judgment to smite the firstborn of Egypt, he says,
when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And that's the Passover. Now, you know, every bit of that
is typical of Christ, the Lamb of God, who is our Passover. I think it was in 1 Corinthians
chapter 5 that the Apostle Paul called Christ our Passover. That lamb of the first year represents
Christ in his youth, in the prime of life. He was 33 years old
when he was cut down. And that lamb who was without
spot and without blemish, Christ was the sinless sacrifice for
sins. When he died on the cross, he
in himself was sinless, but he died for our sins charged to
him. He became guilty, not because
of His own sins, but because of our sins laid upon Him. He
became cursed, not for His own sins, but for our sins lay upon
Him. He bore our sins. He became a
curse. And when we're in Christ, resting
in Him, trusting in Him, when God sees us, He sees the blood
of the Lamb. And He said, I'll pass over you.
Well, Moses understood that, and he believed the covenant
promise that God had made to Abraham And he kept the Passover
and the sprinkling of blood. The last one, it says here in
verse 29, by faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry
land, which the Egyptians, a saint to do, were drowned. You know,
when Moses led the children of Israel out, they came to the
Red Sea. No way to cross. Pharaoh's army
pursuing them. And Moses, and they murmured
and complained. They didn't believe. But Moses
stood up on that rock, and he had that staff, and he said,
stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. The Red Sea parted,
and they walked across on dry land. And when they got to the
other side, here comes Pharaoh's army pursuing them, and the sea
closed down on them, and they drowned in that sea. How did Moses do all that? It
says through faith. He believed the covenant promises
of God. He looked forward to a better
time, a better country, a better promise, the promise of eternal
salvation and final glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. All of
it based upon the covenant promises of God. Now, let me tell you
this. The preaching of the gospel is
the preaching of the terms of a covenant. the covenant of God's
free and sovereign grace in Christ, the covenant of redemption. Whenever
we preach salvation conditioned on Christ alone, and we preach
that Christ himself, the God-man mediator, the substitute in surety,
fulfilled all those conditions, satisfied law and justice, shed
his precious blood and paid the debt in full, and brought in
an everlasting righteousness, we're preaching the same promise
of grace that Abraham believed, that Isaac believed, that Jacob
and Joseph and that Moses believed. Did you know that? Covenant promises,
believing God.