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So Genesis chapter 15, and as always, let's just remember where we were last week in Genesis 14. In Genesis 14, we saw the first documented warfare with Kedor Leomah, if you remember, and his buddies invading all of the border towns of Canaan. And after they had rebelled from under him, it seemed, with the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboyim, and Bela, which is Zoar, they all seemed to join forces together, didn't they? And we looked at how these all eventually get wiped out with Sodom, yet it was the men of Sodom specifically that had been described as wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. In the chapter, I think it was before that. So it was a yoking up with Sodom that had been the start of their demise, with Jude later in the New Testament telling us that they all got basically infected by that filth. So we talked about it afterwards. Of course, there is Jude 1.7, which says even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh as set forth, for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. So it started with Sodom. Sodom was the one that was labeled and then somewhere down the line, having yoked up with them, not only were they stupidly involved with Sodom, but that stuff starts to affect, doesn't it? And that's what we're seeing around the world, aren't we? These pro-Sodomite nations. The more they just yoke up with pro-Sodomite media and nations, and obviously the US is a big one with all of it coming out of Hollywood and everything else, the more these nations are just going down the pan so quickly, aren't they? I mean, absolutely just terrible. It's spreading like wildfire among them. And what does that mean? No doubt the judgment of God is coming soon, isn't it? The judgment of God is coming soon. And Lot had been caught up in it and Abram went to rescue him. However, it wasn't long later that he's back living in Sodom. It was amazing, really, wasn't it, after all that. Then he's got rescued by his godly uncle and then he's back in Sodom, we're going to see in a few chapters' time. After Abram's victory, we saw Melchizedek came and met him. We looked at who seems to be a mysterious character, but is at the least a Christ figure. He was bringing forth bread and wine as well, which we kind of skimmed over, but what is that? That's a picture of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, isn't it? If not being Jesus Christ himself in the Old Testament, right? Abram gave him tithes of all, yet didn't want to take a thing from the King of Sodom, did he? So he gave these tithes to him and then he said, I'm not taking a thing off you, not even a shoe latch here. And it's interesting that along with this Christ figure, being Melchizedek, bringing pictures of the Gospel with his bread and wine, the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, also came the immediate rejection of the King of the Sodomites, didn't it? So you kind of got like, on one hand you got the Gospel being pictured and on the other just open rejection of what is, as we learn, as we learn the Bible as we go through it, what is, you know, the fitting, the King of the Sodomites. I mean, this isn't just the Sodomites, this is the King of the Sodomites. I mean, this guy is as wicked as you pretty much get, isn't it? And just showing that basically he's, for me, it's just open, clear rejection with the Gospel on one hand, and then the rejection of, for me, I think just a little glimpse at the reparate doctrine there as well. Verse 21, let's just look at that back in Genesis 14 before we go into Genesis 15 where it said, Then we go into chapter 15 and verse 1 where it says, I'd like to pray before we get going with this chapter, Father, thank you for this chapter of the Bible, Lord, a chapter which has some, you know, some clear points here and some which maybe aren't quite so clear. Help me to just preach them as you'd want them preached, Lord. Help me to preach just every verse out of this just clearly and accurately and boldly please, Lord. Fill me with your Spirit, please. Help me to just preach as you'd want me to and help everyone to have attentive ears. In Jesus' name, for all of this, Amen. Right, so Abram is tithed to the high priest, isn't he, to Melchizedek. He's rejected the attempts by the King of Sodom to buy him as well, and he's told, Fear not, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And I believe that this is on the back of Abram doing the right thing, okay. It did say after these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision. So it's on the back of him doing that. He's tithed, he's basically at the, because let's be honest, a lot of people, if you've just tithed a tenth of everything that Abram had, he gave him tithes of all, he didn't take any of that stuff, a lot of people there and then someone else is trying to give him a handout would be like, oh yeah, please, because I've literally just taken a massive dent to my wealth, my fortune, everything else. Now he's done the right thing here, hasn't he? He's tithed and then rejected the Sodomites' cash, the Sodomites, you know, trying to buy him and everything else, because a lot of Christians, I believe, would have found an excuse here. They would have found an excuse probably not to tithe of all, they would have given him tithes of some, okay, to Melchizedek in the first place. And look, Christians just do that, okay. And many of us have probably had times when you're at least tempted, if not haven't tithed and everything else because, look, the flesh doesn't want to. The flesh just ends up just trying to find a way and excuse it somehow as to why I need to hold on to that cash for me, you know. And look, you know, I've said this before, if you're, look, the way it works in the New Testament, we just tithe the local church. Now, if you really got a point where you're like, I don't think that's right, you know, there's a reason I don't think the money's being used. Well, don't come to the church then, you know. If you do, then you're tithed to a church, that's what you do, don't you? Now, I've had problems in the past where it's like, where is there a church? And even then, I'm still tied to places where I'm like, this is a questionable church, because I'm going there and it's like, I don't really have a reason not to, you know. Otherwise, I might as well not go to the church, even when I'm thinking like they're sending money to random bizarre people out in the middle of nowhere doing nothing, you know, the old missionaries of no value. And I'm still, however, that's not my business. My business is that I pay to God my first 10%, you know, and that's just the way it is. But however many Christians, really because of covetousness, find a way to avoid this. How many before or after, like I said just now, would have taken the gifts of Sodom then? You paid your tithe and then it's like, oh, God must be blessing me for that because this Sodomite's trying to give me a load of money. A lot of people would have done, wouldn't they? But he was wise here, wasn't he? He was like, no, actually, I'm not doing that. I'm not just going to go, okay, yeah, let's take this money for this guy because he was wise to know that he was basically being bribed as being flattered by a reprobate, okay? And like I've, you know, obviously, I'm not going to re-preach that whole, you know, what I preached about that last week, but it is something we need to be aware of, don't we? Now with that, if someone wants to look, and you've got to get this right, some people like to give people gifts and be nice and be kind and like to do stuff for people, okay? I'm not trying to then create a culture in the church where no one does anything for anyone, okay? Because then we go the opposite way, don't we? However, you've kind of got to understand when it's flattering, when it's people trying to buy you. He didn't even know this guy. He had someone who doesn't even know you, really. He just starts trying to buy you stuff, forgive you stuff. He's like, well, he just met you. It's a little bit strange, isn't it? Especially when they're an open Sodomite. And I have no doubt that this guy is an open Sodomite as well, right? Okay, so he doesn't there. And then here's another one with that. How many refuse to reject God haters? Because not only has he said, I'm not taking the money, he's rebuked him hard as well, hasn't he? He said, I'm not going to take a thing off you, unless you say that you've made me rich. But how many won't do that? How many will find a way to excuse him? And okay, now like I've said it again, you kind of got to give this caveat because some people get a bit carried away with this and think they've got to reject anyone that's in any false religion. No, however, when it's someone who's a clear reprobate, they should be rejected out of our lives. And I'll tell you something, like I said the other week, okay, the open Sodomite is one, okay? However, here's another one for you. How about the open false prophet? Okay, and look, many of us will know some sort of false prophet in the family or family friend or friend of someone or in law or something, because there's a lot of false prophets around, aren't there? Many false prophets are going to enter the world. And when it comes to that, when you get to the point where someone's clearly a false prophet, you've got to reject them as well. And that can be hard in families, can't it? That can be difficult. However, God's going to bless you when you do that. And we're putting God here then, and we're putting popularity, all this other stuff down here, right? Okay, we need to follow what God says and not follow what, you know, what the world tries to encourage us to do. Abram did all of that, didn't he? Seems to me that Abram did all of that at this point here. It said in verse one, after these things, it was after these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision saying, fear not Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And if you make the choice to follow God, you put him first, you put him above wealth, above the wicked, the same applies to you, doesn't it? I think the bleeping might be one of these monitors here, someone doesn't mind such a... Okay, if you do that, if you put him above wealth, above all those things, you don't have to fear, do you? You don't have to fear. He's your shield too, okay? He is your shield. It's not just Abram, he's your reward. And it's not just any old reward, what does it say here? An exceeding great reward. He said, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And, you know, here's the thing, when will people learn that being right with God, yeah, having the petitions that we desired of him, being close to him is better than all the wealth in the world? It really is. You put God first and it's better than any of that. Money just comes and goes, however much you think you're going to suddenly be, you're going to finally be happy with, it doesn't really work like that. And the more you live for God, the more you get right with God, the more the money should be down here and God should be up here. But many won't get that, will they? Many don't get that point or sadly have been just basically snared by money. Look, he is the exceeding great reward. Turn to Psalm 91. The thing is though, for that, to be able to make him your shield and everything else, you have to make that choice to put him first. And now, this isn't talking about salvation. Again, sometimes, I think I sometimes forget to caveat these points just because you're usually just looking at a church of soul winners, you know, full well, you know, what salvation is and isn't, okay? But look, God being your shield, you're exceeding great reward. But God being there saying fear not, etc. That's not automatic if you're saved. However, salvation is automatic if you put your faith in Jesus Christ. Okay, so salvation is the easy bit. But following God to a point where you're just protected in life and you're close to him and you're under the shadow of the Almighty, etc., that's something you got to do. And they're two separate things. It's just people don't get to you ever like, if you ever scrolled through any comments on like sort of popular little YouTube videos of soul winning or things that sort of thing, gracefully faith, you just get all these morons coming to start quoting verses talking about discipleship, quoting verses talking about following God, quoting that. It's like, yeah, but that's not talking about salvation. Yeah, you get saved the second you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. However, there's a second thing which is following the Lord, which is following Christ, which is taking up your cross daily, which is becoming a disciple. However, that comes from continuing in his word. You have to continue in his word to get saved. Jesus Christ said, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed? How do we get saved though? We just put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They're two separate things. Okay, so here, look, and like I said, no one if they're saved is automatically able to throw to deal with everything thrown at them. Okay, just to make that clear, because there's then you get the opposite sides, you got those who are like, confuse the works and everything else. And then you get those that just go, Oh, yeah, well, you've got saved. So automatically, now God is just there just holding a shield in front of you protecting you, got his arm around you, nothing's gonna hurt you, nothing's gonna bother you, etc. But is that the truth as well? It's not the truth. Okay. It's again, there is no automatic and people come out with that stuff. And then you get all the work salvation stuff as well with that. So, okay, the reality is that salvation is one thing, okay, then the close relationship and protection, the spiritual blessings, that's dependent upon you and whether you choose to stick close to God. Now, Psalm 91 here is a great song to show this truth. And you know, it's such a great song that even a devil tried to take it and misuse it, didn't he? So the devil tried, if you remember in Jesus Christ, temptation to wilderness in Matthew 4, he tried to quote Psalm 91, but he misquoted it and act like he could just throw himself off off the pinnacle of the temple, and the angels will look after him. But then you're not abiding under the shadow of the Almighty. Okay, so he tried to take it out of context. But there are some great truths in Psalm 91. And the reason I want to show you this is just remind you again, because it said after these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision saying, Fear not Abram, I am thy shield and exceeding great reward. But that's not automatic to you. That came because it was after these things where Abram put God first. Abram had tithed the rule to God. Abram rejected the wicked. Abram rejected the bribery of the wicked. Abram was doing good things, right? He was living for God and he said, I'm thy shield, yeah, and thy exceeding great reward. And Psalm 91, it just goes into more depth as to how that works. Have a look at it from verse one. It says, He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. So dwelling under the shadow of the Almighty requires you to beware. Is that far away? No, that's close to him, isn't it? You're under his shadow, you're close to him. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God. In him will I trust. So that's making your protection, your place to flee, trusting his ways. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence. So then he'll protect you from the traps and the attacks. You're under the shadow. You've made him your refuge, your fortress, your God. In him you're trusting. Okay, then he's going to deliver you from those traps, from those attacks. He shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. And that requires you to be close, isn't it? To be covered with his feathers. And obviously the picture here is of, you know, sort of a bird covering the young. Okay, under his wings shalt thou trust. Again, you need to be close for that. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. That's the word of God being your defence. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flyeth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. So you don't have to fear. When you do that, when you're close to God, you don't have to fear. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. So only with your eyes, why? Because you're not yoked up with the wicked like Lot was. You're going to see that, and I think it's talking about the reward being the bad reward, you know, the reward for their wickedness. And only with your eyes will you see that, because you're not hanging out with them like everyone was, and either, right? Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most high, thy habitation, okay? Again, being close to him, following his ways, his commands, you know, being in the house of God, he's your habitation. Being in his word, there shall no evil before thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. Well, what's this? Health, prosperity. Now, here's the thing is that health, prosperity, wealth, gospel, what they'll do is they'll take some element of truth, and then they run with it and create this whole false doctrine. But like with many false doctrines, it's based on some element of truth. Look, if you're as close to God as that, and everything else, well, he does say here, no evil shall befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. Talking about sickness, illness, and it's not just illness, it's ultimately the chastisement of God. And don't forget that as well. We can all get ill in life, okay? But the plague here, a plague is some sort of punishment by God, and it's not always illness, by the way. And you can compare that in numbers to see that. Many of the times it talks about a plague, it's just people dropping dead, yeah? For he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. You get protection from angels. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against the stone. This is where the devil tried to quote this. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder, the young lion and a dragon shalt thou trample under feet. And that's a good thing to think about, isn't it? Because there's a lot of lions and adders out there trying to trip you up, trying to attack you, trying to hurt you in one way or another. But was it automatic? No, it was verse 9, it said, because thou has made the Lord, which is my refuge, you've in the most either habitation. That's why you're able to do all these things. Because, verse 14, he have set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him. That's why. I will set him on high because he had known my name. Okay, so because he set his love upon him, et cetera. Okay, do you want to deal with that? Yeah, thank you. You'll have to wait till the end of service. No, so it's knowing his name, it's getting to know God, it's learning of him. Okay, so it said, therefore will I deliver him, I'll set him on high. He shall, it says in verse 15, you shall call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him. So he'll answer your prayers, when you do all that, he'll deliver you, he'll honour you with long life, will I satisfy him and show him my salvation. So, this last verse here, it's either the physical salvation or reminding us that after all of that, there's also salvation too. Okay, after the end of all that. Either way, because being saved from our sins is based on what Jesus Christ did. Okay, 1 Peter 2 24 says, who his own self bear our sins in his own body on a tree, that we being dead sins should live unto righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. So, physical salvation, being delivered in life, being close to God is based on what we do, isn't it? And back to Genesis 15, long after calling on the name of the law for salvation, Abram was in the will of God. Okay, tithing, being blessed by Melchizedek, rejecting the king of the sodomites. And then Genesis 15, 1 said, after these things, after these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision saying, fear not Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. So, being under the shadow of the Almighty, being shielded by him, getting to know him is better than all riches, isn't it? Isn't it just? That is better than all riches. You don't have to turn there in Psalm 119 in verse 14, the psalmist said, I've rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies as much as in all riches. That's what we should do, shouldn't we? Yeah, the joy of God's testimonies, we should rejoice here more than all riches. Okay, he's our reward, isn't he? He's our reward. Verse 2 then, back where we are in Genesis 15, and verse 2. So, we've seen that in Psalm 91, we're going to look at verse 2 in a second, in Psalm 91, we've just seen that just in depth about how it's about you living for God, you doing things for God, is then when you get the blessings and protection, the help, he's your shield, he's your reward and everything else, yet how many people just don't get that point at all? How many Christians out there have never even attempted or thought about how to get anyone else saved and then they're just wondering like, why is God just not, you know, protecting me from this, helping me with that, doing this for me? And it's not just soul winning, is it? It's the whole thing. There are people out there that will, that have a church probably round the corner from them. There are people that have a church probably within an hour drive, they're not going, they're not making him their habitation, and then they're sitting there wondering, well, just why does this happen in my life? And look, here we see Abram trying to live for God, doing things right, putting God up here, and he's told, I am thy shield and I exceed in great reward, Abram, and you don't have to fear. When you're living for God, that's when you don't have to fear. Verse two, so Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me? Seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus. So this is the next in charge, okay? Likely got involved when he was near Damascus in Haran, it wasn't far from there, and basically at this point, this is what he's saying, you know, it's not Abram and son, or Abram and sons, yeah? He's like, we're a fair bit down the line now, right? And it's like Abram and Eliezer of Damascus, yeah? He's kind of the next in line, what's going on? And Abram said, behold to me, thou has given no seed, and lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And by the way, this is Abram talking to God, you know, you can talk to God, can't you? You can talk to God, you can ask him, you can question him, ask him for the answer to things, yeah? He does want you to understand, he does want you to know things. Here he replies straight back to Abram, we have the word of God which replies straight back to us now, but here he says to Abram, it says, and behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, this shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad and said, look now toward heaven, and tell the stars if thou be able to number them, and he said unto him, so shall thy seed be. So God is saying to this aging Abram, okay? Remember he's aging as well, not only will you have an heir, but your seed shall be as the stars in the sky. And look, it might be a bit different when we look up, you know, from a sort of busy town or city or something else, but I would imagine where he was over there, it was probably much like pollution, and you'll probably see a lot of stars, right? And we're basically talking about just innumerable, okay, innumerable. In verse six it says, and he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness. Now there are a couple of ways to look at this verse, okay? Number one would be a base, you know, for me the only ways you could look at this verse. Number one is it's talking about salvation. Abram believed in the Lord. It didn't say Abram believed what he just said though, okay? Then number two is that it is referring to the verse before, but it's got nothing to do with salvation, it's referring to general righteousness, yeah? Now I believe that it's about salvation, however it's a continuous state of salvation, because I believed he was already saved. What I mean is that Abram got saved in chapter 12, okay? That's what I believe, I went through that when we did chapter 12, and here it's just making that point that Abram was saved, he believed the Gospel, and this is just a continuation of the Gospel really, because he's basically, it's ultimately talking about the coming Christ, it's talking about that eternal seed, but this was extra revelation, wasn't it? And that Abram for me was already saved by, so that's what I believe. Now it didn't say he just believed, or he believed what he said, no, Abram believed in the Lord, yeah? And he counted unto him for righteousness, okay? So yeah, I believe chapter 12 is when he got saved though. Verse five then says, and he brought him forth abroad and said look now toward heaven and tell the stars if thou be able to number them, and he said unto him so shall thy seed be, 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 the out of Ur of the Chaldees to give thee this land to inherit it, and he said Lord God whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it. So he had already believed in him, remember he believed in the Lord, it wasn't that he believed what the Lord said, he believed in the Lord for me, he was saved, it was counted to him for righteousness, because really when it comes to righteousness in God's eyes there's only one way isn't it, and that's through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, his righteousness imputed unto us, and he said unto him I am the Lord that brought the out of Ur of the Chaldees to give thee this land to inherit it, and he said Lord God whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it. Now he believes in the Lord but he's basically asking how, well how's this going to work? What way am I going to inherit it? Look it was a lot of land, and I'd imagine already at this point there was a lot of probably some pretty rough, tough, rowdy guys around in their little families and groups, and there's already been a bit of warfare and people getting chopped up and everything else, and he's thinking how am I going to inherit all this land? This is a big area of land okay, there's already a lot of families in there like we see at the end of the chapter, a lot of lists of them okay, so he's probably a bit confused, it says in verse 9 he said unto him take me and heifer of three years old and a she go to three years old, a heifer's a young cow by the way, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle dove, and a young pigeon. Verse 10 says that he took unto him all these and divided them in the midst and laid each piece one against the another, but the birds divided he not, and when the fowls came down upon the carcasses Abram drove them away, and when the sun was going down a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and low and horror of great darkness fell upon him, and he said unto Abram know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in the 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 afterwards shall they come out with great substance, and thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, thou shalt be buried in a good old age, but in the fourth generation they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full, and it came to pass when the sun went down it was dark behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. Okay so what's going on here then okay and and look Abram's just asked how it's going to happen okay and then God gets him to help create this sign of things to come because he's a part of this sign isn't he okay now I've got what I believe is going on here okay and you know I don't know it's one of these things where again I'll be interested in what other people think afterwards this is what what my take on this and again I'm not at all dogmatic about this at all this is what I've decided today okay so it said in verse 9 he said unto him take me in heifer of three years old so remember he's asked how it's going to happen okay so he says take me in heifer of three years old and as she go to three years old and a ram of three years old and a turtle dove and a young pigeon and he took unto him all these and divided them in the midst and laid each piece one against another but the birds divided he not okay so I'm going to kind of give you what I think and then as we go through it you can see how I think that works out okay so perhaps divided in the midst was wasn't now some people look at that guy they must just cut them in two but did it say that or did you just say divided in the midst divided in the middle perhaps they were quartered with the three animals becoming 12 parts represented the 12 tribes maybe in genesis 33.1 in turn if you like but keep your finger here obviously when Jacob is returning from Laban now with the 12 tribes to be at least you know Rachel having not not given birth to Benjamin yet and it's not clear whether or not she was possibly pregnant at least you know at some point you know that 12th was coming we see that he divided them into four parts it says and you just use the word divided here it said and Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked and behold Esau came this is uh genesis 33 and verse 1 and with him 400 men and he divided the children unto Leah and unto Rachel unto the two handmaids okay so divided isn't just obviously split in two okay could have been into four there and there we see we see them divided into four parts there then with that in mind if you go back then and that's just one of many places you can just see different ways the word divide is used the turtle dove and pigeon which aren't divided may be representing Isaac and Jacob who weren't divided into tribes remember he's bringing them Abraham's responsible at Abram at this point for bringing these animals okay verse 11 says when the fowls came down upon the carcasses Abram drove them away now the fowls if we go by the parable of the sower representing satan and his minions and abram for me representing god here so with that interpretation you've got the 12 tribes being protected by god haven't you okay with him driving the enemies away what's that for me a picture of the exodus okay he's driving them that he's driving those away and eventually what happens with them they end up getting drowned all in the sea but we see all the signs and wonders everything else in protecting his children verse 12 says when the sun was going down a deep sleep fell upon abram and low and horror of great darkness fell upon him and he said unto abram know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in the land that is not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them 400 years so he's given him the picture and now he's explaining okay so the seed shall be a stranger in the land that is not theirs and shall serve them they shall afflict them 400 years that's being in bondage in egypt however we see the fowls coming down but being being then being rescued by abram verse 14 says and also that nation whom they shall serve will i judge and after shall they come out with great substance and thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace thou shall be buried in a good old age but in the fourth generation there shall come hither again for the iniquity of the amorites is not yet full and it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces so for me look he's explained it he said the nation whom they shall serve will i judge in verse 14 and after shall they come out with a great substance he then goes on about being going to the he will go to thy fathers in peace so and then he talks about them coming out in the fourth generation and then for the iniquity of the amorites not yet full now he then said in verse 17 it came to pass that when the sun went down it was dark behold a smoking furnace and burning lamp that passed between those pieces represented the lord and the word of god being amongst them for me psalm 119 105 in turn that says our word is a lamp to my feet lights to my path probably 6 23 says for the commandment is a lamp and the law is light and approves the instruction of the way of life okay so that's a word of god being amongst them so abram is involved in the initial animals in dividing parts then it's god that is amongst them and driving away the enemy that's what i believe it is but you could say for abram's sake so so ultimately you know you could argue because of abram there as well and of course like i said that's what happened with the exodus from egypt didn't it that's what happened okay there when they escaped from egypt verse 15 it says here and thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace thou shalt be buried in the good old age so abram is okay isn't he and he then says basically after that they will come back to canan in the fourth generation and by the way at this point generation just seems to be being used to just signify 100 years okay and it changes in the bible as to what it's used for here it's 100 years remember they're they're living a lot older as well at this point still it said but in the fourth generation i'll come hither again for the iniquity of the amorites is not yet full now what does it mean about the amorites okay so if if you know and i that's what i believe that that's referring to everything else i've said there but why the amorites well if you go back to chapter 14 remember that abram is confederate okay he has a deal going with these guys in chapter 14 and verse 13 it says and there came one that had escaped and told abram the hebrew for he dwelt in the plane of mamre the amorite brother ishkol and brother of aina and these were confederate with abram their genesis 14 and verse 24 shows that they went with him to hunt down kido leyama and rescue lot it said in verse 24 save only that which the young men have eaten when he's he's saying here to the king of sodom and a portion of the men which went with me let them take their portion so at this point the amorites aren't that bad a bunch it seems okay however that obviously changes doesn't it and once it does once their iniquity is full it's ready to invade okay so at this point they're confederate they're helping him out i don't think they're not a bad bunch so again like i said even though he's only confederate still they weren't like i said last week didn't mean they're automatically all wicked because of the curse on cana but clearly not here because their their iniquity was not yet full it wasn't ready for them to basically be invaded and maybe abram's ways had rubbed off on him i reckon abram probably got some of them saved that's what i think abram's a saved guy abram's got the gospel and he's living amongst these guys what you think that he wasn't so winning as well you think that abram who who god's saying fear not i am like shield like seed in great reward you think he just had his feet not telling anyone how to get saved though no way abram i reckon some of these guys were saved at this point which is why their iniquity of these people wasn't yet full but you know what this is as well it it for me it's just a reminder that when god gave the children of israel that land and ordered the destruction of those inhabitants it was for a good reason when it did come it was 400 years later when it came at this point the amorites aren't bad enough to potentially wipe out but eventually they are so eventually they are they're grouped in with the rest of them but at this point they're not verse 16 says but in the fourth generation they shall come hither again for the iniquity of their of the amorites is not yet full and it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces in the same day the lord made a covenant with abram saying unto thy seed have i given this land from the river of egypt unto the great river the river euphrates the keenites and the kennethites and the cadmanites and the hetites and the perizzites and the rephames and the amorites and the kainites and the gergashites and the jebusites so they were all given into abram's hands why because they were a horrible cursed bunch that spawned sodom in its surrounding cities okay that's why because they were guilty of all the wicked abomination that god hated that's why because some people what do they do they try and go oh you believe in the old testament and then they start going on about this sort of horrible gods who's you know genociding nations and everything else yeah god will genocide nations yeah do you know do you know what nations he genocides wicked nations and you know what do you know what the blessing of genociding nations like those was was that the children the young children of all those nations would have ended up in heaven and were they were they going to go on to get saved probably not in fact pretty likely not these are some wicked places weren't they but that's what happened eternal leviticus 18 where god through moses he gives this list of incest and he ends with adultery child sacrifice sodomy and bestiality okay that's what happens from verse 20 we're going to read where he says this so he's given this list of all these this wicked horrible incest and then he says in verse 20 moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbor's wife to defile thyself with her and thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to molech okay so you've got first the line kindly with the neighbor's wife to defile herself with her and i'm going to draw a couple of parallels here as well because i mean that's commonplace in this nation isn't it in fact that's if they even bother to get married in the first place okay that's just commonplace adultery is everywhere it amongst the world what a wicked bunch trying to justify it trying to make it okay trying to act like that's fine no pro yeah just a little affair it's just a little fling you know giving all the excuses all the reasons why that's okay time to move on let alone just no full divorce which just leads to adultery because they're still married in god's eyes i mean but this is what we were seeing amongst these nations here verse 21 says i shall not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to molech neither shall i profane the name of thy god i am the lord and by the way that's child sacrifice okay and again let's parallel it with today in this world because child sacrifice is everywhere you look isn't it i remember looking at some stats a few years ago 200 000 plus in england wales alone murdering their babies while they're still in their mother's wombs i mean that's how bad it's got in this nation and there it seemed that they were doing the same thousand years ago he said thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind it is abomination and again who cares what the world's started saying what does the word of god say the word of god says it's abomination okay and they were doing that then and they're doing that now everywhere we look everywhere you look around you it's it's all of this being shoved in your face it's anti-bible it's anti-god it's a load of god's haters trying to push filth and all sorts of just just vile stuff on on not just on us on our children as well he said neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defy thyself therewith neither shall any woman stand before beasts to lie down there too it is confusion i'll tell you what if the rest of it's going on do you think this stuff isn't going on behind closed doors i bet it is with the same bunch same lot he said defile not ye yourselves in any of these things for in all these the nations are defiled which are cast out before you that's what the word of god says yeah the word of god says that the nations are defiled for being involved in this sort of filth and by the way being defiled isn't a good thing he then says and the land is defiled it's not just the nation's the land therefore i do visit the iniquity therefore upon it and the land itself vomitteth out her inhabitants ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments and shall not commit any of these abominations neither any of your own nation nor any stranger that sojourneth among you so he's saying you better not do this stuff you better not do this filth and by the way that still stands that hasn't suddenly changed has it changed because the world's telling us that that you're not allowed to preach what the bible says now now we're going to keep preaching aren't we and the bible says that it's abomination he said then in verse 27 he said he said for all these abominations have the men of the land done which were before you and the land is default so by the way we're talking about the amorites here now so the amorites have got to this point now they're committing abominations that uh they're committing these abominations and the land is therefore defiled that the land spew not you out also when you defile it as it spewed out the nations that were before you for whosoever shall commit any of these abominations even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people therefore shall you keep mine ordinance that you commit not any one of these abominable customs which were committed before you and that you defile not yourselves are in i am the lord your god that's what god thinks about it and sadly that's what the amorites got into in the end so i think that there's probably a righteous remnant remnant of amorites at this point he was willing to basically to he waited 400 years 400 years to eventually and obviously i don't know how god works out with all the time he and everything else how it all worked out to also then just do it with all these signs and wonders and how it all happened but he sees a beginning from the end he knows the beginning from the end you know we can't even attempt to get in the mind of the law but it all worked out that he gave these people longer because they weren't there and niktu is not yet full and considering sodom at this point the fact that he only mentions the amorites you know is not being debased enough yet you get the feeling that the rest of these guys are already doing a lot of this stuff don't you think so sodom was obviously on the side it was on the outskirts of cain and it was still basically cain and i know we've split them into different tribes now we're going to see in a second but point being that that he just said that the amorites in niktu is not yet full so the rest of this mob are already 400 odd years on from noah already committing all sorts of wicked filth i mean isn't that just a sad indictment on so much of mankind right just how does it even get to that and you know how it gets to that it's got rejection you're talking several however many generations on from noah from seeing all of that from from from shem ham and japheth and their wives going out from from that and really from cainan i believe doing that's like i preached for i think it was cainan that that was probably a reprobate and from that and from the god rejection everything else you get to this point where it seems like only the amorites are already not partaking in some of this stuff at least right like i said about 400 years on from the flood there's so much wickedness out there really isn't there and how many people just seem to like how many like just said people just crazy out there that seem to think that the world is like some good place right now it's absolutely crazy isn't it and here's another thing we learned from this is that god will punish it he will punish it he punishes iniquity however this does show that he's long suffering too doesn't it he's long suffering for the sake of what for the righteous remnant he leaves it 400 years before he sends a judgment and he sends a judgment with his people going there and basically they're meant to mask her and wipe out the whole place but he left it 400 years all because of what was probably a righteous remnant of amorites that's what i believe like when we see that example a few couple of chapters down the line when he's basically being being you know he's he's art being petitioned by abraham to not destroy sodom if there were 10 righteous people and i think the amorites i reckon there were some of these people that because of that abram because of being friends of abram because of being confederate with him that i think was saved and that's why it was the way it all worked out with god's timing it was another 400 years down the line in fact it was 430 years but he's rounding it up here to 400 but here's the thing once that righteous remnant is gone from wicked places what happens it's whipping time isn't it it's whooping time i don't know what all this nonsense is today yeah but here's the thing once we're out of here this place is going to go right downhill isn't it we've had we've had the word of god being preached from behind the pulpit in wickford probably for the first time in who knows how long we've had people going out preaching the gospel we've had people preach the whole council of god and right as we're coming to an end of a stay here you know we've we've got some sort of police getting involved tonight and everything else well you know let's see what happens right let's see what happens because at the end of the day this place is going to go downhill because when there's a righteous remnant god will god will will at least hold on won't he verse 18 says in the same day the lord made a covenant with abraham saying unto thy seed have i given this land from the river of egypt unto the great river the river euphrates the keenites and the kenizzites and the cadmanites and the hitites and the perizzites and the rafaeans and the amorites and the kainanites and the gergashites and the jebuzites so um look those people end up getting it uh in the meantime we're going to see you know as we go on we're going to see things you know abram is obviously being shown it's going to be future it's going to be further down the line and eventually the amorites will be like the rest of this bunch surrounded by them acting like them behaving like them and and then it's going to be god's righteous judgment on these people on that we're going to finish up with a word of prayer well thank you for your word thank you for um for this just great chapter of the bible there lord which um you know we were maybe a hard picture image there of what i believe to be what's going to happen with them with egypt and with that that exodus from egypt but uh lord help us to just just you know to be wise and wise when we study the word of god and and you know where we are wrong to to just keep studying keep trying to find things uh find find what your word is really saying to us thought but also to act upon the messages that we've seen today uh to see that that abram was told to fear not you know after the events of the previous chapter that that you know that was told that god is his shield and exceeding great award and lord we know that you're shield us from all sorts if we just live for you we keep serving you keep doing the things you want us to do lord help us to do that help us to uh get back safely this evening to have a good week lord and to keep you and the messages that we've heard today at the center of it and then to return on sunday for another day in your house chief's name for all of this amen