Galatians 3; Genesis 12-22
Galatians chapter three will
read in its entirety several months back. I suppose it was
last spring, maybe a year ago, we went through the book of Galatians
and we got to this section where those who wanted to live by works
and those who wanted to live by faith were at odds with one
another in the church. And so Abraham is used here as
a compare and a contrast. But there’s a couple, spots in
chapter three that you ought to take note of. One is verse
eight, and I believe the other is verse 20. Oh, I can’t remember
which one it is. 28. So eight and 28, I believe
it is. So here the word of the living God. Oh, foolish Galatians,
who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that
Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you
only this, did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or
by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish, having begun
by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you
suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? Does
he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among
you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Just
as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Know then that it is those of
faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing
that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel
beforehand to Abraham saying, in you shall all the nations
be blessed. So then those who are of faith
are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. For all who
rely on works of the law are under a curse, for it is written,
cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in
the book of the law and do them. Now, it is evident that no one
is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall
live by faith. But the law is not of faith.
Rather, the one who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed
us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For
it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree, so that
in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the
Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith.
To give a human example, brothers, even with a man-made covenant,
no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now
the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does
not say, and to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one
and to your offspring, who is Christ. This is what I mean.
The law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant
previously ratified by God. so as to make the promises void,
for if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes
by promise, but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. Why then the law? It was added
because of transgressions until the offspring should come to
whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through
angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary implies more
than one, but God is one. Is then the law contrary to the
promises of God? Certainly not. For if a law had
been given that could impart life, then righteousness would
be indeed by the law. But the scripture imprisoned
everything under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus
Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith
came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the
coming faith would be revealed. So then the law was our guardian
until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith.
But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian
for in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith.
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, you have put on
Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek or slave nor free.
There is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ
Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then
you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. Pray
with me. Lord, help us to see and to hear
and to believe and to understand the things that are written for
us, that we might be blessed and be a blessing to the world.
We pray this in Christ’s name. Amen. Back in, I don’t know,
probably 20, 25 years ago, we had a calendar in our house.
It was one of those daily tear-offs. And it was a cartoon calendar. I forget who did this particular
cartoon, but it was back when things were funny. And on one
particular day, this one made it on the fridge, one particular
day, the cartoon had a picture of Ralph and Susie. And Susie
was sitting on the couch and Ralph had just come in from work.
And Susie was sitting on the couch, just rattling off her
day. You know, I got to be careful here, but you know, just every
detail, right? And Ralph had this massive homemade
looking object on his head. And the caption said, uh, Ralph’s
wife conversation summarizer, right? Guys, you need one of
those. And she’s rattling off all this and the wife conversation
summarizer, you know, beep, beep, beep, beep. Susie got a new hat.
Right. That’s all he needed to know.
We kind of need a covenant with Abraham summarizer. I mean, we
just looked at Genesis 12 a little. We looked at Genesis 15, chapter
17, chapter 22, and we skipped over a whole bunch of stuff.
You know, it’s 25, 30, 40 years of a man’s life, a patriarch.
There’s a couple of places in the New Testament we didn’t go.
Well, we put on one of those little gadgets, you know, Bible
summarizer, covenant with Abraham summarizer. I got it for you.
Three G’s. And I’m going to say before I
say them, this is not doing the covenant of Abraham justice. I hope you will go home and read
your Bibles. I hope we can talk about this more in other places
and at other times. But for the sake of today, We
got the Lord’s Supper, you know, we’ll give you three G’s. Grapes,
easy enough. Grandkids and good. Three G’s. Grapes, grandkids
and good. God calls Abram, who is a rank,
idol-worshipping pagan in the land of Ur of the Chaldeans.
And God calls him out of his father’s house, out of his homeland,
out of his lifestyle. Remember, he’s 75 years old.
He calls him out of his life, which he is deeply entrenched
in. His tent pegs are deep in the ground, his roots. are generations
back and he calls him to up and move to a land that God would
show him. Be a sojourner there. This land
will someday be yours. And of course it’s centuries
later, but God calls Abram out of paganism to serve the living
and true God. And what’s the background? What’s
the context? Well, remember God has made the world and everything
in it. He’s blessed it, said it’s very good. He made Adam.
He made Eve. He put them in the garden to
work and keep them. He gave them the covenant of works. If you
obey me, you’ll live. If you, yeah, if you obey me,
you’ll live. If you disobey me, you’ll die.
Well, we know Satan came in the garden. He seduced them. They disobeyed. And so the wages
of sin would be death, but God in his covenant of grace, for
shadowing the death of Jesus and his clothes of righteousness,
took off their fig leaves, killed an animal and gave them the skins
of the animal to cover their sin, their shame and their nakedness.
And so soon after that, we have Cain and Abel. We have Cain worshiping
God, but not being accepted. Abel worshiping God and being
accepted. Cain gets angry. He kills Abel. And so the promised
seed, the promised seed that God had told Eve, you’ll have
a child who one day will be a serpent crusher, right? Well, that’s
at jeopardy. Cain’s the evil one and he’s
just, you know, whacked at the worship service, the righteous
one. But then there’s Seth. And after Seth on down, there’s
Enoch who walked with God and he was not because God took him. And then we get to Noah. We mentioned
him a few weeks back. He was the only one found righteous
in a generation of wicked people. And so the generation of wickedness
is just rampant. It’s growing. It’s paying dividends.
It’s growing by leaps and bounds, but there’s Noah. Out of the
ground, God says, this one will save us. And so he builds an
ark, enters with his family. They live through the year of
the flood. They come out of the ark and God says, be fruitful,
multiply, fill the earth, spread out across the earth. Let the
glory of God be known. Same command that was given to
Adam that Adam failed to do because of sin. Well, very quickly you
read in Genesis that the generations after the flood and after the
ark and after Noah quickly became wicked. They didn’t spread across
the earth. They gathered in one place. They
sought to build a tower up to the heavens. They sought to reach
God their way. They sought to build a name for
themselves. And in that context, God says,
only I can make your name great. It’s one of his promises to Abraham.
Only through me can you have a relationship with me. And so
we begin to see the unfolding covenant of grace as God establishes
it with Abraham. We’ve seen little bits and snippets
with Noah and with Adam and Eve, but in the story of Abraham,
it goes on steroids, we might say. It’s extra large, it’s big
gulp, it’s supersize, and it’s so much we need the Bible Conversation
Summarizer to tell us grapes, grandkids, and good. Now, before
we dig into those three things, let me point out to you that
life is not formulaic. You can’t live by the premise,
if I obey God and do all that he says, life then will be for
me rosy, grapes, grandkids and goods. You know this to be true.
What about when the grapes don’t grow? Or what about barrenness? There are no kids or grandkids.
Or what about death? Or what about heartache and relational
struggle? Or good, you know, my life is
like a country song, right? You know when you play a country
song backwards, you know You got a you got your wife back
your dog back your truck back in a full bottle of whiskey Right
life can be like a country song. It can be very difficult And
so life is not formulaic if I do this, then I will get that Ultimately,
yes If you put your faith and your hope and your trust in Jesus
Christ, who alone can save sinners, then one day you will be with
God in the new heavens and the new earth. As we read several
weeks back in Revelation 21, 22, the fulfillment of God’s
covenant promise is, I will be your God and you will be my people. And the grand fulfillment is
now the dwelling place of God is with man. And he wipes away
every tear. He wipes away every sorrow. He
wipes away every hardship. Now in the life of Abraham, you’re
wondering when we’ll get to the grapes, grandkids and goods.
In the life of Abraham, there’s a lot of hardships. I mean, very
soon after God calls him and he goes into the promised land,
there’s a famine. And so he goes down to Egypt. And what does
he say to his wife to say to the Pharaoh, you’re my sister?
You know, she’s a nice looking lady and they’re going to, you
know, they’re going to knock him off so they can have her.
So they’ll treat me well if you’re my sister. Well, that doesn’t
go well. And then they come back to the
promised land and there’s Lot, nephew Lot. What a drag he was
to Abraham’s life. And Lot was, you know, wishy-washy. And so Abraham had to rescue
Lot. Then you get on and Sarah and Abraham are getting old.
In fact, the book of Hebrews chapter 11 says of Abraham, he
was as good as dead. And of Abraham, it says, the
way of women had ceased. There was no way they would have
a child. And so there are all these obstacles and those obstacles
keep going on. Abraham tries to have an heir
with Hagar. And so he has Ishmael. And when
Isaac is born, Ishmael makes fun of him and persecutes him.
And so they got to send them off and on and on it goes. There’s
lots of hardships. So remember this, our promises
from God are more ultimate. and everlasting. Yes, we do have
grapes, grandkids and goods in this life, but it’s not a guarantee
because we live in a sin filled world. And yes, God’s mercy has
restrained so much evil and wickedness. But we cannot live, expect to
live a formulaic life, but we can live by faith. And so when
God makes a covenant with Abraham, he says, walk before me and be
blameless. And he has two covenant cutting
ceremonies. One is when the halves of the
animals are placed and Abraham and God in the old covenant fashion
would walk between the cut animals. And the symbolism there, it pops
up again in the book of Jeremiah, where Israel has been unfaithful.
The symbolism there is the two covenant making parties are going
to walk through these cut in half dead animals. And in a sense,
they’re saying, I’m entering into this covenant. And if I
break my half, The curse will be, I’ll be like these dead animals.
I will be cut in half. I will be killed. Well, you know,
the story in chapter 15 in Genesis, Abraham falls into a deep sleep.
And, you know, you might say, well, he was tired and, you know,
he’s sleeping through church and, you know, the heat was on
and those kinds of things. No, I think what was going on
is God put him to sleep and said, I am unilaterally guaranteeing
this covenant with me. Abraham, you’re going to be a
covenant breaker. But I, God, who swears by myself, and I,
God, who cannot die, am giving you my word. We sing that song,
his oath, his covenant, his blood support me neath the whelming
flood when all around my soul gives way. He alone is my hope
and stay. Genesis chapter 15, that covenant
God cut, shows us that sometimes in this life, all we have is
God’s word. And it pops up in Abraham’s life,
doesn’t it? When he says, God, I’m getting
old and there’s no baby. And what does God say? Fear not.
I am El Shaddai. And you’re going to have a son.
Your heir will not be Eliezer of Damascus, your butler. And it’s not going to be Ishmael,
the child of Hagar. It’s going to be a child from
your own body, from the body of your wife. It will be your
blood child. And so there are times when all
we have are God’s promises, but are they not sufficient? And
what does God tell Abram when he wonders? He says, look up
at the night sky. Now we’ve got Walmart, right? We’ve got car lots. We’ve got
street lights. We look up at the night skies
and, It’s a little fuzzy. Maybe you’ve been out in the
wilderness, out in the desert, out in a faraway place, and you looked
up at night and there’s no light pollution from the modern world. And you saw the stars like you’ve
never seen them before. That’s the overwhelming vision
that God gave to Abraham. You see those stars? That’s how
many kids you’ll have. Look at the dust of the earth.
Your family will be like the dust. Look at the grains of sand
on the seashore. That’s how, you know, we like little signs
and symbols, don’t we? We’ve got God’s promises. We
wear a cross. We’ve got God’s promises. Go out on a cold, crisp
night and look up at the stars. Go to the beach and as your toes
are in the sand, say, this is how much God loved Abraham or
the dust of the earth. Next time you’re complaining
about the dust in the house. This is how much God’s promises
will come true. And so God calls him out of Ur
of the Chaldeans. He says, go into a land and sojourn.
He makes this covenant with the bloody animals, and then he makes
the covenant of circumcision. And these covenants, these signs,
these markers remind Abraham, I am your God, you are my people.
And these things are to be a sign of a greater reality. Just as
we’ll come to this table shortly and we’ll take signs, you know,
bread and wine, and there’s nothing in them. We’re not Catholic,
right? Right? Yes. Okay. But they point to
a reality, a spiritual reality that we will feed on Christ and
we will be raised up to heaven. And so this covenant established
promised three big things, grapes, grandkids, and good. Think about
the grapes for just a moment. The grapes would be the land
of Canaan. The grapes would be the promised land where Abraham
for a while sojourned. He was told to go and so he went. He goes from place to place and
everywhere he goes, he builds an altar. Everywhere he pitches
his tent as a sojourner, he builds an altar and calls on the name
of Yahweh. And every time God comes to him
and says, hey, this is going to be yours. This is your real
estate. You know, what’s that song we
sing? This land is my land. This land is your land. That’s
what Abraham would sing. And so the grapes. And it’s not
just grapes. What did God tell Israel? You’re
going to live in houses you did not build. You’re going to drink
water from cisterns you did not dig. You’re going to drink or
eat grapes from a vineyard you did not plant. You’ll press out
wine that you didn’t culture. You’ll eat olives and the oil
on your face, the oil of gladness will be from olive groves you
did not plant. You’re going to possess all the
ites. There was a reason in chapter
15, I think it was, we read about all those ites. All those ites
are really scary, big, nasty people. Remember fast forward
the generation that was too chicken to go in the promised land. They’re
big and hairy, mean and scary. That’s all those ites. And what
is God telling Abraham here? And what should that future generation
have remembered? Stars, sand, dust, grapes. So when something
to you is big, scary, mean, and hairy, remember God’s promises.
You know, you sing these little songs with your kids when they’re
babies, you know, Zach and Hannah, you’ll get the, you’ll, you’ll
have the thing in your van, your minivan one day, and you’ll,
God is bigger than the boogeyman, right? And that the veggie tales.
God is bigger than the heights. And that’s something that should
be remembered. And so the people would dispossess
all the heights and they would possess the land. We looked at
that several years back when we studied the book of Joshua,
Joshua and Caleb would be big and strong and mighty and go.
David would stretch the borders of Israel, North and South and
East and West. And Solomon would have that kingdom.
as big as it ever was. Now it would, of course, because
of sin, decline and shrink. But God tells Abram, look around
you, get out your compass north and south and east and west to
this sea, to that river, to this height and this low point, you
will possess this land. Now remember, because of sin,
there’s the loss of the land, right? There’s exile. You obey
God, you get the land, you get the grapes. But what happens
when you disobey God? The vineyards don’t produce. What happens when
you don’t walk in covenant with God? You don’t walk before him
and are blameless. There’s covenant curses. You
know, what did Haggai say to Israel? You’re making money,
but you’re putting it in bags that have holes. It’s like, as
if you’re walking along, just dropping coins, right? You’ve had stretches of life
where perhaps you’re not walking with the Lord and You know, you’re
just putting tires on cars and your money’s not growing. And
there’s just curse after curse, little covenant curses. And I
think sometimes those are brake taps. And God is saying, wake
up, remember the covenant, live with me. And that’s not formulaic.
If you’re obeying God, you’re going to be driving a Caddy,
right? That’s what the people on TV
will tell you. Leave it to them. They drive the Caddy, you don’t,
right? And that’s how that works. But grapes, what about grandkids? What about children? What about
offspring? Go up from your country, go up
from your kindred, go up from your father’s house. This was
leave your people behind. You know, we’re very tribal,
aren’t we? We like to live near family. We like to eat Sunday
lunch with family. We like to be around our kith
and kin. It’s not really been until maybe
this last century that people have moved all around and we’re
an airplane ride away from much of our family. But here Abraham
loads up his wagons. And don’t think of the clampets,
you know, a little Beverly Hillbilly song and, you know, grannies
in the rocking chair on the back, you know, all their stuff. Now
this is wagons plural, right? And Sarah’s in a rocking chair
on one of like nine wagons, something like that. And here they go into
the promised land. Here they go into the land of
Canaan with all the heights. But guess what’s not on the wagon?
There’s no baby seat. There’s no child seats. There’s no little toy mobiles
hanging from the back of the car. There’s no minivan and VeggieTales
playing on the wagon CD player, tape player, whatever. No, here’s
Abraham childless. Yet God has promised to him grandkids. You know, when Abraham goes to
the general store, you know, at the Oaks of Mamre general
store, and he goes in and, oh, you’re new in town. Yes, I am.
My name’s Abram. Well, his name literally meant
father. When you get to Abraham, it’s more plural. Abraham is
the father of many. And don’t you imagine they’re
snickering, you know, the general store picture. They’re picking
their teeth and sitting by the jar of pickles. And his name’s
Abraham. Hey, Abraham, how many kids you
got? None yet. And he’s old. He’s walking with
a stick. He’s 75. He’s 86. He’s 99 years
old. No children yet. But what did
God say? You’ll have a great nation. You’ll
have kings rise from you. You’ll be the father of a multitude.
Sarah’s name means noble of royal descent. But Hebrews tells us
the way of women had ceased with her. Book of Hebrews says Abraham
was as good as dead. Yet God had said, look up at
the sky and number of the stars. That’s your offspring. You’ll
be exceedingly fruitful. We fast forward to the Christmas
story and we read the genealogies in Luke. And in Matthew, and
we think, oh, they’re not exciting. Why do we read those genealogies
every year? Why do we read the genealogies in Ezra or the genealogies
in Chronicles and Genesis? Because they tell the story.
And, you know, go home and read about Abraham today, but go read
the genealogies and you’ll see names that are really important.
These are the offspring of Abraham and they all lead to Jesus Christ. And so old man Abraham, What
does he do when the going gets tough? He tries to have a baby
with Hagar that wreaks havoc on their house. But then the
angels are coming to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. And what
does, what does the angel of the Lord say to Abraham about
this time next year, I’m going to swing through here and you’re
going to have a child. Your wife’s going to have a child
and she’s in the back room laughing. She’s having a good chuckle.
No way is this going to happen, but the next year comes and there’s,
There’s little baby Isaac, laughter. But fast forward to chapter 22,
take your son, Abraham, your only son, Ishmael. Now that’s not the one, is it?
It’s Isaac, the son whom you love. It would have been easy
to take Ishmael up to the mountain and put a knife in his heart.
Right? He was not the child of joy.
He was not the child of Sarah. It would have been easy to sacrifice
him. You know, he’s expendable, but not, not, not Isaac. And
we’re told that Abraham was in the act of offering up his own
son, Isaac. Why? Because he believed that
God could raise him from the dead. And so when we enter into
covenant with God, he calls us out of paganism to trust him
wholly. enough to move, enough to strap
your son with firewood on the altar and be this close to putting
a knife in his heart. That’s what God calls us. Jesus
echoes this, doesn’t he? If anyone would follow me, he
must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Sometimes
we can get it in our heads that the covenant is if I do this,
then that will happen. And yes, it’s wonderful to be
in covenant with God and get the grapes and the grandkids
and the goods, but it comes at a cost. It comes at a cost, ultimately,
of the Son, the Lord Jesus. But it’s a tough sojourn, isn’t
it, in this world to live for God and to follow him and to
walk before him and to be blameless. But we must have faith like Abraham.
Hebrews 11 tells us of that great faith. What about the goods?
This is a simple one. Over and over, God says to Abraham,
I’m going to bless you, but you are going to be a blessing to
others. Now that ultimate blessing is going to come through Jesus.
That ultimate blessing will come through, down the line will come
Jesus, the serpent crusher. And those who have faith in the
God of Abraham will be saved in the Son, the Lord Jesus. But
you can see glimpses along the way of how Father Abraham and
many others did good to others. I mean, Abraham makes that treaty
with Abimelech. Remember Abimelech? I don’t know
what your God is, he says to Abram, but whatever your God
is, he’s really good to you, and I want that to rub off on
me, so they make a treaty. You fast forward Solomon, the
king of the earth, and the queen of Sheba visits him and says,
bottle up whatever you got, so I can take it back to Ethiopia.
And you see glimpses of that, don’t you? And then you fast
forward through church history, and isn’t it wonderful how Christians,
the offspring of Abraham, have founded hospitals and universities
and schools and orphanages and politics, have done good things
and on and on. And each of you, as you serve
God and the world, you are a blessing, a bright spot to others. And
you’re like the dust of the earth, the grain of sand on the seashore.
You’re like a star from heaven coming from the loins of Abraham,
who though was as good as dead, produced you. because you’re
a child of faith. That’s how great and grand and
wonderful it is to be part of the family of God. And so the
good that is done because of the good that God has done in
us is contagious. It’s a bright light that spreads
across the face of the earth. And so let me lead us to the
Lord’s table and encourage you in this way. If you are not in
covenant or in fellowship with God. If you are still living
in your sins and trespasses, still in error of the Chaldeans,
worshiping idols like Abraham, but you hear the voice of God
today, follow his voice. Lord, here, here am I, what,
what would you have me to do? And Jesus gives us the marching
orders were to repent of our sins. We’re to walk before God
and be blameless to live by the spirit and not the flesh. We’re
to be a bright spot in this dark world. And we’re to trust God,
even when it doesn’t make sense to trust him. And that’s what
he’s calling us to do. And so you might say in your
mind, is he trustworthy? Well, when we uncover the table
and you see the bread and you see the cup, and then when you
hold each of those in your hands, the Lord Jesus is saying to you,
yes, I am trustworthy. You slept while the father walked
through the dead animals. But my body and my blood were
shed for the remission of your sins. God, the Father, keeps
his word in sending the Son to seek and save the lost. And so
is God trustworthy? Well, he shows you. And so seek
the Lord today while he may be found. Call on him while he is
near. Let’s look to him now in prayer.
Our God and heavenly Father, we thank you that you have loved
with an everlasting love, you have loved with every bit of
heaven’s gift, every bit of heaven’s store has been poured out through
your son, the Lord Jesus, that we might be saved. Put these
words in our minds and in our hearts and forever in our lives
so that we can live for you, seeking your face. We pray this
in Christ’s mighty name, amen. We want to prepare for the Lord’s
table by singing number 668. We’ll stay seated to sing.