Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 2.00 → restored 4.80
Use the player's Original switch to compare.How Diffio restores old speech recordings
Well, thank you very much for your invitation along again. It's always a pleasure to be amongst you. Uh, the passage I've been asked to speak on this evening is Genesis chapter fifteen, but, um, before we read that, um, portion, uh, I'd like us to look at some, uh, portions in the New Testament, which would be relevant, um, to this chapter and to this interesting character of, uh, Abraham. Uh, the first is in James chapter two. Now, you'll be pleased to know that I won't read every reference to Abraham in the New Testament, because would you believe it, there is seventy four references in the New Testament to this man, Abraham.
So he's, he's a really important character, both in the Old Testament, um, as well as significantly, very significantly in the New. Um, obviously you've had different speakers in previous weeks, so it's hard for me to know, uh, to pick up the thread. I don't know what was said in previous weeks, so I'll do a little bit of recapping and scene, scene setting anyway, uh, before we get into chapter, uh, uh, 15. Now, let's just look at James chapter two and verse, um, three. And the scripture was fulfilled, which says, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.
Now this, this particular scripture, this particular reference from Genesis fifteen, is quoted three times in the New Testament, and we'll read, um, all three this evening. Um, and it's really, really an important one. I just want to read this scripture again. Am I speaking loud enough for everyone, by the way? Yes? So let's read this one again. And the scripture was fulfilled, so he's referencing back, um, to the Genesis scripture written by Moses, uh, so long ago. Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend, um, of God.
And I will turn to, um, Galatians, I think, next. Um, Galatians chapter three. Galatians chapter three, verse six. 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 God.
I know that very interesting, uh, addition by James there to that scripture commentary, um, on it, if you like. It's a wonderful thing that the greatest commentary on the word of God is the word of God itself, and what the writers have to say. Uh, we'll maybe think very briefly, uh, later about what, um, Stephen has to say in Acts chapter seven, for example, an extensive chapter where he references Abraham and a lot of old charac- uh, characters in the Old Testament, and we learn a lot of things from what he said, things that we don't read in the Old Testament, things that were revealed to him and that come through that are, that are very, very, um, clear, um, in- indeed.
So know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And that's saying that you and I, in a spiritual sense, we that are of faith, are the children of Abraham. That we spiritually can be the children of Abraham because we believe, um, in him. I will look at the converse of that in Romans. Turn with me to Romans chapter nine And verse six. Romans chapter nine And verse six, Not as though the word of God have taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which are of Israel.
And that, that second expression is of particular interest to me tonight, for they are not all, all Israel which are of Israel. So let me just unpack that statement. It's an unusual kind of language. He is saying they're not all Israel. In other words, you cannot call them Israel, truly Israel, which are of Israel. So those that are of Israel are those that are in the flesh descended from Abraham. Those people that would call themselves Jews, those people that in the Lord's day thought that simply because they were descended from Abraham, that they were, um, okay.
Uh, and what this is the Apostle Paul now saying very, very clearly, they are not all Israel just because they're of Israel. See, it's the converse of the other verse that said we are, we are Abraham's seed because we believe. So that's the two halves of that. Very interesting. Now I want to come back to chapter eight in a moment, but let's just turn to chapter four uh, in Romans chapter four, and we'll read Paul's reference to this same scripture that's so key tonight. And Romans chapter four and verse three, For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
Notice these expressions, believed, and then counted or credited unto him for righteousness. Um, this is a very obvious statement, but I'm just going to say it anyway, just because of the importance of the scripture. What the scripture here is saying is that Abraham believed God, and that belief in God was credited to him by God for righteousness. In other words, Abraham was not intrinsically righteous, as we know extensively from the word of God that there's no man righteous, no, not one, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, of course.
Um, but there is no natural man born of woman that is righteous. However, what the scripture states very, very clearly is that, and it does so back in Genesis fifteen, which is so key, at the very beginning of scripture, this principle is let out, that if we believe in him, then that belief is credited for righteousness. And we know the scripture so well, don't we, from Hebrews, that great chapter in chapter eleven, that speaks of faith. We read there, and without faith it is impossible to please him, right? Um, and that he's a rewarder of all those who diligently seek after, um, him.
Now, let's turn, uh, with me back to, uh, chapter eight, please. I just would like to point out one more thing here, uh, from the New Testament point of view, and then we'll go to Genesis. Um... Right, if we read in chapter eight and verse fourteen, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
So you see, here's this thought of sonship and the idea of heirship because we are, uh, sons. Let's read the next couple of verses. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. In other words, the y- you and I know, uh, that we are the children of God because the Spirit of God bears witness with us. He gives us that, uh, assurance. You remember what John says in his epistle, I write these things unto you that ye may know that ye have eternal life. Now, with that in mind, listen to what he says in verse seventeen, And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
So here we have this thought of heirship, um, and because we are sons, because we're the children of God, the sons of God, therefore we are heirs. And we see this whole principle is very, very prominent in the life of Abraham, because when God is making these wonderful, incredible promises to Abraham, we discover that he is a, um, he's got no, no, no son, no son. And not only has he got no son, he has no children at all at this point when God begins to promise these things to him, and he's an old man, and his wife is an old lady and past the age of childbearing, and yet God gives him these great promises.
And you remember, uh, God changes his name to to Abraham, um, father of a of a nation, and and you think, well, you know, that's really interesting to giving him that name, uh, when, um, he, you know, had no children whatsoever. But yet, one of the things that we see about God is that he loves the promise, and God always keeps his promise. And it's one thing for God to say something, of course, scripture points out that God cannot lie. But not only does God say things and promise things, but he also is prepared to, on some occasions, to, the word is covenant, to covenant.
And he covenanted with Abraham. We're going to read about that covenant in chapter fifteen. Very, very interesting, um, display, uh, uh, what what goes on there. So this is God, if you like, if we were to, um, use a human analogy, if you were going to, um, do a transaction with me that was of significance, um, we would consult lawyers, and we would have paperwork, and we would agree between us. And it would be fully legal, and it would be signed, um, and notarized, and that kind of thing. And just as, um, we have these kind of requirements in society today, um, for significant transactions, so it's always been in the past as well.
And so when people were making very significant agreements in the Old Testament time, um, they, um, covenanted. And how they covenanted, and we read an example of this in Jeremiah thirty I'm going to reference that in a few minutes. Then you'll see that how they did it was they cut animals in two. Very strange thing, very strange thing to us, but in their culture, this is what they did. They cut an animal in two, and then the two parties that were to participate in the covenant, they had to walk between the pieces of the animal in a figure of eight, and they recited the terms of the covenant, and they were effectively pledging their life on this covenant.
It was such an important, I'm saying it didn't happen very often, um, but when it did happen, it was a very, very significant thing. Now, what we see in chapter fifteen is this being displayed, but instead of it being two men, as would be normal, it is a covenant between Abraham and God. And so we see wonderful condescension that God is prepared to, eh, even do that, to come down and to covenant with a man, but we see a very interesting thing that happens, um, in that covenant, um, bec- because Abraham is asleep, and he witnesses it, and he does not participate in the walking between the animals, and that is of great significance to us, and we'll come on to that point in a moment, but I don't want to spoil it just now because it's a key point in the chapter.
We'll come back to that. Now, the second thing I wanted to read in Romans was this, um, let's read in Romans chapter eight and verse twenty eight. um And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose. This is one of these portions of scripture, you know, you should mark. I'm sure we all have it marked. It's certainly very familiar to to to many of us. If you're ever feeling down, if you're ever feeling discouraged, you should turn to Romans chapter eight and read that chapter, especially the last half of this chapter. And you notice he says here, we do not conjecture.
He's not saying we think, or it's a possibility. He's saying this is something that we absolutely know. He says that all things work together. Who for? For everybody in the world? No, but for them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose to be, for to you and I, all things work together for good. Now he goes on, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. So speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Now we see a pattern there, a pattern that the Apostle Paul is applying to you and I. First of all, predestination, the idea of God's choice of you and I, and then calling, God calling us, specifically calling us. And then after that call comes this process of justification, where God justifies us in his sight, and justification, it's not an exact term, but it's an easy way to remember it, and I, I, since I was a child, I've kind of always kept this thought in my mind. Think of justification as just as if you've never sinned. Yeah, it's an easy way to remember. Justification, just as if you've never sinned.
Our guilt, when we're justified, is entirely cleared away. It's not, it's not just that we're forgiven, just that we're pardoned, although those things are true, but it's more than that. God absolutely removes the guilt from you and I. We are perfectly clean in his sight because of the work of Christ on Calvary. That's the wonderful work of justification. And then, of course, there is glorification, and glorification is not something we experience now, but it's absolutely sure. Okay, so you and I, at this point in time, we are justified but not yet glorified, but we will be glorified when the Lord Jesus comes Christ comes back again, or if we die, we will go to glory and we will be with him.
So there's predestination, and then there's calling, and then justification, and then glorification. Now, why is this relevant? This is extremely relevant, right, for this. Abraham is the prime example in scripture of a man who was chosen by God. He was chosen by God, and he was predestinated, and God promised him things. He promised him things, um, that were just incredible, and the blessings that come, you know, from Abraham i- i- is marvelous. In fact, all of our blessings actually come through him. It's amazing. You'll, we'll see that tonight. Um, so he was progestinated, and then Isaac, his son, was called, wasn't he?
In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That's actually referenced in chapter nine as well. And then when we think of Jacob, his son, Jacob was justified. Now, Jacob, you know, Jacob is a very unsavory character. I don't belong to the, um, society of support for Jacob, really. Uh, many people do, but, um, when you look at his character in, in the word of God, I'm telling you, he, he leaves a lot, a lot to be desired. He, he, he was a deceiver. He deceived his brother, he deceived his father. Um, he did many, many, um, wrong things in his character, a very unsavory character, and yet God justified him.
And if God can justify a man like that, he can certainly justify you and I. And then, of course, glorification, I'm sure it's obvious to my train of thought this evening where I'm going with this. Of course, his son that was glorified was Joseph. Isn't that right? Joseph was glorified tremendously, tremendously, and it was also a promised glorification because, remember, when he was just a youth, he had these dreams, and these dreams would speak of, um, his sheaf standing upright and the sheaves of his brethren falling down to him. And then, uh, he had this other dream about the sun and the moon and the stars, and the sun and the moon and the stars all bow down to him.
And of course, that was speaking about his future glory, and because of it, um, his brethren were extremely envious, um, of him. But my friend tonight, brother and sister, we need to remember that you, we are going to be glorified. We are not, we're, we are not going to be glorified like the Lord Jesus Christ who had that intrinsic righteousness, but you and I are going to be, um, glorified because we'll have imputed righteousness given unto us. Um, it's already been given unto us. We have it in Christ right now. You and I are righteous in his sight, and one day we're going to be glorified with him. There's a day coming in the millennial reign when we will actually, um, reign with him in the earth.
It's a marvelous prospect that you and I have. And we'll see that many, many of these things, many aspects of all of this, are led out by God in Genesis, is the beginning of scripture. It's not just like things happened. It was happenstance, serendipity that things happened the way they did, and then looking back in the New Testament, the writers decided to try and analyze that and apply it in some way. No, no, no, no. All these things that happened to these significant characters in the Old Testament were planned clearly by God before these men were even born. Amazing to think. Think of what happened, for example, around Genesis, when we get to Genesis chapter twenty two, um, and Abraham giving his son and so on.
You see there very clearly acting out of what God intended to do himself as the father to his one and only son that he asked Abraham to do. Marvelous. God was doing all these things and effectively communicating to the whole world for all time all that he was going to do in the future and that he is yet going to do in the future. We're going to see that some of the promises given to Abraham are not fulfilled yet, and yet absolutely will be fulfilled. We're also going to see that many of the problems in society today are because men do not accept the covenant that God made with Abraham, that he would give him this land, and that he would give it to him forever, you know, not just in his lifetime, um, not just until the Lord's time, but forever.
And men, you know, they they they will not accept this kind of thing. Um, and we're not just talking about the PLO here, we're talking about the United Nations, we're talking about the European Union. Um, the United States has been very supportive of Israel, but they will become less so and less so, and Israel will become more and more isolated in the future, um, moving forward until they're absolutely isolated, and the nations are all gathered around them. And then, of course, the Lord Jesus, um, will, um, come back again. Very interesting point I'll make, um, too, is is this, that if you analyze what Stephen has to say in that wonderful chapter, chapter seven of Acts, um, which I don't have time to go into tonight, but, um, you'll remember that he was interrupted.
You know, he's giving this wonderful sermon, and then he, it got too much. It got too much, and he was interrupted. And one of the points that was being made there, if you, if you really look at it, you'll see that Israel often got it wrong the first time, but then they got it right the second time. So an example, for example, is, um, when he speaks of Joseph, he says Joseph was rejected by his brethren. See, he was chosen to be raised up by God, and God told them all that, and yet they should have accepted that, but they rejected him and they tried to kill him, remember. Um, um, but yet when they sing Joseph the second time in the land, you, I can never read that portion of the Word of God without, you know, it bringing a tear to my eye, just to think of what it must have meant for Joseph to be reconciled to his brethren.
You know, just imagine what it was for these, uh, brothers, eleven brothers to be speaking amongst themselves in Hebrew and hear this apparent Egyptian standing in the midst, being able to understand every word they were saying. And then you remember he, he asked all the servants, the Egyptian servants, to leave, and he revealed himself unto them. Marvelous, marvelous. Now you see they, what did they do? They bowed their knee and they accepted him. They, they, on the second time, they got it right. You remember then Stephen goes on and he speaks of Moses, and he speaks of Moses first of all came along, you remember, and uh, he came out and and he visited his brethren.
He was forty years of old and so on. And you remember he smoked an Egyptian. And in the second day, he seen two, um, Israel, Israelites fighting amongst themselves, and he separated them and so on. And a- and one of them pushed him away and said, who are you to judge, um, or us? Are you going to kill me like you killed the Egyptian yesterday? And you see, they rejected him. And Moses, you see, he thought that they would understand that God had raised him up to deliver them, but they didn't understand that, and they rejected Moses. And so Moses goes away, you remember, and he spends another forty years, uh, in, he was forty years at that point of age, but then he spends forty years in Midian, and then he comes back again, and then on that second, that return, he was accepted by the nation.
He was accepted. Now, as you go on through what Stephen's saying, then he speaks of Christ, and he speaks of Christ coming, and he says, whom ye took and slew, you see. He, he accuses them, and that's when he got so angry, but he accuses them of rejecting Christ. Now, if you follow the logic of that, what would Stephen have been quite to say next? Can I suggest what he would be suggesting next is that they will recognize him when Christ comes back? And of course, that is scriptural, isn't it? When Christ comes back again, he will be accepted by the nation. And then will happen that mourning that we read about in Zechariah, where it says that they will mourn as one mourns for his firstborn son.
The women apart and the men apart, everyone in his own home will mourn. They will mourn because God is going to send his spirit on that nation, and every single man, woman, and child amongst them, every one of them, is going to suddenly come to consciousness of what, uh, was done to their Messiah by them. And it will be worse than a death for them. They will be in agony as they think that through, as God lays the weight of all that guilt upon them. And they, like the nation, will cry out for him. They will look unto him whom they have pierced.
Right? That scripture, by the way, in Zechariah, it doesn't mean, as many people think it does, I don't think it means this. Many people think it means they will look unto him in the sense that he's in the sky. I don't think it means that. I think it means they will look unto him in the sense that they will look for him, and they will cry out for him. And when the nation is at its extremity at the end of the tribulation, and all nations are gathered together, and they're crying, then he will come. And Christ will come not in humiliation, not riding on a donkey. He will come again riding on a horse. He will come with the angels.
He will come with you and I. He will be with them then. Marvelous, marvelous, um, thought. Now we see all of that, that whole panorama, if you like, laid out in promise in these, these, these wonderful chapters in, in, in Genesis. Now let us turn to Genesis chapter fifteen. We'll just read together verse one. Genesis chapter fifteen, verse one. After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abraham. Now, by the way, I'll just mention that expression, the word of the Lord, you think how often you read that in scripture? Think how often you read that in the prophets.
And the word of the Lord came on to Zechariah saying, remember that? So often, all the way through scripture. This is the first mention. This is the first time in scripture where we read the word of the Lord came. Very interesting point. He came on to Abram in a vision saying, fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord God, what will thou give me, seeing I go childless and the steward of my house is this Eleazar of Damascus? And Abraham, Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born in my house is my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thy heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thy heir.
And he brought him forth abroad and said, Look now toward heaven and tell the stars, if I be able to number them. And he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord, and he, that is the Lord, 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. And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And he said unto him, take me a heifer 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 let each piece one against another. And the birds, but the birds divided he not. And when the stars came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abraham, 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 afterward shall they come out with great substance.
And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace. Thou shalt be buried in a good old age, and in the fourth generation they shall come hither, 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 those pieces. And in the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates. The Canaanites, the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaim, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
These are all the nations that were occupying that land at the time. Now, it's interesting, um, I don't know if you noticed that expression towards the end there when he said, um, from the river of Egypt onto the great river, the river, um, Euphrates. You know, the river of Egypt is not the Nile. The river of Egypt is a, is a river called Wadi al-Arish. That's ARISH, not, not Irish as in I or ISH. Uh, Wadi al-Arish, uh, sometimes called the Little River, and you can see it on your Bible maps. There's an older one, you can see it sometimes there, and it's down at the bottom of where the land of the Philistines was and separating, um, it from from from Egypt.
And he says, from there to the great river, the river Euphrates. Now that's a huge piece of land. Okay? Um, and Israel, when when they talk about the West Bank, you know, you should, you should ask them what river they're talking about. Of course, people talk about the West Bank being the West Bank of Jordan, right? And that gives you that little bit of land, and that's what Israel is today. It's just a slither. I mean, it's only the size of Wales, it's comparable. Um, very, very small slither of land. But what God had said to Abraham, he said, you're going to have from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates. Okay, so that's all the land of Israel today, be all the land of Jordan, right over to Iraq.
That's all that country. God said to him, you can have all of that. Now, uh, Israel occupied a huge amount of land in Solomon's day, much, much greater than today, but it's never occupied all of that land. But I, I believe it will, it will happen, of course, in the millennium when Christ reigns, um, over all the earth. Uh, and by the way, that land will not be a desert like it is today. It will not be like that. He will change it completely. The Dead Sea will no longer be dead. The Dead Sea is going to restore that, and he's going to put fish in it and so on. Uh, marvelous prophecies that God has, has given. And by the way, that land, it was once extremely fruitful.
You remember, you'll have dealt a little bit with Lot in previous weeks, and you remember that Lot lived in the plain of Jordan, and that was the bit he chose. And Lot wanted that because it was so wonderful to the eyes to look on. Now, I had the great privilege of being down in Israel in, uh, July. And, uh, I went down to, uh, the Dead Sea, and I've seen where Sodom was, and I can tell you that there's nothing there today, absolutely nothing. It's the most, um, God forsaken part of the earth I've ever seen. It is just awful. The heat is unbearable, uh, there's no vegetation of any kind, um, and if you walk around the wilderness areas, you see these little signs put up by the authorities and say, beware of the snakes and scorpions.
It puts, it puts you off into adventure, certainly me anyway, I can tell you that. So, um, so that's just a, a wonderful thing about what God is going to do in terms of the, um, the greatness of the promise in terms of the land that was given, um, g- given them. Um, before we go anymore, I just wanted to refer to this, um, passage in, um, Jeremiah, if I can find it in my notes. I think it's Jeremiah thirty four. I can't just spot it in my notes here, but I'll just look it up. Yeah, if you turn with me, this is interesting.
I'd like you to turn with me to two verses in Jeremiah thirty four. because it gives some context to what we read in, in Genesis fifteen. Um, in verse eighteen, so Jeremiah thirty four and verse eighteen, read this. And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain and passed between the parts thereof. See that ring of bells? And the princes of Judah and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs and the priests, and all the people of the land which passed between the parts of the calf.
So here we have a covenant that had been established, and the men had broken the covenant, God is saying, and he's accusing them. Um, but you'll notice that the mechanism for the covenant, the interesting thing is they pass between the pieces. They cut an animal clean in two, and then they walk between the pieces. So this is just what was done in that day to signify a, um, to signify a covenant. And we'll see in this chapter when, um, Abraham asks this great question, how will I know? How will I know? He says, Lord God. Um, the Lord says to him, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to promise to you.
I am going to covenant, um, with you. Um, marvelous, marvelous scripture. Um, so okay, just just going through this in a bit more detail now. Um, the first statement in verse one says, fear not, Abram, I am, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. I think the background to that is that, remember what's happened in the previous chapter. There has been this, um, great fight between these kings, the four kings and the the um, uh, the five kings, and the four kings win. And it's interesting that, did you know that these kings are, um, the four kings are all Shemites.
They're all sons of Shem, and the five kings, they are all kings, uh, of descendants of Ham, so Shemites against Hamites. Um, quite interesting. And of course, there was that background where that they had come and they'd taken over the land, um, and and and Shedalomer, who was the leader, um, had put the land, uh, like taxing them for twelve years, and then they'd rebelled and so on. There'd been this great fight, and of course the key thing was that they'd taken a lot away, and Abraham went. He had his own army, uh, he was one of the richest men in the world at this point, and he had his own army, and he went and he fought against these men, and he recovered them and brought them back. And then there came this very interesting dialogue with the king of Sodom, where the king of Sodom said, look, he said, it's just fantastic what you've done.
Now you just keep all that spoil, everything you've brought back, you just keep it all to yourself. And Abraham said, or Abram, it's hard to keep saying, you know, we're so familiar with calling Abraham, it's quite hard to say Abram, isn't it? Yeah, he didn't, he didn't get called Abraham till very, very late in his experience. But anyway, so you'll forgive me when I, when I, when I make that faux pas. Um, so, uh, Abraham, Abraham says to the king, he says, no, he says, I will accept nothing of my hand. He says, all I want is the people, just, um, Lot, uh, and the family. Uh, and he said, he said, some of these men have come with me and volunteered. He said they can have something, but he said, I will not take a single thing from you, lest you can say that I have made Abram.
So coming out of that experience, Abram had had two very significant things happen to him. One is he had been, uh, his life had been under threat in fighting against all these kings, and yet he come through safely. And then secondly, here he was, and he was being offered on basically all the riches of the world, all the riches of King of Sodom was just offering him all this spoil, and he really felt from a spiritual point of view he should turn that down. You see, he, he knew what kind of man the King of Sodom was, the wickedness and the worldliness and everything there, um, as we'll see later on in Genesis, of course, that comes out very, very much to the fore, but he would have been sentient of that fact and aware of it, and so he rejected that.
And so you might think, well, maybe Abraham, and I surmise that he would be a little bit despondent at that point. You know, he comes through that, yeah, his life had been saved, and he was delighted with that, um, and he turned away all these riches. And what is the, what is it the Lord says to him? The Lord says to him, he says, fear not, Abraham. He says, I am thy shield. See? God was saying to him, he says, I'm going to protect you. I have protected you. I will protect you. And as far as riches are concerned, he said, the Lord says to him, he says, I am thy exceeding great reward. And of course, God promises that, doesn't he?
He's going to promise him he's going to live to a good old age. You know, I think he's one hundred and seventy five when he dies. And, um, God is going to make him, um, probably the richest man in the world. You know, marvelous, marvelous God's, um, promises to him. And then Abraham says to the Lord, he says, what will you give me, seeing I go childless and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? It's a tremendous dialogue. When you think about it, it is no wonder that he's called the friend of God, not just in the New Testament, but in the Chronicles as well. He's called the friend of God, that he can have such a dialogue with the Lord. And it, it's not just instigated by Abram himself, but it's the Lord himself.
You remember when the Lord was going to come later on to destroy, um, Sodom and Gomorrah and all those times round about. The Lord said, shall I hide this thing from Abram? He couldn't, he couldn't do it. It was a burden on the heart of the Lord, and the Lord felt he had to share it with Abram. Wonderful close relationship that he had. Wonderful. And so Abram, he just unpores his heart out, you know. Doesn't matter how much riches you give me, the real fact is I am missing something key in my life since I am, I am childless. And, and, and the one who's going to inherit all my stuff, and according to the legal rules of the time, was was this this servant of his, Eleazar of Damascus.
And Abraham, uh, said, Thou hast given me no seed, one born in my house is mine heir. And behold, the word of the Lord, that expression again, came unto him a second time, 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. And he said unto him, so shall thy seed be. Now you remember what the Lord Jesus and, or the Lord had said. That slip of the tongue, by the way, is is not too big a mistake, really, because I think, I really believe it was the Lord Jesus.
When we read of the Lord speaking to men in the Old Testament, we believe it was, um, the Lord Jesus, an appearance of him in the Old, um, Testament. But you'll remember from just a few weeks ago, you've dealt with chapter thirteen, and one of the things that was promised there in chapter thirteen and verse fifteen was, that all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever, and I will make thy seed of the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Remember that? So there the Lord had promised to Abraham. This is coming from the Lord himself. It's very, very clear determination and decision by God that he's going to bless Abraham greatly.
He's going to test him as well, hugely, but he is promising him, and he's repeating the promise, and he's going to confirm it and so on, that he's going to bless him with tremendous seed, tremendous. And on in chapter thirteen, he says they're going to be like the dust. So if you can number the dust, think of all the sand in Israel, you try and number all the grains, and he says to Abraham, so shall thy seed be. Now here is a different circumstance in chapter fifteen. The Lord brings him out abroad. Now remember, he lives in a tent, and you can just imagine it's almost like the Lord just guides him by the shoulder, and he takes him out, and he said he points him towards heaven, and he'd be looking at the heavens, um, unspoiled, the way our view of the heavens is spoiled by all our daylight and so on.
Uh, and he looks up to heaven in a very clear night, and he sees how many stars can you see? How many? You know, it's wonderful, isn't it, that as man has gotten more sophisticated and looked out even further with his telescopes, and even put big telescopes in space to not be occluded by the atmosphere and seen even further, that there's stars and stars as far as the eye can see. The estimate of the stars in the Milky Way, our own galaxy, is a hundred billion, and the ga- and our galaxy is only one of a hundred billion known galaxies in the universe. Marvelous. Uh, of course, God knew all that.
Abraham, he could only see without a telescope a few thousand stars, maybe, but there's something about the magnificence of the stars that we see. You stare at one spot long enough, you always see a few more stars, few more stars, and so God is underlining this line. He says, so shall I see. Now, is there any significance in the fact that on one occasion he says it's going to be like the dust, or on another occasion it's going to be like the stars? One suggestion that's been made that I like is this, is that when he was speaking to him about the, the dust, he was speaking about his earthly issue. That is, all those who would be naturally born from him, and of whom Abraham would be naturally thinking as well.
That's all he would be in his mind at that time. And of course, the number of, uh, individuals upon the earth that descended from Abraham is absolutely huge, not only the Jews, of course, but all the sons of Israel as well. But when he tells him about the stars of the sky, maybe the thought there is his heavenly seat. Maybe that's speaking about those that are going to be, like Abraham, the faithful, those that believe, which would kick in you and I. So you and I, the number of men and women that are going to be faith is going to be a great company, like the stars in heaven. Now, he says, I love the way the Lord says this, tell the stars, in other words, count them.
Count the stars, if thou be able to number them, so shall thy seed be. Marvelous the way the Lord underlines it to him. Now, when he said that to him, Abram, he wasn't disbelieving. Abram, it says, he believed in the Lord. He absolutely accepted what the Lord said. You know, it seems incredible. It is incredible in the true sense of the word. You can't credit it, you can't do. It was incredible, but yet he believed it. He believed, he trusted God, and he, that is God, credited it to him for righteousness. And he said unto him, I am the Lord God that brought thee out of the Ur of the Chaldees to give thee this land and heard it.
Now, in a few chapters, we're going to read an interesting incident where Abraham is going to go and buy a field, and he's going to buy this field as a normal transaction for a little bit of money, um, and it's so that he may bury his dead, bury his wife in the first instance, but also the rest of his family, this little field, um, down there near Hebron. Uh, but that was going to be a money transaction, isn't that right? What God is saying to him here is he says, I'm going to give you. It's not going to be for money. As far as the eye can see, he says, I'm going to give you all this land so that you will inherit it. Now, he doesn't know what's going to happen next, but God says to him, now keep a heifer three years old, and a she goat, and a ram, and a turtle dove, and a pigeon.
He took them all and divided them in the midst and let each piece one against the other, but the birds divided he not. And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and lo, a horror of a great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, know of a surety. Remember? Abram had said, how shall I know? How? The Lord says to him, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a, in a land that is not there. So now what's happening is God is going to reveal to Abraham like a prophet what he was going to do in the future.
You know, I love the thought that prophecy is just history in reverse. You know what history is? History is something that there's no doubt about. There might be different accounts, but, you know, things happened in the past and are completely unchangeable, right? But from God's point of view, God, who is outside time entirely, he looks at the, the end from the beginning, and it's all saved to him. And he can tell us what's going to happen in the future, just with the same precise accuracy as somebody who was an eyewitness account could record the history of things in the past. So prophecy is just history, that's all it is, but it's written in advance, not after the fact.
That's what prophecy is. It's marvelous and thought to think our God is so powerful he is able to do that. And by the way, this is one of the things that makes the Word of God absolutely unique. You know, the Quran has no prophecy, none at all. Yet the Word of God, the Bible, is full of prophecy. Prophecy that is fulfilled in the time of the scriptures, as well as prophecy that's yet to be fulfilled. Marvelous, detailed, precise, accurate, and sometimes there are dates given, um, things that could not be orchestrated, things that, you know, even if you tried to orchestrate it, it would seem impossible, and yet all these things come through, and God delights to do these things because God is God, and he loves to do this.
This is one of the things that's very clear in the word of God. He loves to promise, and he loves to fulfill his promises, and he will do that, and it's the greatest indictment upon men that they reject the word, um, of God. So he's telling them here that he's going, that they're going to be strangers. Of course, he's speaking about the time in the land of Egypt, though Egypt's not mentioned here directly. Um, they're going to be a stranger in that land, and they're going to be afflicted four hundred years. Now, how long were they in the land? We know that they were in the land for four hundred and thirty years, isn't that right? And if you look at the different references to this, you'll see sometimes you'll read four thirty and sometimes you'll read four hundred. This is not a rounding error, not a rounding error.
The difference is that they were in the land four hundred and thirty years from they went down to Egypt till they, uh, till the Exodus. And they came out to the day, by the way, to the day. But, um, when they were first in the land, they weren't afflicted. Right, they had thirty prosperous years. You remember where Pharaoh put them? He says, I want you to give you, you stay in the best of the land. Joseph, you take your family, put them in the best of the land. That was the land of Goshen. That's what we would call the Nile Delta today. It's so watered and and wonderful and tremendous.
That's where you're going to be. He had no concept how long he would stay or how how great they would grow. Um, but they were in the very best of the land, and they had thirty years. Did you remember a Pharaoh arose who knew not Joseph? And of course then became their affliction, and the affliction got worse and worse and, and, and so on. We know that story, um, so well. And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge. So God's saying, I'm going to judge the Egyptians, by the way. I'm going to do it. And afterwards they shall come out with great substance. Now remember, this is not going to happen for four generations yet, right? There's four generations are going to ensue from Abraham, right?
You're going to have, um, um, Isaac, who's yet to be born, not even in the, you know, he's not even born yet, and he- he- he- he's going to come, and then he's going to have, um, Jacob and Esau, and then Jacob is going to have twelve sons, and then Joseph, he's going to go down into the land of Egypt, and he's going to be in prison for a while, you remember, and then he's going to eventually get out and get into Potiphar's house, and then he's going to be released from there and he's going to end up in Pharaoh's house. And then he's going to arrive in Pharaoh's house, and he's going to be the one on the throne, effectively the prime minister of the land, literally the prime minister of the land. And, um, not prime minister Lagarde, that would be for four years, and then he's out, he's there in perpetuity until the man dies.
And it was then, of course, that, um, that's the beginning of their sojourn when the family comes down in the land. And then, from then, you've got four hundred and thirty years. All of this is in the future, and the Lord is saying, this is what's going to happen. I'm telling you now, this is what's going to happen. And of course, it all would happen like this, um, precisely. And so it's one of the many, many things that demonstrate the design of scripture, the fact that it is authored by the Spirit of God and not by men. And thou shalt go to thy fathers, verse fifteen, to thy fathers in peace, and thou shalt be buried in the good old days. We, we know it's 175 years. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Ammonites is not yet full.
I realize my time, out of time, I'll finish in a few moments. Now, this is a very interesting expression. We see here, we get a little bit of an insight into the fact that God is dealing not just with Israel in all that he does, but he's dealing with the nations round about. And God will use the children of Israel as, um, like a weapon, if you like, to bring great destruction on these very, very wicked nations, um, that, that, that got into indescribable sin. They were, um, slaughtering infants, um, and sacrifice to demon gods and many things like that, and God is going to bring a stop to it.
But the iniquity of the Amorites, um, now you remember there's ten nations he described here in the chapter are going to be destroyed. I think he uses the Amorites as the general term, and I assume the Amorites are probably the worst of all of them. Right? Um, and but the iniquity, God is saying, the iniquity of them is going to increase even further. And he says, I'm just going to let them alone for four hundred years, and then I am going to go in and destroy them, um, with his people. That's, that's what he was doing, and this is the explanation, by the way, of many of the portions of the word of God that would seem difficult for us, when God would send, send his children in and say, I want you to go and slaughter them, man, woman, and child. But the reason he did it was the, the wickedness of those nations was so great, and he was using this, you know, much more precise instrument than what he had used, um, to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah when he just sent fire from heaven and destroyed them all.
He would actually use his own people, um, to go in and to do it. And it came to pass when the sun went down and it was dark, behold, the smoking furnace and the burning lamp that passed between those pieces. And so what we he- have here is a picture of God. It's very reminiscent to me of, um, when Moses received the law. You remember the mountain, the mountain smoke then? You remember the darkness and so on? And it's the presence of God had come right down to Moses to give him the law. We have that great covenant of the law given then. But here we have a covenant with a man. And you'll notice that there is, um, no manward side of it, right?
The covenant with, um, the children of Israel, when the law was given, was a conditional thing. They had to obey. They had to obey. There was precepts and there was promise. But here, it's an unconditional promise because when this smoking furnace and the burning lamp passes between those pieces, God is verifying his covenant, but Abraham's not part of it, you see. So in other words, Abraham, it's with Abraham, but Abraham does not have to have any conditions to meet. So in other words, God is saying, I'm going to promise this to you, I'm going to covenant it to you, and he says you cannot break this covenant. You cannot break this, it's an unbreakable covenant from the God.
You know, you remember, of course, the earth is his, and he, and he can do what he wants with it, and this is one of the things he's doing. So the same day, verse eighteen, the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying, unto thy seed have I given this land from the river Euphrates to the great river, the Kenites, and so on. He had given him this land. He had promised it before, now he was verifying that promise, and and uh later on, uh, in chapter twenty two or so, we'll also read about Anoth. It's marvelous. And so when we get to um Hebrews, and there's a wonderful commentary again on this, you know, uh, the writer of the Hebrews says God confirmed it with an oath, that by two immutable things, that is the fact that he said it and the fact that he confirmed it with an oath, um, this great covenant with, um, with Abraham.
So the land of Israel, by the way, it belongs to the Jews. It does, no matter what, um, some other people might think and the politicians might think. Um, and and it's wonderful that there they are in the land today, um, and they're going to increase, and um, God is going to greatly bless them, but um, more than just material blessing, more than just giving them the land, there's a day coming when they will, as a nation, um, um, recognize the Savior, cry out to him, and he will come, and he will be their Savior, and um, Israel as a nation will be saved. Marvelous, marvelous promises. You see the significance of this chapter? So key, isn't it?
And right there, way back in Genesis. It's marvelous. We see many of the things that are happening today, and we can point back to this chapter and understand why they're happening. Let's just speak to God. O God our Father, we bow in thy presence this evening and thank thee for this wonderful scripture. Thank thee for the teaching on it. We recognize, Father, that we, uh, really feel we're just scratching the surface here. Uh, but Father, we thank thee for the richness of it. We thank thee for thy truth. We thank thee for thy promise. We thank thee for the immutability of thy promise. We thank thee that thou art a God that cannot lie. There's not many things, Father, that thou cannot do, but we thank thee that scripture declares this so clearly that thou cannot lie, and we thank thee, O God, for what thou has promised.
And we think of Israel tonight and their plight and their, the danger and the troubles they're in and so on. But we thank thee, O God, that they're part of the, um, great plan of God. And we thank thee too, Father, um, for our situation. We thank thee that we too, in a spiritual sense, are the children of Abraham. Thou hast, O God, um, through him blessed all the nations of the world, not just the Jews, Father, but every nation, and that has come through thy son who was born from his. We thank thee for that. We rejoice in thy son, Father, tonight. We thank thee for all that that has given us. We thank thee for the richness of thy word. Help us to understand it. And Father, help us too to obey.
Help us, O God, to understand and to follow these things. Give us insight, Father, we pray, and give us diligence as well as we seek to follow. Um, and Father, we pray that we might, um, always be very humble when we just think of all that Thou hast done and so freely given to us, O God, as thou hast given things to Abraham. We realize, O God, he didn't deserve these things. It wasn't that he had somehow, um, merited these things, Father, but it had come from thy sovereign will. We thank thee, O God, and rejoice in that. And so too, O God, we realize too that it's been thy will, um, to save us. And thou hast appointed us, Father, to great blessing. And we thank thee that the promises given to Abraham we can, um, take to ourselves, and we thank thee, O God, and recognize that thou art our shield.
And we thank thee, O God, that thou art our great reward. And so, Father, we, we willingly place everything in thy hands tonight and trust in thee. And like Abraham, Father, we confess to thee that we believe in thee. We clearly, O God, trust in thee, and we thank thee for that. We thank thee, O God, that we can trust in thee in a way that we can never trust in man, in a way that we can never even trust in ourselves. We thank thee for this, O God, that thou art the faithful, um, God. And we thank thee, O God, that thou hast, um, given us faith, granted us faith, O God, through the work of the Spirit of God in our little hearts, Father. So, O God, we just commend our evening to thee now and give thee our thanks in evening worship in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen.