Before I start, let's have prayer. Lord, we rejoice in this day. Thank you, thank you, thank you for the privilege of being filled with the life of our Lord Jesus. Thank you that we can be an instrument in your hands. We don't want to be just an instrument, something you work with. We want to be an expression of your life, the very image of God, the likeness of God in the soul of man. Now, Lord, we ask you to bind the evil one here, and by the blood of the Lamb, bring us truth by your Spirit. We know that words mean nothing unless your fire is on them. So now, kindle a fire in our heart as we hear and as we share together in your presence, where two or three are gathered in your name, you're there and you're teaching. Lord, and we never have to ask you to be with us because you're in us. We bless you for that. We thank you for your faithfulness. In Jesus' name, amen. Before I start, I wanted to hold up a little thing here. Does anybody know what this is? It's a glove, yeah. And this is what we're headed toward, the whole session together. This is a glove. I saw Miss Corrie Ten Boom do this. This glove, apart from a hand in it, can do nothing. It can't do anything. It's just lifeless, shapeless, and you can see right through it. It's just nothing. But when I put a hand inside that glove, suddenly that glove can do everything my hand can do. It can play the piano. Well, this hand can't play the piano, but it could play the guitar. It could write. And you see, this glove is like our life, like your life. And apart from the Lord Jesus, you can't do much. But when He comes inside of you to live and inhabit you, and as you surrender and become flexible, then suddenly, everything I can do, He says, you can do, and greater works, because I go to the Father. There's something to think about. I just wanted to throw that at you at the very beginning. Now, we've been talking about blood covenant, and we laid a foundation two days ago, and we're going to be building as the days go by. So if you have friends that do come, you need to go over what we've been over with them so they can come in on it. Remember, we said it is a revelation. It is not knowledge. You'll never get it by knowledge. It's a secret, an intimate counsel that God has. Psalm 25, verse 14, the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. To those people, the secret counsel, the heart of God, he will show his covenant. And that's what we're asking him to do here these days. Now, covenant is one of the most ancient practices of man. Remember, we said that. As far back as you can go in antiquity and anthropology, you'll find men cutting their wrist or some part of their body and shedding blood in a solemn pledge the Lord Jesus on our behalf cut such a covenant with our Heavenly Father. Now this was in his heart all along. There's some scriptures that allude to the fact that this covenant between the Lord Jesus and the Heavenly Father is a covenant that is made outside the envelope of time. Before time ever began, before the foundation of the world, it was purposed in God's heart and they in a council of some sort had an agreement. They came into covenant. You might just jot these scriptures down and look at them later. 2 Timothy 1.9 and Titus 1.2. 2 Timothy 1.9 and Titus 1.2. And it talks about before the ages, before time was set in motion, God ordained us to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord in a covenant. It doesn't say covenant, but it means covenant there, that they came to before time. The nearest thing we said that we had to covenant is marriage. But today in America, marriage can be ended in divorce. Covenant can't be ended. It is unchangeable. You can't get out of it once you're in it. There's no breaking it. And the blood covenant is far greater than our concept of marriage in this country. Now, we said God had entered into such a blood covenant on purpose to show us the unchangeableness of his counsel with men. through the Lord Jesus. Everything in this book is based on blood covenants. Everything. When, for example, when Solomon prayed in the temple, we know that prayer, when, if my people, which are called by my name, and it goes on, that prayer is a covenant prayer. Go back and read before that. He prays, remember your servant, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When Nehemiah prayed in chapter 1, he says, remember your covenant. You're a covenant-keeping God. When Daniel prayed, he said, you're a covenant-keeping God. All the prophets operated out of a revelation of covenant. When Jesus was born, the prophecy that Zachariah gave, it said that this was done to remember the oath he swore to your fathers and to remember his covenant, to fulfill the oath. So you see, Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20, when he prayed, when all those people were out there ready to destroy him, he said, remember your friend Abraham. He's saying, we're of that seed, we're of covenant. So the foundation for understanding prayer, for understanding fellowship, for understanding really this Bible, is beginning to see God unfold his covenant to you. And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of it. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And that means when you set your heart to follow him in his word, in his word. Now, today we want to look at Abraham. But I want to give you some background first. Everything in the Bible is based on covenant. It's written for our learning. And we're going to study Abraham this morning and see. Remember, what's the word in the scripture that is the attitude that I have toward you when I'm in covenant with you? What's the word? Loving kindness. Loving kindness. And what are you to me? You are my friend or you're my lover. You're the lover of my soul, my beloved. That's what it's called in the scripture. And that's what it means to be in covenant. There are many, many, many covenants in the Scripture, but you can boil them all down to two. Now, some people say the covenant of law, but I think it would be more easy to understand for us if we called it a covenant of works versus a covenant of grace. The old covenant, the law, is a covenant of works, and the new covenant is a covenant of grace, and it's much, much different. Man begins being created by God, in the image of God. And you see him go on, you see Adam fall. You begin to understand, through covenant, that God is trying to teach man something. Now, the Old Testament is like a root. The New Testament is like a flower. And you can't separate the two. You cannot do it. If you separate the root from the flower, the flower will lose all its beauty. But the flower can't even spring up without the root. And the root, you can't even understand it unless the life of the root is expressed in the flower. They're inseparable, the Old Testament and the New, the Old Covenant, because one springs out of the other. But just like Adam, the second Adam was before the first. Wasn't he? The Old Covenant was preceded by the New. Just like that. It was in God's heart from the very beginning to bring us to that new commandment. The same that I have said to you from the beginning, a new commandment I give unto you. Now, man was created by God. He fell tragically in the garden. And the rest of the book we see man seeking to find God. That's what we call religion. Man seeking to find God. Christianity is when God seeks out man and finds him. And we find men doing their own thing. Turn to Genesis 5 for just a moment. I want to show you something. Thank you. You must read a few of these verses. Genesis 5. This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God created he him. Male and female created he them, and he blessed them. And he called their name Adam, it says man in the American Standard, in the day that they were created. Now listen to this, and Adam lived 130 years and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth. That was after the fall. You see, after the fall, Adam begat a son, and it contrasts in those two verses. Adam was in God's image, but after the fall, his son was in Adam's own image. Now who's the image of God? Jesus Christ, the express image of his person. And we are predestined to be conformed to that image. But man lost that image and fell away. And the rest of this book is spent showing how God restores in man his image. And that's what he's doing in you. That's what he's done in you, and that's what we're going to talk about these days. Now, Adam lost the image of the heavenly, which is the Lord Jesus, And he took on, as it says in 1 Corinthians 15, you might jot that down and read it later, verse 45 to 47, Adam took on the image of the Arsene. He lost the heavenly, the first Adam, and took on the Arsene. The second Adam is the heavenly. That's the Lord from heaven, the Spirit coming down, the life-giving Spirit. Now, we see man spiraling down and down and down until man ends up in the sewer of the flood. You see him just get worse and worse, and the stench of his sin comes up before God. And after the flood, God starts out again with Noah. Man starts out, and he begins to seek his own thing again. And he spirals down and down again until he gets to Babel. God has done everything. So finally, at Babel, when man is taking it upon himself to succeed so much, God confuses them and sends them away. And God takes it upon himself and says, I will fulfill my own counsel. And he comes down and he appears to a man. He appears to him, it says in Acts chapter 7, verse 2, while he's still in Turkey, while he's still in Ur of the Chaldeas. And you might just jot these scriptures down and look at them later. In Joshua 24, 2, it says that the Lord, when he appeared to our father, talking about the father of Abraham while he was in Ur of Chaldees, they were idolaters. They worshipped other gods. So you see, just for no reason except for the love of God, our father revealing himself to Abraham while he's in Ur of Chaldees, just coming to him. And you know what? He worshipped the moon. He sought him out. Abraham didn't seek God. God sought Abraham. And he came and he appeared and God says, I'm going to fulfill my purpose regardless of the way man has sought to break it all up. So in chapter 12 of Genesis, we're going to just kind of fan through until we get to 15. In chapter 12, you see God appearing to Abraham and bringing him into a position to enter a covenant with him. You see him giving Abraham, not Abraham at this point, Abraham three commands. He says, get up. Get out, excuse me, get out of your country, get up from your father's house and get into a land. I'll show you. Now, Abraham, like you and me, he only fulfills one of those immediately. It takes him years and years. But when you read of him in Hebrews 11, you don't read about his failures. You read about the part that is faith. And that's how it is with God, with you and me. God does not mark iniquity to you if your heart is right toward him under the new covenant. He forgets, and he forgot about Abraham. He sees the part that he did in faith. So God breaks in, and the pagan idolater, Abraham, becomes a seeker of a city whose foundations are made by God. So in chapter 15, after God moves him into a position, then we see Abraham moving into a position to cut covenant with God. Now, let me say one thing about chapter 14 and 13. He knows he's going to be blessed by God. He says in chapter 14, 22, that he has lifted up his hand to God. It means he's sworn. He's in the preliminary stages of entering a covenant with God. God brings him in, and Abraham makes a big mistake. He goes down to Egypt. It's so much wasted time in his life. He makes an altar of sacrifice of blood in chapter 12, the beginning. And you see him, just because of famine, running away from the place of testing. And there he leaves his altar in the promised land, a famine in the promised land. Have you ever had one of those? He leaves that place and he runs down to Egypt to trust in horses and chariots and other things. And he picks up riches. He picks up Hagar and he's very prosperous, but he's away from the place of blood. And God doesn't speak to him again until he comes back to the altar. And then he comes back to the altar and the God of glory appears to him. And then in chapter 15, turn there, we're going to read, we're going to camp on this for a little while. We see God entering covenant with man. You know, it's amazing enough the other day to hear of man entering covenant with man. But when you hear of God, entering covenant with man. That's something else. That's really something. It's a different kind of covenant. It's an unequal covenant. What can you give God? Not much. Only your love. That's what he wants. That's all he wants. It's an unequal covenant. Man has nothing to give. As a matter of fact, he has nothing to say to the terms of the covenant. The only thing he can say is yea or nay. Yea or nay. Or he can just refuse it altogether. Now, remember what we did. Let me review this before we go to Genesis 15. The steps in a covenant. First off, I would come together with you in a central place. There I would take off my coat, my belt, and my sword. I would give them to you. By doing that, I would be saying that all my possessions are yours, all my strengths are yours, your enemies are mine, and vice versa. And we would become one, merging. Then we would take an animal and cut that animal in half and walk figure eight between those two bloody pieces that were split and Standing facing one another I would cut my wrist and raise my hand. That's what he meant. I believe when he said I've lifted my hand Although he hadn't done that yet with the shedding of blood. I don't believe it's a different kind of covenant I would raise my hand to you and while the blood flowed down my arm in the presence of the Lord I would swear myself away to you and vice versa Now then I would put a permanent marker on powder or sand or something dark in this covenant mark, and it would hurt. Yeah, I saw you grimace back there. It would hurt. But it would be part of the covenant, and it would speak to me of privilege that I had being your friend, your blood brother, and awesome responsibility. I saw it, and I said, there's another part of me out there. After I did that, I would sit down with you, and I would exchange blessings. I would say, this is what you have. Here's my wallet. Let me have your wallet. We'd give them back and forth and give you my credit cards. and all the rest, and then we would have a meal together. We would exchange our names. I would become Al Arthur Whittingill, and Jack would become Jack Whittingill Arthur, and he didn't have that name, and then we would eat a meal. I would feed him bread and he would feed me bread, and wine would be shared among us. Then we would plant a grove of trees, or I would give him a flock of sheep or something like this that when he saw it, it would be increasing to show the depth of our love increasing and our fellowship growing more and more. Now that's what Abraham understood. That was a concept all over the whole ancient world. So in Genesis 15, we see God coming to Abraham and saying this, after these things, what things? Well, the first war in the Bible is mentioned in chapter 14. But after these things, God came, the Lord, unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am your shield, I am your exceeding great reward." Now, God doesn't have a coat and a belt and a sword, does he? Literally? Well, what size are they? Where are you going to get one like that? You see, he doesn't give a coat, a belt and a sword, he gives himself. He says, Abram, I'm going to be your shield, I'm going to be your coat. And I'm going to be your exceeding great reward, I'm going to be your possession. He says, I'm going to be everything you need. That's what he's saying to him. And Abraham knows this, but he says, and Abraham said, Adonai Jehovah, Lord God, what will you give me seeing that I go childless? And the steward of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. You see, in those days, if you didn't have a son, your heir became your most trusted servant. And Eliezer was his servant. He did not have a seed. He did not have an heir and he knew it. So he said, Lord, how? I don't have an heir. How are you going to bless me?" And so the Lord answers him. And Abraham said, Behold, to me you've given no seed, and look, one born in my house, my servant, is my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came to Abraham, saying, This Eleazar shall not be your heir, but he that shall come forth out of your own, inside your own bowel, shall be your heir. And he brought him forth, and it must have been nighttime, because he says, Look toward And look at the stars and see if you're able to number them. And he said to him, that's how your seed is going to be. And so here's this famous verse that's quoted three times in the New Testament as an emblem and a perfect example of the kind of faith that you and I are supposed to have. It's quoted in many Galatians, Romans and James. We'll talk about that in a moment. But it says, Abraham believed, believed in the Lord and the Lord counted it to him for righteousness. And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees to give you this land to inherit it. And Abraham said, well, Lord, how? How can I know that I'm going to inherit it? And look what the Lord tells him to do. And the Lord said to him, take me. He doesn't say take for yourself. I think it's so precious that how every word is pregnant with meaning. Take me, take me. a heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle dove, and a young pigeon. Take me, take these animals." And he took him all of these and he divided them in the midst, or he cut them in half. Abraham did it. And he laid each piece over against each other. He stuck them in two big piles. But the birds he didn't cut in half, and I hadn't figured that out yet. I wish you would and tell me. And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove him away. Listen, the fowls of the air are always after the sacrifice of God. And that's your business, to keep them away. That's all you have to do. You preserve that sacrifice, preserve what God has done. And when the sun was going down, verse 12, a deep sleep, just like Adam, fell on Abram, and lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. You see, that's what happens. We rest And a fear and horror of great darkness. Look, God wants you to fear darkness. He wants you to be horrified to hate evil. He wants you to hate it. And he said to Abraham, know for sure that your seed will be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them. He's prophesying Egypt to him right here. And they shall afflict them for hundred years. Now, people say there's a contradiction between 400 years here and in Exodus when it says on the 430 years they came out. But God never makes any mistakes. He says here they will afflict them 400 years. Listen, the first 30 years they were there. Joseph was there and they were popular. They were popular. Just like a little baby comes into the world, popular. But soon he finds out that inside is a little rebel that needs to have the rod because it's a little sinner. You know, it's a little Adam. And it says, God goes on and says, and also Egypt, I'm just going to put it in there, whom they shall serve, I will judge. And afterward, they, the Israelites, will come out with great substance. God paid them 400 years wages in one day. They hadn't gotten a cent for their work, but when they left, all the gold was given. How'd you like to get paid 400 years in one morning? Well, they did. And you will go to your fathers in peace. And it goes on and talks about some specific things, but look in verse 17. It came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace, or it says a smoking oven, a burning oven in the American standard, I believe, a smoking furnace and a flaming torch or a burning lamp passed between those pieces. And in the same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abraham. Now we'll stop there for a second, and I just want to show you Abraham was commanded to take animals and to split them. So he took a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, and a ram. He cut them in half, and he made two bloody halves, and I'm sure he expected to walk around sort of like everyone always did. But you see, in a normal human covenant, both people have something to give. Abraham had nothing. Nothing. Abraham. I keep saying Abraham. I'm anticipating chapter 17. But he had nothing. So what happens? God puts him to sleep and he's moved out of the way. God caused the deep sleep to fall on him. You see, there's nothing for you to do, Abraham, but watch and rest and fear darkness. That's your part. You rest and you fear darkness. And Abraham sat there and had a vision of something, a burning, shining presence that walked through those pieces of meat in his place. A smoking furnace and a burning torch that walks between those furnaces. That thing's for him. Now, I believe the burning torch is just a perfect foreshadow of the pillar, the fire by night, and then the smoking furnace is just like the cloud by day. And it's showing the presence of God that is going to go with him, that's going to be with him. So he sees a flame of radiant fire passing through these pieces, and all he is is a resting beholder. A resting beholder. That's what a Christian is. A resting beholder. He should have been walking through those bloody haves. But instead, God put him into rest and a flaming torch, a substitute, walked through there for him. He should have walked through there, but he didn't. Cutting a covenant on his behalf. Now, who was that? Who was it? Well, I think we can look at Scripture and find out for sure. Somebody here look up John 8.56 for me, and we're going to read that. Somebody be looking up John 8.56, and somebody get Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3, verse 6 to 9. And I'm going to find another scripture that will bless your boots off. So you ladies, unzip your boots because it'll hurt if they come off if they're not ready. This will bless your boots off. I tell you, I was teaching this one night, and a little brother shared this with me, and I almost couldn't go home when he shared it with me. Somebody read that, John 8, 56. Read it real loud. Oh, come on. Jesus is saying to the religious leaders, listen, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And he did see it, and he was glad, or he was hupi is what it really means. He was really, really glad. Abraham saw Jesus. Who's got Galatians 6? Galatians 3, excuse me, verse 6 to 9. Okay, read that real loud for us. foreseeing, looking beforehand and seeing, that God would justify the heathen through faith, preach the gospel to Abraham. Abraham heard the gospel. Man, that's something, isn't it? He preached the gospel unto Abraham, saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed. When God told him that, he preached the gospel to him. Now listen, that's something. If you really see that, that everybody that's ever been saved has heard the gospel. Abraham, the covenant he's cutting here, is the gospel. He saw Jesus, and I'm convinced that the person that walked through there was Jesus. In Revelation, when you see the Lord glorified, Revelation chapter 1, and I'll just read it to you, verse 14 and 15, when John the Apostle sees the Lord Jesus in his high priestly robe with a golden girdle around his chest and a white robe to his feet, he sees Jesus there, and he describes him as one that has eyes like a burning torch. and feet like they're smoking in a furnace. He uses those same words. Can you imagine that Abraham saw a presence that looked like a smoking furnace and a flaming torch walking through those things for him? He didn't have to do it. He just didn't have to walk that sacrifice. He just watched and he saw. It says, his head and his hairs were white like wool and white as snow. His eyes were like a flaming torch, a flame of fire. Piercing right through it right through him and it says and his feet were like to find brass as if they had been Burned in the furnace and his voice was like the sound of many waters. Can you imagine how Abraham felt when he saw that? God entered a covenant with Abraham now Abraham just like you and me had a promise and He tried to help God fulfill it in the next chapter. You have recorded. Let's go back to Genesis Genesis chapter 16 you see Abram, the father of our faith, failing. So you can learn not to. He, at the instigation of his wife, says, I'll go into Hagar. Where did he get Hagar? Well, he got her while he was away from the altar in Egypt, a couple of chapters before. If he had never been to Egypt, he'd never gotten Hagar. There's scars that you'll bear in your life because of disobedience. God will forgive you, but you'll bear the scars. And he took Hagar and he went into her. And he had Ishmael, and his children are still suffering from that. You see, he tried to fulfill the promise of God and did not learn to wait on God. And God let him do it to teach him that Abraham, you can't do it. And that's what you and I do a lot of times. We do that. So let's go on to chapter 17. Chapter 17. Ishmael was born when Abraham, it says in 16, chapter 16, verse 16, when he was 86 years old, Ishmael was born. You have 13 years of absolute silence. God did not say a word, apparently, to Abram. And then when Abram is 99 years, this is about probably 23 years after the first word has come to him about his promise, it says, when Abram was 99 years old, the Lord, El Shaddai, the Lord of glory, Appeared unto him and said I am the Almighty God and it literally means the mighty breasted one it means it has a figure of Giant breath that gives nourishment total sustenance in every way the majestic Breasted one father mother everything you need is in me I am the mighty God walk before me and be perfect man. That sounds like the Sermon on the Mount I will make my covenant between me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly." And Abraham did the thing that any smart human being would do. He fell on his face. He fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with you, and you will be a father of many nations. God comes to Abram and does another step in the covenant. After he's taken his place, walking in there, he comes and says, now I'm going to change your name. Look in the next verse. Neither will your name, verse five, be anymore called Abram, but your name shall be called Abraham. For a father of many nations have I made you. Yahweh, the secret word that the Hebrews used for God, Yahweh, they don't even write it. They substitute Adonai for it. And they put Y-H-W-H in their writings for it. They wouldn't even write Yahweh. Well, they may now, but they wouldn't then. God takes the middle part of his name, Yahweh, and breathes it in to the middle of Abram's name. And Abram becomes Abraham. The breath sound of God's name is breathed into the middle. He takes a little bit of God's name into his own. And listen, God's given you a new name if you're his. He breathed that into Abram, and Abram became a father. Look, when he breathed into Adam, Adam became a living soul. When he breathed his name into Abram, Abram became a covenant heir, the father of many nations. And you know, the Hebrews believed that when you knew someone's name, you had power over them. My name was sacred to me, and I wouldn't just tell you lightly. If I told you my name, that meant I was giving myself to you as available. Oh, I know so-and-so. And you could use my name. Well, you just think of what it means when God gives his name to you and there's none other name given among men under heaven whereby we must be saved. What name is that? Jesus. Well, let's go one glorious step further. The Lord comes. Remember the name change? Well, then he says, listen, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to have you have a mark in your flesh, not on your wrist. That's too easy. But in the very Origin of parenthood for all your seeds you're going to be a father But all of your nation is going to be under this covenant with you your whole family In you shall all nations of the world be blessed and so the Lord came to him and said listen You put a mark in your body and that is circumcision and it calls that a token look in verse 11 You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin and it shall be a token a token Listen, my wedding ring is a token. It doesn't make me married Circumcision to Abraham was a token. It was a seal of what had happened in his heart. It was not the way to God. Romans 4 talks about that. You ought to read that. Romans 4, and it amplifies circumcision and what it meant to Abraham and what he thought during all of this. Was he doubting? Was all the rest happening in his heart that would happen in you and me? Well, it says in Romans 4 that Abraham staggered not through unbelief. But he saw God's heart, and he said, look, if God said it, God is able. And he knew, God, you're the God that calls things that are not as though they are, and they become so. He takes something that appears like it's not real to you and me, and God says it is real, and when you believe it, it becomes real. He knew that. He said, listen, I'm 99, I'm going to be a doddery old father at the age of 99, you know, walking around at 99, handing out cigars, I doubt Abraham did that. but saying, have you heard the news? Sarah is pregnant. You know? Yeah. Can you imagine that? And can you imagine Sarah having a shower at the age of a hundred? Well, listen, but that's what happened. I don't think they had a shower, but I, but I really know that it was quite a, it created no small stir among their friends. You imagine. So Abraham became a beloved of God. God changed his name and became the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He identified himself with Abraham, a new name given. And that is precious. A beloved of God, a friend of God. It says Abraham was a friend of God. And he gives him three promises. He says, this is what I'm going to do for you, Abraham. You're going to have a seed. A multitude of people are going to come out of your body. That's a physical nation. Number two, I'm going to give you a land. to dwell in. That's Canaan, that's the promised land. And number three, in your seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed. And if you read Galatians, you have to read it later, we've got too much to cover. Galatians 3, 8, 14 and 16, it talks about that that promise, and Abraham knew it, seed, singular, was to Christ, not to many, not to Israel. This part was to Christ through him. Abraham was being told, you're going to be the father of the Messiah. I believe he knew it. You're going to be the father of the Messiah, and out of you is going to come a deliverer from whom all the ends of the earth are going to be blessed. Now, look at Genesis 15 again, verse 6. I want to camp on that for just a second, because this is where we make a lot of error. A lot of error. And write down these three references in the New Testament and see their context later. Romans 4, verse 3, Galatians 3, verse 6, and James 2, verse 23. That's three places that this verse is quoted in the New Testament. Okay, Romans 4, verse 3, Galatians 3, verse 6, and James 2, verse 23. Did you get those? That's where this Genesis 15.6 is quoted by the Holy Ghost. Do your well to see. Abraham's faith is a model for ours. Now, it says, Abraham believed in the Lord and it was counted to him for righteousness. Now, even believe is a covenant word. Just like love and kindness, it is a covenant word. And the Hebrew, I wish, I'll write it for you some other time, probably, but it is actually amin. That's what it is. Believe is amin in the Hebrew. And the Greek is brought right from that and it means Verily, verily, amen, amen. When you say amen at the end of your praying, that is what Abraham did to God. He amened the Lord. He believed the Lord, and it was counted to him for righteousness. In Hebrew, the word is amen, and it means so be it. So be it. Of a certainty, it means steadfastness. It's settled, it's sure forever. When the scripture said Abraham believed God, It meant that Abraham totally surrendered himself to what God said and to who God said he was, an absolute commitment to God with no strings attached, no going back, the merging of his separate personality with God, coming together as one, and it says, I'm no longer mine, I'm his. That's what it means to believe God. It is not believing some things that God says and saying it's true. And that's what we think believe means a lot today. It is not mental assent with my head that something is true. That's the kind of belief that it talks about in James. You believe there's one God where you do well. See, that's not the Bible kind of believing. You can see something in here and say, I believe that's true. Well, that's not Bible believing. Bible believing is when you commit your whole life on that truth and rest it there and say, so be it. God said it. And if God doesn't make it so, then my life is gone. Listen. If God doesn't make it right, I'm going to collapse. Faith, forsaking all, I trust Him. So the idea, and this is where we're going to hit the fan here, the idea that I can accept Jesus Christ as my Savior and down the road somewhere accept Him as my Master and my Lord, in some future time, that is a fallacy. There's nothing more from the pit than that. The Church is like Constantine's army today. They're pagans all in it, because they're trying to do that same thing. Constantine baptized his whole army and says, now you're Christians. And that's sort of like what we've been doing today. They're not believing the Lord, and therefore, listen, it's not counted to them for righteousness. They're still under a set of law. So to believe is to say this to God. Every promise of God is yes and amen in the Lord Jesus. It's to say the amen to God. Now, have you done that? Have you said the amen to God? I believe everyone here. more than likely has. Abraham made a response to the blood covenant offer of God. He believed him. He handed his life over, and they became one person, really. But neither one of them, you see, lost their separate personality. It's like a marriage, but you're one in God's sight. Now, the Lord allows all of us to get in situations where we learn the depths of the promise. So we see time going on, 20 plus years, and finally, at the age of 99, God appears, about 98 probably, and chapter 18 of Genesis, we don't have time to really read this, but I just want you to see that God doesn't leave anything out. Verse 5, it says, this is the reason that, Abraham's saying, this is the reason that you've come to see me. We see the Lord, or the messenger of the covenant. coming with two angels to Abraham's tent while he's in the plain of Mamre. Fatness is what it means, fatness. Mamre means fatness. He's sitting there under the oaks of fatness. And there he looks up and there come three figures toward him. One of them is the Lord Jesus, I believe it, the messenger of the covenant, and two of them are angels. And he says in verse 5, listen, he says, how about letting me get some bread and comfort your heart And after that, you can go on because this is the reason you've come. Look, the Lord came and had a covenant meal with Abraham too. He sat down with him and he ate a kid. They sat down and had kids. And I imagine they had some roasted corn, popcorn, that's what it is, popcorn together. And they took butter and milk and a calf and they sat under that tree and they ate. God confirmed his covenant with a covenant meal. That's the roots of the Passover right there. And it goes on. And he promised his Abraham, he says, listen, I'm going to come to Sarah this time next year or at the appointed time and she'll have a baby. And Sarah heard it and she laughed in her heart. I don't think she laughed outwardly. She laughed in her heart. You know what Isaac means? It means ha ha ha ha. That's really what it means in the Hebrew. That's exactly what it means. And that's, you know, just God kind of turned it back on her and said, listen, OK, you'll call his name Isaac. He called his name Isaac. His name is Laster. Because Abraham laughed for joy, Sarah laughed for unbelief. But they still had a son. Now Abraham at 99 had a son. That was the first miracle. He was a miracle son of covenant. Now imagine, a son to an Eastern man is the most sacred thing you can possibly have. If I don't have a son, I'm disgraced. And there I see little Isaac grow up from a little teeny baby in a crib, and I see him grow up, and I say, oh, that's my seed. That's the one that God's promise is going to come through. Oh, he's the one. And I, boy, can you imagine I'd take care of him? I'd take care of him, and I'd say, that's the reason I'm going to be blessed, because of him. And I'd give him everything he needed. But then one day, God threw a wrench in the works. I'm skipping over Sodom and Gomorrah, but you might read chapter 18 and see how after God entered covenant with Abraham, Abraham becomes a covenant interceder for his cousin Lot. And it says God remembered Abraham. I'm convinced that that is one of the main and only reasons that Lot was saved, because Abraham prayed for him. It said it came to pass that he was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. God remembered Abraham and he saved Lot. Now, let's go on, though. After Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed, and you never hear another thing about Lot, he dies in a cave committing incest with his daughter. And the Moabites and the Ammonites are the result of that incestuous relationship because he was a man that didn't live in the covenant. He lived in Sodom. A lot of Christians are cast away because they're not living under the covenant of God. They're living with their tent pitched toward Sodom, the pleasures of this world. So you see, in chapter 22, after Abraham had made covenants with a few other men, in chapter 22, it came to pass after these things that God did try or test. I don't like the word test there, but it says test or try Abraham. And he said unto him, Abraham. And Abraham said, behold, here I am. He had seen his son grow up. Look, Isaac is probably almost 23 or 22 by now. He's not a little baby you can carry up in your arms. He's a strappling young man. He's strong. And I believe he could probably have whipped his father if he wanted to. He could probably have just took him right down to the ground and slapped him around. And he was a man of God too, as you will see in a moment. So God says to him, take now your son. your only son," and he points that very clearly, "...your only son, whom you have loved, and you get you up into the land of Moriah," Moriah means the Lord will provide, "...and you offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell you." So Abraham rose up early in the morning, and he saddled his ass, and he took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and he cut wood for the burnt offering, and he rose up and went to the place which the Lord had told him. Now Moriah later became the threshing floor, where Obed had his threshing floor, and it later became the place of Well, if you go to the Holy Land today, they believe that that rock with the hole in it, under the dome in the mosque, is the very place that Abraham went to offer his son, the place of Abraham's sacrifice. Well, he went up there, and on the third day, why the third day? Well, you figure that out. The third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes, and he saw the place. What place? That's another good thing to figure out. He saw it afar off. Abraham said to his young man, abide here with the ass, And I and the lead will go yonder and do what? Worship. And I will come again to you. This is the first time sacrifice is mentioned in the Bible, and it's connected to worship. The first time sacrifice is mentioned, and the first time anything is mentioned in the scriptures, see what it means, because it's like planting a seed for the rest of the word. The first time sacrifice is mentioned, it's in relationship to worship. Psalm 50, verse 4, "...gather my beloved saints together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me through sacrifice." Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and he laid it upon Isaac, his son. He took the fire in his hand and it pleased him because he knew that by bruising his son, he could have you and have me as his very own in covenant forever. And it pleased him. And it pleased the Lord Jesus to endure it. for the joy that was set before him. And so we see the command of God, take your only son, your only son Isaac, and the promise of God, Isaac, in him all the nations of the world will be blessed. We see him coming just like this, and Abraham's right in the middle, and it's crushing him to pieces. How can I reconcile the fact that God told me to do this? But it contradicts his promise. And you know what the only explanation is? The Lamb of God. the Lamb of God. When the promise comes one way like a freight train and the command comes the other, and you're right there in the middle of the tracks and you can't figure it out, then don't lean on your own understanding, but say, God will provide, Jehovah-Jireh. My God is able, and He is. And He says this, listen, this is, oh, I don't know if I can even say it. In verse 8 in the Hebrew and in the King James, The American Standard, I believe, misses this verse just a little bit. And Abraham prophesied, and he says this, My son God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. You see, that's what the Father said. My son God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And that's what he did. His son God provided himself a lamb. Or as it says in Ephesians 5-2, Jesus offered himself for a sacrifice and offering a sweet-smelling savor unto God. Abraham knew the gospel. Now, I want to ask you today, do you believe in that sense of the word? Because that is what saving faith is in the Lord. Total commitment. When you give God your all, He gives His all to you. And it's an unequal covenant. You rest, And behold, Calvary, behold the One who took your place, the flaming radiance of God, sheathed in His human flesh that was rent right there. And as you behold Him there, all the benefits of that covenant will begin to rise in your heart because He has purchased it for you. And He said, as we heard before, it is finished. Tetelestai, tetelestai, paid in full, paid in full. Now, I'm so tempted to go on, but I don't think I'm going to today. I think that's enough. We're going to talk about how that next time, about how Abraham's children were in the covenant, remember, and they went on. And you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and they know the covenant. God confirms it with them again. However, just remember this, Abraham's mistake of going to Egypt, do you know what? It was multiplied in his children. They went to Egypt, too, and they shouldn't have gone. And your children, when you have them, if you don't, well, do the same things you do. If you go down to Egypt, they'll go down to Egypt, and God will visit the consequences on them. So seek to stay at the altar of God. And we see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. We see Jacob with his 12 sons, and there's another famine in the land. And just like Father Abraham, they run down to Egypt, the same sin. But God, Determined it and sent Joseph one of the best typologies of Jesus Christ in the whole scripture And he said to them now you meant it to me for evil, but God meant it for good He's talking to his brothers He says you when you delivered me up and sold me out and thought you shed my blood you meant it to me for evil But God meant it for good that he might do like he did today saving many people and when they with wicked hands took the Lord Jesus and crucified him the Lord of glory and It was meant for evil, but God meant it for good, that He, as it was that day, might save many people. That's what He wants to do. So then we see them coming into Egypt and becoming enemies of Pharaoh. Joseph died, and another Pharaoh, who knew not Joseph, came up, and they became enemies of Pharaoh, and we see them falling into bondage. They're still God's children. They're still under the promise. They're still covenant seeds. And I just wet your oats or wet your appetite. It's salt your oats, isn't it? Not wet your oats. I just say to you that everything God does is because of covenant. In Exodus 2, 24, you can meditate on that later. But it says, it came to pass in the process of time that the Lord looked and saw the sighing and the crying out of the children of Israel. They cried out. They probably didn't even know the covenant. But they were in affliction. And it says, oh, it's so precious to me. God remembered His holy covenant that He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Why did He bring them out of Egypt? Because of a covenant. And we're going to study, next time we talk, the Passover and the perfect, perfect covenant meal they ate to reconfirm as a nation that covenant oath with God. Now, I do want to ask you today, though, You cannot talk about things like this unless God speaks to your heart and says, listen, you're not living in all your privilege. You're not living in everything that's yours. You're just like Abraham and Hagar. You're trying to do some things to bring out the promise that only I can do. Relax. Become a resting beholder and trust in the Lord with all your heart. And I will do what I've said. Believe in the Lord who does the things that appear like they're not so. when he says they are so, and they become so. Do that, and you'll find them becoming real in your life. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for a covenant that is so secure that you literally would have to put the Lord Jesus back in the grave before you broke it. I thank you that you said that it's more sure than the stars and the sun that are in the heavens, There are ordinances by day that you will not take away your mercy. And you say in Psalm 89, once I have sworn by my own holiness that I will not lie to David, I will not repent. You've sworn. And if we disobey you, even, you will visit us with affliction. And you will teach us not to. But nevertheless, it says, for your own namesake, you will be true to what you've sworn. Cause us to see your goodness. and your commitment to us, and let it melt our heart that we might walk wholly before you, fearing not because of punishment, but fearing lest we grieve the heart of such a one as you. Seal this word, Lord, to these precious friends' hearts, my covenant, brothers and sisters. And may we live together these weeks here in this place Indeed, as joint heirs together of the grace of life. Covenant, brothers and sisters, joint heirs with Jesus. And we pray it in that name that you've given, of which we lay hold on you. Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.