Take out your Bibles, turn back to the book of Genesis, back to the beginning. We're gonna be picking up in Genesis chapter 11 in verse 27. You can find that on page eight in the Pew Bible. This is the context and introduction to the story that we're gonna be looking at for about the next five months, the story of Abraham. We're gonna start that today by looking at Genesis 11, 27, We're actually only going to make it through 12 verse 3 this morning. And this is a story of another beginning. Because remember, that's what the book of Genesis is about. We're picking back up in this series. So we're going to have to do a little bit of review as we start part two of this many year long series in Genesis. That's why we're breaking it up. It's going to take me five years to get through Genesis. And Genesis, beginnings, it's an appropriate name because that's what Genesis means. Beginning. In Hebrew, the very first word of the Bible is reshith, which means beginning. And thus, that's what the Hebrew scriptures title this book. Our title will come from the word that you see down there in verse 27, where you see generations. one of the key words of the entire book. These are the generations repeated ten different times. And then when the Old Testament was translated into Greek many years later, that word was translated with the Greek word genesis, which means generations, source, origins, or birth, or So this book is literally about birth. It's literally about the birth of everything, the source, the origin, the beginning of all of it. And that's what we looked at over a year ago when we started in Genesis 1. And so I titled that very first sermon, The Beginning of Everything. And so today, as we pick up the second main part of the book, we've got before us another beginning because if you remember back there are two major sections of this massive and massively important book chapters 1 through 11 part 1 chapters 12 through 50 part 2 remember chapters 1 through 11 are what are referred to as prime evil history and remember that sounds like it's very evil that's not what the word means that's a combination of the latin word primus which means first and avum which means age so literally primeval means the first This is the earliest, most ancient history, primitive, primeval history, the beginning. That's 1 through 11. And then 12 through 50, we have primeval history, then we have patriarchal history, focusing now on the fathers of the nation of Israel. So 1 through 11 focusing on all people, 12 through 50 now focusing on one. We've had God's dealing with all nations. Now we're looking at God's dealing specifically with one nation. And there are just so many different ways people break down the book. It's hard to kind of narrow in on what's the best way. I think one of the simplest ways is it seems that each of these two sections has four major parts, has four focuses. We finished part one, and in it we saw four main events. We saw creation, fall, flood, Tower of Babel. That's basically part one. Now in 1250, we're gonna see not four main events, but four main people, as we look at Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then Joseph. And it's through these four main people in part two that God is going to begin to bring resolution to the four major events we saw in part one, because three of those events We're not so good. Remember chapters 1 and 2. Quick summary. The beginning of everything. In the beginning, God. He is. He is everything and He creates everything. He is the beginning. He is your beginning. And remember that beginnings determine ends. Who God is and what He does determines who you are and what you are to do. You don't determine that, contrary to what our culture is teaching you. God determines that. So Genesis 1 and 2 are the foundation upon which the rest of the Bible and the rest of your life and the rest of all reality are built. In Genesis 1 and 2 we saw God, the King, creating his kingdom. He populates it with his people. And so we finish 1 and 2 with God's people in God's place under God's rule. That's the kingdom of God. God's people in God's place under God's rule. That's what God set out to build. But then chapter 3, things fall apart. Chapter 3 is the fall. The first man and woman reject God. By rejecting his word, God creates them, he commissions them, he calls them into relationship with him, but they rebel, they disobey, and as a result, they die. They die spiritually, and then physically they are cut off, they're separated from God, they are kicked out of the kingdom. But remember, in the midst of all of the judgment of Genesis chapter 3, right and righteous judgment, Sin must be punished. A just king must deal with crime. But in the midst of all of that, unexpectedly, the just God also spoke a word of hope, a word of grace, a promise. I remember Genesis 3, 15, one of the most important verses in the whole Bible in pronouncing his judgment against Satan, the adversary, the deceiver. God promised that he was going to do something about Satan and about our sin. Remember, he says, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. And it's that verse that sets the stage for everything that follows. It's the sort of theme statement that the rest of the Bible unpacks. Remember, God promises these two lines, see to the woman, see to the serpent, and then the Bible traces those two lines of people as we're looking and as we're waiting for the one that God has promised who would come and defeat our enemy. The whole story of the Bible is one of promise, then obstacles to the fulfillment of that promise, and then the tension and the waiting and the trust and the faith that are required of God's people. In the meantime, God has said, God has spoken, God has promised. And then the question is, will he come through? Things happen. The question is, can he come through? Because remember chapter four, Cain, seed of the serpent, kills Abel, seed of the woman. The rest of the chapter then traces Cain's wicked line and the rise of the city of man. Chapter five introduces the godly line as Seth replaces Abel. Now we see the city of God. The rest of the chapter traces his Family, but then we get to chapter 6 and we see that the wickedness of man is great in the earth And God who knows all says every intentions of the thoughts of man's heart is only evil Continually and so God brings judgment flood God Decreates everything he has created he wipes out his creation. He wipes out evil. He wipes out everyone except for Noah and his family right there's a There's Genesis 3.15. There's the grace. God saves the seed of the woman. God preserves his people. His promises are still intact. The flood ends, but then what happens? Another fall. Noah falls. There's judgment on Ham and Canaan, and things quickly again fall apart as we move straight from Noah to the Tower of Babel. Creation, fall, flood, Babel. And so we saw in our final sermon that chapter 11 begins with one people, one nation, united in sin, united in rebellion against God. God comes in and judges their sin, where we then end up with many nations divided in judgment, which then leaves us at the end of chapter 11 with no nations united with God. That's the end. of the beginning. That's the end of the first part of Genesis, the first part of the Bible. It ends on a note of utter darkness and despair. And we have to start there, as it's the first Sunday of the new year. We should check with you. I don't know if I've ever preached on the first Sunday of a new year before. Dan has done it many times. He was our go-to first Sunday of the year guy. Andrew did it last year. But since it's the first of the year, this feels like a pretty appropriate time to consider another beginning. Maybe your 2019 was characterized by a lot of darkness and despair. Maybe it wasn't. But though dates and decades are somewhat arbitrary, we cannot help but look back and evaluate the year that has come, and we cannot help but look forward to the year that is to come. at the beginning of a new year and a new decade, that's kind of cool, that only happens once every 10 years, right? Well, let's consider this beginning and then use it as a lens through which to consider the beginning of a new year and of a new decade in your life, personally, and then in the life of this church, corporately. I'm still stuck in Philippians, so it's gonna keep coming back. We're not gonna be finished with the Philippians. What does Paul want? for the Philippians. What do I want for you? What is my job? Remember, Paul wants most of all for his people is their joy. You know what Paul says? He wants to die. Why? Not because he hates life, but because he loves Christ. And due to the defeating death of Christ, death is now nothing more for Paul and anyone in Christ, the escort that gets us to him. Death delivers us to Christ, and that is good, because Christ is good. And so Paul says, I want that, because I want Christ. But then Paul chooses to remain. Why? He's chosen to postpone the best thing, being with the one that he most loves. Why? Well, verse 25, he says, for your progress and joy in the faith. You see, Paul is willing to put off being with the one in whom he finds the most joy if he can in any way help others find joy and the one in whom he finds most joy. That's what I want. That's my New Year's resolution. That's why Pastor Mike and I are here. Our job is to serve you in your progress and joy in the faith. And we know, as Paul knows, that that joy is found in Jesus and that Jesus is found in this Word. This is why everyone starts Bible reading plans at the beginning of the year. Bible reading plans aren't bad. They're good. If it's just a checklist, if it's just a thing you're going to do, hey, well, maybe you're missing something. But remember, this is where Jesus is. This manifests his presence. It mediates his presence to us. We're reading not just to read. We're meeting to meet and to commune with and to know Jesus Christ. Christ. That's what we want for you. Your progress and your joy in the faith and it's only found in Jesus and it's found in this word and it's found even in the words of Genesis chapter 12. So two points. You're going to see three points on your outline. I sent these to Vijay yesterday evening And well, last night ended up a long night. Don't write sermons on vacation. So we're gonna save point three and the rest of chapter 12 for next week. We're gonna just tackle the first two points and then we'll look at all the four through 20 next week. We're gonna look at the nature of faith. next week but first this morning I want to just give you two very simple not particularly profound things that I want to be an encouragement to you at the beginning of this new year and the first one is is that your beginning is nothing but sin but then secondly and wonderfully that God's call is nothing Two of the most important things you need to know this New Year. This is more important than getting in shape. That's important. This is more important than spending less time on social media. You should do that. But most of all, you need to know your sinfulness and then let that lead you to know and love the God of grace. Let's read this text and then see where we can unpack these two points. Remember, we're picking back up in chapter 11, verse 27. This is the context for what is going to come, and I'm just going to read through chapter 12, verse 3. Pay attention, because this is what God wants to say to you today. Genesis 11, 27. Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred in Ur of the Chaldeans. And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milca, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milca and Isca. Now Sarai was barren. She had no child. Hera took Abram, his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Let's go to the Lord first with a word of prayer. Father, I echo Pastor Mike's prayer. Help me now, Lord. I pray that you would help both the preaching of the word and the hearing of the word. We ask that you would show us Christ through these Old Testament scriptures that are here to point us forward to him. Father, help us to listen attentively. Help us to learn. Father, help us not just to learn. Help us to learn so that we can better love you and so that we can better live lives that bring you great glory and honor. Help us now we ask in the name of Jesus, amen. All right, point number one, your beginning is nothing but sin. We start with sin. Happy New Year. But first, I want to make a couple of quick observations and give you a couple of thoughts on my points. I'm trying out and thinking through a couple of different things. We're reading Genesis 12, we're learning about Abraham, and we're going to see that it's his beginning that is nothing but sin. But that's not what the first point says. It's that your beginning is nothing but sin. Why? Well, consider a couple of verses. How about 1 Corinthians 10, 11? Now these things happened to them, all these Old Testament things, as an example, but they were written down for our instruction. Or Romans 15 verse 4, for whatever was written in former days, that's the Old Testament, was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. So these then are not just interesting stories. I'm not just here to educate you and give you some interesting information. I do want you to be educated. I do want to give you interesting information. Learning is good. Knowing is good. But we're not learning just to learn. We're not knowing just to know. The goal is learning that leads to loving, knowing that leads to growing. We're here again to work for your progress and joy in the faith. And my one tool is this book, this word. And so my one job is to teach it, but to teach it to you for the purpose of changing. to teach it, praying that God will use it, and then exhort and encourage you to follow it, and to believe it, and then to obey it. So it's not just that Abraham's beginning is nothing but sin. This is written for us, as an example for us. So you need to know that, yes, Abraham's beginning is nothing but sin, but then you also need to apply that to yourself and see that your beginning is nothing but sin so that you can then be ready for the good grace that comes next. So the two points could have just been sin and grace. I mean, that's not always bad. I will still probably use kind of these descriptive statements sometimes as outline points. But my goal is to do more than just describe the facts of the text. My goal is to exhort you, and it is to encourage you. And so instead of just sin, we've got your beginning is nothing but sin. This is more than just a description of the facts of the story. This is now a universal principle that you need to know and then apply to your own life. So that's why it's, your beginning is nothing but sin. But let's see how that comes from the text. Let's see it first in the life of Abram. Look at verse 27. Where do we see this? Well, remember, we've got our two lines. We've got the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, the city of man, verse the city of God. God has made a promise. That promise was a seed, an offspring to come. But for that to happen, well, there obviously needs to be a remaining line from which that offspring can come. But when we close chapter 11, it seems as if that line is all but snuffed out. Verse 27 introduces us to Terah, the father of Abram, and his two brothers. And on the surface, if you've started your read through the Bible, you've already read this passage. If you started and you can make it through Genesis generally, you've already read this. And if you just flew through it, it may not seem like there's anything wrong. But upon a slower, closer look, it may actually turn out that everything is wrong. And it's the name of the people and places that are the primary indicators. First, there is Terah himself. We're not entirely sure what his name means, but most argue that it is in some way related to the word for the moon. And when you combine that fact with the two places that this name related to the moon is connected, Ur and Haran. Note, by the way, that there are two Harans in our text. It's kind of confusing. There's Terah's son, Haran. He dies in Ur, and then Terah leaves and moves to the city of Heron. It's confusing. There's a sun, Heron, and there's a city, Heron. They're not related. Two completely different things. But both of these cities, Ur and Heron, are notorious for being the centers of worship of the moon god, Sin. You probably haven't heard of him. We only know our Greek and Roman mythology. But there are other myths and mythologies, Middle Eastern, Babylonian mythologies. And the moon god is Sin, spelled S-E-E-N, but pronounced Sin. Kind of ironic. So the name, the man named for the moon, is only associated with places that worship the moon. That's not good. Well, then there are the daughter's names. In verse 28, we meet Abram's wife, Sarai, who will later be renamed Sarah. Her name could mean princess in Hebrew, but they're not Hebrew yet. They're in Babylon right now. And so in their language, in Akkadian, her name is a translation for the kind of the consort, the female partner of the moon god, Sin. Abram's brother, Nahor, marries Milca, which is the name of the goddess, who is the daughter of the moon god, Sin. And when we get to Nahor's grandson, Laban, later in the story, he's a worshipper of these false gods. Again, not a good sign. All of these names point to the likelihood that this whole family, Abram's family, meaning Abram himself, were pagan worshippers of false gods. And just in case, all that name stuff seems somewhat speculative We also have Joshua 24, verse 2, where we read this. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, long ago your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham, and of Nahor, and they served other gods. They, plural, Terah, Nahor, Abram, served other gods. That is Abraham's beginning. And this is very important for us to get. We emphasize this also back in chapter 6 with Noah, because we often get this wrong. We tend to think, well, everybody's terrible, but Noah seems pretty good, so God chose to save Noah because he was so good. Or everyone was terrible, but Abram seems pretty good, so God chose to save Abram because he was so good. And then this can slip into our understanding of salvation in general, and then our own salvation in particular. Yeah, I sin, I know no one is righteous, but I'm pretty good. I'm definitely not as bad as all those people, whoever those people are, for you. Those people you demonize and you set yourself up against to help you feel better about yourself. Those liberals, or those Trump supporters, or those feminists, or those fundamentalists. We're all of us masters of selective comparison. Well, at least I'm not like those people. And then we sort of subconsciously start to think that we're really not all that bad. At least not as bad as everybody else. And guys, this is deadly dangerous. This is a bad beginning. Which is why at the beginning of a new year and the beginning of a new series on A New Beginning, we're beginning. with sin. Your beginning is nothing but sin, and Abraham's beginning is nothing but sin. He wasn't a pretty good guy. At the end of chapter 11, it seems that all is lost. And remember, this is supposed to be the godly line. Back in chapter 11, verse 10, we start this genealogy with, these are the generations of Shem. And this is the line that God had set apart and blessed back in chapter 9, verse 26. These are supposed to be the good guys. But here at the end of the first part of the beginning of the whole Bible, it seems that there are no good guys. Abraham was not a good guy. He did not know God, the one true God. He did not love him. He did not serve him. He was worshiping and serving the moon. Abram was a pagan idolater. Abram was Romans 1. He did not honor God as God or give thanks to him, but he became futile in his thinking and his foolish heart was darkened. Claiming to be wise, he had become a fool. He had exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator. That is Father Abraham. And that's you and me. You did not know God, the one true God. You did not love him. You did not serve him. You may not have been worshiping the moon. I think we sometimes look back at all these pagans worshiping all kinds of these wild things like stars, and we laugh, like how silly and how foolish and naive those pagans were worshiping all those silly things. Hold on. You may not be worshiping the sun, but you're definitely doing something even more ridiculous than that, because you are worshiping yourself. And the sun is much more impressive than you are. Which is more ridiculous to worship? The sun or your own self? All of us were worshippers self and that's what sin is it is the rejection of God as God and it is the worship of self as God it is putting yourself in the place that only God belongs God is the king he has set up his kingdom we have rejected him as king and we have thus been rejected from his kingdom and that is how we all began the sin that separates the sin that the wages of is Death. Abraham begins separated from God and dead, spiritually. That's not all. Look again at the text. Look at verse 30. The Old Testament doesn't often give us lots of biographical details about its characters. So when it does, we better pay attention to them. Look at verse 30. Now Sarah, I was barren. Hey, and just in case that's not clear, she had no child, twice. Why is that mentioned? Well, it's because of the promise. Because of the promise before and the promise to come. The promise of Genesis 3.15 was a seed, an offspring. Well, barrenness is a pretty significant obstacle to having an offspring. Surely then, this Abraham is not The one. He cannot be the one through whom the seed will come because he cannot even have a son because his wife is barren. She cannot have a child. And notice also that a nephew of Abraham, Lot, is mentioned twice in verse 31. Again, that just seems kind of obscure and kind of strange. Why is that there? Well, we're being signaled by Moses. Here's good writing. Here's good foreshadowing. He's telling us, hey, this guy's going to come into this story a lot. We're going to see a lot. more than almost anyone besides Abraham in this story. He's a major player, often acting as an obstacle to the promise, making things difficult for Abraham, making the fulfillment of the promise that is about to become more difficult. So just right now, at the end of the chapter 11, things do not start well. The end of the beginning almost seems like the end of everything. And it should be the end of everything. Your sin should have been the end of everything. Because guys, sin is awful. We barely even begin. We're people who talk a lot about sin. But we barely even begin to comprehend how bad sin is. And that's our beginning. Nothing but sin. And thus we deserve nothing but judgment. But God. Point number two. God's call is nothing but grace. Finally, Genesis 12. Ian, if you had to pick a central pivotal passage of the book, it's It's this one. It's one of those texts that you just can't do justice to. Here's the transition between the two main sections of the book. Everything before builds towards Genesis 12, 1 through 3. Everything after unpacks Genesis 12, 1 through 4. I cannot overemphasize how important these verses are. These are sort of the blueprint for the rest of the story, and not just the story of Abraham, but of everything, of the story of the whole Bible, of your story. It is all rooted in this, and this is nothing but grace. There is darkness, and depravity. We end 11 with no nations united with God. We end with a family of moon worshipers. And again, don't forget the beginning of chapter 11. What happened in the first part of chapter 11? There was sin, and there was judgment. There was sin in chapter six, and there was judgment. There was sin in chapter four, and there was judgment. There was sin in chapter three, and there was judgment. But all of a sudden, in chapter 12, there's grace. And notice the form that it takes. Don't forget that this is another beginning, a new beginning. Don't miss the parallels to Genesis chapter 1. 1, 3, and God said, and there was everything. 12, 1, there has been darkness, rebellion, chaos. 12, 1, now the Lord said. He speaks. And that's the grace. Remember, grace, not just unmerited favor, but demerited favor. It's better than not getting what you deserve. It's getting what you don't deserve. You deserve death and judgment. Grace is getting, instead, life and blessing. And that's what Abram gets changed in chapter 17. Same person. Abram means father, exalted father. Abraham means father of a multitude. I heard one guy make the joke that Abram means daddy and Abraham means big daddy. But I'm better than that. So I'm not making that joke. But don't forget who this Abram is. He's a pagan worshipper of the moon. And so 12.1 in context should be utterly shocking. It's not just now the Lord said, it's now the Lord said to Abram, that Abram, awful Abram, sinner deserving death, Abram. But God comes to him and God speaks to him. And he speaks not the word of judgment that Abram deserves, but a word of grace that he does not deserve. And so do you see why the first point is so important? Do you see why it is so necessary for you to understand that your beginning is nothing but sin? 12.1, isn't that amazing if we assume that Abram is a pretty good guy? Well, yeah, of course God came to Abram. Abram was nice, he was the best one. No, he's not. And no, you're not. Nor am I. And I think some of our struggles with assurance and joy come back to this point. All right, we are all of us, Good Calvinists, most of us, right? At least we're getting there, right? It's a joke. Yeah, it's a joke. Calvinists are supposed to get total depravity. The one thing that we get is total depravity. All of us pay lip service to it. None is righteous. No, not one. But do we really believe that? Do we really live like we believe that? Because if we did, we would be the most humble, joyful, and kind people in the world. We would do what we struggled with back in Philippians 2.14. We would do everything without complaining. There would be no conflict with others, Philippians 4.2. There would be no anxiety, Philippians 4.6. Why not? Because we were dead. We were dead in our trespasses. And since that's not just a metaphor, we were literally dead, spiritually dead. And that, left unchecked, deserves hell. As I've been emphasizing, we don't really believe in hell. We don't live like it. We don't live like we believe that there is a hell awaiting every single person apart from Jesus Christ. But imagine if we actually lived like we believed that. Imagine if we actually lived and believed that our sin in this life, if not dealt with by the grace of God, actually resulted in an eternity of endless suffering and torment. But instead of that, doing nothing for it, you get endless goodness and blessing and life with God? That's joy. Always. Again, I will say that's joy. That is why to understand grace, you have to understand sin. You minimize sin, and you minimize grace. When you maximize sin, you maximize grace. God's call is nothing But grace, realize that, rejoice in that, rest in that. You think that you believe that, but you don't. We all struggle to really believe that. Just look at your life and the grumbling and the anger and all of these things, right? We need to resolve this year to dive deep into the grace of God. Our God is not the God who sits around waiting for us to figure things out, waiting for us to get things right, waiting for us to choose him. Our God is the God who runs after us. and rescues us. He is the God who finds us and forgives us. Our God is the God that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He does all of it. Salvation belongs to the Lord. It is all grace. And so if you know and love Jesus, If you have repented of your sins and believed in Him, in His substitutionary life, death, and resurrection in your place for the forgiveness of your sins, do you know why you did that? Because of nothing but the grace of God. Here's why we pray along with Pastor Mike for our loved ones. I was reading an Arminian, I mentioned this a couple weeks ago, a consistent guy, he said, hey listen, if we're consistent with our theology, you are not allowed to pray for your loved ones to be saved by God. You can't do it. What are you asking them? What are you asking God to do? No, we believe that it's God who changes hearts and saves. And so we cry out to him in prayer, Father, save my sister. She does not know you. I've done everything that I can. I am not smart enough. I am not good enough. I cannot do it. Father, save my sister. Because it's all the grace of God. He calls, and then we respond. Again, don't forget what His call is and does. Don't forget what God's words do in Genesis 1. They create everything. And God said, and it was. That's always the case. God's call is a life-giving call. God's word is a life-giving word. And God's call in your life was a spiritual life-giving word. And it was all grace. As it was for Abram. Let's look back at it briefly. Look back to verse 1. We know that everything to come is generally grace. Well, what is it specifically? Well, first we see that God's call includes a command. Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. That's next week. We're gonna come back and look more about Abram's travels and Abraham's response of faith to the grace of God next week. Look at verses two and three. Here's how the grace will play itself out. Repetition. Look for the repetition. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Oh, surely you can't miss it. Bless, blessing, bless, bless, blessed. Five times. And there's two short. This is the content of the grace. It's a blessing, a good word. And again, a word from God is never just a word, because God acts through His word. God's word works. So this blessing, this good word from God, is a promise that God is going to do something for Abram. We're not even going to talk about covenant until we get to chapter 15. We're going to do it in great detail in chapter 15. For now, I just want to focus on the nature of what God promises Abram. God packs a lot into these promises, but I think we can break it down into three main promises. Here's the content of the promises. God promises a blessing, a seed, or a people, and a land. Blessing, seed, land. And these are the thematic and the theological core of this book. This is the unifying center of the book. We are going to see these promises occur again and again and again in the chapters to come. Blessing, seed, land. And we've seen the word blessing five times. Why five? And why do we need a blessing? Well, because of the curse. The curse is used five times in the preceding 11 chapters, and we thus need the fivefold repeated blessing because of the fivefold repeated curse and the curse of sin and death. You see, blessing rolls back. It's not Christmas anymore, but I don't really believe in Christmas. But we should still sing joy to the world. We should celebrate the birth of Christ every single Sunday. The biblical calendar is a seven-day calendar. So let's sing joy to the world some Sunday coming up. He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found. We need the blessing to reverse the curse. the curse. So we see blessing there repeatedly. That's obvious. Well, where do we see land and seed? Well, look back at verse 2. God makes the promise there to make Abram into a great nation. That implies a place for that nation. But, cheat down, God explicitly says this in verse 7. Look down at verse 7 where God says, to your offspring I will give this land. The land of Canaan. That's next week. We're going to see Abram traverse all the way through it and kind of mark out the territory that God is going to give them. But within that, there's the word offspring, seed as well. And so the promise to make him into a great nation must also include a people to populate that nation. We'll see it more explicitly in chapter 15, verse 5, when Abram, still childless, worries that he has no offspring yet to be his heir. And so God tells Abram, hey, go outside at night, not in New York City, where there are no stars, but in the middle of the desert, where there are infant stars. And he says, hey, go look at the stars. Try to count those. Try to number them. And then God says, so shall your offspring be. And so there's the promise of the seed, which is, of course, the exact same word that God uses in the promise of Genesis 3.15. And it's all about the seed. Everything is about the seed. The seed is the grace. The last thing that God says to Abram in verse 3 is, You, all the families of the earth, shall be blessed. What in the world? How will all of the world be blessed through this one childless nomad who lived over 3,000 years ago? Well, it's only this. It's only the sea. Genesis 3, 15, Satan, there will one day be a seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. And then Genesis 12, 15, 17, Abram, I will give you a seed. This seed, this same seed, the one promised from the beginning. And Genesis 3, 15, Abram will be a blessing to all the nations. Abram is a blessing to you because it's through him that this seed comes. And this is why, of course, we read Galatians 3. All right, let's turn there and let's close with this. Turn to Galatians chapter 3, page 973, if you want to go there. I'm happy to preach for another hour if you would like, but I will wrap up for now with Galatians 3. It's such a wonderful passage. We might read it a couple of times in the coming weeks for our scripture reading, because it's just so loaded that I cannot do it justice. Don't make the mistake of trying to interpret the Old Testament without the New. There are entire systems of theology that exist because they've made the mistake of trying to interpret the Old Testament without the New. No, let the New interpret the Old for you. Paul helps us greatly here. Look at verse 8. I love verse 8. Catch this. And the scripture in the Bible, God's word, skip down, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed. What? We use that word gospel a lot in everything these days. Gospel is cool again. Everything these days is gospel this, and gospel that, and gospel center. That's not a bad thing, but we mean a pretty specific thing when we say gospel. Gospel just means good news, and not just any good news, but the good news, the great news, the best news. The gospel is what God, the gospel is not about you. The gospel is what God has done for us in Jesus Christ to save us from our sins. Paul knows that. Paul's the one always using the word gospel. And he's the one who takes that same word gospel and then says that the gospel was preached to Abraham 2,000 years before the birth of Christ. What? How is that? It's because he's the seed. We didn't read it earlier. Peek down to verse 16 of Galatians 3. We shouldn't have time. Look at verse 16. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. Catch the plural singular. It does not say, and to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one. And to your offspring, and that's our word, seed, and to your offspring who is Christ. There it is. Paul tells us what our passage is about. He is the seed. He is the one promised from the very beginning. He is the one promised again in Genesis 12. The promises to Abraham are not about national Israel, and they're not about a small strip of land in the Middle East. They're about Christ. And He is the way that Abraham would be a blessing to all nations because He is the blessing. Because He's the one that deals. with the curse. Look back up at verse 13 of Galatians 3. Why this word? Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. And he's talking about the Mosaic Law. Again, I believe that law, that Mosaic Law, is like a republication or a re-giving of the covenant of works from back in Genesis 2. God had said, do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or you will surely die. In other words, God is saying, obey me and live, disobey me and die. What did they do? What have we all done? We have disobeyed and died. And that's the first point. Your beginning, our beginning, is nothing but sin. But God, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. The wages of sin is death. That's the curse. How did he do it? He tells us. By becoming a curse for us. And that's one of the most profound things that's ever been written. I just meditate on that for this entire week. Jesus Christ, the perfect Philippians 2, go back to who He is, the perfect Son of God, God Himself come in the flesh, becomes a curse for us. For it is written, curse it is everyone who is hanged on a tree. Verse 14, what's the result? So that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles That's us so that we might receive the promise spirit through faith as there is so much goodness in there that we just don't have time. I simply want you to see this morning that this book that we're going to look at, this man that lived 3,000 years ago, that we're going to study for the next five months, is here ultimately to point us forward to Jesus Christ, His seed, the seed of the woman, the snake crusher, who defeated Satan, sin, and death. That's what God has done. He has promised to do it all after chapter 11, after all that sin and darkness, right into the middle of that. burst God's electing and saving call of pure grace. And if you are in Christ, that is exactly what has happened to you as well. So begin this new year with that. Begin this new year resolved to meditate on your own sinfulness, to feel it. Remember Newton, no one learns about total depravity by being taught it. God lets us experience it and feel it. Understand that you did nothing, that you deserve nothing, that you provide nothing except the corpse that needs to be raised. And then rejoice in the grace of God that raises corpses. Grace is what you need this year. Grace is all you need this year and every year. And that grace is Jesus Christ. Commit to being able to say with Paul this year that to live is Christ, that for the Christian, 2020 is Christ. Decide with Paul to do one thing in 2020, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. Press on toward the goal of the upward call, the grace of God in Christ Jesus. Do everything that you can that you may know him and the power of his resurrection. Your beginning is nothing but sin. Thank God for his call that is nothing but grace. Let's close there. Bow with me and let me go again to the Lord. Father, we thank you that you are a gracious God. Father, we are a sinful people. We are thankful that you are the God who rescues sinful people. We thank you that you are the God who comes after sinful people and makes them saints. That you save us and you sanctify us. You set us apart, you change us, you make us holy. Father, and it's all entirely of grace. Forgive us for how we have forgotten your grace in the previous year. Father, I pray that we would commit to this year, to fixing our eyes, on Jesus Christ, to resting in your good grace and to living as if everything that we have is grace. Father, we deserve nothing but hell. Anything that we have that is not that is entirely your grace. Father, make us a thankful people, make us a humble people, make us a joyful people this year. Father, I ask that you would use this word. I ask that you would use Genesis and this series on the life of Abraham to encourage us, to edify us, Father, to challenge us, but to strengthen our faith and to grow our love for Jesus Christ. Father, my prayer is that we would finish this series and that we would finish this year simply knowing and loving Jesus more. and living lives that reflect that growing love for Jesus Christ. You are the only one who can do this in us. Father, take now my feeble efforts to preach your word. I thank you that your word is living and active. I think that it's powerful and it is able to do all that you want it to do. So I ask now for your spirit to do his work in our hearts through his word. And we ask this all in Jesus' name, amen.