Genesis #17 - Abraham #7 - "The Dark Night of the Soul and the Promises of God" (Genesis 15)

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Genesis chapter 15. Genesis and chapter number 15.
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Genesis 15, as we continue this march down through the life of Abraham that we have titled
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The Gospel According to Abraham. Genesis chapter 15, our focus for this afternoon will be the entire chapter as we look at this narrative and we see what
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God has for us here. Genesis chapter 15, if you grabbed one of the red hardback
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Bibles that we give away in the back, page 11, that should be on. Genesis chapter 15, page 11.
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As is our custom, I'll invite you to stand with me out of reverence for God's word as we read it. Genesis chapter 15, beginning in verse one.
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Genesis chapter 15, brothers and sisters, these are God's words. After these events, the word of Yahweh came to Abraham in a vision.
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Do not be afraid, Abraham. I am your shield. Your reward will be very great.
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But Abraham said, Lord Yahweh, what can you give me since I am childless and the heir of my house is
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Eliezer of Damascus? Abraham continued, look, you have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house will be my heir.
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Now the word of Yahweh came to him. This one will not be your heir. And said, one who comes from your own body will be your heir.
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He took him outside and said, look at the sky and count the stars. If you are able to count them, then he said to him, if you're able to count them, then he said to him, your offspring will be that numerous.
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Abraham believed Yahweh, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
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He also said to him, I am Yahweh who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.
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But he said, Lord Yahweh, how can I know that I will possess it?
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He said to him, bring me a three -year -old cow, a three -year -old female goat, a three -year -old ram, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon.
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So he brought all these things to him, cut them in half, and laid the pieces opposite each other, but he did not cut the birds in half.
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Birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abraham drove them away. As the sun was setting, a deep sleep came over Abraham, and suddenly great terror and darkness descended on him.
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Then Yahweh said to Abraham, know this for certain, your offspring will be resident aliens for 400 years in a land that does not belong to them, and will be enslaved and oppressed.
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However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions.
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But you will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation, they will return here, for the iniquity of the
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Amorites has not yet reached its full measure. When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the divided animals.
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On that day, Yahweh made a covenant with Abraham saying, I give this land to your offspring, from the
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Brook of Egypt to the Great River, or the Euphrates River, the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hephites, Perizzites, Rephaim, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.
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As always, we pray that God will bless that reading of his word and grant us understanding. Allow me to pray, ask for the
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Spirit's help, and we will get to work in God's word. Well, Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your goodness and your mercy to us.
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Thank you for another opportunity to plant ourselves in your word and to hear you speak to us for the assurance and the comfort of our souls.
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We pray that as we hear your word preached, your spirit would be at work, using this word to minister to each and every heart.
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And Father, as we pray for ourselves here, we pray, taking a moment for our brothers and sisters at Applegate Community Church out in Grant's Pass.
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We thank you for Pastor Will Peterson and for his labors. Pray for him as he pursues his doctorate in expository preaching, and as he seeks to shepherd that congregation, that you would grant him strength, grant him much encouragement through his ministry of the word there and his shepherding of your people.
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And Father, as we pray for the blessing upon Applegate, we pray upon a blessing for us now as we hear your word.
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Asking all these things in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. Please be seated.
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I've titled our message this afternoon, The Dark Night of the
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Soul and the Promises of God. The Dark Night of the
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Soul and the Promises of God. The phrase, the dark night of the soul, comes to us from a poem by a, admittedly,
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Roman Catholic author, Saint John of the Cross. And he uses this language of the dark night of the soul to describe the moment when the soul of the believing person feels as though God is far away and that God is not near to them.
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And so he, in this poem that he wrote back in, I believe it was the 13th century, thereabouts, he writes this poem essentially to remind his readers that even the most fateful of God's children, even the most believing of God's children will experience moments where God seems far away.
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And that phrase is carried over into the English language. We talk about somebody's dark nights of the soul.
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Typically, we kind of boil it down to when someone's having a really, really rough time. But actually, it has more to do with the life of faith and how it is that the believing person deals with those moments where it seems as though God is far away and what he says, he may not make good.
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Well, as we come to Genesis chapter 15, I would argue that we are meeting Abram in something of that kind of moment.
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That as we come to Genesis 15, we are encountering, if you will, Abram's own dark night of the soul.
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And who among us can say we've not had a moment like this? Who can say that I've never had a moment where it feels as though God is far away, as though his promises have not come good, and I'm genuinely worried?
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I don't think any of us can say we've not had moments where we've asked ourselves, what is
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God doing? And where are things going? And I think
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Genesis chapter 15 has a lot to teach us in relation to those kinds of moments.
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I think it has a lot to say to us about the dark night of the soul, because be clear, if you walk with the
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Lord for any length of time, you will go through your own personal dark night of the soul.
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And if you walk with him for any extended length of time, the chances are you're going to have more than one.
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And so when those moments come, the question becomes, what do you rely on?
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What do you lean on? What truth or what truths are most necessary for your weary soul when those dark nights of the soul come upon you?
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Well, I think Genesis chapter 15 has something to help us or some things to help us with that question.
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Here's what I think this chapter is teaching us as God's people as we come to it. Very simply, God ministers to weary pilgrims in their dark nights of the soul through the word of his promises.
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Let me say that again. God ministers to weary pilgrims in their dark nights of the soul through the word of his promises.
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The way in which God deals with us as his children when we encounter those moments, those dark moments of the soul is not to do something new and revolutionary.
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I think sometimes we can have the mindset that if God is going to deal with me with problems I'm dealing with, then
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I need something big in the sky. You remember Elijah the prophet? If you know the story, there's a episode in his life where God tells him to go on a mountain and says, go on this mountain,
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I'll meet you there. If you know the story, there was a earthquake that happens on this mountain.
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But the writer, the narrator is very quick to say, but God wasn't in the earthquake.
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There is some demonstration of fire that takes place. Huge, impressive thing. But the author again says, but God was not in the fire.
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The text tells us where does God appear. A passage that's often taken kicking and screaming out of its context.
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But in its true context, it says, Elijah hears a still, small voice.
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He hears a word from the Lord and that is what comforts and calms him in that moment.
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And the reality is that's true for all believers. It's going to be true for Abram here. God ministers to weary pilgrims in their dark nights of the soul through the word of his promises.
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For the rest of our time, I want to consider three methods of grace as it were. Three ways in which
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God ministers to weary souls in their dark night of the soul.
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If you encounter, when you encounter the dark night of the soul, what do you need to know about how
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God is working in that moment? Because be clear, he is working in that moment. But what do you need to know about how
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God is working in order to be ministered to in that dark night of the soul?
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Three methods I want to consider with us this afternoon. The first of them is this.
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In our dark night of the soul, God ministers to us by calming our fears. God calms our fears, verses one through three.
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The setting of Genesis chapter 15 appears to be a brief amount of time after the events of the previous chapter.
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If you remember, Abram has gone to war against his coalition of kings. He's defeated them. We have the Melchizedek event.
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We've had the king of Sodom make his offer that he refused. Well, some time has passed. And as you come to chapter 15, verse one,
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God has shown himself to be strong in Abram's life through that entire saga. If anyone in this moment had reason to trust that God could do what he said he could do, surely at this moment, it could and should have been
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Abram. But we know that Abram has some troubles.
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Abram's got some stuff on his mind. We know this because of verse one. Look at it with me. It says, after these events, the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision.
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Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield. Your reward will be very great.
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Here's why I think Abram is encountering some trouble at this moment. From a human perspective,
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Abram had every reason to be afraid at this point. He has just gone to war with a coalition of kings.
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Nothing in the text says that he killed these kings or that, it simply says that he drove them away, which means the fear of reprisal is very high at this point.
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Abram could be very easily attacked by any of these kings who decided that revenge season was in full effect.
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At that point, if Abram had died at the hands of these kings with no kids, God's promise wouldn't have happened.
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And as he notes, as we'll see in just a moment, someone else would inherit. And so Abram has a somewhat understandable fear from a human perspective.
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And so at this point, God doesn't abrade Abram. God doesn't chide
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Abram. He draws near to Abram, not in rebuke, but in comfort.
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So God says to him, do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield.
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Your reward will be very great. Some of you have heard me talk about a phenomenon that I like to call church brain, if you haven't.
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If you've gone up in church for any length of time, there's this way of thinking. I call it church brain. Other people call it different things.
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But church brain is this way of thinking that only seems to apply when we come to church.
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We don't apply this anywhere else in the world. But for some reason, among church folks, sometimes when
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Christians are struggling with doubts of any kind, what is our natural response? At times, our response can sound akin to saying, snap out of it, you should know better.
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How many of you have encountered that? I know I have. And then we come up with sort of, you know, succinct ways of saying, snap out of it, you should know better.
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So if you grew up in church like I did, you heard phrases like, God says it, I believe it, that settles it.
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You know, just believe. Now, in a sense, that's the ideal of the
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Christian life. That's where we want to be. Where, you know, when situations come, our first and like instinctive reaction is just,
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I believe God, I trust God, everything is going to be okay. That's the ideal of the Christian life. Strong faith in God that never wavers, that can look at the circumstances and say, you know what, regardless of the circumstances, everything is well, that's fine.
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That's the ideal of the Christian life. But you know, and I know it, don't you, that we don't always live in the ideal of the
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Christian life, do we? It's not wrong to want that.
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It's not wrong to even pursue that. We should all want to get to that place. But that's the ideal, and like I said, rarely do we always live up to the ideal.
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There may be all kinds of reasons why we don't. Maybe our own laziness in attending to the means of grace, maybe our own negligence, that's one thing.
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But sometimes it's not that. Sometimes it's just the reality that we are human.
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We are frail. And at times, the thing we need is not a telling off for our doubt.
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What we need is a word in season, a word of comfort at the right time.
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And so God speaks to Abram and tells him not to be afraid. He's not to be afraid for two reasons.
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Don't be afraid, Abram, because of who I am. Did you know that God gives a description of himself here? He says, don't be afraid,
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Abram. I am your shield. Abram, do not worry about what these kings will do to you.
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I am your shield. I am your defender. I am your protection. I will look after you.
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So Abram has no reason to be afraid because of who God is, but he also has no reason to be afraid because of what
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God can do. So same verse, says I am your shield.
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Your reward will be very great. Why does
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God mention his reward being very great? Here's the other worry I think Abram has. Abram acted in tremendous faith when he turned down the offer of the king of Sodom, but now some time has passed.
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And I think Abram has that on his mind, like, should I have taken that? That might've come useful at some point.
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And God basically says to him, you did the right thing in turning that down. Don't worry about that.
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Some of your translations will say, I am your exceeding great reward. King James, New King James says that.
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There's a textual issue there. I think the CSB captures it, right? The emphasis isn't so much on God as the reward, as the fact that Abram's reward for his faithfulness will be, some of your translations will say, exceedingly great or extremely great.
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God says to Abram, essentially, don't be afraid, not just because of who
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I am, but because of what I am able to do. But Abraham is still afraid, and we know this, because look at verses two and three, look at his response.
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But Abram said, Lord Yahweh, what can you give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is
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Eliezer of Damascus? Abram continued, look, you have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house will be my heir.
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Notice Abram doesn't bring up the sort of implicit concerns he have, he brings up a new concern.
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His new concern is, okay, but you told me I'm going to be a father of many nations.
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I don't even have one child. If I die tomorrow, the man who's basically my chief servant is going to inherit everything.
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And isn't that how fear works? I see something far off that I don't want, and since it's something that I don't want, the experience of knowing that this thing
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I don't want is far away, that causes me fear. And so Abraham looks at his present circumstance, and he says,
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I'm looking at my present circumstance, and I don't see what
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I want. But here's the thing about the life of faith.
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It would be one thing if the life of faith was based on what we see. It would be one thing if the way in which we approach walking with God was on the basis of what we see.
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But you read the Bible over and over again, that's not how the life of faith works, does it? The life of faith doesn't work based on what we see, it's based on what we are told.
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Think about this for a second. God speaks to us as his people through his word.
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We generally do not see a lot of what God speaks to us about in his word, and yet through the word that he speaks, here's the beautiful thing, he knows we lack faith, so even in the word he speaks, that's how he creates faith.
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So passage I quote all the time, Romans 10, 17, faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes through the word of God.
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Paul could say in 2 Corinthians 5, after talking about the reality of suffering and the fact that though we see suffering in this life, that's not the end of the story.
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2 Corinthians 5, 7, he says, for we walk by faith, not by sight.
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When Paul wants to talk to the Galatians about how it is that they receive the gospel and how it is they heard the word of God, do you remember what
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Paul says, Galatians chapter three, those of you who were here a year and some change ago when we did Galatians, Paul says
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Galatians 3, 5, so then does God give you the spirit and work miracles among you by your doing works of the law, or is it by believing what you heard?
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Beloved, the way in which God deals with us in calming our fears is not to do something grand and spectacular, but to do the same thing he always does, to speak to us his word of comfort and his word of assurance.
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That's how God deals with fear. He doesn't yell at us because we're afraid. No, beloved, he speaks to our fear with his person and with his presence.
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But that's just one method that God uses in the believer's dark night of the soul. If the narrative ended there, that would be good, but it doesn't end there, it continues on.
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Because you see, not only does God calm our fears in the dark night of the soul, secondly, he bolsters our faith.
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He bolsters our faith. Verses four through six.
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Apparently, some time passes between verses three and four. And so in verse four,
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God comes back again. And where the first time he sought to deal with Abraham on the level of his fear, now
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God is going to deal with Abraham on the level of his faith. So chapter 15, verse four. Now the word of Yahweh came to him, this one will not be your heir.
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Instead, one who comes from your own body will be your heir. God doesn't even let
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Abraham go through that whole spiel again. Now he's just like, no, I am telling you, I, God, the one who called you,
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I am telling you, your servant's not going to inherit and you will indeed have a son who will be your heir.
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God speaks patiently, but he also speaks pointedly. Reminding Abraham of what he has said so many times already as we've been reading through the book of Genesis.
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It's like Matthew Henry says in his commentary, God is often better to us than our own fears and gives us the mercy that we had longed, despaired of.
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So God gives his word of promise once again. And this time to back up the word he's given, he gives
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Abraham a representation that he can see. So look at verse five with me. Verse five.
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He, referring to Yahweh, took him, Abraham, outside and said, look up the sky and count the stars if you're able to count them.
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Implication, you can't count them. Then he said to him, your offspring will be that numerous.
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As we read this, are you getting a sense that as much as a sovereign being who can do whatever he wants can, do you get the sense that God is almost bending over backward to give
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Abraham every possible assurance he could need? That he's doing everything he can to not just deal with the fear of Abraham, but to bolster the faith of Abraham.
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And so he gives him this visible representation. He says, I know I've spoken to you, but here's an image that I think will help you.
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Go outside, look at the sky. If you can count the stars in the sky, you'll be able to count all the offspring that you will have.
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Again, God isn't mad at Abraham for finding this hard to swallow. God doesn't sit there and say, oh, for peace sake, how many times do
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I have to say this? No, God isn't shocked or mad at Abraham for finding this hard to swallow, just like God isn't shocked or mad when we, his children, struggle in our own faith.
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That's why he gives to us visible, to use the language of our fathers in the faith, visible signs and seals of the promises that he makes to us.
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That's one reason here at Redeemer, we emphasize the concept of the means of grace as much as we do in the preaching of God's word, in prayer, in the waters of baptism, at the table that we'll participate in at the end of this message.
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In all of those, what our fathers in the faith refer to as outward and ordinary means, there's nothing amazing about words that we read, there's nothing remarkably amazing about the act of simple talking as we do in prayer, there's nothing amazing about water, and there's nothing amazing about the styrofoam and alleged grape juice that we drink from.
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But just like Abraham would be reminded every time that he went outside of his tent and he looked up at the sky, in the same way, every time we participate in these means of grace,
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Christ is offered afresh to us and we are reminded once again of the very great and precious promises
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God has made to us as his children. And as Abraham receives this sign, his response,
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I think is one of the most profound in all the Bible, so much so, we'll come back to it in a couple of weeks. Verse six,
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Abraham believed Yahweh and he credited it to him as righteousness.
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Having heard God's word, having received the visible sign of his promise to make good on his word, the text simply just says,
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Abraham believed God. Three simple words, but so, so profound.
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Have you ever wondered what it is that pleases God? I would affirm the
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Orthodox doctrine of God that says that God is without parts or passions, so God doesn't have emotions the way human beings do.
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But if we could speak metaphorically for a moment, what makes God happy? You ever thought about that question?
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It kind of came to me this week as I was studying this passage. What is it that makes God happy? What is it that, let's put it another way, what is it that pleases
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God? How would you answer that question? How would you approach the question of what it is that pleases
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God? Again, is it the big and grandiose gestures of the Christian life?
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Is it, I got baptized, I became a member of a church, I help the poor, are those the things that please
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God? Is it, hey, I serve in the church in some way? Is it,
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I read my Bible every day without fail? Is it, I pray two, three, four hours a day?
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Are those all the things that please God? No, I would argue all of those things may be manifestations. But when we ask the
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Bible the question of what pleases God, do you know what the Bible tells us? In the margin here in Genesis 15, six, if you're the
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Bible writing type, Hebrews 11, six, you might wanna write nearby. Hebrews 11, six, Bible tells us quite plainly what it is that pleases
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God. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse six. Now faith, now without faith, excuse me, it is impossible to please
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God. Oh, okay, this is getting helpful. Since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
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Brother and sister, the Bible answer to the question of what pleases God is faith.
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Whether it's as we come to the Lord, as we'll talk about in a few weeks when we think about justification, whether it's as we're coming to the
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Lord, as we continue to walk with the Lord, the thing that pleases God the most is when his children believe him.
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And here's the kicker. Again, this kind of hit me this week in a fresh way. Brother and sister,
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God doesn't want you to believe him merely because he says things.
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It's not because God says things that we believe him. God wants us to believe him because he says things.
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You get the difference with that? Let me put it this way. Faith isn't effective because it's faith.
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We don't have faith in our faith. That's not the issue. Faith is effective because God is the one in whom we place our faith.
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Theologians will put it like this, that it's not the mere act of believing that is effective, but it's the object in which we place our faith.
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That's what makes the difference. It's not by accident that our text says, it doesn't say, excuse me, that Abram believed what
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God said. He hadn't seen it.
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He had no reason to believe what God said, technically. But the text does say that Abram believed
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God. It was in believing God that the text says it was credited to him as righteousness.
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Abraham's faith was placed in a promise he had not yet seen. For you and us,
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God has fulfilled his promise in Christ. But the principle remains the same.
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Whether the promise has been fulfilled or unfulfilled, faith remains the difference maker.
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That's why our fathers in the faith could say this, 1689 London Baptist Confession, chapter 14, section two, that the principal acts of saving faith focus directly on Christ.
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Accepting, receiving, and resting upon him alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life.
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Ultimately, that which pleases God is not your acts of obedience. Your acts of obedience are the fruit of faith.
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But what pleases God is not necessarily the acts of obedience, is that they come from faith in him.
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And so what does God do? God seeks to bolster the faith of Abraham, and that's what God does with us through his word.
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He seeks not just to deal with our fears on the negative, but positively, he seeks to bolster our faith.
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Now, as I said, in the new year, we'll devote a whole message to verse six and the doctrine of justification and saving faith.
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So I'm going to park that for now. We'll come back to it later. For now, how does
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God deal with the dark night of the soul and his children? He calms our fears.
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He bolsters our faith. Thirdly, he confirms our future.
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He confirms our future, verses seven through 21. God hasn't finished ministering with Abraham yet at the point of his need.
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Abraham's concerned about the future, and God acknowledges that, and so God deals with that. Verses seven through 21 unfold in three stages, and each of these stages will teach us a little bit more about how
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God confirms the future of his people. First of all,
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God confirms our future as his people, somewhat paradoxically, if you will, by pointing us back to past faithfulness.
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So look at verse seven. He also said to him, so he's still talking. He also said to him,
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I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess. Now, Bible readers, that language,
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God speaking, saying I am the Lord who brought you from some such place to give you a land to possess, does that sound familiar to you?
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If you've read your Old Testament, you've heard God use that language all the time. God will use it with the nation of Israel. Give you one example,
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Exodus 20, verse two. I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. Why does
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God do that? You ever wondered about that? Why does God fill the need? Of course they knew that God was the one who brought them out. Of course Abraham knew
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God was the one who called him out of Ur of the Chaldeans. The point is this. God is reminding him of that reality because if God had been good to Abraham and taking care of him from the beginning when
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God told him to leave up to that point, Abraham's supposed to look back at that and say, well,
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God was good to me at that point. If he was good to me at that point, he'll be good to me in the future.
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And it's not by accident that you read the Bible. We've heard it today, even in our assurance of pardon, Romans chapter eight. It's not by accident that you read this language of hold on,
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God gave up his son for you. If he was willing to do that, why won't he do everything else? If that's what he was willing to do in the past, it's an argument from the greater to the lesser.
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That was a big thing. If that was such a big thing and he was able to do that, there's
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Paul's point in Romans chapter eight. Why can't God take care of you? And that's what
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God is doing here, I would argue in verse seven. He's telling him, listen, I took you from everything you knew, everything that was familiar, and right up to this point, even when you've made mistakes, let's not forget the
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Egypt incident. Even when you messed up, I still took care of you.
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Implication being, what makes you think I can't look after you in the future? But not only does he confirm our future by pointing us to past faithfulness, secondly, he grants us assurance in the present.
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There's one thing to say, okay, well, God did that in the past, but what about in the here and now? Well, God gives us assurance in the present.
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Verse eight, but he, Abram said, Lord Yahweh, how can I know that I will possess it?
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Now, there's one way to read that question, which sounds like Abram is still doubting God at this point, which sounds as though, okay,
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God, I heard you on all that, but come on. I don't think that's what's happening here though.
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Well, I'm sorry, verse six clearly says that Abram believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness. So he clearly believes what
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God has said. So why is this here? Well, I'm inclined to agree with my favorite commentator,
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Matthew Henry. He says this, Abram desires a sign whereby shall
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I know I will inherit it, quoting verse eight. This did not proceed from distrust of God's power or promise as that of Zacharias, but he desired this, number one, for the strengthening and confirming of his own faith.
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He believed, but here he prays, Lord, help me against my unbelief. Now he believed, but he desired a sign to be treasured up against an hour of temptation, not knowing how his faith might, by some other event or other, be shocked and tried.
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Secondly, he gives this for the ratifying of the promise to his posterity, that they might also be brought to believe it.
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I don't think Abram's question here is a question of God, I don't believe you. Not necessarily.
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I think Abram's saying, Lord, I believe you, but I know myself. I need some assurances of what you said, which is why
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God is willing to do it. Can I pause for a moment? Again, as a body,
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I'm always thinking about ways in which we as believers act, particularly with the world out there, because if we're called to be witnesses for Christ, that means you're going to deal with all kinds of people.
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Sometimes the church can give the impression that genuine faith asks no questions. We can sometimes give the impression that, okay, if God's word says it, that's the end of the discussion, which is true to an extent.
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We don't get to have faithless questions. But again, let's go back to that phrase that I mentioned earlier that we hear all the time quoted in church circles.
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God said it, I believe it, that settles it. Sometimes between the
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God said it part and the I believe it part, we're going to have questions. It's okay.
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And sometimes between the I believe it part and that settles it part, we're going to have questions.
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That's okay. We have to be very careful that we don't squash all questions that people have.
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Let's be fair. There are some questions that are asked in bad faith. They don't really want an answer. We're not talking about that.
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There are some questions that come from a genuine place of desiring and wanting assurance.
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And so thank God that he doesn't squash Abram or his questions, because ultimately Abram's questions here are not questions of doubt.
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They're questions of confirmation. It's about tangible proof that God will do what he has said.
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Well, God is more than happy to give Abram that proof. So look at verses nine and 10. He said to him, bring me a three -year -old cow, a three -year -old female goat, three -year -old ram, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon.
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So he brought all these to him, cut them in half, and laid the pieces opposite each other, but he did not cut the birds in half.
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I've already touched on this before, but in case you missed it, this is the covenant -making ceremony. This ceremony where you took animals, you would cut them in half, create a bloody pathway with these animals.
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And the people who make the covenant would walk through these parts, basically saying that as I walk through these parts, if I break my end of the covenant, what happened to these animals should essentially happen to me.
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Three -year -old animals, that's not an accident. Those are animals that were considered to be at their peak, their fittest.
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This would be a sacrifice on Abram's part. He's giving up his best here. And it's interesting, verse 11, this ceremony is not without opposition.
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So verse 11, birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. File that verse away for just a moment.
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We'll come back to it in a bit more detail. For now, this seems to have unfolded over the course, the second time of God coming back to him, over the course of a day.
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Because you get to verse 12, it says, as the sun was setting. So now we're coming towards the end of a day here where God has been speaking and has been making himself known.
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Verse 12, as the sun was setting, a deep sleep came over Abram and suddenly great terror and darkness descended on him.
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A deep sleep. We've heard the language of a deep sleep already in Genesis, haven't we?
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In case you forgot it, Genesis chapter two, verse 21. When God created a companion for Adam, what did he do first?
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Same Hebrew phrase. Caused a deep sleep to come over Adam. If it sounds like Adam, it's because there's supposed to be a link here.
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The last time that God put someone to sleep, he ended up in the covenant of marriage. Now another covenant event is about to happen.
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And the mood, as it were, seems to shift. The visible setting starts to shift in line with what
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God is about to say. So verse 13 through 16. Then Yahweh said to Abram, know this for certain.
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Your offspring will be resident aliens for 400 years in a land that does not belong to them and will be enslaved and oppressed.
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However, I will judge the nation they serve and afterward they will go out with many possessions. But you will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age.
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In the fourth generation, they will return here for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.
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Now, I can appreciate that on first reading, this doesn't sound all that reassuring.
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You just said, the offspring I'm gonna have are gonna be enslaved in a land for 400 years.
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God's gonna judge that nation. Okay, that's kind of reassuring, I guess. Okay, I'm gonna die a peaceful death.
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Okay, that one Mugon is assuring. But what's all this about my offspring going off to a land for 400 years?
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Wait, what? Well, I put it to you that God isn't just speaking to Abram in this moment.
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Think about it, was Genesis written to Abram? No, I promise you that's not a trick question.
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No, it wasn't written to Abram. Abram is the one the events happened to, but who are going to be the first readers of this?
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You know my favorite phrase by now, the generation of Israelites sitting on the plains of Moab about to enter into the land of promise.
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Read this from their perspective and then ask the question, how reassuring is this? Think about it this way.
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Number one, it happened to their parents. They did go, well, their parents, grandparents, great -grandparents, 400 years worth.
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They did go into Egypt and they were enslaved. And oppressed for 400 years, that did happen.
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Okay, did God judge the nation that enslaved them? Yes, he did.
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You know that as the events leading up to the Exodus. Did Abram die in peace at an old age?
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At the risk of spoiling my own sermon series, yes, Genesis 25, he dies an old man with not just one son, with a few sons.
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God had done three of the four. The generation who would have read this for the first time, they're the generation about to experience verse 16.
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They're now back in the land. And God says,
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I'm going to deal with the nations around you because the sins of these peoples are not complete. Again, I don't think
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God was just dealing with Abram's problems when he said that. God was writing this for the benefit of his people.
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The Exodus generation had been a rough one. In fact, numbers 14, God says, because of your lack of, oh, interesting, your lack of faith in me.
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He says, you all say your children are going to die in the wilderness. Actually, your children will be the one to go in. All of you who came out of the
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Exodus, except Joshua, Caleb, technically even Moses doesn't make it in, if you think about it.
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All of you will die in this wilderness. So now here's this generation thinking, well, our parents did die in the wilderness.
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Is God going to be able to make good on his promise? But here's the thing. If God kept his promises on count one, count two, and count three, why would he not keep this final promise?
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God would, of course, keep his word. Challenges or not, I told you the final way, verse 11. There is a whole, pretty much all commentators agree that verse 11 actually pictures the fact that though Abram is the beneficiary of these covenant promises, he would not be without challenge.
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Just like birds of prey come on to carcasses to devour them. So Abraham's seed would experience constant opposition to these promises, but no worries.
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Of course they will. But here's another thing that's true. God is not unaware of the challenges to come.
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Yes, the possession of covenant promises doesn't make God's people immune from trouble.
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And here's where this speaks to us, just like it would have to Abram's children in the future. The assurance we have is that troubles and fears and challenges, they are not the headline.
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Can I transition to you, child of the new covenant? The headline of the
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Christian life is not the trials that you endure. Yes, the trials that you endure are real. The dark night of the soul is indeed real.
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Trials will come, but they're not the main event. They're not the headline at the end of the story.
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But I'll miss us to understand the main event for us new covenant people is the fact that, and it's good news that God became a man, that he lived the life that we could never live, that he died the death that we should have died, that he rose and he ascended and that he sits at the father's right hand interceding for us.
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Every time that we lack assurance in the promises of God for the future, we look back at his faithfulness in the past.
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And that should not just help us to make sense of the past, but it should give us assurance in the present.
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Now that would be good if it ended even there, but it doesn't end there. Technically speaking,
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Abram's still asleep. The text doesn't tell us Abram's awake to hear any of this. Look at verse 17.
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When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the divided animals.
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I'm running out of time. I would love to take you to Exodus chapter 19, this language of the fire and the smoke that appears there, visible signs of the presence of God.
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I have to kind of expedite a little bit. But God himself manifests his presence in a physical form.
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And he comes down and the text says that he appears and he passed between the divided animals.
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Think about this with me for a moment. God sets up a plan where the undeserving are blessed as God himself takes on the curse.
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Doesn't that sound familiar? I vaguely remember reading somewhere.
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I think it's Galatians 3. Galatians 3, I think it's 13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
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God is not capable of covenant breaking. And yet God comes down and basically says, I will pass through these parts and the sanctions for breaking the covenant should come upon me if this is broken.
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But here's the thing, as redeemed people, we know that we have sinned.
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And yet the Bible teaches us that the God who makes the covenant of salvation with his people, he himself comes on and takes on the sanctions, the curses of that covenant for his people.
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What does Abram get as a result of this? He doesn't pass through the parts, no. All he receives are the benefits.
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God is the one who takes on the sanctions for himself. And that's why beloved, assurance in the present can't come from you.
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If you think about this, you did none of the work to get saved. You've done none of the work to be blessed in the Christian life. You've done none of the work to enjoy anything in the
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Christian life. Assurance can only come, transitioning it to the gospel, it can only come from Christ's work for you on the cross, and Christ's work in you.
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I don't think it's an accident that darkness seems to be the veil around this event. It's not by accident that when the cross happens, the
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Bible teaches us that darkness descended upon the whole earth as this transaction to end all transactions took place.
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The visible presence of God entered into the grossest darkness and took on the curse for you and for me and for all who would believe in him.
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He underwent the ultimate dark night of the soul so that your dark nights of the soul needn't be the end of the story.
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And since that is true, not only can we look back at past faithfulness, not only can we have assurance in the present, but we are also reminded of our future inheritance.
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So again, verses 18 through 21, God reaffirms the promise he gave to Abram that he will give him this land.
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At some point next year, we'll do a message on the land promise and what that means. But for now, just note that this is a lot of land and there's a lot of people to move out of this land.
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But God, once again, this is now the third time if you read Genesis, the third time that God has affirmed the promise of the land to Abram.
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This is what Abram will inherit. And God will remind Abram and his offspring over and over and over again of this future inheritance that awaits them.
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That's one of the reasons that there'll be a year and a couple of weeks that we began celebrating
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Lord's Table week by week here. Because we gather each week to celebrate the fact that God keeps all his promises all the time.
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And that this table that we come to is not a table for people with perfect faith, just like God's promises didn't come to a man who had perfect faith.
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This is not a reward for good people. It's a promise to weary ones.
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It's a reminder that a day is coming when we will know by sight what we know now by faith, where we will eat a greater meal, not in a church in Medford on a
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Sunday night, but in the new creation, a land that is far more glorious and far more wonderful than this one.
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Beloved, the dark night of the soul will come for all of us, but deeper than the darkness is the light of God's promises.
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And Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for those promises made to us in Christ. We thank you that just as Abram knew by hearing your word, we know by hearing your word that there was a glorious inheritance that waits for us.
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We know that what your word says, that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us.
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And so Heavenly Father, I ask that as we have heard, again, the word of your promise this afternoon, that your word would create faith in us, that we would take you at your word, that we would rest and receive and accept the fulfillment of your promises made to us in Christ.
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And that would give us perspective even as we deal with the struggles of our own lives. We ask all these things in Jesus' name and for his sake.