So it's really good to see you all. I want to thank y'all for being a part of our class tonight. For those of you, well everybody here has already been a part of these groups, so y'all know that we have been discussing Jesus and the Old Testament. That's what we've been discussing probably about the last four or five meetings that we've had together. Last time we were together, we talked about Jesus in the life of Abraham, and we're gonna continue to do that tonight. Matter of fact, we're gonna probably be in the life of Abraham for several weeks, looking for Jesus in the Old Testament. Just a very quick reminder, I don't wanna go deep into it, because we've already been through this like six times, and I think that most of y'all have got it, but remember that it is important for us to be able to see Jesus in the Old Testament, number one, because that's the way that Jesus taught. If you look in Luke chapter 24 verses 25 through 27, it said, Jesus said to them, oh, you foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter his glory? Then beginning with Moses and with all of the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself and all of the scriptures. He also said, these are my words, which I have spoken to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. And then he opened their minds to understand the scripture. And that's what we'll be praying for the Holy spirit to do for us tonight is to open our minds so that we can understand the scriptures and see Christ in them. So it's very important for us to be able to see Jesus in the old Testament, because that's the way he taught his disciples. Remember when Jesus was teaching his disciples, there was no such thing as Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, Corinthians. It was going to be about 30 years after he died and ascended into heaven before any of the New Testament writers would put anything to paper or to papyrus or to whatever they wrote on the animal skins. whatever they were writing on. So it is important for us to know that this is the way that Jesus taught. He would take people and carry them into the Old Testament, and he would show them that all of the scriptures are about him. Number two, the entirety of scripture is theocentric or Christocentric, which means that all of the scriptures are centered around God and Christ, around Jesus. So all scripture is Christocentric. It's all centered around him. It's not about you. Don't read it looking for you in there. Look for Him. You are the problem, not the answer. Jesus is the answer. So we go to the scriptures to find Christ. When we find Him, or when He finds us better, Then all of our problems can be handled because we're looking to the source of our answers. We're looking to our hope and our eternity. We're looking to all that we need. So not only is he the entire scriptures about Jesus, but we also learned that Jesus is God and has revealed himself to us through a declaration and a fulfilling of his promises. So remember in the Old Testament, there were prophecies that said that there was going to come a suffering servant. And what did Jesus do on the cross? He died and suffered on the cross, right? And so we know that Jesus was, the prophets prophesied all of these promises of what the Messiah was gonna do when he came. Jesus comes and Jesus fulfills all of those promises. It shows me and you, it reminds me and you that God always keeps his promises. He has never broken a single promise. If you are in this room today and you are a child of God, a born-again, blood-bought child of God, what that means is God has sealed you with his promise. and God does not break his promises, all right? Your salvation is based on what God has done for you, not what you have done for God. And that should give you hope and that should give you comfort. And you may leave out of here one day and mess up again. That's not gonna change the fact that God has saved you, all right? We are sinners, he's a savior. We turn to him. If we say we are without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, right? But what did he say? But if we will confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So Jesus is what the scriptures are about. The scriptures teach us that God has made promises and God has kept promises. And so in the same way that he made promise and kept promise in the Old Testament, The promises that we read of Him in the New Testament are going to be kept as well. So, I'm going to prepare a place for you, and where I go you cannot come now, but one day I will come and get you, you'll be with me, right? And he said, I have many mansions. And so, those are promises to the believer. And those promises are going to be kept in the same way that he kept the Old Testament promises. So, all of the Scriptures remind us of God's promises and that God keeps His promises. We learned that we see Jesus in the Old Testament in several different ways. Tonight, we're actually going to be focusing on a couple of those genealogies. We said we're family trees. Remember when we talk about Abraham and we talk about Isaac and we talk about Jacob and we talk about Jacob's son, Judah, we're talking about the family tree of Jesus. And we're really going to focus on that a lot tonight. Um, we see him in prophecies. We see him. types and shadows We see him in themes and one of the things that we're going to really focus on tonight matter of fact the title of our lesson tonight is the seed of Abraham the seed of Abraham and so we see him in types and in themes we see him in the often ease remember we said that a Theophany is an appearance of God and And so there are many ways we see him. Tonight we're going to mainly focus on genealogies and we're going to focus on themes. The seed of Abraham. Alright? So what I'm going to do tonight is I'm going to ask somebody here a question. Who remembers what we talked about last time we were together? It was last Tuesday night for those of you who have forgotten. But we talked about something called the redemptive narrative. Does anybody remember that word we use? The redemptive narrative. And I said to redeem something means to do what? Does anybody remember what it means to redeem something? purchase it. That's exactly right. I go to the store and if we haven't quit smoking cigarettes, we buy a pack of cigarettes, right? We have to redeem those cigarettes. We go in there and we give the man the money and he gives us the cigarettes. Let's use cokes because we've all quit smoking, right? So we give him our money for a coke. It's $1.79. I give him $2 and he gives me back 21 cents. I have redeemed that coke. If I only give him $1.69, I still owe him what? 10 cent and if I walk out of the store without that 10 cent I have not redeemed that coke and it's called or considered what? Stealing or shoplifting all right so when Jesus was dying on the cross he was dying to purchase a people for himself and how much of that purchase did he pay? All of it when Jesus died on the cross the last words that he said on the cross was to tell us die it is finished He said, it is finished, right Miss Joan? He didn't say, okay Joan, now it's up to you. That's not what he said. So Jesus didn't purchase a part of your salvation and then say, okay, now you got to earn the rest of it. When Jesus was dying on the cross, he was dying to purchase a people for himself, a redeemed people. And when he said it is finished, that means that he had paid the price, paid in full. There was no more to be paid. Okay. So he redeemed the people. So the redemptive narrative, what is a narrative? A story. And that's exactly right. So when you open up your Bible and you turn to Genesis chapter one, and it says in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was void and without form. And there was a darkness over the face. When you read that, that is the beginning of the redemptive narrative. And when you get to Revelation 22 and you read the last words, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, right? You get to the very last of it. Behold, I come quickly. That is the final statement in the redemptive narrative. He has shown us that He has redeemed us. And so as you read the Bible, you are studying the redemptive narrative. And if you read the redemptive narrative, you'll notice that there are themes that run through the redemptive narrative. Like shepherds. There is a constant theme of shepherds all the way through the redemptive narrative. What do I mean by that? Who's the first shepherd that you can think of? Now Abel was a keeper of the flocks. Remember? So who's in the Bible who's the first shepherd? Abel. And what did his brother do to the good shepherd? Killed him. That's exactly right. And so we see other shepherds. Remember Jacob? Jacob's a shepherd. Remember how he tried to impress his soon-to-be wife by picking up that big stone off of that well and rolling it off of there so she could water all of her sheep? It usually takes a bunch of men to do that, but he wanted to show her how strong he was. So as a good shepherd, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want He to leave me beside the still water. Alright, so Jacob opens that up so that the sheep can get some water. Jesus said, I am the living water. Whoever comes to me will never what? Thirst. Jesus said I am the good shepherd. I lay my life down for my sheep. Remember he said that? Well, what he's doing is he's reminding all of those Jewish people about a psalm. What psalm is he reminding them of? The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. And so what was Jesus telling those people? Hey, all these 700, 800 years, you've been singing about me. That song is about me. And it's about the redemptive narrative. So all through the Bible there are themes. And tonight I want us to look at a theme. And we said the title of our lesson tonight is the seed of Abraham. Right? Let's go back before Abraham and remind you of something we've already talked about in the past. Turn with me. We're going to read a bunch of scriptures here really quick. So turn with me to Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. This is right after the fall. God had promised Adam and Eve that the wages of sin is death. If you eat from the tree, you will surely die. And He's put a curse on the woman. He's put a curse on the serpent. He's put a curse on Adam. And in part of that curse in verse 14, God said to the serpent, because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the cattle and above all the beasts of the field. On your belly you will go and you will eat dust all the days of your life. All right. So what's he saying? Mr. Angel, you are the archangel. Mr. Satan, Mr. Lucifer, you are the archangel. You are the highest of all of my creation. There was nothing in all of my creation any higher than you. Would you all agree with that? Is Jesus higher than Satan? But what's the difference between Jesus and Satan? Jesus is creator Satan is the creation and what Jesus was telling the devil is you are the highest thing in all of creation and now from now on you're going to crawl on your belly lower than the snakes you're going to be the lowest of the low now you've gone from the highest of the high to the lowest of the low and then he said this and I will put an enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed and he will bruise your head and you will bruise his heel. So he said I'm going to put enmity, that word enmity means hatred. I'm going to put a hatred between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. So what that means is the devil has a seed. It was an old song back in the seventies back when we were first starting to get ecologically minded in this country and it was called plant a seed and watch it grow and they would play it every Saturday morning during the cartoons And all the kids were saying, plant a tree, and watch it grow. Plant a tree. And that reminded you that when you planted a seed, what happens? A tree comes up. Well, every one of you in this room were born of a man's seed. We don't have to have virgin beast class to understand that. There's not a single one of us in this room who is not born. We're all from a man's seed. And if you have babies one day, it's going to be because of a man's seed. You see? And that seed keeps getting passed on and on and on. And if you pass that seed on, what's going to happen? Right? You're going to get the looks, the eye color, and the skin color, and the hair color, and the height, and the weight characteristics of whoever your seed comes from. You see how that works? And every one of us in this room all come from different parts of the world. Our seeds, our trees come from all over the place, don't they? Right? I see red and yellow, black and white. We're all precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world. But the truth of the matter is, it started with one seed. And whose seed was that? Adam's. Isn't that right? And so Eve had two babies, and it said Eve knew her husband, or Adam knew his wife Eve, and they had a son. And so now Cain and Abel are the seed of Adam. Well, what God told the devil was, I'm going to put a hatred between you, devil, and your seed. So what that means is the devil's got kids. And between you and between the woman and her seed. Now the problem with that, guys, ladies, is that none of us in this room come from a woman's seed. So what God is telling the devil is one day the woman is going to have a baby that's going to crush your head. You're going to bruise his heel and he's going to crush your head. You see? And so what is he doing? It's a prophecy of a woman having a baby without the help of a man. Anybody want to help me out with that? Mary, right? Mary, did you know? Of course she knew. An angel come and told her. She knew everything that was going to happen, right? And so Jesus was born significantly different than everybody else in the world. So why does the virgin birth matter? Why does it matter? Because number one, it protects his sinless nature because he's not of the seed of Adam. He's the seed of a woman. See, all of you in here got your good looks from your dads, right? And your wonderful characteristics, your bravery and your intelligence and all that. You got that from your parents, right? but you also got your anger and your wrath and your envy and your strife and your jealousy and your heresy and sedition and drunkenness and carousing from them too. All of that was passed on to you through that seed. But when Jesus has skipped, there was no sinful seed in him. And not only that, why is the virgin birth so important? Because all the way back at the very beginning, God promised that it was going to be a virgin birth. And so we see this seed. All right, I want you to turn with me now to where we were last week in Genesis chapter 12. Last week we saw Jesus in the fact that Abraham was a faithful servant. God spoke to Abraham. How did he speak to Abraham? Through what? Words. And Jesus is the Word of God. And so we learned to see Jesus in the life of Abraham when God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees. Caught him to go and live in the land of Canaan. Remember he called him out and what did Abraham do? He was a faithful servant. He listened to his Heavenly Father's voice and he went and did what he told him to do Right, but look with me really quickly in Genesis chapter 12 verses 1 through 3. I Genesis chapter 12 verses 1 through 3 now the Lord said to Abraham go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land which I will show you and I will make you a nation a great nation and I will bless you and you will have a great name and so you shall be a blessing and I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse and in you all of the families of the earth will be blessed now so he's saying Abraham through your life all of the families of the earth are going to be blessed all right look at Genesis chapter 15 and verse 8 Genesis chapter 15 and verse 8 verse 7 and 15 it says uh well let's start at 15 one after these things the word of lord came to abraham in a vision and said that abraham don't be afraid i am a shield to you your revolver be great abram said oh lord what will you give me seeing as i am what childless he doesn't have a seed does he said in the air my house is lea sir damascus and abraham said since you have given since you have been given no offspring to me One to be born in my house is my heir. Any of y'all got a King James Bible in here? Does it say seed there? Yeah, it does say seed. That's one of the things, I love King James because it always uses the word seed. And so, I just like the word seed. Offspring, some of you will have offspring, some of you will have, anybody got something else besides offspring or seed? Children, anything like that? okay so he's so abraham says look i don't have a child and be then behold the word of the lord came to him and said this man will not be your heir but one who will come forth from your own body he will be your heir he took him outside and he told him to count all the stars and said if you were able to count all of them um this will have to be how many descendants you have so shall your descendants be Offspring good. That's the other word I was looking for. Thank you, Joan. So offspring, descendants, seed. All three of those words mean the same thing. What does it mean? Children. Okay. I like the seed because offspring can be a girl or a boy, can't it, right? But seed specifically points to the male. But anyhow, it says, so then again in verse six, Abraham believed the Lord and he counted to him as righteousness. All right, so at this point, this is where Abraham is saved. Abraham is justified through his faith. And he's telling, so what is he saying? Abraham, you're gonna have you're going to have a son you're going to have a seed you're going to have a son genesis 17 verses 4 through 11 uh genesis 17 verses 4 through 11 as for me behold my covenant is with you and you will be the father to a multitude of nations no longer will your name be called abram but your name will be called abraham for i have made you the father of a multitude of nations now he said i've made you a father of multitude nation how many kids does abraham have right here none yeah that's like right he said i will make you exceedingly fruitful and i will make nations you and kings will come forth from you i will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed or your descendant or your offspring after you through all their generations for an everlasting covenant to be god to you and to your descendants after you He said, I will give you and your descendants, your seed, the land, the land of Canaan for everlasting possession, and I will be their God. And God said further to Abraham, now as for you, you shall keep my covenant and you and your offspring, your descendants, your seed, after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant that I will make with you. Right? So he's made a covenant, a promise to Abraham saying one day you're going to have children and it's going to be more than the stars in the sky and through you Abraham all of the world is going to be blessed. Right? And he said he's going to make him a father of many nations. We know for a fact that he's at least a father of who? The Jews and who else? Anybody else know who else? The Arabs, right? The Muslim nations come from him too. You know the Muslims believe the first five books of the Bible, right? But they just believe that Ishmael is the promised son instead of Isaac. They got it kind of backwards. So, Genesis 22, Genesis 22 and verse 16 to 18. Genesis 22, verse 16 to 18. And said by myself I sworn declares the Lord because you've done this thing and you have not withheld your son your only son Indeed, I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore and your Seed shall possess the gates of their enemies in your seed All the nations of the earth shall be blessed. I want you to remember that verse 18. That's a very important verse and He said, God is saying to Abraham, in your seed, all of the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. All right. That's a very important verse. We're going to see that again in the New Testament. Paul's going to bring it up. All right. So you see this theme over and over again. Abraham, you're going to have kids. You're going to have a great nation. There are going to be lots and lots of kids, lots of seeds, right? A multitude of nations. You're going to have babies and babies. They're going to be more than the stars in the sky or more than the sands on the seashore. Abraham you're gonna have lots of babies. You're gonna have lots of seeds. Okay, but in that 18th verse notice that singular in your seed All of the nations of the earth will be blessed. Okay Let's look at 28 13 and 14 28 13 and 14. I know i'm going fast, but I really didn't want to get through some of this stuff before we get into Genesis 28 verses 13 and 14. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of your father. He's talking to Jacob now. The God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie, and I will give it to you and to your seed, your descendants. All right, so who's he talking to now? Jacob, who is the seed of Abraham and Isaac, right? Isaac and then Abraham. So he's now saying not only did he bless Abraham and not only did he bless Isaac, but now he's blessing Jacob and saying Jacob through your seed all of the nations will be blessed, right? Right? Isaac and then Jacob. So what is he doing? He's constantly saying your seed will be blessed, your seed will be blessed, your seed will be blessed, right? Let's go now to the book of Isaiah. We're gonna jump ahead and go to the prophets. Isaiah, and we're gonna look at Isaiah 51. I'll give you just a second to get there. Isaiah 51, and we're gonna look at verses one through eight. Everybody there? Isaiah 51, verses one through eight. Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, who seek the Lord. Look to the rock from which you were hewn and the quarry from which you dug. Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave birth to you in pain. All right, so in this, the prophet Isaiah is exhorting or encouraging the nation of who? Israel all right, so the prophet Isaiah is talking to the nation of Israel, and this what he said hey listen all of you who pursue righteousness What does it mean to pursue righteousness? To chase after that which is what? To pursue righteousness, what does that mean to chase after that which is? Right and good okay, so listen all of you who are pursuing righteousness could he be talking to me and you could be who seek the Lord. Look to the rock from which you were hewn and the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain when he was but one i called him then i blessed him and i multiplied him indeed the lord will comfort zion he will comfort all her waste places and her wilderness he will make like eden and her deserts like the garden of the lord joy and gladness will be found in her thanksgivings and the sound of melody pay attention to me oh people and give ear to me oh you Nations, alright? So he's not just talking just to Israel, he's talking to these surrounding nations too, isn't he? For a law will go forth for me, and I will set my justice for a light for the people. Does anybody see Jesus in that? I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness. My righteousness is near, my salvation has gone forth, and my arms will judge the peoples. The coastlands will wait for me, and for my arm they will wait expectantly. Lift up your eyes to the sky, then look to the earth beneath, for the sky will vanish like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants will die in like manner. but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will not wane. Listen to me, you who know righteousness, a people in whom is the heart of my law. Do not fear the reproach of man, nor be dismayed at their revilings. For a moth will eat them like a garment, and the grub will eat them like wool. But my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations." All right. So what he's doing is he's reminding Israel where they come from. And where do they come from? From Abraham and Sarah. Why? Because Abraham is of the promise. And Isaac is of the promise. And who is Israel? What's his real name? Jacob. So what is he saying? He's talking to all of those that are of the promise. And what's he saying? This world is going to fall apart all around you, but not you. Because you have the righteousness of God. And God is going to protect you. God is going to keep you. God is going to keep His promise to you. You're His promised seed. Remember, we're talking about Abraham's seed. So it's all of those children who are of Abraham. That make sense? Now we're gonna focus a little more in detail on that in just a minute. Hope it'll make more sense. But let's look at a couple more passages. Isaiah 53. What is Isaiah 53? Anybody know what that passage is all about? Huh? Nope. It's about the suffering servant, right? Let's look at that. Let's look in verse, Let's just focus on verses 10 through 12. But the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. And he would render himself as a guilt offering. He will see his offspring. He will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hands. Okay, so the Lord was pleased to crush him. This is a prophecy of God crushing the Son on the cross. But look in that verse where it says he will see his offspring. So the point he's making here is through this suffering, there will be an offspring that comes from this suffering. What was Jesus doing when he was dying on the cross? We're studying the redemptive narrative. What was he doing on the cross? Redeeming a people for himself. So what this prophecy is saying is, is through that suffering, it will yield an offspring, a children. You see how that works? So not only was Christ dying on the cross to pay for the sins of all of those, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all of those in the past that put their faith in him, put their trust in him, but he was purchasing a people that in the future would put their faith and their trust in him. So would it be fair for you to say that when Jesus was dying on the cross, he had you in his heart and on his mind? If you're His child, you certainly can say that. He was dying on that cross to redeem you. He was dying on that cross to purchase a family, a nation of descendants, if you will. Make sense? Let's look at John 8, 37-44. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John 8, 37-44. In the New Testament, John 8, verses 37 to 44 Now this is when Jesus is being confronted but by a bunch of Pharisees a bunch of people that hate him and It's where he said the truth what you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free But look in verse these verses 37 to 44 verse 37 I know that you are Abraham's seed or descendants or offspring does that King James still say seed right there? Okay I know that you are of Abraham's descendants. Would you say offspring, Joan? Offspring. Mine says offspring. Verse 37. I know that you are Abraham's descendants. Mine says descendants. Okay, mine does too. Mine says offspring. Offspring. Alright, or seed. I still like the King James. I like them to use the word seed because okay good yet you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you I speak the things which I've seen with my father therefore you are also doing things which you heard from your father so what's he saying he's saying yes you are Abraham's physical children but look what he says in verse 44 you are of your father the devil and you want to do desire to your father he was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in truth because there is no truth in him whenever he speaks a lie he speaks from his own nature he is a liar and the father of lies so what he's saying he's saying yeah you're Abraham's descendants all right but your daddy is the devil so they were physically the descendants of Abraham but spiritually they were of the seed of the Serpent remember all the way back in just what he say. I'm gonna put a hatred between your seed and her seed Are we seeing that hatred played out right here, we're seeing the devil's children and God's only begotten Son can be confronting one another right here at this point see how that works. It's really cool. All right, so Romans 4 13 Keep on going. Remember we're doing the redemption narrative. We We're running really quickly through Scripture. Romans 4.13. And this is what it says. For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants would be that he would be the heir of the world and it was not through the law but through the righteousness of faith. Alright? So God made a promise to Abraham and Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Alright? And what was a part of that promise? That his seed would inherit the what? The world. Well, that's what it says right here, the world. So think about what he's saying there. He's saying this salvation, this faith, this promise did not come through the law because it was gonna be another 430 years before the law was ever given to Moses on Mount Sinai. God made the promise to Abraham before there ever was a law. So what Paul is trying to say here is it's not your keeping the law that gives you the promise. The promise was given way before there ever even was the law. And Paul kind of emphasized that. But in verse 13, the promise was to Abraham and his what? Descendants. That's his seed. The promise is to Abraham and his seed. Romans 8, 17. Romans 8, 17. It says this. If you are children heirs also heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ if indeed we suffer with him So that we may also be glorified with him verse 16 says the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are Children of God or would it be fair to say the offspring of God or the descendants of God or the seed? Right What is the difference in a Christian, a true Christian, and just any old son of Adam? What is the difference between a son of God and a son of Adam? It goes deeper than that. What's the difference in a son of God and a son of Adam? Alright, well, what is the difference in a son of Mr. Jones and a son of Mr. Smith? Two different daddies. That's exactly right. What's the difference in a son of Adam and a son of God? Different seed. Marvel not that I say to you, you must be born again. You gotta have a new birth. You gotta have a new daddy. You see how that works? Are y'all with me? So, look at that again. The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. Behold what manner of love the Father has given us, that we should be called the sons of God. And if we are children, we are heirs and heirs with God and fellow heirs with Christ. We are part of the family. We are of His seed. A couple more and then we'll be done. Romans 9, 6-8. but it is not enough it is not as though the word of God has failed for they are not all Israel who descended from Israel nor are they all children because they're Abraham's descendants but it is through Isaac that your descendants will be named that is it is not the children of the flesh that are the children of God but the children of the promise you see how that works You're not a child of God because of the flesh. You're a child of a God because of the promise of God. The promise that he made to who? Abraham that through all of his seed all of the nations would be blessed. Galatians 3. Galatians chapter 3. We're about done with this. I promise. Galatians 3. We're gonna start in verse 15. Brethren, all right, for you ladies in the room, that means sister and two, okay? Brethren, I speak in terms of human relation, even though it is not a man's covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets aside or adds conditions to it. Now, the promises were spoken to who? Abraham and to his seed. He does not say and to seeds as referring to many, but rather to one and your seed, that is Christ. The one seed that matters is Jesus. He is the root. We are the fruits. He's the seed, and we are of the promise. You see how that works? And what Paul is saying is, remember in that passage I told you, remember in Genesis? What did he say? And to you and to your seed, all of the world will be blessed. And this is what Paul says right here. He didn't say your seeds. He wasn't talking about Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Ishmael, and all of them. He was talking about the one promised seed that would come through Abraham. And who is the one promised seed that would come through Abraham, through all the world will be blessed? Jesus. good all right now watch this one last one and then I want to talk for a minute Galatians 6 Galatians 6 and verse 16 this will be one for you put in your pocket and think about for a little while look what he says we'll start in verse 15 for neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision but a what? new creation You ladies in the room, you can't even be circumcised, so it better not be about circumcision, right? So what did he say? It's not about whether you're circumcised or not circumcised. What is circumcision? It's the cutting away of the what? Flesh. He said it don't matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile. That's what circumcision and uncircumcision meant. That's what Paul was saying. It doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Gentile, but a new creation. Those who will walk by this rule peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God Who is the Israel of God Immediately we go straight over to Jerusalem don't we think about the temple and all of that but the reality is what he's saying right here is that's the Israel of God is all of the promised seed and Who is the Israel of God? The true nation of God that's going to last eternally? All of those who are in Christ. That's exactly right. Now, remember what he said. He said it doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Gentile. What really matters is that you are a new creation. Y'all sing that song, don't you? I'm a new creation. I'm a brand new man. Y'all still sing that? That was one of the first songs I learned here. It doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Gentile. It doesn't matter if you're black or white. It doesn't matter if you're male or female. It doesn't matter if you're a slave or own slaves. What matters is that you are a new creation. What matters is that you have been born again. What matters is that the eternal seed has been given to you. Who is the eternal seed? Christ. And that is the Israel of God. So, to sum up the class. When we look at the seed of Abraham in the redemptive narrative. All right now so that's a big fancy term we've learned. Somebody explain to me what I just said. When we look to the seed of Abraham in the redemptive narrative. What is the redemptive narrative? The story of redemption, the story of Christ redeeming of people for himself. So when you look through the entire redemptive narrative and focus in on the seed of Abraham you will see that there are four seeds of Abraham. Four seeds of Abraham. The first seed that you see is Abraham's natural seed. What do I mean by that? Give me an example of the natural seed of Abraham. Isaac. Good. Actually Isaac is of the supernatural seed because there was a difference in the way that Isaac was born in the way that Ishmael was born. Ishmael is a natural child of Abraham and after he had Isaac with Sarah He actually married another chick named Keturah. She had kids for him too, right? So Abraham's natural seed are those children that were born from a marriage and confirmation of that marriage. The natural seed, the physical seed of Abraham. Ishmael is a perfect example of the natural seed of Abraham. but then there is a supernatural natural seed or a special natural seed. What do I mean by that? Well Isaac was born but Isaac was born in a special way. Was Isaac the natural seed of Abraham? Yes he certainly was because Abraham knew his wife and she conceived. So he was a natural child But he was a natural child conceived in a supernatural way. What do I mean by that? She was barren. She was barren. She couldn't have a baby. She had a womb that was not supposed to have a baby. What's she saying? I'm beyond those years. The time of childbearing has passed me. The pipes don't work anymore. Okay? So, Isaac is the natural seed of Abraham but he's also the supernatural seed of Abraham. Everybody with me? Everybody following me so far? Next we see Abraham's spiritual seed and what does that mean? Anyone who has the faith of Abraham is of Abraham's spiritual seed. What did Abraham believe in? Jesus. He didn't know to call him Jesus, but he believed in Jesus. He had a faith in the coming Redeemer. He had a faith in the coming one who was going to save him. he believed God and God counted it to him for righteousness and every one of you in this room if you have turned from sin and self repent of your sin and turn to Christ you have believed on him and what has he done he's credited you with his righteousness and what that means is you have the same fate that who has Abraham so you are of the same spiritual descent as Abraham because you are a child of the promise just like Abraham was and just like I was and just like Jacob was and just like David was you see how that works you have the same faith that Abraham has that makes you of the same spiritual descent because where does that spiritual descent start all the way back in Genesis 3 15 when he said I'm going to put a hatred between you and your seed and the seed of the woman and who is the seed of the woman Jesus and who are all of Abraham's spiritual seed all of those that put their trust in Jesus all right so you have Abraham's natural seed that would be like Ishmael you have Abraham's supernatural natural seed, which would be like Isaac, a child of the promise. So anybody that was Jewish and has faith in Christ would be of that sort of seed. You see how that works? They're physically naturally Abraham's kids, but they're also spiritually or supernaturally Abraham's kids. Everybody follow me. All right, so we got Abraham's natural kids. Ishmael is not going to be in heaven. He's not a child of the promise. Yes, ma'am? I thought Judaism is a religion. Jewish is a religion. It's not a race, is it? No, Judaism is a religion. But Jewishness is... Jew is an ethnicity. It's a race. Yeah, it's the sons of Abraham on Isaac's side. In the same way that Islam is a religion and so and Arab is an ethnicity. Make sense? Okay. Right, so really quick, we got to wind it up. We have Abraham's natural seed, Ishmael. We have Abraham's special natural seed, Abraham. Physical Jew who has a spiritual trust in Christ, who has been born again. Nicodemus, or Peter, or Paul. They're physically Abraham's physical descendants, but they also have the spiritual faith that Abraham did. I thought Paul was a Gentile. No, Paul's Jewish. Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He's as Jewish as they get. All right, and then the last one, so then we have Abraham's spiritual seed, that would be all of us. Blessings on the Israel of God. So the Abraham's spiritual seed would be anybody that has the faith. So Gentiles would be included in that. And you remember what God told Abraham, through you, all of the nations of the world will be blessed. That's how you and I get included in the promise. Because we're Gentiles, but we're a part of those nations that will be blessed through Abraham. And then finally, and last but not least, we got Abraham's unique seed. The seed. Who is? Jesus. He's the eternal Lamb of God. In the book of Revelation, He's the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. In Genesis 3.15, Jesus is the seed of the woman. In Genesis 12, he's the seed of Abraham. In 2 Samuel, he's the son of David. Why is that important? Because the Messiah has to be a son of David. Why? Because he has to have the right to the throne. So he's the seed of David and the son of David. And then we see him in Luke 1. It tells us that he and him, all of the promises are fulfilled. Okay, so if I were to ask you but to close we got two minutes When I say that we can see the seed of Abraham in the redemptive narrative, what am I saying? Okay, we see Jesus and what is the redemptive narrative Okay, the story of the purchase or the story of the redemption and where do we read that story I in the Bible, and where can we find the seed in the Bible? It's all over the place, isn't it? That's exactly right. Anytime you read... So, what I want you to do is remember those four seeds, because as you're reading, when you come across Judah, okay? We know for a fact that he is the natural seed of Abraham. Pretty good guess that he is of the special natural seed, a believing Jew. He is Abraham's spiritual seed because he has the same faith as Abraham and he is not Abraham's unique seed. Why? That's just Jesus. A Jew who is a born-again believer can fulfill all three of those, but not the fourth one. He can't be Jesus. Does that make sense? A Gentile, me and you in this room, which ones can we fulfill on there? Just one of them, Abraham's spiritual seed. We can have the same faith as Abraham, but it'll never make us natural Jews. You see how that works? All right, let's close with a word of prayer. I hope that gives you something to think about, uh, that this plan has been in place. This redemptive plan has been in place since before the foundation of the world. God kept that promise when he sent his son and his son died on the cross for broken people like me and you. And he's going to continue to keep that promise, uh, till, uh, till the last trumpet. All right. And even beyond, it's an eternal promise. Most gracious heavenly father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for this time together. Thank you for your love and your mercy and your grace. Thank you for loving us when we were hard to be loved. You died on that cross to save us, and we thank you for that. We thank you for the scriptures. We thank you for the redemptive narrative. We thank you for the ability to be able to pick up your word and to seek you in that word. And Father, I pray that you will take the things that we've talked about tonight, a lot of things that we've talked about tonight, and help us to use those things to focus on you and to be conformed to your image Help us to realize that You are a God who keeps His promises, and we thank You for that. In Christ's name we pray, amen.