Genesis 12

Well, on last week we finally finished up our time and the Book of First John, and we finished that sort of I don't know, it's like a cross between a marathon and a sprint and a cross country race going through First John with all of its ups and downs and its sprints and its endurance. But we made our way through the Book of First John and saw this incredible picture of the salvation that is ours and the salvation of which God wants us to be assured. Now, if you'll remember, before we ventured fourth to First John, we kind of put a comma in Genesis as we went through Genesis chapter one through eleven and looked at in those first eleven chapters of Genesis really two main things. We looked at a lot of things, but two main things. One, in those first eleven chapters of Genesis, we looked at virtually all of the major doctrines of Christianity and saw how in the first eleven chapters of Genesis we have all the major doctrines of Christianity represented and defended. And as a result of that, we saw why liberalism is so poisonous because it undermines the first eleven chapters of Genesis, making them, you know, spiritualized and making them sort of symbolic as opposed to being literal, and as a result, destroys every major doctrine of the Christian Faith. You give up on a literal view of Genesis one through eleven, you give up on every major doctrine of the Christian Faith. And that's what we've seen in liberalism, not only in academia, but we seen that in liberalism in mainline evangelicalism. You give up on the first eleven chapters of Genesis, you give up on every major doctrine of the Christian faith. Faith. The second thing that we saw in those first eleven chapters of Jennas was this is that all of the major apologetic issues of our day are addressed in the first eleven chapters of Genesis, all of them. So if you understand the first eleven chapters of Genesis, you have a firm grasp on the major doctrines of the faith. And secondly, you have a firm grasp on all of the major apologetic issues of our day. And so now we've had that comma, or really we put a parenthetical pause in there. We went to first John and put a parenthetical pause in Genesis. Now we're coming back. We're gonna look beginning in Genesis chapter twelve, and we are going to examine the life of Abraham, the life of Abraham. And here's what I want to do. I want to do a couple of things here this morning. We're gonna look at an overview here of the life of Abraham that we're gonna examine in Genesis chapter twelve. And then we're gonna lay some ground work to remind us of how we handle the Old Testament. We can't do that enough because there are several pitfalls when it comes to handling the Old Testament. And I know that as we preach through this. As we teach through this, many of you will be walking through it with your families. Many of you actually, when we did Genesis one through eleven, you just continued on and went through the Book of Genesis. But others have been waiting to come back to the Book of Genesis. And it's incredibly important for us to understand how we handle the Old Testament in general and Old Testament narrative in particular. There are a lot of pitfalls if we don't handle the Old Testament properly, and so we want to be able to do that. So we'll get this overview here of Abraham, look at the importance of the life of Abraham, and then talk about some of these issues of which we need to be aware as we walk through. So Genesis chapter twelve, if you'll open there, here's what we will look at. In Genesis chapter twelve, verses one through nine. Will look at the call of Abraham and the promised land. The call of Abraham and the promised land, that's what we're gonna do with in our first couple of weeks. God calls Abraham and God promises him this land, and that is incredible when you understand what has happened throughout history since this event, the call of Abraham and the promise of this land to Abraham, and God fulfills this promise that he makes to Abraham. Secondly, we'll look at his sojourn in Egypt. Chapter twelve, verses ten through twenty Abraham's sojourn in Egypt. And as we look at Abraham's sojourn in Egypt, a couple of things will happen. Number One, Prayerly, we will remove any semblance of doubt as to whether Abraham was called because he was righteous. Amen. A lot of people look at Abraham and think that Abraham is this great man and this great figure because he was so righteous that God looked down and said, oh, he's the man. That's it. That one right there. When we watch Abraham lying through his teeth in Egypt on a number of occasions, and doing a whole lot of other things, we will remove all semblance of doubt as to whether or not this was justification by faith or justification by works. Hint, hint, not works. Amen. Thirdly, we'll look at the separation of Lot and Abraham there in Genesis chapter thirteen. It's an amazing setting there as they stand and divide the land, and Abraham sort of bows to his nephew and basically lets him choose where he wants to go. We will also look in chapter fourteen at Abraham's defeat of the five kings. Abraham's feet of the five kings there in chapter fourteen, again, something juicy to look forward to. There. We love to see kings defeated. Amen. Something about being an American. You know, we just the whole idea of defeating kings. Man, We just yeah, thank you all. Right. After that, we'll look at chapter fifteen and God's covenant promise will unpack this Abrahamic covenant, and we'll unpack this picture of covenant and the meaning of covenant. We've already seen this in the Noeic Covenant, but we will see this again as we talk about and unpack the Abrahamic covenant there in chapter fifteen, and we'll look at God making this really this sort of one sighted covenant with Abraham. We'll see that as well. Then we'll get the chapter sixteen and look at Hagar and Ishmael. Hagar and Ishmael. And when we get to chapter five sixteen and deal with Hagar and Ishmael, there will be a couple of things that we see in that chapter. The first thing that we will see again is that Abraham was not chosen because he was this great man. That chapter is about faithlessness. That chapter is about faithlessness. That chapter is about not holding fast. The second thing that we'll see is we'll see the enmity between the seed of Hagar the seed of Sarah that actually exists all the way up to this day. The enmity between those two people groups that we see all the way up to this day to today. When we see people strap bombs on themselves and go into crowded places. We will see that that traces all the way back to Genesis after sixteen. Hopefully we will also see that as a result of that, our answer is not bullets and bombs, but the gospel. Amen. After that, we'll get to chapter six, chapter seventeen, and we'll see circumcision, God's covenant sign of circumcision. And yes, there's a whole chapter where we will deal with that issue. And we will talk about the significance of circumcision in the Old Testament and the conversation in the New Testament about circumcision, circumcision of the heart versus circumcision of the flesh. We'll look at baptism that sign that relates to circumcision, and we'll also discuss this issue of infant baptism, because there are many who argue based on this circumcision here in Genesis chapter seventeen. That's what they use to argue for infant baptism. So it will help us understand our paedo baptist friends and also understand the distinction between those who are patal Baptists and those who are credle Baptists. As we are. Also, we will see in chapter eighteen Sarah Bears the Sun, this amazing story of this couple who's older than basically anybody you know personally. Just think about that, this couple is older than any couple you know personally, any couple you have known personally. That may be one or two of you who know a couple who's getting to this stage. But I've never met anybody who knows a couple as old as this couple. And even if you know a couple as old as this couple, I guarantee you they ain't having kids. Amen. Absolutely miraculous. We talk about, you know, the birth of a child being miraculous, and I understand why we use that terminology, you know, the birth of a child being miraculous. But again, and with due respect and difference to all mothers here, let me just say to you that if something happens every day, probably not miraculous. By definition. The miraculous the stuff that you don't see all the time. Babies are born every day. This birth miraculous, absolutely, unequivocally miraculous. It is something that is supernatural. Birth is the most natural thing in the world. I mean one plus one equals two. Sometimes it equals four or five, but again, you know, it's easy, simple math. This, however, is different. These people are not having a baby through natural means, but through super natural means, and this is truly miraculous. Beyond that, we'll go to chapters eighteen and nineteen and look at Sodom and Gomorrah and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. We'll look at God's justice there in Sodom and Gomorrah. And interestingly enough, when you look at the destruction of Sodom and Gomora, usually we think about Sodom and Gomoor. We think about sodomy homosexuality, which again absolutely that's correct. But there's a lot more going on in Sodom and Gomorrah than homosexuality. And if we make the mistake of looking at Sodom and Gomorrah and shaking our fists saying see what homosexuality will get you, you missed the whole picture. Sodom and Gomorrah is not about what homosexuality gets you. Sodom and Gomoor is about what sin gets you. Amen. In Romans chapter one, for example, when we get Sodom and Gomora, we'll go to Romans chapter one, and we'll look at this picture that Paul paints in Romans chapter one, of the devolution and degradation of a culture, and this culture goes down this downward slide. And it's interesting, there are three phases of this downward slide. As culture gets worse and worse and worse. Homosexuality is not even in the last phase of the downward slide of the culture. It's not even at the bottom. It's not. There are things that are even more degrading than that, believe it or not, And we'll see them there in Romans chapter one, and we'll see that basically, Sodom and Gomorrah is not just about God being angry with homosexuality. Sodom and Gomorrah is a reiteration of what God said at the flood. God says, at the flood, I mean what I say about sin, I mean what I say about my justice, I mean what I say about my judgment. And I will wipe you off the face of the earth. That's what we see at the flood. At Sodom and Gomorrah, God says, Oh, by the way, I'm still here, amen. And so again, all of those who look at there are a lot of people who are enamored with biblical prophecy and enamored with you know, the end times, and you know is it gonna be? This? Is it gonna be? That, pre trib, post trib, mid trib, all this sort of stuff. Basically, that's just another reiteration God says to us. He said in the flood, I'm God, I'm just. I will wipe you off the face of the earth. I will destroy sin and sinners. He reiterates it again, for example, in Sodom and Gomorrah, and a number of other times. He reiterates it in smaller ways. I believe with anon Isis and Safarar, he reiterates it. He says, hey, to all of you people who believe that the God on the left side of the Bible is different than the God on the right side of the Bible. Acts chapter five, Sodom, I mean Acts chapter five and a ies and Saphara killed him in church Acts chapter twelve, Herod killed him in public. God on the left side of the Bible, God on the right side of the Bible, same God. Then we get to the end of the scriptures, and basically what happens. God says, Oh, by the way, I'm going to do something that will make the flood Sodom and Gomorrah, Anonys and Sapharah, Herod and everything else looks small. It's about the justice of God, the judgment of God. Next part of this we will also get into chapter twenty and look at Abraham and Dibimelech. Then in chapter twenty one we will look at the birth of Isaac. The birth of Isaac, it is incredible, I mean literally miraculous birth to a man and a woman who are far, far beyond child bearing years. They're decades beyond child bearing years. They are almost a lifetime beyond child bearing years. And here comes Isaac, the child of Promise. And we'll talk about Isaac the Child of Promise, and we'll talk about this line that we see. It's similar to what we talked about in Genesis chapter five when we see this line from Seth to Noah, these ten generations from Adam to Seth to Noah, and about God making a promise in Genesis chapter three that related to the seed of a woman. And over and over and over again in the scriptures, God makes these promises that have to do with the seed of a woman. And how in Isaac, we see a reiteration of this promise that God makes that has to do with the see of a woman. And again all of that foreshadowing the promised Christ child, the seed of a woman, which goes all the way back to Genesis chapter three and verse fifteen. So in Isaac we will see a reiteration of God's promise that is ultimately fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. Then again in chapter twenty one, verses eight through twenty one, we will see Hagar and Ishmael banished. Hagar and Ishmael banished. And it's amazing as we look at that picture of Hagar and Ishmael banished. Just a bit of foreshadowing here. God says that if there is a promised seed, okay, fine, there's a promised seed, so I just got to have a child. Well, he goes to Hagar and they have Ismael, and God says, no, it's not the promised seed. It's not just about you having a child. That's not what it's about. It's about me fulfilling my prom us in very specific ways. Then when you get to Isaac, it's Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Well, Jacob and Esau we got twins. If the promise seed is just about physical birth, do we now have dual promise sees? Nope. Romans chapter nine, we get Jacob. Have I loved, Esau, have I hated? That's about election. That's about election, okay. And so when we look at the banishment of Hagar and Ishmael, we're looking at election. We're looking at election, the doctrine of election. Then we'll see the prosperity in the land there in verse twenty one, which is a fulfillment of God's promise. And then after we see this incredible fulfillment of God's promise and the prosperity in the land, we get to chapter twenty two when God says, Oh, by the way, Abraham, that son that I promised you that you waited for, who now the only one, because you banished the the other one who you thought you were gonna try to make things right with, but he wasn't the one. And this is the one. And you've been waiting for this one, and I gave you this one kill that one. We're gonna look at that. We're gonna look at that, and we're going to look at the fact that Abraham believed in resurrection before there was one, even though people today don't believe in resurrection after there's been one. Amen, I mean in Hebrews chapter eleven, That's that's what we get. In Hebrews chapter eleven. Abraham's going, okay, somebody, this is this is this is the guy. He's older. And by the way, Abraham's not a toddler. Abraham I mean, or Isaac rathers not a toddler. He's the big, strapping lad who can carry the wood for the sacrifice. So if you think Abraham was old when Isaac was born, he's way old now. So he's not sitting there going okay, fine. That other one wasn't the one we banished him. This one wasn't really the one We're gonna have to kill him. No, he's going God's getting ready to teach me something about resurrection because this is the promise. The only way I can figure this out is I'm gonna do what God says to do, and God's gonna bring him back. And after we've done all of that, we'll have this picture of where Abraham fits in the overarching story of redemption as God has given us in the Bible. Now, a couple of things we have to keep in mind as we go through the life of Abraham, same things we have to keep in mind constantly as we're going through the Old Testament. The first is this, we have to keep in mind the continuity between the testaments. The continuity between the Testaments. Again, there is not this sort of abrupt change between the Old Testament and the New Testament, where all of a sudden, the Old Testament no longer applies to us. That's not the case. There is a continuity between the testaments. Let me give you an example of that. Turn with me, if you will to Matthew chapter five, the Matthew chapter five, and look at verse seventeen in Matthew chapter five. Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until Heaven and Earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same, will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness succeeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you'll never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. So there is this continuity between the testaments. Not only do we see the continuity there, but we also see the continuity in that Basically, what were the apostles preaching. Were they preaching Paul's letters before he wrote them. No, they were preaching Christ from the Old Testament. They're preaching That's all they got is the Old Testament. Not only are they preaching the Old Testament, but throughout the New Testament, not just the letters, but in all the New Testament books we see quotes from the New Testament, and we see from the Old Testament and exposition of the Old Testament throughout the New Testament. So we see this continuity between the two. But not only must we understand the continuity, we must also understand the contrast between the testaments, the contrast between the testaments. Look at me, if you will, in Colossians chapter one. I'm sorry, look at Colossian chapter two. Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you and questions of food and drink verse sixteen, or in regard to a festival, or a new moon or a sabbath, These are a shadow of the things to come, But the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism, asceticism and a worship of angels, going on in detail about visions puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to the things that are perished as they are used according to human precepts and teaching. These have indeed need an appearance of wisdom in promoting self made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. Here, as well as in the Book of Hebrews, we see this picture of Christ, especially in Hebrews of Christ being superior to the law and superior to the priesthood. So although there is continuity between the Testaments, there is also a contrast between the testaments. Now, let me just briefly help you by giving you some principles that will guide us as we look at the law and the Old Testament. Let me give it these principles. The first principle is this, know the kind of law you're dealing with. Know the kind of law you're dealing with. For example, know if you're dealing with the moral law. Are you dealing with the moral law? Are you dealing with the Ten Commandments? If we're dealing with the moral law, there is absolutely no question but that we owe absolute adherence to the moral law period end of discussion. We owe absolute adherence to the moral law. There is no question. You don't have to worry about how you interpret that. The moral law is the moral law. God says, don't commit murder, You don't commit murder. God says, don't commit adultery. You don't commit adultery. Not only that, but we also see the repeating of the moral law in the New Testament. Not only a repeating of the moral law but Jesus even escalates the moral law. For example, in the Sermon on the Mount, you've heard it say that you shouldn't commit murder. I say, don't even hate your brother. If you hate your brother, you're guilty enough to go before the judge. So, in other words, Jesus not only says obey the moral law, he says raise it to a whole nother level. It's not just about what you do outwardly, it's about who you are inwardly. So are we dealing with the moral law? By the way, we also need to understand that the moral law is not about us being justified before God. Galatians makes that clear. What are the two purposes of the moral law? The moral law is a mirror that allows us to see our sinful selves. We find so we look at the law, we try to keep the law, and we recognize I can't keep the law. I'm a law breaker. And secondly, the moral law is a tutor. What does the tutor do. The tutor brings us to Christ. So it's a mirror that lets us know we're guilty, and it's a tutor that lets us know that Christ is the only one to take away our guilt. So, even though we do deal with the moral law and the keeping of the moral law, the purpose of the moral laws, the point is to Christ. But not only do we have the moral law, we also have the civil law, the civil law. Now, the civil law in the Old testament's kind of tricky because the moral law is absolute and it's timeless. The civil law is based on the moral law, but the civil law is restrictive in that it applies specifically to the commonwealth of Israel. So what do we do when we see the civil law that applies specifically to the commonwealth of Israel, but it's based on the timeless moral law of God. Here's what we do. We look at this civil law. For example, in Deuteronomy chapter twenty two. Deuteronomy chapter twenty two, basically, here's what we find. A young woman gets married. Upon her marriage, the young woman's husband discovers that this woman was not a virgin. This man goes to her father and says, this woman has committed treachery. She was not a virgin when we were married. The father's responsibility then, under the civil law of Israel is to defend his daughter's He's supposed to have kept evidence of her virginity from the wedding night. He goes and he presents this to the elders and says, this man has lied against my daughter. This man is then whipped, pays the fines of the father, and goes back to be united with this woman. However, if that's not the case, and it is discovered that this woman was not a virgin when she was married, she is to be taken to her father's house, to his porch, and to be stoned to death by the elders on the porch of her father's house. So what do we do with that? We just say, Okay, that's the civil law of Israel. Praise God that we don't have to live under the civil law of Israel anymore. Okay, that's fine, But there's an underlying moral law principle. What's the moral law principle do not commit adultery? You can't throw that one away. So what have we just learned from Deuteronomy chapter twenty two. Well, we've just learned that not only do we have this Old Testament moral law of not committing adultery, but we also learned that fathers have a specific duty in protecting the purity of their daughters. So now without adopting the civil law of Israel, we are still being obedient to the moral law of God and applying the principles behind the civil law there in Israel. And again we could go on and on and on with numerous examples of this, but there are timeless principles in that law. But guess what, once we go back there, it gets us back to the moral law, which, by the way, is about what Christ. It's about Christ. And then we have ceremonial laws, the ceremonial laws. And so for example, when we come to the law that talks to us about out you know, the grain offering and the sin offering and all this sort of stuff, well, I mean, what do we what do we? What do we? What do we do with that? Does this mean that we need to go back to keeping the feast days? Does this mean that we need to go back to keeping the sacrifices? Does this mean that we need to go somehow find the temple and begin to slaughter bulls and rams and goats. Again, No, Hebrews makes it very clear that that's not the point. The ceremonial law was a foreshadowing of Christ. So when we look at the Old Testament ceremonial law. We're also looking back at the foreshadowing of Christ and the finished work of Christ and the price that was paid by Christ, the redemption that is ours in Christ. So how foolish would it be then for us to go back and reinstitute old testimony Old Testament ceremonial law. By the way, this is incredibly important for us, especially in our context, to understand the continuity between the covenants between the Testaments and the contrast between the Testaments. Because here's why. There are a lot of people out there who are teaching a lot of stuff about patriarchy, and they're not taking the extra step. So they go to Old Testament civil law, never sifted through moral law, never get to the principle, and then set up rules for how we're to live today. That's legalism, and it completely circumvents Christ. It completely circumvents Christ. So do we ignore the Old Testament civil law or ceremony law. No, we do not. But when we go to the Old Testament civil law and the Old Testament ceremonial law, we're looking for two things. We're looking for the principle that is timeless and that it's tied to the moral law, and we're also looking for Christ. It was the ultimate end of the law itself, which brings us to our third thing that we look for when we're in the Old Testament, and that is the story of the Bible. The story of the Bible. Whenever we're an Old Testament narrative, we got to remind ourselves. It's almost like we have to continue to shake ourselves, and so say, remember the story of the Bible. Remember the story of the Bible. Can you say that for me? Remember the story of the Bible one more time. Remember the story of the Bible. You know, it's like the little boy in the Sunday school class. You know that timeless illustration. Little boy in the Sunday school class and the Sunday school teacher asks a question and he says, okay, class, what's and has a long fuzzy tail and hides nuts in the trees. The little boy raises his hand, yes, Jimmy, uh Jesus. No, no, no, no, Jimmy, that will be a squirrel. Jimmy's just thinking, okay, I'm in Suny school. Thought it was supposed to be about Jesus. The Bible is about Jesus. All the Bibles about Jesus. In fact, I don't say that because I just want to say that. I say that because Jesus said that. In Luke Chapter twenty four. Luke Chapter twenty four, Jesus is on the road to a miss Me meets these men on the road to a miss I just love this. I don't know why. Maybe it's just part of my depraved nature, but the whole idea of these guys walking with Jesus and not knowing that it's him, and he's just kind of messing with him. Okay, I mean he's not just messing with him, but that's the way I see it. He's talking to him, and they don't even get it. If it was me, i'd've been laughing, But Jesus is not me, so he wasn't laughing looking down. In verse twenty five, they're talking to him about all these things that happened. Don't you know, we're so distraught because of what went on? Don't you know? Where have you been? Verse twenty five, And he Jesus said to them, oh, foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory Verse twenty seven, and beginning with Moses, that would be the Pentituke, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteron, and the prophets that would be the prophets he interpreted to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. Jesus preached himself from everywhere in the Bible, which means we ought to preach Jesus from everywhere in the Bible. And if we go to the Old Testament and all we come up with is our king rules about family life and nothing about Jesus, we've missed it. I'm not saying that there aren't principles there, folks. You know that otherwise we wouldn't be here. Amen, there are principles there about the way we govern ourselves in family life. But if we're not careful, we can get to the place where ultimately what we're doing is we are setting up a form of legalism that completely ignores the person and work of Christ, and we will have a multi generational vision of taking our eye off the ball. The story of the Bible is Jesus. The story of the Bible is Jesus. And so even when I learned these principles, I take these principles back to the person and work of Christ. Whatever these principles are, okay, And I'm gonna tell you something, this is something that's actually just convicting because most of us and me included, we look at the Old Testament and we look for moralisms. We're not looking for Christ. We're looking for moralisms, and the Old Testament just comes just becomes another means of us preaching, you know, five ways to have a happy life, six ways the raise, you know whatever, and it ends up not being about Christ. Again, not saying that we spiritualize all the principles. And again I hope we've made that clear in those first points. We're not spiritualizing the moral law. We're not spiritualizing the civil and ceremony of law, which is based on the moral law, which gives us principles that take us back to the moral law, both of which, because they end up in the moral law, take us back to Christ. Because the moral law is a mirror and a tutor to point us to Jesus. That's why Paul was able to say, we preach Christ and him crucified that's it. Whatever we're preaching, that's what we preach. We preach Christ and him crucified, And so we don't end up just you know, standing up here from the Old Testament preaching things that have people leaving saying, Okay, I got to do these five things in order to be a better father. I got to do these six things in order to be a better mother. Because then what's that works? Righteousness all over again? It works righteousness all over again. Okay, so again back to Deuteronomy chapter twenty two. So what do we do with stuff like Deuteronomy twenty two If it's not just about stone and girls to death on the ports of their father's house. We're not saying that we want to do that. But it is about this principle. It is about the principle of this moral law principle of not committing adultery. And it's also about a bride being presented pure to her husband. Newsflash, a bride being presented pure to her husband is a foreshadowing of the Church, the bride of Christ being presented pure to her husband. In other words, what we're teaching our daughters is not don't have sex. What we're teaching our daughters, is you are to present yourself pure to your husband as a shining example and a living testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ that will one day be presented as a bride pure before her husband. So this is not about you just working hard to do better. This is about you being christ like. Is it the Old Testament law? Yes? Is it about Jesus. Yes, the whole Bible is about Jesus. Something's much more clearly than others. But the whole Bible is about Jesus. So when we're talking about these principles of courtship, we're not just trying to talk about reinstituting Old Testament practices. And if that's all we got is the reinstitution of Old Testament practices and Christ is nowhere in the principles of courtship, we've completely missed the vote. It's about Jesus, because that's the story of the Bible. Well, then, if we're going to be going through Genesis twelve through twenty two, we're looking at the story of Abraham, and the story of Abraham is about everybody's going Jesus. Well, yes and no. When we see Abraham in Galatians chapter three, and in Romans chapter four. Well, let's just look, let's just look. Let's go to Romans chapter four. Romans chapter three, there's this discussion of righteousness through faith and not through works. Now Here in Romans chapter four Abraham comes into the scene. What then, shall we say, was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh. For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about. But not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believe God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. And to the one who does not work, but trust him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Well, now let's go to Galatians. Look at Galatians chapter three. Go to the right Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, go eat popcorn. You remember it your way, I remember it mine all right. Now look at chapter three, look beginning verse fifteen. To give a human example, Brothers talking about justification and righteousness. Again, even with a man made covenant, no one knows it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now the promise was made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say and to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one and to your offspring, who is altogether Christ. Then we read about Abraham again in Genesis chapter eleven, and we read about his faith. According to the New Testament, the life of Abraham is about justification by faith and about the promised Seed ultimately culminating in the person of Christ. That's what the life of Abraham is about, justification by faith and the promised Seed ultimately culminating in the person of Christ. We just confess something to you. I've been working in my own life and my own ministry to be a better preacher of the Gospel, because in all of my training and in all of my teaching, it's been hammered into me this biblical exposition, looking at this passage in its context, preaching the principles that you find here in this context, and oftentimes not looking at the bigger picture that whatever we're doing, we're preaching Christ. And here's a statement by which I was absolutely convicted, and the statement was then most of us. This is a preacher talking to preachers at a pastor's conference, he said, most of us preached the Old Testament in such a way that we could preach it in a Jewish synagogue and nobody would be offended. That's an indictment. Most of us preach the Old Testament in such a way that we could stand up and preach the exact same sermon in a Jewish synagogue and no one would be offended. Why because we don't preach Christ. That just cut me to the quick, because I've done that on a number of occasions. We preach Christ and him crucified. This is not just about principles for you to do better and live better. This is not just about you having a happier life or me having a happier life. This is not just about our family being more prosperous or being more whatever. Ultimately, this is about the person and work of Jesus Christ. And here's what's wrong with the way we preach the Old Testament. If we preach the Old Testament the same way passage have been taught to preach the Old Testament for I don't know how long now. And if we preach Old Testament passages in such a way that you could preach it in a Jewish synagogue and no one would be offended. Then what happens is you're just basically preaching moralisms to people and they leave thinking the message was all about me doing these five things so that either one God will like me more or two I'll get better results. What's that works, righteousness, that's works righteousness. So keep these things in mind as you teach the Old Testament in your home. Folks, it's not just about works righteousness. It is about righteousness, it is about holiness. We've been called the righteousness, and we've been called the holiness. And here's what's amazing, you know, for those of you who either haven't been here with us or those of you who've been here with us, and you know, we haven't said this in a while. When we do our services, the way we organize our services our readings, we have an Old Testament reading and a New Testament reading, and we read systematically. We choose our reading. So we read today, you know, Jeremiah chapter six, because last week it was chapter five. So next week it'll be chapter seven, and we'll keep on until there's no more chapters left, and then we'll find another book in the Old Testament, and we'll read through that one just systematically, you know, same thing in the New Testament. We sort of read through it systematically, you know, and we'll go, you know, a gospel, a letter, you know, and you know, we get to actually, we'll do that. We'll varied up like that our catechisms. What do we do well, We take the three main books that we use, the Truth and Grace Memory Books one, two, and three, and we take the catechism from each one of those, and when we finish one of them, we go to the next one, and then every now and then God just and again. That's how we do it. We just do it through it systematically. And it's amazing that today and our catechism we talk about this issue of holiness and obedience and a proper theological understanding of holiness and obedience. All the message this morning, laying a foundation for us preaching through Genesis chapter twelve through twenty two, is about us not turning Old Testament teaching into works righteousness. God is good, is he not? So? What are we gonna see? These three things we're gonna look for as we look through the life of Abraham. These three things we're gonna look for Number one, We're gonna see the sovereignty of God, the sovereignty of God. Doctrinally, theologically, we're gonna stare just directly at the sovereignty of God. Not works righteousness. It's business of you know, God looking down the corridor of history and seeing who's gonna be better than everybody else and choosing that one because they're better, which, by the way, would give them a reason to boast. I can't say, man, you ought to say ouch. Now, this is about the sovereign Lord of the universe saying you, that's Abraham. The sovereign Lord of the universe comes to Abraham and says you, why because he's better than everybody else. Nope, not at all, not at all, not in the least. We're going to see the sovereignty of God. We're also going to see the providence of God, the providence of God. And again we've talked about the distinction between these two. But the providence of God is the way God, you know, Number one, creates things, gives them their properties, and causes those properties that causes them to operate in accordance with those properties that he's given them. Number two and Thirdly, interacts, intervenes, and brings about his desired ends by using those properties that He has given to all those things. So it's God's active intervention, active involvement in his creation. God is about the business of being actively involved in his creation. And we're gonna see this in the life of Abraham, as God basically comes to Abraham and takes him from here and puts him here and guides him there, not there this We're gonna watch God do all of these things in Abraham's life. God doesn't sit there as some would argue and say, for example, as some who want to remove sovereignty and providence from God are in one particular camp, and in this one particular camp, they believe that God's knowledge is finite, and basically there are a bunch of different choices out there that be made. God knows where all of them would lead, and basically he just operates within those confines. Well, here's a problem. If that's the case, then God looks down and he would have said, Okay, the whole hagar Ishmael thing, that's not the way I would have liked for it to be done. But hey, a seed's a seed, not what God does. God's sovereign and in his providence he goes, not that one. That's not my plan. And I'm in control. I'm in charge, I say, Isaac. So we'll see the sovereignty of God. We'll see the providence of God. We'll also see the plan of God, the plan of God. Folks, the life of Abraham is about God's sovereign saving work and him using means to bring about his desire ends. The life of Abraham is about the extent to which God went in order to ransom his elect That's what the life of Abraham is about. The life of Abraham is about God not leaving things to chance. The life of Abraham is about God saving his people. The life of Abraham is about the Gospel and the fullness of time. God said his son born of a woman, born into the law in the fullness of time. In other words, when the time was right, not at random, but in the fullness of time. And way back here in the life of Abraham, God is at work bringing about everything that needs to happen in order for the fullness of time to be achieved and for him to do his work of salvation. That's what it's about. By the way. This ought to give us great comfort. If God, thousands of years beforehand, was doing all of those things necessary for your redemption to be purchased, why are you scared about tomorrow? Amen, somebody? Why am I worried about tomorrow? Why am I upset about those things? God could take all of time and bring things to a head exactly when and exactly where he needed to, in order for my redeemer to be born, to be born at the proper time, in the proper season, in order for the Gospel to be proclaimed, in order for Christ, having died for sin, to do so in the midst of a culture that understood the sacrificial system, so that they would completely understand his redemptive work, unlike other points in history or the cultures in history. For him to be resurrected seen by hundreds, the Gospel be proclaimed, the Church be established, persecution to force the church to all the four corners of the earth, the Gospel to come to these shores, for us to hear it, to be saved, to be redeemed, to be on our way to glory. Why in the world why do I get scared about tomorrow? Here's why? Because I don't think about the big picture of God's redemptive plan often enough. And that's what we're gonna do for the next several months. We're gonna look at the big picture of God's redemptive plan. And when it's all said and done, our picture of God ought to be huge. But here's what's unfortunate. Usually when we preach through the life of Abraham, we just get a bigger picture of Abraham. No, when we get finished with the life of Abraham, we ought to have a bigger picture of God and a bigger picture of his redemptive plan. There's some of you sitting right here today, and you're here because God and his redemptive plan decreed it to be. So God's at work in your life, and he brought you to a place where you could hear about his plan and hear about his work. And there are some who aren't here today, but who are going to be at just the right moment as we're walking through the life of Abraham, to hear the big picture of God's redemptive plan, to hear about justification by faith, and to hear about the Promised Seed ultimately coming to fruition and fulfillment in the person of Christ. That's what this is all about. And so as we go forth through the life of Abraham, as you go forth teaching it in your home, remember these principles. Hold on to them. Remember the continuity between the testaments, Remember the contrasts between the testaments. Remember the story of the Bible. It's about Jesus Christ, God's redemptive plan. And then remember the story of Abraham or Who's never story that you happen to be reading in an Old Testament narrative. That way we put the Old Testament in its proper context. That way we learn from and grasp these times timeless principles of God's law. We allow him to use them to bring us to conviction as we look in the mirror and bring us to Christ, as we follow the tutor, and for him to shape us and sanctify us, so that we know what it looks like to walk in sanctified life. That's the other principle. So all of a sudden, we're looking in the mirror. I'm ruined, I'm a sinner, And all of a sudden, the mirror turns into a tutor and goes, that's great. You know you're ruined, You're a sinner. Let me take you to your only answer. It's the finished work of Jesus Christ. And we come to Christ so that we didn't just sit on our hands and kind of go, oh, that was great, thanks a lot, God. No, the work of sanctification happens, and in the work of sanctification God makes us more christ Like, which takes us to the moral law. But now not just so that we can get to work's righteousness, but so that we can see the sanctifying work of God conforming us to the image of Christ. See were was pentecostals. We'll be running all up around this room right now. That's just good news, y'all. Man, that's just good news. It's absolutely freeing. And some of you just need to go home free today because some of you came to the Family Integrated Church and here was your mindset. Your mindset was, our family's a mess. We need to go to this church so that we can learn the ABCS in one, two threes, so that our family will no longer be a mess. And as a result, you've been working real hard and trying real hard. All the joy has been gone out of your efforts. And you take two steps forward and one step back, and you beat yourself half to death because it's not working the way you thought it should work. When the bottom line is you missed Christ. It's about Christ and him crucified. See you get that. And then all of a sudden we look at these principles. Instead of leaving here beating ourselves up, we go, thank you Lord for the mirror that lets me see my sin and that leads me to the person and work of Christ. And because it's led me to the person and work of Christ, I now know that I need to trust Him and his work in me to make me both desire and to do your good pleasures. And I need to be more like Jesus. And the reason that I don't see this is because I'm not being more like Jesus. Dad, you want to be a better husband and father, here's what you do. Go to Ephesians five and stop looking for eight things to do and start looking at the fact that Ephesian's five is about Christ loving the Church. So if you want to be a better Ephesians five husband, you need to be more like Jesus. Ladies, your submission to your husband is your submission to your husband. About this is that what your submission to your husband is about. If that's the way you're fighting for submission to your husband, then there's no Christ in it. Wives submit yourself to your husband as what as unto the Lord. He's your head, like Christ is the head of the church. So what's that about. That's about the relationship between Jesus Christ and his bride. You make your life more about the relationship between Jesus Christ and his bride. It'll completely transform your view of submission and your ability to do it. Folks, are you smelling when I'm stepping in? It's about Christ. So let's not abandon the Old Testament. Let's not abandon the moral law. Let's not abandon the moral law principles that we find in the civil and ceremonial law. Let's uphold those things and uphold them vigorously. But let's not abandon Christ as we do that, because all that stuff is about Him. And if you're here today like that hamster on a treadmill, wondering why you're so tired and the will's not going anywhere, I hope that today you hear God screaming to you. Get off. Jesus said, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. And I will give you rules. No, I'll give you rest. If you're not resting, you're not doing it right. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I meek and lowly your heart, and my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Feeling easy and light and there. If you're not feeling and light as we continue to walk through this, then there might be more Work's righteousness than Christ's sineredness in your life. Remember, we rely on the same power that raised Christ from the dead, and that wasn't you