The story of Christ's birth begins in our Bibles, in the New Testament, in the words, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham. We began a short series last Sunday that sets the Christ of Christmas in the context of God's grand plan for all of human history. A series that points to the Jesus of Christmas under the title Son of Abraham. Now by calling By calling Jesus the son of Abraham, Matthew points back to promises that God made to Abraham. If I have my chronology right, some 1400 years before Jesus was born, promises made to Abraham, and we call these promises a covenant. And we'll talk this morning about why these promises are a covenant that God made with Abraham. And what we see here in Genesis chapter 12, in the first three verses, is the first record of this covenant. So let's read these verses together. Genesis 12, verses one through three. Now the Lord said to Abram, Get out of your country and from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you. And I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Now, we may view these verses from three different perspectives, through three different lenses, if you will. We can first of all see them in terms of kingdom. We did that last Sunday. We observed how God Himself places two very different kingdoms side by side in Genesis 10 through 12. The kingdom of Babel and its first king Nimrod versus the kingdom that God promised to Abraham, the kingdom of which Jesus is the king this very day. We can also see these verses on a personal level. I mean, can you imagine? Can you imagine God making these kind of promises to you? I'm gonna make you great. I'm going to make your name great. I'm going to bless you. In fact, I'm going to bless everybody that blesses you. And if anybody does curse you, I'm going to curse them. And through you, all the families on earth are going to be blessed. Can you imagine what that would be like on a personal level? We may talk about that next Sunday. This morning, we want to look at these verses through the lens of covenant, the Christmas covenant, if I can put it that way. Now, covenant is one of the overarching themes of the Bible. The word covenant is found 284 times in the Old Testament, 33 times in the New Testament. Plus, there are many, many more passages that refer to covenants without using the word. But numbers don't really tell the whole story, for it's really possible to trace the entire history of God's relationship with mankind in terms of covenant. It's one of the great unifying themes of scripture. And in particular, the Abrahamic covenant ties the entire Bible together because the ultimate fulfillment of these promises here in Genesis chapter 12 arrive only with the Christ of the New Testament, with the Christ child of Christmas. Now, I said a moment ago that I would explain what covenant means, and particularly we need to look into the Old Testament, into the Old Testament background of this covenant that God made with Abraham, and then against that Old Testament background, then we can see the glories of Christmas, the glories of the promised Christ child. So first of all, from an Old Testament perspective, I want you to understand that God's covenant with Abraham is first of all foundational, foundational. Up to this point in human history, God seemed to be biding his time, as it were. I mean, you think about it. It seems like to this point, God was interested primarily in demonstrating to mankind their inability to fulfill the responsibilities that he had given them at creation as his representatives on earth. And mankind failed so drastically that God wiped them off the face of the earth. He destroyed all but eight persons in a worldwide flood. But now, with God's covenant with Abraham, God steps back into history, the history of fallen mankind, to effect salvation. The promises in this covenant provide the foundation for salvation history. And as I said earlier, they ultimately point to Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ. Human salvation grows out of this root. You and I can call Abraham our father because we're saved based on the promises that are first of all given to Abraham. Next, because this covenant is foundational, it's also progressively elaborated, progressively elaborated. Now by that I mean that God builds on this foundation here in Genesis chapter 12 and he repeats this covenant. In fact, he repeats it four or five times and each time he repeats it he adds a little bit more detail. He adds a little bit more to these promises. He fleshes out this covenant. Now we've already read the first record of this covenant here in Genesis chapter 12, but let's trace for a few minutes the elaboration, the enhancement of this covenant. Now I'm not gonna read all of these passages in their entirety. Perhaps you can take time to read them later, but I think we need to get a sense of this covenant with Abraham. Okay. There we go. So God speaks again to Abraham in the next chapter, in Genesis chapter 13. And he adds to the original promise, a promise of a land. And the Lord said to Abram after Lot had separated from him, lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are northward, southward, eastward and westward for all the land which you see I will give to you and your descendants forever. And this is just not listening to me, Josh. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you. Next, God elaborated his covenant in Genesis chapter 15. Then God brought Abraham outside and said, look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them. And God said to him, so shall your descendants be. And he believed in the Lord and he accounted it to him for righteousness. Then God said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to inherit it. So in this passage, God reiterates his promise. to Abraham's descendants, that Abraham's descendants will be numerous. He reiterates his promise of a land, but here's the important thing. I want you to notice in verse six, we have the first example of saving faith and resulting justification in scripture. And it's tied to what? It's tied to covenant. From the very beginning, saving faith and God's justifying work have been tied to God's covenant promises. And then, in Genesis chapter 17, we have the most complete statement of the covenant. God directly promises that kings will come from Abraham, and not just a nation, but many nations. And He promises them not just a land, but a land for an everlasting possession. And then God goes on to give Abraham the sign of the covenant, circumcision, in verses 9 through 14. And then finally God makes it clear that this promise is going to come through Sarah. Ishmael will not be the heir. The heir will be Isaac. And that son, Isaac, will be born to Sarah. So let me read here. When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am almighty God, walk before me and be blameless. I will make my covenant between me and you and will multiply you exceedingly. Then Abram fell on his face and God talked with him saying, As for me, behold, my covenant was with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your descendants after you. Also, I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession. And then I'm gonna skip a couple here. A couple more, Josh. There we go. To the final restatement of the covenant to Abraham in Genesis chapter 22 verses 15 through 18. This restatement was made in response to Abraham being willing to sacrifice the promised son Isaac. You remember God stopped his hand, provided the ram, and then God reiterated this covenant one last time. And here's what he said. Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven and said, by myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, Blessing, I will bless you. And multiplying, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. And then notice the final sentence in God's final restatement of this covenant with Abraham. Because this final sentence in this final restatement points directly to Jesus, the Messiah, and how this covenant will be fulfilled. In your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. Now, beyond all of these restatements of the Abrahamic covenant that God made with Abraham, some of the later covenants that we find in the Old Testament are actually restatements of the Abrahamic covenant. expansions of the Abrahamic covenant, the covenant that God made with David, and particularly the new covenant that we find in the book of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. They are actually restatements, expansions of this covenant with Abraham. All of the promises trace back to this foundational covenant with Abraham. Then notice a third characteristic of this covenant with Abraham. Something that I implied in our discussion last Sunday. This covenant was imposed. It was divinely imposed. Now at root, a covenant is a legally binding obligation. A legally binding obligation. A covenant is not two guys talking on cell phones agreeing to go hunting next fall. A covenant is something that has some teeth. It has some oomph behind it. Now in ancient times there were two different kinds of covenants. First of all, there were agreements between equals. Two individuals or two nations entered voluntarily into a two-sided agreement. For instance, when Jonathan and David formally stated the terms of their friendship, when they made an agreement about how they would treat each other, and particularly about how they would treat each other's families after they died, the Old Testament calls that a covenant. when Israel under Joshua's leadership made a treaty with the Gibeonites, you remember that? Back in the book of, I don't know if that's in Joshua or in Judges. They called that a covenant. So today we would often call this first kind of covenant a contract or a treaty. But the Abrahamic covenant is not a covenant between equals. Abraham and God were equals. So this is a second type of covenant. In the Old Testament period, there were covenants in which a superior forced a covenant on an inferior. So we have archeological records where a king would conquer a nation and he would make a covenant with the people of that nation. He would make promises to those people and in return for making those promises, he would elicit promises from those people. Now, on the part of the king, that was a voluntary thing. He didn't have to do that. He didn't have to make those promises. But when he made that covenant with those who were under his power, they didn't have any choice in the matter. Well, this covenant that God made with Abraham was of this second kind. By the way, do we have covenants of this second kind today? Do we still have covenants like this today? Yes, there's still one kind of covenant like this today. We call it a will. See, when a testator makes a will, he makes certain promises to his descendants. And at times, still even today, he elicits certain promises from them. They don't have any choice in the matter. At times they can't get a hold of the estate before they're so many years old. At times they can't ever sell the estate, things like that. So today we still have covenants of this type as well. Now the divine covenant that we're talking about this morning, this Abrahamic covenant, falls into this second category. God, in his position as the sovereign of the universe, established these covenants with Abraham. This is also what happened with Moses in the nation of Israel, but that's just kind of a footnote at this point. Notice your text in front of you if you still have your Bible open to Genesis chapter 12. Did God offer to make a deal with Abraham? Is that what happened here in Genesis chapter 12? Let's make a deal. Is that what this was? No. God said, look, you're going to leave your land. You're going to leave home. Get out of your country. And then he said, I will. He said it seven times. I will make you great. I will make your name great. I will make a nation out of you. I will bless those who bless you. I will curse those who curse you. I will bless all the families in the earth because of you. I will, I will, I will, I will. This was God, the sovereign of the universe coming down to Abraham. and saying, this is the covenant that I'm imposing on you. Leave your family, go to the land of Canaan that I will show you, and here is what I'm going to do. And then because God's covenant with Abraham was divinely imposed, it's also unconditional. Unconditional. You'll find no ifs, ands, or buts in these verses. God does not say to Abraham, if you do this, I will do that. Now, by the way, that's the way a lot of people try to deal. That's the way a lot of human beings try to deal with God. You know, it is, let's make a deal. You know, if I do this for you, God, you'll do this for me, right? That's not the way God works. No, the sovereign of the universe simply came to Abraham and said, I will, I will, I will, I will. What we see here for the first time is the grace of God in the form of a covenant. God did not have to make these promises. He didn't have to say, I will do this for you. It was the grace of God that caused God to step into human history and make promises of salvation. And so the fulfillment of this covenant did not depend on Abraham or any of his descendants. It depended on God alone. I made this point strongly last Sunday and I'm not gonna repeat that. But we see this in particularly back in Genesis chapter 15. There it talks about God making a covenant with Abraham. And the word that's translated make in our English versions is actually the word cut, to cut a covenant. Now that sounds kind of odd, doesn't it? That's why our English translations don't translate it that way. But that word is used for a particular reason. In ancient times, when two parties cut a covenant, what they would do is they would take animals and cut them in half and lay them side by side. And then the members of that covenant, those who were entering the covenant, would walk between them. And as they walked between them, that symbolized that if I do not keep this covenant, this is what will happen to me. I'll be cut in half." Now it's interesting, in Genesis 15 and verse 8, after God had made these covenant promises to Abraham, Abraham said, look, how am I going to know that you're going to really do this? You know, you're asking me to leave my home and my family, how do I know you're really going to come through? And if you look at the end of the chapter, one too many, God performed this ceremony. He laid out these animals cut in half. And what was interesting is Abraham didn't walk between those animals. It says that God in the form of fire and smoke, the Shekinah glory of God, God's presence walked between those pieces. Why? Because it was completely God's responsibility to fulfill these covenant promises. They were unconditional. And then one further characteristic. In the restatement of this covenant over in chapter 17, God made clear that this covenant is everlasting. and I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you and their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and your descendants after you. Let me ask you, is the Abrahamic covenant in force today? You bet it is. Now, I say that and a lot of people say, yeah, it's enforced today and they shrug their shoulders. So what? Because we all assume that the Abrahamic covenant is just about Jews. Well, of course, I mean, that's a Jewish thing. This was to Abraham and all his descendants. So that's a Jewish thing. But you remember the final sentence in God's restatement of this covenant in Genesis chapter 22? He said, in your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. The Abrahamic covenant is for you and for me if we have the faith of Abraham. There are yet blessings that flow from these covenant promises for us today if we have the faith of Abraham. Now, with all of that understanding his background, now we can focus on how God fulfilled the most important parts of this covenant and what it means to us who live today in the New Testament time. So let's focus now on what I call the Christmas fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant and the meaning is explained for us by the Apostle Paul in one of his letters that we call Galatians in the third chapter. So let's read here, Galatians chapter three. Paul says, brethren, I speak in the manner of men, though it's only a man's covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls it or adds to it. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He does not say, and to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to your seed, who is Christ. And this I say, that the law, which was 430 years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of law, it is no longer of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise." Now, stick with me. Paul's writing this letter to this church in Galatia because there were false teachers in this church. And they were teaching that trusting Jesus for salvation wasn't enough. In addition to trusting Jesus for salvation, you had to keep the law. And we're talking now about the law of Moses, with all of the sacrifices and all of that stuff. And one of the ways that they tried to prove this was by saying that the law of Moses came 430 years after this covenant was made with Abraham, so of course you needed to add the law to that covenant promise. Well, that kind of makes sense. Sounds like it kind of makes sense, right? And so what Paul is trying to do here is trying to stick a pin in that teaching. He's trying to explain to these Christians in this church in Galatia why that's wrong. And the way that he does that is by looking back at this covenant. And he says, In verse 15, what's Paul talking about here? This is one of those verses I read ever since I was a kid. I never understood it. And I wanna show you, there's a modern translation of the Bible called God's Words, a very good modern translation. I wanna show you that translation of verse 15, because maybe you'll understand this verse for the first time. Brothers and sisters, let me use an example from everyday life. No one can cancel a person's will or add conditions to it once that will is put into effect. That makes sense, doesn't it? Now you get it, right? Once the will is probated, it's too late. You can't add anything to the will at that point. And that's essentially what Paul is trying to prove here is God made this covenant with Abraham. And once Jesus Christ had died, the will had been probated. You can't add anything to it. The law coming 430 years later doesn't change anything. And then Paul says something in verse 16. And he does this kind of as an aside. You see, I put the verse in parentheses because verse 16 is a parenthesis. You know what a parenthesis is. You put that in the middle of a sentence to help somebody understand, but it kind of breaks up the flow of the sentence. Well, this breaks up the rest of what Paul is saying here. But here's what's wonderful. Paul says something here that's one of the greatest theological truths in the Bible. He says, now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. You remember this promise, right? He said, in your seed, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And Paul says, look, he doesn't say to seeds, as of many but as of one and to your seed who is Christ." Okay? So time out. Stick with me here. The word in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word that's translated seed in Genesis chapter 22 is just like the English word seed. So if I walk into a hardware store and I say, I need seed. How many do I need? You don't know because that word seed can be singular. It can mean one or it can mean 10,000. And this word seed that's used again and again in the covenant that God made with Abraham, you look at it and you don't really know if God's talking about Abraham's human beings, descendants, you know, millions of them. By the way, they're not just Jews, they're also a bunch of Arabs, okay? They all descended from Abraham. You don't know if he's talking about all those millions of human beings or if you're talking about one human being. And Paul clears it all up here. He says, look, back there in that promise that God made, he wasn't talking about a bunch of Jews or Arabs. He was talking about Jesus. So get this. Those promises that God made to Abraham, they are fulfilled in one person, and that person is Jesus Christ, the Christ child of Christmas. You see, now we bring it full circle. You remember my first screen, Abraham to covenant, to Christ. Now, just to round this out, just to bring it full circle, I want you to see how those who were actually involved in the birth of Jesus, I want you to see that they actually understood this. They actually understood that the covenant that God made with Abraham 1,400 years before Jesus was born, that that was actually being fulfilled at the time. So first of all, in Luke chapter one, we have Mary's song of praise. at what God was doing within her as she was pregnant with the Christ child. And we're not gonna take time to read all 11 or 12 verses, but I want you to notice the very last phrase of what she praised to God. Speaking of God, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever. She used the very same words that Paul used in Galatians chapter three. Now I'm not sure how fully Mary understood this, but I can tell you this, Mary understood that what was going on in her body during her pregnancy was the fulfillment of God's covenant promises to Abraham. And then we find similar words in the mouth of the priest Zacharias. I'm not sure if I have this right. Was Zacharias Mary's uncle? I think that's correct. Am I correct? I'll have to check that out. I think this was Mary's uncle. John the Baptist was Jesus' cousin. I think that's correct. Zacharias' wife became pregnant in her old age with John the Baptist. And here's the praise that we find in his mouth. Blessed is the Lord God of Israel for he has revisited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets who have been since the world began that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all those who hate us to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to our father Abraham. Again, we cannot be certain that Zacharias understood all that Paul taught in Galatians chapter 3, but of this we can be certain. Those people that were involved in the birth of Jesus understood that what was happening was the fulfillment of those covenant promises that God made to Abraham. And we can be certain today that these promises come down to us. They reach to us. When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, Jesus the Messiah, the promises of the Abrahamic covenant, they belong to the seed. They belong to Jesus. And if we have Jesus, we have those promises. Does that make sense? Once upon a time, a family had an extravagant Christmas. Mom and dad bought many, many gifts for their children. Mom bought many gifts for dad. When the family arrived around the tree on Christmas morning to open their gifts, the room seemed filled with gifts. I couldn't find a picture with any more gifts in it than this or I would have it. But there was only one box for mom among the scores in the room. She grew quiet. It was obvious that she didn't really understand how that could be. She remained somewhat in shock. and uncomprehending while the rest of the family opened some of their gifts, and finally her husband came to her and said, honey, why don't you open your gift? And without a word, she began to unwrap the present. The box was sizable. And when she finally had it opened, to her surprise and glee, it was filled with many other wrapped gifts of various sizes. And now she understood the one gift contained many other gifts. And with great joy, she opened them one after another. God has put only one gift under the tree for each of us. And that gift is Jesus. Paul calls him the inexpressible gift. But listen, when we have Jesus, when we accept that gift, we get everything else that's in him. All the other gifts that God has to give. As I prayed in my prayer at the beginning of the service, Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 1 that all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies are ours in Christ Jesus, in that gift. So the question this morning is whether you've received that gift. Now you receive that gift the same way Abraham received that gift. You remember what it said in Genesis chapter 15? It says he believed God. He believed God's promise. So the first thing that every one of us needs to do if we want to accept this gift of Jesus Christ this morning is we need to believe God's promise that because of what Jesus did on the cross, because he died for our sins, that our sins will be forgiven. That we will be right with God. That's what he promises. So number one, we have to believe that promise. We have to grasp that promise. But number two, If we're going to accept this gift, we have to accept the gift as it is. And listen, on the day that Jesus was born, he was king. And you and I cannot accept him without making him king, without putting him on the throne of our hearts. And so accepting that gift this morning, it's a simple two-step process. Number one, it's saying, yes, I believe that Jesus died on the cross, not because he needed to die for his sins, but because of my sin to pay what my sins owed. Yes, I believe that. And number two, I'm willing to put Jesus on the throne of my heart. So the question this morning is, are you willing to accept that gift? Have you taken those two steps or will you take those two steps right now? Would you close your eyes for just a minute? And just in the silence of your own heart, will you answer that question? Have you received the gift of God, Jesus? Have you believed God's promise that he'll forgive your sin and give you eternal life because of what Jesus did on the cross? And number two, have you put Jesus in charge? Have you said, yes, I'm gonna turn from doing my own thing and going my own way, and I'm gonna put Jesus in charge. If you haven't done that, will you do it right now? In your heart of hearts, You can have the gift of God. Now, if you take those two steps, go ahead and tell God about it. But listen, praying isn't what saves you. It's believing and it's putting Jesus in charge. Will you do that?