WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:05.040 in a vision saying, fear not Abram, I have thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. 00:05.040 --> 00:10.080 And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me seeing I go childless and the steward of my house 00:10.080 --> 00:17.920 is this Eleazar of Damascus. And Abram said, behold to me thou has given no seed and lo one born in 00:17.920 --> 00:22.720 my house is mine heir. And behold the word of the Lord came on to him saying, this shall not be thine 00:22.720 --> 00:27.840 heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bow shall be thine heir. And he brought him 00:27.840 --> 00:32.160 forth abroad and said, look now toward heaven and tell the stars if thou be able to number them. 00:32.160 --> 00:38.400 He said unto him, so shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for 00:38.400 --> 00:43.520 righteousness. And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees to 00:43.520 --> 00:49.280 give thee this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit 00:49.280 --> 00:54.080 it? And he said unto him, take me and Hefra three years old and a shego to three years old and a 00:54.080 --> 00:58.320 ram of three years old and a turtle dove and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these and 00:58.320 --> 01:03.280 divided them in the midst and laid each piece one against another, but the birds divided he not. 01:03.280 --> 01:08.320 When the fowls came down upon the carcasses Abram drove them away. And when the sun was going down 01:08.320 --> 01:13.680 a deep sleep fell upon Abram and low and horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, 01:13.680 --> 01:18.400 know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that it is not theirs and shall serve 01:18.400 --> 01:23.280 them and they shall affect them for a hundred years. And also that nation whom they shall 01:23.280 --> 01:28.160 serve will I judge and afterward shall they come out with a great substance. Thou shalt go to thy 01:28.160 --> 01:33.440 fathers in peace. Thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall 01:33.440 --> 01:38.320 come hither again for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. They came to pass that when the 01:38.320 --> 01:43.440 sun went down and it was dark behold the smoking furnace and the burning lamp that passed between 01:43.440 --> 01:49.680 those pieces. The same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying unto thy seed have I given this 01:49.680 --> 01:55.520 land from the river of Egypt not to the great river the river Euphrates the Kenites the Kenizites 01:55.520 --> 02:01.280 and the Katmonites the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Rephaims and the Amorites and the 02:01.280 --> 02:05.040 Canaanites and the Girgashites and the Jebusites. Let's pray. Father God we thank you Lord for the 02:05.040 --> 02:08.240 King James Bible. Thank you for this wonderful church you've given us dear Lord. We thank you 02:08.240 --> 02:12.240 for our pastor also. We ask that you please bless him tonight as he preaches your word in Jesus name. 02:13.440 --> 02:19.840 Amen. Tonight we continue with our Bible study on the book of Genesis. We took a little bit of a 02:19.840 --> 02:25.040 break here but we are in chapter 15 tonight. We're going to look at the confirmation of the covenant 02:25.040 --> 02:30.080 with Abraham. If you remember a couple weeks back when we were going through Genesis chapter 14 02:30.080 --> 02:37.360 it was the famous story of Abraham rescuing his nephew from the war that had captured Lot. 02:38.000 --> 02:44.080 And of course we know that Abraham rescued Lot with those born in his own household. It was a 02:44.080 --> 02:50.320 great victory. He was able to recover his nephew along with the spoils and then we have the 02:50.320 --> 02:56.240 introduction of Melchizedek right towards the latter end of the chapter there. We also have 02:56.240 --> 03:02.800 in chapter 14 where the king of Sodom is seeking to reward Abraham for his efforts and we have 03:02.800 --> 03:07.600 Abraham of course at this particular time his name is Abraham. I'm going to use Abraham just 03:07.600 --> 03:13.200 for the sake of you know not switching back and forth. Abraham ends up rejecting that reward 03:13.200 --> 03:17.600 and now we're in chapter 15. Look at verse number one here. It says after these things the word of 03:17.600 --> 03:24.320 the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision saying fear not Abraham I am thy shield and thy exceeding 03:24.320 --> 03:28.960 great rewards. We're going to look at the assurance that God gives to Abraham regarding some of the 03:28.960 --> 03:33.360 promises in the covenant that he's going to make with him and the first thing we see here 03:33.360 --> 03:39.840 is that God tells Abraham don't fear don't be afraid he's the shield of Abraham right and he 03:39.840 --> 03:44.960 specifically says that he's his exceeding great reward. Now obviously that's in response to the 03:44.960 --> 03:50.720 fact that he rejected the reward from the king of Sodom. He didn't accept that reward he didn't take 03:50.720 --> 03:56.000 it from the king of Sodom but God reminds him at the end of the day no matter what it is that you 03:56.000 --> 04:02.160 get materially here in this world no matter recompense is withholding from you God is our 04:02.160 --> 04:06.480 exceeding great reward. That's what he's communicating there. You know the same goes for us today right 04:07.120 --> 04:12.880 at the end of the day we may forfeit maybe some of the pleasures of this life because we're living 04:12.880 --> 04:19.120 a Christian life. We may you know forfeit some of the riches of this world because we're focused 04:19.120 --> 04:23.760 on setting our affections on things above but at the end of the day God is our exceeding great reward. 04:24.560 --> 04:30.880 Genesis chapter 14 we saw that where Sodom the king of Sodom is seeking to give him that reward. 04:30.880 --> 04:36.080 He rejects that and it's very reminiscent of Moses if you think about it you don't have to turn there 04:36.080 --> 04:42.640 but Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 24 says by faith Moses when he was come to years refused to be 04:42.640 --> 04:48.240 called the son of Pharaoh's daughter and I want you to notice this choosing rather to suffer affliction 04:48.240 --> 04:54.720 suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. 04:54.720 --> 05:00.240 What is it saying? It's saying that Moses instead of living in Pharaoh's house you know enjoying all 05:00.240 --> 05:08.160 the pleasures all the riches that come with Egypt and living in royalty he chose to forfeit that 05:08.160 --> 05:14.480 in order to suffer the afflictions and the persecutions with the people of God rather 05:14.480 --> 05:20.320 than enjoy the pleasures of what Egypt had to offer only for a season. He says in verse 26 05:20.320 --> 05:27.360 esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt for he had respect 05:27.360 --> 05:33.200 unto the right compents of the rewards. We see here that Moses you know forfeited those riches 05:33.200 --> 05:39.360 those pleasures not because he was just bent on living an ascetic life here in this world 05:39.360 --> 05:43.920 not because he just didn't like any reward at all he just understood the reward that he was 05:43.920 --> 05:48.640 going to receive from God was a lot greater the recompense that he was going to receive from God 05:48.640 --> 05:54.400 for serving God was a lot more valuable than the rewards that he was going to receive from Egypt. 05:54.400 --> 06:01.120 Okay it's incredible principle for us to learn today and it helps us to learn the principle of 06:01.120 --> 06:07.680 delayed gratification meaning that as a Christian sometimes we forego some of the fun and the 06:07.680 --> 06:12.480 pleasures of this world knowing full well that God will recompense us in the life to come for 06:12.480 --> 06:16.720 our service that we accomplished for him. It reminds me of what the apostle Paul said in 06:16.720 --> 06:22.000 Philippians chapter 3 verse 7 where it says but what things were gained to me those I counted loss 06:22.000 --> 06:28.960 for Christ. Yea doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ 06:28.960 --> 06:35.360 Jesus my lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but done and I want 06:35.360 --> 06:42.160 you to notice this that I may win Christ isn't that what God told Abraham I am thy exceeding 06:42.240 --> 06:47.120 great reward this is what the apostle Paul is communicating that he won Christ even though he 06:47.120 --> 06:53.600 suffered the loss of his friends of the respect of his community with the Pharisees he was exceeding 06:53.600 --> 06:58.160 zealous for the Jews religion he counted all that but done why because he won Christ at the end of 06:58.160 --> 07:02.720 the day he says being found in him not having my own righteousness which is of the law but that 07:02.720 --> 07:07.760 which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith. Let me explain to you 07:08.720 --> 07:13.680 a lot of Christians don't endure until the end. Let me explain to you why Christians have a hard 07:13.680 --> 07:20.640 time just persisting to serve God for years on end they esteem the riches of this world more than 07:20.640 --> 07:24.960 the riches that God has to offer at the end of this life that's just it and that's why the Bible 07:24.960 --> 07:29.360 consistently tells us to set our affections on things above what does that mean to think on the 07:29.360 --> 07:35.600 eternal think on the millennial reign think on heaven think on the rewards that we will receive 07:35.600 --> 07:42.000 at the resurrection at the regeneration those should motivate us to keep serving God and being 07:42.000 --> 07:46.880 willing to forego certain pleasures of this life in order to receive those things in the long run 07:46.880 --> 07:51.840 and thankfully you know even if a person decides not to do those things if they decide not to serve 07:51.840 --> 07:56.240 God if they decide not to labor for the Lord but they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ they're 07:56.240 --> 08:02.160 still saved why because salvation is not a reward it's a gift right it's a gift that we received by 08:02.160 --> 08:07.200 grace through faith it's not of our works and in fact there's a beautiful picture of salvation in 08:07.200 --> 08:12.880 chapter 15 really demonstrating the fact that it's not of ourselves not by works of righteousness 08:12.880 --> 08:18.960 which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing regeneration and renewing 08:18.960 --> 08:24.000 of the Holy Ghost for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus 08:24.000 --> 08:28.720 Christ our Lord and so consistently we see the salvation is by grace through faith it's not by 08:28.800 --> 08:33.200 works however if you want to receive something at the end of this life you better start getting 08:33.200 --> 08:37.760 to work right you better start learning how to preach the gospel you better start learning your 08:37.760 --> 08:42.240 biblical role you better start learning how to live a godly life because of the fact that there's 08:42.240 --> 08:48.080 a reward for you by suffering for righteousness sake suffering for the gospel's sake you better 08:48.080 --> 08:54.160 learn how to you know win people to Christ preach the gospel so that you have something in your 08:54.160 --> 08:58.560 spiritual account when you get to heaven you know some people are going to get to heaven it's just 08:58.560 --> 09:04.160 completely bankrupt there's nothing there it's just like all right trying to cash in and it's 09:04.160 --> 09:09.680 just like actually you're you're you've overdrafted you know you're in the red actually you know 09:10.400 --> 09:15.520 you know you are actually the least in the kingdom of heaven but hey you're saved yet so as by fire 09:16.320 --> 09:20.960 and you know that's going to happen I think that's going to be the greater crowd than those who 09:20.960 --> 09:24.880 actually serve god why because you know if serving god was easy everyone would be doing it 09:25.680 --> 09:29.520 it's not the easiest thing to do in the world it's not the easiest thing to preach the gospel 09:29.520 --> 09:34.240 you know it's not the easiest thing to just focus on serving god for the rest of your life if it was 09:34.240 --> 09:39.920 then everyone would be doing it and so I think the vast majority of people in heaven and in the 09:39.920 --> 09:44.240 millennial reign are going to be those who were saved yet so as by fire meaning that they're not 09:44.240 --> 09:49.120 going to get anything when they get to heaven and so it's important for us to come to church to read 09:49.120 --> 09:57.200 the bible to be reminded of that recompense to be reminded that god is our shield and our exceeding 09:57.200 --> 10:02.800 great reward now to the carnal person is just like what kind of reward is that though you know I want 10:02.800 --> 10:06.880 I want other things you know but here's the thing when you have god that's all you need right 10:07.840 --> 10:13.360 you know if god before us who can be against us you know he owns the cattle on a thousand hills 10:13.440 --> 10:20.080 he gives us all things richly to enjoy and at the end of the day the bible tells us seek ye first 10:20.080 --> 10:25.120 the kingdom of god and his righteousness and these things shall be added unto you that these things 10:25.120 --> 10:30.320 they are referring to the clothing the food and of course we know that he not only provides for 10:30.320 --> 10:36.240 things that we need but he actually gives us the things that we want sometimes as well and so we 10:36.240 --> 10:42.400 can see here why you know god is telling abraham you know I'm your exceeding great reward why 10:42.400 --> 10:48.400 because you know abraham is a man of like passions I'm sure he walked away thinking like man that was 10:48.400 --> 10:53.200 why did I say no to all those rewards that the king of Sodom was offering you know I kind of 10:53.200 --> 10:58.560 just like said no and maybe there's a little ounce of regret and god is just reminding him like if 10:58.560 --> 11:03.760 you have me you got it all now thankfully you know at the end of the day we don't just have god we 11:03.760 --> 11:09.600 have a lot more we have the cherry on top as well you know we have all the extra fixings we have an 11:09.600 --> 11:15.600 abundance we have so many things outside of salvation that god blesses us with the point 11:15.600 --> 11:22.000 that I'm making here is make sure you don't forget that god is our exceeding great reward 11:22.000 --> 11:28.640 what we're working towards is to please god and to be rewarded of the lord to be honored of god 11:28.640 --> 11:31.760 because folks at the end of the day that's all that's going to matter when you stand before him 11:32.560 --> 11:36.000 you know and we're not talking about standing before him for salvation we're talking about 11:36.000 --> 11:40.800 standing before him at the judgment seat of christ to receive a reward for the works that we did 11:41.360 --> 11:44.800 you know at that day at that time you know minecraft is not going to matter to you anymore 11:45.680 --> 11:49.920 you know anime is not going to matter your vehicle is not going to matter 11:50.640 --> 11:55.120 you know the gym gains are not going to matter I'm preaching to myself here thankfully you know 11:55.120 --> 11:59.520 you know the gains are not going to matter the bench is not going to matter nothing is going 11:59.520 --> 12:02.720 to matter because at the end of the day the only things that will matter are the eternal things 12:02.720 --> 12:07.840 that we did for god mark chapter 10 you don't have to turn there verse 28 says then peter began 12:07.840 --> 12:13.840 to say to him lo we left all and followed thee jesus answered and said it's verily I say to you 12:13.840 --> 12:21.600 there is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children 12:21.600 --> 12:27.840 or lands for my sake in the gospels but he shall receive in hundredfold now in this time houses and 12:27.840 --> 12:32.640 brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the world to come 12:32.640 --> 12:38.720 eternal life what this is explaining here is that serving god not only allows us to be rewarded in 12:38.720 --> 12:45.040 the eternal but it actually promises us a recompense even in the temporal as well he's saying in this 12:45.040 --> 12:51.360 time and in the world to come there are many benefits to serving god aside from the eternal 12:51.360 --> 12:56.400 recompense we actually receive a temporal one as well what is the point that i'm making well god 12:56.400 --> 13:04.240 is reminding abraham that serving him choosing him you know choosing to suffer afflictions choosing 13:04.240 --> 13:09.840 to forego certain pleasures of this world is still worth it it's not like you forego it and you don't 13:09.840 --> 13:14.880 get anything in return you know you can never out give god the blessing the bible says the blessing 13:14.880 --> 13:19.520 of the lord and make it rich and he added no sorrow to it and so it's very important for us 13:19.520 --> 13:25.200 to understand that and be reminded of the reward that we will receive jesus said behold i come 13:25.200 --> 13:32.640 quickly and my reward is with me to give to every man according as his work shall be and this is why 13:32.640 --> 13:36.800 you know it's important in the next couple years you should consider going on a missions trip with 13:36.800 --> 13:44.240 us amen you know it's a very rewarding trip it's obviously very exhausting to go and fly out there 13:44.240 --> 13:49.840 and you know be in that heat and deal with all that food and a different culture and all that 13:49.920 --> 13:57.280 and you know it's a hard week but honestly it's very rewarding temporally and eternally right 13:57.280 --> 14:02.400 and so you know you should plan one day say you know in the next two years i'm going to plan to 14:02.400 --> 14:07.040 go on a missions trip even if it's for a couple of days i want to know what it's like to win people 14:07.040 --> 14:12.880 to christ in other countries and just invest my time in the eternal looking for summer two of 14:12.880 --> 14:19.360 genesis 15 he says and abraham said lord god what will they'll give me so he just got finished 14:19.360 --> 14:24.400 telling him what he would give him that he's the reward and then you know abraham is just like so 14:24.400 --> 14:30.400 what are you going to give me now this is very uh common with man where god has explicitly told 14:30.400 --> 14:34.720 us what he's going to give us and we just completely ignore what he says right he says what would that 14:34.720 --> 14:42.160 give me seen i go childless and the steward of my house is this aliezer of damascus and abraham said 14:42.160 --> 14:50.320 behold to me that was given no seed and lo one born in my house is mine heir verse four says 14:50.320 --> 14:55.680 and behold the word of the lord came on him saying this shall not be thine heir but he that shall 14:55.680 --> 15:00.880 come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir and he brought for brought him forth abroad 15:00.880 --> 15:06.240 and said look now toward heaven and tell the stars if they'll be able to number them and he said unto 15:06.720 --> 15:12.320 so shall thy seed be so obviously you know what's important to abraham is children he wants children 15:12.320 --> 15:19.840 he wants a son he wants an heir and obviously he has a sense of urgency because he's getting older 15:20.480 --> 15:26.720 and you know the likelihood of his wife bearing children is becoming far more distant and unlikely 15:26.720 --> 15:31.120 from a physical perspective so he's asking god who are you going to give to me to be the heir 15:31.120 --> 15:34.960 and he's kind of trying to figure it out on his own he says you know i got this one heir who's 15:34.960 --> 15:40.480 born in my house and it's not his son referring to aliezer and the lord is simply telling him like 15:40.480 --> 15:44.320 no that's not going to be it it's going to come from your own bowels okay meaning that it's going 15:44.320 --> 15:49.200 to come from your own body it's going to be biologically your son and this is something 15:49.200 --> 15:53.760 that we're going to see throughout these next couple chapters is that although abraham is the 15:53.760 --> 15:58.640 father of faith it doesn't mean he didn't lapse in his faith ever once in a while right we're 15:58.720 --> 16:04.880 going to see this later on that he has a lapse in faith and he ends up having the illegitimate 16:04.880 --> 16:11.120 you know heir which is ishmael right with hagar and obviously we can point to sarah having a lapse 16:11.120 --> 16:16.400 of faith as well but you know they're one flesh they're both to blame they both participated in 16:16.400 --> 16:22.880 this decision to for abraham to go in unto hagar and to produce ishmael but even now we see he's 16:22.880 --> 16:27.840 already planning oh is it aliezer of damascus who's going to be my heir and god is saying no 16:27.840 --> 16:34.160 that's not going to be him and in fact look at the stars so shall thy seed be and he specifically 16:34.160 --> 16:40.480 says tell the stars tell is just another way of saying count the stars okay think of a bank teller 16:40.480 --> 16:48.000 someone who counts he's saying count the stars if you're able to so shall thy seed be now this is a 16:48.640 --> 16:54.080 very strong proof that the promise that is being given here is not referring to a physical 16:54.080 --> 17:01.120 descendant the physical descendants of abraham why because you know there's far more stars in heaven 17:01.120 --> 17:06.720 that you can look at than there are of the nation of israel and one thing you'll notice in the old 17:06.720 --> 17:13.040 testament is when god gives this exorbitant amount of children that are going to be born unto you 17:13.040 --> 17:18.880 know the patriarchs as a proof of promise it's often this crazy amount of people which why it 17:18.960 --> 17:24.640 has to include the gentiles right because if the promise was only subject to the nation of israel 17:24.640 --> 17:31.200 that's not very many okay and in fact they ended up getting mixed in with the heathen and losing 17:31.200 --> 17:36.000 their ethnic identity and so forth and so that's why he includes the gentiles because the promise 17:36.000 --> 17:42.480 is a spiritual promise and the spiritual is that which is most important okay so when he says so 17:42.480 --> 17:48.480 shall thy seed be this is prophetically addressing the fact that abraham is going to be the father 17:48.480 --> 17:56.160 of many nations not just one nation many nations okay because he's going to be the father of the 17:56.160 --> 18:01.440 gentiles as well now what's interesting about this is that god specifically tells abraham you know 18:01.440 --> 18:08.720 tell the stars count the stars and from abraham is going to come who the bright and morning star 18:08.720 --> 18:14.400 which is the lord jesus christ and doesn't that fit the promise that we see in galatians 3 16 not 18:14.400 --> 18:18.720 to abraham and to see what the promise is made he stayed not into seizes of many but as of one 18:18.720 --> 18:25.040 and to thy seed which is christ why because christ is that bright and morning star you know that is 18:25.040 --> 18:30.160 counted within the stars that he's counting there and of course along with all the believers 18:30.160 --> 18:35.680 who will be converted in the new testament as well the bible says in daniel chapter 12 verse 3 18:35.680 --> 18:41.440 and they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to 18:41.520 --> 18:47.920 righteousness as the stars forever and ever so obviously this is referring to believers you know 18:47.920 --> 18:54.640 those who don't believe are the wandering stars right whereas the believers those who are heirs 18:54.640 --> 19:01.920 to the promise are the stars here that are being mentioned isaiah 54 and verse number one says sing 19:01.920 --> 19:09.760 o barren thou that didst not bear break forth into singing and cry aloud thou that didst not travail 19:09.760 --> 19:15.760 with child for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife 19:15.760 --> 19:20.560 saith the lord enlarge the place of thy tent let them stretch forth the curtains of thy 19:20.560 --> 19:27.120 inhabitations spare not lengthen thy cords strengthen thy stakes for thou shall break forth on 19:27.120 --> 19:34.960 the right hand and on the on the left and thy seed shall inherit the gentiles and make the desolate 19:34.960 --> 19:39.520 cities to be inhabited so even in the old testament we see the promises that in order for 19:39.520 --> 19:45.520 this promise to be fulfilled to abraham gentiles have to be included okay why because god is not 19:45.520 --> 19:50.240 just the god of israel he's the god of the whole world he's interested in reaching everyone with 19:50.240 --> 19:56.000 the gospel you know the the point with israel being selected first is that unto them were committed 19:56.000 --> 19:59.760 the oracles of god they were supposed to be a light unto the gentiles and to a certain degree 19:59.760 --> 20:05.680 they were because there were prophets in the old testament who preached abroad they did get people 20:05.680 --> 20:10.880 saved we see this in roman chapter 10 that they preached the word of god in various nations 20:10.880 --> 20:15.760 and got people saved but of course by the time we reached the first century ad they weren't doing 20:15.760 --> 20:22.320 that they were rejecting the gentiles thereby not fulfilling the command to reach forth unto the 20:22.320 --> 20:29.680 gentiles and reach them as well look at verse number six so after abraham goes out and he sees 20:30.480 --> 20:37.360 he counts them you know this creates what faith in him right you know when we look upon the lord 20:37.360 --> 20:44.560 jesus christ it creates faith right faith cometh by hearing hearing by the word of god when we look 20:44.560 --> 20:51.440 unto jesus that bright and morning star it should create faith and it says there in verse six and he 20:51.440 --> 20:58.880 believed in the lord and he counted it to him for righteousness so after god commands him to look at 20:58.880 --> 21:05.280 the stars he looks he views the stars and in light of that promise that god gave him he believes god 21:05.280 --> 21:10.400 and accounted into him for righteousness so this is a statement that is closely related to what 21:10.400 --> 21:15.200 salvation now go to the new testament go to roman chapter four if you would roman chapter four 21:16.960 --> 21:20.880 this by the way completely destroys the concept of dispensationalism 21:20.880 --> 21:28.480 more specifically dispensational salvation okay there's many various degrees of dispensationalism 21:29.200 --> 21:34.960 there's you know the the dispensationalism that doesn't necessarily delve into dispensational 21:34.960 --> 21:41.760 salvation but they do talk they do believe that you know history is divided into seven different 21:41.760 --> 21:45.680 dispensations and that the jews are god shows and people and all that nonsense or whatever 21:46.240 --> 21:51.840 there's a hardcore dispensationalism that believes that salvation was different throughout history 21:52.480 --> 21:57.120 that in the old testament it was through works through the keeping of the law through the 21:57.120 --> 22:03.280 sacrifices and that now we're into the dispensation of grace where salvation is by grace through faith 22:03.280 --> 22:08.080 but that in the end times in the book of revelation it'll switch again it'll be by works 22:08.080 --> 22:13.920 okay and then you have your really hardcore retard dispensationalists who believe like even 22:13.920 --> 22:18.800 in the old testament there was various degrees of salvation like from the garden of eden all the 22:18.800 --> 22:23.840 way to the law of moses like you know people got saved like differently throughout all those 22:23.840 --> 22:29.440 particular ages it's crazy okay but this automatically destroys that does it not 22:29.440 --> 22:34.160 because it specifically says that abraham believed god and it was counted unto him for 22:34.160 --> 22:38.480 righteousness right meaning that salvation has always been by grace through faith 22:40.480 --> 22:44.960 and in the book of acts chapter 10 what does it say to him give all the prophets witness that 22:44.960 --> 22:49.920 through his name whosoever believeth in him you know uh what's the how's the verse go 22:50.560 --> 22:56.480 shall receive what remission of sins and so he specifically talked about the prophets of the old 22:56.480 --> 23:01.840 testament that preached the gospel and they preached the gospel there were preaching today 23:01.840 --> 23:08.080 the ones that the apostles preached in the book of acts salvation has never changed and if it did 23:08.080 --> 23:12.720 change then that would mean anybody who preached those things are cursed according to the apostle 23:12.720 --> 23:18.720 paul in galatians chapter 1 right that if anyone preaches another gospel let him be a curse point 23:18.720 --> 23:22.640 that i'm making here salvation has always been the same and you know dispensationalists hate 23:22.640 --> 23:27.040 this phrase but it should come as a surprise because they just hate the bible is you know 23:27.040 --> 23:33.120 we'll often say oh you know we look back to the cross for salvation right whereas those in the 23:33.120 --> 23:38.000 old testament look forward to the cross for salvation and that's a biblical accurate statement 23:38.000 --> 23:44.240 to make that's very biblical it's very accurate and you know dispensational is like oh that's so 23:44.240 --> 23:48.000 nonsense like how can they look forward to the cross up because it was the sacrifice of christ 23:48.000 --> 23:53.120 was talked about in the old testament the fact that you know the bible talked about cursed is 23:53.840 --> 23:59.600 the man who hangeth on a tree and that christ was crucified on a tree oh it's crucified on a cross 23:59.600 --> 24:04.800 a cross is made of a tree okay it's obviously a fulfillment of what the bible says in the old 24:04.800 --> 24:09.520 testament and here's often the argument that they presented like well they didn't know the name of 24:09.520 --> 24:17.360 jesus in the old testament yeah but they believed in the christ which is the lord now keep in mind 24:17.360 --> 24:25.040 that there is a transitional period between old and new testament where christ came he lived he 24:25.040 --> 24:31.120 died he resurrected and ascended and during that particular era the gospel is being preached but 24:31.120 --> 24:36.720 it's also being reinforced that jesus is that christ okay we're not in that era anymore because 24:36.720 --> 24:41.680 everyone knows the name of jesus you know it doesn't exist where you're like well what about 24:41.760 --> 24:46.720 some remote island somewhere and they don't know the name of jesus they got youtube 24:48.800 --> 24:54.080 you know they're over there doing a little tick tock they they got youtube they have the internet 24:54.080 --> 24:58.800 the name of jesus has spread abroad everyone knows the name now the first century ad not everyone knew 24:58.800 --> 25:05.760 the name of jesus okay so what you have is disciples apostles converts going into various 25:05.760 --> 25:12.320 places outside of jerusalem preaching that jesus is that christ and so they would go into a 25:12.320 --> 25:18.480 synagogue and if they preach like hey jesus is the christ that the bible talks about in the old 25:18.480 --> 25:23.840 testament if they agree to that it's just like okay this person is saved they're like oh yeah i 25:23.840 --> 25:28.000 i agree with that yeah i believe that they didn't just get saved right there they just already got 25:28.000 --> 25:32.320 they were already saved because they believed on the lord they're transitioning from old to new 25:32.320 --> 25:38.480 testament you understand but if you had someone who's just like no i don't believe that we're 25:38.480 --> 25:44.640 still awaiting the christ okay this person's not saved at all because they're denying that jesus 25:44.640 --> 25:50.080 is that christ now we're not in that transitional period anymore but that was the thing that was 25:50.080 --> 25:56.320 the case back then because in the old testament they just had to believe on the lord now we have 25:56.320 --> 26:01.440 to be specific that they have to believe on the lord jesus christ because the stipulation the 26:01.440 --> 26:08.240 strict condition that the new testament places is the name of jesus okay and so look at roman 26:08.240 --> 26:14.080 chapter four verse number one it says what shall we say then that abraham our father 26:14.640 --> 26:19.200 as pertaining to the flesh hath found now i want you to notice that the apostle paul is writing to 26:19.200 --> 26:27.440 the romans who are gentiles and what does he say our father right so he's including the gentiles 26:27.440 --> 26:34.560 in that he says for if abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory but not before 26:34.560 --> 26:40.560 god now catholics orthodox and every workspace salvationist just ignore this passage right here 26:40.560 --> 26:45.120 they love going to james chapter two where it talks about abraham and being justified by works 26:45.120 --> 26:50.880 but they never like to compare it to roman chapter four why because roman chapter four says if abraham 26:50.880 --> 26:57.200 were justified by works he hath whereof to glory but not before god so if it's not before god 26:57.200 --> 27:07.120 who is he glorying before man because works justify us before man you understand faith justifies 27:07.120 --> 27:13.520 us before god because only god can see what's in our heart but our words justifies us before man 27:13.520 --> 27:19.600 which is why james chapter two exists he says in verse three for what say the scripture abraham 27:19.600 --> 27:25.600 believed god and it was counted unto him for righteousness what is the same it's promoting 27:25.600 --> 27:32.000 faith for salvation now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt 27:32.640 --> 27:39.680 but to him that worketh not but believeth on him to justify the ungodly his faith is counted 27:39.680 --> 27:44.320 for righteousness one of the most powerful passages to substantiate the claim that salvation 27:44.320 --> 27:48.880 is not by works because it's specifically saying if you don't work your faith is still counted for 27:48.880 --> 27:55.120 righteousness right skip down to verse nine if you would he says come at this blessedness then 27:55.120 --> 28:00.080 upon the circumcision only now when he says a circumcision he's referring to jews right 28:01.200 --> 28:09.280 you know he later slanderously says you know the the the concision just to kind of like get at them 28:09.280 --> 28:15.440 just kind of poke at them but here he talks about the circumcision he says only upon the 28:15.440 --> 28:21.280 uncircumcision also for we say that faith was reckoned to abraham for righteousness how was 28:21.280 --> 28:28.560 it then reckon when he was in circumcision or an uncircumcision not in circumcision but in 28:28.560 --> 28:34.960 uncircumcision what is he saying he's saying was that abraham gets saved when he was circumcised 28:34.960 --> 28:40.800 or uncircumcised when he received the seal of that covenant through circumcision it was obviously 28:40.800 --> 28:47.600 before that demonstrating that salvation does not require any obedience on your part to the commands 28:47.600 --> 28:54.720 of god he says in verse 11 and he received the sign of circumcision a seal of the righteousness 28:54.720 --> 29:00.400 of the faith which he had yet been uncircumcised that he might be the father of all them that 29:00.400 --> 29:06.720 believe though they be not circumcised that righteousness may be imputed unto them also so 29:06.720 --> 29:11.920 what is the same he's saying the reason this happened in this chronological order is to 29:11.920 --> 29:16.640 demonstrate to the world that gentiles can just believe on the lord jesus christ 29:17.280 --> 29:23.120 and be saved because the patriarch abraham got saved before obeying the command to be circumcised 29:25.120 --> 29:28.640 he says in the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only 29:29.200 --> 29:34.160 but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father abraham which he had been yet 29:34.160 --> 29:40.480 uncircumcised for the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to abraham or to his 29:40.480 --> 29:46.880 seed through the law but through the righteousness of faith now that's important why is that because 29:46.880 --> 29:53.440 the law during abraham's time didn't exist now did it the law was established at mount sinai 29:55.120 --> 30:02.080 years hundreds of years later okay and so when we talk about those who are under the law who are 30:02.080 --> 30:06.080 talking about talking about israel because they were the chosen people of god under the law 30:06.080 --> 30:11.040 established on mount sinai and it's specifically saying here that the promise was given to abraham 30:11.040 --> 30:15.920 before the establishment of that covenant on mount sinai what does that demonstrate it 30:15.920 --> 30:22.800 demonstrates that salvation transcends the mosaic law okay it's existed before that it transcends it 30:22.800 --> 30:28.320 you know god's people transcends it you know the promise given to abraham transcends the mosaic 30:28.320 --> 30:35.200 law the mosaic law was only a small window of time in order to foreshadow christ in the new testament 30:35.200 --> 30:40.320 says in verse 14 for if they had she's been for if they which were are of the law be heirs 30:40.320 --> 30:45.200 faith is made void and the promise made of none effect so it's like oh man the jews are 30:45.200 --> 30:50.080 god's chosen people you're basically saying that the promise is made void them by your own admission 30:50.080 --> 30:56.480 according to verse 14 verse 15 says because the law worketh wrath for where no law is there is no 30:56.480 --> 31:03.360 transgression therefore it is a faith that it might be by grace to the end the promise might be sure to 31:03.360 --> 31:09.920 all the seed not to that only which is of the law but to that also which is the faith of abraham 31:09.920 --> 31:16.800 who is the father of us all basically saying that the promise is extended not just to the gentiles 31:16.800 --> 31:23.360 but also to believing jews as well how do we know that because paul's talking here and he's a benjamite 31:23.360 --> 31:29.360 right he says in verse 17 as it is written i have made thee a father of many nations 31:30.160 --> 31:36.000 before him whom he believed even god who quickeneth the dead and called those things 31:36.640 --> 31:42.000 which be not as though they were so it's interesting that people always say well they're 31:42.000 --> 31:48.320 descendants of abraham but it says here that abraham is the father of many nations not just 31:48.320 --> 31:54.800 of one nation so that is inclusive to all nations through faith the bible also says in galatians 31:54.800 --> 32:01.040 chapter 3 verse 6 even as abraham believed god and it was accounted to him for righteousness 32:01.040 --> 32:07.360 know ye therefore that they which are of faith the same are the children of abraham now i'm 32:07.360 --> 32:13.200 not going to get into james 2 for the sake of time go back to genesis 15 if you would genesis chapter 15 32:15.520 --> 32:19.920 what's the point that i'm making here you know genesis 15 is a very powerful passage of scripture 32:20.000 --> 32:25.440 that the new testament references in order to reinforce the doctrine of justification 32:26.560 --> 32:33.200 because abraham is not doing anything he's not doing any works you know going out and looking 32:33.200 --> 32:39.920 at the stars doesn't count for works just like looking unto jesus for salvation is not works on 32:39.920 --> 32:46.400 our part okay and this is important you know within christianity there will always be a major 32:46.400 --> 32:49.600 division between those who believe in salvation by grace through faith without works 32:50.240 --> 32:56.320 and those who believe in salvation by grace through faith plus works these are mutually exclusive 32:57.040 --> 33:01.120 and look we need to understand that if someone believes in works but they believe in christ 33:01.120 --> 33:07.200 they're not saved and you know i know a lot of christians have a hard time passing judgment or 33:07.200 --> 33:14.000 something but you know the bible passes that judgment and it's time to speak with authority 33:14.000 --> 33:19.440 it's time to speak with the with the definitive answer and say look if a person believes that 33:19.440 --> 33:24.800 it's by christ alone but they add works to that that means they're not saved because the bible 33:24.800 --> 33:30.000 specifically says in romans 11 6 and if by grace then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no 33:30.000 --> 33:37.440 more grace so the gift is made known void to the person who adds to salvation who adds to the gift 33:37.440 --> 33:42.320 of god you understand and this is what i often explain to people when i'm at the door preaching 33:42.320 --> 33:47.840 the gospel is i'll say you know would you agree that the sacrifice of christ is enough to save you 33:48.480 --> 33:54.400 is enough to pay for salvation and they're like oh yeah it is enough so therefore god doesn't need 33:54.400 --> 34:00.560 your help he doesn't need your works yeah but i just believe if you're saved you'll do works 34:00.560 --> 34:06.800 but that's a thinly veiled workspace salvation because what essentially you're implying is that 34:06.800 --> 34:12.320 if a person doesn't do their doesn't do the works then they're not saved thereby asserting 34:12.320 --> 34:16.400 that you have to do works in order to confirm salvation but nowhere in the bible does it say 34:16.400 --> 34:21.360 you have to do works to confirm salvation to god what do you have to do believe and it's counted 34:21.360 --> 34:26.560 unto you for righteousness that's what the bible says and we have to draw that clear line when 34:26.560 --> 34:31.200 we're preaching the gospel because i'm telling you there's people out there yay i would even say 34:31.200 --> 34:35.600 sunday morning there's people in here who believe that and we need to make sure that we correct them 34:35.600 --> 34:40.720 on that okay and like well what if you offend people well you know better to preach the truth 34:40.720 --> 34:46.080 in the fend right than to just we don't offend them and they split hell wide open because they 34:46.080 --> 34:50.800 never learned the truth okay and one thing i've learned especially you know going to belize 34:51.360 --> 34:57.920 because pretty much almost all the prophets over there preach a false gospel okay we're out there 34:57.920 --> 35:02.160 preaching the gospel and they're throwing a fit about it they're throwing a fit about once saved 35:02.160 --> 35:09.840 always saved the most basic foundational doctrine of the bible they're just like how can you say you 35:09.840 --> 35:14.560 can just do all these things and still be saved it's like brother we're just preaching the bible 35:14.560 --> 35:20.800 so the bible literally says you know and and for someone to say well i believe in one saved always 35:20.800 --> 35:24.640 say but i think it's still up for debate don't say you believe in one saved always save them 35:25.920 --> 35:30.000 because it's not up for debate that's like saying salvation is just up for debate 35:30.640 --> 35:34.160 that's like saying the gift of god which is eternal life is up for debate it's not up for debate 35:34.720 --> 35:40.640 okay and i'm telling you right now we need to make sure this is the hill to die on this is something 35:40.640 --> 35:44.960 that we need to proclaim every single time and even as you know a pastor though i've been 35:44.960 --> 35:49.680 pastoring the church for quite some time i got to preach it very regularly less people should 35:49.680 --> 35:56.080 become deceived or you know be on tiktok too much or on instagram or on facebook and you got some 35:56.080 --> 36:01.280 preacher up there yelling and screaming how one saved always saved is a heresy and a false doctrine 36:01.280 --> 36:06.320 and because they're so theatrical about it they buy into that nonsense you know you could do nothing 36:06.320 --> 36:11.040 against the truth before the truth and the bible says that salvation is eternal you know he that 36:11.040 --> 36:17.360 liveth and believeth in me shall never die right and so it's important for us to recognize that 36:17.360 --> 36:21.680 all that's required for salvation is to believe on the lord jesus christ and this is what people 36:21.760 --> 36:27.760 respond oh the devils believe though right i mean heard that well first of all salvation is not 36:27.760 --> 36:32.400 extended to devils so nice you know very cute but it's never been extended to devils 36:33.680 --> 36:38.880 secondly nowhere in the in that chapter does it say that the below the devils believe on the lord 36:38.880 --> 36:46.160 jesus christ right it just says the devils believe and tremble you know there's various instances 36:46.160 --> 36:51.200 where the word believe is used in the bible and it's not in context of salvation you know sometimes 36:51.200 --> 36:58.080 we just got to learn context okay and you know james two is not in the context of salvation 36:58.080 --> 37:06.320 james two is in the context of adding maturity to us as believers who are saved that's the context 37:06.320 --> 37:11.680 of it how do we add maturity by helping others okay that's why it says have not the faith of our 37:11.680 --> 37:18.160 lord jesus christ with respect to persons so he's just saying look if you have the faith of our lord 37:18.160 --> 37:24.800 jesus christ don't add bad works to it add good works to it all right i'm getting off topic here 37:24.800 --> 37:31.120 but it's important you know this genesis 15 is important this is the quintessential chapter 37:31.120 --> 37:37.200 that paul quotes from in galatians chapter 3 in roman chapter 4 to demonstrate that faith is all 37:37.200 --> 37:43.360 that's required for salvation okay and and here's let me just say this last thing okay you know i've 37:43.360 --> 37:49.120 talked to people about this online multiple times mainly catholics and you know they're so staunch 37:49.120 --> 37:53.920 that it's just by works but if you ask them so like are you sure that you're safe they're like 37:53.920 --> 37:58.320 well i'm not sure if i'm saved how can you speak to me with such assurance that this is what it's 37:58.320 --> 38:03.040 saying but you're not sure that you're saved what in the world is that you know the bible says these 38:03.040 --> 38:06.080 things have written unto you to believe in the name of the son of god that you may know 38:06.800 --> 38:11.600 the have eternal life but you don't know and it's just like well none of us really know i know 38:13.360 --> 38:19.040 i know be on a shadow of a doubt that was set along ago the old account was set along ago amen 38:19.920 --> 38:24.320 but you're going to school me on the doctrine of justification but you don't know the material 38:25.200 --> 38:30.240 you don't know the content you don't know if you're saved or not and here's the thing folks is just 38:30.240 --> 38:33.440 like you know oh you have to do all these works then why aren't you doing them 38:36.240 --> 38:41.280 you know when we knock on doors it's just like oh i just think that you have to do works 38:41.280 --> 38:43.760 oh so according to your standard i'm saved and you're not 38:46.400 --> 38:50.320 so you're trying to get on me claiming that i'm preaching a false gospel but i'm actually doing 38:50.320 --> 38:56.960 the things that you claim you have to do in order to be saved right you should be the one preaching 38:56.960 --> 39:03.200 the gospel you should be but you're not you're playing fortnight you know and just living a 39:03.200 --> 39:07.760 vain life or whatever but you're going to tell me you have to do works for salvation how's that 39:07.760 --> 39:12.560 working out for you you know and obviously we don't believe that salvation is by works but 39:12.560 --> 39:16.880 even according to their standards they don't even live up to their standards of what they believe 39:16.880 --> 39:23.600 salvation is look at verse seven if you would genesis 15 and verse seven says and he said unto 39:23.600 --> 39:29.520 him i am the lord that brought thee out of the out of the earth caldees to give thee this land 39:29.520 --> 39:34.640 to inherit it and he said lord god whereby shall i know that i shall inherit it and he said and 39:34.640 --> 39:40.560 said take me a heifer of three years old and a she goat of three years old and a ram of three 39:40.560 --> 39:46.160 years old and a turtle dove and a young pigeon and he took unto him all these and divided them 39:46.160 --> 39:54.320 in the midst and laid each piece one against another but the birds divided he not so obviously 39:54.320 --> 39:58.320 what when he's talking about inheriting the land this is the physical land that he's promising 39:58.320 --> 40:02.960 abraham but when you read the new testament you see that he didn't get the land right he sought 40:02.960 --> 40:09.920 for a better country the bible says one that's not made with hands okay and so obviously abraham 40:09.920 --> 40:15.440 understood the spiritual implications of this promise but make no mistake about it there is 40:15.440 --> 40:21.760 a physical implication the difference is this it's given to those who believe and so people 40:21.760 --> 40:27.600 often point to passages like this where it talks about inheriting the land and they use this as a 40:27.600 --> 40:33.120 justification for the israeli occupation but they have a tendency to leave this one part out 40:33.120 --> 40:41.360 that they have to believe okay on the lord jesus christ you know uh zionist and dispensational his 40:41.360 --> 40:47.040 greatest enemy is jesus they hate talking about jesus they hate talking about what jesus talks 40:47.040 --> 40:52.560 about they don't like anyone because he just messes everything up for them you know the only 40:52.560 --> 40:58.080 way zionism could work is if you just take jesus out of the equation but if you add jesus like 40:58.080 --> 41:08.640 john 844 revelation 2 9 and 39 you know it just decimates zionism why because zionism is the jesus 41:09.200 --> 41:15.840 of that religion you understand you have to believe on israel in order to be saved zionism 41:15.840 --> 41:21.840 is the is the false gospel of israel and so but here's the thing sometimes people have such a 41:21.840 --> 41:27.280 knee-jerk reaction to that they're like oh yeah that's my land you know and she's like no it's 41:27.280 --> 41:35.120 not our land either this land belongs to believing israelites of the old testament and they will 41:35.120 --> 41:40.720 inherit it in the millennial reign so chill out you know we don't need a crusade to jerusalem 41:41.280 --> 41:44.320 someone told me that the other day they're like we need to have a crusade to do but why would you 41:44.320 --> 41:51.360 want it why would you want it the land is defiled there's a bunch of pedophiles and sodomites they're 41:51.360 --> 41:59.760 in jews it's not a land worth having the the real estate has gone down right it's not a worthy 41:59.760 --> 42:05.040 place to go i'm not interested in going to israel why because jesus isn't there so why would i want 42:05.040 --> 42:11.040 to go you know the only time i want to visit jerusalem and israel is when christ is raining 42:11.040 --> 42:16.640 from there and all the homos and pedos and jews unbelieving jews are taken out that's the only time 42:16.720 --> 42:22.880 i want to visit israel why would i want to go there and get spat upon that's not a pleasant visit 42:25.360 --> 42:31.760 you know why would i want to go there where there's funny hats and jerry carol cyburns 42:32.400 --> 42:38.080 you know and and false religion and yes muslims as well i'm not interested in i don't want to go 42:38.080 --> 42:44.000 there if i want to see muslims i'll just go to the east coast if i want to see jews i'll just go to 42:44.000 --> 42:50.240 hollywood but you add the desert to that no thank you i'm not interested i'm only interested in 42:50.240 --> 42:57.200 going to israel once jesus christ is ruling and reigning from jerusalem and he has established 42:57.200 --> 43:03.120 his kingdom and righteousness by removing unbelieving jews and welcoming david and 43:03.120 --> 43:07.200 solomon and the believing israelites of the old testament the ones we agree with 43:07.840 --> 43:11.360 the ones that agree with us that's the only time i'm interested because they actually deserve that 43:12.000 --> 43:17.520 you know why because they actually believed on the lord okay you know i want to go there to go see 43:17.520 --> 43:24.240 peter james and john i want to go there to see the 12 disciples who are going to be ruling over the 43:24.240 --> 43:29.040 12 tribes in the regeneration as jesus christ said in the new testament that's the only thing i'm 43:29.040 --> 43:34.000 interested in why would i want to go there to hear about people who just reject jesus christ and they 43:34.000 --> 43:43.200 hate him and so don't take it too far with this oh man you know that's our land and it doesn't 43:43.200 --> 43:48.000 belong to any jew will you know slow your roll a little bit because it does belong to believing 43:48.000 --> 43:53.200 jews it's just that there's there's really not many today you know i'm not going to say there's 43:53.200 --> 43:58.240 there's zero because there might be there a pterodactyl might exist somewhere out there 43:58.240 --> 44:02.080 there might be a dinosaur out there whatever but for sure there was jews back in the day that did 44:02.080 --> 44:06.240 believe on the lord jesus christ i mean we have the example there in the new testament okay 44:08.160 --> 44:13.360 but god in order to substantiate this in order to prove this to him that he's gonna fulfill the 44:13.360 --> 44:20.560 promise that he's given to him it he causes him to take these the heifer the she goat the ram the 44:20.560 --> 44:27.600 turtle dove and so forth and abraham divides them in the midst and he lays the pieces you know one 44:27.600 --> 44:32.080 against another meaning that like they're facing each other type of a thing it's a very interesting 44:32.640 --> 44:39.120 and unique form of sacrifice here and what we're going to look at is that it's essentially a form 44:39.120 --> 44:45.280 of sacrifice where a covenant is made between two people we actually see this in jeremiah 34 verse 44:45.280 --> 44:50.160 18 says and i will give the men that have transgressed my covenant which have not performed 44:50.160 --> 44:55.440 the words of the covenant which they had made before me when they cut the calf and twain and 44:55.440 --> 44:59.920 passed between the parts thereof the princes of juda the princes of jerusalem the eunuchs and the 44:59.920 --> 45:04.800 priests and all the people of the land which passed between the parts of the calf so this is 45:04.800 --> 45:11.120 obviously some sort of symbolic ritual that takes place in order to confirm an agreement between two 45:11.120 --> 45:16.880 parties okay now the difference with this is that when god does this particular covenant with abraham 45:16.880 --> 45:23.280 he's the only one participating in the passing up between the sacrifices as we'll see towards the 45:23.280 --> 45:29.600 latter end of the chapter now i do believe that when abraham divides these animals this is 45:29.600 --> 45:36.320 essentially a picture of both old and new testament okay the sacrifices of the old and the ultimate 45:36.320 --> 45:43.920 sacrifice in the new look at verse 11 it says here when the fowls came down upon the carcasses 45:43.920 --> 45:48.960 abraham drove them away now i've always thought that was a weird statement to just kind of put 45:49.040 --> 45:53.840 in the chapter you know just like that's kind of it seems out of place it just kind of gave us a 45:53.840 --> 45:59.600 little more detail so he has these animals the birds which are the fowls they come down upon 45:59.600 --> 46:04.080 the sacrifices and he has to kind of like move them away he has to drive them away he has to shoo them 46:04.080 --> 46:09.920 away now i do think that this has some spiritual application that we can interpret through the new 46:10.480 --> 46:15.920 and the main application that i would get from this or an interpretation i would point towards 46:15.920 --> 46:21.040 passages like matthew 13 with the parable of the seed and the sower believe it or not 46:21.760 --> 46:26.080 now when you look at that parable you obviously see that four seeds are sown we know the parable 46:26.080 --> 46:33.440 here and the first seed that's sown you know the bible says that the people who receive that seed 46:33.440 --> 46:39.760 they understand not and the fowls of heaven come and they take that which is sown in the heart 46:39.760 --> 46:45.600 right so that they don't believe now i've always taught and interpreted this to mean that you know 46:45.600 --> 46:51.360 when you're preaching the gospel to someone and you know they don't understand it it's basically 46:51.360 --> 46:57.280 like satan trying to get them to not understand it and he's kind of snatching that away from them 46:57.280 --> 47:03.200 or whatever you know kind of thing and i think it's it's a viable application but what i believe 47:03.200 --> 47:07.840 the main interpretation of that when you actually read the context of matthew 13 and the other 47:07.840 --> 47:14.160 parables parallel to this is that he's specifically talking about israel okay because what's taking 47:14.160 --> 47:20.400 place is that when the israelites received the word of god they rejected it right they doubted 47:21.040 --> 47:28.240 the lord and therefore what does god do he allows that foul that wicked one to come and snatch what 47:28.240 --> 47:34.560 was sown in their hearts now when you compare that to john chapter 12 you see that the bible says that 47:34.560 --> 47:40.720 god is the one who hardens the heart he stops the ears lest they should believe with their heart and 47:40.800 --> 47:46.160 converted and i should heal them so it's basically referring to the fact that he made that nation 47:46.160 --> 47:52.880 reprobate okay because of their doubt and rejection of the gospel so when the foul comes 47:53.440 --> 48:00.000 it's indicative of the fact that like he's coming to snatch the the seed because of their unbelief 48:00.000 --> 48:05.680 their initial unbelief and the rejection of the truth their doubt of the truth you know basically 48:05.680 --> 48:10.560 moves god to send the foul to remove that seed now how do we apply that to what's going on here 48:10.560 --> 48:16.720 well in the beginning of the chapter in genesis 15 abraham's doubting he's doubting of what god 48:16.720 --> 48:22.560 is going to do he's doubting the promises of god right you know as much as he's the father of faith 48:23.440 --> 48:29.840 he's human like all the rest of us and he doubts you know bro's getting kind of old no child as of 48:29.840 --> 48:35.200 yet the promise has not come god is like hey it's gonna happen and you know he's doubting a little 48:35.200 --> 48:41.200 bit so even when god commands him to divide the the the carcasses you know you have the fouls 48:41.200 --> 48:46.240 coming down upon them and what is he doing he's kind of shooing away the doubt so they don't come 48:46.240 --> 48:51.360 upon the sacrifices right he's kind of fighting it's like one of these things lord i believe 48:52.000 --> 48:57.920 but help thou mine unbelief as well okay and you know a good application to this is that 48:58.560 --> 49:04.080 sometimes there's going to be instances in our personal life where we doubt the bible we doubt 49:04.080 --> 49:09.760 the promises of god we doubt that god's going to provide you know what that is those are the fiery 49:09.760 --> 49:13.760 darts of the wicked one those are the fouls that are coming down and what do you have to do you 49:13.760 --> 49:18.240 have to shoo it away you just gotta be like you know that the carcasses represent the word of god 49:18.240 --> 49:23.680 it represents that the promises of god it represents the lord and so you have to just 49:23.680 --> 49:27.520 kind of shoo it away and just be like you know what i'm not i can't like listen to this you 49:27.520 --> 49:35.040 understand and let me tell you right now christians as you know when when they're on the high top and 49:35.040 --> 49:39.920 the mountain top it's easy to believe when everything's going good it's easy you know 49:39.920 --> 49:44.160 god's providing everything's going great it's easy it's when you're in the valley that it gets a 49:44.160 --> 49:48.160 little hard right you know it's when you're in between the carcasses it gets a little hard 49:49.280 --> 49:54.160 it's when you're already doubting to begin with so you start off down you're like i don't know god if 49:54.160 --> 49:57.760 you're really gonna come through on this and he commands you to do something it's just like you 49:57.760 --> 50:02.560 have to fight off the fouls to make it happen and make no mistake about it throughout your life 50:02.560 --> 50:06.720 you're gonna have instances in your personal life where you have to step out in faith and obey the 50:06.720 --> 50:11.680 commandments of god and you know what if you don't want to be a weakling of a christian it's 50:11.680 --> 50:16.160 constantly doubting wondering if god's going to come through and just remain a babe in christ you 50:16.160 --> 50:21.040 have to step out in faith you have to kind of stretch your faith a little bit and shoo away 50:21.680 --> 50:26.880 you know drive away the fouls of the air that are coming upon the carcasses of god's promises 50:26.880 --> 50:32.720 and don't let them eat up right don't let them snatch away the seed that is sown in the heart 50:32.720 --> 50:39.040 okay and so this is what abraham's doing and by this we can see why abraham is a man of great 50:39.040 --> 50:45.680 faith because in spite of doubt he's fighting off doubt whereas christians sometimes they doubt and 50:45.680 --> 50:50.480 they just remain in doubt there's nothing wrong with doubting what's wrong is if you act upon 50:50.480 --> 50:56.240 your doubt like i doubt therefore i'm not going to take any action to obey the lord okay now now 50:56.240 --> 51:01.360 you now you're really doubting whereas everyone doubts but we have to act in faith despite the 51:01.360 --> 51:06.880 fact that we doubt understand and so look at verse 12 here it says and when the sun was going down 51:06.880 --> 51:14.240 a deep sleep fell upon abraham and lo and horror of great darkness fell upon him and he said into 51:14.240 --> 51:20.720 abraham know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in the land that is not theirs and shall 51:20.720 --> 51:29.200 serve them and they shall afflict them 400 years and also that nation whom they shall serve will i 51:29.200 --> 51:35.600 judge and afterwards shall they come out with great substance and thou shall go to thy fathers in 51:35.600 --> 51:41.920 peace thou shall be buried in a good good old age so obviously god is prophesying of the enslavement 51:42.000 --> 51:46.320 of the nation of israel in egypt the new testament tells us of course even in the book of 51:46.320 --> 51:53.440 exodus that they stayed there for 430 years he says in verse 16 but in the fourth generation 51:53.440 --> 52:00.560 they shall come hither again for the iniquity of the amerites is not yet full now why is he saying 52:00.560 --> 52:05.920 this well i believe when he says the iniquity of the amerites is not yet full this is essentially 52:05.920 --> 52:11.840 telling us that the amerites from the time of abraham till the time the nation of israel goes 52:11.840 --> 52:18.240 into canaan land they're just super wicked when it says the iniquity of the amerites is not yet 52:18.240 --> 52:24.480 full this is demonstrating that god is like being merciful to the amerites he's being merciful to 52:24.480 --> 52:34.400 the canaanites they're committing abomination infanticide murder you know sodomy bestiality 52:34.400 --> 52:41.040 all the abominations and god is literally being merciful for 400 plus years and when he says here 52:41.040 --> 52:45.600 that it's not yet full he's basically saying like they haven't reached the point of no return yet 52:46.240 --> 52:51.280 okay so you know when the atheist says like oh what about the old testament where god like 52:51.920 --> 52:55.280 you know committed genocide yeah after like 400 years 52:58.960 --> 53:06.240 you know like he gave them 430 years it sounds merciful to me so should we just allow them 53:06.320 --> 53:12.320 should we allow the canaanites to commit genocide for 400 plus years for another 100 years or should 53:12.320 --> 53:19.600 god just wipe them all out god should wipe them all out okay now this is also demonstrating 53:20.480 --> 53:27.920 that god selected the children of israel not because they were righteous he had like a two-fold 53:27.920 --> 53:32.800 purpose to it right and in fact you don't have to turn there deuteronomy chapter 9 53:32.800 --> 53:37.760 and verse 4 you could write it down read it later it says speak not thou in thine hearts he's 53:37.760 --> 53:43.360 addressing israel after that the lord thy god hath cast them out from before thee saying 53:43.360 --> 53:48.720 for my righteousness the lord hath brought me and to possess this land so he's saying look when you 53:49.360 --> 53:55.520 have victory over the canaanites and you whoop them you shellac them you take over their 53:55.520 --> 54:01.760 their vineyards their wells you know the Babylonian garment all the drip all the gold everything you 54:01.760 --> 54:08.160 just want all the spoils don't don't walk away thinking like it's because i got aura you know 54:08.160 --> 54:14.880 it's like it's just who i am you know what i mean it's just i'm god's favorite i'm the chosen right 54:15.600 --> 54:21.760 he said don't say it's for your righteousness okay he says but for the wickedness of these nations 54:21.760 --> 54:27.040 the lord doth drive them out from before thee so obviously you know israel being selected to 54:27.040 --> 54:34.080 inherit the land is the same reason why he selected us so to speak in salvation it's not 54:34.080 --> 54:39.040 because there's anything special about it just because god is just a loving god you understand 54:39.040 --> 54:43.600 like the lord it's not like he just you know this is why it's really dumb when people make a big deal 54:43.600 --> 54:49.840 about like some celebrity getting saved or something or they they talk about god is like oh man god 54:49.840 --> 54:55.840 could just really use that person god could care less if that person is a celebrity everything that 54:55.840 --> 54:59.840 is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the eyes of god that's what the bible says 54:59.840 --> 55:03.920 it's not like god's like oh man he has a million followers i should really work on this guy's heart 55:03.920 --> 55:07.440 because you know he can really get the message out there he's not he doesn't care about that 55:09.120 --> 55:14.000 he don't care how many followers you got he don't care how many subscriptions you have it means 55:14.000 --> 55:19.920 nothing to him it's not like oh man if we could just get this really good looking celebrity saved 55:19.920 --> 55:24.080 and be a christian and say the right things he what a difference he can make or something like 55:24.400 --> 55:28.480 god doesn't care about that why because it takes away glory from him 55:29.600 --> 55:35.120 understand like god will not share his glory with anybody he only wants us to glory in the cross of 55:35.120 --> 55:41.840 christ so he's telling israel like hey when you come in here and i give you these victories it's 55:41.840 --> 55:46.160 not because of you it's not because you got aura it's because one of the reasons is because i just 55:46.160 --> 55:50.160 love you but the second thing is because we need to just take care of these people we need to wipe 55:50.160 --> 55:54.800 these people out the wickedness of these nations is the reason why i'm letting you inherit the land 55:55.520 --> 55:59.840 so you know how do we apply that to us you know we saw a thousand six hundred salvations but it's 55:59.840 --> 56:04.640 not because we're special though so don't go up and thinking they were just high and mighty we're 56:04.640 --> 56:12.000 just the boss we're just the best and no one does it like first works no one doesn't like steadfast 56:12.000 --> 56:16.800 nobody doesn't like faithful word no it's not because of us because we just got a great god 56:17.360 --> 56:20.560 because let me tell you something if you weren't there something god would send someone else 56:22.560 --> 56:27.120 so you better be humble about it you know if you guess what if you didn't go on the mission field 56:27.120 --> 56:31.520 he would have sent someone else if you wanted 1600 salvations to be done he would have done it 56:31.520 --> 56:35.360 through someone else so let's just be humble and say you know what i'm glad he did it through us 56:36.720 --> 56:42.240 okay you know it's like oh because we're so organized and our gospel presentation is just 56:42.240 --> 56:48.800 the best and we're just so seasoned wrong okay he could use anybody at any given time 56:49.360 --> 56:57.680 we're just thankful to be in the way the lord leading us okay amen all right just in case you 56:57.680 --> 57:02.320 get high-minded amen he says for the iniquity of the amorites is not yet full and look i'm 57:02.320 --> 57:09.280 just telling you that because you know humility keeps you usable you know and so stay humble 57:10.160 --> 57:14.800 don't boast of your gifts don't boast of your talents don't boast of your good looks because 57:14.800 --> 57:20.400 you ain't got good looks don't boast of your your capabilities your leadership skills folks 57:20.400 --> 57:25.760 don't boast of that just boast in the cross of christ and just say you know what i like what uh 57:25.760 --> 57:31.120 jc said when he gave his testimony on sunday he said something to the effect of like it's not 57:31.120 --> 57:37.040 because i'm a good gospel preacher i'm just well trained so he's what he's doing he's like 57:37.040 --> 57:42.320 deflecting his capabilities on the people who trained him right and that's how we should be 57:42.320 --> 57:48.000 we should give glory to god and pray deflect the praise to those who trained us because we wouldn't 57:48.000 --> 57:54.080 be here were it not for the people who invested in us right so he says here you know after 400 57:54.080 --> 57:59.360 years yeah my people are going to suffer but at the end of the day i'm kind of giving the amorites 57:59.360 --> 58:06.480 some time so they can get right get saved and some do get saved very little you know very little the 58:06.480 --> 58:10.720 canaanites do get saved but there's some that do get saved but there comes a point where god says 58:10.720 --> 58:14.480 all right enough is enough time to wipe you out look at verse 17 and it came to pass that when 58:14.480 --> 58:20.000 the sun went down and it was dark behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between 58:20.560 --> 58:29.680 those pieces now go to hebrew chapter six and we're done so you have abraham abraham falling 58:29.680 --> 58:37.520 asleep he's you know and and and he's supposed to be according to this manner of of agreement 58:38.080 --> 58:44.320 walking through the sacrifices with god but we see here that the only one who passes through 58:45.760 --> 58:52.560 these carcasses is god so this is demonstrating that everything hinges upon the lord like god is 58:52.560 --> 58:56.480 the one who does all the work you know when it comes to salvation god is the only one who does 58:56.480 --> 59:04.000 all the work he doesn't require any work on your end well isn't believing a work no i was believing 59:04.000 --> 59:11.600 a work god is the one who passed between those pieces he's the one that passes between old and 59:11.600 --> 59:17.360 new testament right he is the one that binds both together he is that ultimate sacrifice look at 59:17.360 --> 59:24.000 hebrew 6 and verse 13 it says for when god made promise to abraham because he could swear by no 59:24.000 --> 59:30.160 greater he swear by himself saying surely blessing i will bless thee and multiplying i will multiply 59:30.160 --> 59:36.960 thee and so after he had patiently endured he obtained the promise for men verily swear swear 59:36.960 --> 59:44.720 by the greater and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife wherein god willing more 59:44.720 --> 59:51.760 abundantly to show into the airs of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an 59:51.760 --> 59:57.920 oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for god to lie we might have a strong 59:57.920 --> 01:00:04.400 consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us so this is basically 01:00:04.400 --> 01:00:11.040 saying demonstrating the salvation is all based upon the vow the oath of god it's based upon the 01:00:11.040 --> 01:00:19.360 promise of god you know in hope of eternal life which god that cannot lie promised before the 01:00:19.360 --> 01:00:24.720 world began and in that genesis 15 we have that beautiful picture then instead of two people 01:00:24.720 --> 01:00:31.200 walking in between the carcasses god's the only one who's needed when it comes to salvation 01:00:31.840 --> 01:00:36.320 god doesn't require you to help him doesn't need your help you have no righteousness in 01:00:36.320 --> 01:00:41.520 and of yourself the only person that's needed is the lord jesus christ passing between being that 01:00:41.520 --> 01:00:48.400 ultimate sacrifice between both old and new testament and hebrew 6 here is talking about 01:00:48.400 --> 01:00:53.120 the promises of god but it is specifically referring to salvation because look at verse 01:00:53.120 --> 01:01:02.160 19 it says which hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast which entereth into 01:01:02.160 --> 01:01:06.720 that within the veil it says so it's basically saying like salvation is like that the promise 01:01:06.720 --> 01:01:12.880 of god is like the anchor of the soul it's not going anywhere once you are in the hand of god 01:01:12.960 --> 01:01:18.720 no man is able to pluck you out once you have salvation it cannot be lost and so very important 01:01:18.720 --> 01:01:21.520 there what a beautiful picture we're going to finish off right there because i'm out of time 01:01:22.320 --> 01:01:25.840 what's the main thing that we can learn from genesis chapter 15 on a practical level 01:01:26.480 --> 01:01:33.120 you know when in doubt keep serving god when in doubt just follow through anyways 01:01:33.920 --> 01:01:38.080 if you're doubting god it doesn't mean you're a bad christian you know you're only a weak christian 01:01:38.080 --> 01:01:43.040 if you act upon that doubt and don't obey the commandments of the lord we all doubt we all fear 01:01:43.040 --> 01:01:48.080 from time to time we just need to make sure we shoo away right we drive away the fouls of the 01:01:48.080 --> 01:01:52.240 earth of heaven let's pray father we thank you so much for your word thank you for this beautiful 01:01:52.240 --> 01:01:57.040 picture that we see in genesis chapter 15 we're thankful for the example of abraham the father 01:01:57.040 --> 01:02:02.560 of faith what an incredible chapter lord thank you for being our shield and our exceeding great 01:02:02.560 --> 01:02:07.520 reward and thank you for passing through the carcasses for our salvation and that you didn't 01:02:07.520 --> 01:02:12.240 need us to pastor with you you did all the work for us we love you lord and we thank you 01:02:12.240 --> 01:02:14.480 pray this in jesus name amen 01:02:19.440 --> 01:02:22.480 phone number 377