Lesson 13

All right, good morning to everybody. We'll be in Genesis chapter 15 taking up where we left off last week. Good to have Chad back with us on his rotating schedule. You all know you're going to make me lean this way today because there's no one sitting on this side, so you're going to get me off balance. All right, thanks. Good morning, Lakes, and good morning. Good morning, Tommy. Good to see you again. We left off last week where God had told Abraham, or Abram, his name still Abram, hadn't been changed yet, and he told him that he would have a son from his own bowels. It would not be an adopted son. It would not be his servant in his house. He would actually have a son. If you look with me now in verse 5, let's catch up to where we were, Genesis 15. 5, and he brought that his God brought him forth abroad and said, "Look now toward heaven and tell," that means count the stars, "if thou be able to number them. " And he said unto him, "So shall thy seed be. " This is how many children you're going to have. In you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. I'll make you a blessing, Abraham. I'm going to send the promised Savior through you. And remember, he said that he would give him and give his seed the land of Israel for how long? Forever. And the only way, see if you all remember the answer to this time, the only way that he can have the land forever is if he what? Lives forever. So the promise entails that he ultimately, even though he may die in the flesh today, ultimately he will not perish but have everlasting life. Right? All right, so let's go ahead and look here now. This is where we left off. Verse 8, "And he that is Abram said, 'Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? '" Now he believed in the Lord. Remember, look in verse 6, "He believed in the Lord and he counted to him for righteousness. " That's the same thing that we do today in John 3. 16. "For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should once again not perish but have everlasting life. " People have been saved from their sins the same way ever since Genesis. There's no difference. And then Abram says, "I believe you, but how shall I know that I shall inherit it? " What kind of like the token of the rainbow. Remember how it encouraged and gave him some kind of sign? Abram saying, "What can I hold on to? How do I know that I'm going to inherit this? What will be a sign? " So to speak. Look now in verse 9, "And he that is God said unto him, 'Take me and heifer a three years old. " Who knows what a heifer is? What's a heifer? That's right. That's right. A female calf. "Take me a heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove and a young pigeon. " I told you all last week this would be a bizarre passage of Scripture. It's fascinating. Okay? This is how God's going to show Abram that the covenant will be fulfilled. So he says, "Take me these animals, three years old. " And look now in verse 10, "And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another, but the birds divided he not. " Wow. That's kind of awkward, isn't it? So God says, "You take these animals, and Abram took them, and then Abram, except for the birds, they were too small, he just put one dead bird on this side and one dead bird on that side, but he cut the animals in half. " So here we go. How many animals do we have here? Let's see. Heifer, goat, ram, and bird. Four species here. So we got a cow. Oh, this is terrible, isn't it? Here's the back half of that cow. Ah, it's definitely Michelangelo. We've got a goat. Let's see. Another part of the goat down here. We've got a ram. Just use your imagination. And we've got birds, all right? And they're all cutting too. What do all these have in common? They're all dead, and they're all divided. They're cut asunder. Okay? Back in the ancient times, this is how they would make a covenant. This is how two people would enter into a covenant with each other. How many of y'all have ever heard the term "I'm going to cut a deal"? That's where this came from. Didn't know that, did you? That's where this came from. "I want to cut a deal. " Or, "I'm going to strike a deal. " That's where they would come down, strike the animal, and kill it, and then divide it. All that came from this right here, back in the ancient times. When God told Abram to get these animals together, Abram knew what was about to happen. Abram gets them together. He divides them. The birds divide. He's not. And when you get into the Old Testament law, you do the birds different than the animals too, and you offer sacrifices. All these animals are dead. All of them are divided. And they represent a covenant that's about to be made. What would happen is, let's say Gabriel and I were going to enter into a covenant together. We may not take all of these animals, we may just take a calf, or we could take more if we wanted to emphasize it or something. We kill it. We cut it asunder. We have two pieces on each side. One thing about that animal when it dies, there's no getting it back. It's a done deal. It's wholly committed. And so it represents that covenant made between me and Gabriel that there's no halfway here. This is all in. And so now he and I would make the promise between ourselves, represented by this divided dead animal, and he and I together would walk in between, sorry for those online, but we would walk in between the pieces of the animals together, binding us to the irrevocable covenant, because these animals aren't going to wiggle and get up and start walking again. It's an irrevocable permanent covenant illustrated by these animals. And since we're walking in the middle of them, if we break that covenant, then it's bringing a curse upon ourselves. Let us be like those animals, so to speak, but it's an irrevocable covenant. We're walking in between it, and we're obligating ourselves to that covenant. Make sense? It's very graphic, but it's very real, very serious. If you'll take your Bibles, let me go to this particular passage of Scripture, Jeremiah 34, Jeremiah 34, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Isaiah 34. When you get there, just look up and we'll know that everyone's there. Thank you. Yes, it's verse 18, Jeremiah 34, 18. All right, are we ready? And if you're not there, just look on with sister or dad or husband or whoever. Jeremiah 34, verse 18, look what God says, "And I will give the men that have transgressed," that means broken, "my covenant which have not performed the words of the covenant," look here now, "which they had made before me when they cut the calf in twain," that means in two pieces, "and passed between the parts thereof. " See that? That was, in fact, the Hebrew word covenant. Now covenant is a contract, okay? But the Hebrew word translated covenant, guess what it means? It means cutting. It's pretty cool. So here we go. Gabriel and I, we passed between the pieces, we just bound ourselves to a permanent, irrevocable covenant. Now Abram is taking these pieces, and now he's waiting on God, and I imagine he assumes he and God are going to walk between those pieces and have a covenant together. Let's see what happens. Verse 11, "And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. " What does that tell us? When Abram divided these animals, yeah, we're back in Genesis 15 now. Always keep your finger or a bookmark or something there. So Abram puts these animals out here like this, and he's waiting, just to wait, and God never comes. So finally, buzzards start coming down to eat the animals, and we haven't had a contract yet. I'm still waiting, I'm waiting on the other party to show up, you know? He shoes them away. Look here now. Verse 12, "And when the sun was going down," God still hadn't shown up. Now it's becoming nighttime. "And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram. " Now Abram's asleep, a deep sleep. "And lo and horror of great darkness fell upon him. " Like a nightmare. Watch now. "And he that is God said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them for a hundred years. " This is why it was a horrible nightmare, even though it was God speaking to Abram. So Abram divides the animals, he waits on God. God doesn't come to walk in between the pieces with Abram. Abram shoes the birds away. Finally it's nighttime. Finally Abram's tired and he goes to sleep, and God puts him to sleep really, really good. And then God tells Abram something very sad about the offspring that he promised him. He said, "You know of a surety that your seed will be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and they shall afflict them, they will afflict your seed for a hundred years. " Wow. Now let's look here. Let me get my pointer. God is talking about Israel. If you look here, historically in 1500 B. C. Israel were slaves. The nation of Israel, Abram's offspring were slaves in Egypt for how long? 430 years. Historically that's what took place. Biblically in Genesis God said it was going to happen before we can ever look back in the history books and see it. It happened just like God said. So about 400 years, his seed were strangers in Egypt for 400 years and they were afflicted. They were slaves there. Now watch this. Verse 14, "And also that nation," talking about Egypt, "whom they shall serve, will I judge," that means I'll punish them. "And afterward," after that 400 years, "shall they come out with great substance. " So your seed is going to be a stranger in a land that's not theirs, that's Egypt right here. They're going to serve them for 400 years. After that I'm going to punish Egypt. I'm going to bring your offspring out from Egypt with great substance. Watch now in verse 15. "And thou that is you, Abram, shall go to thy fathers in peace, thou shalt be buried in a good old age. " Watch this now. God promised to give Abram the land forever. And now he's telling Abram he's going to die. Now he's telling Abram that for 400 years, instead of enjoying the promised land, his offspring were going to be slaves in a land that God never promised them. What does that tell us? Once again, the only way that God can give them this land forever is if he raises them from the dead and gives them eternal life. Is if they don't perish but have everlasting life. Is if God, through this promise, can overcome sin and the grave and raise man back up and let them live forever. That's the only way this promise can be kept. That's a lot of new information for Abram, isn't it? So now that Abram's good and asleep, oh look here now, excuse me, verse 16, "But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. " What does that mean? In the fourth generation, after this 400 years, your seed will come here again. Where was Abram? He was in the promised land when God gave him this promise. So after this 400 years, they'll come here again. He says, "For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. " What he means is this. It's not time to give Abram and his seed this land. God's going to judge the sinners in this land. He judged Sodom and Gomorrah. He rained fire and brimstone down on Sodom and Gomorrah where the homosexuals were. He destroyed them and took a lot out of it. But now he says, "I'm going to destroy the people in this land and drive them out. I'm going to give you this land. But I can't do it yet because the sin or the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. " What that means is just as God waited and was patient to give the people a chance to repent before he destroyed the world with the flood, he was going to give these people a chance to repent before he destroyed them, but he God knew they wouldn't. So he says, "This is how it's going to play out. I'll be patient with them. But ultimately what's going to happen is I'll judge this nation for keeping your seed slaves. I'll bring your people here and I'll judge them by having you drive them out and possessing that land. " Makes sense? Now that all this new information is given to Abram, we still have these animals here. Abram sound asleep. Look now in verse 17, "And it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. " Abram sound asleep. Abram asked God, "How do I know that you're going to do all this for me? " And now while Abram's asleep and he's unable to get up and pass between these pieces, God passes between the pieces by himself. And he does so in the forms of a burning furnace and a lamp. If you'll look here it says, "A smoking furnace and a burning lamp. " So a furnace is like an oven, a furnace of fire, a heated fire in a burning lamp that gives light. That represents God. In fact, when God 400 years later, after they served Egypt, brought them out of Egypt at night, he brought them out with a pillar of fire to guide their way. The Bible says God is an all-consuming fire. The Bible says that God is a fire round about his people and he's the glory or the light inside the people. And you see the fire and the glory right here. And so here's God by himself manifesting himself not as a man, but as a light in a heated furnace and God walks between these pieces by himself. If you'll look now in verse 18, you'll see what happens. In the same day, who made a covenant? The Lord made a covenant with Abram. You see? This covenant was what we call, there's two types of covenants, alright? A bilateral covenant, that's where Gabriel and I are going to walk between these pieces together. Gabriel, I will do A if you do B. Alright, let's do it. That's a bilateral covenant. Two people agreeing, both keeping their parts. This, however, was not a bilateral covenant. God put Abram to sleep. Abram had no ability to walk between those pieces because he had no ability to keep this covenant. He had no ability to give himself a child in his old age. He had no ability to redeem the world from sin. He had no ability to overcome the grave. He's going to die when he gets old. God's already told him. This is a uni-lateral covenant. One party binding himself into this covenant, what God promised Abram, God's going to perform alone. The Lord made a covenant with Abram that same day, saying, verse 18, "Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt into the great river the river Euphrates," which is still there, by the way. Now, if you'll take your Bibles, turn the book of Hebrews. Let me do this a second here. Hebrews chapter 6. And let's look in verse 16, Hebrews chapter 6. Take your time. You need some help on Hebrews chapter 6? She is taking notes. I am so proud of you for taking those notes. I'm so proud of you. Hebrews chapter 6. Look here now in verse 16. Hebrews 6, 16. "For men," verily that means truly, "swear by the greater. " You know how people do. I swear to God. They swear by something higher than them. "And an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. " In other words, you swear and someone says, "Okay, I'll take your word for it. " Verse 16, "We're in God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability," that means the unchanging, unshaking character of his counsel, "confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled from refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. " Isn't that wonderful? And so this is what he's saying here. In fact, look now in verse 13, Hebrews 6, 13. "For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swear by himself. " Saying, "Surely, blessing I will bless thee and multiplying I will multiply thee. " And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. And so now God swears by himself. God enters into the covenant by himself. There's no one higher than God. God has obligated himself to Abram. God didn't have to do this, but God not only gave Abram the promise, but he confirmed it with an oath, a solemn covenant, to reassure Abram, "How are you going to know? I'm going to do it, Abram, and you can trust me because it's my word. I'll make a covenant with you that it will not be broken. " All right, now with that, let's go ahead and look here in chapter 16. "Now Sariah, Abram's wife, bare him no children, and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. " We're back in Genesis 16. In Sariah, do we need to wait? I'll hang on. Here we go. "And Sariah said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. " That means bearing children. "I pray thee, go in unto my handmaid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. " And Abram harkened to the voice of Sariah. All right, so here's what happens. Time still goes on. You know how God waited for Abram to go to sleep before God made the promise? God's waiting for Abram to get even older before he gives him a child. So here's Sariah and Abram. They're getting older, and Sariah's well into menopause. Sariah says, "Hey, look. I've got this handmaid, this servant woman, that lives with us named Hagar. She's young enough to have a child. Maybe God's way of doing this is if you took her as your concubine, and you had a child with Hagar, and that would be my child since Hagar's my servant, and then this is how God would end up giving you children. " Abram's like, "Well, okay. " So he has relations with Hagar. And if you look here in verse 3, "And Sariah, Abram's wife, took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. " That's a long time to wait, isn't it? For a child ten years when you're already elderly. "And gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. " Basically what that means is, "Oh, I've got a baby for Abram, and you don't. Maybe I'm more important than you are now, Sariah. " Verse 5, "And Sariah said unto Abram, 'My wrong be upon thee. '" You know what that means? She said, "You should have never listened to me, Abram. It's your fault. My wrong be upon you. You should never listen to me. I know no wives have ever told their husbands that before. "And Sariah said unto Abram, 'My wrong be upon thee. I have given my maid unto thy bosom. And when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes. The Lord judged between me and thee. " In other words, you're wrong, Abram. "But Abram said unto Sariah, 'Behold, thy maid is in thy hand, due to her as it pleaseth thee. ' And when Sariah had dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face. " Now basically, to tell you the story here, Sariah, I'm sorry, Hagar ran away. God stopped her and said, "Go back. You go back. " And so she went back, and then God told her, if you look in verse 11, in Genesis 1611, "And the angel of the Lord said unto her, 'Behold, thou art with child, and shall bear a son, and shall call his name Ishmael. '" Ishmael, okay. Look here in verse 12. Let's see what God says about Ishmael. "And he will be a wild man. His hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. " So here's what Ishmael's going to do. Ishmael is going to become a nation. It'll be a nation of wild people. They're going to be known for being unruly. They're going to be known for causing trouble. And they're going to be known for spreading all over the world and living among all of their brethren and causing the trouble. Ishmael, the seed, here's Abram, whose name is now changed to Abraham here in just a little bit, so we'll go ahead and call him Abraham. Abram had Ishmael, oops, and Abram eventually had a son named Isaac through Sarah. We'll get to here in a little bit. The descendants of Isaac are the Jews. The descendants of Ishmael are the Arabs. And just like God said, they spread all over the world. They migrate to every country, and they cause trouble when they go, "I mean, it's just what they do. " You know, they're fighting, robbing bombs, always doing something. And God said, "This is just how it's going to be. " And so to this day, when you're looking at the Jews and the Arabs, you have to understand they're basically brothers in a sense, half brothers. They all descended from Abram. You ask any Arab, they'll tell you, "We descended from Ishmael who descended from Abram. " They'll all tell you that. You ask any Jew, "We descended from Isaac who descended from Abram. " They all acknowledge it. And that's what God said about the Arabs, all right? And so does that mean that Arabs cannot be Christians? Absolutely not. There's a lot of Arab Christians. "Because God told Abram, 'In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed, including the Arabs. '" This is just God saying, "This is how it's going to play out. " And it is how it played out, okay? So they're sinners just like us. We're no better than the Arabs. It's just how it played out, like God said, okay? And so that's what happened because Abram did not listen to God. God never told him to have a child with Hagar. He should have had a child with his wife. Abram should have waited. Even though, and this is what God does, he waits. A lot of times he makes the promise look impossible because what's impossible to man is only possible to God. And only God can make this gospel, this good news of not perishing but have eternal life happen. He's the only one who can, okay? So now let's go ahead and look here in Chapter 17. "Abram was ninety-nine years old. " Or ninety years old in nine. "The Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, 'I am the Almighty God. Walk before me and be thou perfect. ' Or completely follow me. 'And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. ' And Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, 'As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. '" If you have a pen, and you don't mind underscoring in your Bible, underscore in verse 4, "Thou shalt be a father of many nations, and circle many nations. " This is God revealing to Abraham that Abram's seed, remember God said, "I won't give you so many offspring, so many children, you won't even be able to number them? " This is God revealing to Abram that your offspring is going to consist of many nations, not just the Arabs, not just the Jews, but all who believe this good news, his spiritual offspring. Verse 5, "Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham, for a father of many nations have I made thee. " So his name's changed to Abraham, and God's revealing to him, "Your offspring that I promised you, they're going to come from all kinds of people, all kinds of nations, including those from Scotland, where my family came from. " Okay? So let's go ahead and look here in verse 6, "And I will make the exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations out of thee, and kings shall come out of thee, and I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a god unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land where unto thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be thy God. " And let's go ahead and look here now in verse 10, we've got a few minutes left, "This is my covenant which ye shall keep between me and you, and thy seed after thee. Every manchild among you shall be circumcised, and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. " Now I told you, and we'll go ahead and, man, we've got a bunch on here, don't we? I told you when we looked at the rainbow, I told you that when God said the rainbow was going to be a token of the covenant He made, I told you that was the beginning of many tokens we'll see in the Bible. Here is another token that God makes, this covenant with Abram, and He says, "Every one of your children must be circumcised, your male children must be circumcised. " And He said, "That's going to be a token of the covenant that I make between me and you. " All right? What is this all about? We've got animals divided in pieces, and now we have circumcision, which is, you know, and since we have children, it's the removal of a natural part of a man that he has when he's born, and it's completely put away from him, forever removed. What is this all about? Why would God make that a token of the covenant? Watch this now. Verse 11, "And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a token of the covenant between me and you, and he that is eight days old," underscore that, "eight days old shall be circumcised among you every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. " So that means even Gentiles could be members of the Jews, even if they were bought with money, as long as they were circumcised. "He that is born in thy house and he that is bought with thy money," verse 13, "must needs be circumcised, and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant, because once it's gone, it's gone, you don't put it back. " "And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people, he hath broken my covenant. " The Old Testament law in covenants were just like the rainbow. They were pictures of the true salvation, the true deliverance that God would give. The rainbow came after the storm was over, we looked at all of that. Now we see this flesh of the foreskin being put away in a child, not six, not seven, but eight days old. Here's what this is about. Numbers are very important in the Bible. The number of God usually is three. By the way, how many animals, I mean how many years old were the animals that God told Abram to get? Three. Forty is the number of perfect trial. That's why it's always multiples of four hundred. Four hundred. Four hundred. Seven is the number of perfection. Seven days in a week. God worked that in in creation, and to this day even the unbelievers still have seven days on their calendar for a week. Seven is the number of perfection. Six is the number of man in the Bible because he was made on the sixth day. You see that also reiterated in Scripture. What is the number eight? When you have a calendar, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. There's your full week. What happens on the eighth day? What? That's it. A new week, a new beginning. The number eight in the Bible is a new beginning. When we're looking at this child being circumcised on the eighth day, we're looking at his natural flesh put away. And a new beginning starting. Let's close with one passage of Scripture. Second Corinthians chapter five, verse 17. Second Corinthians five, verse 17. Well, those fountains are great, aren't they? You just turn right to it. Are you there? Me too. All right, here we go. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a what kind of creature? New creature. Old things are what? Passed away. Behold, all things have become new. What God is showing here, the reason this circumcision is a token of God's covenant, God is showing Abraham this. Not only will I be able to overcome death, what good is it if God raises us from the dead, and we still have the knowledge of good and evil, sinners, you know, we're still just like we are now. What good is it if God just raises us back up from the dead, and we're not changed, we're still the same. We're still going to be living with a bunch of sinners. We're still going to be prone to die because of sin. Now, the only way that God can make this covenant with Abraham, number one, is if he overcomes death and allows him to live forever. And the only way he can do that is if he makes them brand new. So when they are raised from the dead, all the old is put away, and everything is made new, and that's what this covenant shows. And when you get into the New Testament, we don't have time to go through it today. The Bible says that the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is that circumcision that the Old Testament was talking about. Put the old and the grave, and we come out new in Jesus. Absolutely fantastic, all right? So this is what we're looking at today, not just a promise to live forever, but the promise to live forever as a new creature without sin, without flaw, without pain, without death or suffering anymore. Wonderful. Here we go. See you next door. Thank you all for tuning in.