Salvation in the Bible - Adam to Abraham
Salvation in the Bible • Sermon • Submitted
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· 4 viewsUnderstanding God's plan of restoring right fellowship with us throughout the ages were types and shadows of actual and complete salvation we experience and enjoy today
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:
Pray - Be Seated
Antediluvian Salvation
Antediluvian Salvation
21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
At this point God demonstrates the horror of sin. It would take the shedding of blood to cover it. It required death.
Whose blood was spilt? It would be another creature’s blood that would be spilt. Not our own. There would of necessity be a substitutionary sacrifice.
Every creature sacrificed on an altar between Adam and Jesus Christ points the way forward to our prefect sacrifice.
Altar sacrifice is a type of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
His blood was spilt in our place. He was innocent.
His death was brutal, bloody, and demonstrated God’s holy wrath against sin.
Altar sacrifice is a type of repentance.
In repentance, we die to our old natures.
On the altar, our substitution dies for our sins in our place.
During this time conscience was king.
Conscience was awoken in the garden after Adam sinned.
No human government at this point. Everyone was expected to govern their own behavior within the confines of each person’s conscience.
7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
Salvation under Noah
Salvation under Noah
5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
So the dispensation of conscience ended in failure, and in judgment
But in the midst of judgment, God provided a way of escape and he used a man
Noah received a revelation from God
Noah demonstrated faith to the revelation he received by obeying what was commanded him
20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
Water is used to typify judgment, or distress many places in scripture.
1 Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.
2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
7 Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, And thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.
So, rather than being ‘saved by water’, God used this agent of death and destruction to ‘save them’, or to separate them from the ungodly, and to deliver them to another place. A new place.
The Ark is a type of the Church.
There is no salvation outside of it.
It is the instrument God designed to deliver lost humanity from this present evil world.
Today the door is still open, and all who would enter are welcome. But one day God will shut the door to His Church, and in that day no one will be able to enter in.
The water represents baptism
In Noah’s day, God used the flood waters to bury the wicked and to separate Noah and his family from the unrighteous.
Today God uses the waters of baptism to bury the old man and to separate us unto Himself.
4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
After Noah and his family came through the flood, their world was brand new. They could start fresh.
After we come across the waters of baptism, we get to start over. We are completely cleansed of our sins.
From Noah to Abram
From Noah to Abram
After Noah and his family disembark the Ark, God spoke to them.
1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
5 And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man.
6 Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.
Shortly after this we see the first world government forming in the plains of Shinar.
1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
So the dispensation of Human Government ends in failure, and in judgment.
Salvation under the Patriarchs
Salvation under the Patriarchs
It’s interesting to note here that, although these previous dispensations ended in judgment, they were still in effect.
People still had a conscience that would work if they listened to it.
Human government was still in place, although in this particular time period, primarily through the patriarchs, or the family structure.
The sinful predilections and the wickedness of man was such that God would no longer carry out His plan with the entirety of mankind. So, God chose him a man …Abram.
Why did God Choose Abram?
Why did God Choose Abram?
Understand, God had not talked with Abram before this. It’s possible Abram had no real knowledge, or understanding, of the one true God.
Abram didn’t serve God, didn’t worship God, and possible, didn’t even really know about God. He most likely worshiped Nanna, the moon god.
Abram however, qualified himself by the following:
He was a descendant of Shem.
26 And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; And Canaan shall be his servant.
Even though he didn’t serve God previously, he obeyed the voice of God immediately and without question. God must have seen this quality demonstrated in Abram’s life previously.
Every day, with every decision and by every action, we are either qualifying ourselves, or disqualifying ourselves before God.
The story of Job, how that God allowed Satan to afflict Job because God knew how he would respond.
What can God do through a man or a woman whose heart is completely submitted to God?
1 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
4 So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
We see that Abram appears to have obeyed the command, however Lot went with him in disobedience to the command.
This act will later cause Abram some grief.
Abram received “incomplete” directions from God. He was not told where to go, just to start moving (Genesis 12:1)
Moving great distances in Abram’s day was not at all easy.
It required one to find their own food and water, or carry everything with you.
Their original home, Ur, was a center of culture. A land of great architecture, riches, comfortable homes, music, and art. Abram was called out of that to go into the desert…somewhere.
But he was obedient to the command of God and began to move toward God’s promises.
We’re not always given “complete” instructions when God commands us to go somewhere, or to do something. He expects us to trust in Him.
When we are obedient to God’s revelation, God continues to reveal his glorious plan to us.
We see no evidence of Abram questioning God. No evidence of Abram confusing God’s voice with the voice of an idol or a false god his father worshipped.
Why Canaan?
Again, God never tells Abram to travel to Canaan.
8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
This was God’s plan all along however. God through Noah had cursed Canaan and his descendants as the servants of Shem and Japheth.
Canaan is a central location. The hub of Europe, Asia, and Africa. It would have immense strategic value.
Economically
Spiritually
12 Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.
13 But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.
14 And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:
15 For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
Once in the land, and immediately Abram had finally separated himself from Lot, God again appears to Abram and reveals that this is the land He will give to Abram and to his descendants.
The Abrahamic Covenant
The Abrahamic Covenant
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
The Abrahamic Covenant consists of four parts:
God would make Abram’s descendants a great nation.
God would bless Abram materially and make his name great.
God would protect Abram by blessing those that blessed him and cursing those that opposed him.
God would bless all the families of the earth through Abram.
Let’s look at each one of these closer.
God would make Abram’s descendants a great nation.
Abram’s descendants of course, became the nation of Israel.
Despite a time period of approximately four thousand years, and despite numerous interactions with surrounding countries, and despite being conquered and displaced many times, ending in the casting out of their homeland for just about two thousand years, the Jews have retained their national integrity. God has kept the nation of Israel together as a people and as a nation despite all of this.
Throughout their history, they have been both a great nation and a conquered nation, but through it all, they remained the chosen people of God, which made them the greatest people on earth.
God would bless Abram and his descendants materially
Although the Jews have suffered great persecutions throughout their history, they are not known as a poor people. They have always been able in any nation they ended up in to ascend to positions of affluence, and influence. They have enjoyed, despite their many setbacks, positions of great economic and political power. Their power in Europe was the cause of Hitler’s great hatred of them. Today, in the United States and Europe, the Jews are very powerful people. Although the present day Israel is one of the smallest countries on the earth, it is one of the most powerful. Its economic, political, and technological power rivals even that of the US. Surely the hand of God is in this!
The name of Abraham is a world renowned name. He is the father of not only the Jews, but of Christianity, and all the Arab world as well. The three great religions of the world; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all look to Abraham as their father. Apart from Jesus Christ, no name is as well known as that of Abraham.
God would protect Abram by blessing those that blessed him and cursing those that opposed him.
Historically, those nations that have persecuted the Jews has fallen even up to modern times. Germany during WWII, The Russian government, which has had a national policy of persecution of the Jews, collapsed. However the United States, who has always, up until most recent times, been a friend of the nation of Israel, has prospered.
No matter how intense the persecution against Israel has been, God has protected them.
In 1967, in what is called the Six Day War, the tiny nation of Israel utterly destroyed all the combined efforts of the Arab nations to wipe Israel out. Not only did Israel defeat every nation that came against them, but they ended up taking a great amount of land from them, including the Gaza strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt; the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria.
God would bless all the families of the earth through Abram.
We know today that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, would descend from Abram.
History shows that the coming of Jesus Christ changed the entire world. The history of western civilization is the history of the spread of Christianity.
Our calendar (up until recent times) dates from the birth of Christ.
The moral teaching of Christ and the Holy Scriptures have shaped to a large degree all of western nations.
The United States Constitution was based on Biblical standards of morality.
Our system of Jurisprudence and our legal system has been drawn almost exclusively out of the bible
Those nations which identify as “Christian” have prospered greatly.
Salvation, true and complete, comes only through Jesus Christ, this descendant of Abram.
7 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.
8 And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?
9 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.
10 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.
11 And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.
17 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.
18 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:
19 The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
20 And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,
21 And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
Here we find God establishing a formal covenant with Abram.
We find some covenantal language (lets call it O.T. legalese) used in these verses and we’ll discuss the idea of a covenant in depth next lesson.
For our purposes today, here we find the following:
The words of the covenant
The terms of the covenant
The oath of the covenant
The blood of the covenant
1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
2 And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
3 And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,
4 As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.
6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.
10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.
11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.
12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.
13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
14 And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.
Here we find the seal of the covenant - circumcision
The Abrahamic Covenant Today
The Abrahamic Covenant Today
Up until the time of Abram, there was no formal covenant established with mankind.
In Genesis 3:15 we see the elements of this covenant, however it does not record a formal transaction by which the covenant was established. It’s simply a promise given to us by God.
It doesn’t even speak explicitly of a covenant.
The establishment of the covenant with Abraham marked the beginning of an institutional Church.
In pre-Abrahamic times we had what might be called “Church in the house.”
Probably there were families where true religion found expression under the direction of the patriarch.
Possibly even larger gatherings of believers.
However there were no clearly marked body of believers during this time
With the Abrahamic covenant however, we find a clearly delineated, definitely marked body of believers. Through the ceremony of circumcision we have a sealing ordinance, a badge of membership, and a seal of the righteousness of faith by obedience.
Today we find the same elements in the Church
God establishes with us a better and more complete covenant
We will look at the elements of our present covenant covenant next lesson, but we’ll see the same covenantal language used.
We experience a clear and definite transition from our old lives to the new. From being a child of unrighteousness to a child of righteousness.
All the provisions of the Abrahamic Covenant apply to us today.
There is no greater nation than the people of God. The Church today is the people of God.
All the resources of heaven are at the disposal of the child of God.
God fights for us. He protects us from spiritual harm. He leads in front of us, walks with us, and follows behind us all the days of our lives. His blessings and His grace are poured out upon us each and every day.
The Church is this worlds last, best hope. This world will be saved, or it will be judged, only by the actions of the local church. God wants to be a blessing TO you, but also THROUGH you.
Conclusion
Conclusion
13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
14 For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:
15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb:
20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;
24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
We obtain the fulfillment and the realization of the Abrahamic promises through our obedient faith in Jesus Christ
Through the covenant that God established with Abram, salvation is made available to all people everywhere. Including you.