Well, we've been looking at some
passages in Genesis, the gospel in various instances in Genesis,
and we come today to Genesis chapter 14. But before we get
there, just to say that when we saw last week about Nimrod
and Babel and the confusing, confounding of the languages
in chapter 11. And then in the second half of
chapter 11, you have the descendants of Shem. Remember the three sons
of Noah from whom all of the world, we are all, all our genetics
ultimately comes from them. Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was
the one that was cursed because he hated the gospel, hated the
gospel of grace. And Shem was the one who would
go on to be the one from whom the Jewish peoples descended,
the Israelite peoples descended from Shem, and Japheth, the Gentiles,
who would dwell in the tents of Shem. In other words, speaking
of the church in our day, when Gentile believers, this joining
together of those blessed by God in that way. But in chapter
11, and from verse 10 down to 32, we have the descendants of
Shem down to Abram. They go all the way down there,
Peleg, and Reu, and Sherug, and all those names. Well done, Stephen,
before, by the way, for reading those complicated names. And
then we get down to verse 27, now these are the generations
of Terah. Terah begat Abram. The father
of Abram was a man called Terah. And do you know what? You would
think that they would all be those that loved and knew the
gospel. But we know from Joshua chapter 24, And verse 2, that
the family of Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees were idolaters. So even though they are coming
from the blessed line of Shem, because there were always those
who knew the gospel, there were always those from Adam who knew
the gospel, who knew the way to the tree of life. And what
is the way to the tree of life? Jesus said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. But in Joshua 24 verse 2, Joshua tells us that Abraham
was from a family of idolaters in Ur of the Chaldees. But in
chapter 12 and verse 1 of Genesis, 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 you. God spoke to
him. How did God speak to him? I don't
know. Was it by a preacher? Who could that preacher have
been? We're not told, but God usually speaks by prophets and
preachers. This is his way. Who is to know
how he did that somehow, you know, we never read anything
about Job anywhere other than in the book of Job, but it is
reckoned that the book of Job is about the oldest book in the
Bible. I wonder if somebody from either
Job or Job's influence had preached the truth of the way to the tree
of life there. And this message came to Abraham,
and a promise was given of a nation of faith who would come from
Abraham, that they would believe the same as Abraham. What did
Abraham believe? He believed God. He believed
God concerning redemption from the curse of the law. He believed
God regarding the salvation that the seed of the woman would accomplish.
The seed of the woman that would come via Abraham and in generations
to come. The seed of the woman would come
and redeem his people from the curse of the law. Who are his
people? the multitude, the multi-ethnic multitude that the Father gave
to the Son before the beginning of time. And who are the children
of Abraham? The Jews, you would say. No.
Galatians 3 verse 7 tells us, they which are of faith. They which are of the same faith
as Abraham, the same belief, the same, these ones are the
children of Abraham. Whether by genetic descent or
not, it's irrelevant. It's the same faith as Abraham. By faith. What is faith? It is
spirit given sight to believe God concerning his kingdom of
righteousness and peace. And Abraham heard God's voice,
whether by a preacher or directly, we don't know. But Abraham heard,
and Abraham obeyed. Because Abraham believed, he
acted upon what he believed. You're a fool if you act on that
which you do not believe. Aren't you? You don't believe
it's true, and you still act, and it's like, that's rather
a silly, unwise thing to do. But Abraham believed God. He
trusted God. He relied on God. He knew that
what God had promised could not fail. And he obeyed God on the
basis of that. And he left his family. You'd
imagine it. You imagine, you're the one that's
due to inherit all the riches of your family, and it would
have been great riches then, Abraham. And he left his family,
because God had said, go to a country that I will show you. He left
his society, his godless, idolatrous society, because he'd heard the
gospel of grace. He'd heard the truth of saving
grace, and he left it. He left it. Be not unequally
yoked with unbelievers, says the scripture. This is one of
the epistles. Corinthians, I think. I'm not
sure which one, but anyway. Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers.
And God had said to him, come out from your family, because
they don't believe. Come and go to a land that I will show
you. Come out of the culture of the world, the kingdom of
the world. You know, Satan has a kingdom,
it's the kingdom of this world. You know, it's the beast that
we saw last week coming up out of the sea in Revelation 13.
The kingdoms of this world, which is actually in truth one kingdom,
the kingdom of this world. And Abraham came out of there,
and what was he looking for? Hebrews tells us, Hebrews 11
tells us that Abraham was looking for a city. What sort of a city? A city that has foundations,
whose builder and maker is God. He came out looking for a heavenly
city, and he trusted the promise of the seed to come, the seed
of the woman who would come, who would crush the serpent's
head. His heel would be bruised, but he would crush the serpent's
head, and in the process he would accomplish the redemption of
his people from the curse of the law. Oh, Abraham was still
a sinner, When he got into the land of Canaan, there was a great
famine. God sent a famine. And instead
of Abraham trusting God and saying, this is the land to which God
said I should go, he trusted to his own understanding and
went down into Egypt. And that then led to more sin
because he lied about Sarah, his wife, and said, tell them
you're my sister so that they don't kill me because they want
to take you from me. He lied about Sarah. But you
know, in all of that, it wasn't dependent on Abraham's integrity,
but dependent upon God. God's promise of salvation out
of this world into the kingdom of his own dear son, is not dependent
on Abraham's faithfulness. No, it's dependent on the faith
of Christ, on what Christ has accomplished. So despite his
human failure as a sinner, as so many of the heroes of Scripture
are shown clearly to be, despite his failure, God blessed him
greatly. And he blessed him so much that
when we get into chapter 13, and at the start of chapter 13,
verse 2, Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and you
would have thought, wouldn't you, if you were to listen to
so much religion today, that God would have given him a really
hard punishment for his failure to trust him, and for his lying
about Sarah. You would have thought that,
wouldn't you? But no. God is a God of grace who is determined
to save his people from the curse of the law. So God blessed him
and blessed him so much that he was there with his nephew,
Lot, his brother's son, Lot, and the land wasn't able to support
them. They had so much cattle and sheep
between them, that the land couldn't support it. So Abraham suggested
to Lot that they separate. Now you choose where you go,
and Lot looked and he saw the plains, the rich plains around
Sodom and Gomorrah. He was enticed by the prospect
of worldly prosperity, even though he, Lot, was a righteous man. Peter tells us that the evil,
the sin of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah vexed his righteous
soul. He was a righteous man, made
righteous by the grace of God, but he was enticed by worldly
prosperity. And he went to a place where
he never should have gone to. And he dwelt in a city and in
a culture that was utterly and completely evil. If you think
things have never ever been as bad as they are today. I'm telling
you, in Sodom and Gomorrah, they were just as bad, just as bad
as they are today. And then, in that situation,
war broke out. It's the first war that we read
of. You know, war arises when the languages were confounded,
and the separate nation-states went their different ways. Then
it was that Covetousness for land and for resources and things
like this lead to strife between nations, and strife leads to
war. And the red horse of the seven-sealed scroll of God, the
plan of his triumphant kingdom, the second one, the red horse
rides forth, and there is war. And Stephen read it to us earlier
in chapter 14 of Genesis, verses 1 to 12, the wars between the
kings, five kings against four kings. And in the process, Lot
and his family and all of his goods are taken captive. Abraham
rescues him. In verse 13 of chapter 14, there
came one that had escaped and told Abram the Hebrew, for he
dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and
brother of Einar, and these were confederate with Abram. And Abraham,
when Abraham heard that his brother, his nephew, his brother's son,
his brother effectively, when Abram heard that his brother
was taken captive, He armed his trained servants, born in his
own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto
Dan. And he divided himself against
them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued
them unto Hobar, which is on the left hand of Damascus. And
he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother
Lot and his goods, and the women also, and the people. Abraham
rescued Lot. He heard the news by one that
had escaped about his brother's son being captured, and out of
love, for he was his flesh and blood, he was his blood relative,
out of love, he went and he rescued him with only 318 armed men.
Just 318 against all those forces of those kings, but yet with
God on His side to do that which is right in the purposes of God's
grace, which are unfolded as this whole history unfolds. In
the same way, the people of God chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world are Christ's brethren. He is not ashamed, Christ is
not ashamed to call his people his brethren, his brethren, his
brethren. They're his brethren from eternity,
betrothed to him in another picture, in a marriage covenant, in union
with him, in complete legal union so that everything that the law
and justice and righteousness of God requires is fulfilled
in the one with whom they're united. their betrothed, the
Lord Jesus Christ. The elect are Christ's brethren
from eternity. And he is the one as God who
has loved them with an everlasting love. But they're taken captive. They're taken captive in the
fall when Adam fell in the Garden of Eden and surrendered the kingdom
of God to Satan. And they're under the dominion
of Satan. And they cannot do what they want for they're in
the thrall of Satan. And sin only is what they do.
And as Abraham went out to rescue his brother, so did Christ go
out to rescue his brethren, his bride, his chosen one. Habakkuk
3 verse 13 says this, speaking of Christ, thou went forth for
the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine
anointed, with Christ the anointed of God. And listen, thou woundest
the head out of the house of the wicked. What was promised
in Genesis 3 15? To Satan, you shall bruise his
heel, the seed of the woman, the Christ of God, but he shall
bruise your head. He shall crush your head. It
will be a mortal wound. Thou woundest the head out of
the house of the wicked. There it is stated again in the
prophet Habakkuk, hundreds and hundreds of years later. God
in Christ went out for the salvation of his people, just as Abram
went out with his 318 armed men for the rescue of his brother
Lot. By grace, he saved and restored
his brethren. And that's pictured in what Abraham
did for Lot. And he recovered him and brought
the wealth back to the king of Solomon. The king of Solomon
is going to offer Abram great riches as a result, as a reward
for all that he's done, but Abraham refuses Sodom's wealth. He is triumphant, and he's about
to be offered great wealth by Sodom's king. He knew what Sodom
was about. He knew of the evil that was
there. He didn't approve of his nephew
living in that evil culture. but he didn't want the spoils
and the riches. However attractive they must
have looked to flesh, he didn't want it, and believers don't
live for such. Believers rather, in the desires
of their hearts, live for the glory of God in Christ. You know
there's a line in an old hymn, the things of this world grow
strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Oh, you
know, I hear all of these advertisements on the radio for a great big
lottery win, and how it's going to be the most wonderful thing
that could ever happen to you, to have this wonderful lottery
win. In actual fact, it could be you. No, millions and millions
and millions and millions of times, over and over again, it
almost certainly is not going to be you. That's the truth of
it. If the advert told the truth, you are just pouring your money
down a black hole. But never mind. If you've seen
the glory of God in Christ, in the light of His glory and grace,
in the light of the prospect of the kingdom of God, of the
salvation of God, of the eternal bliss of the heaven of God, I
will be their God and they shall be my people. The things of this
world grow strangely dim. Not so strangely, actually, when
you think about it, but they do grow dim. less appealing,
for it's the things of eternity that are the things that the
hearts of God's true people are set upon. What is it that made
that which the world so covets seem like, well you know what
Paul says in Philippians chapter 3, he says that all the things
that I valued, all of his Jewish religion, all of his pharisaical
prestige and esteem that he was owed, All of those things that
he once counted so great, he says, they're mere dung to me
now. What was it that did that? What was it that made the things
of the world grow strangely dim? Answer for Abram, why did he
refuse the promise of riches from Sodom? Why was it so relatively
easy to refuse that promise of riches? It was a meeting with
Melchizedek. Melchizedek. Verse 18, And Melchizedek,
king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine. And he was the
priest of the Most High God. And he, Melchizedek, blessed
him, Abraham, and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High God,
possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be the Most High
God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand. And
he gave him tithes of all. He, Abraham, gave tithes to Melchizedek. This Melchizedek that met him,
This Melchizedek was king of Salem. That's peace, peace. Salem
is peace. Jerusalem is the peace of God. He was king of peace and priest
of the Most High God. And he came with bread and wine. Bread and wine. Long before Christ
instituted the Lord's Supper, we planned to share the bread
and wine for the first time I think in over 10 months this morning
with all of these lockdown restrictions. We're going to have communion,
we're going to share bread and wine. Melchizedek brought bread
and wine to Abraham, long before Christ instituted the Lord's
Supper on that night in which he was betrayed, before Paul
passed on what he had received of the Lord concerning communion. Here we have Abraham, it seems,
taking communion from this one Melchizedek. But who was Melchizedek? Look at Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews
chapter 7. And the first four verses. You see, we read in the last
verse of chapter six, the forerunner is for us entered, the one who
goes first into heaven. Who's that? Even Jesus, maiden
high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. For this
Melchizedek, king of Salem, peace, priest of the Most High God,
who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, that's
Genesis chapter 14, and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave
a tenth part of all, first being by interpretation king of righteousness,
and after that also king of Salem, which is king of peace. You see,
what's the best commentary on the scripture? Is it not the
scripture itself? He is without father, this Melchizedek,
without father, without mother, without descent, having neither
beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the
Son of God, abideth a priest continually. Now consider how
great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave
a tenth of the spoils. This Melchizedek, Melek is king. Zedek is justice. He's king of
justice, king of righteousness. How should a man be just with
God? On the basis of that which Christ
has done. This one, Melchizedek, is king of justice, king of righteousness,
and king of peace, Salem, king of peace. He's eternal, he's
without beginning of days or end of days, and yet he's a man. He's made like unto the Son of
God. Made like unto the Son of God.
Whether Christ in person or in type, And I think it was Christ
in person, pre-incarnate Christ. It was Christ who met with Abram. Let me just clear one thing.
Why is he called Abram and not Abraham? It's later that God
says, your name will be changed because you will be a father
of many nations. But he was born and raised Abram. And he is the
man of faith with whom Christ met in the person, in the type,
in the picture shown by Melchizedek, bringing his bread and his wine. And Christ showed Abram heavenly
things. He spoke of righteousness. and how it is established, symbolized
by bread and wine. What do we do in communion? We
break the bread, we drink the wine. What does it speak of?
Our Lord Jesus Christ told us, this do in remembrance of me. This is my body which is broken
for you. This represents my body which
is broken for you. The justification of a people,
the redemption of a people, is on the basis of a body broken,
a perfect body, a sinless body broken. It is on the basis of
bloodshed, for the life is in the blood, and the life of God's
Son, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is poured out as
the payment to the offended justice of God for the sin of his people,
and it's symbolized by bread, symbolizing flesh which is broken,
and wine which is poured out blood. It isn't literally body
and blood, but it represents and it reminds his people about
what it took to accomplish. We read in Genesis 15 verse 6,
just a couple of chapters on, one chapter on, and he, Abraham,
believed in the Lord, and he, God, counted it to him, Abraham,
for righteousness. What did he believe? he believed
God's promises and their basis. What was the basis of God's promises?
Melchizedek's bread and wine, representing the broken body
and the shed blood of the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the promised seed who would come. Substitutionary atonement is
what was counted for righteousness. Not Abraham's believing. Oh, wasn't Abraham good? He believed
God when others didn't. He believed God because God gave
him faith. It was what he believed in that was counted to him for
righteousness. And so, righteousness and peace. Melchizedek, righteousness and
peace. King of Salem, king of peace,
king of righteousness. To be just with God, how should
a man be just with God? To be just with God, we must
be first made righteous. Then we have peace with God. Then we have peace. Peace with
God follows from being made righteous. Psalm 85, verses 8 to 10. Listen to this. God the Lord
will speak peace unto his people and to his saints. Mercy and
truth are met together. The mercy of God, but not at
the expense of the truth of God. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Righteousness, which God must
maintain. God cannot remain God without
He maintain righteousness. So how can God be righteous and
be at peace with a sinner except that in redemption righteousness
and peace have kissed each other? Isaiah 32 verse 17, And the work
of righteousness shall be peace. The result of
it, the consequence of the righteousness made over to his people. Pursue,
follow righteousness, holiness, without which no man shall see
the Lord. The work of righteousness shall
be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. Turn with me to Romans chapter
3. Romans chapter 3. You know these
verses, but they need constantly to be in our minds. How is the
righteousness of God manifested? Paul tells us, verse 21 of chapter
3 of Romans. But now, you see he said, he
said, the law just condemns everybody, that every mouth might be stopped,
and by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified. By
the law is just the knowledge of sin, not the accomplishment
of righteousness, but now, The righteousness of God, the righteousness
which God requires, without the law, without obedience to the
law, is manifested, is shown, is made known, being witnessed
by the law and the prophets. The scriptures speak of it. This
is why we're doing this series all the way through, the gospel
in the various types. Jesus said, these scriptures
are they which speak of me. And beginning at Moses and the
prophets, He expounded to His disciples the things in the Scriptures
concerning Himself. It's witnessed by the Law and
the Prophets. What is? Even the righteousness of God
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe, for there is no difference. The righteousness of God which
comes by the faith of Jesus Christ. what He has done, His faithful
works in satisfying the requirements of God's law. What does the law
require? The soul that sins, it shall
die. He died for His people. In the
death of Christ is the righteousness of God established for His people.
All of His people have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. But all of His people are justified freely, freely, come
to the waters. Ho, everyone that thirsts, come
by without money, without price, justified freely by His grace.
Through the redemption, the purchase price, the liberty price that
is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth as a propitiation
through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness, for
the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God, to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness,
that he, God, might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus." Just, and that God remains perfectly just, and yet
he's the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus. He's made
him who knew no sin. This is how he accomplished it.
that his people might be made, people who are sinners might
be made the righteousness of God in him. How does he do it?
First, he must be made flesh. He must come as a man in the
place of men and women. He must come in the place of
His people. Hebrews 2.14, For as much then as the children,
His people, His elect people, those destined for the kingdom
of God, for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh
and blood, He also Himself took part of the same. God, in the
spiritual essence of His being, could not redeem man, for God
could not suffer the penalty that was due to man. But God
becoming man, in the person of His Son, when he partook of the
same flesh and blood as the children, he took part of the same, that
through death, as that man clothed in flesh and blood, he might
destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.
That's how Christ was triumphant. on the cross when Satan was convinced
that he had triumphed, and he had devoured the Christ of God,
the seed of the woman. Then, when he thought he was
finally triumphant, at that very moment, he was utterly disarmed
and defeated. His flesh was to be broken. His
blood, his life blood, was to be shed to pay redemption's price. price is the curse of the law,
the soul that sins it shall die. Redemption's price under the
justice of God is death, the death of a perfect sinless substitute,
and that's what he paid. And belief and righteousness
go together. All that Christ has made righteous
in his substitutionary work, there is a people. And it's a
number known only to God, and it's a multitude that no man
can number, but it's known to God, and they're all made righteous
in the substitutionary work of Christ. The sin that He was made
was the sin of this people, all that Christ has made righteous,
His people, and all of them in time, some time, Sometime, in
their lives, they're all brought to know it and to believe it. And in believing, it is confirmed
that they are made the righteousness of God in Christ. You know I
quote this a lot, 2 Thessalonians 2.13, Paul writes to them, God
has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. The belief of the truth
was the evidence that they were amongst those whose sins were
paid for by Christ in his substitutionary death on the cross. And being
made righteous, listen, Romans 5 verse 1, therefore being justified
by faith, made righteous, what's the consequence? We have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Melchizedek. justification
and peace. I put an article, a piece in
the bulletin written by Robert Hawker who lived from the mid
1700s to the early 1800s and it's about Melchizedek and he
is of the same opinion as me that this Melchizedek, who could
he possibly be other than the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ.
But why did he bring bread and wine? With this we'll close.
Bread and wine. Was it just refreshment for the
battle-weary? Melchizedek brought bread and
wine to triumphant Abraham and his men when they came back from
the slaughter of the kings, when they came back from rescuing
the goods and Lot and his family and all of those things. Melchizedek
was Christ, as I say, I believe a pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ,
either that or in a very graphical type. He was in his priestly,
kingly office, bringing bread and wine. bread and wine, as
I've already said, speaking of his body and his blood, of his
body broken. This is my body which is broken
for you. This is my blood, the blood of
the new covenant, the blood which paid the price of redemption.
I believe Christ in Melchizedek spoke of his work, his atoning
work to Abraham. Look at Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews
chapter 10, and just a few verses there. Verse 5, wherefore when
he cometh into the world, this is Christ coming into the world,
he saith, sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not. Didn't want
those. But a body hast thou prepared for me, a body for God, a human
body, flesh and blood, the children's flesh and blood, for God to inhabit. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
of animals for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Because, why
did he have no pleasure? Did not God institute them? Yes,
but they didn't, they themselves did not bring satisfaction. for
the curse of sin. Then said I, Christ, lo, I come. This is quoting the Psalm, Psalm
40. Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of
me, to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, sacrifice
and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest
not, neither hadst pleasure therein, which are offered by the law.
Then said he, lo, I come, to do thy will, O God. He taketh
away the first, that he may establish the second. This is the new covenant
in his blood. the basis of his righteousness
and peace with God. And Abraham saw it, and Abraham
believed it. And it was counted to him for
righteousness, not Abraham's believing, but what Abraham believed
in. The bread and the wine symbolizes
the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at John chapter
6. John chapter 6, verse 48. Jesus said, I am that bread of
life. Your fathers did eat manna in
the wilderness and are dead in the wilderness wanderings. This
is the bread. He, Christ, is the bread which
comes down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not
die. Is he talking about cannibalism?
No, of course not. He says later on, his words are
spirit, they're life. They're not literal. No, it's
not cannibalism. Verse 55, I am the living bread
which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Broken
body. broken for you. The Jews therefore
strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his
flesh to eat? You see, they thought he was speaking literally. Then
Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except
ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have
no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life. This isn't transubstantiation.
This isn't the bread and the wine becoming the literal body
and blood of Christ. Absolutely not. That's ridiculous. He says, My flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed. He that eats my flesh and drinks
my blood dwells in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath
sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he
shall live by me. And he says, down in verse 63,
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are
life. He's speaking metaphorically.
He's speaking about the necessity of His body to be broken, that
our redemption might be accomplished. He's speaking of His blood needing
to be shed, that the price of redemption might be paid, the
curse of the law might be paid. And we remember in bread and
wine. Abraham, when Melchizedek, Christ,
brought bread and wine to him, looked forward. He looked forward
to a body and blood that must be provided to make atonement
for sin. Christ in Melchizedek showed
Abraham in bread and wine. He showed him redemption accomplished
by substitution. And Abraham believed. And we
look back when we have communion, we remember, this do in remembrance
of me. The sanctified made holy, the
sanctified multi-ethnic nation promised to Abraham would be
qualified for God's kingdom by Christ's satisfaction of divine
justice with a broken body and shed blood, symbolized just as
a reminder by bread and wine. Why do it as oft as ye eat and
drink in remembrance of me? Why do it till he come again?
Why do it? Because in this life in the flesh
we're so prone to forget. We need to remember. We need
to be reminded. Abraham believed God and looked
to Christ and rested in redemption. He's the father of all those
who believe and look to Christ and rest in the redemption that
Christ has accomplished. He looked to the one that was
to be accomplished in the seed to come, Christ himself, and
was counted righteous by God. So too, all who possess Abraham's
faith are Abraham's children by faith. But we look back in
remembrance, by bread and wine, this do in remembrance of me. This is the gospel. This is the
good news, that's what gospel means, the good news of salvation
from sin. This is the news of open access
to the tree of life. You know there was a guard set
that you couldn't get to the tree of life after the fall,
but the guard and the way that was set was there is only one
way, and the only one way to the tree of life was through
that sacrificed lamb which pictured the seed who would come, the
way, the truth and the life himself. The way to the tree of life through
the only way. Have you seen him? Have you trusted
him? Are you resting in him? Can the
world entice you with anything by comparison to the blessings
and the riches that are in him and in him alone? Amen.