Sermon Tone Analysis

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.