Let's turn in our Bibles to Genesis chapter 11, verse 27 to 12, 3. I believe it starts on page 18 and then goes to page 19. But it's Genesis 11, 27 to chapter 12, verse 3. I was going to preach on a longer passage and realize I had to split that because there are too many important things we need to touch on here. From verse 27, we read together, This is the genealogy of Terah. Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in his native land in Ur of the Chaldeans. Then Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren, she had no child. And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram's wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. "'and they came to Haran and dwelt there. "'So the days of Terah were 205 years, "'and Terah died in Haran. "'Now the Lord had said to Abram, "'Get out of your country 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. 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. That is the word of God for today. The line of promise and the law of promise. Brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, today you will see the beginnings or the formal beginnings of the nation of Israel. But keep in mind this, Israel was a means to an end. Israel was not the end in itself. Israel was the means by which God would secure the line of promise from which Jesus Christ would come to die for the sins of the world. The Israelites themselves were not special. It was the product of that line, Jesus Christ, who was special. And we know Israel was just the means to the end, because Israel was formed by a foreigner. And not just a regular foreigner, an old foreigner with a barren wife. God simply chose Abraham and told him that in him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. And that God went about to keep that promise. Today you will see the line of promise starting with Abram's family and then hear the covenant command that God gave him in order to secure that line of promise. Our headings are two and just simple as that, the line of promise and then the law of promise. Our goals are that you will learn of the foundation of God's covenant with you, first of all, that you will see the importance of God's covenant with you, number two, and that you will then be motivated to fulfill the terms of the covenant God made with you. The line of promise, first point. Well, we see here that there was Adam, then Noah, then Shem, then Eber or Heber, then Terah, then Abram. This marked an unbroken line. God was keeping his promise of redemption. Remember, he told Adam and Eve when after they sinned, he promised them in that Proto-Evangelium, the first gospel, that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the sneaky snake, and that would happen at the cross. And God is showing that He is keeping that promise of providing Christ. Now, many in this line were no good people. They were fire worshipers. More than that, Ur of the Chaldeans is specifically mentioned because God would later destroy these idol-worshipping lands. You see the term Chaldeans is another name for the Babylonians who would be destroyed because of the way they treated God's people by the Medo-Persians. Now, as this line proceeded, Abram married his half-sister, Sarai. Now, it's true that it's not normal to marry a close relative, but God would rather marry a close relative than to marry someone who was estranged from God, who did not worship the true God. But probably partly related to this is the fact that Sarai could not have children. Often marrying of close relatives had bad effects upon the family line, and people were often born with medical issues, sometimes serious ones. It's a reasonable speculation under these circumstances. Now what is striking about this line of promise was that Terah, Abraham's father, started heading to Canaan with Abram. It is likely he's going there at the direction of God. But something stopped him as he was traveling from Ur of the Chaldees and stopped and built a city named after his son, Heron. That's the way you say it in English, but it's a lot of throat to pronounce that word. He just stopped along the way and then decided, you know what, I'm not gonna go any farther. I'm going to stop here and build a city and settle in a place called Haran." And God didn't force him to go to Canaan, but waited for a more willing heart in his servant, Abram. And that's why the blessings did not come to him, to Terah, but it came to Abram. Look at Joshua chapter 24, verse 2, and we'll read together. And Joshua said to all the people, thus says the Lord God of Israel, your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abram and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the river in old times, and they served other gods. You notice God highlights his reluctance to go where he was supposed to go. And he's separated now from the people of God. We also know that Laban, Teran's grandson, and we know the story of Laban with Jacob, continued to keep and worship idols even as they remained in Mesopotamia in that area, or the Chaldeas. Now, what do we know? We see the line of promise. God is keeping it from Adam, and we see that line continuing. Not perfect line. Some people didn't follow God, but God was remaining faithful to the promise He made to send Messiah. First thing to learn, Sarah's barrenness appeared to have been a calamity. maybe from marrying close relatives, but her barrenness was part of God's plan to teach His people that salvation was all of Him. That's why He got an old man and He got a barren woman. God is the one who made her womb alive, and He was really saying, that's what I will do. I will make those who are dead alive through the son that will come from this woman. Both dead, but life will come from them because life was from God. So the lesson is, don't hate on God when you have troubles or you don't get what you want. He still has a purpose behind your troubles. You may not know it or you may have to wait to understand it, but God has a purpose behind it. Are you lonely? There's a purpose behind it. You're having a difficult time, health issues, there's a purpose behind it, whatever it is. You lost a loved one, there's a purpose behind it. Do you always see it? No, but it's true. That's what God says. Second, nothing stops God from accomplishing his purposes. These were fire worshipers. These are people who moved away from God. These are ones who are worshiping idols. But God did not, that did not stop God from encouraging, calling on them to come out of their sin and to walk with him. Let this encourage you when you are struggling for living for God. Again, whether you're sick, whether you're lonely, whether you have broken relationships, whether you have poverty, Nothing stopped God from accomplishing his purpose. Look at it throughout history, how he raised men from absolutely nothing. Look at David. The worst off in the family, the herder of the sheep, became the greatest king in Israel's history that we celebrate even today. Look at where Jesus was born. Look how he was raised up. Look at so many examples in the Bible. A woman good as dead becoming the mother of many nations in Sarah. Nothing stops God. If God wants to raise you up, there is nothing anyone can do to stop it. Be encouraged by that. And thirdly, look how God uses weak men to accomplish his purposes. He knows you are not perfect. But don't let sin make you feel inadequate and stop you from doing good. The devil would like to shame you and say, look at what you're thinking, look at what you've done. You can't be that useful to the kingdom, but that should never, ever stop you. Someone say, how can I be a mother? I don't know how to deal with that. I don't have patience. I don't, I don't, I don't. That's the weakness of the flesh, but you don't have a weak God. You have a God who is strong. who can give life, who can give strength, who can give you help to accomplish the purpose he has set out for you. So this was all about the line of promise, and yet there's so many beautiful lessons for you to learn. Let's then learn about the law of promise, more specifically, what God expected. The law of promise. God required that Abram leave his past life, a life of idolatry, to leave Ur of the Chaldees, to leave the fire-worshipping people. By the way, the word Ur means fire, because they would pray to fire. They would throw their children into fire as a sacrifice to their gods. God made a clear and concise call to Abram. Even as Stephen testified before his execution. Look at Acts chapter 7 verse 2 and 3 in your sermon notes together. And he said, brethren and fathers, listen, the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Haran and said to him, get out of your country and from your relatives and come to a land that I will show you. He didn't say, well, think about it, Abraham. No, God says, get out of your country and from your relatives and come to a land that I will show you. And to emphasize that this was not Abram's doing, but God's doing, look at what Isaiah wrote now in Isaiah 41 verse 2 together. Who raised up one from the east? Who in righteousness called him to his feet? Who gave the nations before him and made him ruler over kings? He was speaking here of Abram, that it was God who called him to that purpose. Look more specifically now at Isaiah 51, verse 2, together. Look to Abram your father and to Sarah who bore you, for I called him alone and blessed him and increased." God specifically called him and said, come Abraham, get out from here, get away from your idolatry, get away from your relatives who will keep you in that idolatry and go to the land that I will show you. See, God demanded that Abraham follow a path that He marked out for him and to leave all his bad influences behind. Now, would Abraham have loved to leave his family and friends? No, but God demanded a greater love from Abraham. God wanted him to be willing to give up the temporal comforts for eternal comforts. We do that, right? Many of you are immigrants. You come to Canada for something better, maybe to study or to be married or to live here. You're hoping for a better life in that way. And you have to give up close relations. It's not always easy to do so. Plus, Abraham is now 75 years old. His wife is 65 years old. When you reach that age, what do you think? You want to start over from scratch and start some new endeavor? You're thinking, no, let me enjoy the rest of my life in peace and quiet. I'm sure Arthur wouldn't want to be told, let's start a new work or do some road construction now in his old age. No. It's time to retire and enjoy life. Go to the library, go for walks. And God tells him to do this. And you know, he had to do this for another 100 years. But that's what God marked out for him. God wanted him to be willing to give up the temporal comforts of being with family and friends and people he knew and people he liked for the greater goal. Yes, he might have cherished what he had, but the greater thing was coming. And it wasn't that Abraham actually knew where he was going, but he knew God. And he knew where God called him to go was always the good place to go. Was it always easy? No. I mean, think of the land. We'll get into that later. But the nations around were not very nice people. The Canaanites were not good people. You'll see when they had difficulties, he couldn't go to them for help. He had to run away to Egypt. But God had called him to go. And his confidence was great in God, and so he went. Now, this applied to Sarah as well. For as much as she might have wanted to stay close to her family, love for God drove her. You know, most women, they want to stay close to their mother, like to have their mother nearby, if you get along well with them. Not always the case. But most women want to be close to their mothers, their family. But she did something that was important. She understood what it was like to make sacrifices. This is something the Apostle Paul talked about and we read not too long ago. Romans chapter 8, verse 18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to compare with the glory which shall be revealed in us." And keep in mind, when they went into this land, it was not they had the... the people didn't know them, they didn't have the wealth, they didn't have the land, they didn't have the comfort, they didn't have the servants, and Abram was rich before, to suddenly settle. No, he had servants later on. For sure, as God prospered him, But it was not the same as being in his own country. But he and Sarah went because God was calling them. Their mission can be illustrated in how military ships are often sent out with sealed instructions. And only when they reach a certain spot are they able to open up the instructions. They're not told before. They trust their commanders so they will do what they're told, when they're told. What they were going to expect, they didn't know, Abram and Sarai, but they believed God. Remember how Abram went to sacrifice his son? He didn't know what was gonna happen. He was doing what God said, trusted in God. Now in order to encourage Abram and Sarah to go through, to do what God said, to go into Canaan, and God's command was enough. If God said go, you should go. That's the right thing. But God incentivized them. God gave him many blessings, many encouragements to do what he was told to do. And by the way, and this is why I find it very hard. because all of these blessings were going to be future blessings. Blessings that he would never see himself. You know why Abraham was known to be so godly? Because he knew these blessings were gonna come upon his children and his grandchildren and his great, great, great, great grandchildren. When Hezekiah learned that he would have 15 more years to live, he said, well, at least there'll be peace in my lifetime. And remember what happened after him. He had a miserable son. And the damage that was done to Judah. He was thinking, I'm going to be good. Not Abraham. These blessings would never come upon him. And in fact, they were not going to get to this land until 400 years later. I don't have that strong faith to believe. Great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandchildren will come back to this land and they will enjoy it and they'll thrive out there. I want to see more evidence. Not Abram by faith. He trusted in the Lord. So look at the blessings. God would take Abram from his tribe and make him into a great nation. The one who was confirmed childless would have many, many children. This blessing continued to Isaac. This was the only sign he had that God would bless him. God gave him a son. And by the way, even for this sign, how long did he have to wait? 25 years for this to come true. But this blessing continued, that God would make Isaac a great nation, God would make Jacob a great nation, God would make Judah a great nation, and then Judah's son, Jesus, would make a great nation, a nation that would fill the whole earth. Second, God would make Abram's name great. People would pray that they would be like Abram and praise God for raising him up. Look at 1 Samuel 2, verse 8. Hannah's prayer together. "'He raises the poor from the dust, "'and lifts the beggar from the ash heap, "'to set them among princes, "'and make them inherit the throne of glory. "'For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, "'and he has set the world upon it.'" A similar prayer was made by Mary in the Magnificat in Luke. Speaking of how the Lord raises up those who are low down, gives them... A great name. Would Abram see this? No. But he believed it. And God kept his promise. So Abraham's children will know God keeps his promise. Third encouragement. God would cause Abram to be a benefit to others. In other words, he would bless others. Not only was he a receiver of a blessing, of God's blessing, but he will be a dispenser of God's blessing, highlighted for us. And you see, this blessing was not because of Abraham's great wisdom, that they became rich because he was skilled at raising animals, or he was skilled at raising children. But the blessing came because he was a believer in the same Savior as you have today. Number four, God would bless those who supported Abram. Not only would all the nations of the earth be blessed, but God will bless those who encouraged and supported Abram. Any service done to Abram's children, even Jesus said a cup of cold water would be rewarded. Deuteronomy chapter 20 at verse 2 says, together, and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God. This was part of the list of blessings that will come if they remain faithful. This is the promise that God is fulfilling in Abraham and promised him. Five, God would curse those that did not support Abram. So there was no neutral territory. Either you are for God and His people, or you are against God and His people. Remember Ishmael and Hagar? Ishmael mocked the son of promise, Isaac. And because of that, and because of the reluctance of his mother to discipline him, they were both excommunicated from the covenant people of God. And what worse thing could be done than to be put out from the community of God's people? Look at Numbers chapter 24 verse 9 now, together. He bows down, he lies down as a lion, and as a lion, who shall rouse him? Blessed is he who blesses you, and cursed is he who curses you. The Lamb of God, the Lion of Judah. Who can stop the people of God? You curse God's people. Remember how Balaam tried and what happened to him instead? Instead, you should be supporting God's people. 6. The whole earth will be blessed on account of Abram. This promise crowned all the other promises, and it pointed to the work of Jesus. That's why Jesus said, go into all the world and make disciples of all the nations, not in all the nations. We just read from the beginning of the service today, Psalm 2, ''Kiss the son lest he be angry, you be destroyed in the way.'' There are consequences. It's not God or neutrality, it's heaven or hell, it's God or Satan. Look at the promises now, how they come to us through the work of Jesus Christ. Galatians 3, verse 16. Together. Now, to Abram 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. Now, Luke 19, 9. Together. And Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house because he also is a son of Abraham. It doesn't matter whether you are Jew or Gentile, the son of Abraham, as Jesus said in Luke, sorry, in John 8. This is the real children of Abraham are the ones who believe in Abraham, believe in Jesus as Abraham did, as the Apostle Paul points out. And Jesus said, your father is not Abraham, biologically, yes, but your real father is the devil. Satan was their father. If they believed in Jesus though, whether you were Jew or Gentile, you were brought into the family of God. Look at it now in Zechariah chapter eight, verse 23. Together, in those days, 10 men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man saying, let us go with you for we have heard that God is with you. That is God's promise. God's promises never fail. That is going to happen. The promise of God. Now, can we see that happening now? No, it's very difficult to imagine. But can you imagine what Abraham was hearing when God told him all the nations will be in the earth will be blessed. And for 25 years, he saw nothing. And then even when that happened, the first son he had was quite bad. They had to put him out. And then he had one son. How hard that must have been. And then God is saying, you will inherit this entire land. I'll bring your people out after a while, and they will inherit this land. And all the nations of the earth will be blessed by you. That's God's promise. He believed God. And so we should not become overwhelmed when we see these promises and say, that's hard to imagine. We can't get one person to come to church, let alone 10. But God's word never fails. We walk by faith in his promises, not by sight. This was all spiritual blessing, too. This is not trying to make Israel into a great physical nation. Galatians chapter 3, verse 28 and 29 say together, "'There is neither Jew nor Greek, "'there is neither slave nor free, "'there is neither male nor female, "'for you are all one in Christ Jesus. "'And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed "'and heirs according to the promise.'" What's the difference? You belong to Christ. Those are the true children of Abraham. Those are the ones that God promised to Abraham. So Abraham has the best-looking bunch in the whole world, just like we have here at New Horizon, from all the different parts of the world, because you have faith in Jesus Christ, you are Abraham's children. And Abraham is rejoicing in heaven today when he looks at you, and he sees that God is keeping his promise, and he's praising God for it. And that's where we are now brought into this picture of continuing this work. Four, for Abram to take the step to leave his family behind, he had to have faith. Faith in Jesus Christ. If he didn't have faith in Jesus Christ, this would have been the dumbest thing to do. Because it would make no economic sense. It would make no political sense. It would make no sense in terms of safety for his family to go there. It makes no social sense, he was leaving all his family behind. The difference was he had faith and he was being told by God that he needed to go and he showed that faith by obedience. Hebrews 11, verse 8, together. By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going, but the Lord was directing his path. And Abraham had to make sure his faith in the coming Savior was passed on to his children, because they were not going to see this. They were not going to see this happen for 400 years. I want you to see how strong their faith was. I mean, it's hard enough to trust God for what will happen two years from now. They had strong faith in Jesus. We can look at them and it's sins and it's easy to pile on. but to do what he did showed an incredible faith, and then he would pass this on to his children. Genesis chapter 18, verse 19 says, together, For I have known him in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abram what he had spoken." Now, as we look at the life of Abram, you will see how important this was. how he kept teaching his children the promises of God, even though they would not see it in their lifetime coming to pass. But this was about that line of promise, and he gave them the duty to fulfill their part in preserving that line of promise from which Messiah would come. What can we learn here? First of all, God's call for a man to repent is a command, but it's also a way in which he blesses his people. It's a command, but it's for man's own good. This is why Jesus told his disciples, compel people to come. Go into the highways and byways, beat the bushes, say, you've got to come. You know why? Because if they don't come, they're going to hell. There's a command, but there's a blessing attached to it, an incredible blessing. Second, be willing to leave bad friends, even polite friends. Sometimes you have good friends and they're very nice, but if they don't know Jesus, their bad influences will start to influence you. There's no good from keeping bad company. It's way easier to follow the way of sin than the way of service. And in fact, if you love holiness, you must separate from sin. Remember what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, verse 29, together? If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. If friends only talk about money, if your friends only talk about movies or vacations, after a while you will start emulating them. If they're listening to bad music, you will start listening to bad music as well. And when these things become a priority in your life, you will start living for those things. And that's why it was important for Abram to separate from his family so he could live for God. It's not saying cut off relations, but cut off relations from bad people who are influencing you in a bad way, second or third. Sometimes the blessings you are promised, you will not immediately see. Your children may not see them. Your grandchildren may not see them. You might only see them in heaven. Be patient. Four, one man said that God had a plaster for every sore. Whatever the problem, he's got a solution. You need to trust him. When he tells you to do something, you do it. and it will always turn out to be for your good. He will care for you even in your troubles. Five, whatever you accomplish in life, it is because of the work of God in Christ, and it is not your goodness. This is the work of Christ. Just like Abraham was old, his wife was barren. The life came, it was through Jesus Christ. Don't take credit for what God uses you to accomplish. Your children are obedient? Thank God for that. Because if you think of your sin and your children's sin, you will be disappointed every day of the week. When you think of the power of God to change your children, cause them to be obedient, you will give the credit where it is due. Let's conclude. Abram was called out of darkness, the darkness of fire worship into the light, the light of the world. That light never left him, Jesus said. God then promised the whole world would be blessed with the light on account of Abram. That line of promise that was kept going by God in spite of the weakness of the people. Abram followed God by faith. He heard God's voice and he trusted him. He knew God was trustworthy. So brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, God loved you and kept the line of promise open against human odds so the promised one would come to die for your sins. That promised one came as your prophet to teach you the word of God. He came as your priest to dine your place. He came as your king to protect you from your enemies. That is true love. God had every reason to stop when the people turned away from him, as we saw at the Tower of Babel. But he didn't. True love kept him. And it was Abram's honor to be Christ's father by nature. And it's your honor to be his brothers by grace. Look at what you have now. You're incorporated into that family, into that line of promise. So what do you need to do? You need to learn how to live in the line of promise. Who can you learn from? Learn from Abram. Learn from his example of true faith. When faced with uncertainty, don't doubt. Trust God and obey. If God says it, believe it. You will certainly face uncertainty in this life. When you look at the world, in which your children are being raised in, the antipathy towards truth, the hatred sometimes for truth. Maybe you have uncertainty and you get married and think, how is this going to work? Look at the difficulties in our lives. Maybe there's uncertainty and you have to start a new job. How can I manage this? whatever the uncertainty is. A leadership position in the church? How can I manage this? Well, learn that you're in the line of promise, and the Lord will help you with whatever job you have to do in the work of His kingdom. Keep your faith in Him. Love Him. Remember what Jesus said, whoever does the will of my Father, He is my brother. He is my mother. She's my mother. He's my brother. She's my sister. They're my relatives. They're the ones who are close to me, not the ones who have the biology, the ones who have the blood, my blood. And finally, only through Jesus are you restored into right relationship with God. If you desire to please God, ask Him to save you and make you part of Christ's family so you can bring glory to Him. He will take away your sins because Jesus Christ died in your place, and He will adopt you as His child. Let us pray. Thank you, Heavenly Father, that you did not abandon us, but kept that line of promise open And you brought it to fruition in Jesus Christ, even against the odds, even against the sinfulness of many of your servants throughout history. And now that we are in that line of promise, help us to fulfill our part, to speak of the one who has come to be our prophet or priest and king. Help us not to be negligent, not to take for granted that we've been saved and we could live however we want. O Lord, that we will rest in you, strengthened by you, and then work for you. Hear us, for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.