Cutting the Covenant

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I invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me this morning to Genesis chapter 15.
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And if you do not have a Bible, there is a Bible in the seat in front of you.
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And today our topic, our subject, as we continue our study of the book of Genesis, we've been going verse by verse through the book of Genesis, today our subject is cutting the covenant.
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Cutting the covenant, and hopefully by the end of the message you will understand what that term is in reference to.
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Several weeks ago we discussed the covenant that God made with Noah.
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You'll remember the first time the word covenant is mentioned in the Bible, it is mentioned in Genesis chapter 6 when God told Noah that he was going to establish his covenant with him.
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And then later in chapter 9 when Noah comes off of the ark, God establishes his covenant with Noah by promising him that he would never again flood the world, he would never destroy all life through water, and he put a rainbow in the sky as a picture of the promise, what we would call a covenant sign.
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In the message that we studied the covenant with Noah we learned a lot about what it means to make a covenant.
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We learned that a covenant is the basis by which God makes relationships with people.
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We learned that it is like a contract, but it's more than a contract.
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Maybe you remember this, maybe you don't, it's been several months now since we looked at chapter 6, but you'll remember what I said, the difference between a covenant and a contract is that a covenant bears a much stronger moral obligation.
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A covenant bears a much stronger moral obligation, and that's why we say when someone is married, we don't say they're entering into a contract of marriage, we say they're entering into the covenant of marriage.
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Because it carries a stronger moral foundation than just a legal ceremony.
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It's not just a legal ceremony, it's a ceremony before God where vows are exchanged, promises are made, oaths are given, and a covenant is established.
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In fact, that's what, by the way, if you're wondering why our seats are different, I know some of you came in this morning and started getting real nervous because you're not getting to sit where you normally sit.
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We have changed the chairs because in two weeks we have a wedding, and the blushing bride needs an aisle to walk down, and so this week we had to move all the chairs for our camp that we did for the kids, and when we put them back, we put them back in wedding style.
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So now we have a center aisle for Marianna to be carried down by her father, or walked down rather, by her father, and given to Saddam when they are married on the 26th.
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Looking forward to getting to administer that covenant, to be the one who stands before God with these two people that I've spent many hours with, and to get to talk to them about that in front of everyone and hear them say those precious words, till death do us part.
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That's what a covenant is.
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It's something that is meant to establish a relationship forever.
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God established His relationship with Noah.
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There's language prior to that.
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We could talk about God's relationship with Adam.
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We could talk about that, but we know there was a covenant relationship with Noah, and we see now that we're moving into the covenant with Abram, and the covenant with Abram becomes the foundation for how we understand God's relationship to us, because Paul will later look at the Abrahamic covenant, and he will use that as his example of a covenant of grace as you were, because God makes His covenant based on His own promise and His own goodness.
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Not on behalf of the goodness of Abram.
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Abram is a sinner, but on behalf of His own goodness and mercy.
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Understand the nature of covenant, or excuse me rather, understanding the nature of a covenant relationship is really necessary to understanding the whole Bible, because the Bible is the revelation of God's eternal plan of redemption through a series of progressive covenants.
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I'll say that again.
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The Bible is the revelation of God's eternal plan of redemption through a series of progressive covenants.
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Noah, Abram, and then we see the reestablishment of the Abrahamic covenant with his sons, and then we see God makes a covenant through Moses, and later He'll make a covenant through David.
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All of these are progressively revealing God to His people.
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And then finally, what is the greatest revelation? Jesus Christ.
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The new and final everlasting covenant of grace.
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Isn't it great that that's what we read about in our confession this morning? That we have the consummation of the covenants in the new and everlasting...
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There is not another one coming.
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There's not another covenant coming.
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We are in the last one, the best one, and by far the book of Hebrews tells us it's the best one.
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Not only is it the last one, it's the greatest one.
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It's the one that all the other covenants look forward to.
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The new and everlasting covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ.
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So we get to see today, God makes this covenant with Abram.
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He cuts the covenant with Abram through what is known as the self-maledictory oath.
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The self-maledictory oath.
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And what that means is God lays out a picture before Abram that says, may it be unto me that I should die.
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God can't die.
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But He says, may it be to me as I should die if this oath goes unfulfilled.
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So let's stand together, we'll read the word of God.
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We're going to read verses 7 to verse 21.
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We give honor and reverence to God's word.
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Beginning in verse 7, Genesis 15, verse 7.
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And He said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.
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But he said, O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it? He said to him, bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtle dove and a young pigeon.
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And he brought him all these, cut them in half and laid them half over against the other.
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But he did not cut the birds in half.
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And when the birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
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God, as the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram and behold, a dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.
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Then the Lord said to Abram, know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there and they will be afflicted for 400 years.
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But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
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As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace.
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You shall be buried in a good old age and they shall come back here in the fourth generation for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.
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When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between the pieces.
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On the day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying to your offspring, I give this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Canaanites, the Canaanites, the Cadmanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rethaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.
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May God add his blessing to the reading and to the hearing of his word and write its eternal truths upon our heart.
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You may be seated.
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Now we're picking up in the narrative right where we left off two weeks ago, or really last week too, because we were, we're Genesis 15, six.
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God had reaffirmed to Abram.
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He was going to give him a seed.
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He tells him his descendants will be like the stars of the sky.
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Abram believed God and the Bible says it was counted to him as righteousness.
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We looked at that passage two weeks in a row.
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And now we've gone to verse seven and we're looking at verses seven to 21 because the conversation does not end with verse six.
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You might think that it does because it has that great proclamation of justification on behalf of Abram.
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Abram believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.
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That's a great proclamation of justification.
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You might think that's a great place to end.
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That's where you sign out.
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OK, we're good.
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Abram believed God.
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It was counted to him as righteousness.
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But no, the the tale does not end there.
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The narrative goes on with a conversation between Abram and God and God continues his discourse.
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And we find one of the most amazing scenes in all the Bible.
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In fact, I want to say something about this passage.
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This is one of those passages, verses seven to 21, that I think should be in everyone's mind and often isn't.
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You talk to people about Abram and you say, what do you know about Abram or Abraham? They'll say, well, he he left his country.
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You know, God said go and he went.
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That's good on him.
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Or they'll say, we know about the situation with Sarai and Hagar.
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You know, we know about the situation with with the we're talking about that next week with the fact that he had another wife and they had children, you know, in that whole situation.
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OK, or they'll talk about the that's when he when he we took Sarai to Egypt and he said she was his sister.
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You know, they'll talk about that or the faithful, the faithful situation in chapter 22 where he offered up his son Isaac on the altar.
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But how many people, if you said, what do you know about Abram? They would say he took animals, he cut them down the middle in half and he laid those bloody carcasses.
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I mean, remember that story? Few people do, but might I say this is one of the most important moments in the life of the great patriarch.
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This moment, which often goes overlooked, is the defining moment in the life of this man, because he's going to have a interaction with God here that is very unique in Scripture in that he he's he he asked God a question.
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How am I going to have children? And God says, or is it going to be this man, Eleazar of Damascus? Is it going to be this adopted child? And God said, no, it's not going to be an adopted child.
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You're going to have children from your own ones.
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He believed God was counted as righteousness.
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And you might think that's where the story is.
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But no, he continues asking questions because God said, I'm going to give you this land.
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And he goes, how do I know you're going to give it to me? Really? Didn't he just promise you didn't say you believed, but you still have questions.
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And so that's why that Brian Boardman, you know, one of my favorite preachers, you've heard me talk about Brian many times.
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He said this is one of the most important chapters, not only in Genesis, in the whole Bible.
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Genesis 15 is one of the most important chapters in the Bible because of what we're about to read, what we're about to see.
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So here's the outline for today.
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It's not on the board.
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So you have to if you want it to write it down, we're going to look first at the desired assurance.
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That's verses seven to 11.
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We're going to look at the prophetic announcement.
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That's verses 12 to 16.
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And then the unilateral advance versus 17 to 21 desired assurance, prophetic announcement and unilateral advance.
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Let's look first at the desired assurance.
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Verse seven.
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And he said to him, this is God said to him, I am the Lord.
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Literally, I'm Yahweh or Jehovah, depending on which way you like to say the sacred name.
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I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.
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Now, understand something about that verse.
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That verse by itself could be an entire sermon because what the Lord is doing there is the Lord is he is beginning to use the language which in the ancient Near East is the what would be known as a prelude to a covenant.
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When a king, a sovereign would make a covenant with a lesser person, what we call a suzerain and a vassal.
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When a suzerain, a sovereign would make a covenant with a lesser, a vassal, he would begin by announcing who he is, like he might say, I am King Nebuchadnezzar, who who brings food to the masses and I give you this or I am King this and I do this.
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And it's a way of establishing in the beginning of the authority of the person who's making the covenant.
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We see this throughout the Bible.
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In fact, when you get to Moses and Moses is receiving the Ten Commandments, which are what? What are the Ten Commandments? It's the covenant, the Ten Commandments or the covenant God made with Israel.
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And how does he begin the covenant language? Exodus chapter 20.
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I am the Lord, your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
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Right.
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He's identifying himself.
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Hear that.
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Now hear this.
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I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.
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See, God is establishing his authority.
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He's establishing his name with Abram.
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He's reminding him who he is and what he's promised.
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And then in verse eight, but but.
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He, that is, Abram said, Oh, Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it? How am I to know that I shall possess it? I have to tell you, when I read this, maybe you maybe you think differently than me.
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It reeks of doubt, but we mustn't forget that this is on the heels of an expression of faith.
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Abram believed God and was counted to him as righteousness.
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Right.
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He was he not only did he believe God, but he believed God and God counted him righteous.
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Right.
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He imputed.
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We talk about imputation of righteousness.
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So Abram is a faithful man.
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He trusts God.
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But at this moment, we hear what sounds like.
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A lisp, you know, I believe in God, and then the walls start crumbling down and we start to lisp.
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Here's something to consider.
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God does not condemn him for this.
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If we go on, we'll see God actually affirms by responding to this, Abram asks, how am I to know I shall possess it? That's what gives way to God making the covenant.
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You want to know how you can know? I'll show you how you can know.
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Go get some animals and we're going to have a ceremony.
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Ceremony.
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Here's the great thing about that, God condescends to our frailties.
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God condescends to our need.
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See, we can't reach up to God.
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Our weakest, our greatest good works are filthy rags and they are so weak.
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But God in his love, he reaches down to us and our frailties.
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I'm reminded all the time of Mark 9, 24.
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And if you don't know Mark 9, 24, if I say it, you'll know it.
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I believe.
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Help my unbelief.
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Remember, the father brings his son to the man and he says, I want you to heal my son.
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And Jesus said, I will, if you believe.
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And the man said, I believe.
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Help my unbelief.
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That's such an honest moment.
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That's such an honest statement.
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And I think we see the same thing here with Abram.
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He believes.
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Genesis 15, 6 told us he believes.
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But now he asked the question, how can I know? How can I have assurance? How can I have comfort? Because understand this, he doesn't own an inch of land yet.
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He is still a nomad traveling, pitching his tent, right? How can I know? You've told me I'm going to have a nation.
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I don't even have a son.
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You've told me I'm going to have a land.
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I don't even have an inch.
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How can I know? How can I know? And you might say, well, he should just take God by his word.
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He did take God by his word, but he's still weak.
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So God condescends to his weakness and he establishes a ceremony of covenant to show him his faithfulness in a picture that he would never forget.
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Verse nine, he said to him, bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, turtle dove and a young pigeon.
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And he brought him all these, cut them in half, laid them half against each other.
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But he did not cut the birds in half.
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Now, I want to say this.
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A lot of commentaries speculate as to why these animals were chosen.
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And you get into a lot of weird allegories when you start hearing men's vain opinions on a lot of this stuff.
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The text doesn't tell us why these animals are chosen.
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But what we do know is later when Moses establishes the law, these are the animals that are typically used for sacrifice.
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So, you know, they're clean animals.
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So that's one thing we know about them.
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But we don't want to speculate too far.
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What we do know is this.
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He didn't cut the birds.
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He doesn't tell us why, but we can kind of assume they're little.
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You know, they're small.
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So he sets one on one side, one on the other.
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But understand the picture of what's happening.
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If you take a heifer and you cut it in half, it's a bloody mess.
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Brother Chuck, I could get you to come up here and give a seminar on the blood.
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Chuck is our is our he is our Nimrod.
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He's our great hunter.
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He's he's and just this this past week, we were having our camp here for the kids and he was helping me help me all week.
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And I thank you for that, Chuck.
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But he did have to leave one day because he had three pigs caught in a pen in Georgia.
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He said they're caught in the pen.
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I got to go get them.
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And so he went out and he showed put pictures up.
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He had gone home and taught the kids, his beautiful daughters and his sons and and the some other kids taught him how to slaughter these pigs.
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But I got to tell you, I'm pretty sure it wasn't a pretty sight.
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As you slaughter a pig, as you slaughter an animal, blood goes everywhere.
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And if you cut an animal in half, it's going to be a bloody mess.
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So this is not a pretty picture.
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He's he's got remember the list.
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He's got a heifer, a goat, a ram.
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And by the way, three years old.
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That means they were old enough to be used for service.
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That was that was an age of fully grown.
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That was the idea there, if you're wondering about the age there.
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So he's he's divided these animals up and he's placed them out.
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And by the way, Abram knows what's going on, because this particular ceremony was used in the ancient Near East as a way for people to enter into covenants with one another.
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The what they would do is they would take these animals, they would cut them in half and then both people, both members of the covenant, whoever was entering into the relationship, they would walk through the animals, these cut, they would trench through the blood and they'd get the blood on their feet as they walked through.
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And that bloody mess.
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The idea was this is let it be done unto me as has been done to these animals.
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If I do not fulfill the terms of this covenant, let it be done to me as has been done to these animals.
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If I fail in my part of this covenant.
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So the animals cut in half, set aside.
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And by the way, we don't have time to go there right now.
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But if you want to mark this down, Jeremiah 34, 17 to 20, Jeremiah 34, 17 to 20 actually references this form of covenant making.
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God challenges the people who make covenants like this and don't fulfill.
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So if you want to just for later study, go to Jeremiah.
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It's chapter 34, verses 17 to 20.
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He references this.
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So we have this bloody mess.
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In fact, it's such a mess that the text tells us this sort of sort of side note, it says that the the the birds of prey and we know that the vultures start to come down and try to pick at the carcasses and Abraham has to beat them away because Abram's Abram knows what's going on.
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There's a ceremony here.
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And so as the animals come down and there's again, there's a lot of speculation about what's happening.
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The animals represent the nations attacking the people of God.
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There's all these things that come up.
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I don't go there.
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I think some of that's over speculative.
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I mean, it might be good for a conversation, but certainly not something I would feel comfortable preaching.
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But ultimately, what we have is we have a bloody mess, fresh dead animals.
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They get in the nostrils of these birds of prey, they come down, Abram has to knock them off.
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It is primitive and obscene.
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Maybe you've heard me use that phrase before, primitive and obscene.
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Because, beloved, that's what the cross was.
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The cross was primitive and obscene.
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Dr.
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R.C.
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Sproul was preaching on the cross one time and he was talking about Jesus receiving in himself the punishment due our sin on the cross as he died there naked and bloody on the tree, having been nailed to it for our sin.
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And a man from the audience shouted at R.C.
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Sproul.
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He said, that's primitive and obscene because, you know, modern liberals, they don't believe in substitutionary atonement.
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They don't believe that Christ went to the cross to die for our sins.
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And so as he sat there and he yelled, that's primitive and obscene, R.C.
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Sproul said, yes, it is.
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And God has used the foolish things of this world to confound the wise.
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Yes, it's primitive.
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Yes, it is obscene.
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But that's the picture.
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Bloody carcasses divided in half, spread apart for a runway.
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A covenantal passageway between.
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So now we get to verse 12, the God speaks prophetically to Abram, says, as the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram and behold, a dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.
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The word deep sleep here is interesting, this is the same phrase that was used when Adam was put to sleep, when Eve was created, the Bible says a deep sleep was put upon him and he removed his rib and made Eve.
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Remember that? Well, I think that the use of language here can point to the fact that perhaps this was not just exhaustion that caused Abram to fall asleep, but perhaps God had intervened to bring him to a point where he can show him this vision in a dream.
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So he's not just passed out from being tired.
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God is putting Abram in a position of sleep so that he can bring him this vision.
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And it says, behold, a deep, excuse me, a dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.
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Now, just understand this in throughout the Old Testament, the terms dreadful and great darkness are used almost always to describe when God's when God's presence is near.
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See, oftentimes you hear people say, I was in the presence of God and it was glorious.
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Hey, there's a guy here in Jacksonville who is a preacher who said he a couple of Easter's back said that he he got to see Jesus.
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They show it like sat on his porch with him or something, something.
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Yeah.
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And they and he had an interaction with Jesus.
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And you know what he didn't say? He didn't say that he fell in his face and worship.
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All these cats that say, oh, I see Jesus walk, which is they never say that the presence of God is to them a holy place.
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It's always just, you know, eating ice cream on Hollywood Boulevard.
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It's garbage.
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It's not the serious, holy presence of God.
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And that's where Abram's entering into here.
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He is entering into the presence of God.
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Remember, Isaiah chapter six, the most holy man in all of Israel was Isaiah.
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There was nobody more practically righteous than was Isaiah.
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But in Isaiah chapter six, it says that I saw the Lord seated on his throne and he's his his train of his robe filled the temple and the and the angels, the seraphim were around him.
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They were saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
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And the whole earth is filled with his glory.
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And what did Abram do? He says, I put my hand over my face and I said, woe is me, for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips.
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I live among a people of unclean lips and I have seen the king, the Lord.
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You see, that's what it is to move into the presence of God.
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We realize just how unholy we are.
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Think about when Peter, Jesus said, go back out and throw your nets down.
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Peter said, I've been fishing all night.
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I'm tired.
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I don't want to do that.
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But if you command it, I'll do it.
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He threw the nets down and he pulled up more fish than they could carry.
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Remember to put him in the boat.
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What did Peter say after that? Jesus, we need to go into business together.
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No, makes sense.
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But that's not what he said.
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He said, depart from me.
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For I'm a sinful man.
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See, he knew he was in the presence of God Almighty.
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He knew he had the God man sitting in that boat with him.
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And the first thing he wanted to get out of the boat and get away.
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The presence of God is a powerful presence.
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It is an awesome presence.
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And in this moment, we see Abram with a dreadful and darkness, a dreadful and great darkness falls upon him.
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And then the Lord speaks, verse 13, know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there and they will be afflicted for 400 years.
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Now, what's he talking about? He's talking about when they are taken into Egypt.
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Now, you say, why in the world? That's still that's still many years future.
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Why in the world is that what God is saying to Abram at this moment? I tell you, some people don't believe it.
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Some people think that this isn't what God said.
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Some people think that Moses is writing anachronistically, meaning that he's writing words into God's mouth to comfort his hearers, because who's writing this? Moses, who's he writing it to? He's writing it to the people in the wilderness.
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So people think, well, he isn't writing this because this is what God said.
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He's writing this because this is what the people needed to hear.
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You know what you know, the Greek word for that.
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Baloney, that's right.
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The Greek word for that is baloney, because that ain't so.
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This is what God said, because God knew the people of Moses's day would need to hear this.
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See, God doesn't live inside time like we do, where he's constantly wondering what's going to happen tomorrow.
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God does things today that have significance a thousand years from now, because God knows yesterday, today and forever.
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And so God speaks this prophetic word into the ears of Abram, which would hundreds of years later have an impact on the people of God as they sat in the wilderness waiting to take the promised land.
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He gives them this prophetic statement.
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He says, know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there.
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They will be afflicted 400 years, but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
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We know what that's talking about when they come out of Egypt, they come out with the spoils.
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As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace.
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You shall be buried in a good old age.
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What a wonderful promise Abram receives.
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He receives the promise of a comforting death.
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And you will live to a good old age and you will go to your fathers in peace.
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You know, the Old Testament does not speak as much about the afterlife as the New Testament.
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The New Testament tells us all kinds of things about the new heaven and the new earth and what happens when we die.
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But the Old Covenant still affirms that is true.
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And here God speaks to me, you will go to your fathers, meaning you will die, but it will be in peace and a good old age.
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And in verse 16, and they, that is your descendants, shall come back in the fourth generation for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.
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Now, that portion there about the iniquity of the Amorites that really for the time sake for today, I'm not going to spend a lot of time with.
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Let me just quote you from this is Dr.
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Hughes's commentary on this.
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He says, according to W.F.
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Albright, the three principal goddesses of the Canaanite pantheon, Ashtardei, Aenoth and Asherah, were primarily concerned with sex and war.
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Sex was their primary function.
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Leviticus 18, 1 to 24 lists 12 variations of incest that were endemic to Canaan, along with adultery, child sacrifice, sexual perversion and bestiality, concluding with this warning.
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Do not make for yourselves to be unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean.
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Basically, the point that God is making with Abram here is that the iniquity of the Amorites, that is the group within the Canaanites, is going to continue to grow and grow and grow.
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And when it's reached its apex, God will send his people in to be their destruction.
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God will send his people in to be their destruction.
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So that's and we see that happen, right, Book of Joshua, right, as they go in and take the land.
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All right, finally, we get to verse 17.
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When the sun had gone down and it was dark.
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Behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
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On that day, the Lord made a covenant.
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It.
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With Abram, literally the language of Hebrew here, God cut the covenant.
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God cut the covenant with Abram.
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Saying to your offspring, I will give this land from the river, the great the river of Egypt to the Great River, the river Euphrates, and he goes on to mention the lands that he would give them, the Canaanites, the Kenizzites and the rest.
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I call this section of the text the unilateral advance.
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And the reason why I call it the unilateral advance is because you'll notice something about this portion.
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God goes through the animals.
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Without Abram, God doesn't go and take Abram by the hand and say, come, let us make this covenant together and walk through.
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But instead, only God.
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Only the presence of Yahweh is seen to pass through the animals.
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God's presence is represented in two ways, represented by smoke and fire.
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Some of your texts say an oven, some say a smoking fire pot.
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But understand throughout the Old Testament, God's theophany, which is a physical manifestation of his presence, is often seen in one of two ways, either in the presence of smoke or in the presence of fire.
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Think about the Israelites when they were going through the exodus.
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It says they were led by a cloud by day and a fire by night.
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Right.
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When Moses saw the Lord in the bush, what was the bush doing? It was burning.
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Right.
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So we have the burning bush.
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Right.
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God's presence here is seen in the smoking pot and the burning torch.
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And God himself goes through the pieces.
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And makes the self-maladictory oath, the oath, let it be done to me as has been done to these carcasses, if this covenant fails, Dr.
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R.C.
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Sproul would sometimes be asked to sign books.
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And sometimes people would ask him to write his life verse.
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I don't know if you know what that means.
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But a life verse, people ask me sometimes, Pastor, what's your life verse? And basically, it's just the verse that has meaning for you.
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And R.C.
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Sproul said, I don't really have one.
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He says sometimes I change it around.
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He said, but I will tell you the verse that matters most to me.
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And he says, oftentimes this is the one that I will write down.
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Genesis 15, 17.
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Genesis 15, 17, which again, it says when the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
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You see, the value of what is happening here cannot be expressed enough because God is showing that he is both the author and the finisher of his covenant promise.
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God is the one who establishes the covenant and God is the one who ensures that the covenant will not fail.
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It is not based upon Abram.
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It is based upon God.
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And this brings us to our application for us.
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What does this passage tell us, what does this passage remind us? We, too, are in a covenant relationship with God, if we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, if we have been regenerated, if we have been born again, we are in a covenant relationship with God and we, like Abram, have received promises from God.
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Think about the promises we have from God in Christ.
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There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, right, for neither death nor life, nor angels or powers, nor things present or things to come, nor life, nor death, nor anything else.
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And all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord, right? These are the promises that we have as part of the new covenant.
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We do not deserve them.
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We cannot work for them.
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All we can do is receive them by faith.
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The work of the covenant, the work of cutting the covenant on our behalf is done by Jesus Christ and not by us.
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In the same way, God's presence passed through the bloody carcasses to show his promise to Abram, Jesus Christ hung on a bloody cross to show forth God's promise to us.
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Neither covenants are dependent upon the work of the recipient.
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They are wholly dependent on the one who makes them.
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This is why we say and understand this.
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We say salvation is of the Lord.
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Salvation start to finish, even your faith, beloved, is not your contribution.
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For it is God who works in you both to will and to do his good pleasure.
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It is God who gives you the ability even to believe in his name.
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For outside the work of the Holy Spirit, we would remain in unbelief.
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And dead in trespasses and sins.
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As I said, as God showed his presence through those carcasses, Christ hung on that tree and he did so.
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To make a covenant, and if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have been made part of that covenant.
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And if you're not, let me say this, I pray for you.
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I pray that God will open your heart.
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I pray that even this day you would see yourself as desperate for a savior and that you would see Jesus Christ as the beautiful savior that he is, because even though that cross was repugnant, even though that cross was ugly, even though that cross was, in fact, primitive and obscene.
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The man who hung on that cross was beautiful and he is a greater savior than you are a sinner.
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That's right.
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So I encourage you to repent of your sins and trust in him, for only in that will you have eternal life.
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Bless you.
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Father, we so thank you for this time that we have had.
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To learn about how you made a covenant with Abraham.
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And how that covenant pictures the covenant that we have in Christ, who established the covenant in his blood.
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Lord, for those who do not know you, I pray that you would save today.
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Only you can open the heart.
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Only you can give the gift of faith.
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Only you can change a person from a believer or rather from an unbeliever to a believer.
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So, Lord, I pray that you would do what only you can do.
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And I pray, Lord, for those who do believe that we would share in this moment together the moment of the table, being reminded of all that you have done for us in Christ's name.
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Amen.