The Promise Holds Firm Genesis 17:1-14

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The most common theme we have seen in the narrative between God and Abram in Genesis is the faithfulness of God through thick and thin.
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God did not choose Abram because he was a great man. It was not as if God looked down from heaven and said this is the man
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I'm going to bless because he is an incredible person. No, rather God graciously chose
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Abram in order to bless him and he is committed to blessing Abram to display his steady faithfulness.
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Last week we saw, two weeks ago, we saw a big low in the life of Abram in the bizarre narrative with his wife
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Sarai and the servant woman Hagar and we talked about how Abram's journey has been like the wild thing ride, you know in the
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Valley Fair, you go up and up and up and up and then you get to the top and you can see the Minnesota River Valley and then all of a sudden, boom, it drops down.
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That's been what his journey has been like through the journey of faith. It's been one of huge ups and huge downs and today we are going to see an up.
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We will see it as the Lord pursues him and Abram responds appropriately. This morning we are continuing our sermon series through Genesis and we are in chapter 17.
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We are going to be looking at verses 1 through 14 so I encourage you as always to open up a Bible with me.
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If you are using a red Bible, behind the pews it is on page 14 and this sermon is titled,
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The Promise Holds Firm. The promise holds firm and our big idea, our proposition is the
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Lord continues his steady commitment to the man of faith. The Lord continues his steady commitment to the man of faith and we are going to see three ways how his steady commitment is shown in Abram.
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The first is by pursuing him again. By pursuing him again.
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We will see this in verses 1 through 3a. Last week we saw the bizarre narrative between Abram, Sarai and Hagar.
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The Lord made the promise to Abram that he and Sarai would have many offspring that would come from them and time had passed and Sarai began to doubt this promise so she came up with her own foolish plan.
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Her plan was to give her servant woman Hagar to Abram as a wife so that they could bear children that way.
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Hagar became pregnant and eventually Ishmael was born. What we saw last week was the
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Lord's patience. He did not scrap his plan with Abram and say all these promises I made to you were through.
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We see that in our world right? I'm done with you. The Lord didn't do that. He continued his faithfulness to him.
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He still plans to bless him. This is what we are going to see. Let's first begin by looking at verse 1.
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When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him,
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I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless.
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So we saw the Lord appear to Hagar as the angel of the Lord two weeks ago in chapter 16 and now we see him appear to Abram here.
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The last time the Lord appeared to Abram was in chapter 15 and that happened in what we call a theophany.
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That's where God appears in either a human form or as an angel and that's what he's doing here.
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This is another theophany. He appears to him. So Abram actually sees someone, the angel of the Lord and God is talking to him.
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The Lord appears to Abram here. We can estimate how much time has elapsed between his last appearance to Abram and this appearance now.
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Abram was 86 when Ishmael was born. The Lord appeared to Abram in chapter 15 probably not too long before that.
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So after more than 13 years, the Lord appears to Abram again. 13 years, that's a long time.
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13 years ago I was a senior in high school. That gives you a little bit of perspective. That's a long time. You can see how long
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Abram had to wait. He's 99 here. He was 75 when the
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Lord first appeared to him and made the promises to him that he would have offspring, a nation, blessing, and land.
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You can see why Abram and Sarah would have wondered, is the Lord really going to give us a child they had to wait and wait and wait
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I mentioned this last week and I'll mention it again two weeks ago I'm gonna keep making that mistake here the
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Lord often works this way he has us wait he has us wait because it leads us to trust in him more during the wait he cares who you are becoming during the waiting process
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Lamentations 325 says the Lord is good to those who wait for him to the soul who seeks him
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Abram is a great example of someone who had to wait and eventually the Lord delivers what he promised the
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Lord still works this way with God's people as you wait always remember the
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Lord delivers on his promises to you the promises they're in Scripture these blood -bought promises that are yours in Jesus Christ it now in verse 1 what
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God says here is that he is God Almighty in Hebrew this means El Shaddai you may remember that song
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El Shaddai that means God Almighty after identifying himself as God Almighty the
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Lord gives Abram two commands in verse one he tells him to walk before me and be blameless this reflects how the
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Lord described Noah in Genesis 9 6 9 we saw that a few months back the
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Lord called Noah righteous and blameless and the Lord expects Abram to be blameless as well in verse 2 the
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Lord tells Abram that he must walk before him and be blameless for this covenant to happen walk before me and be blameless that I may make my covenant between me and you and may multiply you greatly this covenant that the
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Lord has made with Abram is what was known in ancient times as a royal grant this is what a superior blessed and inferior faithful servant when we hear the word grant by the way it's a gift right it's given to you
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I know Shayla can tell you right now we just received a grant from the state of Wisconsin for the faster internet that's hopefully going to be coming to this area we can all say amen to that right it's given to you right you don't have to do anything for it when the
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Lord is giving this grant to Abram right he's the one who's doing it the Lord is giving him the gift now these commands to walk before him and be blameless is spiritual preparation for the instructions that the
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Lord is about to give Abram for this covenant to happen he needs to comply with the
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Lord he needs to work with him and we will see the instructions the Lord gives Abram in a bit but he must be obedient to God if this is going to happen right if Abram said no not doing it
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I'm not going to go along with this then of course the Lord's not going to do this so that's that's that's Abram's responsibility in this he needs to go along with it but the
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Lord is the one who's going to be doing all the work and what we will see is that his household and his descendants must follow the instructions also if they are going to be a part of this covenant in verse 3 we see
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Abram's response to the Lord appearing to him and declaring these things this is what Abram did Abram fell on his face and God said to him so this is the appropriate response when one is confronted with the presence of the
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Lord in verse 1 the Lord said I am God Almighty when a person confronts
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God Almighty this is what they do they fall down in awe before him and some of you some of you may have seen the movie
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I can only imagine that's been in the theaters that was of course a huge song about 15 years ago and the lyrics of that song say surrounded by your glory what will my heart feel will
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I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still will I stand in your presence or to my knees will
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I fall will I sing hallelujah will I be able to speak at all that kind of I think that that does a pretty good job of capturing okay what what is it gonna be like when we stand in the presence of the
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Lord well scripture actually gives us a really good indication of what I mean they're typically speechless right they fall down before him they're in awe of the greatness of God the glory of God comes upon them and as we see this in Scripture we think we see this with angels too because they because because the glory of God comes with them too and people are just speechless when they see an angel if they do this to an angel how much more
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God himself so it makes you think what will it be like for us one day when we stand before the presence of God this is the first way the
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Lord continues his steadfast commitment to the man of faith by pursuing him again by pursuing him again the second way the
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Lord continues his steadfast commitment to the man of faith is by renewing his promises by renewing his promises and we'll see this in verse 3b through 8 after Abram falls on his face the
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Lord says to him the promises he already told him in chapters 12 and 15 when the
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Lord called Abram in chapter 12 he said this is what I'm gonna do for you and now he's repeating these promises once again this is what he says behold my covenant is with you and you shall be a father of a multitude of nations no longer so your name be called
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Abram but your name should be called Abraham the
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Lord tells Abram that he is not only going to be the father of many offspring but he will also father a multitude of nations these people are going to be a scattered people from a family line these people will form nations that will be have their fingerprints on this earth by telling
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Abram that he will be the father of a multitude of nations the Lord does something to mark the special occasion of new information he gives
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Abram a name change we see that in verse 5 it says no longer should be called
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Abram but your name should be called Abraham and the meaning of the name is I've made you the father of a multitude of nations actually the word
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Abram means father Abraham means father of a multitude of nations remember when
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I was growing up and there was a guy who changed his name and this is not the way the
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Bible recommends changing names he was a he was a big he was big into fishing he changed his name to fish fisherman that's an interesting name right obviously when we talk about name changes here in the
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Bible in the case of Abram this the Lord saying this is significant to this to this name change not like that Abram as a father of nations gets this name to signify the importance of this promise and everything wonderful that will come from it so when we think of the name
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Abraham this should come to our minds he's the father of a multitude of nations so up to this point in the sermon series
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I called him Abram from this point forward we're gonna call him Abraham I've been looking forward to this and now we're here the
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Lord emphasizes this blessing upon Abram in verse 6 he says I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make you into nations and kings shall come from you the
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Lord is not only going to make Abraham fruitful he is going to make him exceedingly fruitful we're talking to millions of offspring here and we know from the history of Israel that this is true not only does
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Israel come from Abraham but other nations as well the Hebrew word does not just say nation but nations plural and this begs the question what other nations will come from Abraham what we saw last week that Ishmael came from Abraham the
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Lord promised that a nation would come from Ishmael another nation that would come from Abraham would be
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Edom Isaac had two sons named Jacob and Esau from Jacob would come
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Israel and from Esau would come Edom so you see not just Israel comes from Abraham actually there's actually a few other branches that come from Abraham the elect line that goes through Isaac and Jacob and the non elect line that goes through Ishmael and Esau and all these people are going to be fruitful because of their association with this blessed man
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Abraham and they will have many many offspring and these nations would have kings including
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Israel of course if you read the Old Testament if you read 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd
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Kings, 1st and 2nd Chronicles I've been reading through that in my own devotions you see the stories of the kings that they had and these people came from Abraham these other nations would have kings as well and the greatest king of course that comes from this line is the
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King of Kings the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords Jesus Christ comes from this now in verses 7 and 8 the
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Lord once again reminds Abraham of these great promises that he is making to him he says and I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be
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God to you and to your offspring after you and I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession and I will be their
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God one of the major themes of this chapter is the Lord is renewing this covenant the
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Lord first promised this covenant in chapter 12 when he called Abraham he ratified the covenant so what ratified means is in it's enacted it starts in chapter 15 and now in this chapter the renewal of this covenant happens and this made me think of how we see renewal of covenants happen in our day of course the covenant that comes to our minds first is the covenant of marriage one of my one of my friends from seminary recently did something really not really wonderful to surprise his wife they went to the church building where they got married and when they showed up the wedding party was there that they got married like 12 years ago and the wedding party was there and and the pastor was there and what they did is they renewed their vows on that day on that on that wedding anniversary all those years later and so we see this happen in our culture and the
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Lord does this here he's renewing this covenant he's saying I'm committed to you
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I'm keeping my promise that I made to you all the way back all those years ago when he first called him in chapter 12 and in the same way in our present journey through the life of faith
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God wants to continually remind you and me about the promises he has made for us and as you go through the journey of faith the
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Lord desires for you to meditate on his promises think about them rejoice in them hold on to them two weeks ago we sang a song the song by Keith and Kristen Getty he will hold me fast for my
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Savior loves me so he will hold me fast right we're just holding on to those promises that the
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Lord has made to us and as you sing a song like that you're being reminded of the
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Lord's commitment to you he's holding on to you he's committed to you now well verse 7 is a reminder of what the
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Lord was going to do to Abraham and his offspring he also gives him some new delightful information this covenant is for Abraham and his offspring and all the generations after him for an everlasting possession so the new revelation here is everlasting possession that's the first time this has shown up when he made the promise in chapter 12 it wasn't there when he made the promise in chapter 15 it wasn't there now it's here this is for an everlasting possession the
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Lord's promises to Israel are forever the Lord is going to multiply the offspring throughout history and he is going to give them a land throughout history
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I made mention of this a few weeks back we need to ask the question has
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Israel had the land for an everlasting possession the answer is no the land was taken away from them by the
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Babylonians in the 7th century BC they did not get the land back some believe that they got it back in 1948 and this was only some of the land so after Christ returns
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Israel will receive the land back in full and they will have it in what we call them the millennial kingdom which is a thousand year reign of Christ they will have that land until the eternal state is ushered in and this land that the
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Lord is giving Abraham and his offspring is the land of their sojourners all right so this is this is a land that the
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Lord makes his promises is an everlasting possession they will have this forever and it says right here that this is the land of their sojourners during Abraham's life the
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Canaanites populated this land they did not have possession of it fully because others were in it with them hostile neighbors were in it with them but in a day in the future they would they would have it they would have this land and a day is coming when for the first time there will be no enemies in the land it'll just be theirs and the
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Lord's promise will reach its completion so we're seeing this promise even carry out in our own day and the
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Lord tells them as he gives them this land that he will be their God why do you think he says that I will be your
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God I think he's saying this to say you know I'm gonna be with you
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I'm gonna keep this promise that I'm making to you and I'm gonna be with you as I fulfill this promise he's reminding them of his constant presence with them so this is the second way the
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Lord continues to steadfast commitment to the man of faith by renewing his promises the third way how the
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Lord continues a steadfast commitment to the man of faith is by delivering a warning to the future participants by delivering a warning to the future participants up to this point all we've heard is the
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Lord says I'm gonna do I'm gonna fulfill this promise I'm gonna do this but in order for them to receive this they need to do something and we'll see that right here after telling
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Abraham of all these blessings that they will enjoy through this covenant the Lord tells
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Abraham what they must individually do to sharing these blessings and this is what the
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Lord says in verse 9 God said to Abraham as for you you shall keep my covenant you and your offspring after you throughout their generations
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I explained to you several weeks ago that this covenant the Lord makes with Abraham is a unilateral covenant or what is sometimes called an unconditional covenant this means that the
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Lord is under obligation to keep it like for example in the Mosaic Covenant that would be called a bilateral covenant because the
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Lord makes the covenant but Israel is expected to keep it but in this case it's a unilateral because it's the
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Lord the one who made it is expected to keep it and the
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Lord is going to deliver on providing descendants a blessing a land and a nation this covenant is going to happen but the question is well who's gonna who's gonna enjoy it who's gonna receive the blessings
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Abraham and his offspring still have to do something in order to share in this covenant and if they do not do this then they will not experience in the blessing of these promises so what must they do to enjoy these enormous blessings that the
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Lord has promised let's look at verse 10 and find out the
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Lord says this is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you every male among you shall be circumcised now the part of the covenant that Abraham and his offspring must perform is for the males to be circumcised we know what circumcision is from male babies who are born today and I'm not going to get into any detail on that we'll just stop right there now verses 11 to 13 tells us the significance of male circumcision and and the details for carrying it out so let's look at verses 11 through 13 you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you he who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised every male throughout your generations whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring but he who is born in your house or both sorry both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money so surely be circumcised so shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant so circumcision would be a sign for Abraham and his male descendants and the question that arises as we look at this is is for whom is the sign is this a sign for God or is this a sign for Abraham and his future offspring you can remember in Genesis 9 in the in the after the flood in the
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Noahic Covenant when the Lord made that covenant with with Noah in that covenant the
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Lord made a sign with Noah and the whole world and that sign was a rainbow and that sign was for the
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Lord because every time the Lord would see the rainbow he would be reminded
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I'm not gonna flood the earth again like I did in the days of Noah so that was for the
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Lord now is this for the Lord probably not
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I'm gonna say no it's not from for my study this if this sign is for God then what this would mean is that every time the
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Lord sees a circumcised male he is reminded about this covenant that he's made with Abraham but the problem with this the sign being a reminder for God is in verse 14 and that verse says that if a male is not circumcised then he would be cut off from the
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Abrahamic blessing so if the sign is for God why the punishment for man you see that the better way to take this is that the sign is for Abraham and his offspring so what purpose does the sign serve the sign is about obedience to the
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Lord in verse 1 the Lord told Abraham to walk before him and be blameless one of the ways they would be obedient is by following his instructions to be circumcised and by being circumcised
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Abraham and his offspring will be showing their commitment to the Lord their desire to share in these blessings they're showing that their identity is found in the
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Lord as his covenant people they are proclaiming God's lordship over them this sign would remind them of this and we know that Abraham was obedient to this because in verse 24 he was circumcised along with his household
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Abraham is showing his continuing faith by going through with God's instructions to be circumcised true faith is always accompanied by obedience and Abraham follows through to keep this covenant going he's going along with us he said okay yes
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I'll be circumcised and I will also circumcise my household as well now those who are circumcised would enjoy aspects of this covenant but for a male to refuse to be circumcised there were severe consequences severe consequences
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I and I already alluded to this but in verse 14 we're going to see what those consequences are the
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Lord says any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people he has broken my covenant to be cut off meant that he would be excommunicated from the community some interpret this as punishment for of death in either way the consequences were very severe to the one who refused circumcision everything would be taken from them they would be cut off from their community their family their friends everything they knew because they failed to submit to the covenant that the
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Lord made with Abraham and his people and the result would be that they would get what they want an absence from the covenant but the but the consequences would be severe and you may wonder why would anyone do this all these promises the
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Lord made to Abraham and his people when everybody want to enjoy this and this is where we have to we have to understand the nature of sin sin is horrible sin deceives people sin has power sin leads people down the wrong path sin is irrational when you think when you look at the destruction of people's lives from from the sins that they have committed you would think why would they have gone down that path but they do because that's what that's where sin leads you if you let it take you down that path and we wonder and sometimes people ask the question during the
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Millennial Kingdom during the thousand -year reign of Christ there's gonna be unbelievers on the earth why won't everyone just believe in Jesus right
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I mean everybody knows that Christianity is true at that point all these other religions have been proven shown to be false why doesn't everyone believe all because sin has power sin is irrational people are so hard -hearted they don't want
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God this is complete and utter raising their fist at him saying no we don't want you we want to do things our own way and so in this case that's what these people some people are doing you know what
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I don't want to be we don't we don't need to be circumcised why do we need to do that we want to do our own thing and then the
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Lord would say well you're cut off you don't get to enjoy these blessings that belong to the people of God and to refuse
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God's plans and promises is a great mistake that people make in our day to people do this all the time the
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Apostle Paul in Romans 2 25 through 29 explains circumcision as spiritual he said that physical circumcision in and of itself had no value to the
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Jews but spiritual circumcision a transformed heart is what the
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Lord really cared about the Lord the Lord wanted these people he wanted them yes to be physically circumcised but what he cared more about was their hearts he wanted their heart to be spiritually circumcised and in Romans 2 25 through 29 in that passage in verse 29 this is what it says a
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Jew is one inwardly and circumcision is a matter of the heart by the Spirit not by the letter so that's the whole purpose of physical circumcision was just a reminder for them
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God wasn't impressed with their with their morality because of this he cared about their heart deep down in their heart who were they and that's what
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God cares about about us too it's always been that way a true member of God's people in the
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Old Testament was one who pursued the Lord with sincerity of heart the greatest commandment in Deuteronomy 6 is love the
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Lord your God with all your heart all your soul all your mind all your strength everything you every part of you love the
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Lord and in our present context in our in our world if you refuse to receive
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Jesus Christ and by refusing and by refusing Jesus Christ you are refusing spiritual circumcision what happens is you are cut off from God and you are cut off from his people you are cut off from all of his wonderful blessings what people fail to realize is that they enjoy
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God in this life a lot of people are going to be enjoying God today with this beautiful weather that he's given us if you enjoy the beauty of creation you enjoy
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God if you enjoy food and drink you enjoy God if you enjoy the blessings of family and friends you enjoy
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God and all of these are blessings from him everything that is good comes from God and to reject
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God is very foolish because you are rejecting the author of joy and pleasure if you reject
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Christ one day you will be cut off from every pleasure you ever enjoyed that came from the one you rejected that's interesting people are rejecting the very source of pleasure and joy right why do we like food think what we have taste buds right but that didn't happen by accident
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God gave us taste buds so we would enjoy food God put them there so how great must the one be who put them there right all these things we enjoy in our life all this is meant to point to him all this is meant as an arrow the promise of heaven that belongs to all those who receive
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Jesus Christ will be denied to the one who rejects Jesus and by that rejects spiritual circumcision because when you believe in Christ you become spiritually circumcised your heart becomes renewed you now have a spiritual life we call it the new birth or being born again you have this new indwelling of the spirit in your life and you can see how seriously
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God takes refusal to submit to him and believe in his promises and receive his blessing he takes it very seriously it leads to spiritual death it leads to eternal death in hell the
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Lord takes rebellion and rejection so serious and we see that throughout the pages of Scripture we see that here in Genesis 17 and we see it all over the place this is a third way how the
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Lord continues his steadfast commitment to the man of faith by delivering a warning to the future participants so to summarize our big idea was the
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Lord continues his steady commitment to the man of faith and we saw three ways how the Lord shows us the first way is by pursuing him again the second way is by renewing his promises to Abraham and the third is by delivering a warning to the future participants the
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Lord's promises to those who will become his people are so great it is hard to put into words how wonderful they are words don't do what the experience of the blessings from God they don't do justice they truly are wonderful and as I close today understand the importance of being one of God's covenant people as a follower of Christ you are a part of the
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Abrahamic Covenant as Paul said in Galatians 329 he said if you are
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Christ then you have then you are Abraham's offspring heirs according to the promise you will experience
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God's wonderful promises of dwelling with him forever under his rule and if you are here today and you don't belong to Christ I call you to believe in Jesus that you would be spiritually circumcised that you would not be cut off from God forever that you would enjoy the the wonderful blessings that come from the wonderful God and this is what the world needs this is what the world this is this is the message by the way we are getting out to our community we're not here
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I was reading a book this week we're not here just just to survive we're not here just to be so inward focused we're here to go out right we're here to we're here to be a light in this community we're here for people to say okay what's happening that Eureka Baptist and that they would come into this door and be drawn to Jesus Christ right we got us places in this community to transform this community for Christ's sake and that some would be saved through our witness now next week we will look at the rest of chapter 17 where the
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Lord reminds Abraham that this offspring is not going to come through Hagar and Ishmael but this offspring will actually come from themselves that a miracle is going to happen where Sarah is going to give birth at a very old age to her own child let's pray father in heaven thank you for your word thank you for the treasure that it is
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Lord what a blessing it is to meet together today last Sunday just felt odd with the cancellation that we weren't we weren't able to meet together and Lord we need this every single week
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I know I do as their pastor and all of us need need to meet together need to sit under the
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Word of God need to sing songs of praise together need to pray together as well we need the fellowship
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Lord so I just want to say thank you for bringing us together and I pray Lord that we would understand you care about the heart you care about who we are you care about transforming people and and may we grow ourselves
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Lord and may we be used as vessels to lead people to receive Jesus Christ that they would have that spiritual circumcision that they would have the new birth and I pray for this in Jesus name amen