Promises Promises 2 Sermon

want to pick up with you this morning
where we left off last week we were
looking last week you will recall at the
very first verse of the New Testament
Matthew 1 verse 1 which reads as follows
a record of the genealogy of Jesus
Christ the Son of David the son of
Abraham and we saw that from Matthews
point of view if we want to understand
the person and the Ministry of Jesus we
have to make our starting point the life
of Abraham Luke for the record does the
same thing in his gospel except his
genealogy goes back all the way to Adam
the reason being that Matthew is
speaking to the Jewish people whose
history as a people goes back to Abraham
but Luke is speaking to Gentiles and
their history as a people of course as
it does for all of us goes back all the
way to Adam for Matthews point of view
Abraham is the beginning of the
selection of God's people we saw last
week that if you go back to the book of
Genesis you find that God enters into a
very sacred covenant with Abraham and
under the terms of that covenant God
promises him for things he promises him
a land he promises to multiply his
offspring so that they will one day be
like the stars of the heavens in the
sand of the sea shore he promises that
he will pour out upon them abundant
blessings and then he promises that
through them the blessings will flow to
the nations of the world Genesis chapter
12 the verses 1 and 2 puts it this way
God speaks to a bro
he's now living in Haran having left or
the chaldeans many years earlier with
his father and God says to him 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 and I
will make your name great and you will
be a blessing and if you rolled together
these four things that God is promising
to Abraham then Abram you discover that
what God is promising is a return to the
status of Adam Adam was originally put
in charge of all of creation in the fall
he lost it God comes to Abraham and he
says to Abraham you are going to inherit
the world and I pointed out last time
that's how the Apostle Paul interprets
the Covenant that God makes with Abraham
he puts it this way Romans 4 verse 13
the promise to Abraham and his
descendants that they should inherit the
world did not come through the law but
through the righteousness of faith and I
pointed out three things in that verse
that are just critically important very
quickly again first of all the promise
is that he would inherit the world
throughout history here is the big
question who is going to end up on top
of the pile who is going to inherit the
wealth and the riches of the world is it
going to be God's people who are usually
marginalized there nothing's and
nobody's or is it going to be the
nations of the world with their power
and with their glory you may remember
the temptation to Jesus on the devil
came to him was all of the glory of the
kingdoms of the world
I will give to you if you bow down and
worship Me the big question is who's
going to inherit the world the second
question then is under what terms is
that world inherited in other words how
do I get there how do i get to be good
enough to receive that inheritance and
there are two answers either i try to do
it by myself which is keeping the law or
God gives it to me because he declares
me righteous and the whole emphasis of
Scripture in the Old Testament in the
New Testament is that we are made
righteous by faith and this is a theme
that runs throughout the history of
Abraham's life and then the final
question is who gets the inheritance
Abraham does and who else his
descendants his offspring his seed and I
said keep that in mind because part of
the New Testament does some very
interesting things with Abraham's
offspring so here's the covenant with
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 you are going to
be a blessing and it's all coming to you
by faith you cannot make it happen
yourself I will give it to you as a
righteous gift and that's a covenant
that God makes as we'll see later that
is unconditional because God is going to
make it happen now moving on from there
then if you want to see what that looks
like in history what it looks like that
Abraham and his descendants inherit the
earth then you need to roll the clock
forward about a thousand years and you
come to the person I'm
David because notice again how Matthew
puts it a record of the genealogy of
Jesus Christ the Son of David the son of
Abraham so who's David well he is the
son of Abraham now remember whenever you
read the word son in Scripture it's
almost always in the context of who is
the air so the fact then that Matthew
says David is the son of Abraham means
that David is heir to the promises that
God has made to Abraham and if you want
to see then what it is that God promised
Abraham and what that looks like in a
physical way in a physical world in time
would in history then you gotta look at
the life of Dave an now David the Bible
says was a man after God's own heart and
what that means is the David understood
what God was after that is to say a
people that are qualified by faith to
inherit the world he not only understood
that but he committed himself to
following God to be part of the solution
to the problem occasioned by the fall
and so if you look at the life of David
what do you see well you see here a man
who first and foremost cultivates his
own relationship with God because he
knows that ultimately the inheritance
belongs to God and God gives it to
whoever He wills then you see the David
commits himself to the call of God on
his life he is taken from behind the
sheep and he becomes a military man and
eventually climbs to become king over
Israel and as king over Israel what does
he do well first of all he delivers
people from the power of the enemy you
know all the stories of Goliath and the
Philistines and all the neighboring
countries that were always trying to
oppress the people of God and take their
freedom away David as a warrior stands
up wages war not because he is warlike
but because he wants to deliver his
people not only that but he consolidates
the nation he organizes the national
life he builds a civil society he builds
an organizational and an administrative
structure and more than anything he
leads his people into a structured
worship of God because he knows that
Israel success depends on their walk and
on their relationship with God and so I
love the way psalm 78 verse 72 sums up
the person and the nature of David's
rule David shepherded them that is
Israel with integrity of heart and with
skillful hands he led them so David is a
fulfillment of the Covenant made with
Abraham a thousand years later and under
his reign and then under the reign of
his son Solomon you see this fourfold
promise made to Abraham fulfilled in a
most realistic fashion they have a land
they become a mighty nation they are
incredibly blessed of God and the
blessings of God flow through them to
the nation's because that's the
significance of the Queen of Sheba she
represents the nation's even as the
Weizmann do in the Nativity story by the
way she represents the nation's coming
to behold the glory of God's blessing on
God's people you with me so far pretty
simple to try
right now what happens next of course is
great tragedy and to understand what
happens next we need to understand that
in the Old Testament for our purposes
there are two covenants that God makes
with his people there are more covenants
but for our purposes there are tier
we've already alluded to the first one
and that is the Covenant that God makes
with Abraham now the Covenant made with
Abraham is recorded in Genesis chapter
15 and I'm going to reference a number
of scripture passages today and if you
have pen and pencil with you I suggest
you write them down and then reread
those chapters because they're crucial
to understanding the message of
Scripture and if you know the Bible then
you will know that in Genesis 15 in this
covenant where Abram falls asleep after
he has cut animals in half and then
while he sleeps there is this smoking
fire pot representing God's judgment
that passes in between the two halves of
that sacrifice that's the way covenants
were made in those days and what that
means is I am swearing faithfulness to
you and you're swearing faithfulness to
me and if I break covenant I am inviting
a curse on me and in that particular
covenant because Abraham is asleep God
invites the curse on himself and so this
covenant is a an unconditional covenant
whereby God says even if you see and I'm
going to pay the price for that sin
looks forward to the crosses we'll see
later on I'm going to pay the price for
that sin but I'm going to fulfill my
promise you are going to be this mighty
nation and you're going to inherit the
world
and you're going to be blessed and
through you God's blessings will flow
now we don't have time to talk about it
there is a temporal fulfillment in
history and there is an eternal
fulfillment the book of Hebrews tells us
that Abraham was looking for a city
whose builder and maker is God never
settled in Canaan because even though
his physical descendants would inherit a
physical Kingdom he was looking for the
kingdom that is to come the eternal
kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ you
with me that's the Covenant made with
Abraham it was unconditional then God
makes a second covenant and that is at
Mount Sinai that's recorded for us in
Exodus 19 to 40 it is conditional it is
temporal is it eternal that depends on
your interpretation of Israel as the
people of God we don't have time to go
into that Paul talks extensively about
this covenant in the book of Galatians
because this covenant is a law covenant
and under the terms of this covenant God
says by the Ten Commandments and all the
other commandments that he gives them
this is how I want you to live and if
you live this way I will bless you but
if you do not live this way you're in
big big trouble the curse of the
Covenant will come upon you and the
purpose of the sunny Eric covenant Paul
points out in the New Testament
especially in the book of Galatians is
to serve as a teacher to lead people to
Christ God never intended for people to
become wholly by their own efforts he
just wanted to put rules and regulations
in place so that evil would be limited
and the stage would eventually be set
for the person of Jesus Christ now keep
this in mind let's put that slide back
up because what happens next is this
here is Solomon he is the son
of David and though he was the wisest
man that ever lived what did he do he
broke covenant out of here a covenant
while he married what nine hundred wives
you got to be an idiot to marry that
many wives to begin with why did he
marry them any wise because they were
political alliances this is how you
consolidate your empire I mean how in
the world is it going to sleep of that
many women all at once or even in the
course of the year I see it's a
political move and it gives him prestige
among the nations it wasn't supposed to
do that who remembers what else he did
that he wasn't supposed to do he
collected thousands of horses now I have
no idea why he wasn't allowed to have
horses but God specifically told him not
to have horses so between the horses and
the women his heart was weaned away from
God and he became unfaithful and God
began pronouncing judgment and so during
the reign of his son ray vaughan the
kingdom split a Judah had a series of
good Kings mostly but some bad ones
Israel had mostly bad Kings in 722 bc
the northern kingdom got led off into
captivity and in 586 BC Judah followed
Israel went to Assyria Judah went to
Babylon and the land lay desolate now
understand what's happening here we have
just lost our inheritance you get that
we've been unfaithful to God we've just
lost the land we've lost the nation
because now we're reduced to next to
nothing we have lost the blessing and if
you read Jeremiah and the other prophets
we have become a byword to the nation to
the nation's no longer
is the Queen of Sheba coming to admire
how great we are we have just really
messed up because we have broken
covenant with God on the basis of the
Covenant made at Mount Sinai but
remember there's two covenants you
tracking with me here this covenant was
conditional this covenant was
unconditional so guess what God does he
says I will come and save you who was
ever heard of a people being scattered
repeatedly historically all over the
world and they're brought back to their
nation and under the rubber ball and
Nehemiah and Ezra they get
re-established to the land hundreds of
years go by roll the clock forward now
remember God's got a long memory what
happens guess who gets bored Jesus which
brings us to Jesus so let me ask you
real simple question who is Jesus you
may think you know the answer Matthew
knows the answer he says Jesus we can
put the slide up Jesus is a record of
the genealogy of Jesus Christ the Son of
David the son of Abraham who's jesus the
son of David what does that mean Jesus
inherits the promise made first of all
to Dave it and that introduces still a
third
covenant that you find in the Old
Testament and that is the Covenant that
God makes with King David you read about
that in second samuel chapter 7 it is
both conditional and unconditional
that's why I want you to go home and
read these passages because once I frame
them for you they will make sense in
ways that probably they don't make sense
now in sec um second Samuel Chapter
seven God comes to David and he promises
him two things he says essentially your
son is going to sit on your throne and
wonderful film ined of that is Solomon
and God says if your son is faithful
he's going to stay on his throne Solomon
wasn't faithful was he and the kingdom
was lost but then and this is what's
really interesting it takes on and other
whole twist because now it isn't just
this your son is going to be on the
throne I am going to give you a son
who's going to be king forever listen to
this verse now if we can read that
together at second Samuel Chapter 7
verse 16 your house and your kingdom
shall endure forever before me your
throne shall be established for ever
your house your kingdom put that full
it's okay your house and your kingdom
shall endure forever before me your
throne shall be established forever so
what's God saying God is saying to David
I'm making a covenant with you and under
the terms of that covenant the blessings
that I promised to Abraham that were
reinforced conditionally at Mount Sinai
that
you experienced in your life are now
going to endure forever in the person of
a son your son Jesus long-term it's not
spelled out here is going to be the
recipient of the promises I made to you
and just as I called you to be a
shepherd and a king over your people to
deliver them from the power of evil and
to establish their kingdom and to bring
my blessings to them there is going to
be a son coming forth from you who is
going to bring about the coming of my
kingdom and that is why the angel
Gabriel now Ian Luke chapter 1 verses 31
to 33 puts it this way he says you will
be with child speaking to marry in the
story of the Annunciation you will be
with child and give birth to a son and
you are to give him the name Jesus he
will be great and will be called the son
of the Most High the Lord God will give
him the throne of his father David and
he will reign over the house of Jacob
forever and his kingdom will never end
he will reign over the house of David
forever and his kingdom will never end
why do both Matthew and Luke in their
Gospels include the genealogy they spoke
about that a number of sunday nights ago
because for Jesus to be legitimate it
had to be demonstrated that he was the
son of David that is to say he had the
legal right to inherit the promises made
to David which in turn were the promises
war which were made to Abraham now bear
with me because this is all coming
together this is going someplace because
let me ask you the question again it was
Jesus he's the son of David yes but what
else is Jesus son of Abraham he is the
son of Abraham what does that mean well
what that means is that the promises
that God made to Abraham are fulfilled
in Jesus what was the promise al and
mighty nation I'm going to bless you and
through you I am going to make the
blessings known to the nations of the
world all the nations of the world will
bless themselves by year that's the
promise mate Abraham we see a
fulfillment of that in history in David
and in Solomon when the nation of Israel
rises to the top and gets admired by the
nation's all around them and God's
people live in peace and prosperity and
in the worship of God but the ultimate
fulfillment of this is Jesus who is the
offspring of Abraham and the recipient
of the promises made to Abraham listen
to how Paul puts it in a Galatians
chapter three verse 16 let's put that up
on the screen the promises were spoken
to Abraham and to his seed the scripture
does not say and to seeds meaning many
people but to your seed meaning one
person who is Christ let me
that again because this is incredibly
important because you'll see in a moment
how that impacts you and me a the
promises were spoken to Abraham and to
his seed the scripture does not say em
two seeds which is a Paul does things
with scripture that in my seminary days
we would never get away with because he
reaches conclusions that our seminary
professor would say is illegitimate but
when you're inspired by the Holy Spirit
you can do just about anything and get
away with him so understand what his
argument is his argument is that the
promise was made to Abraham and to his
offspring Abraham and his seed that seed
says Paul is Jesus your seed meaning one
person who is Christ so here's the
argument God promises all these
blessings to Abram you see these
blessings fulfilled in the historical
movement of David right now he says what
you see partially fulfilled in history
in devet is going to be totally
fulfilled in this person called Jesus
this Jesus is got a relationship with
God where there is no sin that gets in
the way this Jesus is perfectly
committed to God the Father keeps the
Covenant makes the service of God his
ultimate priority and is committed to
delivering his people and has received
the name that is above every name that
at the mention of the name of Jesus
every knee should bow he is Lord of
lords he is king of kings he owns the
whole bloomin universe it's all given to
Jesus you with me because now comes the
big clincher because if you have
followed nothing of what I have been
saying please get hold of this when you
and I
are joined to Jesus by faith guess what
happens we become joint heirs with
Christ and heirs of God we become the
children pardon me here while I
straighten myself out we become get
there you got to get this i'm going to
yell at you until you get it we become
sons of god and if we're sons of god
guess what we are heirs of the promises
made to whom to Abraham what are those
promises a land a mighty nation a
blessing and you're made to be a
blessing now lest you think that I'm
just making that up let me quote the
Apostle Paul Galatians chapter 3 the
verses 26 and 27 you are all sons of God
through faith in Christ Jesus for all of
you who are baptized into Christ Jesus
have clothed yourselves with christ
there's neither Jew nor Greek slave nor
free male nor female for you are all one
in Christ Jesus and if you belong to
Christ then guess what say it with me
you are abraham's seed ears according to
the promise now notice a couple of
things about this verse notice first of
all he has these three pairs of names
Jew and Greek he's got slave nor free
male nor female why does he rattle those
off I'll tell you why he rattles
off because it has to do with
inheritance because in the Jewish world
if you were a Greek you didn't count you
didn't belong to go you had no
inheritance you were a bad bad person
you were outside of the Covenant slave
nor free slaves had no title only the
free did male or female in that culture
females were minimized and the
inheritance typically passed on to the
mia so what's he saying when you come to
Jesus it doesn't matter what you have or
what you don't have doesn't matter what
you were born into doesn't matter what
you are not born in doesn't matter how
good you were doesn't matter how bad you
were because the inheritance is not
determined by your genetic background is
not determined by your status it's not
determined by your family it's only
determined by what are you in Christ
because that's what if you're in Christ
then you are let's put it back up you
are Abraham's seed and heirs according
to the promise so all that matters in
the world from God's perspective is are
you in Christ because if you are in
Christ the promise that God made to
Abram the promise that you see
historically fulfilled in David is now
by faith yours is Paul puts it in
another place in Scripture now if we are
children than we are heirs heirs of God
and co-heirs with Christ and our destiny
is to share the glory of Jesus
is what Jesus has received he has
received for you and me I said last time
we tend to truncate the gospel we
understand that he died for our sins so
that her sins can be forgiven so that
one day we can go to heaven that's all
well and Indian true but it's a lot more
than that Adam lost the World God
promised it back to Abram in David you
see a partial fulfillment of that in
Christ you see the total fulfillment of
that and you and I when were joined to
Jesus we get to share in his inheritance
in spirit today and in fullness in the
age that is to come listen again to how
Paul puts it Galatians chapter 3 the
verses 13 and 14 he says Christ has
redeemed us from the curse of the law
becoming a curse for us if we can have
that next slide up please Christ
redeemed us from the curse of the law by
becoming a curse for us for it is
written cursed is everyone who hangs on
a tree he redeemed us in order that the
blessing given to Abraham might come to
the Gentiles through Christ Jesus so
that by faith we might receive the
promise of the Spirit get it the
blessing of Abraham might come to the
Gentiles through Christ Jesus so that by
faith we might receive the promise of
the Spirit I think that's where we'll
quit because what happens now is that
the ultimate fulfillment of what God
promises to Abraham happens in the age
to come
in the age to come when Jesus comes back
Lord of lords and King of Kings all
those who have been joined to him by
faith and who have walked this out by
faith are going to inherit the kingdom
come blessed of my father says Jesus on
that final day inherit the kingdom that
has been prepared for you from before
the foundation of the world I hasn't
seen ear hasn't heard what it is that
God has prepared for those who livia but
through the holy spirit we have a
foretaste of that life today and through
the Holy Spirit we experience a
foretaste of the blessings of Abraham in
the here and now for the glory of God
that has huge implications huge
implications for how we live and in
preparation for next week when we come
back to that ask yourself this question
if you knew if you discovered that there
was hidden away a secret bank account
with billions of dollars in it with your
name on it and suddenly you found out
about that how would that change the way
you live your life today how would that
change how you live your life today and
in similar fashion if we had only a
revelation of who Jesus is and who it is
that we are in him how would that impact
and change our lives I started last week
by saying all of this came to me in a
moment of revelation
as I SAT behind my desk many many years
ago and I can tell you it has made a
profound difference not only for me in
my ministry but for many other people
that I've been privileged to Minister
Tia and it's my hope and it's my prayer
as we talk about this kind of thing the
Holy Spirit will give us that kind of
eye-opening oh my away and I'm richer
than I ever thought because I'm blessed
in Christ Jesus with every spiritual
blessing every spiritual blessing in
heavenly places we press on for the
prize of the upward call of god in
you