WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.040 Well, tonight I'd like us to turn back together to Genesis chapter 12 as we look at the life 00:00:10.040 --> 00:00:11.040 of Abraham. 00:00:11.040 --> 00:00:15.160 I'm going to read again from verses one to three. 00:00:15.160 --> 00:00:20.879 The Lord said to Abraham, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house 00:00:20.879 --> 00:00:26.120 to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless 00:00:26.120 --> 00:00:30.440 you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 00:00:30.440 --> 00:00:37.200 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you, I will curse, and in you 00:00:37.200 --> 00:00:42.799 all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:49.439 In our evening services, we are doing a short study on the life of this great figure, Abraham. 00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:54.920 Last week, John started us off and he looked at the early chapters of Genesis to see the 00:00:54.920 --> 00:00:58.280 background to Abraham's life. 00:00:58.280 --> 00:01:04.599 And in many ways, chapters one to eleven of Genesis function as an introduction to the 00:01:04.599 --> 00:01:06.879 whole of the Bible. 00:01:06.879 --> 00:01:10.960 It's a bit like sometimes when you watch films, you can get a wee bit at the start before 00:01:10.960 --> 00:01:13.560 the main title scene. 00:01:13.560 --> 00:01:19.599 It's a wee bit like that in terms of Genesis one to eleven. 00:01:19.599 --> 00:01:25.319 Here we have a kind of section that's introducing some of the main themes that the rest of the 00:01:25.319 --> 00:01:28.560 Bible is going to talk about. 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:35.879 Genesis one and two describe God's creation, where everything is made to be just brilliant. 00:01:35.879 --> 00:01:42.239 And the crown of that creation is humanity, God's people living in God's land, enjoying 00:01:42.239 --> 00:01:49.479 his presence, his provision, where they are just ready to thrive in God's amazing creation. 00:01:49.480 --> 00:01:56.200 Genesis one and two shows that life is created to be amazing. 00:01:56.200 --> 00:02:00.040 But Genesis three describes the fall of humanity. 00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:06.159 Adam and Eve sin against God and that beautiful relationship and purpose and enjoyment that 00:02:06.159 --> 00:02:10.560 humanity was created to have is ruined. 00:02:10.560 --> 00:02:18.719 Creation's cursed, humanity is ashamed, harmony is lost, hostility arises and our relationship 00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:22.120 with God is broken. 00:02:22.120 --> 00:02:32.039 And from that point on, Genesis four through eleven describe the effects of that fall. 00:02:32.039 --> 00:02:36.520 And in many ways it's just like a downward arrow. 00:02:36.520 --> 00:02:38.560 It's a devastating picture. 00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:44.039 You see murder, hostility, violence and aggression. 00:02:44.039 --> 00:02:48.280 The picture is bleak and horrible. 00:02:48.280 --> 00:02:52.680 And in that early section of the Bible, two key events take place. 00:02:52.680 --> 00:02:58.639 In chapters six, seven, eight and nine, you have the flood, which powerfully shows us 00:02:58.639 --> 00:03:03.520 that ultimately sin is going to lead to judgment. 00:03:03.520 --> 00:03:12.680 The horrible effect of sin is going to have devastating consequences. 00:03:12.680 --> 00:03:17.360 And then in chapter 11, you have the tower of Babel. 00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:22.840 This was when the people of the world came together to build a tower in order to make 00:03:22.840 --> 00:03:24.760 a name for themselves. 00:03:24.760 --> 00:03:29.360 It was a great act of secular rebellion against God. 00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:35.680 People assembled to basically say, it's all about us. 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:39.600 We don't need God and we don't want him. 00:03:39.600 --> 00:03:45.320 They were building a tower to the glory of humanity. 00:03:45.319 --> 00:03:52.879 And God's response was to confuse their languages and disperse them. 00:03:52.879 --> 00:03:58.439 And the key message of this introductory section to the Bible, Genesis one to eleven, is that 00:03:58.439 --> 00:04:02.560 humanity is created amazing. 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:06.079 But the effect of sin is devastating. 00:04:06.079 --> 00:04:11.959 And now humanity is broken. 00:04:11.960 --> 00:04:15.520 And all around us, we can see that that is true. 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:20.920 Humanity still displays the amazingness that God created us to have. 00:04:20.920 --> 00:04:29.840 But at the same time, humanity also constantly displays the brokenness that sin has caused. 00:04:29.840 --> 00:04:37.280 By the time we reach the end of Genesis 11, one thing is absolutely clear. 00:04:37.280 --> 00:04:41.319 Humanity is broken. 00:04:41.319 --> 00:04:44.240 And then we come to Genesis 12. 00:04:44.240 --> 00:04:52.079 And there's a sense in which Genesis 12 is page one of the Bible. 00:04:52.079 --> 00:04:58.279 Sometimes when you pick up a book, the introduction has got Roman numerals at the start. 00:04:58.279 --> 00:05:02.959 And then the main story begins at page one. 00:05:02.959 --> 00:05:07.759 And there is a sense in which you could do that with the Bible. 00:05:07.759 --> 00:05:13.039 You could put Roman numerals against Genesis one to eleven. 00:05:13.039 --> 00:05:19.639 And then on Genesis 12, you have page one. 00:05:19.639 --> 00:05:26.680 And that makes Genesis 12 one of the most important passages in the Bible. 00:05:26.680 --> 00:05:33.039 When you look at the Bible as a whole, there are several chapters or passages that are 00:05:33.039 --> 00:05:34.039 big. 00:05:34.040 --> 00:05:39.240 You can see in the diagram there, you've got the Old Testament running through into the 00:05:39.240 --> 00:05:40.439 New Testament. 00:05:40.439 --> 00:05:45.920 And there's big events that take place across that timeline. 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:50.920 In the Old Testament, you've got creation at the very beginning. 00:05:50.920 --> 00:05:53.160 Then you've got the fall. 00:05:53.160 --> 00:05:59.600 After that, in Exodus chapter 20, you have the record of God's people coming out of 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:01.759 Egypt and receiving His law. 00:06:01.759 --> 00:06:08.639 You have the establishment of the kingdom with David, and especially 2 Samuel chapter 00:06:08.639 --> 00:06:11.439 seven, that's a very, very big chapter. 00:06:11.439 --> 00:06:13.159 After that, things go into decline. 00:06:13.159 --> 00:06:15.399 It ultimately culminates in the exile. 00:06:15.399 --> 00:06:20.120 These are the big moments that take place in the Old Testament. 00:06:20.120 --> 00:06:23.639 Then in the New, you have the incarnation of Jesus. 00:06:23.639 --> 00:06:26.399 You have his baptism in the beginning of his ministry. 00:06:26.399 --> 00:06:31.319 You have the Sermon on the Mount, which we've been looking at in the morning services. 00:06:31.319 --> 00:06:34.439 You've got his crucifixion and his resurrection. 00:06:34.439 --> 00:06:37.560 And then you have the day of Pentecost. 00:06:37.560 --> 00:06:44.560 These are all big moments across the pages of the Bible. 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:52.399 And included in that list is Genesis 12 and the call of Abraham. 00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:56.159 This is a massive moment. 00:06:56.160 --> 00:07:05.560 And the reason it's a massive moment is because this is step one of God's plan of salvation. 00:07:05.560 --> 00:07:10.040 Genesis one to 11 tells us that humanity is broken. 00:07:10.040 --> 00:07:15.760 God's response to that is to say, I will fix it. 00:07:15.760 --> 00:07:19.240 He makes a promise that he'll fix it in Genesis chapter three. 00:07:19.240 --> 00:07:23.320 He preserves a means through which he'll do it with Noah. 00:07:23.319 --> 00:07:31.079 And then with Abraham, God initiates his plan to save a broken world. 00:07:31.079 --> 00:07:41.120 Genesis 12 is page one of the Bible's amazing story of how God is going to restore humanity. 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:45.959 And for that reason, there is so much that we could look at in this passage and we will 00:07:45.959 --> 00:07:49.519 only barely scratch the surface today. 00:07:49.519 --> 00:07:54.479 But I want us just to spend a few minutes thinking about this passage and thinking about 00:07:54.479 --> 00:07:58.279 what it teaches us about how God works. 00:07:58.279 --> 00:08:03.839 If this is page one of God's plan of salvation, we are asking the question, well, how is that 00:08:03.839 --> 00:08:06.879 plan going to work? 00:08:06.879 --> 00:08:13.000 And in order to summarize what we're going to say, we're going to look at three big terms, 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:19.399 two tiny words, and one crucial lesson. 00:08:19.399 --> 00:08:25.079 So first of all, we've got three big terms that lie behind this passage. 00:08:25.079 --> 00:08:29.519 These big theological terms lie at the heart of how God works. 00:08:29.519 --> 00:08:35.279 And for that reason, it's very important that we make sure that we understand them and see 00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:39.319 how they fit into God's plan of action. 00:08:39.319 --> 00:08:45.960 So first big term is this divine initiative. 00:08:45.960 --> 00:08:50.280 That basically means that God takes the first step. 00:08:50.280 --> 00:08:53.160 And you can see that in verse one. 00:08:53.160 --> 00:09:03.040 It says, the Lord said to Abraham, so if Genesis 12 is page one, then verse one is line one. 00:09:03.040 --> 00:09:10.680 And the very first thing to happen on that line is that God does something. 00:09:10.680 --> 00:09:15.120 God comes to Abraham and speaks to him. 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:20.679 And that's showing us that when it comes to God's great message of salvation that the 00:09:20.679 --> 00:09:27.159 Bible reveals to us, it is God who takes the initiative. 00:09:27.159 --> 00:09:34.480 And that is astonishing because if you look back at Genesis one to eleven, at that introductory 00:09:34.480 --> 00:09:40.799 section, the one thing that's clear is that it's humanity that has ruined things. 00:09:40.799 --> 00:09:45.279 It's humanity that has rebelled against God and created the problem. 00:09:45.279 --> 00:09:53.839 And yet when it comes to putting things right, it's God who takes the first step. 00:09:53.839 --> 00:09:59.599 And that's powerfully emphasized by what we know about Abraham prior to this moment. 00:09:59.599 --> 00:10:03.919 We know that he was an heir of the Caldees, which was a pagan city. 00:10:03.919 --> 00:10:11.079 We know from Joshua 24 verse two that Abraham came from a family of idol worshippers. 00:10:11.079 --> 00:10:18.199 In other words, there's absolutely nothing about Abraham that makes him special. 00:10:18.199 --> 00:10:22.679 Before Genesis 12, Abraham is not a hero of the faith. 00:10:22.679 --> 00:10:25.719 He's not a model of godliness or morality. 00:10:25.719 --> 00:10:28.339 He's not calling people to turn back to God. 00:10:28.339 --> 00:10:33.120 He does absolutely nothing to merit God's work in his life. 00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:43.120 In other words, Abraham is just another person in this mass of broken humanity. 00:10:43.120 --> 00:10:52.399 And the only reason he becomes crucial in the Bible is because God takes the first step. 00:10:52.399 --> 00:11:00.480 God chooses Abraham and in doing so, he initiates his great plan of salvation. 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:07.460 So a foundational truth of how God works is divine initiative. 00:11:07.460 --> 00:11:13.159 And in many ways, it's one of the most astounding truths of the Bible that it doesn't stop 00:11:13.159 --> 00:11:15.480 at the end of Genesis three. 00:11:15.480 --> 00:11:23.680 When humanity sinned, God could so easily have just walked away, but he didn't. 00:11:23.680 --> 00:11:28.639 And we might think to ourselves, well, God is amazing because yes, he'll wait for us 00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:30.240 to turn back to him. 00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:36.639 But the truth is, he is far more amazing than that because he doesn't wait for us to turn 00:11:36.639 --> 00:11:37.960 back to him. 00:11:37.960 --> 00:11:40.679 He takes the first step. 00:11:40.679 --> 00:11:46.879 He initiates an amazing plan of salvation. 00:11:46.879 --> 00:11:54.559 And I think it's really important for us all to recognize this because very often we can 00:11:54.559 --> 00:12:01.439 feel that the first step back to God is impossible. 00:12:01.439 --> 00:12:05.159 We look at ourselves and we think we're too broken. 00:12:05.159 --> 00:12:07.599 We've made too many mistakes. 00:12:07.599 --> 00:12:09.500 We are too far gone. 00:12:09.500 --> 00:12:15.359 For us, that first step back to God can seem impossible. 00:12:15.359 --> 00:12:23.399 But the amazing thing about the Gospel is that we never take the first step. 00:12:23.399 --> 00:12:26.120 God does. 00:12:26.120 --> 00:12:31.120 It's so easy to look at a great biblical figure like Abraham and think, well, I am nothing 00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:32.720 like that. 00:12:32.720 --> 00:12:40.439 Well, if you feel weak, lost, or broken, if you feel like you are a million miles from 00:12:40.439 --> 00:12:45.120 where you should be, then that does not mean that you are nothing like Abraham. 00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:50.840 It means that you are exactly like Abraham. 00:12:50.840 --> 00:13:01.519 And divine initiative tells you that God has taken the first step to come and save you. 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:09.600 The second big theological term that lies behind Genesis 12 is redemptive history. 00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:14.639 Now, that seems like a big term, but it's not too complicated. 00:13:14.639 --> 00:13:15.920 It's quite straightforward. 00:13:15.920 --> 00:13:20.400 Redemptive history just refers to the fact that the great work of salvation that God 00:13:20.399 --> 00:13:27.279 initiates is worked out across the ages of history. 00:13:27.279 --> 00:13:34.919 That's presented to us very clearly in the verses that we have before us here. 00:13:34.919 --> 00:13:37.240 Abraham is going to go to a new land. 00:13:37.240 --> 00:13:43.399 God's going to make him into a great creation, a great nation where he is going to be a blessing. 00:13:43.399 --> 00:13:48.480 And ultimately, all other families of the earth are going to be blessed as well. 00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:52.960 And all of that takes time. 00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:58.399 All of that is spread out over Abraham's lifetime and far beyond it. 00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:04.159 And the rest of the Bible describes other key events that take place or that are going 00:14:04.159 --> 00:14:10.360 to take place as God works out his plan of salvation across the ages of history. 00:14:10.360 --> 00:14:17.240 If we go back to that diagram that we had, these are all key events in redemptive history, 00:14:17.240 --> 00:14:23.560 the creation, the fall, the call of Abraham and how that was worked out in Isaac and Jacob, 00:14:23.560 --> 00:14:29.720 the Exodus, the giving of the law, the building of the temple, the entry into the promised 00:14:29.720 --> 00:14:36.399 land, the establishment of a kingdom under David, then that kingdom bit by bit fell apart, 00:14:36.399 --> 00:14:40.840 culminating in the exile at the end of the Old Testament. 00:14:40.840 --> 00:14:46.840 Then as we said, New Testament, incarnation, baptism, Samaritan the Mount, crucifixion, 00:14:46.840 --> 00:14:49.000 resurrection, day of Pentecost. 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:53.200 These are all the big moments in redemptive history. 00:14:53.200 --> 00:15:00.080 We are now living in the last days, and we look forward to the final great moment in 00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:05.280 redemptive history when Jesus returns. 00:15:05.280 --> 00:15:12.840 This is God's plan of salvation, and it involves events in history. 00:15:12.840 --> 00:15:16.519 And it all fits together perfectly. 00:15:16.519 --> 00:15:19.679 The Old Testament gives a shadow of what is to come. 00:15:19.679 --> 00:15:27.240 The New Testament is the fulfillment, and it's all for the purpose of rescuing a broken 00:15:27.240 --> 00:15:29.439 humanity. 00:15:29.439 --> 00:15:36.199 And it is all worked out across history. 00:15:36.199 --> 00:15:44.240 And the amazing thing about the fact that it's history is that it means that it's all 00:15:44.240 --> 00:15:49.919 grounded in real life. 00:15:49.919 --> 00:15:57.680 So much religious or spiritual teaching in the world is grounded in mythical or mystical 00:15:57.680 --> 00:15:59.240 claims. 00:15:59.240 --> 00:16:05.639 So you get mythical claims about the gods fighting and wandering and falling in love. 00:16:05.639 --> 00:16:11.440 You get mystical claims where people will claim to have received a message from God 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:14.760 that everybody else has to listen to. 00:16:14.760 --> 00:16:23.080 It's completely untestable, and often it can seem a million miles from real life. 00:16:23.080 --> 00:16:30.640 The Bible tells us that God's plan of salvation is not like that. 00:16:30.640 --> 00:16:35.800 God's plan of salvation is grounded in history. 00:16:35.800 --> 00:16:41.080 Real people, real places, real events, real life. 00:16:41.080 --> 00:16:46.520 And when God works out his plan of salvation, he does it across the real life pages of history 00:16:46.520 --> 00:16:51.840 because God is offering us real, true salvation. 00:16:51.840 --> 00:16:56.960 That's why in the Old Testament, if someone claimed to be a prophet and what they said 00:16:56.960 --> 00:17:01.960 didn't come to pass, God said, don't listen to them. 00:17:01.960 --> 00:17:04.079 They're false prophets. 00:17:04.079 --> 00:17:10.160 That's why in the New Testament, there's this constant emphasis on eyewitnesses. 00:17:10.160 --> 00:17:18.840 If history simply means that God is working out his plan to save real people in real life, 00:17:18.840 --> 00:17:27.040 Christianity does not hide behind mythical or mystical claims. 00:17:27.040 --> 00:17:32.360 God's salvation is real life. 00:17:32.360 --> 00:17:39.720 And one of the great pieces of evidence for the real lifeness of God's message is Abraham 00:17:39.720 --> 00:17:41.839 himself. 00:17:41.839 --> 00:17:49.240 In Genesis 12 verse 2, God says that he is going to make Abraham's name great. 00:17:49.240 --> 00:17:58.360 And remember that back then, Abraham was an idol worshipping nobody from out of the who-know-swear. 00:17:58.360 --> 00:18:08.279 Today in 2020, there's at least four billion people on planet Earth who know who Abraham 00:18:08.279 --> 00:18:11.519 was. 00:18:11.519 --> 00:18:20.720 Redemptive history tells us that what God is doing is utterly real. 00:18:20.720 --> 00:18:27.960 So we've got three big terms, divine initiative, redemptive history, and then the third one, 00:18:27.960 --> 00:18:31.879 which is I think the biggest one of them all. 00:18:31.879 --> 00:18:38.079 Number three is family. 00:18:38.079 --> 00:18:42.960 One of the things that the life of Abraham makes absolutely clear is that the heart of 00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:47.519 God's work of salvation is family. 00:18:47.519 --> 00:18:53.279 Back in Genesis 3.15, when God announces that the serpent is going to be crushed, that's 00:18:53.279 --> 00:18:57.319 going to happen through the offspring of the woman. 00:18:57.319 --> 00:19:03.960 That means that family, fatherhood, motherhood, childbirth, marriage, descendants, these are 00:19:03.960 --> 00:19:07.720 all crucial parts of God's plan. 00:19:07.720 --> 00:19:09.319 And we see that with Abraham. 00:19:09.319 --> 00:19:13.120 God tells him that he's going to make him into a great nation. 00:19:13.120 --> 00:19:16.600 His offspring are going to receive the land. 00:19:16.600 --> 00:19:21.160 And that's all the more astonishing because at this moment, Abraham has no offspring and 00:19:21.160 --> 00:19:23.559 his wife can't conceive. 00:19:23.559 --> 00:19:28.960 That's why as we go through the rest of the life of Abraham, we see that a key part of 00:19:28.960 --> 00:19:37.680 the story is the birth of Isaac, his son, the child promised to Abraham and Sarah. 00:19:37.680 --> 00:19:42.240 And then the rest of the Old Testament tells us about how the children of Abraham grew 00:19:42.240 --> 00:19:46.880 into a huge nation called Israel. 00:19:46.880 --> 00:19:53.759 And we must always remember that in the Old Testament, nations arose out of families. 00:19:53.759 --> 00:20:01.120 So nations like Canaan, Moab, Ammon and Israel, they are all named after people because the 00:20:01.120 --> 00:20:05.680 nations were the descendants of individuals. 00:20:05.680 --> 00:20:08.240 They were all big families. 00:20:08.240 --> 00:20:11.240 When you read about the nation of Israel in the Old Testament, you are reading about 00:20:11.240 --> 00:20:12.840 a family. 00:20:12.840 --> 00:20:20.240 Israel is a family nation all traced back to this promise that was given to Abraham. 00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:26.360 And the great purpose of that nation was to be a beacon of light to the others so that 00:20:26.360 --> 00:20:32.799 those who bless them will also be blessed and can join that family and those who dishonor 00:20:32.799 --> 00:20:35.320 them are cursed. 00:20:35.319 --> 00:20:41.879 In so many ways, the story of the Old Testament is the story of a family. 00:20:41.879 --> 00:20:47.359 But the ultimate purpose is not just that Abraham's family are going to be blessed, 00:20:47.359 --> 00:20:55.399 it's that Abraham's family nation will be a blessing to all the other families on earth 00:20:55.399 --> 00:20:57.439 as well. 00:20:57.439 --> 00:21:02.879 And this is where we see the ultimate reason why God chose Abraham. 00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:07.560 He chose Abraham to be a blessing to the whole world. 00:21:07.560 --> 00:21:17.240 And that is absolutely amazing because in Genesis 11, you read about the whole world 00:21:17.240 --> 00:21:22.760 coming together to shake their fist against God. 00:21:22.760 --> 00:21:29.400 But in the very next chapter, you read of God choosing a man and his family so that 00:21:29.400 --> 00:21:37.880 ultimately that rebellious broken world will be blessed by God. 00:21:37.880 --> 00:21:44.080 And the culmination of that blessing is that people from across all tribes and nations 00:21:44.080 --> 00:21:47.680 are going to be brought together into one great family. 00:21:47.680 --> 00:21:53.720 The separation and hostility that sin has brought into our experience is going to be 00:21:53.720 --> 00:21:59.160 put right and at the heart of that is family. 00:21:59.160 --> 00:22:03.080 That's why when you read on with the rest of the Old Testament, there's a constant emphasis 00:22:03.080 --> 00:22:07.880 on family, marriage, children, descendants and genealogies. 00:22:07.880 --> 00:22:12.000 And when you come to the fulfillment of God's redemptive plan in the New Testament, you 00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:17.800 immediately see that it's just bursting with teaching that's all grounded on the family. 00:22:17.800 --> 00:22:23.880 Remember, what's the very first thing that you read on page one of the New Testament? 00:22:23.880 --> 00:22:26.200 It's a family tree. 00:22:26.200 --> 00:22:31.440 And the rest of the New Testament tells us that through faith in Jesus Christ, God is 00:22:31.440 --> 00:22:32.519 our Father. 00:22:32.519 --> 00:22:38.319 We are His adopted children and we are all brothers and sisters together in union with 00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:44.640 Jesus Christ as one big, amazing family. 00:22:44.640 --> 00:22:51.480 That means that when God chose Abraham, it wasn't to exclude everybody else. 00:22:51.480 --> 00:22:57.120 It's to reach them and the same applies to us. 00:22:57.120 --> 00:23:05.120 When God chooses to save us, part of the reason He does that is so that we can bring the hope 00:23:05.120 --> 00:23:09.000 of salvation to others. 00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:14.160 Genesis 3 to 11 is telling us that humanity is broken. 00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:20.920 But Genesis 12 and the rest of the Bible are telling us that that broken humanity is 00:23:20.920 --> 00:23:25.600 incredibly precious to God. 00:23:25.600 --> 00:23:30.200 At the heart of God's purposes is family. 00:23:30.200 --> 00:23:37.560 And His great goal is to make you part of that family too. 00:23:37.560 --> 00:23:42.960 So here in Genesis, we have divine initiative. 00:23:42.960 --> 00:23:50.279 We have redemptive history and we see the centrality of family. 00:23:50.279 --> 00:23:55.119 These are three big theological terms. 00:23:55.119 --> 00:24:01.279 But they're actually all summed up by two tiny words. 00:24:01.279 --> 00:24:08.639 If you look back at Genesis 12, 1 to 3, you'll see that there are two tiny words that come 00:24:08.639 --> 00:24:11.359 up again and again. 00:24:11.359 --> 00:24:16.539 They're also repeated in the other big moments of the Old Testament as well. 00:24:16.539 --> 00:24:20.160 Can you see them? 00:24:20.160 --> 00:24:31.120 The two tiny words that sum up God's plan of salvation are, I will. 00:24:31.120 --> 00:24:33.440 God comes to Abraham. 00:24:33.440 --> 00:24:38.580 He calls him out of his country and he says, I will show you. 00:24:38.580 --> 00:24:40.600 I will make you. 00:24:40.600 --> 00:24:42.400 I will bless you. 00:24:42.400 --> 00:24:50.080 And these two tiny words are absolutely central to God's message of salvation. 00:24:50.079 --> 00:24:56.279 God comes to broken Abraham who lives in a broken city as part of a broken humanity and 00:24:56.279 --> 00:25:01.159 God says, I will fix it. 00:25:01.159 --> 00:25:06.919 And the emphasis in God's call to Abraham and in all God's outworking of his plan of 00:25:06.919 --> 00:25:11.639 salvation is not on what Abraham is going to do. 00:25:11.639 --> 00:25:15.039 It is on what God is going to do. 00:25:15.039 --> 00:25:17.480 And the same thing happens throughout the Old Testament. 00:25:17.480 --> 00:25:21.960 God comes to Moses and he says, I will take my people out of Egypt. 00:25:21.960 --> 00:25:25.960 God comes to Joshua and he said, I will give you this land. 00:25:25.960 --> 00:25:31.680 God comes to David and he says, I will establish your throne at every key point in redemptive 00:25:31.680 --> 00:25:32.680 history. 00:25:32.680 --> 00:25:36.599 God says, I will do it. 00:25:36.599 --> 00:25:42.680 And the ultimate fulfillment of that commitment is in the coming of Jesus Christ when God, 00:25:42.680 --> 00:25:50.560 the Son Himself comes because He will do everything that is needed. 00:25:50.560 --> 00:25:52.759 He fulfills these promises. 00:25:52.759 --> 00:25:55.360 He takes our sin upon Himself. 00:25:55.360 --> 00:25:57.039 He defeats death. 00:25:57.039 --> 00:25:58.640 He conquers Satan. 00:25:58.640 --> 00:26:01.720 He rises again in victory. 00:26:01.720 --> 00:26:10.600 God says, I will and in Jesus, that is exactly what He does. 00:26:10.599 --> 00:26:18.039 And the amazing thing for us now is that we can look back from further on in redemptive 00:26:18.039 --> 00:26:25.719 history and we can see that God has kept every promise that He made. 00:26:25.719 --> 00:26:31.919 And this is where we see the similarity and the difference between the Old Testament and 00:26:31.919 --> 00:26:32.919 the New Testament. 00:26:32.919 --> 00:26:37.879 A lot of people wonder about how the Old Testament and the New Testament fit together. 00:26:37.880 --> 00:26:42.600 And some people try to kind of really push them apart and say that things are very different 00:26:42.600 --> 00:26:46.200 under the Old Testament and have completely changed in the New. 00:26:46.200 --> 00:26:50.560 So sometimes people will say, well, in the Old Testament, people were saved by their 00:26:50.560 --> 00:26:53.200 works and by their obedience to the law. 00:26:53.200 --> 00:26:58.040 In the New Testament, it's completely different and we are saved by faith. 00:26:58.040 --> 00:27:00.880 We don't think that. 00:27:00.880 --> 00:27:07.680 We believe that everyone who is saved is saved by faith, Old Testament or New Testament. 00:27:07.680 --> 00:27:14.920 That's the reason why I've got both the arrows running into each other on the diagram. 00:27:14.920 --> 00:27:17.160 It's one long line. 00:27:17.160 --> 00:27:22.320 The difference in the New Testament is that we move from a shadow in the Old Testament 00:27:22.320 --> 00:27:23.799 to fulfillment in the New. 00:27:23.799 --> 00:27:30.080 That's why the arrow is bigger to try and convey that. 00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:38.359 The difference, however, is this, in the Old Testament, people were saved by trusting the 00:27:38.359 --> 00:27:42.639 God who said, I will. 00:27:42.639 --> 00:27:47.599 And so they looked forward to what God was promising. 00:27:47.599 --> 00:27:57.679 In the New Testament, we are saved by the God who says, I have. 00:27:57.680 --> 00:28:05.799 Abraham trusted a promise that God, when God trusted God's promise, which said, I will. 00:28:05.799 --> 00:28:12.640 We trust the same God, but we have the amazing privilege of being able to look back into history 00:28:12.640 --> 00:28:17.600 and see that the God who said, I will has done it. 00:28:17.600 --> 00:28:20.039 He's done everything that he promised to do. 00:28:20.039 --> 00:28:26.080 And in the Persian and work of Jesus Christ, we see that God was willing to keep his promise 00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:34.919 to bless all the families and nations, even though the cost was huge, even though for 00:28:34.919 --> 00:28:38.559 Jesus it meant dying on the cross. 00:28:38.559 --> 00:28:47.559 But he did that because when God said, I will, he meant it. 00:28:47.559 --> 00:28:54.000 And here we see the incredible grace of God coming to save a broken humanity that doesn't 00:28:54.000 --> 00:28:56.559 deserve to be saved. 00:28:56.559 --> 00:29:03.240 Here we see the determination of God, that nothing will stop him, not even our own failings. 00:29:03.240 --> 00:29:06.599 That's one of the fascinating things you see from Abraham, because the very next thing 00:29:06.599 --> 00:29:11.880 he does after being called by God is to make a complete mess of things when he goes down 00:29:11.880 --> 00:29:13.279 to Egypt. 00:29:13.279 --> 00:29:16.480 But God does not give up on him. 00:29:16.480 --> 00:29:19.160 We see the amazing capability of God. 00:29:19.160 --> 00:29:22.559 One of the great emphasis running through the life of Abraham is that everything just 00:29:22.559 --> 00:29:25.839 looks impossible all the time. 00:29:25.839 --> 00:29:31.960 But God overcomes every obstacle in the life of Abraham and in his whole plan of salvation, 00:29:31.960 --> 00:29:39.879 whether it's from the barrenness of Sarah's womb or to the horror of Gethsemane. 00:29:39.879 --> 00:29:45.599 And above all else, here we see the love of God. 00:29:45.599 --> 00:29:54.359 It's all so that we can be his beloved children as part of his amazing family. 00:29:54.359 --> 00:30:02.959 At the heart of God's saving work is two tiny words, I will. 00:30:02.959 --> 00:30:10.639 And in the coming of Jesus Christ, these words have in many ways now become I have, because 00:30:10.640 --> 00:30:20.640 Jesus has done everything that is needed for you and me to be saved from our sins and to 00:30:20.640 --> 00:30:23.680 have eternal life. 00:30:23.680 --> 00:30:32.640 And the amazing thing is that God has done all of that for you. 00:30:32.640 --> 00:30:42.720 Because in Genesis 12, when God talks about blessing all the families of the earth, that 00:30:42.720 --> 00:30:49.200 includes you and your family. 00:30:49.200 --> 00:31:02.200 Genesis 12 is page one of God's plan of salvation and you are written on it. 00:31:02.200 --> 00:31:11.000 So in this passage, we see three big terms, we see two tiny words and last of all, we 00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:15.039 see one crucial lesson. 00:31:15.039 --> 00:31:21.319 As we've been saying, Genesis 12 is revealing God's plan of salvation and in doing so, it's 00:31:21.319 --> 00:31:32.000 telling us a crucial lesson about how Christianity works and it's a lesson that we must understand. 00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:38.279 And I think it's a lesson that many people have misunderstood and still misunderstand 00:31:38.279 --> 00:31:40.279 today. 00:31:40.279 --> 00:31:50.160 Because many people and maybe some of you look at Christianity and think that at the heart 00:31:50.160 --> 00:31:55.000 of its message, God is saying, you must. 00:31:55.000 --> 00:32:01.519 So Christianity is you must do this, you must do that, you must stop this, you must stop 00:32:01.519 --> 00:32:02.519 that. 00:32:02.519 --> 00:32:07.920 And we look at Christianity and think, well, it's just basically a big list of do's and 00:32:07.920 --> 00:32:13.480 don'ts and God is kind of standing over us and saying, you must. 00:32:13.480 --> 00:32:19.240 And many of the world's religions are based on that principle. 00:32:19.240 --> 00:32:26.119 But that whole idea of you must is not Christianity. 00:32:26.119 --> 00:32:31.359 Christianity is not God saying you must. 00:32:31.359 --> 00:32:36.279 Christianity is God saying, I will. 00:32:36.279 --> 00:32:38.279 I will save you. 00:32:38.279 --> 00:32:39.879 I will rescue you. 00:32:39.879 --> 00:32:41.719 I will show you a new way. 00:32:41.719 --> 00:32:42.959 I will protect you. 00:32:42.959 --> 00:32:44.599 I will be your father. 00:32:44.599 --> 00:32:47.159 I will love you forever. 00:32:47.159 --> 00:32:54.639 And he's proved that because Jesus has come and he has done everything that we need. 00:32:54.639 --> 00:32:58.359 At the heart of Christianity is not what we do for God. 00:32:58.359 --> 00:33:03.639 At the heart of Christianity is what God does for us. 00:33:03.639 --> 00:33:09.279 And the difference between a message based on God saying you must and a message based 00:33:09.279 --> 00:33:16.879 on God saying I will is absolutely crucial because they result in two very different 00:33:16.879 --> 00:33:19.639 responses from us. 00:33:19.639 --> 00:33:27.319 You must produces fear and intimidation and makes us think that we must do stuff to impress 00:33:27.319 --> 00:33:35.079 God that we have to somehow be good enough for Him and we rely on our own efforts to 00:33:35.079 --> 00:33:41.119 reach that standard or we just give up in fear or disillusionment. 00:33:41.119 --> 00:33:47.399 I will does not call us to do that. 00:33:47.399 --> 00:33:51.720 I will does not call us to impress God. 00:33:51.720 --> 00:33:59.240 I will calls us to trust Him. 00:33:59.240 --> 00:34:02.759 And that's exactly what Abraham did. 00:34:02.759 --> 00:34:05.000 He didn't know where he was going. 00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:07.799 He didn't know when his child was going to be born. 00:34:07.799 --> 00:34:13.000 He didn't know what the rest of God's plan looked like. 00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:16.760 But he trusted God. 00:34:16.760 --> 00:34:26.080 And all God is asking of you and me is that we would do the same. 00:34:26.080 --> 00:34:34.480 And that is why the Gospel does not lead us to fear or insecurity or pressure to impress. 00:34:34.480 --> 00:34:44.320 The Gospel of Jesus Christ leads us to peace and safety now and forever. 00:34:44.320 --> 00:34:48.280 Because for every single time you look at yourself and think I failed, I can't do it, 00:34:48.280 --> 00:34:49.280 I'm broken. 00:34:49.280 --> 00:34:59.880 Jesus says that does not matter for one second because whatever it takes to save you, I will 00:34:59.880 --> 00:35:03.160 do it. 00:35:03.160 --> 00:35:06.559 And that's what makes following Jesus so amazing. 00:35:06.559 --> 00:35:09.960 It's not about what you have to do for Him. 00:35:09.960 --> 00:35:13.559 It's not about what I can do for Him. 00:35:13.559 --> 00:35:18.039 It's all about what He has done for us. 00:35:18.039 --> 00:35:22.079 May God grant that for every one of us. 00:35:22.079 --> 00:35:29.360 We can see that, understand that and trust Him forever. 00:35:29.360 --> 00:35:30.360 Amen. 00:35:30.360 --> 00:35:32.360 Let's pray. 00:35:32.360 --> 00:35:41.559 Father, we thank you so much for all that you've done for us. 00:35:41.559 --> 00:35:52.519 And in so many ways, Lord, we have not done anything to deserve that, but we just rejoice 00:35:52.519 --> 00:35:57.199 that you are the God who was ready to say, I will. 00:35:57.199 --> 00:36:00.480 And how we thank you for that. 00:36:00.480 --> 00:36:07.079 And just praise you for everything that you have in fact done for us through Jesus. 00:36:07.079 --> 00:36:11.799 And may we all just respond to that by trusting in you. 00:36:11.800 --> 00:36:37.760 In Jesus' name, amen.