Jesus: A Smoking Fire Pot and Flaming Torch

Genesis 15

After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision. Fear not Abraham, for I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great. But Abraham said, Oh Lord God, what will you give me for I continue childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. And Abraham said, behold, you have given me no offspring and a member of my household will be my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him. This man shall not be your heir. Your very own son shall be your heir. And he brought him outside and said, look toward heaven and number the stars if you are able to number them. Then he said to him, so shall your offspring be. And he believed the Lord and it counted to him as righteousness. And he said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out from or the counties to give you this land to possess.

And he said, Oh Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it? And he said to him, bring me a heifer. Three years old, a female goat, three years old, a Ram, three years old, a turtle, dove and a young pigeon. And he brought him all these and cut them in half and laid each over each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. And when the birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abraham drove them away. And as the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram and behold, dreadful, great darkness fell upon him. Then the Lord said to Abraham, know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs will be servants there and they will be afflicted for 400 years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

As for you yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace and you shall be buried in a good old age and they shall come back here in the fourth generation for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. Now notice this with me. Verse 17 when the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed through these pieces. On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abraham saying to your offspring, I will give this land.

Would you bow your heads again to pray? Heavenly father, once again, we thank you for the beauty of your word. We set here this morning as the benefactors of this great covenant God that you made these great promises that you made to Abraham and I pray that those trues would help us to understanding that, that our salvation is tied to a past and to a history that is very real and that we would be caught up in the joy of the redemptive story, Lord, that it may permeate into our hearts and our lives, our marriages and our families. And we pray and ask these things in the name of Jesus and by the power of the Holy spirit. Amen.

The previous two Sundays that we were joined here together at church, we went through how God has a love for his people and for his creation and that our story ins tremendously well. Both of those as pastor Alex mentioned were set forth as the plan of salvation. That begins for us really what has been shared. I know pastor Alex has shared this before is the what is really the middle of your Bible, which is Genesis chapter three, verse 15 and all of those stories going forward, namely the covenants are the ones that re bring to us more and more of the story of redemptive history. And so we're going to dip in now to the story and the covenant that God made with Abraham. And you notice from chapter 12 where it began that God in his covenant to Abraham made three promises.

And, and whenever you're studying covenant for those of you that, that have never dabbled in it, what you want to remember is that a covenant in simplicity is a divine promise. And I think that's helpful because again, as you move through the old Testament, we know our book is one book is that we get what's promised from the old Testament to be fulfilled in Jesus. That the Abrahamic covenant, these three promises were this, that God would give to Abraham a land he would give to them, a people, a great nation, and that through his offspring, all of the families of the earth will be blessed. Those three things are what transpire in Genesis chapter 12 when you get to Genesis chapter 15 we go through an area for us that would be very odd, but it's very significant for us to what what God promised because the Abrahamic covenant was not a joint or bilateral agreement, but rather it was a unilateral agreement that God gave certain promises to his people that he would fulfill.

They were performed, that is by God, and they were unconditional promises that he gave to Abraham as he called or chose Abram to come out of the air of the Chaldeans. These unconditional promises are God's covenant with Abraham become more clear to us in chapter 15 and that's why we want to begin to delve into this before we move to the fulfillment of it. In Galatians chapter three, where Paul discusses this really throughout many epistles in the new Testament, but it's really clear in the book of Galatians, this covenant that's revealed here in chapter 15. Let's just go back to the text in verse one. It says that after these things, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision. Fear not Abraham, for I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great. But Abraham said, Oh Lord God, what will you give me for I continue childless.

Abraham obviously not called Abraham yet to look fulfillment of this. This portion of this text is concerned because God promised him an offspring in a son and he promised this to him at age 75 and now a certain amount of time has moved forward from chapter 12 the verse or chapter 15, and he has you know, no offspring to give it to and God promises to him again. Verse seven, as I said to him, I am the Lord who has brought you out from earth, the Cal DS, to give you this land to possess. Well, through this discussion, this dialogue that God has with Abraham, the Bible tells us in verse six that Abraham believed the Lord and it was counted to him as righteousness. Righteousness. This covenant that God makes, that he banks these promises upon him is through a covenant making ceremony. So what we get into here in verse, basically nine through 16 is a covenant process that two parties were drawn together.

Now typically what would happen in a covenant would be this. You would have a King or a Lord, and then you would have a vassal over a servant and there would be promises made in a covenant. And then the servant would have to go through these animals, these carcasses that were cut over and they were solemnly swearing that they would fulfill their end of the bargain. And thus in fulfilling them, if they were to break the promises that a curse would come upon them, that their bodies or their lives would be torn asunder, that literally they would die. And so in a covenant making process, typically what would happen, particularly if that was a covenant being made between a King and a servant, the servant would be the one that would pass through this. And so as we get into this, you look at verse seven he says, I am the Lord who brought you out to give you this land to possess.

But he said, Oh Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it? And then comes this covenant making process. He says, bring me a heifer. Three years old, a female goat, three years old, a Ram, three years old, a turtle, dove, and a young pigeon. And he brought him all of these and he cut them in half. There it is. They're laid open before. And this is when in the covenant making process, whatever they were agreeing upon, the servant or the vassal would walk through. Well, God doesn't make Abraham to do that. Notice this text is we jump to verse 12 and as the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abraham and behold a drug full great darkness fell upon him. Then the Lord said to Abraham, no first certain that your offspring will be so jurors in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there and they will be afflicted for 400 years.

God is telling Abraham that he's going to give them a nation, but this nation will be taken into bondage and of course we know that another covenant will be made with Moses and the giving of the law and that God takes his people out of bondage and delivers them. And yet at this point of the story of the gospel, God is describing to him the promises that he has made. He will give them a land he will make of him a great nation and that through him, the promise of Genesis thrift three 15 one will come of his own offspring.

Now, let's dive back into verse 13 then the Lord said to hear him know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in the land that is not theirs down to verse 15 and as for you yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age and they shall come back here in the fourth generation for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

Verse 17 when the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between the pieces. This solidifying the promise of the covenant that was being made, and the Bible says that on that day, the Lord, you'll notice that in caps, Galloway made a covenant with Abraham. Now you know who Yahweh is. Yahweh is the great I am that it's identified with us in the new Testament to be Jesus, and so as God himself passes through this, these animals who had been suffered and torn apart through a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch. Thus the covenant promise was made between God and Abraham. God himself passing through, essentially walking through the Valley of the shadow of death. The person taking the oath was saying, if they break the covenant, make God make them just like that severed animal.

What's so amazing about this Abrahamic covenant is that God himself is the one who assumes all of the obligations to fulfill the promise and by walking between the suburb animals, halves. The Lord was taking a blood oath and invokes a curse and a severing and a death upon himself. Should he fail to fulfill the promise? Abraham, does it walk through the carcasses. Thus, there are no obligations imposed on Abraham and it's a good thing for us, isn't it? Because we know if back all the way to chapter 12 he already goes to denying Sarah as they're delivered into the land of Egypt so he could spare his own life. And then of course, Abraham runs into all sorts of other problems sexually related going forward. Even though he believes God's promise and it was counted to him for righteousness, he himself would fail. He would preempt the promise by, by taking in his handmaid Hagar. It is the Lord himself that in this unilateral covenant promise, he seals it with this oath and these three things which he promises to Abraham, he fulfills. Flip over to Joshua chapter 21 two of the aspects of it by giving Abraham a people and a land turn to Joshua chapter 21.

Remember this, the three promises that God made in this covenant with Abraham, he would give him a people, a nation. He would give him a land and that through his offspring, all of the families of the earth would be blessed. Verse 43 thus the Lord gave to Israel. That's the people, the nation, all of the land that which she promised to Abraham that he swore to give to their fathers, the patriarchs, and they took possession of it and they settled there. And the Lord gave them rest on every side. Just as he had sworn to their fathers, not one of all their enemies had withstood them. For the Lord had given all their enemies and to their hands. Not one good word or one word of all the good promises that the Lord made to the house of Israel had failed all had come to pass the nation. Israel in the land of Canaan would then become this portion of the promise that God makes their ham, Abraham fulfilled. But it would really just be a foreshadow that we've seen the last two weeks. And what we're going to look at now of what would take place, which is the greater fulfillment, would be the result of Christ person in work. Turn to Galatians chapter three.

We know this as we just celebrated in the fullness of time, Christ, whom we'll find here through the apostle Paul calls him of the offspring of Abraham. And I kinda, he does that in verse 16 letting us know that the promises that are made to Abraham in his covenant are fulfilled through the person of Christ. But I want us to back up a little bit how we are tied to this covenant. As the apostle describes, look down with me to verse seven now then that it is that those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying in you shall all the nations be blessed. That promise initiating in the Abrahamic covenant found back to Genesis chapter 12 so then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith for all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, curse it by everyone who does not abide by all the things that are written in the book of the law. Do them now. It is evident to the one who is justified before God by the law for the righteous shall live by faith, but the law is not a faith, rather the one who who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. How? By becoming a curse for us, for it is written. Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree so that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith.

Not only did Christ live a life of perfect obedience, both active and passive, meaning this, that Jesus suffered for sin and his passive obedience, but by his active obedience he fulfilled all things pertain to righteousness. He lives perfectly in perfect obedience to the law, therefore qualifying him to become sin for us. Corseted verse 13 is everyone who hangs on the tree on the cross. Christ flesh was torn and his blood was shed as he suffered the judgment of God's wrath against sin on our behalf. Genesis, Genesis 15 God's blood oath commitment is fulfilled by Jesus as we just read there in Galatians chapter three verse 13 the promises made to Abraham could be fulfilled in no other way, and this becomes the result. Three things to us.

First of all on faith, Christ imputes his righteousness on our behalf, so there's an exchange otherwise for the person who tries to stand before God, they're standing in their own merit. They're going to stand before God on the last day of judgment saying, this is how my life measured up to what God has called. Of course is law. Fortunately by the grace of God, that's not how we stand. We stand there in Christ stead and look on the cross where Jesus bears the our wrath, our sin on the cross. There's an exchange that happens. Christ takes our sin and he also to himself, and then he imputes to us his righteousness. By faith, as Abraham believed the promise, God reckoned it to him. God credited to him his, his son's righteousness. Just as for you and I, by faith, we are reckoned or the righteousness of Christ. Dear friends, this is why it's so important that you believe LSU will face God through your own good works and God says, if you're guilty of one point of the law, you're guilty of all of it and you are cursed. You are to be severed. You are to undergo eternal death. You see, for the church, Jesus saw all the eternal wrath that we will ever see. He bore our sin. He was the one who was cursed for our sin. He was severed and torn asunder. Jesus sacrificed his body. He shed his blood so that we would know no hell.

The first benefit of Christ Abrahamic covenant to us is that we get the righteousness of Christ and we spent a couple of weeks on this the last two weeks and looking secondly, we get eternal life. We get eternal life. God's people always longed in the old Testament to look for the day when they would dwell with God. You think about a job that gets in chapter 19 where he says, I know my Redeemer lives and I will see him on the last day in my flesh. This is the second promise or a part of the promise of the Abrahamic covenant that not only do is Christ righteousness imputed to us, but that we get eternal life. For God so loved the world, that those who believe in him shall have eternal life. We get the righteousness of Christ, we get eternal life and that land prefigured for God's people is fulfilled in Christ, in the new creation where God's people will ultimately dwell with Christ forever in the resurrection. So what does all of this mean? That that smoking fire pot and that flaming torch was Yahweh Jesus himself, thus guaranteeing the promises of salvation that you enjoy and that I enjoy that we have the righteousness of Christ. We have eternal life and we will dwell with God forever in the age come. Why? Because there's only been one gospel plan since Genesis three 15 dear friends, the only thing that's left this morning is do you belong to Jesus? Do you belong to Jesus?

And any amount of goodness or good things or righteousness, dear friends, they don't stand against your sin. There is only one who can bear your sin. There is only one that became a curse for sin. There is only one who walked in perfect obedience to God's law by his passive obedience and by his active a radiance that he could be the sacrificed to bear the burden of your sin. Dear friends, that person is Jesus and you must take hold of him. You must recognize your own sin and you must receive Jesus by faith and then Christ will impute his righteousness. God himself will grant you eternal life and then you can dwell in the age of God in the age of the comm with God forever. And so I asked you in 2020 do you belong to Christ? You know there's another phrase that comes up often in the old Testament. It talks about calling upon the name of the Lord, this is really your requirement.

This is, this is my requirement and it's the only requirement that God will accept. It's what Abraham does in Genesis chapter 15 verse six when it says he believes the promise and it's counted to him as righteousness, is that you must recognize that you're a sinner and that you need a savior and calling upon the name of the Lord is in your inner man. Yes, God, I'm a sinner. That's deserving of death and no amount of good works can I do, can merit favor with you, but I do in fact, believe your promise that Christ became a curse for me, that he suffered for my sin, that I could have eternal life. Dear friend, if you will believe that God will grant you his son's righteousness, he will give you eternal life and you can be with him forever, but you must obey what God has required.

Else you'll stand before God on that day. Having said, God, I measure up. Please, dear friend, don't delay. You know what's interesting about the crux of the gospel? Whenever I've thought about it through all my lifetime and either for myself or dealing with people, the gospel puts you into a crux where there is genuinely a sense of urgency to it, but there's also a sense of contemplation. Both those go together. Don't delay but seriously. Think about what you're doing and here's the assurance of scripture through that great phrase for all who will call upon the name of the Lord, you'll be saved. It's not my promise. It's the promise that God gave to us. It's essentially one of the promises that God gave to Abraham knowing that Abraham couldn't fulfill it. He himself became the curse. He himself is the one that was torn asunder. He is the one that places death upon himself so that you and I can have life trust in Jesus today and believe the promise.