We want to continue our studies in understanding Bible prophecy, and we're looking at God's great covenants, these major covenants that upon which are founded God's eternal plan in Christ, God's choice of Abraham. We're looking at the Abrahamic covenant. And we're looking at the major passages pertaining to that, beginning in Genesis 12, 1 through 3, and we see that God gave Abraham personal blessings, I will bless thee and make thy name great, and indeed he has, God has, and national blessings, which pertains to the nation Israel, The promise of Abraham passed to Isaac, and then Jacob, and to the 12 sons of Jacob, who became the 12 tribes of Israel. And then Abraham was promised universal blessings. Genesis 12, three, in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. All families of the earth be blessed. Amazing. So God, who knows the future, he knows the end from the beginning. was giving these great promises to Abraham on these various days. And so, we also see Genesis 22, 15 through 18, Genesis 22, 15 through 18, universal blessings. Genesis 22, 15, the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, up there on Mount Moriah, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the seed sand which is upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the gates of his enemies, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, all the nations of the earth be blessed, and so that universal blessing And it's fulfilled through Abraham's seed, Jesus Christ. We're going to look at the seed in a few moments. But so, universal blessings, God's promise there is being fulfilled today in the church age. We're a major part of that. For the last 2,000 years, the worldwide preaching of the gospel, and whosoever believeth and is baptized shall be saved. And whosoever believeth not shall be damned. Matthew chapter 16, 15 and 16. And it's not not being baptized that damns you, but it is not believing that damns you. And baptism really is an evidence of salvation. We've had people that have said strongly, and it almost seemed like that they were being honest, that they believed in Christ and were saved, but they wouldn't get baptized. It's a very dangerous sign. We don't believe in baptismal salvation, but baptism is an important thing. Christ commanded it. But anyway, 2,000 years of preaching of the gospel has blessed every nation, and still is, and still is to this very day, and will be until the rapture. And God's promise will continue to be fulfilled throughout eternity. Y'all fulfill today in the church age, Galatians 3, 6 through 9. It states this very clearly. Leaves no doubt about it, Galatians 3, 6. Again, talking about Abraham, 300 times mentioned in the Bible, Abraham. Every time we see his name, we need to remember his covenant and these facts that we're learning from scripture. Even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So Paul is quoting from Genesis 12, referring to the Abrahamic covenant. You can't understand the book of Galatians without understanding the Abrahamic covenant and applying it directly to the Great Commission Age. And anyone that believes in Christ savingly is a child of Abraham, as our Father in the faith. It's amazing stuff. But that is being fulfilled. It's fulfillment of that promise that God gave to Abraham that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed. It was God's plan. God wanted to bless the families of the earth. God wants to save sinners. That's His passion. And He did everything necessary for that. He did it. He worked salvation out. His Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Children, learn that little verse in 1 John 4. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. There's the Trinity, and there's two of the members of the Trinity acting in harmony. The Father's sending, the Son's saying, yep, I'm going. And He came and He said, the Son has come to seek and to save that which is lost. He came to die on the cross, take the punishment for our sin. Oh, fulfillment of Abraham's covenant. It's great stuff. And so if you're saved, this has to do with you personally. Galatians 3, 13 and 14 emphasizes that again. Galatians 3, 13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. The blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that he might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. The Gentiles. If you're not a Jew, you're a Gentile. I am a Gentile. And I had nothing to do with the covenants of Israel. No hope, Ephesians chapter 2, without God in this world. That's a Gentile's condition. And yet God loved the Gentiles. Jews didn't, but God did. Loved them. and provided salvation for us and has sent the gospel to the ends of the earth. And that's the church's main job is to preach the gospel until Jesus comes in the air to catch us away. God's promise will continue to be fulfilled throughout eternity in Christ's kingdom. Israel should have believed God's promise to bless all the families of the earth. Israel should have loved the families of the earth, but became proud and self-righteous and turned the law of Moses into a works religion, which it was never intended to be. Hated all the non-Jews, hated the Samaritans, hated everybody, just about, world-class haters. But it wasn't supposed to be that. Israel was supposed to bless the nations. The universal blessings of the Abraham Covenant are beyond comprehension. God promised that Abraham's seed would be multiplied as the stars in the sand. Now, that's a lot. Count the sand of the sea. Wow. Well, that's what God said. And being a literalist, I believe that's what He meant. That's a lot of saving. That's a lot of blessing. That's God's plan, that's who he is. Even with modern technology, man cannot even begin to number the stars, not even begin. The number is known to be incomprehensible, known by modern science to be incomprehensible. The most up-to-date star count was announced in July 2003, at least the last one I know about. And 2003, and they counted, they were just estimating. 76 trillion, that's 70,000 million, million, million, which is a lot. But they know that's not all that's there. It's just kind of like a wild guess. Wild scientific guess. Through the modern technology of space telescopes. And the newest one, the web, is out there. near the sun, circling around over there. It's got to have that very elaborate heat thing, the shield, the heat shield, to protect it from the sun's heat. But it's out there taking magnificent photographs of a universe that was made 6,000 years ago. And NASA needs to know that. This was the conclusion of the world's largest galaxy study, the Two-Degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey. How about the sand of the sea? Well, they've tried to figure that out, too. And the researchers at the University of Hawaii, they know a lot about sand, counted the average grains of sand in a measure and extrapolated that for all seashores. They estimated there are 7 quintillion and 500 quadrillion grains of sand. That's 7.5 million, million, million. And so it's a lot anyway, it's a lot. And what is it talking about? God's blessing on the nations, the families of the earth, the wicked, lost, rebellious families of the earth. That's God's great grace, kindness, and mercy in Christ. His desire to save anyone, everyone, which is not Calvinism, by the way. And so the number of those who are saved through Abraham's seed, Jesus Christ, will be beyond human calculation. So we've looked at Genesis 12, 1 through 3. Let's look at Genesis 12, 6 and 7. Just a survey. Trying to emphasize how important this is and how it fits into all the rest of the Bible. Genesis 12, 6 and 7. And Abram pastored the land unto the place of Shechem, under the plain of Moreh. And there, you need your Bible atlas. Where is Shechem? How many of you could, if you had a Bible atlas, and we could take one and hand it to you, could show us tonight where you could come up here with your Bible atlas and show where Shechem is. Would you raise your hand? Now, don't be a liar. Raise your hand. No, don't take your map out. Cheaters. Not many hands I saw. Shechem is a very important place. Right, but you're not supposed to be telling that. So, so many important Bible events happened there and here. This was the first one. So God is speaking to Abraham, giving him more information about this eternal covenant at Shechem, which is right by Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, which is two very important mountains. Very important mountains. And the Lord appeared, unto Abraham in Shechem, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. And there built he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him." So there, Abraham built his altar, worshiping God. That's what the altar represents, and was actually Abraham worshiping God, building the altar there in that strange land that he was told to go to. And he removed thence, into a mountain on the east of Bethel, Bethel, you need to know where Bethel is, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west and Hai on the east. And there he built an altar unto the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And so God has continued to speak to him. And there he says only one thing, under thy seed will I give this land, the land. And so that's emphasizing repeated now, this land, Abraham, it's yours. Now, Genesis 13, 14 through 18. Moreh, moreh is not the hill of moreh, it's another moreh. And you should know about both of those morehs. Now, how many that could point to moreh on a map? this moray, or even the hill of moray on the map, if you could come up here, how many? Raise your hand. Okay, I don't see any over on this side. Might not be the genius side. Let's see over here. In the center aisle here. Okay, we don't see any over there. Let's check over here. Surely Lydia's going to raise her hand. No? Not even Lydia. Okay, so that's pretty bad on the Atlas side, Pastor. Need a little work on the Atlas. Bible Geography. Oh, it's so important. I didn't take it seriously for a long time. I took a course on Bible Geography in Bible College. didn't pay much attention to it, didn't mean much to me for somehow. I don't think the teacher was enthusiastic enough. That makes a difference. Whatever. I'm sure it was me. And for a long time, I did not take Bible Jehogah seriously. But it is so important. It has helped me so much. And it will help you, too, if you'll take it seriously. You've got to stop. And when you find a place that you don't know where is, you look it up. You got to have your Bible tools right there. Right there. When you're studying the Bible, your Bible tools have to be right there. Not even over there on the piano. Right here. Because we're very lazy. You're not going to go over to the piano and get your Bible tools. You're not going to go over where your wife studies and get your Bible tools. They've got to be right there. And then you've got to use them. Murray, I wonder where that is. I wonder what things are like around there, the topography and all. And so, Genesis 13, 14 through 18. And the Lord said unto Abram, after that lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art northward and southward and eastward and westward. For all the land which thou seest, and he's in Bethel, to thee will I give it and to thy seed forever. But that doesn't mean anything to most of you. The fact that he was in Bethel looking east, west, north, and south doesn't mean anything to you because you don't know where Bethel is. Right? What does this mean? God's talking about geography. Real places. Real directions. And if you don't know what this is, then that passage really means nothing to you. Nothing at all. Because the Bible's a geographic book. It's a historical book. Geographic. And so God said to him after Lot left, went toward Sodom, It's all yours, Abraham. Lot chose Sodom. Abraham gave the choice to him. And then God came and reconfirmed it. It's all yours, Abraham. And to your seed, for the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed forever. Thy seed. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth. Dust of the earth? That's more than the sand. the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land, in the length of it, in the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee. The neighbor removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron." And where's Hebron in reference to Bethel? And where's Bethel in reference to Shechem? Well, you don't know. I already know that. You don't know. Most of you. So those things you just read over and they don't mean anything really. But it's part of the Word of God. And the more attention you pay to the details of the Word of God, the more you're honoring the Word of God and the more you'll get out of the Word of God. Then Abram removed his tent. And so there he is in Hebron now. And built there an altar unto the Lord. So God is reconfirming this. and talking about the land, the emphasis now again is on the land, a certain land. Now Genesis 15, Genesis 15, major statement of the Abrahamic covenant is this chapter. Genesis 15, I want to read the entire chapter. God's covenant with Abraham. Abram at this point. After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. And so you've got to stop there and figure out what the things that this comes after. Because you won't understand this passage if you don't understand these connecting things. And so we go back to chapter 14. And what happened there? Well, what happened there was Abram rescued Lot, and came back, and the king of Sodom met him at the end of chapter 14. The king of Sodom met him, and in verses 21 through 24, at the end of chapter 14, the king of Sodom, old wicked king of Sodom, met him and said unto Abram, give me the persons and take the goods to thyself. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to a shoelacet, that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldst say, I have made Abram rich. Now, Abram was very sensitive about his testimony before unbelievers. And he didn't want to give them any reason whatsoever to say, oh, I made Abram rich, I gave him stuff, you know. He said, not even a shoelatchet. Save only that which the young men have eaten and the portion of the men which went with me. Enter Eshkol in memory and let them take their portion. It's hard to give up money. When you're offered money, it's hard to give. That's a lot of money. It was a lot of goods there. And it's hard to give up something like that and not fudge it around and find a way to get it. Yeah, that's human nature. But Abraham did that. Abraham was an amazing character, and he did that. And so right the next verse, God says, okay, I like that. These things came to word of the Lord, came unto Abram in a vision, said, fear not, Abram, no problem. I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. You live in a land full of enemies, and you gave up all the money, and you took a good stand before the old sorry king of Sodom? That's all right. I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? There we find the name of Abram's really great servant. Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. He said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord, and he counted it for righteousness. That's when he was justified. It's a great day in Abram's life. He believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness. And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees to give thee this land to inherit it. He said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? Ah, now God's going to do something magnificent. He said unto him, take me an ephor of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle dove, and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another. But the birds divided he not." So he made this sacrificial thing of these animals, cut them in halves, part over here, part over here. When the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. He said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years. and also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterwards shall they come out with great substance. He's prophesying the future, the exodus from Egypt. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace. Thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. And it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark, Behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between these pieces. In the same day, the Lord made a covenant, made a covenant with Abram saying, under thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt under the great river, the river Euphrates. The Kenites, the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Raphians, and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Gergesites and the Jebusites. It's all yours, Abraham. And this is magnificent. This is an unconditional covenant of grace. Abraham was asleep. Abraham's not doing it. It has nothing to do with this. It's God. It's all God. God walked through that sacrifice all by himself. Covenant was made by God. Normally, both parties of an agreement would walk between the animals. But in this case, God walked alone. He did. He walked alone to Calvary. He walked alone through it all. Came to the earth alone. And he walked to Calvary alone, went to that trial alone, all alone. And there he is. making this covenant with Abram. It doesn't say that God and Abram made a covenant. It says in the same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram. Salvation is 100% of God. 100% grace. God's done everything. It's 100% His from the day you get saved to eternity. And every day of the Christian life, it's 100%. God. It's 100 percent. And the same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abraham and he makes a covenant. The new covenant with every one that comes to Jesus in saving faith, repentance and saving faith. He makes an eternal covenant. Magnificent covenant. Join heirs with Christ. And so the covenant, pure grace. Abraham did not earn the promises and he cannot lose them. If you don't learn something, how can you lose them? God made all the commitments. Everything depends on God's verity and power alone. It cannot be abrogated. There's nothing you can do. The covenant is sure. Genesis 15, 13. God said, know of a surety. Likewise, the believer's salvation is sure. It's a no-so salvation. No soul? No for sure? That's what Peter had when the crowd left Jesus in John 6. And Jesus said to Peter, will you go also? And Jesus doesn't ask questions to find out what the answer is. But Peter made a magnificent answer that day. No, where would we go? We believe in our shul, the Christ, the Son of the living God. Sure. Paul said that. I know whom I have believed and I'm sure. Do you have that? We can be sure because everything depends on Christ. The covenant is based upon a substitutionary sacrifice. That's what that whole thing was all about. That's bloody animals, dead animals, God walking through the midst of it. That's Calvary. That's Calvary. Everything is based on what Christ did at Calvary. Everything. God's eternal plan. It all comes back to that day and what Christ did there. And He's the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. God had that in His mind always. And looking back to it, everything. And here, this is a picture of Calvary. God Himself making the sacrifice. Abraham's sleeping over here. Substitutionary sacrifice, the vicarious substitutionary sacrifice. All of these doctrines are under mighty attack today, mighty attack, even by so-called evangelicals. We've got to know what we believe and know it better and better and stand for these things. All of these things are under mighty attack. It's a fierce battle for truth going on today. God's people can be educated and can take a stand and can protect themselves, protect their families, and protect other people that will listen. Whoever will listen, we can help them, if you know something. But ignorance won't help anybody. All these things are under magnificent attack. all over the world by professing Christians. This covenant describes the future, the future. God is telling Abraham the future of his... Isaac's not even born yet, and yet the future of this nation that's going to come out of Isaac through Jacob, and their future, how they're going to go out into Egypt, and the darkness came because of the This was such a dark event. Israel's going to become slaves and Joseph's going to be taken a slave down there and rejected by his own brothers and all. A dark event. This world's full of dark events. But God is telling the future. After 400 years, God would judge that land and bring Abraham's descendants out with great substance. We've got a study here on what we believe that means. But the covenant guarantees that Israel will own the land of Canaan forever. Verses 18 through 21. Forever. Abraham's seed, that land, it belongs to nobody but Israel. It doesn't belong to any so-called Palestinians. There's no such thing. Rome named that land Palestine. Rome did everything she could to remove the remembrance of Israel from that land. Removed the name, renamed Jerusalem, and built a pagan temple on top of the Temple Mount, on the very place of Christ's tomb, built a pagan temple there, did everything she could. Rome did. The Iron Kingdom. To destroy the name of Israel didn't work. There's probably not anybody in this room that can name the name of the Roman emperor that did that. His name's gone, but Israel's name's still very well known. Yeah, but that's when the name Palestine was applied to that land by the old wicked Romans. And so, At the very least, Israel owns the land from the River of Egypt in the south to the River Euphrates in the north, from the Mediterranean on the west to the Jordan on the east. That land includes part of modern-day Egypt. It includes the so-called West Bank. And all or most of Lebanon and Syria and Jordan. Don't tell them. But that's Israel's land. God's covenant that Israel owns the land of Canaan has never been rescinded, cannot be rescinded. Nobody can change it. It has been affirmed by the prophecies that promise Israel's restoration. All those prophecies. There are dozens of them, major ones. We looked at Deuteronomy 30, 1 through 5. And that prophecy says that after Israel is judged and scattered to the nations, that same Israel returned to the same land, the land which thy fathers possess. Well, we know what land that is. And so Abram's covenant, amazing, so important. Genesis 22, 14 through 18. Genesis 22, 14 through 18. These major passages, which make up a large part of the book of Genesis, and Abram called the name of that place Jehovah-Tira, which is Mount Moriah, which is where the temple eventually was built. As it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord shall it be seen. And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham, now his name has been changed to Abraham, out of heaven the second time, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore. And thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice." And the obedience was evidence of his faith. And so God had told Abraham to carry his beloved son Isaac up to the Mount Moriah and sacrifice him, which God had no intention that he be sacrificed, but it was a test of Abraham's faith, and he passed the test with flying colors. The Bible doesn't even say he complained at all or nothing, just, okay, let's go, because he believed God would raise Isaac up. and amazing faith, and all of that was a picture of the cross again. The Father did not stay His hand of judgment upon His Son, as He did that day with Abraham and Isaac. And He struck His Son with judgment, the judgment of the punishment of all the world. The sin of the world was laid upon Him, And all that's a picture of Calvary. Jesus, on the road to Emmaus, the Bible tells us, went through this kind of Bible study and was showing the disciples all these things that were pictures of Him. Surely He dealt with that one. Mount Moriah. And so Abraham's covenant Constantly reaffirming and repeating these things, which is very important. Don't just read over repetition. Oh, I read that over there. Yeah, you read it over there, but you also need to read it over here and keep your attention focused on both places. And all the repetition's important. Every detail's important. Don't just skip along through the Bible. Pay attention. Pay attention to these things. And so here God promises Abraham that his seed will be like the stars of heaven and the sand of the seashore. Again, He repeats that. And so He's mightily emphasizing these amazing things. Abraham's seed of the redeemed of all the ages. We're going to look at that, Lord willing, tomorrow. God promises Abraham that his seed will possess the gate of his enemies. And He's going to. And nothing can stop it. That's Christ. Psalm 2 is being fulfilled today. The whole world is at arms against God, and we're going to throw off his cords and throw off his joke. And the Bible says from heaven, God will laugh. That's very funny that man would rebel against God. Nothing is more stupid than that. Stupid is a good Greek word. It's gotta be. God will laugh. But God doesn't want to laugh. God wants to save. That's laughing in derision and judgment. That's not just chuckling. God doesn't want to laugh at man or judge man. He wants to save man. And that's the whole emphasis of the Abrahamic covenant. And Abraham named that place Jehovah Jireh. God sees and God provides, and that's what He did. He saw fallen man's need, and He provided the solution to our problem in Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. And He was buried, and after three days, He rose from the dead according to the Scripture. That's the gospel, and it all goes back to the God's promise to Abraham, you can't understand the gospel that saved you properly without understanding these things. And we're just doing baby studies, summaries. And so the Abrahamic covenant, we're going to stop there tonight.