Our Old Testament reading comes from Genesis chapter 15, beginning at verse 1. After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield, your very great reward. But Abram said, O sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless, and the one who will inherit my estate is Eleazar of Damascus? And Abram said, You have given me no children. So a servant in my household will be my heir. And the word of the Lord came to him, This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir. He took him outside and said, Look up at the heavens and count the stars, if indeed you can count them. Then he said to him, So shall your offspring be. Abram believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness. He also said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it. But Abram said, O sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it? So the Lord said to him, bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon. Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other. The birds, however, he did not cut in half. Then the birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country, not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated 400 years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterwards they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation, your descendants will come back here for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure. When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking fire pot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said to your descendants, I give this land from the river of Egypt to the great river of the Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Raphaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites. And then our New Testament reading comes from Romans chapter 4, beginning at verse 13. It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise, that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless because law brings wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression. Therefore, the promise comes by faith so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations. He is our father in the sight of God in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. Against all hope, Abraham, in hope, believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, so shall your offspring be. Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead since he was about 100 years old and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why it was credited to him as righteousness. The words, it was credited to him, were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness. For us who believe in him, who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, he was delivered over to death for our sins, and was raised to life for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. I had the misfortune some weeks ago of being sick all day on a Saturday and the only thing I felt like doing, didn't feel like getting up, didn't feel like reading, didn't feel like doing anything, just turned on the television. And I don't know if you've been sick on Saturday to see what the fair is on Saturday, but don't have your credit card close to you because on Saturday they're all trying to sell you something. I nearly bought three gyms. I did actually get the Susie Ormond video on how to get your finances in order. And it's a little helpful. We are creatures of law. That's what comes naturally to us because we're born into this world, created in the image of God, not created as fallen, needing to hear gospel, but needing to hear law, needing to hear what we should do. And Adam, of course, was created fully equipped to do it. The mystery is why he fell, why he rejected that wonderful blessing, that wonderful state, that wonderful condition. We're wired for law, which is why Dr. Laura and Dr. Phil don't have to be Christians to make a lot of sense to us. We are wired for saying in response to God or in response to secular coaches who surround us in life. All this we will do. Just give us the steps. Just give us the techniques. How to. How to. That is speaking Adam's language. And when the church speaks the language of how-to, the world then says the church finally is practical for a change. The church finally is useful for a change. Because we do sort of on the spiritual side what Susie Ormond and Jake do for finances and fitness. The problem is that we are curved in on ourselves since the fall. And so the law doesn't direct us outside of ourselves, but deeper and deeper inside ourselves, either in self-justification or self-condemnation. The law is part of the problem, not because the law is bad, but because we are. So the more law we get, the more exhortation we get, the tendency, apart from the gospel at least, is for us to be driven deeper and deeper and deeper inside ourselves instead of to be drawn further and further outside of ourselves. And that's why we need good news and not just good advice. That's why I've titled this sermon, The Promise Driven Life. It's remarkable if someone will write a book or talk about how Christianity will help us to achieve our goals. That book will become an automatic bestseller. I'm not just sort of doing a dig here on Rick Warren's phenomenal bestseller, the number one bestseller in hardback in the history of United States publishing. The number one book read by pastors in America today, And the Purpose Driven Church is the second most widely read book in America among American pastors today. Not simply digging. Pastor Warren sent me his book and wanted to get into a discussion about the theology. He's very open to discussing these things. And I'm not critical of Rick Warren personally. But this whole approach of being purpose-driven puts our lives and our futures in our hands. What are your goals? What are your aims? And how can God help you meet them instead of being promise-driven? And the two passages that are before us this morning, I think, direct us to being promise-driven people. It's not just differences here or there. It's not that we just differ over which 15 principles to follow in order to obtain the victorious Christian life, but that that whole approach, that whole approach is different from being promise-driven people. First of all, Abram wrestles with the promise in Genesis 15. He has just come back after war. He has defeated his enemies, his enemies and God's enemies, and that strange figure Melchizedek. The priest king, the king of righteousness, that strange figure who is a type of Christ, comes and refreshes Abraham after his battle. He refreshes him with bread and wine. And he does this after a promise. This is the usual way things go in Old Testament covenants. You have the word of the covenant, the promise, and then you have the sign and seal of the covenant. And that's what you had even here with Abraham after he comes back from battle. God blesses him through Melchizedek. And then he refreshes him through a meal of bread and wine. After these things we read in our text, God himself comes to Abraham and addresses him and says, I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great. Right out of the get-go, what we have here is an unconditional promise on God's part to be for Abraham what Abraham cannot be for himself. He will be Abraham's shield. Abraham is not to trust in himself, which is easy to do after you come off of a victory in battle. I am your shield and your reward will be very great. So far, no conditions. He doesn't say, your reward will be very great if you, dot, dot, dot. Here are some goals I have for you, Abraham. Here are some purposes I would like you to reach. Here are some strategies for reaching those goals. No, he just comes to him and gives him a promise. He just says, I am your shield. And your reward will be very great. Abram worries. Abram worries for the same reason that you and I worry when God promises us things. We can't see the world the promise describes. The world we see has the data all against the promise. Well, haven't you seen the situation? That's what Abram says to Yahweh, to God. He says, I thought you knew more about my situation. Eliezer of Damascus is going to inherit my entire estate. I'm glad that I was successful in battle. I'm glad you gave me the victory in battle. I really appreciate the promise, the blessing that I got from Melchizedek and that meal of bread and wine. I really appreciated that, but that doesn't change my future. That does nothing for me in the future. I have no heir who will inherit all that you've promised me. As it is, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, is going to inherit everything. The empirical data, everything that Abram saw all around him, contradicted the promise. What we see, what we see, is contradicted by what we hear. You see, we hear promises. We don't see promises, do we? We hear promises. What we see are the conditions that seem to speak either for or against the promise. And here, all kinds of conditions speak against the promise. Abraham is a hundred years old. Sarah, too, is in her 90s, and her womb is quite barren by now. There is absolutely no condition in Abraham or Sarah that would make God's promise believable, according to sight. So we're either going in our lives as Christians to follow what we see or follow what we hear, but we can't follow both. Abraham worries because he sees a situation that seems to contradict everything that God promises. And so God condescends to Abraham's weakness by saying, Okay, I'll give you something to see. Look up at the stars. This is what God does with sacraments. He says, Okay, I get it. You're weak. You're frail. I understand that. I will attach my verbal promise to something you can see, something you can get your arms around, something you can take hold of to certify, to ratify my promise to you visually as well as to your ears. And so he shows them the stars. Just as surely as I made all those starry hosts, out of nothing, so out of nothing, I will make you the father of many nations. In fact, it's in the present tense. You are now, by my promise, by my saying so, you are the father of many nations. Right. Abram's still thinking that. I, right, okay. Sarah, did you hear that? I'm the father of many nations right now. But you see, the promise, the promise swept all of the conditions aside just as in the original creation as we'll see in just a moment. Finally, after God promises and signifies and seals His promise through this appeal to the stars as witness, finally Abraham believes God and is declared righteous. Hashav here, the Hebrew word for justify, is a legal courtroom term. This does not mean that Abraham finally got his act together. It doesn't mean that Abraham finally had a better heart than he had before. It doesn't mean that he suddenly did some things or created conditions within himself for God to pronounce him just. For God to pronounce him righteous. All it says is that God legally, judicially, as a judge, at that moment, declared Abraham to be something he wasn't. Righteous. So that's the second thing the promise did. It declared Abraham to be something he wasn't at that moment. Father of many nations. And then it declared him to be something he wasn't. Righteous. That's what God's promise does. I mean, you remember the whole story of Abraham from chapter 12 up to this point is scheming. It's amazing to me that people think that Abraham is someone we should hold up as this great hero of biblical ethics. If you look at his life closely, you read the passages, Abraham is a swindler. Abraham has a lot of problems. You don't want your kids to grow up to be Abraham. And yet, God's promise prevails over Abraham's weakness. His whole life up to this point was plotting and scheming for his future. I'm going to get a son. I don't care how I do it. Maybe through Hagar. God has promised me a son, but I'm going to get it. I'm going to pull my future out of a hat if I need to. But I'm going to get it because it seems like God isn't going to give it to me. But now, now finally, God promises, God attaches his sign and seal to the promise. Finally, finally, in turning his eyes away from the observable state of affairs and plotting and scheming, Abraham finally sits down, shuts up and just listens. Just listens and hears and believes. That is the hardest thing for us to do. The hardest thing for us to do is not to love God and our neighbor. The hardest thing for us to do is to not do anything. The hardest thing for us to do is sit down, be quiet, and open our ears and just receive. Just be recipients. Like a little bird, the mama bird putting something in its feet. that's the hardest thing for us to do as fallen human beings. The hearing of the promise created faith in the promise. Abraham just found himself believing as God preached it into him. Then as Abraham continues to raise questions about how this can possibly happen, God causes him to fall asleep. That, again, is what often happens in the history of redemption. When there are great leaps forward, God puts the patriarch to sleep, you know, then gets something really done. Sort of like what happens around the house when the kids have their nap. Now I can really get something done. That's what God does. These great patriarchs were supposed to emulate the great moments, the great leaps forward when he puts them to sleep. And they just are recipients. They just receive something. And Abram falls asleep and has a vision. And it's a vision that is very strange to us, but would have been very familiar to people in the ancient Near East. It would have signaled a treaty-making ceremony. If you had two nations that were at war with each other, the way of making peace and bringing the lesser nation into line with the greater nation, making it part of the empire, would be for the greater king and the lesser king to walk down the aisle together with severed halves of animals on either side. Passing between the parts, as it was called, was the making of the covenant to say may the same thing happen to me that happened to these severed halves, to these animals, if I renege on the covenant. But what's different here is that in this vision, in this sacrament, if you will, this sign and seal of God's promise, when Abram is weak in his faith, God himself is the only one passing as the torch through the pieces while Abram is asleep. That's the significant difference that ancient Near Eastern lawyers would have certainly picked up on. This can't be a usual kind of covenant. Where's the covenant partner? Asleep. You see, this wasn't the kind of covenant that was made between two parties based on conditions. If you will do this, I will do that. This was rather a covenant that was promissory. It was pure promise. I will be your shield. I will give you a great reward. I will make you the father of many nations and I declare that you are just in my sight even now. So God, in that vision, was signifying and sealing what he had preached already to Abraham in word. Namely, that he was himself assuming all of the responsibilities for fulfilling what he had promised to Abraham. Even if it meant his own death and destruction. Even if it meant that all of the curses of the covenant would come down upon his head. God not only creates faith in our hearts by the preaching of the Holy Gospel, but confirms it by the use of the Holy Sacraments. Great question and answer in Heidelberg 65. Where does true faith come from? Finding the right principles, going to the right conferences, being part of the right groups, doing the right things. No, where does true faith come from? The Holy Spirit creates it, ex nihilo, in our hearts by the preaching of the Holy Gospel and confirms it by the use of the Holy Sacraments. And out of all of this, Abram and Sarah get new names. Their identity is wholly changed from a future they were trying to possess to the future God was giving them. Such a huge shift, a huge change that their names are changed. Abraham is no longer Abram, father, but Avraim, father of many nations, father of many. Well, this is finally fulfilled, of course, in our Lord Jesus Christ who said, I am your shield. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. And Paul picks up this logic in Romans chapter 4. What we have in Romans chapter 4, the passage that I read just a moment ago, is a contrast, not the only place where Paul uses it, but a very important place, a contrast between law logic and promise logic. And as Paul interprets the passage we've just been discussing, Genesis chapter 15, I think you'll see that this makes a huge difference in the way we live our Christian lives. Law logic is what the people said at the foot of Mount Sinai because that was a conditional covenant. If you keep this, then you will live long in the land. What did the people say? All this we will do, thus committing themselves to destruction if they didn't keep it. Very different from the Abrahamic covenant. In the Abrahamic covenant, what we get instead is God saying, all this I will do. And delivering it to us in the form of a gospel that says, all this I have done. Including assuming the curses of the covenant for violation. And what we have at the cross, what we have on Good Friday, as the temple curtain is torn in two, severed in halves, really is the fulfillment of Genesis 15, the smoking fire pot passing between the pieces. God the Son, in his human nature, being torn in two for us and for our salvation to fulfill that covenant that God made to Abraham and to all of us in him. See, the law is not the problem. but I am the law condemns because it shows that with all the best advice with all the best principles with all the best plans and purposes and exhortation I have failed to do what God requires of me regardless of what all these other Christian leaders out there think I need to do law logic focuses attention on me so ironically the very people who focus all of our attention on exhortations and on what we must do cannot give us the power to do it because that's part of the problem itself that makes me focused on myself. That makes me curved in and sinful. I need to be drawn outside of myself. And law cannot do that. Only promise can do that. Paul says, Romans 4, 6, using Abraham as our example, he says, to the one who does not work but trusts in the one who justifies the wicked. His faith is credited for righteousness. That's the scandal. It's just pure nonsense to the average person on the street. What's the purpose of religion? To make people better people. To create a better world. To make us love each other more. To get us to do the things we know we should do. To help us live more purpose-driven lives. I mean, people get that. that makes sense but what doesn't make sense is what Paul says here to the one who does not work who does not do anything to get it but trusts in the one who justifies the wicked who declares wicked people to be righteous that person will be justified brothers and sisters I know we've heard that a million times but if we really get that and take that deep down into our souls it transforms terms every way we think God relates to us, and we relate to him, and we relate to others around us. Law logic says, Abram and Sarah are obviously no more righteous before God than they are capable of bearing children. And God says in his promise logic, absolutely. They're on the same level. No conditions in Abram, no conditions in Sarah for them to either be child bearers or righteous. But I said so. What are you going to believe? What you see? Or what you hear? Law logic makes sense to us. Paul says, For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect. Law logic makes sense because we all think by nature, Do your best and God will take notice. We do this in reformed circles too, don't we? We may think that when it comes to justification, but when it comes to other areas of our life, if I do what I'm supposed to do, things should go well for me. But Paul says here in Romans chapter 4, that's to think like a contract and employees rather than as a family receiving an estate through a last will and testament. That's the big difference, Paul says. The big difference between the Abrahamic covenant and the Sinai covenant, the covenant of promise and the covenant of law, is that the covenant made with Abraham, the covenant of promise, is a last will and testament. It is an estate that we inherit, not a goal we achieve. An heir doesn't strive, doesn't work like an employee for a paycheck. It's what Paul says there in Romans chapter 4. Say at the end of it all, well, I've done thus and so, I ought to get this check. Work for hire. Rather, an heir simply sits and lets the attorney read the last will and testament to the heirs. And what executes a will? What sets it into motion? The death. As Paul says elsewhere, the death of the testator. The death of the one who is the benefactor. That's our situation, says Paul. Just as it was Abraham's situation. If Abraham couldn't receive it in any other way than this, surely we can't claim any more for ourselves. Because Paul says, verse 15, the law brings wrath. The law brings wrath. That's just what the law does. The law directs us as Christians. But it also brings wrath because it shows us that we have not fulfilled what God has called us to do. The chain of promise logic, Paul ties together in verse 16. Therefore, it is of faith that it may be according to grace so that the promise might be sure to all the seed. If you're given to marking up your Bibles, underline there, faith, grace, and sure. Therefore, it is of faith that it might be according to grace so that the promise might be sure to all the seed. And then further he says this is an effectual promise. This is an effectual promise. This is a word that is living and active. This is a word that brings about what the promise declares. We think of promises as merely pledges on something future. But the role that promises have, particularly in the New Testament, is to actually bring about that which is promised in the here and now. God's word is effectual, living and active, says the writer to the Hebrews. Or in Isaiah 55, The word of God will never return unto him void without accomplishing every purpose for which he sent it. And that is exactly why Paul compares the promise of God as it is preached to Abraham and as it is preached to us to creation ex thelo. That is creation from nothing. Verse 17, as it is written, I have made you. I, God, have made you the Father of many nations in the presence of the God in whom He believed who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not yet exist. That's the whole point of the promise, to create things that don't already exist. So if you're relying on what you see, what you experience, what you feel, you will miss the promise-driven life. What existed in creation before God said, let there be? What existed in Sarah's womb before God said, let this barren woman be with child? What existed in Abram before God declared him right and just and holy before him? God speaks and it is so. The promise makes it happen. And so, hoping against hope, verse 18, he believed that he would become the father of many nations. According to what was said, so numerous shall your descendants be. There it is again. According to what was said, so numerous shall your seed be. See, brothers and sisters, Christ lived the purpose-driven life. My will is always to do my father's will. What a purpose. That's the purpose for which we were created. But Christ lived the purpose-driven life so that we who do not fulfill the purposes for which God made us, which are far more important than all of those purposes we envision for ourselves, so that we can live the promise-driven life. And that's the final link in Paul's promise logic here in verse 20. If the inheritance comes by promise-created faith and not our works, then it is not only by grace and not only sure, But Paul says in verse 20, this means that we give all glory to God, as Abraham did. It's all of the solas of the Reformation. This means that we can finally crawl out of our hole of self-security. Finally. That narcissistic condition of being turned in on ourselves, curved in. We can finally receive something for a change. Turn outside of ourselves and receive an abundant life that is even now being handed over to you through the gospel this morning. Again and again, each Lord's Day. It is God's future, not ours, to be gratefully received, embraced, and then joyfully lived. Not out of fear, guilt, calculation, reserve, grasping, achieving, climbing, purposing, scheming. But with Abram, verse 21, being fully convinced that what he had promised, he was able to perform. In this way, Paul says, Abram was able to turn his eyes away from his body, already dead, since he was about 100 years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. Only because of the promise, something outside of himself, not the circumstances. But God's promise outside of him, only because on the strength of that promise, he could turn his eyes away from everything that he saw and experienced and felt and say, no, that is true and this isn't. And therefore, Abram was justified. In the last verses, Paul says, all this is written for us. This is all written for our benefit, not only for Abram's. The words that was credited to him were written not only for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness. For us who believe in him, who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, he was delivered over to death for our sins, and was raised to life for our justification. So what really drives you this morning? Why did you get dressed this morning? Why did you get the kids ready? Do you have children? Why did you get them ready, put them in the car? What really drives you? What will get you up in the morning tomorrow? What really drives you? We have to have purposes. We have to have plans. We have to have goals for all kinds of things in our life. Christian life as well as every other part of our life. But we have to know what purposes can do and what promises can do because they do different things. If you are purpose-driven, you will be driven mad and take others with you. You need purposes, but you can't be purpose-driven. As Christians, we're promise-driven. We're promise-driven people. And that's why faith really is, think about these passages more than anything else, faith is defiance. Faith is defiance. All these makeover artists come with new fig leaves to make the curved-in self more successful in marriage and family, in finances and fitness, in self-esteem and relationships, and even living the victorious Christian life. But as J. Gresham Machen said early in the 20th century, this is one thing I want to know from you. Do you have a gospel for me? I have heard your exhortations and they will not help me. But if you have some good news, do let me hear it. John Calvin said, all things around us are in opposition to the promises of God. He promises immortality. We're surrounded with mortality and corruption. He declares that he counts us just. We're covered with sins. He testifies that he is propitious and kind to us. Yet outward judgments seem to threaten his wrath. What then is to be done? We must with closed eyes pass by ourselves and all things connected with us that nothing may hinder or prevent us from believing that God is true. End quote. This sacrament is the ratification ceremony for what is preached. this announces that He has lived the purpose-driven life for us, that He has walked through the severed halves, taking upon the curses of those who did not live the purpose-driven life successfully. Bearing it for us. The data shows, yes, but the Word says, this is the blood of the new covenant shed for you, for the remission of all of your sins. Hear the promise this morning, brothers and sisters. eat and drink the promise and in this place at this table this very day once again let God be proved true and every man a liar let's pray our sovereign God you have broken through every possible wall that we have set up in opposition to you in the fulfillment of your purposes. Help us to renew our confidence this morning, Father, by your word and sacrament in those purposes for us which deliver over to us promises of great blessing and great joy. For we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen.