Lessons from the Patriarchs Lessons from the Patriarchs

Text: Genesis 17:15-18:15

Theme: God keeps His promises based on His character and not our conduct.

Date: 10/02/22 File name: Patriarch_Lessons_03-2022.wpd ID Number:

In my first two sermons on the life of Abraham, we have focused on Abram’s faith-response to God. Abram’s life, in spite of his shortcomings, is a testament to faith. Consider ...

God says to Abram “I’m going to send you out,” and Abram says “Why?” and God says, “I’ll tell you later, now just go.”

God says to Abram , “I’m going to give you a land,” and Abram says “Where?” and God says, “I’ll tell you later, just wander.”

God says to Abram, “I’m going to give you a child,” and Abram say “How?” and God says, “I’ll work it out. Keep trying.”

And then finally God sends a child and tells Abram, “Kill your child as a sacrifice to me.” and Abram says, “Are you sure?” and God says, “Yes, now walk up the mountain.”

And in every situation Abram passed that threshold between belief and unbelief and he triumphed in faith. When we last worshiped together, we discovered that because of faith alone, God counted it to him as righteousness. And it is by faith alone that you and I are counted as righteous before God.

This morning, I want us to consider more carefully the God who spoke to Abram.

As you know, God has made some galvanizing promises to Abram. There is the Land Promise. There is the National Promise. There is the Descendant Promise. There is the Spiritual Promise, and there is the veiled Messianic Promise. “The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”” (Genesis 12:1–3, NIV)

Abraham’s situation, however, remains unchanged. God promised to bless the nations through him by forming him into a great nation; a great nation through which God’s Anointed One would come; but nations cannot be formed from a man’s descendants if he has no descendants. As we pick up the story in Genesis 17, Abram and Sarai have been in Canaan almost twenty-five years. They still do not possess any land. They still do not possess the son that God promised. And Abram has not been a blessing to anyone. It is at this point that God comes again to Abram to remind him of the covenant he has made with the aged patriarch.

“When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. 2 Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.” 3 Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”” (Genesis 17:1–8, NIV)

“God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. 16 I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”” (Genesis 17:15–16, NIV)

And what is Abraham’s response to this? He falls on his face and laughs!“Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”” (Genesis 17:17, NIV) Not a very smart move. And God has to reassure him: “Abraham. Really. I’m not kidding!” “God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.” (Genesis 17:19, ESV).

And God comes through. Listen to the words of Genesis 21:1-3: The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. A man and a woman, well past the normal age of having children, together have a son just as God promised them they would. And here is what I want us to learn from this:

I. 1st, GOD IS ABLE TO KEEP HIS PROMISES DESPITE OUR NATURAL LIMITATIONS

“When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him ... I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.” (Genesis 17:1, 6, ESV)

1. for all normal intents and purposes, Isaac should have never been born

a. there is no way a ninety-year-old woman and a one-hundred year old man should have been able to conceive a child together

ILLUS. Natural conceptions over the age of 50 are virtually unheard of. The oldest verified woman to conceive naturally is Dawn Brooke who conceived a son at the age of 59 years in 1997.

b. there is something supernatural at work in the story of Abram and Sarai

2. to the natural mind where almost everything is explainable by means of natural causes, or technological intervention, stories like this seem far fetched

a. but believers recognize that God confounds the wisdom of the wise by occasionally suspending the normal laws of nature

b. the same God who miraculously allowed this old couple to conceive and have a son is at work in our lives today

A. ETERNAL LIFE REQUIRES GOD TO KEEP HIS PROMISE TO US

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16, ESV)

1. if you are in Christ, a supernatural event has taken place in your life even though you can’t see it or feel it

a. the promise is eternal life through the resurrection of the body for whoever believes in him

1) from the Scripture we know that our eternal life is not simply an eternal spiritual life floating on fluffy clouds playing harps, but an eternal physical existence in a New Earth with Christ reigning over all

2) our spirits and our bodies will be made incorruptible and we will exist forever in a glorified state

“I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.” (1 Corinthians 15:50–53, ESV)

2. think about all of the natural limitations that would convince us that eternal life and immortality are not possible

a. anyone with even a cursory knowledge of biology can tell you that our mortal bodies are not built for eternal life

b. I’m not trying to be morbid here, but nature isn't kind to the human body after death

1) Your Cells Burst Open. The process of decomposition starts within minutes after death. Almost immediately, the blood becomes acidic as carbon dioxide builds up. This causes cells to split open, emptying enzymes into the tissues, which start to digest our cells from within.

2) You Turn White — and Purple. Gravity makes its mark on the human body in the first moments after death. While the rest of your body turns deathly pale, heavy red blood cells move to the parts of your body that are closest to the ground. The results are tie-died skin.

3) Calcium Makes Your Muscles Contract. It’s called rigor mortis. Why does it happen? There are pumps in the membranes of our muscle cells that regulate calcium. When the pumps stop working in death, calcium floods the cells, causing the muscles to contract and stiffen.

4) We become a complex ecosystem for bacteria, and microbial communities. Our cadavers become a buffet for bacteria that live in and on the living human body.

5) Your organs will digest themselves. It’s call putrefaction, and it’s when our bodies start to look like extras in a zombie movie.

3. but if God has promised that believers will live forever — and He has — something has got to give

a. and since God is not going to give in because of His promise to us, the natural limitations of our bodies have to give in

b. what God says will happen, will happen, no matter how impossible it seems to us now

c. and what is going to happen is resurrection — this is God’s great promise to us

4. think about that ... our faith assumes God’s ability to do what natural science assures us cannot happen — death will be swallowed up by life

II. 2nd, GOD IS ABLE TO KEEP HIS PROMISES DESPITE OUR LACK OF BELIEF

“Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” 19 God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. 20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation.” (Genesis 17:17–20, ESV)

1. our faith is not a perfect faith ... we will, from time-to-time have doubts about God’s ability, God’s wisdom and even God’s goodness

a. Abram was a man of great faith, but it was an imperfect faith

2. Abram’s emotions rise to the surface and he expresses his uncertainty whether or not Sarah would have a son

a. this man who has been made righteous because of his faith, is not sure he believes what God is saying to him

1) in fact he laughs at it, and so does Sarah

2) neither of them fully believed God on this matter

b. and yet God kept his promise to them

3. we need to remember is this: when God says He will do something, He will do it whether we believe it’s possible or not

a. our belief does not determine whether-or-not God will keep a promise He has made

b. now then, there are conditional promises given in the Bible

1) there are times when God may say “If this, then that.”

ILLUS. The Apostle James gives us an example of a conditional promise. He writes: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (James 4:8, ESV). Here is the promise of intimate fellowship with God the Father. But that promise is dependent — it’s conditional — on the believer drawing near to God. How do you do that? By cleansing your hands and purifying your hearts (i.e. repentance and confession). If you will do that God will draw near to you. If you don’t, He won’t.

c. but His unconditional promises are not “if, then” statements

1) He will always do what He unconditionally promises to do

3. God promises to give believers eternal life

a. that will happen whether people think it will or not

4. the flip side of that is that he warns us that unbelievers will exist forever in hell

a. that will happen whether people think hell is a real place or not

5. Jesus promised that he would return to this earth to set up His Kingdom

a. that will happen whether people think it will or not

b. you get the point — God unconditionally promises He will do what He says He will do

III. 3rd, GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES BECAUSE HE IS GOD

“For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself,” (Hebrews 6:13, ESV)

1. God is faithful to His word and to His promises because God is true, He is honest, He is loyal, He is trustworthy — He cannot lie. God cannot not do what he says he will do

ILLUS. There is an interesting, and mysterious event in the life of Abram back in Genesis 15 that — when we understand what is taking place—helps us gain a new appreciation for God’s trustworthiness. “But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half.” ... “When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,” (Genesis 15:8-10, 17–18, ESV).

What’s going on? Abram is doing something that in those days everyone would have immediately known what was taking place. In fact God doesn’t even have to tell Abram what to do. Abram takes the animals God asks him to bring, slaughters them, cuts them in half and lays the halves in parallel rows. God is establishing a covenant with Abram, and this is the signing of the contract. How do we sign a contract? In our culture you affix your signature to a document that contains all the where-fores and how-tos of the agreement. Usually that means signing a multitude of documents, including a document affirming that you’ve signed all the other documents. And when you sign a contract there are consequences if either party breaks their word and reneges on their part of the contract.

Abram lived in an oral and visual culture where you acted out the contract and the consequences of unfaithfulness for all to see. When the parties to the contract walked between the dismembered bodies of their sacrifice, they were telling each other, “If I do not do everything that I’ve agreed to, may I be cut off, may I be destroyed, may my flesh lay on the ground to feed the birds of the air.” Now that’s a contract!

When God asks Abram to bring him a heifer, a goat, a ram, a pigeon, and a turtledove, Abram knows what is taking place. This is a Covenant Ratification Ceremony. But Abram did not expect what takes place in verses 17-18. As the sun is going down, Abram falls into a deep sleep, and in his dream, an unbelievable darkness comes over him. Genesis 15:12 describes it as a dreadful and great darkness. And God speaks of future events in the lives of Abraham’s descendants. Then an amazing thing takes place. The sun goes down and a smoking fire pot and a blazing torch appear and passed between the pieces of slaughtered animals. Well, what’s this all about?

The two words that are used here for “smoke” and “fire” are the same words that describe the presence of God on Mt. Sinai centuries later, and they are the words that describe the pillar of fire and smoke of God’s presence among the Hebrews. The Shekinah Glory of God has come down to Abram, and God’s glorious presence passes between the slaughtered animals.

Abram is wondering how he can know for sure that the God who has made these promises will perform them. How can he know that God will come through and keep His part of the contract? And so God does an astonishing thing—he appears and passes through the pieces. In this God says to Abram, “If I do not do what I say I will do, may my immutability experience mutation, may my immortality suffer mortality, may my infinity suffer limitation, may my omnipotence suffer powerlessness—may I stop being God if I do not do what I say! That’s amazing! But that’s not all. God passes through the pieces by Himself. Abraham does not pass through. This is unique and stunning. We know from near east archeological records that when one King made a covenant with a another king of equal standing that both kings would walk between the pieces. But if a King was making a covenant with a lesser king or a conquered king who then became a vassal, then only the lesser king passed between the pieces. He was bound by the contract while the conquering king was not. When God does what he does, he is saying, “Abraham, I’m going to go through for both of us. I am obligating myself to fulfill all my promises to you apart from your own abilities.”

This is the Gospel of salvation by grace alone. Salvation and the Christian faith is not a cooperative effort—God doing His part and the sinner their part. It is not a salvation of “God helps those who help themselves.” It is not a partnership. God comes through and says, “I will take upon myself the curse of the covenant for both of us. Abram, I will bless you even if I have to die.”

2. 2,000 years later a supernatural darkness descended upon the land of Canaan

“And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”” (Mark 15:33–34, ESV)

a. in Christ, the impossible became possible: the eternal, changeless Son changed and became a man, the immortality of the Son became mortal, and God the Son died for sinners so sinners don’t have to

b. here is the great promise of the Gospel:

1) God is not obligated to keep His promises because of us

2) God is obligated to keep His promises because of himself

IV. PRACTICAL LESSONS FROM ABRAHAM’S EXPERIENCE WITH GOD

1. what do we take away from these passages?

a. five things ...

A. 1st, FAITH IS NOT IS NEVER PERFECT

1. Abraham proves that a person can be a true believer and still really blow it!

a. that is not to excuse our sin, but it is to say that our faith—and, ultimately, our salvation—rests not on our performance, but on God's promise

b. God is the object of our trust, and since he doesn't change, we may continue to trust him, even though we vacillate

B. 2nd, FAITH NEVER GIVES UP

1. when Abram was seventy-five God had promised to make him into a great nation, and to bless all the families of the earth through his descendants

a. but twenty-four years later Abram is ninety-nine years old and has almost nothing to show for all the promises God had made — only a thirteen-year-old illegitimate son by his wife’s servant girl

2. yet Abram trusted God for each of these twenty-four years!

a. so, if you've been waiting for what seems like a long time for God to answer your prayers, here is hope from Genesis

b. God never forgets his people or his promises!

C. 3rd, FAITH RESULTS IN CHANGE

1. in chapter 17, both Abram and Sarai had their names changed by God himself

a. Abram ("exalted father") became Abraham ("father of a multitude")

b. Sarai became Sarah, which means "princess"

2. why did God change their names?

a. as a symbol of their changed status!

1) Abraham was now living under God's covenant blessings

2) and Sarah was now God's princess, destined to be the mother of Israel!

b. they had gone from barren to blessed

1) and, in the ancient context in which they lived, such a change called for brand new names

3. in modern cultures, we do not change our names when we become believers in Jesus

a. but our status is no less changed than was Abraham's or Sarah's

1) we, too, have gone from barren to blessed

2) we have gone from being guilty to being justified

3) we have gone from being God's enemies to being His friends

4) we have gone from being disobedient sinners to being faithful saints

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV)

D. 4th, FAITH IS DEMONSTRATED BY OBEDIENCE

1. James the brother of Jesus made this point quite well when he said that "faith, if it has no works, is dead" (James 2:17)

a. he tells his readers "I will show you my faith by my works" (James 2:18)

2. faith and works are not synonymous, but good works are the inevitable result of true faith

a. Abraham illustrates this

1) he leaves his homeland, he leaves his kindred, and he leaves his father’s house and sojourns in a land that God has led him to

2) his faith in God’s promises has led him into a life of obedience

3. he demonstrated his faith by obedience, and so must we!

Abraham was a man of faith! He believed God when the promise seemed impossible. And he demonstrated that he trusted God by practical obedience. May God give us grace to do the same!