Amen. Well, if you're turning your Bibles to the Book of Genesis chapter 15, we'll be looking at verses 7 through 21 this morning, Genesis 15, 7 through 21. Last time we looked at the most fundamental doctrine that we can know as believers, the doctrine of justification by faith alone, that the righteousness that we need to be right with God is an imputed righteousness, which is not at all from us. God accounts the righteousness we know ultimately of Christ to the believer who in and of himself remains personally a sinner. Beloved our works pay absolutely no role whatsoever in our justification as Paul wrote in Romans 4.5 to him who does not work, but believes on him, listen, who justifies the ungodly. His faith is accounted for righteousness. Beloved faith is the sole instrument through which God accounts a righteousness to believing sinners that they themselves did and do nothing to achieve. We have to believe that. We saw how at the time of the Reformation Rome taught the instrument of His baptism and then penance which includes our works of satisfaction so that the grace of the sacrament and they'll say it's by grace, but the grace is only given to the sinner when he believes or when he works, when he does his work, when he does his work, then he gets the grace of the sacrament and I tried to show you as passionately as I could, sincerely as I could, the same Aaron falsehood from the federal vision teachers, that if you do your work, that God will save. And they do that especially with regard to children, that obedient parents will save their children, that faith will come to them, but you have to do your part. You have to do your obedience. And that is a false gospel because if there are works, then it's no longer by grace, Paul says. And I know they'll cover it up just like the Roman church said, well, it's congruous merit, it doesn't really deserve it, it's fitting that God would give it. And the federal vision teachers will say, it's covenantal obedience, it's not really obedience that earns, it's covenantal, they use the word covenantal to hide the fact that it's a false thought doctrine, you have to obey, do you have to obey to get the grace, yes, how much? Then it's by works, then it's not the gospel, then you've earned it. And then you can boast and you must boast and you must condemn everyone whose children don't believe because they didn't obey enough and you did. What a monstrous doctrine. Beloved we must not be seduced by that, here's the test for you. If anybody says in any book and any writing, if an angel from heaven says, saving grace is tied to this work of obedience. Test it with this passage of Scripture. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, 4 by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, listen to this part, and not as a result of works, God's not going to give your children faith as a result of your obedient works. Because if you did, then you'd be able to boast but the rest of the passage says, less anyone should boast. And the very thing this doctrine does is create boasting in some parents and absolute to spare another's, my goodness, it's bad enough to have an unbelieving child that you mourn for every day but to have others saying it's your fault. Because you didn't do the right obedience, things that I did, my kids are going to be saved. Oh, Beloved, save us from that false, false doctrine. We are justified by faith alone by a gift that comes from God. Pray for your children. You want to help your children get saved, pray for them because nothing you do is going to give them faith. Jesus preached perfect sermons and it didn't give people faith because God, the Spirit has to go forth as He pleases and you can't make that happen by your obedience or you're not a Christian anymore. We're not talking reformed, we're not talking evangelical, we're talking not a Christian. If you think your obedience will save your children. On today's text, God, after almost 10 years of a relationship with Abram, finally makes the covenant with him. Covenant is not relationship, that's another false teaching they teach. Why does he do this? And what does it mean for us today? This is a very important text for us, let's pray as we turn to God's word. Father in heaven, how we thank you for your goodness, we thank you for your word, how we pray that we would humble ourselves and receive it, recognizing we are sinners saved by grace and nothing we do, can earn salvation for us or anyone else. We look to you for grace, we look to Jesus, hear us God and change us by your word and Jesus name. Amen. Here now the word of the Lord from Genesis, chapter 15, beginning in verse 7, this is God's holy and perfect word. He said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out of ear of the Caldeans to give you this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it? So he said to him, bring me a three-year-old hepper, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon. Then he brought all these to him and cut them into, down the middle, and he placed each piece opposite the other, but he did not cut the birds into. And when the balkers came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. Now the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and he hold forer, and great darkness fell upon him. Then he said to Abram, no, certainly, that your descendants will be strangers in the land, that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them for hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve, I will judge. Afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now ask for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace, you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. And it came to pass, when the sun went down, and it was dark, that behold there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, to your descendants, I have given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river your freighties, the Kenites, the Kenisites, the Cadmenites, the Hittites, the Parasites, the Repeyum, the Amorites, the Kenanites, the Gurgishites, and the Jebysites. May the Lord establish this word in our hearts this morning and pray. I want you to notice, first of all this morning, salvation and assurance, I want you to notice salvation and assurance, Abram has just expressed his faith in God, and God has imputed righteousness to him, a righteousness that was not his own. And it was not for the first time we looked at that. That is showing that even after almost ten years of believing in God, of faithful service to God, still all of Abram's righteousness is through faith, imputation, not his own, and alien righteousness that God gives simply because he believes. And that's why God came to Abram in verse 1, do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield, I am your seedingly great reward. That is the essence of God's promise to his people, that I am your God, and you are my people, that I am your inheritance, right? What we lost in the garden, God, we were thrown out of his presence, God will bring us back, and that is what God is revealing here, and we know ultimately that's completed by Christ. But Abram is being told that and told about his seed, but the ultimate promise is God is giving himself to Abram, I am your God. And all of these other promises, the children, the land, those are tokens of that. But the most important promise for Abram was that God was his God. He looked for again a city whose builder was God, a city, a heavenly city. He was not solely focused on that land or just children in this world. Abram was looking to God for eternity, for God to save the world. In fact, God's first promise, the world will be blessed through your seed. Ultimately, that seed is Christ. And so now God reiterates the land promise of chapter 12 and 13, that's what happens in verse 7. Then he said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out of the earth, the caldience to give you this land. Part of the promise of chapter 12 and 13, children, descendants, land, but ultimately God himself, that those things are kind of gravy, God is your God, God is your reward, God is going to save you. And this is that seed of the woman promise that Abram in his family would have been trusting him. Now we don't know how much time passes between verses 6 and 7, but because of Abram's belief in verse 6, it seems to me that we shouldn't look at verse 8 as Abram doubting, right? As I said to you in verse 2, it wasn't really that Abram was doubting. He was understanding that in his seed, all the blessedness that God promised him was coming, but he couldn't have children. That's why he says, well, maybe Aliezer of Damascus, maybe I should adopt him. Maybe that's what you're saying, God, but it wasn't a question of faith or unbelief. Here in verse 8, I think it's the same thing. I don't think because Abram has just believed God in verse 6 and God has imputed righteousness and has been in verse 8, Abram's doubting. I don't think that's it. When Abram says in verse 8 and he said, Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it? Abram is saying, I think, not so much doubting God. He's doubting Abram. He knows Abram. He knows how quick he is to fear and say his wife's sister and then he ends up being taken into the Pharaoh's harem and all that kind of stuff. He knows what he has a tendency to do. He's doubting Abram. He says, Lord, I know who I am. How do I know you're going to be able to do this for someone like me? I think Abram is like that man that Jesus talked to in the Gospels whose child he was going to heal and he told him to believe and the man said, I believe, Lord, help my unbelief. I want to believe. I do believe. Part of me believes. Part of me doubt. Isn't that where all of us are all the time? I mean pretty much. Don't you wrestle without? Don't you question God again when his providence seems to go against his promises? Where's God? Why is this happening to me? I thought God forgave me. I thought I was one of God's people. I thought I was living for him. What's happened? I think Abram is asking, how can I be assured? How can I be certain? How can I have confidence? He's saying God strength in my faith and beloved, that's always a prayer you should pray. When you doubt, bring it to God. Lord, help me. Help me believe. I believe, but I'm questioning. Help me. And that's what I think Abram is doing. Lord, how can I know? How can I know more? How can I grow in my faith? I want to believe but I'm struggling. Give me confidence. Give me a basis to do that. That's one of the reasons why I do the show origins because I love the fact that we can show how God's word really is true. And that encourages people. I know that doesn't give them faith. I'm not thinking that we can convert somebody because we can show evolutions, got some serious problems. But a lot of Christians struggle. When they hear somebody saying, oh, wow, the world is billions of years old, gee, Bible must not be true. And they struggle with that or they want to try to turn it into myth or allegory somehow. Find ways to get Scripture which proves itself to be true in every way we can test it, to conform to what unbelieving scientists who do have an agenda. Even if they're not conscious of it, they are still suppressing the truth and unrighteousness. Right? And because of that, and I can tell you, if you study some of these things, they go out of their way to try to show that the Scripture is on true. They go out of their way to try to show and they'll emphasize the certain facts that make it look like Scripture is not true and they'll leave out the ones that show that, wow, the Bible looks like it is true. Just like the news media does today, they pick and choose what they report so that you believe what they want you to believe. Scientists have an agenda too and they manipulate their conclusions too. So when I can get these professionals on who have the same degrees, the same education, they look at the information more objectively and not that we can all, anyone be perfectly objective but they really try to show and they'll even say, well, I'll hear some of the things that we, you know, not fully clear on, but look how many things show that God's word is true. You know, the rocks really do cry out when we look at them objectively and they say, we've been made by a creator God. We didn't come into existence from nothing which is absolutely absurd. So that's why I do that because of our faith. I want us grow in my faith. I want people to grow in their faith. We're going to the Grand Canyon, Lord willing, right after the service next Sunday. And I'm going with the next 30s, let 20 tours and I'm hoping to grow in my faith as I look at what general revelation is saying. I believe scripture tells me who Jesus is, but it's great to see it confirmed. I mean, didn't God take Abraham out and say, look at the stars. Look at the stars, Abraham. This is how you know, but I'm going to give you descendants. I made those in one day looking at that physical thing, help Abraham believe. We need those kind of helps. It seemed to me because we are weak in our faith. Calvin says, quote, Abraham brings before God the anxiety by which he is inwardly oppressed. Do you ever have that oppression I have? And therefore his questioning with God is rather a proof of faith. God says then a sign of unbelief. He wants to grow. He's saying help me, Lord, help me believe. And God has already nudged him in this direction in verse 7 when God says, I am the Lord who brought you out of ear of the caldians. You know, God is always the God who is bringing us out of places that we shouldn't be, that we can't get out of ourselves. God is always the God who is bringing us up out of somewhere. I was just reflecting on this this weekend, even as a believer, how God has brought me out of places that I got myself into, that I would not have gotten out of. You know, it's the perseverance of the saints, but it's also the preservation of the saints. We persevere because he preserves us. And God has done that over and over again, you know, more than two dozen times in the pence of took, God identifies himself to Israel as I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of Egypt, out of bondage. One time he says, out of the iron furnace, that's where we end up in our sins. In some iron furnace, it's going to consume us and God brings us out again. And that's what God is doing in reminding Abram in verse 7, Abram, you and your father, Tara, as it says in Joshua, lived on the other side of the river worshipping other gods. And I brought you out of that. I saved you. I made you my own. And that's what God has done to anyone who believes it's God who brought you from death to life. And that's what God does. And he continues to give us life and keep us. Every believer started off as a child of Satan and God made you a child of God. He caused you to be born again. He freed you from bondage to sin and that freedom is in Jesus. So God is the one he's reminding Abram that I saved you. I made you who you are. You can trust in me because we're all really like Joshua the High Priest in Zechariah 3. We're all brands snatched from the fire. If you ever get to the point where you think you're not a brand that was burning and would have burned, even at this point in your Christian life, you're not trusting in Christ. You're trusting in your own righteousness. So consider God's past faithfulness to you. That's what God's telling Abram. Think of what I've done for you Abram. It's been almost 10 years. You can believe in me. I am the God who brought you out of her of the Kelley and why did I do it to give your descendants this land? This is salvation and assurance. Secondly, notice salvation and trouble. Notice salvation and trouble. Do that this week. Think of the things God has delivered you from. It'll strengthen your faith. If Abram is going to experience some trouble, he's going to have to prepare all these animals. That's going to cause him some extra work if you want to call that trouble. What's interesting is we don't know again how much time is between verse 6 and 7, but even if it is the same conversation, so it's the night before, probably Abram doesn't actually prepare these animals to the next morning. And we know it's the next day by the time and it would have taken him hours to get all these animals. Can you imagine cutting them down the middle, a heifer? That's not something you do in five minutes. I've got it a year before and it takes a long time and that's a lot shorter than cutting animals in half, three animals in half killing these birds, killing them humanely as they did, but setting them up so hours, but we know it's daytime by verse 11 because I think it would be late afternoon now. Abram has laid the animals out and he's been sitting off to the side, waiting, waiting because God hasn't said anymore. So he's waiting to do what God's going to tell him to do next. And then the bolsters come down on the carcasses and that's why we know it was daytime because birds of prey don't come down on animals at night. You'll never see the bolsters circling in the middle of the night, they don't do that. It's daytime now. It's the next day. So this has taken some time, Abram hasn't slept probably all night. And verse 12, we can understand, therefore, when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram. They were pulling on iter and then worked pretty hard the next day and get all bloody with animals. Okay, most of us probably haven't done that, but he's tired, but I want to tell you, this is not an ordinarily sleep. This is a prophetic sleep. There were two ways that God would speak to the prophets. One is by vision and we've already seen that in verse 1, he comes to Abram in a vision. Some kind of visible manifestation that Abram would know it was God. There he comes to Abram in a dream, in a halom. And this is the way God would speak to the prophets through visions and through dreams and we know Abram's a prophet. And the first thing that Abram experiences in this dream is the second half of verse 12, the whole horror and great darkness. You don't expect that at this point in the text. Do you? Abram's believe God. Turn it into him as righteousness. Tells him something else, Abram asks to be reassured in his faith. Tells him what to do. He does what God says. I mean, this word horror is terror, dread. This is the kind of fear that the wicked fear. In fact, this is the word that's used of the canonites in the land when God says, I'll put the terror of you on them and Rahab confirms it to the spies when they come and he says, God has put the terror of you on us, the same word. So God puts this on his enemies, right? I mean, this is the fear that Adam and Eve felt when they sinned and they fled from God. This is the fear that terror no doubt that those people in the time of Noah felt when the rain started and the water started rising and they're running and there's nowhere to go. This is the terror that you would have felt at the Tower of Babel, again, another rebellion against God and something. You don't know anybody. You don't trust anybody. It would have been terrifying. This is the terror that Cain felt when God put that mark on him, a mark of mercy on the one hand, but he even said, this is too great for me to bear. But the thing about it, every one of those cases is those people were in act of sin and rebellion against God. Why does God put this terror on his faithful servant, on Abram? What's going on in this tax? Not the first time, beloved. Job pleads with God more than once, using this word, take your terrors away from me. Job was having these terrors in his dreams. Remember he couldn't sleep because he'd be plagued with terrors and he prayed to God to take those terrors away. His terrors that God had put on him, the psalmist in one of the most deep psalms of lament, Psalm 88, verse 15, says, I have been afflicted and ready to die from my youth. I suffer your terrors and I am in despair. Psalm 88, one of the most lamenting, lamentful Psalms. I meditated on that Psalm right after my dad died. The Psalms of lament are really good to help you mourn. And I actually asked at the seminary because we sang Psalms there and we sang for the first and only time that I was at that seminary for six years, we sang Psalm 88 in worship, a psalm of lament. So this terror and this horror has fallen upon Abram, the question is why. While we see it's fallen upon Job, the psalmist, Matthew, Henry thinks this is a glimpse of God's holiness, that for Abram in order for Abram to be strengthened in his belief, he has to experience really more of the very nature of God. And so God gives him a glimpse, as it were, of his holiness, and without fail, whenever God would appear to one of the saints in Scripture, I mean, think of it, they would always respond in this terror, this fear. Think of Isaiah when he sees the Lord sitting on the throne lofty and exalted with the train of his robe filling the temple. And this is glorious vision with the angels of the seraphim, holy, holy, holy, and what's the first thing Abram does? Who is me? I am undone! For I am a man of unclean lips. That was the cleanest part of his body, by the way. He was a prophet. He spoke the words of God. He had the lips of angels almost, as it were. And yet that's where he felt his sin. In his best works, he felt his sin. Who is me? I'm undone! My lips are unclean. When I speak the word of God, I don't speak it perfectly. I don't speak it purely. Oh, yes, it's without error because I'm a prophet, but in my heart I've got selfishness and pride in all the rest. And Ormanoa and his wife, when the angel appears to them, the angel of the Lord, who in one sense is God's messenger, but in another sense he is God, and they people worship him, and he appears mysteriously throughout the Old Testament. But when Manoa and his wife offer the offering, and the angel goes up in the smoke, what does Manoa say? Whoa, as us, we're going to die, we've seen God. And over and over and over again. And I know what people say. Well, in the New Testament, we don't have that because God doesn't do that in the New Testament. It's Hebrews that says, our God is a consuming fire, quoting Exodus, and in the book of Revelation, and John the Apostle sees Jesus, thinks John the Apostle, the beloved Apostle, Jesus best friend, the one who had the most intimate relationship with Jesus, he hasn't seen him in decades. Jesus has ascended into heaven, he's an old man now, and in the vision that he's given in a revelation in the first chapter, he sees Jesus, he says it's Jesus, and he describes him, and he had eyes like flames of fire in his feet, like burnished brass, refined in a fire, and he describes this glorious and majestic being, and what does he say he does? He runs up and he hugs Jesus. He says this, Revelation chapter 117, and when I saw him, I fell at his feet at the dead man. I dropped dead when I saw Jesus. Jesus has just as holy and majestic and glorious in the New Testament as God in the Old because he is one God, Father Son, and Holy Spirit, and sometimes he shows us his imminence and his nearness, but we can never forget his transcendence and his holiness, and many think that's what's going on here. Calvin says this, quote, for thus does the Lord deal with his own people. He always makes a beginning from death, so that by quickening them from the dead, he made them more abundantly manifest his power. So he's preparing Abraham. He's bringing him in closer, but Abram's got to experience this holiness of God. And so he's in this terror and this great darkness because more trouble is coming for him. I think sometimes when you experience more trouble, when you're experiencing more despair, when you think you have too much, maybe that's actually God bringing you in closer. Do you ever think of that? Maybe God is actually giving you more of himself, but you need to go through something in order to receive that. God's about to give Abram some pretty bad news here in verse 13. How would you like to hear this about your children? And he said to Abram, no, certainly, that your descendants will be strangers in the land that is not theirs. They'll be without a country, foreigners, sojourners, and we'll serve them. It's the word slave. They'll be slaves, and they will afflict them. They will oppress them. They will crush them for hundred years. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. It might be difficult for a time. This is a difficult word. Who wants this for their children? God, why are you doing this? Why won't you just give them the land? You chose them. We know the king of knights are wicked. We think this way sometimes. God, why doesn't he strike down the wicked? Abram has to experience God in a deeper way. He goes through this vision, this fore, this darkness, this terror, four hundred years. Why did the wicked cross for oh, the psalmist cry out this in the book of Proverbs, other places, new testament? Why do we see it over and over again? Why doesn't God strike down the wicked? Bill Waters and the creator of Calvin and Hobbes actually says this at one point. It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated with bolts of lightning. Where is God's justice? Why doesn't he strike down the wicked? Isn't that what we cry? Why did my people, why did my children God have to suffer this from wicked people? Why is that the case? Be careful when you do that. Be careful when you start questioning why God doesn't kill the wicked. Why he doesn't strike them down with lightning bolts? Rather than looking for those lightning bolts, I want to look up for yours. If God gave sinners what they deserved, what would you get? After your years of faithful service, faith in Christ, are you not still ungodly, justified by faith alone? What would you get? Don't be too quick to despise the long suffering of God's towards sinners. Yes, it enables them to do bad things. But if God brought justice, He would kill us all. Because that's what we all deserve. I know. I know. I know. We think God is here, and the most wicked person is here, and we're like over here. But really in the cosmic scheme of things, God is here, the most wicked person is here, and we're like right there. I mean, compared to God, and we're never without sin for a moment in thoughts, in desires, never perfectly loving God, never perfectly loving our neighbor, don't be too quick. Paul says it in Romans 2, do you think lightning, lightly, of the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Why don't any strike them down? Not knowing Paul says that it's the kindness of God that leads you to repentance. The fact that God is patient with you is how you're saved. Why wouldn't you want him to be patient with others? Do you think you deserve his patience more? Is that what it is? That's what we're tempted to think. And that's what God is, I think, showing, and God is reminding us. Notice what He says in verse 16. But in the fourth generation, they shall return here your descendants for the iniquity of the Amorites, is not yet complete. These Amorites, that's the summary of all the Canaanite peoples, the wicked peoples. God says they're not bad enough yet. I don't really give in them the land, so they're not mine, and they're not going to be mine. And I know all of the sins they're going to commit, and I know they'll never believe in me, but they haven't done them yet. And it's going to take 400 years before my patience comes to an end with them. And then I'll give them over to you to destroy them. They get 400 more years in unbelief, in sin and rebellion, because I am that merciful, I am that gracious. 400 years for the Amorites. You're my people, I love you, I'm going to give you this land, but I'm not going to judge anybody until my patience and long suffering and mercy and grace is thoroughly despised and rejected. This is our God, beloved. This is our God's goodness. You know, it's really harder to believe, it seems to me, verse 14, the second half than verse 13. Why would God give Abram's descendants all these hardships in verse 13? You know, it's harder to believe that they would come out with great possessions, because they don't deserve that. If you really have your theological head on straight, you should be more wondering about verse 14 than verse 13, I understand why they're going to suffer, we all deserve that. Why would God give them the abundance of possessions that He gives them? Because He gives and treats us by grace not as we deserve. And so thirdly notice salvation and covenant, notice salvation and covenant. What we're seeing in these verses from 9 on is the ancient, suzerain, vassal covenant ceremony will come back to that because God or Abram rather, that's summarized, Abram has asked God for assurance, assure me, let me know for sure that my descendants are going to inherit the land and therefore all of your promises, the land being the token of that. And so God tells them what's going to happen in the future for 400 years, right? And then He says in verse 16, the fourth generation, the fourth generation, don't get stuck on that. They'll say, well, 400 years, fourth generation, the generation is 100 years and maybe that's because they live longer than and I think that's possible. But I think there's a better solution. The word generation in Hebrew is door and it means fundamentally, especially early on just a cycle of time, a period of time, it doesn't mean technically only a generation. It comes to be applied that way but it's a cycle, a period. In the fourth period they will come here which is really makes sense when you read the Hebrew because the word 400, 400 is not like we see it, 400, it's one word. It's two word. It's the word four air back and it's the word hundred may oath. So you have the word four, separate word, hundred. And so down verse 16 says in the fourth cycle, in the fourth one of those hundreds, that's what he's saying with the generation. And we know as we read in scripture in the New Testament and it says the same thing in Exodus, it's actually 430 years. So at first God gives a general round number, it's going to be 400 years and then he actually says later it's in the fourth cycle and we get later it's 30 years into the fourth cycle. So that's how that works in the Hebrew. But covenant is something not only we know that they're entering into here from the ancient records, there are so many ancient records of this Sussan Vassal type of covenant agreement and that's what we see with the animals in God coming and pronouncing certain things. But the text itself, right verse 18, on the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram. There it is. This is where he gets the covenant, almost 10 years of a saving relationship. Now God makes a covenant. By the way, in Hebrew, you almost never make a covenant. It's crap. God cuts the covenant. Most scholars think it's because of the animals that are cut because this is a blood oath. That's what covenant is, a blood oath contract, you're swearing on your life that you will keep your end of the bargain, all right? And so God is making this covenant what, to save Abram, no, to give him assurance. How will I know? So God binds himself as it were under oath. That's why I call this sermon God under oath. God voluntarily puts himself under oath and it's this blood oath. So this is a formal binding contract where you swear by your life. It's different from what God does in Noah where he just swears, he makes a covenant with every living creature, with all flesh, with the earth. Here comes this Sussan Vassal treaty. And so I want you to notice fourthly and lastly, salvation and God, salvation and God. So what is going on here? Well, whether it was digging wells or shipping merchandise, becoming a citizen of a country, being a soldier or whatever, we have records of ancient peoples in the Near East and Middle East, entering into this kind of ceremony. And there were covenants like marriages, which were more between equals or covenants between business partners and so forth again, between equals. So we see that between Jacob and Laban and we'll see that between Abram and Abib Malak. But the Sussan Vassal covenant is different. A Sussan is a Lord, a king, a master, and the Vassal is a servant or a subject or something like that. And so the Sussan comes in the records and he says, I've done this for you and this is why you have all that you have. And now I promise, it seems like the Magna Carta saying this is what kings need to do and this is how they're limited and this is how they're supposed to protect the people. And that's what the covenant would be. All right, I'm going to provide you with safety. I'm going to have arms in a walled city and you've got to pay taxes and you've got to join the army when I call you up and stuff like that. And so that's what it would be and each would take these vows. And then they would pass through the parts. Whoever passes through the parts is entering the covenant and is under oath. And that's what passing through the parts was, all right. And so what's interesting in this example, oh, and I'm sorry. And when you, but when you pass through the parts, I don't want to leave this off, when you pass through the parts, you're saying, it's a maledictory oath. You're saying, if I don't keep my part of the bargain, may the gods do this to me, you know, because it's in ancient records of, of pagan polytheistic peoples. May the gods tear me apart because you have the half and the half representing the two parties and there are one if you keep your word. But if you break your word, maybe we'll be ripped in half. And that's the symbolism. And you actually have this in the scriptures in Jeremiah chapter 34 verse 18. Now it's only in the ESP and the RSV and the NIV in English, and it's a looser rendering of the Hebrew. But I checked my tenac, my JPS publication society and they translate it the same way. And I do think it gets the meaning, it gets that the meaning, sometimes a more dynamic version can get the meaning more than a more literal version, because languages are different and words can't come one to one. So listen to this in the ESP, Jeremiah 34 18, and the men who transgressed my covenant and did not keep the terms of the covenant that I may, I'm sorry, that they may be for me. Listen, this is God speaking, I will make them like the calf that they cut into and passed between its parts. Do you hear that? Let me read that again. Jeremiah 34 18, and the men, God is saying this, and the men who transgressed my covenant, this is at the time where they're about to be delivered in the battle, they're besieging the city, and the men who transgressed my covenant and did not keep the terms of the covenant that they may before me, I will make them, the very thing that you swear in the oath. To false gods though, I will make them like the calf that they cut into and passed between its parts, the officials of Judah, the officials of Jerusalem, the unites, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf, everyone who took the oath, who broke it, God is going to bring the judgment. That's the Sussan Vassal treaty. Now who passes between the parts? Look at it in verse 17, and it came to pass when the sun went down and it was dark, that to behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those deeper pieces over and over again in Scripture, God is symbolized by fire. It's when the bush burns but isn't consumed that Moses is distracted, and he hears God speaking from the bush. It's when God descends in fire and smoke on Mount Sinai that he speaks to Moses, the Ten Commandments. In the wilderness every night where he would appear as a pillar of fire and every day as a pillar of smoke, when Moses would go into the temple, there would be a pillar of fire that would rest over the tabernacle. By the way, in the New Testament, when God the Holy Spirit came upon the Christians in fulfillment of the Prophet Joel at Pentecost, tongues of fire, it just means flames of fire, a tongue of flame, appeared over the heads to show the Holy Spirit God was on them, right? Jesus, we've already described him with the eyes of fire, the feet having been in the furnace. This symbol of fire for God is over and over again, and so God is the one who passes between the parts. But what about Abram? What does he do? What's he doing doing this? He's sleeping. We saw it in verse 12. He entered into a deep sleep. This is all happening to Abram in a prophetic dream. In other words, Abram does nothing because Abram can't save himself. And guess what, neither can you. We're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, by the work of Christ alone. Why are there two symbols passing through the parts? I get chills when I think of this. Did you remember what we read in our confessional reading? The larger Catechism, Question 31, with whom did God make the covenant of grace with whom? What's with Abram? He's with Jesus. Abram's getting a picture of what happened in eternity. God is entering it. He's condescending to use this suzerain, vassal treaty because that's what Abram knew. This is what you do when you swear and you make assources. He's using this convention to assure Abram in the most way that he can, that he will. Keep his problem, promises, that he will be Abram's God even if he has to tear himself apart and because it's father and son. When Jesus comes to the earth, this is why he says, 40 times in the Gospels, the Father sent me. The Father sent me. The Father sent me. The Father sent me. I came not to do my own works, but the Father's. I came not to do my own will, but the Father's. I came not to teach my own doctrine, but the Father's because Jesus is keeping the oath when they pass through. Jesus is representing Abram and all the elect. And God is saying, I'm going to do this. And I'm going to keep my promise. This is why Jesus said the Son of Man must go to Jerusalem. He must be handed over. He must suffer many things. He must be lifted up. He must be crucified so that he could keep his promise. That he could keep his word. You know the Marcy Sproul said, I'll close with this. A couple of times before he died. If he could only have one book of the Bible, you know the Word of God assures us, right? Of God's promises to us of our salvation. So if I want to island or something, I could only have one book for the rest of my life. I would pick Hebrews. You expect that one? Romans is Paul's theological, you know. Bullwork. Hebrews. R.C. said because in Hebrews it shows how Jesus is the high priest. Jesus is the king. Jesus is the one like Moses. How the whole scripture preaches Jesus. And the assurance that we have in him. Hebrews is the one book he would want. And he said, if I could have one chapter, it would be Romans 8. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And then it ends with either height nor death nor angels nor things. To come can separate us from the love of God and Christ. What an assuring chapter. I read it at many of the members of this church's on their deathbeds. I read them those passages. It was in the middle of Romans 8 that John went home to be with the Lord. When he stopped breathing and all the people came rushing in. We were in the middle of Romans 8. But R.C. said, if I could only have one verse. Only one verse to comfort me for the rest of my days. It would be Genesis chapter 15, verse 17, where it reads, and it came to pass when the sun went down and it was dark that behold. A smoking oven and a burning torch passed between those pieces. Do you want to know how God will keep his word to save you? He swore on his life that he'll do it even if he has to die. And guess what? He died. He didn't. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you have saved wretched sinners like us. That we could never save ourselves. You kept your word to the end, Lord Jesus, and that's how we know. Not because of our faithfulness. Not because of the things we've done. But you assured us. You swore on your life. And you kept your promise. Your blood has been shed. We are saved. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen. We thank you in Jesus name.