They turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12, I do want to express indebtedness to Dr. Ralph Davis. I listened to a sermon by him on this particular section, and it's not plagiarism if you acknowledge that you are borrowing heavily from his work.
I think he handled the text very effectively. I'm going to change some things, obviously, because I'm not him. But I want to look at the call of Abraham in Genesis chapter 12. Abraham, of course, would make a top ten list of top of the most significant men in all of the scripture.
He is the father of faith. And what we find here in Genesis chapter 12 concerning his call is truly amazing. So I want to read beginning in chapter one at verse or chapter 12 at verse one. We'll read through verse nine.
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." So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran. And they departed to go to the land of Canaan.
So they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the territory of Moriah. And the Canaanites were then in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your descendants I will give this land.
And there he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.
Amen. Well, let us pray. Our blessed God, we thank you for the call of Abraham. We thank you for this section of Holy Scripture, and we pray that you would just cause us now to receive it with great joy and gladness, to reflect upon these things, and may they indeed affect us for good.
We thank you, Father, for so great a salvation. We thank you, Father, for so great grace, and we pray that we would just have cause in our study tonight to be reminded of these truths. And may we marvel and may we likewise worship you, the living and the true God. And we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Introduction
Well, probably I'll refer to Abram as Abram and as Abraham, because we know him more specifically as Abraham. Of course, God changes his name or expands upon his name in Genesis chapter 17 to highlight the fact that he would be the father of a great multitude. But as we look at these several verses tonight, I want to make four observations. First, we'll notice the amazing grace of God.
Secondly, the demanding call of God. Thirdly, the world changing program of God. And then fourthly, and finally, the response of Abraham. And then we'll make a few concluding applications.
So that's our roadmap for this evening.
The Amazing Grace of God
But the amazing grace of God. We get that from the first part of chapter 1. Notice, now the Lord has said to Abram, we should really stop and pause and reflect here upon the amazing grace of God. We cannot forget what has preceded Genesis chapter 12.
Yes, Genesis chapters 1 to 11. But what do they record? They record first the fall of man into sin, Genesis chapters 2 and 3. As a result of Adam's taking that fruit in direct disobedience to God Most High, God pronounces a curse upon mankind.
That really isn't amazing. That really isn't something that should puzzle us or perplex us. God said in the day that you eat, dying you shall die. So when Adam eats and he plunges himself and his posterity into sin, it really follows of necessity that God's curse upon mankind is legit and it is righteous.
And then what happens later on as we move through the narrative in Genesis up to this particular point, we find that the earth is exceedingly corrupt, or it is full of corruption, and it's exceedingly violent. We see that man had indeed done what Solomon said in our reading tonight. God made man upright, but they sought out many schemes. And so what does God do as a result of this?
God sends a flood. He sends destruction. Everyone, with the exception of Noah and his family, are destroyed as a result of sin. Again, that shouldn't puzzle us.
It shouldn't perplex us. It shouldn't cause us to wonder. When men defect from God, When men apostatize from God, when men engage in corruption and violence, it is righteous with God to send destruction upon them. And then, of course, after the flood, you'd think that everything was going to be good.
Everything would be right. Everything would be orderly. Everything would be in the way that it ought to be. But then we get to Babel, and we see these men laboring to make a name for themselves.
Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly. They had brick for stone and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.
So, of course, what does God do? He visits them with a specific judgment that they were working so hard to try and avoid. They didn't want to be scattered across the face of the whole earth. They wanted solidarity and unity.
They wanted to rise up. They wanted to engage in this particular activity. So God simply confuses their lip, He confuses their tongue, and then He disperses them and He scatters them. Again, that shouldn't puzzle us, it shouldn't perplex us, it shouldn't cause us to wonder that when men together form a militancy against the living and true God, it really doesn't surprise us that he would scatter them across the nations.
What I suggest and what I submit to you ought to perplex us, ought to cause us to stand in awe, is that in light of these several chapters, it just naturally flows in Genesis chapter 12. Now the Lord has said to Abram, this is amazing grace. God didn't owe us anything. God didn't owe anyone anything.
And yet the narrative just highlights this reality that now the Lord had said to Abram. God should have cut everybody off. The wages of sin is death. He's already cursed.
He's already destroyed. He's already scattered. This is truly a display of the amazing grace of God that the Lord said to Abram. In fact, Dale Ralph Davis calls his sermon by this title.
God so loved the world that he called Abram. That is precisely what we find in this particular section. William J. Dumbrill says, in the call of Abram, we are dealing with the divine reply to the human disaster of Genesis chapters 3 to 11.
This is, in many respects, the but God of Ephesians 2.4 in the Old Testament. Notice in Ephesians chapter two, you may turn there just so you can see how we ought to appreciate this statement concerning God's call of Abraham in Ephesians two. You're probably very familiar with it. It says in verse one, And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
Notice in verse four, But God, we were dead, we were helpless, we were hopeless. But God, the same thing is true back in Genesis chapter 12. We were dead, we were helpless, we were hopeless. Now the Lord God said to Abram, in the call of Abram, we find the divine reply, the divine response, to the chaotic sinfulness of man that is indicated in Genesis chapters 3 to 11.
But God, Paul says, who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Brethren, do you ever stop and consider the amazing grace of God in statements like these?
This is what you were but God. This is what mankind looked like in Genesis chapters 3 to 11. Now the Lord said to Abram. There's an incident like this in the book of Ezekiel, in Ezekiel chapter 16.
God says, when I came upon you. He's talking about the nation of Israel. I found you in your blood. You polluted yourself, you had prostituted yourself, you were in sin and wretchedness and ungodliness.
Nevertheless, he says, I said, live, live. And not only did he raise them up, not only did he make them his first born, not only did he make them his prized possession, but then they plunged themselves into sin. He highlights the reality of this in language that is almost offensive. In fact, it is offensive.
I remember preaching from the New American Standard in Ezekiel 16.25. It's a very literal translation. And someone was very offended by that. I can't believe you said that in the pulpit.
All I did was cite the text. It's offensive because it describes man and sin. It's offensive because it describes us for what we are. It's offensive because it shows to us and demonstrates to us just how far we have plunged into iniquity.
And yet, after all of that, God says, nevertheless, He will be merciful to them. Nevertheless, they will be brought back out of the exile. Nevertheless, they will be reconvened in their land. He realized, brothers and sisters, that we serve the God who says to Abram these particular things.
But God. Great news. A manifestation of His great grace. And that is something we ought to appreciate in Genesis chapter 12, verse 1.
The Lord had said to Abram.
The Demanding Call of God
And that brings us, secondly, to the demanding call of God. Notice this call that He issues to Abraham. Notice what he says here. Get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house.
Everything that was near and dear to Abraham, he has to leave. Everything that he knew, everything that he was comfortable with, affections and love and work and pleasure and familiarity and comfort You've never heard that statement, get out of the comfort zone. Why do we stay in the comfort zone? Because it's comfortable.
We like our comfort. Yet God speaks to Abram in Ur of the Chaldeans and he says, get out of this land. And Abram does what he is told. This is the demanding call of God.
It is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ that Abraham is justified. Of course, faith then yields or faith then issues forth in this sort of behavior. It is the demanding call of God. And it's very interesting because there are two of these demands placed upon Father Abraham.
They both have to do with leaving a place and going to another place. Here in Genesis chapter 12, he's to leave his country. He's to leave his family. He is to leave his father's house.
In other words, he must turn his back upon his past. He must say goodbye and farewell to those things that once were dear to him. But interestingly enough, later on in Genesis chapter 22, he is told to go from this place. He is told to go to the land of Moriah.
And there he is told to take Isaac, your only son, the son whom you love, take him with you, lay him on an altar and then kill him. So we see with this man of God, Abraham, life wasn't always just a bed of roses for him. I think it's important that we understand that. I think oftentimes as new covenant Christians, we get a bit perplexed or dismayed when things don't always go our way.
Well, as a general rule, when the father of faith has this sort of a life, we cannot help but think that we're going to have this sort of a life too. When Jesus Christ, the master and Lord has this sort of life, we can't help but think that we're going to have this sort of life also. So you see, Abraham is told in two occasions that he has to depart. He has to go.
He has to leave those things that are comfortable, those things that hold his attention and affection. And yet, by faith, he does those things. So this departure, this demanding call of God, was a difficult one for Abraham. As well, we need to understand something of the religious significance involved.
Religious Significance of the Call
You can turn to Joshua 24 for just a moment. Joshua chapter 24, interestingly enough, that when Abraham obeys, he departs from the land of Aaron and then he goes down to Shechem. Well, in Joshua 24, they reaffirm or they re-ratify the covenant and it happens to be at Shechem. And when Joshua stands before the people, he rehearses God's dealings with them as a people.
I want you to notice in Joshua 24 at verse one. Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and called for the elders of Israel, for their heads, for their judges and for their officers. And they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people, thus says the Lord God of Israel, your fathers, including Tara, the father of Abraham and the father of Neor, dwelt on the other side of the river in old times.
And they served other gods. Not just Terah. They served other gods. When a man is an idolater, like Terah was, he teaches his son Abraham to be an idolater as well.
Just in the same way that, hopefully, a Christian parent teaches or catechizes their children in the things concerning the true and living God. So this demanding call placed upon Abraham by God was difficult in terms of leaving those things that he loved and he held near and dear to his own heart. But the religious significance is stark. Leave those gods.
More than likely, the moon is what Terah and his family worship. Leave those false gods, leave those idols and follow me, is what the Lord God Most High says. Now, it might rise up in our hearts at this particular point, you're following, you're paying attention, to perhaps say something like, I'm glad I'm not Abraham. I'm glad that was old covenant.
You see, I quite like it in Ur of the Chaldeans. I quite like my country. I quite like my family. I quite like my father's house.
I really appreciate my comfort zone. I'm thankful that God does things a bit differently in this new covenant era. I'm thankful that the Lord God Most High doesn't call me or put such a demand upon me in terms of discipleship. Well, if you are thinking that way, it is unbiblical.
Discipleship in the New Covenant
The Lord Jesus says, Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's enemy shall be those of his own household.
He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.
Not even in the old covenant did God's call of discipleship mean that every single person leave their country, and leave their family, and leave their father. But the demand of God is always implicit. That if that's what it takes, then you leave. Christ comes first.
There is no softening in the New Covenant. There is no change in the New Covenant. There is no I get this and Jesus in the New Covenant. Again, thankfully, God in His mercy oftentimes leaves our temporal blessings in place when He regenerates us, when He calls us out of darkness into marvelous light.
Very few, probably percentage-wise, actually have to leave their home. actually have to leave their parents, actually have to leave their comfort zone. I mean, there are those who go into missionary service. There are those who change, leave their countries or relocate for the cause of Christ and for a particular calling on their life. But for every single one of us, we ought to be willing For every single one of us, we ought to be willing to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
If in His providence He so twists or turns things, not twists, but turns things to cut us off from certain comforts, we ought not to grumble, we ought not to whine, we ought not to complain, and we ought not to call into question His goodness. Abraham, as the father of the faithful, is paradigmatic. Jesus Christ is simply teaching what has been consistent biblical religion from the very beginning. It is simply unthinkable that we could profess the name of Christ and not follow the Lamb wherever He says to go.
It is unthinkable that we get to choose and pick what it is that we want in terms of our own pleasure. No, God has placed His claims upon us. When God called us out of darkness into marvelous life, there was a demand placed on us. You know, it's like the man who signs up for the army.
He ends up in war-torn Afghanistan. He says, I didn't sign up for this. But you did. I don't care what your recruiter said.
Sometimes those guys lie. I hate to bring the bearer of bad news, but when you signed on the dotted line and you swore to uphold the Constitution against enemies, domestic and foreign, you should have known very well that that meant you could be standing on a fence in Afghanistan or wherever with an M16 rifle. How many times do Christians sign up for this? We hit a bump in the road.
We have some difficulties. We have some trials. We have selective memory, don't we? We remember all the blessings of the Bible.
We remember Ephesians 1.3. He blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. It's the John 16.33s that oftentimes escape our mind. In this world, you will have tribulation.
Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. The demand of God or the call of God upon the Christian is as demanding in the New Covenant as it was for Abraham. We are not to hold on to things. We are not to be rooted and tied and fixed upon this present world.
In fact, isn't Abraham known as the sojourner? Abraham is the pilgrim. Abraham is the one who dwelt in tents. He never even realized this land that was promised to him.
He gets a little portion of it in Genesis 23. That's a blessed portion to be sure. Remember at the death of Sarah, he finagles with the men in the land. He buys a cave to bury Sarah and he gets a field.
What is the author telling us at that stage? He's telling us that God is faithful. In this passage we learn that the Canaanites are already present in the land. This deposit by Abraham in Genesis 23 is not simply a little story designed to show us how they did land trading in Old Covenant Israel.
It's designed to testify that God is faithful and the one who promised land to Abraham will most certainly carry it out. But Abraham didn't realize the entirety. Abraham didn't see it in its fullness and its blessedness. Abraham obeyed.
Abraham walked. Abraham did. He left Heron. He left his father.
He left all those things, all those possessions. Now, Lot joined with him. Don't think that betrays the demanding call of God in that particular instance. Nevertheless, it cost him.
The amazing grace of God, the demanding call of God.
The World-Changing Program of God
Notice, thirdly, the world changing program of God. Get out of your country, verse two, from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. The land of Canaan, the promise of property, ground upon which this man and his tribe could live. For us, land doesn't seem that important.
In this situation, land was most important. You get to the book of Joshua, and what do they do? They carve up the land. They first dispossess the Canaanites, and then they give the specific inheritance to the various tribes.
When you read through the Pentateuch and there's all these laws and all these prescriptions about not moving a neighbor's landmark and not jockeying with landlines and all those sorts of things. And the daughters of Zelophehad need to find out if they too can inherit the land if they don't have husbands. All those things are based on a particular reality that the land meant something to Israel. God promised, God covenanted, and God is faithful to deliver.
Land, Seed, Blessing, Honor, Protection
This world-changing program of God included the land. It included, secondly, seed. I will make you a great nation. The end of earth's three in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Seed was most important. Descendants were most important. This is why I call it the world changing program of God. The world in Genesis 1 to 11 rejected God, rebelled against God, despised God.
So God undertakes in the call of Abraham to reverse things, to bring reconciliation, to bring redemption, to bring healing. And it would be through this servant, Abram. So there is land, there is seed. Remember in chapter 13, he tells him, to look at the sand of the seashore, he says, your descendants will be more numerous than that.
Genesis chapter 15, he says, look up at the stars, your descendants will be more numerous than that. Ought we to expect conversions? Ought we to expect gospel success? Ought we to expect, what Pastor Porter preached last Sunday, that Christ will build his church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it?
Absolutely. God said, look at the stars, look at the sand. Your descendants will be more numerous. When you pray for missions, when you pray for evangelism, when you pray for your neighbor or you pray for your family member, pray with confidence, pray with hopefulness, pray based on Genesis chapter 12 and Genesis 13.
God has purpose to save a multitude that no man can number from every tribe, tongue, people and nation. The world changing program of God included land, it included seed, it included blessing. I will bless you. And he says, and you shall be a blessing.
I don't think that meant specifically that when Abraham went to the grocery store, everybody around him just felt blessed. He would be the conduit through which God would bring redemption to this world. We'll see that when we conclude tonight. So there's land, seed, blessing, and honor.
And make your name great. Again, not in Shechem, not in Haran, not in the various parts of the world at that particular time. Why not Abraham? He's a really great guy.
Now, probably some did say that. Probably many did say that. But again, I think the idea here is pointing to the reality that this covenant nation would be great in the nations. This covenant nation would be esteemed.
This covenant nation would be Awesome. This is what the tower builders at Babel had hoped for. In 11.4, let us make a name for ourselves. And here God says, I will make a great name out of you, Abram.
It's interesting how it's applied as well to David. You've got the father of the faithful, the covenant of promise. You've got the covenant of kinship with David. Again, all of these converge upon and find their fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ.
But God says to David, I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and have made you a great name, like the name of the great men who are on the earth. So, land, seed, blessing, honor, and finally, protection. And what do you say about Israel by the time you get to the New Testament? They made it.
How? How did they make it? How do we get to Matthew's gospel? And Israel is there.
I mean, look at what these people went through. Wasn't just fighting the Canaanites. is ultimately having God chasten them, and God bring judgment upon them. God's sending Assyrians against them. God's sending Babylonians against them.
By the time we get to the New Testament, that there is a people left testifies that God is faithful to His promise. Isn't that what verse 3 is all about? Protection. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you.
Remember, prior to Assyria invading, prior to 722, there was a time under Sennacherib when they wanted to destroy the children of Israel. What does God do? He sends an angel of the Lord around the Assyrians and destroys a multitude. I will curse him who curses you.
Again, we'll open this up or we'll conclude rather, I want to say open up almost at six because you're going, oh, wait a minute. We need to close down, not open up. We'll close down with some observations on the fulfillment of this promise, this program, this world changing program.
The Response of Abraham
But let's just hasten on to look at the response of Abraham. First, he obeys. He just does what he's supposed to do. Great, great example there, isn't it?
We don't always obey like that. We don't always do what God says to do. We have the written word. We have the Puritans.
We have the reformers. We have sermonaudio.com. We have a couple of services on Sunday. We have a Wednesday night Bible study.
We hear a lot of what God calls us to do, and yet we don't always obey. When Abram's in Ur of the Chaldeans, God says, I want you to leave. Probably what we find here specifically in chapter 12 is a second Paul, when he's in Haran. He leaves early Chaldeans, he goes to Haran with his father, Terah.
Terah ultimately dies, Abraham moves on from there. He obeys God. What a gem, what a beautiful attribute in the life of one of God's people. You know, you say, well this is a no-brainer.
Of course the people of God are supposed to obey, but we don't always do that. It cost him everything and he obeyed. He left everything and he obeyed. It was comfort, it was joy, it was blessing, it was happiness, it was family, it was work, it was whatever.
And he left. He obeyed. He did what God said.
Abraham's Obedience and Worship
Not only did he obey, he worshipped. Notice at verse 6, Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem. As far as the terrible tree of Mora and the Canaanites were then in the land, then the Lord appeared to Abram and said to your descendants, I will give this land. And there he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him.
I'm not a Hebrew scholar or anything like that. I'm basically thinking in terms or reflecting what Dr. Davis said in his message. This this tree, this terrible tree at Mora means the teaching tree.
And what he reckons, and I have no reason to doubt him, is that this is where the Canaanites went for their religious services. Perhaps a divination tree, a centralized location where they would come and worship their idols, where they came in hope and anticipation that their idols would speak to them. It was very common when a man entered into a new land to adopt the worship practices of that land. And yet, look at what Abraham does.
He worships the God of Israel right before their eyes. He's got a bold faith. He's got an I'm going to worship God right here faith. He's not the sort of man that says, well, you know, I'm a believer.
What are we ashamed of? What are we afraid of? He's standing at the Teravim tree, he's standing at Mora. God says to him or God communicates to him.
So what does he do? He builds an altar and he worships right there. And then he travels from Shechem to the Negev, that's the southern regions of Israel. He stops at a place between Bethel and Ai.
What does he do? He worships God some more. You see, this is characteristic of those who, by God's grace, come out of darkness into marvelous light. They obey, they worship.
They obey, they worship. You want to know what a Christian is? He obeys, he worships. Pretty simple, isn't it?
We make it a lot more difficult and a lot more perplexing than it really ought to be. As a Christian, here's your description. Obey God and worship Him. This is what the father of the faithful does.
At a specific location at Shechem and then near Bethel, he is a worshipper of the God of Israel. So the amazing grace of God, the demanding call of God, the world changing program of God and the response of Abraham.
Application and Conclusion
In conclusion, we see it is the promise of the Lord that is conspicuous. Notice the recurring I will. I will show you this land. I will make you a great nation.
I will bless you. I will bless those who bless you. I will curse him who curses you. Derek Kidner says, Abram's part is expressed in a single, both searching command while the heap up I wills reveal how much greater is the Lord's part.
If salvation comes to this world, it is because of God Almighty. I will show you. I will bless you. I will make you a great name.
I will curse those who curse you. It makes one think of Ezekiel 36, when God in the promise of the New Covenant says, I will bring you out of that land. I will sprinkle water on you. I will give you a new heart.
I will take out the old stony heart. It is the I-wills of the Lord that we hang our salvation upon, not the supposed free will of man. And then secondly, we need to understand something. by what we have here and preceding a bit in the genealogy. See, after chapter 11, when it talks about the scattering of the peoples, it then highlights Shem's descendants and Terah's descendants, and then it does expand upon specifically Abraham.
That's the idea here and the flow of things. But you've heard that statement, he stacked the debt. I'm not a gambler, but I suppose that means someone stacks the debt so that they'll win, right? I'm going to deal you a three.
I'm going to get an ace. I'm going to deal you a six. I'll get another ace. I'll deal you an eight.
I'll take a king this time. So I throw you off the beaten path. We say he stacked the debt.
God Stacks the Deck
You know what's going on in Genesis 11 and 12? God is stacking the debt. against himself. Because when salvation comes, no one can say, what an Abraham! No one can say, what a Jacob!
No one can say, what a David! But when victory comes to the people of God, it is, what a God! He has told Abraham, I'm going to make a great nation out of you." Later on, he gets very specific in Genesis 13 and in 15. He speaks specifically about descendants.
He speaks specifically about seed. He speaks specifically about children. Go back for just a moment to chapter 11 at verse 30. Chapter 11, verse 30, but Sarai was barren.
She had no child. Abraham was certainly aware of this. Abraham certainly understood. He wasn't changing any diapers.
He wasn't schooling any children. He wasn't paying for education. He wasn't paying for gas or insurance for their cars. Abraham knew good and well that Sarai was barren.
Isn't that the tension that we feel throughout the passage concerning Abraham? So much so that Sarah and Abraham seek to break the tension with the suggestion of Hagar? That's what's behind the scenes. You said I'm going to be the father of a great nation.
You said I'm going to have a great number of descendants. You said I'm going to have a massive seed. The Lord, my wife is barren. Remember, it's in chapter 18 that God comes and says she's going by this time next year to have a son.
What's Sarah's response? Praise the Lord. The text is very conspicuous. It was no longer the time with her.
She'd hit menopause, brethren. That's what the author is telling us. Now, women that were menopausal in those days no more had children than menopausal women today do. You see, that tension is there throughout, so that when Isaac comes along, God is glorified.
God is praised. God is honored. That's the first obstacle. The second, we've already read it in chapter 12, verse 6.
And the Canaanites were in the land. Abraham, I'm going to give you this land that is possessed by these people, a wicked and ungodly people. What does Abraham do? He operates in terms of that promise.
He doesn't say, wait a minute, Lord, there's Canaanites here. He doesn't say, wait a minute, Lord, how can this be? Wait a minute, Lord, what am I supposed to do? He just obeys God.
By faith, he perseveres through these various obstacles. By faith, he moves forward, looking to Him who is invisible. And then thirdly and finally, I've already indicated, we'll look at some fulfillment.
Fulfilment in Christ
The land promise fulfilled. You get to Joshua, you see they had rest. I think this is more expansive. I think it's more inclusive.
I think it has to do with what God tells Abraham in Romans 13. I want you to look to the north. I want you to look to the south. I want you to look to the east and I want you to look to the west.
This is for you, Abraham. We get a hint of this or we get a statement of this in Psalm 2. When Jesus was speaking, the Lord said to me, ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, the ends of the earth for your prized possession. Romans chapter 4, verse 13, Paul is highlighting faith.
And it's almost incidental what he says concerning Abraham. He says, for the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. You see, when Abraham looked north, south, east and west, he wasn't just looking at the land of Israel. He was looking at the world.
Land promise. Check. What about seed? Galatians 3.
Galatians chapter three, you see, in the call of Abram, what we find is that God is focusing his design. God has chosen for himself a particular people, a special people through whom the Messiah would come. Paul tells us this in Galatians chapter three at verse 16. He says, now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.
He does not say, and to seeds as of many, but as of one. And to your seed, who is Christ. And then that funnels down, or that rolls down and includes the people of God according to Galatians 3, 26-29. We don't need to do a census in Israel to see if the number of descendants directly connected physically to Abraham answers to the seed promise.
It is spiritual. Not all Israel is Israel. It is those who are in Christ. It is those who are Jesus' people.
They are the ones that God is speaking about in this call of Abraham. Chapter 3 of Galatians 26-29 makes this evident. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
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's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." Isn't that beautiful? Isn't it wonderful how the Bible fits together? It's not a bunch of disconnected parts. It is one unified, grand, blessed, cohesive whole that demonstrates to us a sovereign God, a gracious God, who in the call of Abraham purposed this world-changing program to be brought through the ministry of Jesus Christ.
It's wonderful. Honor. Jesus has that title of honor. He has given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Blessing, do we have that in Jesus? I already mentioned, already referred to, Ephesians 1.3, in whom we have, is blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. And then protection. I hope no one here says, well, I don't have protection.
If you're in Christ, you have protection. If you're in Jesus, you have protection. Paul says it this way. I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I will bless those who bless you. I will curse those who curse you. God Most High has purpose to save to the uttermost all who draw nigh unto Him through Jesus Christ the Lord. You see, Genesis chapter 12 describes for us in vivid detail the amazing grace of God.
If you are here tonight and you don't know those blessings, you don't know that joy, you don't know what it is to have God in your corner, God on your side, there's only one place for you. That is, to flee to Christ, to believe the gospel, to believe all that the Bible says concerning him, specifically the fact that he lived, that he died, that he rose again. And this, to fulfill the law, to satisfy divine justice, and to secure for all those who come to him justification, the forgiveness of sins, and the imputation of righteousness. Brethren, let us close in prayer and thank the Lord for this world changing program that he has made us, by his grace, a part of.
Closing Prayer
Lord, thank you for these things. Thank you for this call of Abraham. God, it happened so many, so many years ago and times we read through sections like these and we don't even stop to think. We don't even stop to rehearse the wonder that is contained here.
We just pray, God in heaven, that you would indeed cause us to reflect, cause us to think in terms of your graciousness and of your kindness, the way that you replied, the way that you responded to man's defection and man's rebellion. We thank you for this passage in Genesis 12, how we thank you to the divine reply to the mess made in Genesis 3 to 11. We give you praise and glory and honor and worship. We thank you for our Lord Jesus.
We thank you for the salvation that we have in him. And our heart's desire and earnest plea is that more and more people would come to know him as Lord and Savior. And we ask in his name. Amen.