We begin our class this morning. So I reading a few verses first from Joshua 24 I'll make reference to it in the course of the lecture Joshua said to all the people. This is what the Lord the God of Israel says Long ago your forefathers including Tara the father of Abraham and Neha are lived beyond the river and and worshiped other gods Notice Abram and Neha were worshiping other gods But I took your father Abram from the land beyond the river and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I want to read to you now from the gospel of John The children of Abraham John chapter 8 verse 31 To the Jews who had believed him Jesus said if you hold to my teaching you are really my disciples Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free They answered him we are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves to anyone How can you say that we shall be set free and then after Jesus replies in verse 30 Abram is our father They answered if you were Abram's children said Jesus then you would do the things Abram did and then In verse 53 they said to Jesus are you greater than our father Abraham? He died So do the prophets who do you think you are? And then Jesus concluded by saying I tell you the truth before Abram was born. I am Let's pray Lord our God as we look at the total picture of the scriptures then we see what a dominant place your servant Abram had you called him You purified him you made him serve you and we thank you for what you did through him and his seed and Especially the Lord Jesus we thank you for coming to us through the seed of Abraham and that we today may be called seed of Abraham believers God help us to understand this message of scripture as we move through it Week by week keeps in from us. Give us joy in our work for Jesus sake. Amen. I want to remind you That I gave you a handout the other day and on that handout I had a listing of special points. I wanted you to note as you read and I Think they are important points. I would surely develop them if we had more time in class But why should I repeat what's been pretty well worked out in your textbooks? So I want to go on now to a consideration of Abraham first of all again a quick look at the circumstances In which we have to see Abraham Point A. I have on the board after the confirmation of the creation covenant or the cosmic Kingdom remember Genesis 8 See time and harvest summer and winter will never cease the Creation order will continue with all of its in-built patterns and laws and seasons God had established that firmly and We have to therefore realize that when God comes to Abraham God comes to Abraham in a very definitely maintained cosmic order Abraham need not have any uncertainties as to whether or not for example the land will continue or If there'll be a flood to wipe out the land Which God is going to be promising him or his seed It will continue this creation covenant and if the creation covenant continues then indeed God's kingdom is assured of its Continuance God will continue to reign God will continue to carry out his will Within the great cosmic creation setting But that does not mean That we cannot Take a good look at a few points God's kingdom will surely continue because he has given the seed of government Which will be a means for the controlling of people under his reign You know the government that you have on all of the nations are in a sense a reflection of God the king who was the great governing one the ruling one and People create the image of God they imitate God by setting up their little kingdoms by setting up their governments and seeking to so the very fact that God initiated the Preservation of the human race and Robertson in his book and you'll find other discussions too of capital punishment that Indicate the terror again. You see a great advancement in God's revelation concerning how we are to govern ourselves and how we are to protect the human race So the creation covenant will continue creation will continue God's kingdom is assured And then there's that story of Babel that caused the spread of the people's the formation of the nations and in the midst of that As the people spread God picked up his specific line and that's what I've tried to put on the board over here Adam there were the Kayonites the flood came and the Kayonites were wiped Abel murdered Seth come down to Noah Noah has his three sons and It's kind of hard to start diagramming that which becomes complex, but the descendants of ham shem and jafat they are spread And it's interesting that the shemites May have remained right there in the Mesopotamian valley where it is thought that Paradise was and and pretty much where the flood uh with the arcane down and the upper Mesopotamian valley The jafatites as we saw they're going to multiply we'll see an indication of that that the Gephetic genealogy goes all the ways and then it stops The himmetic genealogy we have the four major nations foot Mithrium Libya Egypt Ethiopia and the Kayonites and the Kayonites In a sense really come to represent the Kayonite line Although there's no biological line there It's the Kayonites that particularly have their cup of aniquity full And God is going to wipe them not by a flood he's going to use These people whom he has ordained to be the agent of salvation are to become the agent of their demise That's what we have we'll get to that in Joshua in judges but anyway From theft to knurled to shem to Torah to Abraham Isaac Jacob And there you see the mediatorial line as God works out his cosmic purposes And as he covenants with his people the mediatorial line Now we get to Jacob and then the cross sons and then it's Judah that is selected as The mediatorial line bearer Well, we have a lot of territory to cover this week as we look at Genesis The last part of 11 up through Genesis 50 I read to you already From Joshua 24 That is another factor that you must keep in mind as you look at the second in which God came to Abraham Abraham was living down there way in the southern part of the Mesopotamian valley likely in the fertile Delta area where the early Caldys was Abram was living in a highly cultured setting archaeology shows that they had double-story homes where they even had flush toilets and bathtubs up on the second floor Abram come Abram Go And he had it become a droller of a droller intense From a highly developed culture situation but where idolatry was rife the Kayonite Kayonite Caldeon Idolatry was rife and Abram was called from that We go now to Genesis 12 And the first thing that I want to point out to you is that Here is where your Hebrew Those of you who have been studying Hebrew Will come in very well to really get some of the finer points I've put a few words on the board here For those of you who can't read Hebrew Like That's the hip feel Imperative of the verb Hilok Go Ad- Abram was not given a choice He was given a command Go Leave But before he was told what he had to leave We have another LK But it's pointed differently different Val- Laqah What does that mean Go for yourself Is the way I've read some commentaries to interpret this Laqah Go for yourself But Qasuto Umberto Qasuto in his commentary Points out that there are other passages In scripture that indicate that this means Buy yourself not for yourself But buy yourself
Check his commentary and he'll give you four or five references We're That Preposition with that pronoun Buy yourself Here we have election You Abraham You are singled out And here the particularity of election is really stressed Abram Buy yourself And that Laqah here buy yourself is surely supported by the three words that follow May Arexica From your land Go by yourself From your land
But not just From your land my great as a family You know when my mother's family left the Netherlands her father's twin sister came along and Grandpa Messman had 11 kids and his twin sister had 13 Can you imagine how southwest Minnesota suddenly became populated when Four adults and 24 kids arrived They went with the half family Abram Leave the extended family Don't take any of the broader wider family circle this word Mim Mim Oh Lad Tika Cousin the word Yalad Those that were born those that were Produced in your extended family And then even more specifically from the house of your father Don't take your brothers along Don't take your father along Don't take your nephews or nieces Don't take anyone Now it's interesting that as the story develops we've we learned that Abraham Didn't go along Father Tiro went a brother went and then if you lot went Now whether this was Abrams basic doing all of it was because these others hung on well If you're going to make a move Abram will go along But God bit by bit Remove them all from Abrams side You know people have said Where did Abram get called from Now if you read the last part of chapter 11 We read that Tira had gone to Heron Which was up there in northern Mesopotamia But when I turned to act seven verse two When Stephen begins his speech in defense of his sermon he said Brothers and fathers listened to me The God of glory appeared to a father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia Before he lived in Heron Now Genesis 11 and 12 Does not make that specifically clear that he got the call In the ear of the counties he left the ear of the counties And if you read Genesis 11 and 12 you might think that he got the call while he was in Heron Steven says, uh-uh He was told to leave his family. Well, he left his father's family when he was in Heron But he didn't take didn't leave left
So there was a stipulation that was definitely involved in this call He had to separate himself The one for the mini The one out of the mini in order to become the servant of the mini And you know sometimes it's tough to leave When I was a boy I said I was going to become a missionary When I was in the service and I wound up for 19 months of doing We have work in Japan right after the Second World War I saw the great need in Japan and I said I'll be back. I'm going to go study for the ministry and I'll be back And the meantime I remembered that there was that sweet little girl that I wondered as a wife You know it took us about nine nine and a half years from the time we first met until we got married Sometimes some people these days think that after two-year courtship. They've waited too long But in those days of warfare and separations or whatnot What if what a trying time that was I got back to the States I studied I volunteered for missions through Japan another man got the call I won't go into details why I got omitted that was in God's providence I took a call to a church in West Michigan and I was there less than two years and I got a call to go to Australia Why go to a land of sheep rocks and desert When there's 80 million people in Japan and only about 15 million in Australia But God placed the call before me before through the church and I was constrained to take it It was hard to decide to go But when the time came you know as Jesus said the time comes we have to pick up and leave all and go It was tough leaving the church It was awfully tough thing goodbye to my wife's father and her brothers and sisters that were living in Michigan But we were looking forward to seeing my family and all my relatives that live with 70-80 miles Do Easter Sand Francisco But the day that we had a pick up our suitcase and head for San Francisco And we stepped on that ship the Orsova from the British Pacific and Orient lines And there were three four hundred people gathered there and they're here yet nice stood With our we had six children at the time and one for one they all left The deck and when the stood on the pier And finally there we were And we felt the throb of the motors and the tugboats Start pulling us out He leadeth me We could hear them singing Tough to pick up and go It's not easy By no means Maybe God just softened it somewhat for Abraham By letting Somehow another his father go with him to Heron and then if you Going with him up until he got to Shechem But the point came where Abram had to be obedient and he had his stand alone That was a covenantal stipulation But there was sure promises involved with that And there were blessings and as you read that here in this passage here Go to the land that I will show you you're going to get a land and this indicates again God's sovereign Kingship he is the Lord of all lands That was a comfort for me when I went to Australia There may not be many people there enough a lot of desert and all those sheep 15 million people and 170 million sheep But he's the Lord of the mall And God gave land and God to promise this land and give the land because he's the great land owner. He's the king He's in charge And then as you go on to read the passage And I will make and the verb there is asa Then I will make you to be lagoy It doesn't say I'm which is the Hebrew word for covenant people but goi And I will make you into a big recognized organized politically functioning unit The word goi means that an organized functioning political unit I'll make you into a nation Gadol Gadol G-A-D-O-L which means Very large and I'll make you into a large nation one nation one person and then it goes on to say and I will also bless you Varak B-R-K in its various forms and I'm going to be stole left upon you an energy upon you and I'm going to fill you with everything you need personally Then in that word Barak surely lies hidden embedded implicitly and I'll save you Abram Because I'm going to enter into your life You know the word Barak basically means the Neil And when God kneels Down to us he reaches with his Very long arm and has ever opened hand he reaches right down and he gives us whatever we need I'll fully supply you physically materially spiritually morally socially everything That's all laid up in that word Barak That's the second covenant blessing you're going to have a place to live And you're going to become a spiritual moral social prosperous giant in the land but more And I will make your name great Shemaha your name will and then he's got that that word again God though the same word that was used of making you a Great nation. I will make your name great. I'm going to make you famous Your name will be known throughout the world And look how the people in Jesus day were talking of Abraham And even today in the great struggle between the Arabs and the And the Jews in Palestine Abraham is repeatedly called upon as the source of their rights And then God said and you shall be a blessing And you become a channel I'm bringing you there to be a channel of service These are the blessings the promises that God gives And then you we have to note the extent that Abraham's influence was to go forth how far To all nations That you have in verse three The phaser is to all the families of haadama The smaller groups the bigger groups every family of the earth is going to receive Blessing through you now. I haven't got time to go into a discussion But whether there's one form of the verb Barak in this verse three This verb blessing means the niff or form if whether that means reflexive or passive Some people translated and these nations will bless themselves in you That's the reflexive which the niff valve form of the verb often carries But it can also carry a passive sense and they shall be blessed But if you take the reflexive Aspect it puts an onus on the other people In the way they relate to you And the texas and if they curse you They will be cursed so it indicates that there is a certain amount of onus that God puts on the other nations That they are to maintain uphold and carry out a proper relationship to Abraham They will acknowledge him Of course that demanded of Abraham That he obey what will pick up now in a few minutes in Genesis 17 He had to walk with God he had to be perfect and complete Let me put it this way I think God is going to bring judgment on many people that scoff at the church that scoff at his covenant kingdom people
But I think sometimes the church people are as much to blame as the others by the way that they live and act They don't always act with this type of behavior that would bring respect and honor Right Well, we read In verse 4
Abraham went a share dived According to the word that God gave him Abraham obeyed He did according to the word that God gave him now dumbbell Makes very much of this passage because he says here is where you have the the heart of God covenanting with Abraham Others have made far more of Genesis 7 15 and 17 And that's one of the points. I'll have you take a good look at That I pointed out in the reading list. I gave you wonder why The emphasis on this passage by some and not by others And you know what I basically think the difference is Many people haven't seen the Old Testament missionary mandate as clearly as they should because Genesis 12 12 and 3 Contains the Old Testament missionary mandate Abraham leave Abraham go Abraham serve the nations and And there you get the context within the cosmic kingdom God sovereignly reigning controlling telling him where to go And where did he tell Abraham to go Go away from a corner of the earth and go right in the middle of the nations His tight land to your north west Egypt foot Ethiopia all of Africa to your south west And to your east and north east those where the japhatites will be I want you in the middle of the earth Later on when Paul was sent forth as a missionary he wasn't sent forth from Jerusalem was he Why was he sent from Antioch? Because Antioch was the great shipping and transportation center of the Roman Empire Up on the that little river they had a beautiful harbor there And God uses centers From which he wants his people to function I guess that's one reason I came to St. Louis because it's kind of the center of the US. We should the center of the world We'll go to Genesis 15 Genesis 14 tells us how Abram went to Egypt and God brought him back and how lot had to be separated Then in Genesis 15
And after all these things that's after Abram had defeated the nations he'd and lot had separated after all these things God comes to Abram Genesis 15 and says Don't be afraid Now I think it's this past this passage in Genesis 15 death particularly picked up in the New Testament I read to you from John 8 Because if in Genesis 15 and in 17 were the idea of the seed become so prominent The New Testament helps us focus in on this seed concept Don't forget Galatians 3 Verse 28 and 29 if you believe Then what then you were seed of Abraham So it in it brings faith Genesis 15 verse 6 Genesis 15 verse 6 and Galatians 3 28 and 29 They just mesh and then when you put John 8 the verses I read from the from John's gospel in with this Jesus is trying to get these people to believe in him so that they may prove that they are indeed seed of Abraham But the thing that really stands out in chapter 15 is the continuity of the seed line Abram didn't have his own child God had promised him that he'd become a great nation He's being attacked and he looks around and God comes to him and says fear not. I'm your great reward I have a tremendous future for you Abraham That's what that word great reward basically means and Abram says You mean my servant is my future? Well, he's a pretty good guy. So be it God if that's the way you want it. No, Abram No, look to the stars of the heavens if you can count them You'll be able to count how Great your seed will be The continuity of the seed is there and then we have three very important concepts that are picked up in scripture Have a cook picks it up, but it all how it's dealt with in the gospels faith righteousness and obedience and Abraham when God said know your seed will be Then we read that Abram said i main a olive main noon The form of that verb from which are men so be it lord I have confidence in you that's the verb that choose there in Genesis 15 verse 6 and Abram said I am a minute lord so be it so it will be and It was counted to Abraham For righteousness We've already had that word righteous before once before and This is such a rich concept. We just got to take time a moment to deal with that I mentioned before that John Braille points out that it's a term of relationship I noticed men and some notes that I wrote up about 25 years ago. I pointed there I said hey in this concept of righteousness I find that a living relationship is basic and fundamental But when I took a course in justification and sanctification as taught in the Old Testament by Professor John Murray When I was studying for my THM degree at Westminster seminary way back in the early 50s He pointed out That the word you know Is that the car Well, this is their Zadeca righteousness that's the feminine form or zennec Which is the masculine form Righteousness that this in some places comes through as a verb At times it's a feminine noun and then it's a masculine noun A seglet noun there But it isn't always used in the same way Sometimes righteousness comes to us in the setting of a declaration God declares And another time it's in a setting when God imputes and then in some other settings the reference is to One becomes One becomes righteous and if one becomes righteous One is righteous and if one is righteous Can we forget about it all see everything's okay? Oh, no It's especially this fifth sentence that is used when it speaks of Noah being righteous He exhibits it or he shows that he loves it Now There's no doubt about it that this Is the fountain head of the relationship that all depends on God's sovereign action Will he declare to be righteous? It all depends on the great sentence of God But God's sentencing us in that respect is never separated from The act of faith Faith is not meritorious Faith is the setting here's where the contingency comes in as in as in distinction from Conditionality We are faith is not conditional. Why do we believe God Justifies But God gives us the ability to believe God gives the spirit which enables us to believe but But the point I want to make now is the Declaration the Lord of God is basic fundamental and primary And when God declares his word becomes effective effective and he imputes and this is a legal term Both of these are legal but When these two legal When these legal acts are performed One Become and then is righteous and these terms not only refer to us personally To our own personal situation But that indicates that the relationship if we become right Ha we're right with God God has made all things right we have become right and we are right And so here's where the the personal relationship comes in So God In the case of Abraham said to him Abraham I Declare you Right with me the right relationship is restored You have become and you are now Within my will Because you say amen because or when you say amen Was when he said amen Lord amen Then Abram got the insurance that he was declared right He had a right relationship with God He was he had become and was in it now of course the big problem comes Will he exhibit it One other thing I want to point out here I'm going to go on to point out is by the way the word obedience that comes through in the moment In this chapter There is the ceremony that deals with the cutting of the animals and to give Abraham the assurance that what God said concerning the land would surely be his And God used the chef of my ceremony by having and said Abraham You're always going to have a place to serve You're not going to be stranded I as the Lord of the nations that is a great king of creation I've got a place for you and you will always have a place the land is Observient too is secondary to the promise of the seed The seed will always have a place to work the seed will always have a place to live and to function from where The influence can go out And so not only is Abraham by the covenantal promises made sure as to where he is to Be as a family But that place is going to be his But the fact that the land was not to be seen as the Important thing and today you're trying to get that impression when you read about the big argument That's going on in the mid east Look Abraham never had more than a burial place there God didn't immediately give him the whole mid east No God start working on the seed So that's fine Mary that's fundamental The meditorial line That's what God wanted to work out with him. So The ceremony gives Abraham assurance concerning the land And that assurance about the land is there because God Had said that he was going to be such a numerous people And I also want to point out this that the land that was point given to Abraham The promise Abraham was from the river of Egypt way down in the southwest way up to the north west to the great river the river Euphrates And when David was king and Solomon his son followed him That's exactly as far as the davidic psalm on it kingdom extended God kept his promise In the very beginning of the monarchy And the people who today say that the god still has to fulfill his promise of giving that Great big area of land to his people god did it He did it Read Psalm 72 read the account to david and psalmons king the mr. How far that extended Genesis 15 the promise of the land Over the great expanse as given there Was carried out Then comes Genesis 16 and what does Abram do it's a chapter that deals with seed And Abram listened to his wife By Adam listened to Eve Here's my my daughter no not my daughter Here's my slave girl the Egyptian girl I'm getting told to have a baby and we got to have a boy because so much depends on it And Abram was ready to listen to his wife Maybe heger was a nice little girl too, you know Then he got her pregnant and ishmael was born And we still have the Arab ishmael Isaac Jewish struggle with us today Oh If Abraham had only not listened to Sarah But he knew better let's not blame Sarah only Abram knew better And then he says okay, not ill-Azer better at least here. I got one Ishmael's mind God came to Abram now. This is chapter 17 God comes Abraham and he says and it was
That Abraham was in his 99th year 13 years after ishmael was born God comes to Abraham and he says Abram we got to get the record straight here And the first thing that Abram that God does is he gives his name as L. Shedai Now the names of God Vos deals with this on pages 64 and 65 L L on And Elohim Vos deals with error pages 64 and 65 He discusses the name L. Shedai on page 81 and 82 And there also he points out that Yahweh The redemptive name Must be kept in mind and he discusses that more fully and pages 114 to 119 I repeat look at Vos for the Distinctions in these names L. L on the high one Elohim the almighty one L. Shedai the greatly exalted one God comes to Abram and says I am the great almighty exalted one and Abram you has to Abram What's the command that the Abram gets there? Hitt halak lefa nai Walk with me, Abraham God comes to lift him out of his Sinfulness and disobedience Walk with me, Abraham La fa nai Some people translate that before my face But it can also mean in company with me. He's God's telling Abraham to do exactly What we read that Inak had done And what Noah had done Abram be like Inak and be like Noah, walk with me I'll lift you and I'll continue to be with you and then the words that are carried on there that he goes on to say there And he says and he said to him And be ta main T-M-E-T-A-M-E-N is the word. Tell me Be blameless Be circumspect. Don't let anybody ever point the finger at you Abraham Now they could do that because of the way you dealt with Hager and you got a real problem here house with a little ishmael there Hager and Sarah can't get along If you had walked with me that would not have happened So God comes with his stipulation and he says to Abraham I have an ethical demand and both deals with that again to you. That's one of the principles ethical living Walk with me and then in chapter two comes the promises And I and the verb there is nattan. I set my covenant with you and nattan the verb there is It basically means give I give you my covenant the idea of a gracious gift Abraham and that setting of disobedience with Hager is now given the assurance that grace is functioning. I give you my covenant and it's firmly set with you So here's where the verb nattan is used. It's interesting how the verbs that control The idea of covenant varies according to the circumstance in which it is and God then says My covenant is with you and with your children and with the children of your children and I will make you great exceedingly many and then he promises again that he's going to become My old my old very very great the promise of seed is reiterated According to the way God will give seed not according to the way he will do it with a laser or with a with ishmael God sovereignly stays in control and Abrams life and he proceeds then To make this promise here in verse two and Then Abraham does what? Why did niffah? He fell on his face before the Lord and worshiped Does this take the place of an oath? I definitely believe that verse three You know at other times when The covenant was made to be some type of an oath response Abram Abraham doesn't even try to make an oath speak His on his face before God here is obedient Abraham And from then on Abum becomes the man of faith and the man of obedience the man of ethical living The covenant is ratified Whereas before the blood of an animal had to be shed Now it's human blood that would have to be shed to really ratify the covenant By circumcision and circumcision would indicate the rolling away Joshua chapter five the rolling away of the past the cleansing That's why in principally reformed circles we speak of Baptism coming in place a circumcision because baptism is speaks of the washing away So circumcisions with speaker the rolling away of the past because that's what Abum needed so badly With all of God's promises and with his Kind of mixed up life up to up to then Abraham The past is rolled away for you and all these children And all those under your control. I claim them I've separated them Disque you read the discussion of circumcision by boss and by
Robertson and so the ratification and the seal are to gather there in And then Notice again to that election comes through in that same chapter 17 and because then Abram again tries to have ishmael Because he really thinks that he and Sarah are too old and God says no I am in charge. I'm going to give you Isaac. I'm going to give you a boy and it will not be ishmael But ishmael I claim to and ishma had to be circumcised Because he was Abram's son So ishmael was not cast off rejected He received the sign of the covenant also Well obedience to the sovereign king obedience to God the sovereign covenant maker was the absolute requirement and God Gave him the grace to do it and God graciously continue this covenant with Abraham We'll pick up Abram's mediatorial work Friday and we'll go on and conclude with Abraham and then we will discuss Isaac and Jacob