God’s Timeline – Part 23
The
Lord’s Covenant with Abram
Pastor Bruce A. Shields
House
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SERMON INTRODUCTION (2021 A.D. = 5781 Jewish
Calendar Year)
o Adam, Eve, and the Fall
-
Cain and Abel
o Evil Fills the World
-
Noah Did All God
Commanded Him
o The Flood 2400 – 2300 B.C.)
o God’s Covenant with Noah
-
Noah’s Sons and Ham’s Sin
-
Nations of Noah’s Sons
-
Tower of Babel
-
God calls Abram (2090
B.C.)
o Abram and Lot part ways
o Rescue of Lot
-
The Lord’s Covenant with
Abram for Isaac
SCRIPTURE READING
Genesis 15
“After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:
“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great
reward.”
2 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me
since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of
Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my
household will be my heir.”
4 Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not
be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” 5
He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed
you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as
righteousness.
7 He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out
of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”
8 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I
will gain possession of it?”
9 So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a
ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”
10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and
arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in
half. 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them
away.
12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and
a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the Lord said to him,
“Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be
strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and
mistreated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and
afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go
to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth
generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites
has not yet reached its full measure.”
17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking
firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that
day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give
this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19 the
land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites,
Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”
I.
THE WORD
OF THE LORD
a. “Do not be afraid”
i.
I don’t believe Abram
was afraid because the Lord appeared to him
ii.
Abram had spoken to
the Lord before and wasn’t afraid
iii.
I believe Abram was
afraid because of the battle he just fought and the fact he may be killed
before the promise of God took place
iv.
God wanted to assure
Abram it would come to pass just as the Lord had promised him
b. “I am your shield”
i.
God reassuring Abram
he has the perfect defense against everything, God
ii.
Romans
8:31b “…If God is for us, who can
be against us?”
iii.
If we are on the side
of the Lord, He will defend us. If the Lord says something will take place, we
can rest assured, it will.
ILLUSTRATION
Mark 4:35-41
“That day when evening came,
he said to his disciples, “Let us go
over to the other side.”
36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat.
There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the
waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern,
sleeping on a cushion.
The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
39 He got up, rebuked the
wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it
was completely calm.
40 He said to his disciples,
“Why are you so afraid? Do
you still have no faith?”
41 They were terrified and
asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
The Lord said, “Let us go to the other side.”
End of story…If the Lord God says something will be,
it will be.
No amount of opposition, storms, nothing will stop
it from being. He speaks, it IS.
c. Vs 16 “your reward will be very great”
i.
After the Lord tells
Abram not to be afraid, He promises that He is Abram’s shield, then He says, “Your
reward will be very great”
ii.
If the Lord says it,
it will be!
II.
ABRAM AND
RIGHTEOUSNESS
a. “But” Abram said
i.
Abram could have just
believed the Lord right then, however, being human as we are, we have doubts
and fears, even when the Lord Himself reassures us.
ii.
The Lord promises
things, and we have trouble believing because we measure God by what we do
know our experience with humankind.
iii.
Psalm
146:3 don’t trust humankind, even
princes.
iv.
Especially as we
approach the Last Days
1. “But understand this, that in the last days there
will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of
money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful,
unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not
loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure
rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its
power. Avoid such people.” – 2 Timothy
3:1-9
v.
Abram says, “But,
how can I know?”
1. Because the Lord said! However, let Him reassure you
more.
b. Then the Word of the Lord came to him
i.
Once Abram is “believed”
the Lord “sees” Abram as “righteous”
c. God said, Abram believed and seen as righteous
i.
Now that Abram is
righteous, the Lord gives him a command so Abram can be obedient and “seal the
deal” with the Lord and His covenant with Abram.
ii.
“Bring me a sacrifice”
= COMMAND
iii.
When Abram does =
OBEDIENCE
iv.
THEN, being righteous
and obedient, the blessings from the Lord will flow
III.
OBEDIENCE
BRINGS BLESSINGS AND SHOWS PROPHECY
a. This sacrifice allows Abram to be obedient &
gives prophecy of the Cross
i.
This all reveals the promise of the Lord, fulfillment by the Lord, and prophecy of the Cross
ii.
The Lord instructs
Abram to bring 5 sacrifices
1.
5 represents grace in
scripture
2.
Heifer – symbolizes
priestly office
3.
Goat – symbolizes
prophetic office
4.
Ram – symbolizes
kingly office (All 3 of these are Christ Jesus)
5.
Dove – symbolizes
Jesus being led and guided by the Holy Spirit
6.
Young Pigeon –
symbolizes Him obeying the Spirit in every capacity
iii.
All of this foretelling
of the Cross
b. The fowls coming down on the carcasses represent
demonic opposition to the Cross
i.
Symbolic of the demons
trying to prevent the work of the Cross, grace, and salvation through Christ
Jesus
ii.
However, just as Abram
drove them away, we too, in the name of Jesus, can rebuke the demons and devils
trying to end any work that God is doing in our lives or the lives of others.
c. 400 years
i.
Then a deep sleep and
dark horror fell upon Abram, which is also symbolic of the coming times for
God’s people in Egypt where they would be enslaved, which in itself is symbolic
of God’s people enslaved and in the bondage of sin.
Vs 14 “I will punish the
nation” God speaking of Egypt
& sin!
“and they (God’s people) will come out with great
possessions.” Again, speaking of both the Israelites (Exodus 11:1-3) and in the End after Judgment Day!
The 400 years is between
the weaning of Isaac and the deliverance of the Children of Israel from the
bondage by Moses, who would be from the 4th generation mentioned by
the Lord.
A mention of the Amorites
touches on what we spoke about last week with God being patient, not wanting
any to perish but all come to a knowledge of the Truth and receive Salvation.
He does not judge immediately but is patient with us.
VS 17 “When the sun had set
and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and
passed between the pieces.”
The sun setting and
darkness falling represents the end and Judgment Day where the sacrifice
(Jesus) exercises His complete authority and Judgment of all by the Word of God
through what He achieved at the Cross.
There are many things
happening here
The Lord setting Abram at
ease about the promise, sealing the covenant with the Lord through a sacrifice,
the sacrifice representing Christ and the Cross, the prophecy about the 400
years and the suffering to come in Egypt, which parallels the coming end times
and Judgment Day, as well as setting the stage for our upcoming sermons…
Isaac, the promise of
God!
p.s. Abram already gave
mention of God’s promise to him being fulfilled by his servant. This foreshadows his thinking and the fact
that Abram believes man has to have a hand in helping God fulfill promises.
God promised Isaac, if
Abram lives by the Spirit, the Spirit will provide.
If Abram thinks man has
to “help” God, he is living by the flesh, and although he will have a child, it
was not through the promise of the Spirit, but the actions of the flesh.
There will be
consequences to not waiting on God to fulfill His promise in His timing.
Next week we will look at a covenant God makes with Abram and another
teaching of the cross, salvation, and the prophecy of what is to come.
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