Introductory Considerations
1. Tommy knew that his father kept his promises. And so when his father promised to buy him a new bike, he was excited. But he would have to wait a year - when he would turn 8 years old. Tommy couldn’t wait. He wanted to make sure his father wouldn’t forget and he needed reassurance that he the promise would come true. So, at least once a week, he reminded his Dad by asking "Daddy, am I still going to get that new bike?" It bothered his father that his son kept asking him but he realized that for a young boy a year was a long time and being impatient as young boys can be, he would calmly tell him that he would keep the promise.
2. No matter what age we are, each of us may at times wonder if people will keep their promises to us. Perhaps a woman needs the reassurance from her husband that he still loves her or a father needs assurance from his son that he will remember to do the chores he promised.
3. The most important promise that we have ever received is a promise from God. The promise that He will watch over us and be our God.
4. God had promised Abraham a son and yet that promise seemed long in coming - in fact Abraham even questions in Gen 15 if God will still keep His promise.
5. As a loving Father, God assures Abraham that He will give what He promised. We also have received promises from God. At times we may question the promises He makes. We grow impatient and wonder if God may not have changed His mind.
6. And so God reassures us again and again of His promises to us - especially His promise to be our God and to take care of us if we are willing to trust in Him.
7. And to assure us further, it is important that we can see in God’s word that His promises do not change. He offers us life and calls us to accept His gifts of grace.
Teaching
1.Today as we continue to consider His covenant promises, we come to a pivotal refinement or development of the promises He already made with Adam and Eve, with Noah and with all creation.
2. As we look at God’s covenant with Abraham we will see how this covenant is connected to His past promises and to His promises to you and me today.
3. We find God’s promise to Abraham in chapters 12, 15 and 17. And while the words vary somewhat in each account, God promises to make Him a great nation, to give Him a promised land, and to make Him fruitful. He promises to set apart Abraham and his descendants as a special people who will receive God’s blessings and be a blessing to the world.
4. How do these promises tie in to what we have been talking about the last few weeks?
5. The promise of land ties in to the promise of creation being made for mankind. God had called man to be fruitful - now He promises Abraham that he will be fruitful.
6. The covenant is a bond in blood. God commits Himself again - and He confirms it through a ceremony in which Gen 15 in which the blood of animals is shed.
7. God sets the terms and He calls man to respond to His grace. He tells Abraham to leave the land and Abraham responds in faith. God provides for Abraham but as we will see, Abraham is called to trust and obey
8. And for no apparent reason, God chooses Abraham just as He had chosen Noah.
9. There is an outer sign of the promises and agreement God makes with Abraham - not a tree, not a rainbow but rather the sign of circumcision.
10. And yet the promises are refined in such a way that form the basis of God’s promises to us today. That is why Paul calls us children of Abraham. (Gal 3:9)
11. First we see how God’s promises to Abraham have a immediate application for Him but a deeper application for each of us. Then we will see how the resulting relationship of faith is lived out in Abraham as it so often is with us. Our response is not that different.
12. God promised to make Abraham into a great nation. We see fulfilment as Moses says in parting words (Deut 26:5). We are part of that nation and one day, when Christ fully establishes His reign, we will be part of His great nation that will rule the world.
13. He promised to give the land of Canaan in which Abe was an alien. He promised a home - a place of safety and rich blessing - a place of rest. We too are promised a place of rest - our promised land is in heaven.
14. God promised Abraham that He would be fruitful (Deut 10:22)
15. God promised that all nations would be blessed through Abraham. This is fulfilled through Christ and true through us as we bring word today. Blessings of eternal life and a restored relationship with God.
16. The promises to Abraham are promises to us. The promises have been fulfilled and are even being fulfilled today and will be completed on that glorious day when Christ returns in glory.
17. As we said, God’S covenant sets the terms of our relationship with Him and the relationship is based on God’s word to us and our response. We obey Him because we trust Him and through obedience we show our trust.
18. And as we see how Abraham responds we may see how we also may respond at times.
19. God called Abraham to leave Haran and to go to Canaan, to leave the comfort of the known and go to that which is unknown. Abraham made the initial response of faith by going when God called Him to. The response is a the initial decision to trust in God.
20. It is letting go and what we have and following Jesus. Just as Abe went, just as disciples left nets and work and home to follow Christ, we are called to follow. It is easy because not have to go to new land but hard because we still have comforts around us. But call is to give up all and simply trust in God.
21. He brought Abraham to a land that he was to possess and yet his descendants would not possess it for 400 years - 15:13- 400 years of slavery. God’s promises are not always fulfilled immediately. We may not see the results of them. We must live in this world before we experience the blessings of heaven
22. Faith is what God calls us to and faith is not receiving what we asks or God promises all at once but it is. (Heb 11:1)
23. God wants us to grow in faith and that means trusting Him for what we have not yet received. Abraham experienced this much more personally in the matter of Isaac. God promised Him a son through which the other promises would be fulfilled, and yet God was slow in keeping promise. It made Abraham question God and it even led him to have a son through his wife’s maid-servant Hagar. The test for A and for us is trusting God rather than securing His promises through our own efforts - just like deciding which tree to eat from.
24. Even though A was chosen and even though he is the father of our faith, he struggled with trusting in God, but God rejected A’s own efforts, he rejected Ishmael, and instead showed that He is the one who would provide for Abraham, even though he was 100 and Sarah was old as well.
25. But through the delay, even though he wavered and doubted - God came through and Abraham’s faith grew. We too grow in faith through unanswered or delayed prayers. In fact, God tested Abraham’s faith in regard to Isaac one more time. God made it clear that the fulfilment of promises would be through Isaac. God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son. This was ultimate test - not of whether Abraham loved God more than Isaac and whether he placed trust in God or in the son God had provided.
26. We know that Abraham was willing to sacrifice son but God stopped Him.
27. There are times in our lives that God removes from us those very blessing He gave us - be it our possessions, our health, our loved parents, our spouses, perhaps even our assurance of salvation.
28. Why? - because these blessing can make us trust in them rather than the one who gave them. As we saw in Job, God shows that He wants us to worship Him and trust in Him for whom He is not for what He gives.
29 As we come to table today, we profess our faith in Christ. Our hope is in Him alone. We may waver and doubt but in the end we stand with nothing before God and simply trust in Him.
30. God calls us into a covenant with Him. He calls us to respond. He provides signs of promises - circumcision, baptism, Lord’s Supper. We respond by participating in the signs He calls us to respond with.
31.- but what He really calls us to do is to trust. Our trust in Him, our faith may be tested, but through it our faith will grow. Our relationship with Him becomes deeper and He is glorified.
32. How have you responded? Are you willing to lose all for Him to show Him that you trust in Him alone?
33. Praise be to God who has called us and whose promises remain true. Take hold of these promises.
