The Covenant of Grace: Abraham
Notes
Transcript
Scripture Intro:
Scripture Intro:
Covenant of Works - blessing based on perfect obedience
Still gracious, b/c God didn’t have to enter into this arrangement.
Last week,
Covenant of Grace: Adam and Noah
Today,
Covenant of Grace: Abraham
Scripture Reading (“Please stand…”)
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Pray...
Intro:
Intro:
Jimmy Evans,
preacher and author,
wrote "Marriage on the Rock"… (of Christ).
In writing about the differences between Covenant and Contract.
“A sacrificial covenant says,
“I surrender my rights and I assume responsibilities.”
A contract says,
“I protect my rights and I limit my responsibilities.”
Difference between Covenant and Contract:
Contract:
Protect your rights
Limit your responsibilities
Covenant:
Give up your rights
Limitless responsibility
Continuity of the Covenant
Continuity of the Covenant
(Timer: 20 minutes left)
Covenant of Grace
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.”
Adam - Gen 3:15
Noah - Genesis 9
Abraham - Genesis 12, 15, 17
Moses - Exodus 19-24
David - 2 Samuel 7
New - Jeremiah 31, 33, Matt. 26
Since we are talking about Abraham today...
Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”
Initiated by God
Initiated by God
(Timer: 15 Minutes left)
Covenant Theology is about the heart of God.
“bond in blood SOVEREINGLY ADMINISTERED”
God initiates.
In the Garden after Adam sinned,
God came to Adam...
Adam hid.
God announced the promise of a Redeemer.
God initiated the covenant with Adam
In Genesis 12, we see the same thing with Abraham.
Abram means father.
Abraham means father of many
(changed name in Gen. 17)
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
Notice that God came to Abram.
He and his people were involved in lunar worship...
God comes to him and call him.
Also, don’t miss the “I will” statements.
I will… I will… I will...
(v. 1) “the land I will show you”
And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
How did God confirm the Covenant?
And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”
But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”
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.”
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.
“cutting the covenant”
As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.
Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.
But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.
And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land...
“made” - to cut
from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”
Typically, it the powerful king that requires his subject to pass through the parts.
But here, God (the great king) passes through the part...
not Abraham.
Response of Faith
Response of Faith
(10 minutes left??)
But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”
And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
Covenant Promises
Covenant Promises
Narrowed the scope to Abraham...
Yet, “so that” all the earth of the earth shall be blessed.
“Land, Seed, and a Blessing”
Joyful Sounds - “People, Land, Nation, Blessing”
Land
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
Seed (descendants… people, nation)
And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
Blessing (“so that”)
I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
(12:2) I will bless you and make your name great… so that you will be a blessing”
Land - Canaan.
Yet, awaiting the New Heavens and the New Earth
Hebrews… awaiting a city whose foundations are God
Seed
Isaac...
Jesus
Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.
And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
All who would come to him by faith.
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”
So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
All this is ours...
But how?
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
Jesus becomes the curse of the animals in Genesis 15...
so that we would be save.
** On Communion Sunday...
If after 10:30,
go straight to the Lord’s Supper.
Close in Prayer
Close in Prayer
Closing Song:
Closing Song:
“Jesus You Alone”
Benediction:
Benediction:
