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After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield, and thy reward is exceeding great. And Abraham said, O Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless? And he that shall be possessor of my house is Damasek Eleazar. And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born in mine house is mine heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This man 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 tell them. He said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness. And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land, to inherit it. And he said, O Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And he said unto him, Take me an 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. He took him all these and divided them in the midst, and laid each half over against the other. But the birds divided he not. And the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away. When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and low and horror of great darkness fell upon him. He said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years, and also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterward shall they come out with great substance. 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 again, for the iniquity of the Amorite 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 flaming torch that passed between these pieces. That 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. Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Raphaim and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite. The Lord bless to us this reading of his word. Ours this evening is the very pleasant task of considering together how immensely rich is every believer in Jesus Christ our Lord as a result of this ancient covenant that God made with Abraham, his servant. But before we come to that present task, we should spend a few moments, perhaps, putting this famous chapter fifteen of Genesis into its proper context. In the course of the covenant that God made with Abraham, he told Abraham that his nation should be afflicted four hundred years in a strange land, and that afterward they should come out with great substance, with great goods. And on Sunday night last, you may remember, we were considering how prominent a theme in this particular part of Genesis is the matter of material goods. It is very reasonable, of course, that this particular part of Genesis, and I refer to the part that you see here listed, the first great period of Abraham's personal experience. It is very reasonable that this first part of his experience should contain this elementary and basic lesson, what our attitude should be towards material good. The New Testament tells us that Abraham, in leaving Ur of Chaldees, was looking for the city that hath the foundations whose builder and maker is God. In leaving his home country, he was plainly declaring that he was seeking another home country, that is to say, a heavenly fatherland. And it seems to me that it stands to reason that all those who profess that they are but pilgrims and strangers here in this earth, and are stretching forward to arrive at another fatherland that is a heavenly. All those who profess to believe that life here is but temporary, and they are stretching forward to that great eternal experience in the heavens. Seems to be reasonable that all they who so say should be asked very early on in their experience to develop the right attitude to present material goods. We noticed again on Sunday that, uh, God is not here saying that material goods are bad things, and that it is wrong or unspiritual to possess them. Abraham was an exceedingly wealthy man, and he remained so to the end of his day. Though he is held up to us as a man who lived by faith, we should be quite wrong to imagine that Abraham lived upon a flint. He was an exceedingly wealthy man, more wealthy than perhaps than any of us here present. But while there is nothing wrong in goods per se, and nothing wrong in a spiritual man's possession of goods, yet it is the plain fact that it is all too possible and easy for us to get the wrong heart attitude towards goods. It is all too possible for goods to become, instead of a stepping stone to glory, a great barrier between our hearts and God. And it is all too possible for material goods so to get a hold of our hearts that they begin to pervert our behavior and lead us in the paths of unrighteousness. We saw on Sunday how Abraham's father began to leave Ur of Chaldees, and he came to Haran. But somehow or other in Haran, his vision petered out, and he stayed in Haran without pushing onwards in the pilgrim path. When eventually Abraham left Haran after the death of Terah, we are told that they had amassed great substance, a great deal of good. I can't help wondering whether that was what somehow impeded Terah in his pilgrimage. We saw again in our study on Sunday how that when Abraham had occasion to go down to Egypt, Abraham fell to very sorry depths of mean and unprincipled behavior on this very same topic, not merely to preserve his life, but in order that it should be well with him and he should amass large goods in Egypt, he denied his wife's Sarah. A very sad but clear example of a way the temptation of amassing goods can lead a man to get his values wrong and prefer goods to life. To prefer goods even to such a sacred relationship as marriage. Can prefer goods to honesty and goods to truth, and goods to principle. And for the sake of amassing goods, lose those very spiritual and moral lessons for which God has put the goods into our hands. The Lord Jesus himself took time to tell us, didn't he? And to warn us how easy it is for us to get our system of values wrong. Look, said he, the life is more than food. Yes, food is necessary, but life is more important than food. And to lose your life in order to get the food is a foolish method, isn't it? And the body is more important than clothes. You need the clothes, but you wouldn't need them if you didn't have a body. The body is more important than clothes. And so it is evident that Abraham was making some very shaky and uncertain steps as he began his pilgrimage towards the great eternal city. Still, goods loomed far too large in his thinking. When the Egyptians discovered what Abraham had done, denied his very wife in order to amass goods. They were so disgusted with him that they not only turned him out, but Pharaoh sent a squad of soldiers to escort him to the border and see he didn't come back again. And so Abraham at length returned to his pilgrim past. But we can't just, uh, leave our mistakes behind us like that, can we? It is very good to see Abram now back by his altar, back where he should have been anyway. But if we fail an examination in our Christian life, God will normally make us come back and sit it again. And so they got back into Canaan, did Abram and Lot, but watch what had happened. Because of their very curious business standards in Egypt, they had amassed a tremendous amount of goods, so many goods, that in the end they had to come to the decision that their the amount of goods coursing on them. We can't dwell together, said Abraham to Lot. There's not room for us. We shall have to come to the parting of the ways. Now, said Abram, being a very good gentleman to Lot, you choose. The very possession of all these goods forced them to choose. Lot looked around. He got a lot of sheep and cattle. It was only business sense that he should choose somewhere where there was a lot of grass. You can't feed sheep and oxen and cattle without grass. So he came to make his great decision in his pilgrim pathway, and he decided to pitch his tent towards Sodom because there in the plains of Sodom there was much grass. And business-wise, if you were only considering business, he made a very, very wise, practical, level-headed decision. But for men who are pilgrims towards the city that has the foundation. There are bigger considerations to take into account in life decisions than grass. We must be businesslike. We must be practical. But there are bigger considerations than simply business considerations. In those moments, had not perhaps considered the moral and spiritual welfare of his children. And whether it were safe to take his young kiddies down towards the city that was so abominably vile. If he stopped to consider the possible effects upon his children, perhaps he would have said, yes, well, that business-wise is a very good move, but I can't afford it. For I have something more than goods to maintain. The lives of my children, their characters, their moral development, their eternal destiny. And which is the more important? Life or Or good. goods? My dear brother, you'll not need me to tell you, will you, but if you get an offer of a tempting job in Timbuktu, you need well to consider what you're going to do, don't you? You could stand the spiritual loneliness. You are mature enough to stand living in such cities, uh, where moral standards are low. Doubtless you would make a lot of money. Would your children stand it? Having no spiritual fellowship. Fellowship. Be a sorry thing at the end of life, wouldn't it? If you'd made a vast success business-wise and your children still weren't saved, or your children had gone astray, bang into the world. So Lot made his decision, and that left Abram to take out what was left. And in that moment, we're told God came to him and spoke again his promise in his ears. Look, Abram, I'm not asking you, man, to go without. I'm going to bless you immensely. Trust me, Abraham. And for the moment, Abraham dared to trust God. But as I say, Abraham still had his examination to pass. And presently, circumstances came about that brought Abraham to the test, precisely over this matter of his relationship to goods. In the ebb and flow of warfare in the ancient world, says chapter fourteen, there came a confederacy of kings, and they fought against the other set of kings that ruled in that part of the world where Lot had come to settle. And being successful in battle, they took the people of those cities away with them as captives. And they took, uh, Lot, says verse eleven of chapter fourteen. And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their vittles and went their way. And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and, uh, departed. This is a very uncertain old world, isn't it? You can be rich today and beggar tomorrow. And it was told Abram's saying that, uh, they run off with Lot, you know, and his goods. And Abram said to himself, this will never do. So he armed the servants that were in his house. Note what a wealthy man he was to have such servants. And he chased after the enemy troops by night, found them, and engaged them in battle and overcame them. Now let's read together of Abram's great success. It is chapter fourteen and verse sixteen. uh And he, that is Abram, brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot and his goods. Oh yes, and the women as well, nearly forgot them, and the people. You will notice, don't you, what is still looming large in Abram's mind. The thing that gets mentioned twice, the goods. He brought back all the goods. Well, yes, and lot as well, of course, but the goods. And he brought back all the goods. Oh yes, there were a few women around the place, but the goods, you know, yes. Tremendous success. Got all those goods back. Victorious in the morning, he came back towards his home, bringing his goods and the people. And now, when he was all under thick, he was about to face one of the major crises of his life. For here comes the king of Sodom, and he is about to put the very tempting offer to Abram. Abram, by his arms, has recaptured the goods and lots, and the goods and the women, and all this vast haul of goods that the enemy had taken from the cities of the plain. Listen to the king of Sodom's offer. Abram, old boy, he says, you have shown yourself tremendous, full of initiative and go and drive and skill. You take all the goods. Fantastically wealthy overnight. But there was a price tag. You take all the goods, you give me the lives, the persons, the people, goods, Lives. lives. And that Abram wasn't left to his own devices to face that great temptation. A man who, in order to get goods in Egypt, had d- denied his own very wife. How easily he might here have fallen once more. God, who is merciful and foresaw the temptation come, and indeed must allow that test to come, for Abraham has got to be made to face it and allowed to choose. That's why we have temptations, isn't it? My dear brother, you won't find yourself in heaven against your will. Anybody that's going to be in the New Jerusalem is going to be there because he freely chose to be there. God isn't going to have anybody up in heaven who halfway through says, oh, God, please excuse me a minute. I, I feel I've come here too soon. I, I, you know, there are so many other things I wanted to enjoy. Please let me off a while. I'm finding it a bit of a bore. Therefore, temptations and tests must come, so that we have the chance of making up our minds and choosing. Goods or lives. Which would you put best? And there came forth Melchizedek, priest of the Most High God. And he brought forth bread and wine, and he blessed Abraham and said, blessed be Abraham of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. What a lovely and what an opportune ministry it was. Who was this Melchizedek, you say? A remarkable personage. He stands on the page of scripture with just that much said about him that shall help us to see certain likenesses in him, between him and Christ. Without father and without mother in the record of Genesis, without beginning or end of life in the record of Genesis. He is made like unto the Son of God, and he abideth forever. He has this testimony, says the writer to the Hebrews, that he liveth. Noble patriarch, priest of God, for whom God was a living reality, for whom God was not some pauper of a little idol in a backstreet chapel. Listen to his sense of the divine glory. Blessed Abraham of the Lord Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and all its vast treasures, in the hand of the God to whom he is. In God-given sight, he sees Abraham coming now to his hour of peril and temptation, where goods, uh, from Sodom are heaped up here, and Abram's asked to choose between goods and lives. There comes no sermon from Melchizedek to the point that we all ought to go without. That might well have lost the day, mightn't it? Kingly majesty. King of Salem points Abram to God and God's immeasurable, limitless wealth, possessor of heaven and earth. Till Abram's very soul is filled to overflowing with that sense of richness and wealth. Fills our hearts when really we draw near to God. Being of a sudden filled with this tremendous sense of the wealth of God. Abram turns round to the king of Sodom, and now his little heap of goods begins to look oh so small. By now. Sodomy, he said. I wouldn't take a shoelace from you. Oh, he's still business enough, man to pay, well, pay the wages for the young men. They brought back your goods? Well, you've got a lot to pay them then. I don't want you giving me anything, thank you very much. I don't need your goods. Take the lives. Your goods are perishable. These persons are eternal. And a great victory was won. Let's draw aside from our history for a moment. We should come back all the fresher there too. But come with me down the centuries to a dusty roadside in Palestine and see thirteen men. One of them is Jesus Christ our Lord. And the others are twelve insignificant men, a few fishermen, and such like. But he who is Jesus Christ our Lord is Son of the very Father. Presently, a would-be scribe comes to him and says, Master, I will follow you with us wherever you go. He says, Will you, my man? You know this. Foxes have holes. Birds of the air have nests. The Son of Man has not wear today's head upon. And then he finally looked at these men. And that's all he had. They were a bright lot, weren't they? Without being un- excessively rude to apostles, but they were a bright light. Give them two years, and there wasn't one of them but what to desert him and run away. The world counted them mere babes. Caiaphas wouldn't have troubled ever to have invited Peter for dinner. Mere Mere babes. babes. This was all he had to show. For his life of sacrifice, a handful of babes. How do you suppose he turned? I'm not down in the mouth, my father. At that very hour, Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and he said, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father. For so it seemed good in thy sight. Didn't particularly worry him that he hadn't a penny in his pocket or anywhere to lay his head. He had these men, eleven of them, lives that will last eternally. Worth it, he says, Father, don't you think? These fellows here, worth it. I thank thee, Father, you've given me these names. Oh, please don't pity Christ, live your life. He was not poverty stricken. He was ever conscious that his father was Lord in heaven and earth, and he was heir to the lot of it. But you see, he thought these men were far more valuable than goods. You know, that's what's part of going to make our heaven heaven, isn't it? A God who has value judgments like that, and we are to him infinitely more important than good. So Abraham, and we come back to our history. So Abraham, having passed his examination, is now ready to go on to the next major class. We one day shall be called upon, sooner or later, let let us lay it to our hearts, we shall be called upon to make the same kind of decision. It may never come to us as it came to our fellow believers to whom the letter to the Hebrews was written, but it may do. There's no guarantee that England won't turn communist. We've no guarantee that we shall not live to see persecution. We need to lay these lessons well to our hearts and prepare ourselves in advance doing them. Our fellow believers to whom the letters of the Hebrews was written, they were called upon to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods. However did they manage to do it, you say? Well, first they had an high priest after the order of Melchizedek. By his gracious ministry, he made it real to their hearts that they had in themselves a greater and more enduring substance. So if they were pushed ultimately to the top, then they chose life, eternal life, and life in Christ, even if it meant that they lost their good confidence. Fear not then, said Abraham, said God to Abraham, I am thy shield, and thy reward is exceeding great. For the man that has chosen God is nothing except exceedingly wealthy. What will you give me, said Abraham, seeing I go childish? As we were saying on Sunday, now Abraham was getting very, uh, a little bit elderly, and he began to see life in its proportions. Old age is a wonderful time, isn't it? For getting life's values sorted out. Pity we can't be old a bit more when we're young. Hey, what can we still be young. He began to see that you can have as many goods as you like, but they give you no future. And now what was beginning to worry Abraham was his future. What future was there? I have no child, he said, and therefore, by the law of the land, all his goods would pass to the chief steward of his house when Abraham himself died. What will you give me? He said, God, I've no child. I'm going to give you a future, said God. Don't you worry, this your steward shall not be your heir, but one that shall come forth out of your own bowels shall be your heir. There is a tremendous future for you, Abraham. And Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. We have not the time now to follow that tremendous phrase as Saint Paul follows it in the New Testament. But let us note in passing, it is the very basis of our relationship with God, our justification by faith. Please note what it is. He believed God. And it, that is his faith, his believing, was counted to him for righteousness. He had learned life's basic lesson that to be right must mean to have a right relationship with God, so that my faith is ultimately not in my book. My faith is in God. But not only was he justified on that occasion, but the rest of the chapter tells us that along with his justification, he got a great deal more. And it will be my task now in the remaining moments to prove to everyone here that has trusted Christ, that Christ has not merely brought you justification, but that Christ has brought you immeasurable wealth. Look now abroad, says God, look north, south, east, and west. So shall thy seed be. And the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of Chaldees to give thee this land to inherit it. Your reward is exceeding great. Well, yes, said Abram, that's true, God, you know, yes, I believe what you say. But, you know, I was just, as I stood here, God, I was thinking, Lord, you know, am I saying it, said Abram? I was thinking, Lord, um, Lord, you say, of course, I shall inherit it, but uh, whereby shall I know I shall inherit it? It seems to good an opportunity to be lost, didn't it, what? But it's nice to talk about the vast inheritance, but uh, it is even better to be able to nail it down, isn't it, and be absolutely sure of it, and know upon what grounds you are to inherit it, and how you can be absolutely confident you will inherit it. And I would just like to know that, says God Abraham, before we move on. Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? God's answer to it was the making of a covenant. To our modern ears, it sounds exceedingly strange. For we are not used to making agreements and covenants in this fashion, as were the ancient Hebrews. Our method is different. If we want to make a contract, then we go along to do littles, uh, and make money, the solicitors, and they draw up a nice big legal document. And, uh, there's a place for the other chap to sign, and there's a place for me to sign. Now, and this covenant, the contract is settled when the contract is signed and sealed. But in those ancient days, when they made a covenant, they did it a different way. They got some sacrificial animals, they killed them, they divided them in their parts, and they laid them out in two rows. And then the parties to the contract got up and solemnly and ceremonially walked between the two rows of the pieces of the covenant victim. And when they had walked through them, it was the same as if we today were to sign a contract. The covenant was now legally binding. When Abram had the common sense and the business-like attitude to say to God Almighty, yes, God, I believe your word that I'm going to have this vast inheritance, but please, whereby shall I know I shall inherit it? God was pleased to condescend and answer him by making a covenant. So that the promise might be sure to all the seas, and none might ever doubt of God's bona fides in making these promises. I must trouble you now then with, uh, legal things. I'm sorry. It'll sound perhaps dry and tedious. But if it was the will of your uncle Malachy, who had died in Australia and left you two farms, uh, 500,000 dollars, um, uh, 2 country estates, five Cadillacs and three and a half Rolls Royces. I don't know how many ordinary shares and a lot of preferential shares, and also some gold coins that he kept under the floor. You wouldn't mind how tedious it was. You'll say, go on, old boy, go on, be more tedious, please be more tedious. So I should take no notice of your frowns when now I proceed to expound the legal side of your inheritance. The more tedious it is, the wealthier you are. So first of all, we have to notice this legal matter. What kind of a covenant was this that God made with Abraham? What kind of a covenant? You'll see there are basically two kinds of covenants. There are still to this day. There are what are called two-party covenants, and on the other hand, there are what are called one-party covenants. I'll do my best to explain the difference, and not being a solicitor, I shan't charge you. Two-party covenants. Suppose you want a, a luxury house for your retirement, and you go along to the builder and you say, now look here, I want this fifty-room mansion, you know, all done up perfectly, beautifully, standing in its own grounds, and an outdoor swimming pool. Righto, he says, that'll be five hundred thousand if you pay this year, uh, and seven hundred and fifty thousand if you pay next. You say, right, seven hundred and fifty be it. Um, yeah. If you said, no, I think we'd better draw up a contract, you know, do it in a business-like fashion. So you get the architect and the quantity survey and goodness knows what else, and they draw up all the specifications, yeah. And then you have a contract. But builder X shall build you a house like this. True to all those details. And if he builds you a house like this, you promise to pay him his seven hundred and fifty thousand. Yes? So he's got a part to fulfill, and you've got a part to fulfill. And because you've both got a part to fulfill, you both have to sign with him in the presence of witnesses. And if he breaks his part, you can sue him, and if you break your part, he can sue you. And to be satisfactory, both parties have got to fulfill the obligations that they've contracted to fulfill, yeah, a two-party covenant. The ancient law of notice was made the basis of a covenant between God and Israel, and that was a two-party covenant. God said to Israel, yes, I will bless you abundantly if you keep my law. And the people said, yes, well, all right, God, you do the blessing and we'll keep the law. You fulfill your part because we fulfill our part. It was a two-party covenant. Israel broke it, of course, and earned its sanctions and its courtesy. But then there's another kind of party, uh, uh, uh, covenant known to the legal world, and that is a one-party covenant. The simplest and commonest form of it, perhaps, is what they call a will, your last will and testament. So here's my Uncle George, if I had one, sitting himself down in his ranch in America, maybe, who knows, at this moment. And he's now thinking about me, what a nice chap I am and all that, and how he has going to leave all his money, estate, cars, business, shares, and goodness knows what, he's going to leave it all to me. He's just decided to because he hasn't got anybody else to leave it to anyway, except the income tax inspector, so he's going to leave it to me. So he goes along to his solicitor and he says, I want you to help me, uh, to leave all my money effects materials, set it to dog's bottle, you see. And he gets out an nice will, puts it in difficult English, and makes it look good, and then comes the moment to sign it. Who signs the thing? Well, I don't. I don't have to. Because it says nothing for me to fulfill. It says my Uncle George out there decided to give me this stuff, and he's going to covenant to do it and bind himself to do it and everybody else to do it. So he gets out a legal document, and because he's the only chap that has anything to fulfill, he's the only one that signs it. Maybe I know nothing about it until I see a notice in the Belfast Telegraph. Anybody for the name of Dog's body, would they please report to the solicitor when they will hear something to their advantage? I go running off to the solicitor and he says, you're a fortunate man. Look here what it says here in this will. Will your uncle George's signature. What do I have to do? Take it. Just as simple as that. Of course, I can say to the solicitor, oh, you're pulling my leg. It's only words on a page. You get out, you put it, you keep it if you like. I don't want it. It's only words on a page. That would be foolish, wouldn't it? If I want it, all I've got to do is to take it. They call that a one-party covenant. Money, estate, cars, business, shares, and goodness knows what, he's going to leave it all to me. He's just decided to, because he hasn't got anybody else to leave it to anyway, except the income tax inspector, so he's going to leave it to me. So he goes along to his solicitor and he says, I want you to help me, uh, to leave all my money, effects, materials, assets to the dog's body, you see. And he gets out a nice will, puts it in difficult English, and makes it looks good, and then comes the moment to sign it. Who signs the thing? Well, I don't. I don't have to. Because it says nothing for me to fulfill. It says my uncle George out there decided to give me this stuff, and he's going to covenant to do it and bind himself to do it and everybody else to do it. So he gets out a legal document, and because he's the only chap that has anything to fulfill, he's the only one that signed it. Maybe I know nothing about it until I see a notice in the Belfast Telegraph. Anybody with the name of Dog's body, would they please report to the solicitor when they will hear something to their advantage? I go running off to the solicitor and he says, you're a fortunate man. Look here what it says here in this will, with your uncle George's signature. What do I have to do? Take it. Just as simple as that. Of course, I can say to the solicitor, oh, you're pulling my leg. That's only words on a page, you get out, you put it, you keep it if you like, I don't want it, it's only words on a page. That would be foolish of me. If I want it, all I've got to do is to pay you. They call that a one-party covenant. What kind of a covenant was it that God made with Abraham? On this tremendous day, when he promised to Abraham this vast territorial inheritance. Well, it will all depend who signed it. Then, as I say, they didn't sign it in those days, did they? No. They made two rows of animal sacrifices, and the people that had something to fulfill had to walk between the pieces. Now tell me, who walked between the pieces? Well, one thing is clear, Abraham didn't because he was asleep. Harvey come. Israel broke it, of course, and earned its sanctions and its curse. But then there's another kind of party, uh, uh, uh, covenant known to the legal world, and that is a one-party covenant. The simplest and commonest form of it, perhaps, is what they call a will, your last will and testament. So here's my Uncle George, if I had one, sitting himself down in his ranch in America, maybe, who knows at this moment. And he's now thinking about me, what a nice chap I am and all that, and how he has going to leave all his money, estate, cars, business shares, and goodness knows what, he's going to leave it all to me. He's just decided to, because he hasn't got anybody else to leave it to anyway, except the income tax inspector, so he's going to leave it to me. So he goes along to his solicitor and he says, I want you to help me, uh, to leave all my money effects materials, say that, to Dog's bottle. And he gets out a nice will, puts it in difficult English, and makes it looks good, and then comes the moment to sign it. Who signs the thing? Well, I don't. I don't have to. Because it says nothing for me to fulfill. It says my uncle George out there decided to give me this stuff, and he's going to covenant to do it and bind himself to do it and everybody else to do it. So he gets out a legal document, and because he's the only chap that has anything to fulfill, he's the only one that signed it. Maybe I know nothing about it until I see a notice in the Belfast Telegraph. Anybody for the name of Dog's body, would they please report to the solicitor when they will hear something to their advantage? I go running off to the solicitor and he says, you're a fortunate man. Look here what it says here in this will, with your Uncle George's signature. What do I have to do? Take it. Just as simple as that. Of course, I can say to the solicitor, oh, you're pulling my leg, it's only words on a page, you do that, you put it, you keep it if you like, I don't want it, it's only words on a page. That would be foolish, wouldn't it? If I want it, all I've got to do is to take it. They call that a one-party covenant. Money estate, cars, business shares, and goodness knows what. He's going to leave it all to me. He's just decided to, because he hasn't got anybody else to leave it to anyway, except the income tax inspector, so he's going to leave it to me. So he goes along to his solicitor and he says, I want you to help me, uh, to leave all my money effects materials, set it to the dance model, you see. And he gets out a nice will, puts it in difficult English, and makes it looks good, and then comes the moment to sign it. Who signs the thing? Well, I don't. I don't have to. Because it says nothing for me to fulfill. It says my Uncle George out there decided to give me this stuff, and he's going to covenant to do it and bind himself to do it, and everybody else to do it. So he gets out a legal document, and because he's the only chap that has anything to fulfill, he's the only one that signed it. Maybe I know nothing about it until I see a notice in the Belfast Telegraph. Anybody for the name of Dog's body, would they please report to the solicitor when they will hear something to their advantage. I go running off to the solicitor and he says, you're a fortunate man. Look here what it says here in this will, with your Uncle George's signature. What do I have to do? Take it. Just as simple as that. Of course, I can say to the solicitor, oh, you're pulling my leg. It's only words on a page. You get out, you put it, you keep it if you like. I don't want it. It's only words on a page. That would be foolish, wouldn't it? If I want it, all I've got to do is to take it. They call that a one-party covenant. What kind of a covenant was it that God made with Abraham? On this tremendous day, when he promised to Abraham this vast territorial inheritance. Well, it will all depend who signed it. Then, as I say, they didn't sign it in those days, did they? No. They made two rows of animal sacrifices, and the people that had something to fulfill had to walk between the pieces. Now tell me, who walked between the pieces? Well, one thing is clear, Abraham didn't because he was asleep. No, there was a great furnace and a smoking lamp that passed between the pieces. That was all. The smoking lamp passing between the pieces, emblem of the very presence of God. God walked between the pieces, not Abram. For Abram had nothing to fulfill. It was a promise given of God, a sovereign promise given of God. A covenant, yes, but a one-party covenant in which Almighty God covenanted to give Abram and his seed their fast in heaven. You say, that's jolly good for Abram. Certainly so, point taken, very good for Abram. How shall I know because God himself has As covenant covenanted of to the in heaven. him? But you say, what's that got to do with us? For the very passage tells us that this great covenant was made with Abraham and his seed. You say, what's that got to do with me? And you ask a very learned question. There must be a little bit of a lawyer in you. Because when Paul comes to discuss this covenant in the epistle to the Galatians, chapter three, this is a point that Paul himself makes, does he not? He says this, Brethren, I speak after the manner of men. Though it be but a man's covenant, yet when it has been confirmed, no one maketh it void or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. And he says not, and to seed that of many, but that of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. Now this I say, a covenant confirmed beforehand by God, the law which came four hundred and thirty years afterward, does not disannul, so as to make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no more a promise, but God hath granted it to Abraham by. Let's take it that far. It's best always to take the law very slowly. Look, says Paul, I'm just detaining you on legal matters a bit more. In ordinary business affairs in the world, take any man's covenant, and when it has been signed, sealed, and settled, you can't alter it. Old builder X that was going to build me my house for seven hundred and fifty thousand. I was wise enough and said, look here, oh boy, I want a fixed price contract, old chap. Seven hundred and fifty thousand next year, I'll have any more, boy. Sign on the dotted line. So in the end, he signs on the dotted line. Jolly good start. And once he signs, there's no altering it. Oh yes, if he's managed to insert a clause in it that says that next year, if he can't afford to pay seven, uh, to to do it for 750,000, he can come along to me and charge another five hundred thousand. All right. But if there's no such clause in the contract, it suffices it. So once the thing is signed, sealed, and settled, you cannot add to it. Look, says Paul, this, uh, this, uh, this covenant that God made with Abraham to give him the vast inheritance. Tell me, when did God make that covenant? Did he make it before the law of Moses was given on Sinai, or after the law of Moses was given on Sinai? Got a plain answer to that one. It was made before the law was given, four hundred years before the law was given. I know says it says it before. You will observe then that you mustn't add the conditions of the law to that original covenant. Read the covenant again, if you like, that God made with m- made them. What did it say? Did it say, I will give you this land if subsequently you keep the law that you'll be delivered to my servant Moses? No, no. Didn't mention any conditions. Just said, I'm going to give you the land, that's all. And the, the covenant having been signed, sealed, and settled, you cannot thereafter add any conditions to it. What a glorious thing. It means that Abraham and his seed get all that inheritance as a free gift from God. Not even the law of Moses can be added as a necessary condition that they must keep before they receive the inheritance. God did it that way, he tells us, so that the promise should be sure to all the seed. For the promise that Abraham should be heir of the world, let me read you Romans four thirteen. For not through the law was the promise to Abraham or to his seed that he should be heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of none effect, or the law worketh wrath. But where there is no law, neither is there transgression. For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end, that the promise may be sure to all the sea. An unconditional one-party covenant. Now, but then, let us man. That is very important, isn't it? Once the covenant has been signed, sealed, and settled, you can't add anything to it. Yes. So my Aunt Matilda died, and as a family we're summoned by another to hear my Aunt Matilda's will read. Quite a bit of stuff, my Aunt Matilda. Sure, she left me something. Something, why, I think she liked my, you know, my general appearance and manner. So I go along to the reading and get a thousand pounds to my sister, my elder sister, uh seven hundred and fifty thousand each to my three brothers, uh, a thousand or two to Uncle Bill, and uh, so it goes on, the Rolls-Royce to who to me do down the road, and I sit there saying, well, I'll come to my name in a minute. But then it just says, and that's all. And may God bless them. And I say, no, you, no, no, no, no, no, you're not finished yet, old boy. There's something for me. He says, who are you? Oh, I say I'm Dog's Body. Uh, where does that go again? Sorry, no mention of you, Dog's Body, in this thing, not at all. But it is a must be. I'm sure my Aunt Matilda would have put me in. So sorry, no. You're not there? That's no good. Of course, in these degenerate and corrupt days, I suspect I should go along to the social welfare and dispute the will and prove by some means or other that really my Aunt Matilda did mean to give it, that somebody gave her a few drugs and made her write somebody else's name in. But short of that, if my name doesn't appear, you can't sort of say, well, just write it on the side, old boy. I mean, I know what she intended. Put my name in. You can't do that kind of thing. And the point is this, says Paul, that God made this covenant with Abraham. World inheritance it was indeed, but the terms were very clear. It was to Abraham... and to his... seed. Oh, you say, oh, no, no, no, no. Yes, well, that's all right. Uh, to Abraham and to his seed and to David Gooding. No, I'm sorry, no. No, to Abraham and to his seed. And if, you see, there's no good saying, well, I'm sure God meant to add me in. No, it's to Abram, to his seed, and there's an end of the matter. You cannot start adding names. Well, you say then, what's it got to do with me anyway then? And here is the wonder of the gospel. That seed mentioned in the covenant documents is Jesus Christ, our Lord. He shall inherit. He shall inherit that little bit of territory in the Middle East. He shall inherit the vast world. World inheritance will be his. He is the seed mentioned in the covenant. All right, listen. As many of you... Now let me play the felicitor. As many of you... as have been baptized into Christ... have put on Christ. Like a man could take a big eastern flowing robe and put it on so that it covered all his other dress. Many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. For this purpose that obliterates all distinctions. If then you are Christ, if you are of Christ, then are you Abram's seed. And if you are Abram's seed, you are heirs according to the Father. Your heart ought to be jumping for sheer wealth at the moment. You ought to be feeling like giving your next door neighbor, you're sitting on the seat there, ten pounds in earnest, uh, the, uh, because of the wealth that you're coming into. You Christ, in Christ, you put on Christ, so that as God looks at you, he sees Christ. Well, he said, that person there. Well, that's the air, that's the one I read. Heir. I called him to that party. Well, so tell me, what is this inheritance you keep speaking of anyway? What is it? Well, in Genesis fifteen, it is certain square mileage in the Middle East. Christ shall inherit that. But when we come to Romans chapter four, that I read you just now, Romans chapter four indicates that the territory has been increased. Here are the words. For not through the law was the promise to Abraham or to his seed that he should be heir of the world, nothing short. Hey, Mr. Preacher, you've gone astray now. Thought you said that once the covenant is signed, sealed, and settled, you mustn't add to it. Now you've gone and added. For the covenant in Genesis fifteen was simply square mileage in the Middle East, and now you've gone and said that it's to be increased until it's world inheritance, and surely you can't do that thing with covenant. Ah, but just a moment. This is just the one thing you can't do. When a covenant is signed, sealed, and settled, you cannot add any conditions to it. Once a covenant is signed, sealed, and settled, you cannot alter the names of the beneficiaries. Ah, but come back to my builder man. He made a covenant with me. He was going to build me a house with fifty bedrooms and whatnot, and I was going to pay him seven hundred and fifty dollars. And when it comes to the day, because he's no un- he's no earthly builder, of course, he says, you know, I had a few tons of bricks and some mahogany to spare, and so I've made you, uh, um, uh, your house, your fifty bedrooms, and I thought you'd like a nice country seaside chalet, so I made it that in. I said, sorry, oh boy, I can't pay you anymore, and I don't want you to pay me anymore, but I thought out of the goodness of my heart that I give you the country chalet as well as a, as a big house. I said, thank you very much. There's no law against that. When we look back again to the ancient covenant and to its context, we shall find Paul is not cheating. While the covenant itself mentioned square mileage, large square mileage in the Middle East, the surrounding promises indicate nothing short of worlds in heaven. We have it because we are Christ. Now I've got a little difficult job. It's difficult persuading people to be millionaires when they don't want to be. But you know there is a tribe of Christians that says, what am I interested in that for? That's for the Jews, because that's earthly inheritance, and I belong to the church, and I'm not interested in earthly inheritance. You're not. Well, I'll take your share then. Go, fam. You think it's unspiritual to be interested in earthly inheritance? Pardon me, I'm good so. Who is the seed that's going to inherit? Jesus Christ our Lord. He shall reign from shore to shore. He shall have the uttermost parts of the earth for his inheritance. And do you think it's, uh, be a little bit unspiritual of him to, uh, come and collect his earthly inheritance and reign over it? Of course not. When he comes into that great inheritance, then we who love him and trust him shall be headed with him. Says God to Abram, Abram, now you've learned to trust me. Now you've made your great choice and got this matter of goods and life in their right proportion. Now, Abram, I can tell you what I'm going to do for you. I'm your God. I'm not poor. I'm not hard up for a few goods. But now you can see that life is the most important thing, and you've learned to believe. Abram, I shall one day give you this inheritance, not right now. Your seed shall go down into a strange land and be afflicted through many a fiery burden and tempest. But in the end, I shall bring them out with great substance. It's the same word for goods that we've had all the way along. He owns it all. When we have learned of it, we will give up this vast inheritance. Why didn't he give it to Abram at once? Ah well, says God, at the moment, Abram, the Amorites have got their hands on it. One of these days I shall take it from the Amorites, and I shall give it to you. I'm not going to do that yet. If I took the vast inheritance from the Amorites now and gave it to you, people would say that was favoritism. But the Amorites are wicked. As the centuries go by, their wickedness will increase. It will come to a point where the iniquity of the Amorites stands full. And then I shall judge them and shall be seen to be just in judging the Amorites and taking world inheritance out of their hands. When I judge them for their sin and remove world inheritance from their hands, I shall give it to you, Abel. Wonder how that makes you feel. One day, God is going to take this earth out of the hands of wicked, unprincipled, unregenerate men who lie and twist and cheat simply for the sake of amassing goods. And he's going to give world inheritance into the hands of Jesus Christ our Lord. And? Into the hands of those that have trusted Christ. After a minute I said, I don't know about that, Lord. If those fellows weren't worthy to receive it, am I? Am I? That's that. God's going to take it out of the hands of those others because they were sinners. What will happen to me as a believer if I go on sinning. How shall God be able to give it to me? Our Lord explains it like this. There are riches that are our own. Because God has covenanted them to us. My dear good fellow believer in Christ, world inheritance is yours. God has covenanted it to you. The covenant's already been made. It is already yours, Legally. legally. Listen. As Christ, while it's yours. If you are not faithful in that which is least, you wouldn't be faithful in that which is greater, would you? And if you've not been faithful in that which belongs to somebody else, who will give you what is your own? Yes. You see, if I were the heir to a great extent down here on Earth, and it was legally mine, in my name, so that when I came of twenty one years old, I should have legal entitlement to the estate. But at nineteen years old, I became insane. Though the estate is mine legally, nobody would give it to me. Wouldn't know how to deal with it today. World inheritance is yours, says Christ. It is yours, legally yours, already legally yours. Your present goods are not yours, are they? God hasn't covenanted to give you a car. God hasn't covenanted to give you a home full of lovely things. Your present goods are not yours. They belong to Christ. They are God's. He has merely lent us these goods, and we are his stewards. We brought nothing into the world, we shall take nothing out. The goods don't belong to us, they are his in the ultimate sense. They are lent to us, and we are stewards of those goods. Now listen, says Christ, you are expected to be faithful as stewards of your present goods because they belong to somebody else, really. And if you are not faithful in that which belongs to somebody else, who at length will give you what is legally yours. You say, I think I must be trained then. By God's grace, I must be trained. If he's given me this great inheritance, I shall have to be trained to know how to keep see after it and use it. Yes, you will indeed. And do you know what? That's what this next section is about, of course it is, isn't it? For men who are not only justified by faith, but inheritors of worldwide inheritance. God didn't forget that there would need to be a period of training when they were morally and spiritually trained, so as be to be prepared to take over the inheritance. And at last, it goes into the Lord that is worth. Shall we try? Father, we thank thee for these interesting and intricate things. We confess before thee that they are intricate, yet we praise thee for their intricacy, because it is the intricacy of thy wealth and the wonder of thy delight that thou hast determined to give to everyone that trusts the same. We thank thee for our justification. We thank thee for the eternal inheritance that thou hast given to us. We thank thee for the prospect of one day enjoying it together with Christ. We pray that in the meanwhile, thou would help us cooperate with thee as sons with the Father, that our spiritual and moral education may proceed, so that when the day dawns of our adoption, and we are taken home, we may be found ready to be given, in a practical sense, the control of our great inheritance. To this end, bless thy word and grant us thy evening benefit through Jesus Christ our Lord.