God's Unbreakable Promises: Faith and Covenant in Christ
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"And behold the Word of the Lord came to him saying, this one shall not be your heir but the one who will come from your own body shall be your heir. Then he took Abram outside and he said, Look now toward heaven, count the stars if you are able to number them. And he said to him. So shall your descendants be." [08:50]
"Verse 6 is one of the most important verses in Genesis, we read and he, that is Abram, 'believed God and he counted it to him for righteousness.' Beloved there’s the Gospel, this is the text that the apostle Paul calls our attention to when he writes the letter to the Romans and unfolds the Gospel and the doctrine of justification by faith alone." [10:57]
"And here is Simon Peter being heroic in his confession of faith and five minutes later Jesus tells his disciples that he has to now go back to Jerusalem and suffer and die and what does Simon Peter say? We’ve already heard the ultimate oxymoron. 'No, Lord.' 'No, Lord.' No, Lord?" [16:21]
"Here’s Abraham the father of the faithful just five minutes earlier, believing the Lord and has counted to him for righteousness and now he says, when God announces that he will give him the land to inherit it, he says, but Lord, God, how could I know that I will inherit it?" [17:08]
"How can faith move to full assurance and certainty? That’s Abraham’s question to God. And listen to God’s answer. Bring me a three-year-old heifer, three-year-old female goat, three-year-old ram, turtledove and a young pigeon. Let me see if I have that right, Abraham says, you want a heifer that has to be three years old, right?" [18:57]
"And Abraham brought all these things to God and he cut them in two down the middle and placed each piece opposite the other, but he didn’t cut the birds in two and when the vultures came down on the carcasses Abram drove them away. The heifer, the goat, the ram, Abraham cuts them in half and then carefully places their bodies in a path, like a gauntlet." [19:55]
"Abraham knows first only darkness and terror and God began to speak to him. Listen to what God says to Abram. 'Know with certainty that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; and afterwards they shall come out with great possession.'" [22:46]
"In his horror, in his stupefied state, in the night vision Abraham beholds, he sees this path of slain bodies and he looks and here comes the smoking oven, a flaming torch, hovering and moving down the isle, down the pathway, down the gauntlet between these pieces of animals." [23:59]
"Ladies and Gentlemen when God makes a covenant with His people he doesn’t just make a covenant, he cuts a covenant, and characteristically when God makes a covenant and most occasions that he does it, it is a bloody covenant. And when he makes the covenant with Abraham later on he tells Abraham, cut off the foreskin of your flesh and of that of you descendants because in this cutting right you are swearing your fealty, your allegiance to me." [24:40]
"And so the author of Hebrews says, when God swore His promise to Abraham because He could swear by nothing greater, He swore by himself. When Abraham said, 'Lord how can I know for sure?' God didn’t say Abraham I swear by the earth, which is my footstool or I swear by the heavens. God didn’t say to Abraham, Abraham trust me, cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye." [29:07]
"Now the promises of God that he makes in this covenant with Abraham are sworn by himself. What is God doing here? He’s saying Abraham, he’s graphically, dramatically, visually showing the truthfulness of His Word, when he allows that torch to go between the pieces that he’s saying Abraham, if I don’t keep my promise, if you can’t trust my Word, then may I be like these animals that you cut in half." [30:14]
"Fast forward through the pages of history, come to a peasant girl in a little village who is terrified, horror stricken by the visitation of an archangel that came out of nowhere. And tells this girl that she has been selected by God to be the mother of the Messiah. She says, 'How can this be?' I don’t even know a man. With God all things are possible, Gabriel says." [32:31]
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"Verse 6 is one of the most important verses in Genesis, we read and he, that is Abram, 'believed God and he counted it to him for righteousness.' Beloved there’s the Gospel, this is the text that the apostle Paul calls our attention to when he writes the letter to the Romans and unfolds the Gospel and the doctrine of justification by faith alone." [10:57]
"And here is Simon Peter being heroic in his confession of faith and five minutes later Jesus tells his disciples that he has to now go back to Jerusalem and suffer and die and what does Simon Peter say? We’ve already heard the ultimate oxymoron. 'No, Lord.' 'No, Lord.' No, Lord?" [16:21]
"Here’s Abraham the father of the faithful just five minutes earlier, believing the Lord and has counted to him for righteousness and now he says, when God announces that he will give him the land to inherit it, he says, but Lord, God, how could I know that I will inherit it?" [17:08]
"How can faith move to full assurance and certainty? That’s Abraham’s question to God. And listen to God’s answer. Bring me a three-year-old heifer, three-year-old female goat, three-year-old ram, turtledove and a young pigeon. Let me see if I have that right, Abraham says, you want a heifer that has to be three years old, right?" [18:57]
"And Abraham brought all these things to God and he cut them in two down the middle and placed each piece opposite the other, but he didn’t cut the birds in two and when the vultures came down on the carcasses Abram drove them away. The heifer, the goat, the ram, Abraham cuts them in half and then carefully places their bodies in a path, like a gauntlet." [19:55]
"Abraham knows first only darkness and terror and God began to speak to him. Listen to what God says to Abram. 'Know with certainty that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; and afterwards they shall come out with great possession.'" [22:46]
"In his horror, in his stupefied state, in the night vision Abraham beholds, he sees this path of slain bodies and he looks and here comes the smoking oven, a flaming torch, hovering and moving down the isle, down the pathway, down the gauntlet between these pieces of animals." [23:59]
"Ladies and Gentlemen when God makes a covenant with His people he doesn’t just make a covenant, he cuts a covenant, and characteristically when God makes a covenant and most occasions that he does it, it is a bloody covenant. And when he makes the covenant with Abraham later on he tells Abraham, cut off the foreskin of your flesh and of that of you descendants because in this cutting right you are swearing your fealty, your allegiance to me." [24:40]
"And so the author of Hebrews says, when God swore His promise to Abraham because He could swear by nothing greater, He swore by himself. When Abraham said, 'Lord how can I know for sure?' God didn’t say Abraham I swear by the earth, which is my footstool or I swear by the heavens. God didn’t say to Abraham, Abraham trust me, cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye." [29:07]
"Now the promises of God that he makes in this covenant with Abraham are sworn by himself. What is God doing here? He’s saying Abraham, he’s graphically, dramatically, visually showing the truthfulness of His Word, when he allows that torch to go between the pieces that he’s saying Abraham, if I don’t keep my promise, if you can’t trust my Word, then may I be like these animals that you cut in half." [30:14]
"Fast forward through the pages of history, come to a peasant girl in a little village who is terrified, horror stricken by the visitation of an archangel that came out of nowhere. And tells this girl that she has been selected by God to be the mother of the Messiah. She says, 'How can this be?' I don’t even know a man. With God all things are possible, Gabriel says." [32:31]
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