I'll be preaching from Genesis chapter 22 at the very end really of the life of Abraham We're sort of tying things up this morning. And if you remember last week if you were here I preached on one of the most famous passages in the Bible the binding of Isaac when Abraham sort of offered Isaac up to be sacrificed in God Intervened and provided another a lamb in order to take Isaac's place And so today we'll we'll talk about God's Response to Abraham's obedience and if you look at verses 15 Hear the word of God Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said By myself I have sworn to Claire's the Lord because you have done this thing and if not withheld your son your only son Indeed, I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand Which is on the seashore and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies and your seed all nations of the earth Shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice So Abraham returned to his young men and they arose and went together to be her sheep and Abraham lived at be her sheep Let us pray Jesus, I pray simply that you would come by your spirits and open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaths of they might see and hear the gospel I pray that you would be in my head and in my thinking and in my heart and in my understanding and in my mouth and in my Speaking and I pray this all to your glory and your name a man and a man Well, if you remember among other things The way we always start worship a great Seattle people often ask me why we do things the way we do things And if you remember if this is your first time you can remember you won't remember the how we end the service But if it's your first time you remember how I open every service With the thing known as a call to worship and I make this big point every time of saying what you've just heard as a call to worship The God always initiates with sinners and then it's never the other way around that God is the one who comes and pursues us and He calls us and says come worship me follow me obey me love me Why do we do that? We do that because that's exactly how we see God treating people in the Bible and that's exactly what we see with Abraham's life You see we're gonna tie things up today with Abraham But you only can tie things up by looking at how things started and if you remember God starts with Abraham by initiating Remember in Genesis chapter 12 Abraham the King James version would say is simply a he didn't he is not a follower of The true God he is he's mining his own business in the land of earth which would be present-day Iraq He has a good family He has a steady job. He has everything that everyone could want to be comfortable the only glitch in the matrix Of course is that Sarah his wife cannot have a baby and so in the midst of all this God comes to him And notice what he says I'm gonna read chapter 12 to you today just so we have clarification God comes to him in the midst of all this to Abraham and says now the Lord said to Abram go forth from your country and From your relatives and from your house to a land which I will show you and I will make you a great nation And I will bless you and make your name great and so you shall be a blessing and I will bless those who bless you And the one who curses you I will curse and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed God initiates with Abraham He says follow me and you have to remember that for one Abraham could have just thought this was a dream or a vision or something Right who I who are you to call me the other thing is that the promises seem sort of ludicrous This God comes to him and he says follow me and I will make you into a great nation And I will bless the whole world through you and remember Abraham's name was really a practical joke because it means the father of many So what's he going to do and remember when I start worship? I say you're always responding to God one way or the other if Abraham would have just stayed in in the land of earth He would that would have been his response. No If he goes that's his response. Yes But what's important for you to understand is that Abraham's faith was evidenced by his obedience We know that Abraham believed the promises that this God had made to him because he actually left it the next verse says and he went To the land the God would show him and that's critical for you to understand today's text and even for you to understand the gospel You see most of us are informed by a sort of Western or a European worldview Which basically says more or less that you can believe something and what you believe does not necessarily inform how you act Right that you can believe lots of things and what you believe does not necessarily inform what you do Now contrary to that the Hebrew worldview says just the opposite and the Hebrew worldview Abraham's worldview Which is actually common sense says that whatever you believe informs the way you act or Put differently your actions are always defined by what you believe so in the ancient Near East for Abraham to have obeyed God It wouldn't have been seen as him gutting it out It wouldn't have been seen as like some kind of work that he was doing to please God his obedience was evidence of the faith that he had So that brings us to today you see we see Abraham over and over and over again in the book of Genesis Obeying God and God's responses if he believed me and so it's credited to him as righteousness So in other words in the ancient Near East and the Hebrew worldview and in the biblical worldview there's not a distinction really between obedience and faith In fact your faith is defined or your obedience is defined by your faith the greatest example. Let me read to you from James Just to make this clear because James uses this story of Abraham as an example of what it means Listen to what James says. He's basically James is addressing a group of people who said they believed the gospel They said we believe all of that stuff about Jesus We believe all this stuff without salvation and everything and yet they were being very discriminatory towards Socioeconomic groups that were lower than them racially discriminatory all of these things and James says to them What use is it my brother in in chapter two if someone says he has faith but he has no works Can that faith save him if a brother or sister is without clothing in a need of daily food and one of you says to him Go in peace and be warmed and be filled and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body What use is that even so faith if it has no works is dead being by itself But someone may well say you have faith and I have works Show me your faith without the works and I will show you my faith by my works You believe that God is one you do well the demons also believe in shutter But you are willing to recognize you foolish, but are you willing to recognize you foolish fellow that faith without works is useless Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar You see that faith was working with his works and as a result of the works Faith was perfected and the scripture was fulfilled which says and Abraham believes God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness And he was called a friend of God Now the question is is James Contrary to the rest of the Bible is James saying that Abraham was justified or made made right with God because of his works Absolutely not What James is saying is that Abraham showed that he was in right relationship with God by his works And that brings us to today's text because today's text that almost sounds conditional Because what you have today's text is God reiterating the promises to Abraham and just as you know in the call to worship I always say that God always initiates with centers He always has the first word well at the end of the service You'll hear me say if this is your first time that God always finishes the job He always has the last word and today we look at the last word that God gives to Abraham And it could sound conditional because it says almost he says because you have obeyed Now I'm going to do all these things and yet they can't be the case Because God has promised the four so what's the difference between the promises in chapter 12 and the promises that are basically reiterated here in chapter 22 The difference is this is in chapter 12. They were just promises They're just promises. You know Abraham. I promise you I'm going to do this And in chapter 22 there are promises which have full and utter assurance of their fruition The promises that have assurance that's what we're going to look at today basically it's two things really I know pressed here and you're supposed to have three points I guess we're going to have two the first thing is the assurance of God's promise We're going to look at in the second thing is the extent of God's promise How are we assured of God's promise look at verses 15 and 16 and The first part of 17 the assurance of God's promise it says then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said by myself I've sworn declared the Lord because you have done this Thing and if not withheld your only son indeed I will greatly bless you
God gives Abraham assurance and then and if you read this wrongly you could sound conditional and that's not conditional at all That's what I want to point out to you really he gives Abraham assurance of The fact that the promises will come true and the assurance is basically twofold in the first Basis of the assurance is this it's God's truthfulness The God's truthfulness is the basis of Abraham's assurance listened to what he says to him in verse 16 He says by myself. I have sworn declared the Lord because you have done this thing And not withheld your son your only son. I will bless you Now you could skip right over that it would be easy to miss because in our culture even Swerving is so popular and I don't mean cussing. I mean just swearing and what God says is after all of this stuff He says to Abraham Abraham I swear by myself He's taking an oath God is now what is an oath? What is what is it when someone swears now when you take an oath what it is Is this is you put your hand on the Bible and they say what do you swear to tell the whole truth nothing but truth to help me God? and you say I do Now as soon as you say I do what you have done is you have invited God's curse upon yourself if what you say is not true Right, maybe they ought to have a little exposition before each court case now you realize when you put your hand on the Bible What you're doing is you're actually inviting God's curse upon yourself if you lie and So when God says to Abraham he says I swear by myself First of all why does God swear by himself the answer is simple. He cannot swear there's nothing higher by which to swear He is at the top of the food Jane and you cannot swear by anything higher than that. So he says to Abraham I swear by myself God invites curse upon himself if he does not bring to fruition the promises He is made to Abraham and if you look at Genesis you remember Genesis 15 these promises and God's curse is gloriously extended What do I mean by that If you remember in Genesis 15 God comes to Abraham and he makes these promises again and he says to Abraham Abraham Abraham you know what just so you know that I'm serious about these promises what we're going to do is we're going to have a self-malediction ceremony Right that just sounds bad What is a self-malediction You see in the ancient Near East what would happen is a big king would come and he would unilaterally impose a covenant upon a smaller king And he would say small king here's the deal I'm going to be the big king and you're going to be the small king I'm going to make the rules and you obey them perfectly Are there any questions? I didn't think so now just to make sure you understand how serious I am small king He would take animals and he would cut them in half if you remember this passage And so God tells Abraham Abraham take animals and cut them in half And so he takes a cow in a in a lamb and some dubs and he cuts them and halves and makes sort of a corridor between them And then rightly so Abraham falls asleep that night and it says in terror and great darkness fell upon him Why? Because in the self-maledictory covenant bad language covenant that God has made with Abraham God is the big king and Abraham is the small king And God is the imposed a covenant Abraham here's what I'm going to do and now all you have to do is obey perfectly and And in the morning Abraham was certain that he would have to walk through the pieces now What was the significance of significance of those pieces? The significance of those pieces is that when the small king walked through those those horrid animal carcasses He was essentially saying if I do not live up to my end of the bug and perfect obedience May what happened to these animals happen to me? May I be a cursed and ripped apart? You can see why Abraham was afraid and And yet in the night the unthinkable happened if you remember Abraham walk in a dream and saw who passing through the pieces God himself Pass through those pieces Why because of this God said to Abraham Abraham? I'm the big king I'm imposing a covenant upon you And if I don't pursue my part of the bargain may what happens to these animals happen to me But the beautiful thing is Abraham you're the small king and And I'm going to pass through the pieces and on your behalf and Abraham if you don't live up to your part of the bargain Perfect obedience may the curse come down upon me you see that God is saying to Abraham no matter where you move The curse will not come upon you Abraham that it will come upon me I not only impose the covenant, but I am the one who live up to the covenant and that is why we need the cross You see the importance of the cross is this with Jesus The God has made a covenant with all humanity if you will right? I am God. I'm the big king you are the small kings. I Ampose a covenant follow me trust me obey me The only thing that's required of you is perfect obedience But since you cannot live Immediately all the time here's what I'm going to do I will pass through the pieces God says and instead of passing through the pieces He becomes if you will the animal and the person of Jesus and he is the lamb who is slaughtered and he Goes to the cross and he not only because the basis of our assurance is not only his truthfulness that I will redeem you But it's the fact that he has born our curse in other words in the work of redemption God has done all of the work in the person of Jesus He not only imposes the covenant I'll redeem you and never let you go But he lives up to the bargain and since you and I didn't he actually bears the curse Jesus goes becomes the curse on a tree Why so that you and I might become the righteousness of God in him? That's why you need the cross And the cross is the basis of our assurance you want to know whether or not you're in right relationship with God look to the cross Don't look at yourself because be look at yourself. You are going to fail miserably trust me And if God is in all of the work and in redemption He's imposed this covenant He's initiated the relationship and he's done all the work to to make sure the relationship is is okay Then what is the purpose of our obedience? Right, he says that's the Abraham basically I've done all the work and since you obeyed now You're right with me What's the point of our obedience the point of our obedience is just this is that we show you see Abraham did not obtain God's promise by his obedience, but in fact he embraced God's promise by his obedience Right, remember that there's no distinction between faith and works with Abraham that Abraham showed that he believed God by obeying him and it's sort of like this if you remember reading the Velveteen rabbit Remember the Velveteen rabbit you have the Velveteen rabbit who's in the nursery with the skin horse and all of the other toys are better And he looks at the skin horse and says skin horse. What does it take to become real? And the skin horse says you can only become real when you've been embraced by a child and loved That's when you become real and he says are you really so I became real a long time ago and you see So it is with the promises of God. You see God makes all of these promises and They're utterly and completely useless until they are embraced That's what he's saying by Abraham Abraham you have insurance now not be only because I've made this promise and done all the work But you have assurance because you have embraced the promise and if you have not embraced the promise You have no assurance and you see that's the call of the gospel Jesus comes and says I have gone to the cross on your behalf I have not only done the work of redemption and initiated, but that I have borne the curse that you deserve now The question is whether or not you will embrace that will you he says? Because until you embrace it it is useless to you It makes no difference whether you believe it or not many people believe in Jesus many people believe that he went to the cross Many people would say they believe that he rose from the dead, but the call of the gospel is will you follow me? Will you embrace me Right, so if you want assurance if you want assurance that you're in right relationship with God look to the cross See Jesus there see that he has done all the work that it takes for you to be in right relationship with God But also look to yourself and say am I following him am I willing to count the cost have I embraced Jesus freely offered in the gospel If you have once you've embraced Jesus once you've understood the gospel once you've been obedient by faith Then you can understand sort of the extent of the promise. What is the extent of God's promise? That's what we'll look at next listen to what he says in verse 17 He says I will indeed greatly bless you and will multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand Which is on the seashore and your siege will possess the gate of their enemies in your seed all nations of the earth Will be blessed What is God's what is the extent of God's promise? First of all of the extent hits home. It's there. It's personal Right the first thing he says to Abraham is this I will indeed bless you And what does it mean to be blessed most of us you know We use that word so much or we don't use it at all the Bible uses it in so many different ways it can become confusing Right, you can bless Abraham. You can bless God. You can bless you. You can bless a lot of things What does it mean to bless when God says that? He says indeed I will bless you And if I can give me look me allow me to put an umbrella over all those things and when God says to Abraham I will bless you and when he says to you I will bless you what he is essentially saying is that Abraham I promise that you can be sure that I am proactively out to do you good That everything that happens to you and everything that I send your way I am proactively in your favor I am proactively out to do you good now What's the problem with that Does it be the problem with that is it rarely ever feels that God is proactively out to do you good especially when times are hard Right especially when times are hard and the problem with blessing the problem with understanding God's proactively out to being out to do You good as this is you can almost only understand it in retrospect Right many of you know my story You know I my father and mother divorced when I was five years old and I spent probably the next 25 years very bitter And angry And in fact you remember when I was 18 or 17 I embraced my bitterness with a zeal and became a not a ranger in the army And you know that didn't help that didn't do anything with my bitterness And then I became a Christian and I thought wow now that I'm a Christian all my troubles will go away and all the trials and everything that Bad has happened to me is all gonna be washed away and guess what it seemed only to amplify it because now I had to stare it in the face And then this weekend for the first time in my life Judy and I and the kids drove down to Oregon and had thanksgiving with my father Who left 25 years ago You see he has become a Christian as well and it was an interesting time because there were there were no fireworks people have asked me How was it good or bad it just was and That was sort of the goodness about it You see because as I as I was there What struck me was not only look at what all the God has done in my father's life But all that he has done in my life and it hit me The God has been proactively out to do me good But all of the things that he's put me through my life that I used to be bitter about I think he's used those things to bring me to this point He's used all these hard things to bring me to this point could my own father who's been married several times in the unbelievable trials and tribulations he now has embraced Jesus freely offered in the gospel why It's in and through and because of all of the hardship not in spite of it That in and through and in among the hardship he saw his need And I now I'm a preacher I look back and I see all the things that God has done And I don't know that I would change anything why because now I'm beginning to get a glimpse of the fact that God was proactively out to do me good He always has been now the question is is do I believe that when I move forward? Do you believe that when he was for right you could probably look at your life and say you know what everything worked out everything works out Now the question is can you look forward and say everything is going to work out That's where most of us live But if you remember me from a few weeks ago you can only look forward if you keep looking back Right you look back at the cross and say Jesus has died for me He has embraced me will never let me go therefore I can move forward And imagine Abraham what God said the Abraham imagine Abraham still after all of this He has one child of promise certainly God has delivered him but God comes to him and next since this Abraham I'm going to make your descendants as numerous as the sand on the seashore you see these are the same promises He got him chapter 12, but they're infinitely bigger Right before he says I'm going to make you a nation now. He says I'm going to make your descendants as numerous as the sand on the seashore I'm going to make your descendants as numerous as the stars and the sky The people will not even be able to count them Abraham had no Ability to see what would happen as a result of that He just didn't and yet Do you have any Christians there are in the world today? I was shocked yesterday Remember the Apostle Paul says in Galatians that everyone who has faith in Jesus is a descendant of Abraham So that means if you're a Christian you're descended to Abraham And I just was interested in so I hit picked up a demographic world Sites on the world on the web and there are at least two billion Christians in the world they two billion There's only six billion people that means a third of the people in the world Trust Jesus. That's one level or another would Abraham ever imagine that a third of the world and you know what? That's only the beginning. That's the beautiful part That's only the beginning because God doesn't promise these things to Abraham just sort of help him Got it out when times are hard. He promises these things to encourage him to toward the fact that he will be victorious And his descendants will be victorious now and forevermore it might take some time But they will be victorious and that's the next thing he says He adds this little promise in here which you wonder what he means. He says in your descendant She'll possess the gates of the enemy
What that means? It's the God in the person of Jesus will have Ultimate victory in this world maybe not in our lifetime But ultimately imagine if you're Israel right you're reading this they had just been delivered from Egypt and now they're in the land of Canaan whether or in the wilderness wondering whether or not they should go to Canaan And they say, you know, let's let's wait a few more days, right? It's when you're remembering your kid. I used to do this. I would go out and shoot basketball and ask a girl on a date You know, and if I made it I'd ask her and if I didn't I wouldn't Or if I didn't make it I'd keep shooting until I did I imagine them sort of wandering around in the land of in the wilderness wondering whether they should go in the land of Canaan And someone says, you know what you just what won't we read about Abraham again? That's an encouraging story And so they sit down to read about Abraham and they come to this park and it says your descendants shall possess the gates of their enemy And Joshua and Caleb go yeah, I told you We must go in and everyone said no, no, we can't go in and remember Joshua preached this to Israel God promised us he would get us into the land of Canaan. He got us out of Egypt. We know that look back Fellas he got us out now he will get us in So what does that mean for you It means just this the God is going to finish the job right in the middle of your brokenness in the midst of the shipwreck of your life You wonder whether or not God is going to finish the job you probably most of you I'm guessing if you're like me wonder or whether or not you're even a Christian You look at yourself and say I'm so sinful and so wicked and so despicable if people knew what I was and what I did in my spare time and in my free time and in the dark I'd be suicidal What God says to Abraham is your descendants shall possess the gates of their enemy and the greatest enemy that you and I have now Right is not Republicans or Democrats or Ralph Nader
right Sin is the enemy that that kills you as soon as the enemy that keeps us apart Sin is the thing that screws up everything and in the person of Jesus sin was conquered It was dealt with definitively. It's gone. It does not master you anymore. It does not own you So now although you might do a simple thing sin is not your master if you're a Christian Jesus is your master You see most of us if you're Presbyterian You tend to to to frown down upon and be very smug When you watch TV and see Christian television programs about victorious living Right that emphasize victorious living and frankly, I think if victorious living is equated with health and wealth and prosperity You're probably right for being a little bit Put off however What we miss is victorious living That God has promised you the victory and because of that if you're cynical As opposed to joyful you don't get it If your life is defined by pessimism instead of hope you don't get it and you know what that defines a lot of you I know that That's how I am too. I'm the most cynical pessimistic human being in the world and then I have to stand up and preach every week Something like God saying your descendant shall possess the gates of your enemies. Tell me what are you sniveling about Move forward And you see it you give us great hope because the extent is not only personal This isn't doesn't the conquer your sin at the cross But also he promises that his church will also be victorious and that it will spread You know because this promise sounds an awful lot like the one Jesus gave to Peter in the book of Matthew Remember Matthew 16 Jesus says to the disciples. Who do you say that I am? Some said Elijah Some said John the Baptist And Peter the buffoon stands up and says you're the Christ In Jesus says to him Peter You're right and on this rock I will build my church and what The gates of hell will not overcome it Right you see it's one thing to be cynical about the people around you It's another thing to be cynical about the church you seem which many people are your cynical and say the church is full of hypocrites the problem with that is if you're cynical about the church and you have a very low view of the church What that says is you have a low view of God's promise Right I remember speaking one time at a group of men who admittedly thought the church was useless institution And they asked me to speak on the usefulness of the church And I said if you hate the church you have one of two problems the first is you're either self-righteous Or the second is you don't understand the gospel and I said since the first one is really a symptom of the second one most of you don't understand the gospel Because the gospel promises not only that God will initiate with you personally and save you from all of your sins But more so it says that he initiates with a church corporately that there is a body that he calls his bride and this bride he initiates with and this bride He has cleansed from all her sins and this bride he will raise up on the last day and will be triumphant So when you look at the church Instead of being cynical you look and say what is Jesus doing here? He promised that he was going to make this gang work There's a great line by G.K. Chesterton where he says five times the church has gone to the dogs And each time it is the dogs who have died Right You see God's promise extends not only personally Incorporately into the church, but you need to get used to the fact not only does it extend to the church But the fact that the church will be composed of every tribe tongue and nation Right he had to make that point to Abraham because remember if you were Jewish the Jews said that Abraham is our father and we are the chosen people and that's it And when they sat down to read Abraham's story again, they had to be reminded of what the God said to them You are to be a blessing to every nation That the gospel spreads not just to you. It's not your personal thing The gospel is this thing that that encompasses the church and the church is this thing that encompasses every tribe tongue and nation Every people group is going to be there So the question is what does that mean for us? What does it mean for us to be obedient to these promises? You see this last line to Abraham sounds an awful lot like Jesus last line to his disciples Remember the last thing Jesus said to his disciples the last thing that God says to Abraham Abraham don't forget that I will make you a blessing to all nations And Jesus comes and after he dies and raises from the dead his disciples meet with him after the resurrection and acts chapter one And it says this It says when they come together they were asking him saying lord is it at this time you were storing the kingdom to Israel Remember he had risen from the dead of course they figured he was going to make all things right and Jesus said to them It is not for you to know the times or epics which the father is fixed by his own authority But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you should be my witnesses book and Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria even to the remodest part of the earth And I love this next part It says after he had said these things he was lifted up while they were looking on in a cloud received him out of their sight And if they were gazing intently into the sky while he was going to hold two men in white clothing stood beside them And they also said men of Galilee Why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way you have watched him go into heaven In other words, Jesus has just given him this great command go into all the world to Judea Samaria even to the uttermost parts of the earth and they're standing there staring into the sky With their eyes glazed over and two men in white wisdom their angels come to there and go Why are you guys still here? Why are you standing here? He's coming back. He promised he would come back and until he comes back. What is your job? Your job is to take this thing called the gospel to Judea your neighbor Samaria your city and to the uttermost ends of the earth Right and that's the vision of Graciano Right primarily it's that our church would hope to see the city of Seattle begin to look more and more like the city of God depicted in the book of Revelation right and all the nations of the world and all the kings bring their glory into it and it is defined By worship but not only that is that we would plant churches right? That's why we brought Dave Sellers here to plant another church. Why? Because we have to we have to obey this command of Jesus But we obey and face Jesus you promised us if we planted more churches you would draw more people unto yourself And not only that but we hope to send more and more people on missions Right and that someday we will see that the gospel is this thing that unites every tribe tongue and people It's very interesting as you watch the debates right? Maybe that's some people aren't here this morning because they're at home watching on MSNBC Palm Beach County County ballot you seen that What's been disappointing about the whole political process is not that people have utilized the court system and all that That's all legal what's been disappointing is that right at the outset when you want to make a play for power. What do you do? You seek to divide people right You divide you make it a black or a white issue or you make it a socio-economic issue the rich versus the poor that people are divided And I don't know about George Bush, you know, he says I'm a uniter not a divider, but I know this about Jesus That Jesus is a uniter and a divider He's a uniter because every tribe tongue and nation as they follow him They come together right they have a common goal and a common mission and a common savior And he's a divider because if you don't know Jesus you can't help but wonder what everyone is doing
Now the question is Where you in all of that Right to you united to Jesus and therefore to every other Christian whoever lived and does live or you divided Do you sort of sit outside the camp waiting wondering whether or not you should make your move Think about that. Let me pray
Jesus we thank you that you have seen fifth to draw people from every tribe tongue and nation unto yourself And we thank you not only that because Abraham obeyed Would he be a blessing to every nation but in fact because you obeyed because you were obedient even to death on a cross That you preached the gospel to those who are far and those who are near and you broke down the dividing wall between the Jew and the Gentile And in doing so made us one new man in Jesus and so We thank you and I pray even now That we by faith would offer up our tithes and our offerings and your name. We pray all of these things amen and amen