I have entitled this message,
The Gospel. Now, every message could be entitled
The Gospel if the gospel is preached. And if it can't be titled The
Gospel, it ought not to have been preached in the first place.
But I have a reason for entitling this message the gospel because
God the Holy Spirit says in Galatians chapter three verse eight that
these words are the gospel. The scriptures foreseeing that
God would justify the heathen by faith preach before the gospel
unto Abraham saying in thee shall all the nations of the earth
be blessed. And that is what God, the Holy
Spirit calls the gospel. And this is the story of God
calling Abraham. Look in verse one, chapter 12,
Genesis chapter 12, verse one. Now the Lord had said unto Abraham,
Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy
father's house unto a land that I will show thee. Now, how many
of us have just pictured in our mind God speaking to Abraham,
him getting up, being really much of a risk taker, and just
in obedience to God's command, he starts walking, not knowing
where he's going. And you're thinking, could I
have done that? Well, if God commanded you to,
you can. But I want us to consider just
a few things about Abraham's obedience. Notice it says, now
the Lord had said unto Abram. He had said. And Abram doesn't
obey until Verse four, so Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken
unto him. But do you know, God said, leave
your family, leave your relatives, leave your kin. And he didn't
do that. He brought Lot with him and he
brought his father Terah with him. That's pointed out in Acts
chapter seven. And instead of going straight
into the land of promise, the land of Canaan, he took a five-year
bypass about halfway between in the land of Haran. And he
stayed there until his father died. Now, one of the things
that that lets me know and reminds me of, and it's just scriptural,
it's scriptural. There's always holes in our obedience.
There was with Abraham. And the only way I'm going to
be saved is because of the perfect obedience of Christ. And the
only way Abraham could be saved is because of the perfect obedience
of Christ. Now, the Lord had said to Abraham,
and Abraham didn't do it exactly as the Lord said just yet. He
first took the relatives that his that the Lord told him not
to take, and I imagine that's why he stayed in Haran for so
long. He stayed in Haran until his
dad died, and I suppose that his dad didn't want to go any
further, and the family ties were hard on him, and he just
stayed right there, and didn't leave until some five years afterwards
when he went into the land of Canaan. Now, once again, there
are always holes in our obedience. Isn't that the case with you?
Well, you know it is. Thank God that salvation is according
to Christ's obedience and because of Christ's precious blood. Abraham, like you and I are,
was a weak and sinful man. As a matter of fact, you go on
at the end of this chapter, God had promised him the seed, the
promised seed, the Messiah is going to come through you. He
gets down into Egypt and he looks at his beautiful wife, Sarah,
and he said, they're going to kill me and take you. So here's
what I want you to do. I want you to tell him, I want
you to lie to him. This was premeditated. I want you to lie to him. I want
you to tell him you're my sister and that way that will save my
skin." And he had his own wife placed in a harem of Pharaoh
in order to save his skin. And can you imagine how he must
have felt when he'd wake up in the morning and see an empty
bed knowing that his wife was in Pharaoh's harem and it was
all his fault. Abraham, it's kind of funny,
I read an article in the paper this morning, and it was about
the Pope getting together with the cleric of the Muslims or
something like that, and they pointed out that Abraham is revered
by the Muslims, by the Jews, and by the Christians. Abraham
was a sinful, weak man, just like you and I are, that God
called out by His grace. As a matter of fact, Joshua points
out in Joshua chapter 24, verses 1 and 2, that Abraham was an
idolater before God called him. He was worshiping false gods
before God called him out. And we read in Isaiah chapter
51, verse 1, where God said, I called Abraham alone. It is apparent that after the
flood, human nature didn't get any better. It was just as bad. Things were just as bad. You
know, judgment, God's judgments never improve anything as far
as our natures go. And at the time, it seems like
there wasn't one person on earth that worshiped God. And God said,
I called Abraham out alone. And you know that if you worship
God, God's called you out alone. It's his effectual call, no different
than him calling Abraham. He called you alone, not in a
group, not in a mass. He called you alone. He dealt
with you alone and made himself known to you. Now, when he called
him out, he made a covenant. Let's go on reading 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 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. and I will bless
them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee and in
thee all the families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed as the Lord
had spoken unto him. God said it and it was so. Abraham departed So Abraham departed,
as the Lord had spoken to him. He told him to depart, he departed. God said it, and it was so. How
many times do we read that in the creation account? God said
it, and it was so. God told Abraham to depart, and
he departed. Now there was some winding along
the way. And you know, I'm thankful for that revelation. I really
am. I'm not in any way excusing anything,
but I mean, the only thing that is acceptable is immediate obedience. But when is there ever in our
obedience not holes, just like in Abraham? He settled in Terah,
I mean with his daddy Terah in the land of Haran for five years
before he went ahead and got into the land of Canaan. Well, here's God's promise. Get thee out from thy kindred
and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee,
and I will make of thee a great nation. Now, this is given to
illustrate to us the covenant of grace. God says, get out,
and I'm gonna make of you a great nation. That's what he says to
Christ. Christ had to leave his home
and come down here. to this earth, and he made of
Christ a great nation. Now what is a covenant? This
is the covenant. I will make of thee a great nation,
I will bless thee and make thy name great, now shall it be a
blessing. I will bless them that bless thee, curse him that curseth
thee, and these shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
Now that is a covenant. What's a covenant? Well, marriage
is a covenant. Two people agree to be with each
other until death alone. We'll pardon them. That's a covenant.
A last will and testament is a covenant. That's a covenant
that we know of. The person who's dying, this is my will that my
goods will go in this direction. This is who I want them to go
to. That's a last will and testament. Now, there's two covenants in
the scripture. The covenant God made with Adam
in the garden, donated the fruit. It's what's called the conditional
covenant. If Adam would have obeyed, and not eating the fruit,
he would have lived forever. But this covenant was conditioned
upon Adam's obedience. And any condition, any covenant
that's conditioned upon human obedience is sure for failure. It's sure. And the covenant of
grace is conditioned upon Christ's obedience. And just as the other
was sure for failure, this covenant is sure for success. Now, here are five scriptural
words that describe this covenant we're speaking of that is illustrated
in this passage of scripture. Now, remember, this covenant
God made with Adam for the nation of Israel is given to illustrate
and picture the covenant God made with Christ for the elect. And with the elect, God doesn't
have two programs, one for Israel and one for Christians. No, all
Israel is for is to teach us of God's covenant with Christ
and those in him. Now, let me give you five words
that describe this covenant. First, it's called an eternal
covenant, an everlasting covenant. You know what that means? Whatever
this covenant is, it's always been. God made it with Christ
before the foundation of the world. And that means there was
never a time when the covenant was made. I don't understand
this. I don't understand eternity. But there's nothing before this.
There's nothing before this. It's always been. Christ has
always been the surety of this eternal covenant. And remember,
everything God does is eternal. That's who he is. It's an eternal
covenant. According as he has chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world. The second word
that is used to describe this covenant is a covenant of life,
Malachi 2.5. Everything that has to do with
life before God is included in this covenant. The life of God
in the soul, life before God, spiritual life, eternal life
is all included in this covenant. This covenant is also called
in Isaiah 54.10, a covenant of peace. Oh, the peace of this covenant.
God's at peace with me. God's not mad at me. God's not
looking for anything else out of me. God is completely satisfied
with everybody in the covenant. Peace. And you know, the only
peace that any child of God has is to see that God's at peace
with them for Christ's sake and nothing else is needed. If you
put anything else in there, I lose my peace. I'm upset. I don't
know what I'm going to do. But oh, this is a covenant of
peace, the peace Christ made in behalf of his people. And
this covenant is also called, and I like this, the new covenant. It's always new. It's always
fresh. It's always powerful. It's the
new and the living way. New as opposed to the old. And
I love this. The new covenant's a whole lot
older than the old covenant is. The new covenant is the eternal
covenant, and it always comes as news to a sinner. Now, if
you're not hearing the gospel as news, you're not hearing the
gospel as a sinner. But if you're hearing the gospel
as a sinner, it comes as good news to you, and this covenant
is always new. And I love what the writer to
the Hebrew calls it. He calls it the better covenant. What's better, works or grace? That's a no brainer. To every
believer, grace is infinitely better than works. Now, In Acts chapter 7-2, when Stephen
speaks of this, he says, the God of glory appeared to Abraham. It just says here in our text,
now the Lord had said unto Abraham, but this was actually a pre-incarnate
appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ himself
appeared to Abraham, and there's two things he tells him to do.
He says, cut off your association with the flesh. and go to a place,
I tell you, cut off any association of salvation accomplished by
this flesh, forsake the flesh, forsake your family, forsake
man, cut it off, leave this and go to a place. I tell you, and
that place is Christ Jesus. He is the place of God's blessings. He tells us where to leave. And
he tells us where to go. He is the promised land. By faith,
Abraham, who was called to go out into a place which he should
afterward receive for inheritance, obeyed. Don't you love the way
the New Testament talks about the Old Testament events? If
you read the Old Testament accounts, I can show so many examples of
this. By faith, Moses feared not the
wrath of the king, and so on, but he was scared to death, fled
Egypt, hid a body that he'd murdered in the sand, and took off. But
the Bible doesn't talk about that. By faith, Sarah received
strength to conceive seed, and she was herded that she feared.
But if you read the Old Testament account, she laughed when the
Lord said that. She didn't believe. And then you can go on and on
with all these examples in the scripture. The New Testament
account is always Better than the Old Testament account. But
it's the real account. It's the truth. That other stuff
was just the flesh. It's the truth. By faith, Moses,
when he was called, went out. He obeyed. Now here is the I
will and you shall of this covenant. And that's what I love about
God's covenant. I will. Not I will if. Not I will if
you do this or if you stop doing that or if you start doing this.
No. I will and you shall. That's the way God's covenant
works. I will and you shall. I will make of thee a great nation
and I will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shalt
be a blessing and I will bless them that bless thee. I curse
him that curses thee and in thee shall all the families of the
earth be blessed. Now he names Seven blessings
in those two verses of scripture. I'll make of thee a great nation.
He didn't have any descendants at this time. He didn't have
any children, but he said, I will make of thee a great nation. He says, I will bless thee. Oh,
God's power to bless. Don't you want God's blessing?
I want him to bless me. I will bless thee. I will make
thy name great, and indeed Abraham's name is great, but we know it's
because of pictures that greater name of the greater one. He says, you shall be a blessing. He said, I'll bless them that
bless thee, fifth, sixth, I'm gonna curse them that curse thee,
and seventh, in thee shall all the families of the earth be
blessed, Jew and Gentile. And Paul in Galatians chapter
three, verse eight, calls this the gospel. You know, the Lord's
purpose has always been to save Jew and Gentile. And we find
this in this passage of scripture. Now, Abraham is a type of Christ
and Abraham is a type of the believer. And we're going to
consider Abraham in both of those life. They're both true. First,
Abraham is a type of Christ. It's a picture. We can learn
more of Christ through looking at Abraham and Abraham as a type
of the believer. God made a covenant with Abraham.
that He would have many descendants as the stars of the sky, as the
sand of the seashore. God made a covenant that He would
have many descendants. And God made a covenant with
His Son that He would have many children. He speaks of, all the
Father giveth me. He doesn't just say that the
few the Father gives me. He says, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. his bride, his brethren, his
body, his church, his children, his people, his sheep. These
are the people the Father gave him. He said in John chapter
17, verse nine, and this is so remarkably plain. He said, I
pray for them. Boy, I wanna be in that group,
don't you? I pray for them. Oh, I want the Lord praying for
me. I want you praying for me. Believe me, I want you praying
for me. You know somebody I want more praying for me? The Lord.
You feel that same way, too. I pray for them. I pray not for
the world, but for them which you have given me, for they are
thine. Abraham had to leave home. Christ had to leave his heavenly
glory. Philippians chapter 2 let this
mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus Who being in
the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
but he made himself of no reputation and he took upon him the form
of a servant and being made in the likeness of men he humbled
himself he left his home and I don't know how else to say
that, the presence of his father, the presence of the praise of
angels, perfect delight. He left all that to come to this
earth. God was manifest in the flesh
in the fullness of time. God sent forth his son, made
of a woman, made under the law. Now think about that. Jesus Christ,
the Lord, The Son of God left that and became flesh. And in the flesh, as a representative
man, he kept God's law perfectly for somebody else. He didn't
just do it for himself. If he just did it for himself
and went back to heaven, it wouldn't do me and you any good. He said to
John the Baptist, thus it become of us to fulfill all righteousness. And that us includes every one
of God's elect. He fulfilled all righteousness
and in the flesh he took the sins of his people on, bore them
all in his own body on the tree, every individual sin, think of
the weight of that, every individual sin you've ever committed if
you're one of his, think of the millions of people that no number
can described the weight of the sins that he bore in his own
body on Calvary Street. He suffered the full equivalent
of an eternal hell. And God said, I'm satisfied.
He put away those sins in the flesh. He had to leave heaven
and come in the flesh. He kept the law in the flesh.
He put away those sins in the flesh and now they are no more. when he said, it is finished,
all my sin was blotted out, having made peace by the blood of the
cross. Now look what he says in verse
two. He says, I will make of thee
a great nation. Now God made a great nation,
the nation of Israel, but that's talking about the greater nation.
Listen to this scripture, Hebrews chapter two, verses 28 and 29.
Listen to this scripture real carefully. This is very important.
Paul says he is not a Jew, which is one outward. He's not a Jew. Somebody says, I can trace my
lineage back to Abraham. That doesn't make you a Jew.
He's not a Jew, which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision,
which is outward in the flesh. Somebody says I've been circumcised.
Not necessarily. That outward circumcision is
not circumcision. He is a Jew, which is one inwardly,
whose circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit, not
of the letter. whose praise is not of men, but
of God. Every one of these people actually
has the praise of God. You see, they're his work. He
did it all, and he praises what he does. We are the circumcision,
which worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
have no confidence in the flesh. Now this chosen nation, is Israel,
the true Israel, all of God's love. Turn with me for a moment
to 1 Peter 2. I'd like you to see this. 1 Peter 2. Peter says in verse 9, but you,
he's speaking to every believer, But you are a chosen generation,
the elect of God, a royal priesthood, a kingdom of priests. He hath
made us unto our God, kings and priests. You are an holy nation. Every believer, holy, got a holy
nature. A peculiar people. Now, that
doesn't mean strange, although a lot of God's people are strange.
Well, you know that and I know that, but that's not what that's
talking about. of this same word is translated in Ephesians chapter
one, a purchased possession. You are a purchased people bought
with the blood of Jesus Christ. And here's why that you should
show forth the praises of him who had called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light. Now he says to Abraham, I will
bless thee. And this typifies God's favor
toward his son. Oh, how blessed his son is. The blessed and only potentate,
the Lord of lords and king of kings. What blessing and favor
God has toward his son. And he said, I'll make thy name
great. Well, God has given him a name, which is above every
name, the name of Jesus. Every knee's gonna bow. Things
in earth, Things in heaven, things in earth, things under the earth.
And every tongue is gonna confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Oh, how great he's made his name. That's the name we call on. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord is his name. And he says,
and thou shalt be a blessing. He hath blessed us. with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Every blessing
God has to give, every believer possesses, because they're all
in Christ. Now listen to me. You cannot
be any more blessed than you are. That's how good it is. May God give you grace to believe
that. May he give me grace to believe that. I can't get any
more saved. I can't get any more loved. I can't get any more accepted. I can't become more holy. that
I am in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is a blessing. And look at
what verse three says, I'll bless them to bless thee and curse
them to curse thee. Now, you know what that lets
me know? God's view of me is seen in my view of his son. If
I see him as the blessed one, God blesses me. If I see Christ
as a cursed one, God's curse is on me. The way God sees me
right now, the way God sees you right now can be demonstrated
by how you see his son. You wanna know what God thinks
of you? What do you think of his son? That answers that question. I will bless them that bless
thee, I'll curse them that curse thee, and in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed. You know, God's gonna have a
people out of every kindred, tribe, tongue, and nation, and
all that blessing is in thee, in thee. If you're blessed, it's
because you're in him. And Paul says, that's the gospel.
Is that gospel to you? That all God's blessing is in
Christ, and everything he has for you is in Christ, and you're
complete in him. That's the gospel. That's what
Paul called the gospel in Galatians chapter three. Now we see how he's a type of
Christ, but he's also a type of the believer. You know, he
is the father of the faithful. The God of glory appeared to
Abraham physically and spoke to him. He heard the word of
the Lord. Isn't that where our experience
begins as a believer? The word of the Lord, not just some man's
opinion, but we hear the word of the Lord. Faith cometh by
hearing and hearing by the word of the Lord. And what did the
Lord tell him to do? Cut off connection with the flesh. Cut it off. Now, we generally
think of this as Abraham just saying, well, goodbye, everybody.
I'm taking off in obedience to God's command. And I'm sure that
that's certainly part of it, but that's really not the point.
The point is repentance from dead works. You cut off all association
with the flesh because salvation's of the Lord. Your flesh didn't
have anything to do with your salvation. Salvation's of the
Lord. You cut off, you get rid of. It's what the scripture,
I repeat, calls repentance from dead works. Any work done before
God gave you life is nothing more than a dead work. And you
don't give your flesh any of the credit. Remember what Paul
said, we are the circumcision. which worship God in the Spirit,
rejoice glory in Christ Jesus. And what's the third thing? No
confidence. No confidence in the flesh. You're to leave this place. That's what called repentance.
You're to leave this place, this connection with, this association
with anything Adam. You're to leave that And you're
to go unto a place, the place of God's favor. If any man be
in Christ, that's the place. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things have become new. And notice the wording of this.
He says, 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 I will make of thee a great nation. This is God's work, isn't
it? He doesn't say me and you will cooperate in this. He doesn't
say we're gonna do this together. He says, I will make. Salvation's
what the Lord does. I will make of thee a great nation. And I will bless thee once again.
I love the way he says this. He doesn't say, I will make of
thee a great nation and I will bless thee if you, you got to
do this before this is going to take place. You know that
if there's anything you need to do before God will bless you,
you won't be blessed. You won't be saved. There's no
salvation for you. If there's something you need
to do before God does something for you, I need to fill in the
blank. You won't be blessed. You're
under the curse of God. I mean the curse. This is not
God's blessing. I'll bless you if I will bless
thee. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. I will. Oh, the power of that statement. I will. Be thou clean. And immediately, his leprosy
was cleansed. And then he says to Abraham,
I'll make thy name great. You know what your name is if
you're a believer? Jehovah Zedkinu. That's your
name. This is the name wherewith she
shall be called. Is that name great? Oh, my. This
is the name wherewith he shall be called? Yes. But this is the
name wherewith she shall be called. The Lord, our righteousness. Talk about a great name. You
know, I've tried to convince Aubrey
that she ought to keep the name Nybert. Because if she doesn't
keep the name Nybert, you know what? There ain't going to be
no more Nyberts. That's the end. We're gonna be, if the Lord doesn't
come back, boy, in a hundred years, what? I've never heard
of that. But I've got a name that will
endure forever. The Lord, our righteousness. He's truly gonna make every believer's
name great, infinitely great. Look what he says next. He says,
thou shalt be a blessing. And you know every believer,
isn't anybody that loves Christ a blessing to you? Anybody who
has the name the Lord our righteousness, they're a blessing to you. You
love that person. They're a blessing. I'll make
you a blessing. And look what he says in verse
three. He says, I'll bless them that bless thee, and I'll curse
them that curse thee. Now I think of what the Lord
said In as much as you've done to the least of these, my brethren,
you've done it to me. And in as much as you did it
not to the least of these, my brethren, you did it not to me.
Now, God's blessing is on those who bless his son and his people. And his curse is on those who
curse his people and curse his son. I will bless them that bless
thee, I'll curse them that curse thee. Remember this, if God be
for us, if God be for us, who can be against us? I'll bless
them that bless thee, I'll curse them that curse thee, and in
thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. That is the gospel. In thee shall,
not might, shall. All families of the earth be
blessed. And God, the Holy Spirit calls
that the gospel. Verse four. So I like this. So Abraham departed as the Lord
had spoken unto him and lot went with him. Now he said, get away
from them, but a lot went with him. So did his daddy, Tara,
and they stayed around for five years. in the land of Iran. But the point is, by God's grace,
according to God's timing, he DID depart. And he did it because
the Lord told him to do. And do you know, when he gives an effectual command,
it's obeyed. Matthew, follow me. Could Matthew, under any circumstance,
have said no? Don't think I'm gonna do that.
No. He has no choice. And what Abraham
did, in the past, I thought, well, what a risk taker. I mean,
here he is, 75 years old, and just start marching out, not
knowing where he's going. I mean, that's an old man doing
that. And you admire the faith of it, and you think, well, can
I do that? Well, if the Lord told you to. You would, and you
could. And he calls upon every believer
to leave every association with the flesh and look to Christ
only. Leave your family and go to that
place, that sure place, that safe place, that glorious place,
Christ Jesus, that I will show you. And Abraham takes off. Now, the Lord willing, next week,
we're going to consider the experience of grace. We're going to consider
Abraham's experience once he left. And we're going to observe
the Lord's table now. Let's pray together. Lord, how we thank you for the Precious shed blood of thy son,
his broken body broken by your law and justice and wrath and
behalf of sinners. Lord, we ask that our hearts
might be broken by a view of what he did for us. In Christ's name we pray, amen.