Let's take our scriptures up this evening. I want to begin the Abrahamic covenant. This covenant Going to take more than just one night for I'm going to look at this over the next couple of weeks at a minimum probably three before all is said and done So I'd like for us to just do sort of a recap and in recapping begin to What I call brackets off the the Abrahamic covenant. What I mean by that is let's examine the outline of it Let's examine the the externals the periphery see how far it is what's the extent and in the structure of it and then we'll start to get more into the meat of it as we as we move on forward in the weeks to come genesis Genesis Chapter 12 and I grabbed my Studying in my my older new King James version. It's very close to the S.V. My apologies I try to stay consistent But the cat was bothering me and I was trying to get out and beat cat with the door because he was trying to get out of the door And I grabbed the first black book I saw and it's the wrong one. So bear with me as as we read this version But I think you'll find the new King James is so similar to the S.V That if I had not made confession you might not have ever not might not have even known Going to read three verses to begin with here in Genesis chapter 12 now the Lord had said to Abram Get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing I will bless those who bless you and I will person who person you and in you all the families of the earth Shall be blessed there is a There is a song written by a group called the smashing pumpkins I'm sure Robert Bay to go. Don't have a copy I'm sure in your home of the smashing pumpkins I know might place it with his windows down going up and down the road a good bit in his pickup truck In one of their all-time favorites a great pulp zone called Tales of a scorched earth you probably try not to sing it right now. I know it just this is coming over you like a flood In that song you'll find these lyrics Inspiring as you might expect We're all dead inside the future of a shattered past Now interestingly enough as is very often in some of the arts that most of us would prefer not to read or listen to There's sometimes amidst all of the other stuff Some social commentary or historical commentary own a generation's Disappointment that life didn't work out the way they thought that it might this this line We're all dead inside the future of the shattered past Marxism Capitalism for that matter and technology As assessed by an up-and-coming generation have all failed None of them will be able to provide the future That all of those who came before them believe that it would There is no communist state social estate that all will be equal will all work hard and share in each other's goods and everything will be great There is no capital estate where there will not be a certain group of people who are Labor who are essentially of a or a certain for those who have a great deal Technology is not going to make us live forever. It will not keep us from hurting and it will not it will not change the disparity With the stock market as it is it will not change the disparity between those who have and those who have not and so as they look at the future They are describing themselves as being already dead living inside a future That is nothing but a reflection of a shattered past if those of you who are in are also training right now we talked about covenants a bit this past week and one of my One of the burrs under my saddle right now is I just as I'm working with young troops especially and young people I'm finding that they have no story I have no future because they have no past They have no present because they have no past nothing got them here. They just showed up They just appeared Nothing seems to be in motion. Nothing in progress Education doesn't change anything. They were living at home. They went and got a college degree. They got a master's degree They stayed at home. Nothing really moves. Nothing changes. Nothing is is in progress. It's all just stale and stacked They're not motivated in their own lives. They're not motivated for a future because they don't have a story that connected with in the past They don't have a by and large in our society. I'm speaking. They don't have a home of two parents that burst them and raise them and Shaped their character to carry on the family heritage. There's no hat filled in McCoy's anymore because the hat fills the horse each other and the McCoy's have all died off There is no there is no family unity and there is no family story in too many cases Young people don't even have associations with their biological father or their biological mother. There's no family legacy whatsoever none There's no background. There's no keeping up the legacy. I told the group last Wednesday the reason I'm in the military Not because I was motivated now was motivated to not go to college and the military was my only way of doing that or Or staying out of jail so what's sheriff told me but Joe I never even met the sheriff. He couldn't get it. I
Join the military because my father and my uncle sat around Every time we got together telling army stories and saying you know Go in the army and make your man Every good American's gonna service country. It's what it's what men do We grow up and we serve our country. We ought to serve now They came through an arrow with the draft and all of that understand that but all of that talk at all of that family legacy and looking at the pictures All of that rubbed off on me and I realized that I was gonna basically fall off the ship of the family If I didn't go into the military and have a picture in uniform and a discharge favor just like my dad and mom family Family lines the family story Is what drove me in the direction that I was going in? It's what gave me a course and a heading and and a direction if it wasn't for that I wouldn't have really known what to do. I wasn't really doing well in school I wasn't motivated to do well in school I didn't know what I wanted to do when I grew up I thought well I'll be an engineer because they make a lot of money that coming from a guy who couldn't pass algebra That shows you how well these things are coming together. It should have been arrested for that But we have a generation that's living in a future That's not them. It's not their own and they don't know why they're there I'm here is where we have an opportunity We meaning the Christian church The biblical narrative is my story The narrative of the nation of Israel is my story the narrative of the Christian church is my story Whatever story is God's story with God's people is my story And I don't mean that I just adopt that because I'm Christian and and we're all sort of just in this narrative and flow together I mean that in the most little sense if I have died and been born again Then my father for eternity Not by flesh, but by spirit It's my heavenly father And as he has been working out his plan of redemption throughout history That story is my own My people came through the Exodus See the church has not only a family but a history and For a people who were wandering in the desert wilderness with no identification anymore None they're not Republican. They're not Democrat. They're not even really independent They're indifferent if they're anything and we're losing I Compared it when I was speaking to To some commanders are about to deploy. I said imagine balloons helium balloons and You're walking along with these balloons and they're not really tethered and Every now and then one is just floating away How can we anchor them so they stop floating away? They have no story They have no background. They have no history and so they have no future Well the covenants Give that don't they they give that Abraham is commanded to leave his earthly story I got immediately gives him a new story and he walks with it He doesn't just send him off in a bandit and he walks with him He gives him a new beginning and he begins a new line and a new history To which we are all apart Let me look with you At where we are so far. Let me recap. There are three covenants Three covenants that we have to have is our foundation We talked about the eternal covenant covenant of redemption the one to clean father and the son We talked about covenant of works James I'll brought that before you and the covenant of works That is the covenant that was made without him and if you obey then you live if you disobey you die Talk about covenant of grace first introduced in Genesis 315 first time that we see it in scripture where he talks about There'll be one who comes there'll be one who comes who destroys the evil one and For him and he is also going to be bruised that it was the promise of a redeemer So we have these two lines the scene of the woman and the seat of Satan and There is a war that is waged between these as we continue progressively moving through we see as we Study lastly the no way of covenant the no way of covenant was a reboot of the creation covenant It was God saying as man had developed there was now to be executed that judgment That ended all of all of all of the created order as it was at every living thing Everything was white from the face of the earth and then once again And we looked some of those scriptures where we saw the land formed and we saw the birds of the air We saw that the land giving for this it's it's a fruit It's a brush it's trees and then and then we saw the commands to know it to be fruitful multiply and here was added He was to have the minion over the earth just like Adam Except now God helped and he said all make the animals afraid of you And that will help you in having communion over them now the animals will fear you and so you'll Lord over Over the creation and over the animal And then we come to the next development and the in the flood and the a plot line So far human history has been nothing but a curse Purses and disasters remember we kicked out of the garden. There was a flood the tile Revival we needed a new plot line our plot line our story was not working out We weren't able to straighten out the sharp turns in the bend and so it was curse and disaster Curse and disaster one after another even the annihilation of almost all people Say Noah and his family own earth. We needed a new plot line. So God tells Abraham In you all the families of the earth will be blessed that's a new promise That's a new promise In you all the families of the earth will be blessed I equate this and it's significant so when Noah told when God told Noah I'll make the animals afraid of you God Reaches in and he says in the case of Noah you're to have the minion but you're struggling here because the animals are not have no fear So I'm going to change that dynamic now after Noah All the families of the earth as they continue to be Viterate as they continue to grow as they continue to develop always went back What is the what is the basis of foundation of a man's heart? What's way is it always like and it's on evil continually? We read that as the parts lie upwards. So his man's heart that on evil continually So God now again reaches in and changes the dynamic and he says the Abraham Not only will I be making promises to you all the base on your obedience, but I'm going to change the people I'm going to change the people They're going to be blessed through you See the net the whole nature of the relationship now is beginning to shift. There's a different nuance to this There's a change. Let's look at Romans chapter 4 It's turning Romans 4 find verse 16 and 17 and see if this doesn't remind you of Genesis chapter 1 Again Therefore, it is a faith That it might be according to grace so that the promise might be sure to all the seed Not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham who is the father of us all as it is written I have made the father of many nations and the presence of him whom he believed God who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did Some of the language take you back once again to Genesis to a creative act He calls forth life. He brings the life those things that are that were dead and Genesis 12 3 which is the passage that we're looking at now He says there, I will bless those who bless you I will curse him who curses you and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed He is bringing order to the chaos that followed that followed babble babble is recorded for us in Genesis 11 now chapter 10 and 11 of Genesis are probably not ordered properly in the full history because you have in chapter 10 all of this all of these of this Genealogy or all of these different tribes and nations are listed and then in 11 is where they actually do the separating So 11 and 12 were pressed up together because they're a package there to be remembered here It was chaos this breaking apart mankind begins to fly apart again because of the chaos and then God steps in in chapter 12 And he says I'm going to bring order Man cannot get this ordered so I'm going to bring order to this I will be the one who makes her nation. I will be the one who blesses you. I will be the one that establishes your name I will be the one who through you will bless all the families of the earth Noah's covenant community had failed just as Adams had failed before and so now with Abraham once more God steps in and he says I will do what man cannot There are in the and Genesis a number of parallels that I'd like to draw and Genesis 128 He tells Adam there that he will he will bless and multiply that he will bless and multiply Then in chapter 17 2 and 6 and 8 he feels Abraham the same and chapter 22 16 and following he feels Abraham the same and chapter 26 and and and verse 24 he feels Abraham the same and so you have this continuing rolling Dialogue of God where his purpose is to bless and to multiply to bless and to multiply and he does it without him He does it with Noah. He's doing it again with Abraham So let me bracket in this Abrahamic covenant in the scripture and then we'll we'll call it a night and just go that form I bracket again in what I mean is that in the scripture in Genesis 12 1 There we have no request made of God to Abraham and we have none where Abraham has said to have gone out seeking God or seeking his face what we have is a command That's what we have God reaches down. He takes hold of Abram and he gives him a command and command that's in keeping with the new covenant in Genesis 17 we have a sign a sign in our own body Not a sign in the sky But a sign in our own body with circumcision This is a significant development. We are now particularly marked Not as someone in an illegal arrangement with the Lord but as his own His own you see the him taking possession now of his people He's now bringing them in is marking them out as his own is making them his own and then in Genesis 15 Which is in between all of this is where we actually have the covenant ceremony a ceremony That is in blood. Again, Abraham was not looking God initiated it But nevertheless there are four responsibilities and I'm going to end with these four responsibilities and they were in our passage Genesis 12 1 to 3 Abram has to lead his own country Abram has to lead his family relations because he will now have a new family He has to lead his father's house now that is not directing him necessarily to lead geographically in that Senate Although he has commanded to lead geographically separately when it says your father's house That means out from under your father's authority because now he is under the Lord's authority See the whole new identity aspect of this and he's also To go to the land that the Lord will show him leave his country leave his relations leave From underneath the authority of his father and follow after God and go to a new land that God will show him Do you see how he is taking Abram and he is lifting him up and he is setting him into the future Because the storyline of Abram was broken It was broken before as we as we went from the garden to Noah It was broken from Noah to Babel and so God after the breaking the part of the nation Reaches down and takes one man and he says I'll start here I'll start here and he gives him commands He doesn't enter into an agreement with him. He commands him We're going to start fresh Abram. You're going to step out from your household You're going to lead your Biological family. You're not going to be under your father's authority anymore And you're going to take your stuff and you're going to take your gear and you're going to take your livestock You don't take your family and you're going to go where I tell you to go because you cannot get there You can't get to the future unless I write the story for you And that story will be that all the future nations the people in the future all of the ones that come after you I will bless them through you Through your seat that is Jesus Christ So we have here very deliberately God Reestablishing a story A story that's why the Jews took such great pride in Father Abraham That's why they were so incensed when Jesus said that he knew Abraham and as though you know, I know Abraham He's never saved anybody that I know of They were insinced at that because Abraham was their story Abraham was their father Abraham was their narrative And they depended on that for identity The children of Abraham Galatians 3 if you're in Christ You are to see the neighborhood It's our story, too It's our story So the story that we're beginning now is showing how man's story Was that he could not get this done Under his own strength under his own social order under his own power under his own organization God reaches in each and every time to save to deserve to reestablish to reassert his original direction to bless and to multiply But Abram he takes charge of the storyline much more deliberately He says I'll write it for you. I'll take care of the storyline. You just do what I say And Abram complies So that's the way I want to sort of break it in our our Abrahamic covenant We'll get into some of the details of it as we as we progress look closer chapter 15 the nature of the covenant making and then 17 the nature of circumcision and how we can connect that with with our baptism the cause of the way The way we understand the scriptures what we call covenant theology that all of these are different administrations of the one One major covenant of great so also as we see all of this unfold Hopefully we'll gain a greater appreciation, but I wanted to stress that narrative part of it because I think there is our segue to this generation They don't have a story that they know We did and we can tell them their story Their parents have not been faith Their parents of a whole generation have left But they are not left as orphan Because there are no orphans for those who belong cry And that's just part of the wonder of this gospel
Heavenly Father gracious godly do thank you for the wonder of your grace and for your stepping in father To keep us for we continually wander all we like sheep have wandered and gone astray But you father the good shepherd draw us in and keep us near to you We pray that you would bless us as we depart serve and may we be the tellers of your story