May 15, 2006

God Promised

Genesis 15:7 - 21 “God Promised”

Now the Word of God is secure and true, all God had to do was say it and it would be so. But God is a God who understands his people and so often accommodates them.

Wanting Abraham to see the security of his promise God acts. Remember Noah as he came out of the ark with his family in Genesis nine? Remember that God made a covenant with Noah, and then, when all was said he spoke to Noah and showed him a beautiful rainbow? And do you recall that God said, "I will set my bow in the heavens for a token of my covenant." And do you know that that covenant is still in effect? That God will not destroy all humanity by a flood again? You can bank on it, and He still reminds us and it is still a wonder to see. The nature of that covenant, what made it a permanent covenant was the fact that God made it and it had no conditions. It was based on HIS character, He begins this section: I am the Lord God. And now often times there were covenants made with people but there was a catch

Turn with me to Leviticus 26: for a moment and read 13 -29 (Please read)

He goes on with the horror and down in verse 40-45.

Also turn to Deut 29:10-29 and read that passage

Notice here that the law of God had conditions, you do your part, and God will do his part, like not fricasseeing you and so on.

You see there were some things that were conditional. God can place any condition he wants on a covenant. When that happens in the Bible, there are certain things that also happen. Two parties ratify these covenants. God agrees to do his part as the party of the first part and the people agree to do their part as the party of the second part and as long as the people do their part God does his part. But this covenant is one of the other type. You see this is a covenant ratified by God and by God alone.

Look with me at the peculiar circumstances of this covenant. If you were alive in the days of Abraham and if you were entering into a pact with Abraham or some other man of the day, you too would kill a bunch of animals. Then to ratify this covenant both of you would walk through the midst of this bloody sacrifice and the covenant would be ratified. This is seen in Jeremiah 34: 18 -19 And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof, The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf;

So we note that this is common practice. But when it came time to ratify this covenant, notice what God did. In vv 12 -18,God caused a sleep to come upon Abraham and GOD and GOD alone as a smoking lamp walked through the midst and God made a covenant with Abraham. God accommodates Abraham here, gives him a boosting of his faith. Also God makes this an eternal covenant. In this covenant God reiterates a promise made before, the promise of seed.

Remember after Lot boogied that God spoke with Abram? He said “Lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your family for ever. And I will make your seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, [then] shall thy seed also be numbered.” So Abraham believes God, and this covenant is something that God does to assure Abraham even Further.

He says “Abraham, it is not Eliezer who shall be your heir. Out of thine Own bowels shall come your heir.” And then we have this great statement "ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD and it was accounted unto him for righteousness."

God's people often asked for a sign. Gideon really wanted to make sure it was God in Judges, and He asked for a sign, or fleece. And God did not rebuke these people, he gave them their sign.

Here God gives Abraham the sign of an unconditional covenant.

It is the nature of these Chosen people of God to want a sign.

Do you know what God calls people who looked for signs as a testimony to faith in Christ in the New Testament? A crooked and perverse generation. Then he said,"Only one sign will be given, the sign of Jonah, as Jonah was in the whales belly, so shall the Son of Man be in the ground three days." That is all the sign you get. You get what was revealed in the word)

You see these people wanted a sign BEFORE they would believe. Abraham got a sign because he did believe, yet needed a boost.

Do you know that Paul talked about wanting a sign? :Thats right in 1 Cor 1 He writes: 22-23 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God

You see? Without FAITH it is impossible to please God. If you can see stuff that makes it believable that lessens faith.

I have an acquaintance who maintains that people in foreign lands will not believe the gospel unless we show signs and wonders. You know that is a great limiting of the convicting power of God? I preached plain simple gospel in Nigeria , no healing, though God is able, no loaves of bread and fishes, only prayer for Holy Spirit conviction of sin, leading to repentance and God answered. Lives were changed. Why? Simple faith in God. Was God pleased? I guess you know he was.

In first Corinthians 13 Paul deals with the passing of some sign gifts and he notes there, 'when I was A child I spoke as a child, understood as a child thought as a child, but (when I became grown I put away childish things.

Full trust requires no sign of God, fledgling faith asks. Abraham, faithful Abraham, was God's man, yet he was like you and I, he wanted a sign. And God gave it.

Wouldn't it be nice to just take God at His word? But you want to know something else? God is still a gracious God and if you need to have your faith bolstered He will often do it for you just as for Abraham.

I recall A number of years back several New Tribes Missionaries were held hostage at their base in South America , One of them was spirited off to Colombia with his plane and the story of God’s hand in Paul Dye’s escape is wonderful enough. But as the others waited and the days wore on they asked the normal questions of God.

One brother asked if God had forgotten them and asked for some sort of indication of that love.

On that first Sunday an amazing thing happened at around 11:30 . Hundreds of birds, many species not seen in that region on a regular basis, came and sat in the tree above their heads and sang beautifully for about half and hour and then flew off. It was even more wonderful when the same event occurred the next Sunday as well. Isn't God good? He loves us and knows what we need when we need it.

One other thing about this covenant. Did you notice that God even tells about the upcoming trip to Egypt ? Says they'll be there 400 some odd years? We'll get to Exodus some day and see that thing happening.

Do you know what prompted God to rescue them from Egypt ? No? Well look at this will you? Exodus 2 : 23 -25 And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel , and God had respect unto [them].

What do you know about that! God remembered His promise hundreds of years after Abraham was dead and gone. He had to, for it was a covenant He made and He would keep it.

OK we've looked at this unconditional covenant; we’ve seen that it contains promises of KIDS, and of Land. Who is this to? To Abraham and HIS seed.

I get no land in Israel out of this one at the moment. BUT I get one thing right off the bat. I get to see that when God promises He remembers. I get to see that and that reminds me that I DO get land. And I do get offspring in Jesus.

Because God made me a promise, a promise that I entered by faith in Him and that promise is that HE will get ME safely home. (Phil 1:6). I also get to be part of another covenant he made Listen Jer 31:31-33 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day [that] I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this [shall be] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. Jer 32:40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.

Did you know that in Jesus I got to be part of this promise to God's people? That promise can be yours as well if you will receive it. You can be part of a covenant ratified by a blood sacrifice, and in the middle of that atoning; covenant making sacrifice hung one man, Jesus. And what he asks of you is to Believe who he is, the only son of God, God in the flesh. And that his death was for you, personally. Turn from your self and sin and follow him. Paul put it in fancier words,” If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. Saved from sin's power, sins penalty, and then one day, sins presence that’s when he gets you safely home.

Confess who he is, who you are; believe, Receive (John 1:12 ), and then you become a child of God.

Amen