The Promise of Abraham in Hebrews 6

Introduction:

Christmas is right around the corner, and apparently we missed Thanksgiving according to every retail store. Christmas is fun time, the promise or hope of that first snow fall, time with family, and for the kids the hope of waking up to a red rider BB gun under the tree or a new game system, only one pokes your eye out.

In a strange way it is a time of promise and hope, but as we you grow older and you shoot AR 15’s and not red BB guns, you understand that things are rough, and Christmas flees. It’s not a sustaining promise, and for a lot the holidays hurt because the loved one who made Christmas is no longer there or money is so tight that you can’t give your child that new toy he or she desires.

We are reminded of false hope in the Western version of Christmas where Christ is not mentioned and the truth is not given.

Today I want us to look at the best promise that was given Abraham and fulfilled in Christ. Genesis 3:15 “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”” is a key verse in all of scripture, but the Abrahamic Covenant is the covenant that brings the Old to the New.

Covenant Theology Brief

What is a Covenant? According to O’Pallmer Robertson ,”A covenant is promise that is sealed in blood. “ I want to take us into the account of the Abrhamaic Covenant to see where God promised three things to Abraham and how they are fulfilled in Christ.

Genesis 15 KJV 1900

After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness. And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And he said unto him, Take me an 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. 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. And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he 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 four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. 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. In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

Here we see God’s promise to Abraham with a very clear visual *Chris explain this visual*

Genesis 17 “When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my …”

In this Covenant God is promising to Abraham three things:

Land Promises

Offspring

Redemption

These three are fulfilled in Christ but we must examine how.

The Land Promise

In the Old Covenant we have shadows, in the New Covenant we have light. This is very important distinction to be made; we don’t want to take the New Testament with out the Old Testament and vice-versa.

This is important when talking about land promises;

First the land promised was had in the shadows, Israel would have the promise land. In another way the Kingdom of God is so much better and more realized in the greater which is the New Heavens and New Earth to which the great city is the New Jerusalem.

We are not returning to a broken Israel or a divorced Kingdom. Rather Christ is coming with a New Kingdom that today we experience in one sense and in another look forward too.

Offspring Promise

Abraham has a wonderful line through Issac and troubled line through Ishmael. One born out of promise the other born out of sin.

We see the promise fulfilled to Abraham through his offspring, indeed Israel is the people of God and in the New Covenant the people of God are those who are born again, those who are in Christ.

That now there is neither Jew nor Gentile. We see the gentiles engrafted into this promise of Abraham and we see in Romans 11 how the Jew will be restored to the living Salvation only offered in Christ. Not in sacrifices but in Christ and Christ alone.

The people of God is broader than an ethnic Israel, it is all of those whom Christ has given salvation. This promise is still on going, for even at this very hour souls are coming to Christ.

God is keeping His promise to Abraham in the New Covenant through Christ.

The Promise of Redemption

Abraham just like the rest of us needed redemption from sin, to be reconciled to God. God knew this and when he split the carcass and came through as a flame God is promising to keep this promise upon himself by death.

Indeed Christ would be the one who brings the fulfillment of redemption of sinner, reconciliation to God.

Application

Look towards the promise of redemption that is now over your soul and the redemption that is drawing near.

The full promise of this New Heavens, New Earth a place where pain, death, illness, disappointment, sin, all is banished. It is a true land of Milk and Honey.

Those in Christ are of true Israel, neither Jew nor Gentile. There is only one people of God with one plan of salvation and that is Jesus.

Enjoy each other as the off spring of the promise given to Abraham to fulfilled in Christ. Your fellowship that you have with each other now, is forever in His Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is happening right now in this very room, but fullness of this Kingdom and the fellowship we enjoy is soon to come.

Conclusion

Christ is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant and His Kingdom has no end.