Promises, Promises I

my text this morning is the very first
verse of the New Testament Matthew
chapter 1 verse 1 the verse that you
will recognize a record of the genealogy
of Jesus Christ the Son of David the son
of Abraham some of you perhaps remember
this little verse has played a
profoundly influential role in my life
personally and also in my ministry
here's the backstory the year was
nineteen sixty-nine it was the last year
of college for me it had been a year of
tremendous spiritual growth occasioned
in part by the fact that a small group
of friends and I I got together every
night of the week if you can believe it
for an hour and a half to study
Scripture and to pray together how we
pull that off and managed to get the
grades that we did surprises me to this
day but that's what we did it was a time
of unprecedented spiritual growth that
was a time when the presence of God was
more real in my life than I had ever
experienced it previously and so I
prayed what in retrospect proved to be
one of the most dangerous prayers of my
life I said Lord do anything you need to
do to make me the kind of Christian that
you want me to be well as you've heard
me say before I thought I'd sprout wings
and sport a halo at the very least I
thought I would draw closer to God and
he would draw closer to me and you
cannot begin to imagine my dismay when
the opposite happened
the rug spiritually and emotionally was
pulled out from underneath me and I
started and would prove to be a two-year
journey that the ancient mystics used to
call the dark night of the soul and in
the dark night of the soul you lose all
sense of God's presence it's like he's
not there it's like he has abandoned you
it's like he doesn't care and you were
confronted not only by the deepest sins
of your own life but you were confronted
by temptations and waves of spiritual
attack that role in like a tsunami and I
remember there were days during that
lengthy stretch of time that I wish the
earth would just open up and swallow me
I found life incredibly difficult the
fact that I was scheduled to attend
seminary that fall didn't make that an
easier because I had looked forward to
preaching the good news of Jesus when I
felt that he was close by but when I was
no longer certain that he even existed
let alone that he cared for me or
anybody else the prospect of becoming a
preacher was very grim indeed it was a
tough time I wouldn't wish it on my
worst enemy of truth be known
nevertheless roll the clock forward
couple of months passed by I enrolled in
the seminary that fall and still not
feeling really very good about a lot of
different things one of my roommates
happen to pick up a book by watch many
some of you may have read it it's called
the normal Christian life it's a book
that is really a study in the book of
Romans and it's not a book that I would
have ever at that point picked up
because I thought the book of Romans was
rather heady and not terribly
interesting
but as I leafed through it I found
towards the end of the book a couple of
pages indeed a couple of paragraphs that
described my experience to a tee for
example here is what he says he says God
must bring us to a point i cannot tell
you how it will be but he will do it
we're through a deep and dark experience
or natural power is touched and
fundamentally weakened so that we no
longer dare trust ourselves he has had
to deal with some of us very strangely
and take us through difficult and
painful ways in order to get us there at
length there comes a time when we no
longer like to do Christian work indeed
we almost dread to do things in the
Lord's name but then at last he can
begin to use us and he goes on to
describe his own experience the Lord
graciously laid me aside once in my life
for a number of months and put me
spiritually into utter darkness it was
almost as though he had forsaken me
almost as though nothing was going on
and I had come to the end of everything
and then he goes on to say by degrees he
brought things back again well that
didn't fix my problem as you can imagine
didn't make my anxiety go away but it
did make my anxiety about my anxiety go
away if you understand what I'm saying
because up until that point I wondered
what in the world is happening to me has
God abandoned me does he even exists has
he forsaken me what's going on and at
least I learned from the experience of
this author that this too was part of
the normal Christian life if we expect
our lives to bear fruit now looking back
on it in retrospect I can thank him for
those times because what it taught me
was to walk by faith and not by sight to
live by what God's
is in his word as opposed to how I'm
feeling about it and that is not only
enabled a certain steadiness in my own
life but it has enabled me to take a lot
of other people by the hand as they've
gone through very difficult times and
said to them listen even though you
cannot believe that God is there were
that he loves you let me believe for you
until we come out the other end because
you see the Bible says we live by faith
not by sight but I tell you that story
this morning because as I was reading
his book I noticed that he talked the
Lord about what it is to be united with
Christ in his death and in his
resurrection and if you're familiar this
morning with the book of Romans then you
will know that's one of Paul's main
themes he talks about being crucified
with Christ and being raised with Christ
into newness of life and intellectually
I sort of understood what he was saying
but spiritually I knew there was
something I was missing so what do you
do when you don't quite get it and I've
always been grateful for the fact that
I've always known that I wasn't smart
enough to get it all you pray and so I
began to pray fairly earnestly for a
season Lord show me what it is to be
united with Jesus show me what it is to
be crucified with him and to be raised
with him well not much happened and so
after a while you know how that goes
with prayers you just sort of go on to
other things roll the clock forward it's
now five years later I've graduated from
seminary I'm pastoring my first
congregation out west I am sitting at my
desk one weekday morning when all of a
sudden
there is this since that's the only way
that I can describe it of the Lord
saying I want you to read Matthew 1
verse 1 never had an experience like
that before seldom I've had an
experience like that since then and it
frankly puzzled me because I knew the
Bible well enough to know what Matthew 1
verse 1 says it's the start of course of
the genealogy of Jesus but the Holy
Spirit tells you to read something
probably a smart thing to read so open
my Bible app and I read the verse
Matthew 1 verse 1 a record of the
genealogy of Jesus Christ the Son of
David the son of Abraham and I cannot
begin to tell you the explosion of light
that dawned in my heart and soul at that
moment because I understood something
about that simple worse that I had never
ever understood for all the times that i
had read the Bible and that is this the
promises that God made to Abraham many
years ago promises that are historically
fulfilled partially in the reign of King
David come to full expression in the
person of Jesus Christ and when by faith
I am joined to Jesus whatever it is that
God has promised to Abraham now belongs
to me the promise was made to Abram the
promise went to David the promise went
to Jesus and in Christ the promise is
mine it is not an exaggeration this
morning for me to tell you it blew
my mind in the time that we have this
morning and probably at least the next
week maybe the next two weeks depending
on how far we get want to walk you
through that connection between Abram
David in Jesus with a view of having us
understand a fresh what it is to be in
Christ there's an interesting to follow
up to this story because when this
revelation came to me I made no
connection with my previous prayer show
me what it is to be in Christ and a
number of months went by and all of all
of a sudden I sensed the Holy Spirit
saying this is the answer to that prayer
and you know I took 55 years it took
five years because during those five
years he set up all the dominoes in
place that I needed to have an
understanding of this covenant
connection between Abraham David and
Jesus and once all of those dominoes
were set up he pushed over the first one
and bang there went the whole shootin
match and I saw it in ways that I
haven't never seen it before and my hope
and prayer is as we walk our way through
this this week in the next maybe one or
two weeks that the Holy Spirit will
honor that also in your life and that he
will expand our vision to show us the
unsearchable riches of God in Christ
Jesus our Lord because it all goes back
to Abram and the promises that God made
to Abraham so let's dig into that the
story of Abraham in the Bible of course
and we've talked a little bit about that
in Sunday night services of late begins
in Genesis chapter 11 where we are told
that Abram together with his father and
another relative
traveled from ur of the Chaldeans on
their way to Canaan land but they got
half way and they settled in Haran if
you look at the scale here that's
probably about seven hundred and fifty
kilometers stephen tells us in the New
Testament and we wouldn't know it from
anywhere else that it was actually God
who came to Abram in ur of the Chaldeans
and he said leave everybody and go to
Canaan and it's an interesting
commentary on his faith that his dad had
to take him there on this journey and
then they settled halfway until of
course Tara his father died and now the
Lord either appeared to Abram again or
in some way Abram was reminded of the
need to move on and so when we get to
Genesis chapter 12 this is what the Lord
says to Abram very familiar versus leave
your country your people and your
father's household and go to the land I
will show you I will make you into a
great nation and I will bless you I will
make your name great and you will be a
blessing now if you look carefully a
good verse you'll see that there is a
four-fold promise there there is first
of all a promise for a land God says to
him leave your country your people in
your father's household go to the land
that I will show you the Landers will
see is always critically important in
Scripture because it is the place where
you live and where you need to live in
safety then God goes on to say I will
make you into a great nation that is to
say i will give you offspring and i will
greatly multiply your offspring bit of
an issue for Abraham you'll find out
later on because neither he nor his wife
or at least his wife is not capable of
having any children so this becomes a
major
issue in a major test of faith I'll make
out of you a great nation God says and I
will bless you that is to say my favor
will be upon you I will open the windows
of heaven and you will have everything
that you need for this life and perhaps
limited as the Old Testament
understanding of that was for the life
that is to come I will bless you and
then God says you will be a blessing in
other words the grace that I pour out
into your life isn't going to be just
limited to you it is going to flow
through you and as the passage goes on
the Bible talks about the fact that all
the nations of the earth will bless
themselves through Abraham and his
offspring so here is the promise made to
Abram I'm going to give you a land I'm
going to make you a mighty nation I'm
going to bless you and I'm going to make
you a blessing now we're going to
believe without a little bit because you
cannot understand the biblical message
of salvation you cannot understand what
salvation means you cannot understand
who Jesus is and what Jesus came to do
unless you understand the nature of this
covenant that God makes with Abram so
many years ago so to appreciate what it
is that God is saying to Abram you have
to put it in the context of God's
original creation purposes for Adam and
you've heard me ask this question many
times because i always keep coming back
to it if you want to know where God is
going whether in your life or in the
world then you have to know what was his
plan originally because salvation is a
restoration to a far greater degree even
of his original purpose or so if I ask
you this
more tea why did God make the whole
universe and why did he create a demand
even put them in the garden what is the
answer well we've talked about it many
times and we can sum it up in the words
of Ephesians chapter 1 verse 5 I love
this verse because it's so nails it
whole he that is God destined us in love
to be his sons through Jesus Christ
according to the purpose of his wheel he
destined us in love to be his sons
through Jesus Christ according to the
purpose of his will and so what the
Bible teaches us is that God created
this whole vast universe he created the
planet Earth and then he created the
human race because he wanted us to be
his sons don't get bent out of shape if
you're a woman because the term sons in
Scripture is always used in the context
of inheritance the son inherits the
daughter typically did not male and
female are included in being the sons of
God the best way to picture this I think
is to think of yourself and for some of
us that takes a lot of imagination but
think of yourself as an incredibly
wealthy person I mean you've got money
to burn in the bank you've got
properties all over the world you've got
people working for you you've got people
you know bowing down to you wherever you
go because you're a man or you're a
woman of great importance but you have
this heart full of love and you say to
yourself I'm sitting on all of this
stuff and Who am I going to share it
with and you say to yourself I
have a brilliant idea I want to be get
myself a family of sons you can have
daughters to that if you want i'm going
to be i'm going to create human beings
in my image and my likeness people with
whom I can have a relationship people
who love me and who will honor me and
who will obey me and to whom I can pour
out my blessings and so you get adam and
eve you get them in the garden and
please understand this all the things
that the human race has been fighting
for and striving for to own and has made
wars about and has tried everything to
make it happen understand please Adam
and Eve had it from the hand of God you
get that they didn't have to work why
did god rest on the seventh day not
because he was tired but because it was
all done it was as good as it was going
to get that's what Paul means when he
says he has destined us in love to be
his sons he is destined us to be heirs
of everything that he has made and for
that in the original creation there were
two things that he required of Adam and
Eve number one be grateful acknowledged
in grateful thanksgiving that everything
that you have here you have not because
you made it happen but because I gave it
to you it was there for you to walk into
it was all ready for when I created you
and a number six so God says know that
it comes for me and that therefore
you're having this possession to
pends on your relationship with me and
number two do what I tell you to do
makes sense doesn't it if your kid lives
under your roof and you put food in his
table and you buy his clothing and you
look after all his or her needs what is
the one thing that absolutely drives
parents right up the wall if it is an
ingratitude and what you're looking for
is at least an acknowledgement that
number one what he or she receives comes
from you and that therefore that
relationship is very important and the
number two you better do what I'm
telling you to do or what their live by
the rules of this household and if you
can't live by the rules of this
household go live someplace else isn't
that how it works that's called covenant
God's covenant with Adam and Eve was
very simple God says this whole
playground of yours here's the whole
earth i want you to subdue it i want you
to build a kingdom that reflects my
character and my nature i want to see a
human race that knows everything comes
from God a human race that is willing to
obey me and to honor me and I will bless
you out of your socks because the earth
will yield what's its intended to yield
well you know what happened along comes
the serpent and the serpent knows just
how to play on Adam and especially Eve's
weakness and he comes along and he says
is God really good like can you really
trust him to look after you and he
zeroes in on the one thing that God has
said
node to which is of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil because God
says that tree will kill you don't touch
it stay away from it and the devil turns
that around and he says did God say you
cannot eat from any of the trees of the
garden and the woman makes the fatal
mistake of entering into conversation
with a serpent and the serpent is a lot
smarter than the woman and he convinces
her that she can have her cake and eat
it too understand this this whole
creation God says you have it because I
am your father and you are in
relationship with me the serpent comes
along and he says you can have all this
and your freedom why should you have to
listen to your husband not the first
woman to ask that question why should
you have to listen to and why should you
have to listen to go on and so of course
you know the story she looks at the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil God
said you eat from that thing it's going
to kill you does it look like it's going
to cure no good for food the light to
the ice desire to make one wise that's
always at the heart of temptation and so
in reaching out and eating the forbidden
fruit and giving it to her husband they
both declared their independence from
God they said thank you but no thank you
we don't need you we've got this
beautiful garden that we can play around
with and we can do with it whatever we
want to do well you can disobey and you
can make your free choices but you
cannot escape the consequences of your
choices and so remember God it said the
day that you eat thereof you will surely
die and so the very creation and again
this is what we need to understand
the very creation they were to be Lord
and Master over the creation that was
subject to their authority they were to
subdue it now turns around and bites
them in their behind because now the
creation rules over them so again you
know listen to the verses in Genesis
chapter 3 17 18 and 19 God speaking here
God says cursed is the ground because of
you through painful toil you will eat of
it all the days of your life it will
produce thorns and thistles for you and
you will eat the plants of the field
vegetarianism by the way was the
original design I'm not pushing that
trust me but eating meat didn't come in
until the days of Noah back to that
verse if we can please cursed is the
ground because of you through painful
toil you will eat of it all the days of
your life it will produce thorns and
thistles for you and you will eat the
plants of the field by the sweat of your
brow you will eat your food until you
return to the ground since from since
from it you were taken for dust you are
and to dust you will return and some of
you have heard me tell the story of the
young boy the set to his mom is it true
that we were made from the dust and she
says yes son industry and he said is it
true mom that when we die we return to
dust and she said yes son it is true
well he said I just looked under the bed
dust you are to dust you will return and
the curse means thorns and thistles in
your life it means living by the sweat
of your brow it means life for all of
its pleasures and joys and good things
doesn't always work the way it's
supposed to work as my very wise father
used to say nobody ultimately escapes
the power of the curse sickness and
death broken relationships
disappointments and heartache they are
part and parcel of the whole human race
I think that's why people continue to
celebrate Christmas even though a lot of
people want nothing to do with the
Christ of Christmas there is something
about feeling good and feeling happy and
having good news that stirs something
very deep in the longings of the human
heart cursed is the ground because of
you from that day to this the question
has been how do we return to Paradise
Regained if this is paradise lost
alienated from God under Satan's power
selfish conflict and war John Milton you
will recall wrote a great epic poem way
back in the 17th century i believe it
was thousands of lines of verse Paradise
Lost how we got to where we are the big
question throughout the course of
history is how do we get back to
Paradise Regained and the message of
Scripture is that there's only two
possible methods to getting back there
one is you can do it by yourself drawing
on your own human ingenuity cleverness
technology wisdom and strength that is
the course
followed in Scripture by keun and his
descendants who are the ultimate city of
me and it always ends in violence
because it doesn't deal with the
underlying issue which is alienation
from God so the second way back the way
that is the message of Scripture is that
since the problem began with alienation
from God the restoration comes with
being restored to go on and if the first
way back is by human strength and human
wisdom and human might try to earn our
way back then the other way back is what
the Bible calls by faith that is to say
I acknowledge my scene I acknowledge
that I have brought this all on my own
head I cannot pay the penalty I need
God's mercy and again in Genesis for you
not only have the genealogy of KN who
represents the city of man who
represents all the nations of the world
historically how they try to solve the
problems of humanity now we're going to
drop the world's temperature by 1.5
degrees or to limit it to that because
we're going to control the climate it's
a good thing to try to control the
climate but I'll tell you there's
somebody much bigger than you or I that
is in charge of that or we humble
ourselves before God and we repent of
our sin and we could reconcile to him
which in Genesis 4 if you want to read
that chapter happens in the genealogy on
the site of Seth who replaces evil and
when you get to the end of Genesis
foreign kaons line generation number 7
you have Lee mech who is filled with
violence and arrogance and war
and on the other side you end up with
enoch who walked with god and was taken
up by God because they're so
characteristic they're so characteristic
is that they were men and women of
prayer they knew they needed God and His
blessings to make it happen so back to
Abraham because we're going someplace
with us when God comes to Abram and he
says to him I'm going to give you a land
I'm going to make you into a mighty
nation I'm going to bless you guess what
God is doing God is reversing the curse
he enters into covenant with Abraham who
was initially idol worshipper and says
Abram you leave everything behind you
that you have ever known that gives you
status that gives you authority and that
gives you power that makes you somebody
in the world and in your community and
you come follow me you won't even know
what it is that I'm taking you somewhere
in the land of Canaan but who knows what
that looks like and I'm going to bless
you with a lay in a place where you can
dwell in safety I'm going to bless your
body so do you become a mighty nation a
grand people and I'm going to bless you
with every blessing that you can imagine
i'm going to open the windows of heaven
poured out everything you need to do
life and to do it abundantly and in fact
you're going to have so many blessings
that you have enough not only for
yourself but all the nations of the
world will bless themselves by ear so
what God is saying to Abram and catch
this because we miss it a lot he is
saying to Abraham
you're going to inherit the earth listen
to how Paul puts it picks up on this in
Romans chapter 4 verse 13 the promise
there we have it again the promise to
Abraham and to his descendants that they
should wat inherit the world did not
come through the law but through the
righteousness of faith and just very
quickly before we wind up this morning
notice three things there are of
critical importance in this passage
first of all the promise is that they
should inherit the world now you may say
to yourself I'm not interested in
inheriting the world that's only because
you don't understand what you're looking
for because the reality is everybody
wants to inherit the world everybody
wants a place of significance everybody
wants a place a blessing everybody wants
a place of safety everybody wants to
climb the ladder to live in a bigger
house drive a better car more money in
your bank account and more recognition
from your friends family neighbors
signature people kill themselves to get
that they sacrifice their health their
family their relationships just to take
another step in that journey God says to
Abram I'm entering into covenant with
you and just as I gave Adam and Eve the
whole works for them to enjoy and to
subdue so I will give you the earth the
world as your inheritance never lose
sight of the fact that the big question
in history is who is going to inherit
the world who's going to be the boss is
going to be Isis it's going to be Russia
isn't the United States is it Canada is
it you get the you get the idea
who inherits the earth second thing to
notice there is that it's based on
righteousness by faith so here's the big
question how do I become eligible to
inherit the earth and the question here
is how do i get to be good enough to
earn that blessing then again there are
two ways righteousness under the law i'm
going to try harder to be better and
maybe god I'll take notice and you'll
bless me or righteousness that comes by
faith and the whole use that Paul makes
of Abram in his New Testament epistles
is to demonstrate that the inheritance
that was promised to Abraham which is
the inheritance of the world not only in
this age but in the age to come is not
based on law but is based on
righteousness guaranteed by faith and we
don't time talk about this now but there
are two covenants here in the Old
Testament that we're dealing with what
is the Covenant that was made to Abraham
and that is a covenant that is
unconditional where God says I not only
require righteousness of you but I'm
going to fulfill righteousness for you
so that the inheritance is guaranteed to
you by faith when you're good or whether
you're bad it's yours by faith the
second covenant was the Covenant at
Mount Sinai which was a law covenant and
you can read about this in Galatians
chapter three and four Paul argues very
persuasively that the Covenant at Mount
Sinai didn't replace the Covenant God
made with Abraham in the book of Genesis
the Covenant at Sinai was a covenant law
obey me keep the law I will bless you
you will be in the land break the law
as of course they did out of the land
you go you get scattered we'll talk more
about that perhaps Lord willing next
time the big question to bring it back
to this is how do i inherit the world
how do I get the blessings of God how do
I get his favor does his favor rest on
goody-two-shoes does his favor rest on
me doing everything right and obeying
him the answer is no because in fact it
puts you under a curse because you're
now putting yourself back under law and
the law says if you don't do it a
hundred percent right you're in big
manure that's the reality by faith we
become righteous and if we're righteous
by faith then nothing can hinder us from
receiving the inheritance will flush
that out more as time goes on lord
willing so there's one for the phrase in
there but you really have to understand
and that is this phrase that it is a
promise to Abraham and his descendants
or his offspring now keep that word in
mind because Paul does fascinating
things with that in the book of
Galatians because the offspring is both
singular and plural the offspring is
first and foremost Jesus who inherits
the promise similarly to King David and
it is plural in the sense that when you
and I are joined to Jesus we receive the
inheritance so what do you think it
means to be a Christian to be a
Christian is to receive the inherent
that has been promised to Abraham and
that was historically realized in the
life and the kingship of David and if
you really get hold of that and you
flesh that out in terms of what that
looks like for the New Testament
Christian it'll blow your mind like it
blew my mind then we can all have blown
minds together that'll be interesting so
here's an assignment for you see if you
can can connect the dots see if you can
trace the significance of Jesus Christ
being the son of David being the son of
Abraham read the book of Galatians to
see what Paul does with that in the New
Testament and then when lord willing we
come back to it will be able if we can
understand it appropriate promises for
ourselves that previously we didn't have
the courage or the boldness to lay hold
off because you see here's a problem we
know that Jesus was a descendant of
David we know that Jesus was a
descendant of Abraham and we know that
the promise was that through Abraham and
David the Messiah would come that her
sins can be forgiven that we can go to
heaven it's all very fine and dandy it
very true and very important but it's
about more than that it's about being a
son of God do you understand the
difference it's about receiving the
inheritance it is about getting what God
has promised to Abraham not only in time
but also in eternity that's where we
need the revelation because that is what
will change our lives in that
will enable us to walk by faith and not
by sight so we can lay hold of the good
you