we turn in our bibles this morning to genesis chapter 15 genesis chapter 15 and if you're visiting that's found on page 13 in your pew bible we are going to consider the entirety of the chapter this morning genesis chapter 15 let's give our attention to the word of the lord after these things the word of the lord came to abram in a vision fear not abram i am your shield and your reward shall be very great but Abram said oh Lord God what will you give me for I continue childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus and Abram 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 he counted it to him as righteousness and he said to him I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the chaldeans to give you this land to possess but he said oh lord god how am i to know that i shall possess it 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 cut them in half and laid 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, Abram drove them away. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram, and behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the Lord said to Abram, Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on that nation that they serve. And afterward, they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, 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. When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rafaim, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. We come to the table this morning, and I wonder if we really have given thought to the weight of what the New Testament says, that when we do this, when we come and commune together, when we break the bread and we drink the cup, we are proclaiming the Lord's death. Proclaiming the Lord's death until He comes. Maybe we have heard that so much that we really have not understood the impact of that or the real power of that and what is going on. We're proclaiming the Lord's death until He comes. There's a lot of history behind that statement. There's a lot of understanding when Jesus said that that had come before to teach about that great proclamation, especially in light of the Old Testament. And that's Genesis 15 this morning. What does the Lord want from us as we come to the table this morning? Well, that's why Genesis 15 is so important because it helps us to understand what we are proclaiming. To understand afresh what we are celebrating that the Lord, this is not something new that the Lord had announced when He walked this earth, but that all throughout history, He had called his people to understand this, to proclaim this, to believe this, and to not doubt, but have faith in his promises. That's this morning. That's Genesis 15. That's what it's all about. And I believe it's one of the greatest chapters, and somebody told me the other day, I say that all the time. I still believe it. What we have before us in Genesis 15 this morning are two night visions, if you will. night scenes where God stoops down and helps Abram and assures Abram of his promises that he has already made to him. And if you have your Bibles open and you look at verse 1 of Genesis 15, I want you to notice the emphasis here. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying fear not abram i am your shield your reward shall be very great now the first thing that that jumps out uh in that text the first thing well there's a couple things that jump out but the one i want to focus on first is this emphasis on abram's fear don't be afraid abram why would the lord say that why would the lord begin this great chapter and whatever he's telling Abram he begins because he sees that that this is a real problem for Abram here's where I believe this passage is of Abram's life a great encouragement for everyone here because by the time this chapter is over Abram's justified this is Mark 2 son forgiven are your sins this day changed Abram's life forever and I love this because it demonstrates that there is a day there is a day when somebody consciously comes and they trust in the Lord they believe the promises at that moment you're forgiven forever a pronouncement is made a declaration is made and God gives this promise over and over throughout this and tells us and assures us that we are his children and that nothing can separate us from his love there's a moment when that is truly believed and truly received and that day changes your life forever but for abram this was a day that began with great fear and i love thinking about that for a moment what have we learned about abram so far well here was this pagan called out of ur of the chaldeans nothing seemed to be happening the lord had called him to go out to go to this land that he had never seen before he left it all and in new testament terms if you were to put this all in new testament terms he left mother and father and homes he left everything for the lord's sake abram's been pictured bumpy as it has been going moving around in a tent with no security with no peace with no outward according to what he sees safety come out and immediately what is he hit with well you remember chapter 12 of famine a hardship so unbearable that he flees to egypt and found himself in an absolute mess he's been called but he had not learned yet to trust the lord in chapter 14 everything was threatened everything was threatened the land had been plundered the very promises that god had made to abram had been attacked and this one king had taken captive the whole region carrying off lot and his family and as soon as the report came back to abram he arms 318 of his trained servants and he goes and he takes back in the greatest victory so far in the abram narrative he takes back lot plunders all of those nations six great nations and this was an astounding this was a glorious victory you would say at this point he's made so much progress but that's not really what chapter 15 is opening up with and wait till we get to 16 a passage that shows us that he is afraid that he is scared that he is discouraged that he is defeated if you will and abram who has not yet fully grasped what it is to believe in the lord and there's a reason fear and unbelief go hand in hand he had just provoked the greatest king in the region he had just took down the greatest king six nations he didn't do any of that on his own strength we know that the spirit had given him the victory and then to add to it at the very end of this this this king comes up to him two kings met him and this one king comes and offers him everything in other words this king of sodom offered him all the plunder offered him the wealth offered him everything of physical security but abram doesn't take a sandal strap and then he bows before this very strange king on the scene who would come and never come back again in genesis and he bows and all this king gives him is what bread and wine bread and wine what do you think's going through his mind nothing sure what is sure i believe that what we have in genesis 15 is an emotionally drained abram drained everyone knows this that when you have high and low moments and you've had some great thing happen and after it's all said and done, the letdown is severe. There's terrible letdown periods in life, and it's not just that, but I think the greatest issue here is that God had promised him all of these blessings, land and seed and everything, and now he's back in his tent after this great plunder, and what has it accomplished what has he gained he's not a link closer to the promise than where he began from his perspective and where's lot he's back in sodom what is he gaining from all of this what is he gaining what does it even mean and what does it matter to have all of these promises i'm not seeing and god promised remember that his descendants would be as the stars in the heaven the sand on the seashore, we'll look at that. He's been promised everything, but for some time now, nothing to show for it. Famine, struggle, pain, after a great victory, didn't take a thing for himself. Not one sandal strap. I mean, do you think there was ever a time more appropriate for the devil to come and attack the sift is wheat it's not when we're on the mountain you know this it's i mean i had a dear saint who was dying of cancer tell me that years ago he says it's amazing how the devil kicks when you're down and coming back to reality he now has to deal with the fact that he is not a blessing to the nations the nations hate him he just took them all down conflict conflict conflict did i go through all of this for nothing what is this all about only to go back to the trees of mamre and sacrificing wealth and honor what now sacrificing wealth and honor what now where's the promise i believe that's what genesis 15 is showing us with this issue of fear. And, you know, we can really apply this to today. Turbulence, economic woe like we've never seen, a world getting hostile to us. And what is it? What is it that grips us? What is it that grips us right now? If you're honest and you know it's fear, it's fear about the future, it's fear about what's going to happen, and it's fear that things are turning and you see it turning and you're completely helpless you're completely vulnerable and then you say things and you think things like i've been following christ for years and where is it what do i have to show for it i see a little progress have you ever felt any of that have you ever been through any of that here's a discouraged abram ready to give up and oh we know that great father abraham had a problem of trying to do everything himself if you don't think he's that bad wait till next week this is all driven by fear when we take things into our own hands it's fear fear gripped by it living in it many of you are struggling with it right now many of you are filled with fear right now and it's at this moment that God come that's what I love about this passage it really shows I mean if anything R.C. Sproul was exactly right that if you want to know the character of God and study the Old Testament here's where we see here's the passage to go to in fear when you have fear look at what God does God descends down to the struggling sheep in the midst of all of this at his weakest moment at the greatest moment of vulnerability and I love what he says to Abram. This is the really big thing about verse 1. Fear not, Abram. I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great. Don't fear. Don't fear, dear Christian. I know you by name. I'm your shield and your great reward. I've got a great reward for you. what an amazing verse isn't it and yet here we see the hand of the heavenly father i will shield you i'm going to be your shield as you go through and then look at what he says i'm your shield against your greatest fears i mean you could every passage you've ever found comfort from psalm 46 i am your refuge and your strength if you ever think abram that you have lost something in following me if you think you're lacking something in following me let me assure you it's not true and then god says i am your shield and your reward shall be great i don't know how you feel about that i don't know what kind of emotion that brings but to have god tell a sinner, that he has just given himself to him that way, that's a verse, that's the kind of grace when you stop, you look at that verse and you ponder and you read, did I really hear what I just read? Did I really grasp it? What God just offered? He offered himself. This is David in Psalm 16 when he understood that of all the land allotments, it was the Lord who was his portion and his delight. I am your reward. I'm your God. You are mine. I am yours. That's the kind of relationship that we have. I will be your reward, Abram. That's what he's saying. I'm giving you me. There are times when Christians look back and they wonder about it all and this call to deny and to take up a cross and to follow and to not set the mind on the things of this world. And in times in struggle, in times of hardship, the Christian really does, in the cloud of it all, have no real understanding of what he's gained through it all. No real understanding of what he is in possession of. And you don't see it in the cloud. And God is saying here, in the midst of that cloud, I'm yours, Abram. You've got me. How does Abram respond? Oh, Lord God, what will you give me? What? What will you give me? For I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. You've given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir. You pause when you read that and you think, well, what kind of response is that? I'm giving you me, what will you give me? The Lord just declared the most wonderful thing. I am your reward. Well, we shouldn't be too hard on Father Abraham here. His struggle was a real one and the Lord wasn't too hard on Father Abraham, was he? I don't have a child. God had spoken three times now about this promise that Abraham would have the seed, that the seed would come from him. And here they are, years later, and Abram's known famine, test, trial, and a reproach to the surrounding nations. And he's abandoned a certain way of the happy life, the high life. And he has not sought for these things. And he is seriously, he is seriously wrestling with, this is what this brings out. He's wrestling with the promises of God and reality. my inheritance shall go to the servant in my house he's not even one he's not my offspring how can your promise be fulfilled without a son none of it corresponds none of this makes sense everyone's dying i mean think about life today everyone's dying you've been promised the resurrection of the body and around you what do we get to see sickness struggle ongoing pain discouragement we're told that christ has conquered it all and yet we see sin he's conquered sin and death and the grave and yet we still see we still live in the midst of sin ravishing people's lives and destroying people's lives and it's a tough thing when this bears down and it bears down on you and you feel the weight of this to see how that promise really really is comforting when you're in the thick of it god just said i'm giving you me i would love to say today what a beautiful thing if in every single circumstance of life we said well then that's enough wouldn't that be wonderful if in every single circumstance of life we said that's enough but we don't and the lord knows that so what does he do maybe you felt that god could have said to abram stop it you need to knock this off i felt like that as a pastor sometimes saying that to people my wife feels like saying it to me if it makes you feel better the lord doesn't do that he doesn't say i'm done with you abram 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're able to number them then he said to him so shall your offspring be this is where god starts he rehearses the promise that a son would come from his own body remember a man 100 years old a wife 90 years old a promise that is absolutely impossible humanly speaking and god does something here that we should learn from it's nighttime and he brings abram outside and he says i want you i mean think about a palestinian night there's no lights think about the night there's no lights out there look up abram look up go ahead and count those if you're able we don't get a sense like that around here I see stars but I don't see it like it should be because of the city lights but on a clear night remember at creation when we looked at that you can see up to 10,000 points of light thousands of stars belong to this grouping that we know as the Milky Way other lights are entire galaxies remember we looked at this and a typical galaxy contains billions of little individual stars the milky way has something like 200 billion and that's only ours there are thousands of others out there that we can only see with a you know as a point of light you know when you go to the sand boys and girls and you pick up sand and you all that could you number that i want you to look at all of that number it if you're able and i believe that the Lord didn't just give this for Abram. Those are two very real visuals of creation, aren't they? That he left for Abram's children. That when you're discouraged, you can go outside and look up and you can see stars or you can go to the sand and you can pick it up and see that he is saving. And the amazing thing is you get to see it in fulfillment because when Abram looked at stars, what was he looking at he was looking at you and now i get to look out and see the living stars but god renews the promise to him and here's what the bible is driving us to see what god is after this morning what does he want from us what is it that pleases this god what is the one thing that pleases this god what's the next thing you read about abram in verse six and he believed the Lord and it was accounted to him for righteousness. All of the sudden, Abram says, okay, enough's enough. I believe. I believe you. If Abram could go on like this for some time, how many could be sitting here today and they've not truly believed? It's a fair question because the New Testament highlights this and it says right then and there, right then and there, at that very moment in Abram's life, God justified him once and for all. It was done. He was forgiven. He was pardoned. He was justified never again to ever have to even think about facing the judgment. He may struggle with that, but with God it was done. God anticipating a day when he would send his son and from Abram's own body who would perform everything that needed to be performed. Now, is that good enough? So God started by saying, I'm giving you me. Abram's struggling with promise and reality, promise and suffering, promise and hardship, promise and affliction, whatever you can supply there. And God then says, look up. I'm making a promise to you, Abram. Is that enough? Well, the New Testament comes along and it says, well, God did one more thing here to make sure that you have really strong consolation. that you're really assured of this. Look at verse 7. I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess. Abram then asks another question. He's still struggling. He said, Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it? Lord, is there any way for me to really know without doubting that I will receive the land? And you know the New Testament's talking about eternal life. The land is eternal life, the heavenly land. Can I really know that this is for me? Can I really believe and know that today? I love this. Why do you think that's there for you? That's how Paul applied it. Paul said, when you read this, this is not written for Abram. This is not written for Abram's sake, it's written for you so that you would believe that you would know so what does god do 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 cut them in half and he laid each half against the other but he did not cut the birds in half and when the birds of prey came down on the carcasses abram drove them away. What is this? What a strange portion of the Bible, some of you are thinking. God had already spoken a promise, and now God wants to, Abram asked for a confirmation, so what does God do? What do you have here going on in Genesis 15? You have God swearing an oath. Beautiful. God is cutting a covenant through making an oath. Here's what we have. Abram asked for confirmation. I want strong consolation. I really want to know. God says, spread the animals, Abram. In Abram's day, an oath was confirmed by taking animals and you'd cut them in two and you'd spread their carcasses and you'd create rows. If you can imagine it like this, There's rows of the bloody animals on each side and it was a bloody mess. It was a horrific scene. Blood everywhere, flies, you name it. Two parties entering into an agreement would then pass between the pieces and they would walk the line of the rows making the promises and establishing the oath, ratifying that. So it was a binding nature of the covenant. This was to bind this. This was to ratify this. God says, make the rose. And then we read this in verse 12. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. And it came to pass when the sun went down, it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven, a smoking oven, a dreadful great darkness. Notice what he says, and he goes on in verse 15 and 17. When the sun had gone down, it was dark. Behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between those pieces. What did Abram see? Remember Hebrews? Listen to Hebrews. When God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable character of his purpose. In other words, when he made these promises, he wanted to show he's not going back. How did he make that known? How did he make it so that the saints believed it and knew it? He guaranteed it with an oath. So that by two unchangeable things, what are the two unchangeable things? He's already promised in this section, and now he's making an oath in this section. Two unchangeable things for which it is impossible for God to lie. God can't lie. If God's swearing an oath, it's as good as done. We who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope that is set before us. You see, in times of discouragement, that you might have positive encouragement, what did he do? He wants you to look back to Genesis 15 and see in the midst of all this fear, God did something overwhelming. What is this? This is represented as the two legs of God walking through these pieces, cutting the covenant of grace, if you will. I have no idea what that must have looked like that day. Probably like the pillars that came down and sheltered Israel as they passed through the sea. But the most amazing thing about this is not just that God is cutting this, but that God is alone walking this. Where's Abram? He's asleep. God confirmed this. God swore the oath. And that's not normal that the two parties don't walk together or that even Abram should have walked it. He's asleep. Why is that so important? Well, if Abraham would have walked, the covenant would have hinged on his faithfulness, and we were going to see next week, it would have already been over. And this is why Paul would say that the law that came later doesn't annul this, that arrangement, because Israel swore the oath, that doesn't change this. this is what is the covenant of grace. What then did God really show Abram? I'm not breaking my covenant with you. You're not able to walk this. I will keep this. I will satisfy this. So here's the question. Did you see what happened to Abram? He's in horror. What then did Abram see? He saw Golgotha. He saw the day of Jesus. Just like those animals split apart, he saw a vision of what the Son of God coming from his own body would undergo for us, the violence, the broken flesh, the accursed death, the abandonment that Jesus would take all by himself. Remember at the cross? No one could walk that with him. He did it alone. And the New Testament says the Lord gave himself for us so that this was a covenant of grace so that you today, there would be usually a door at the end of these and you would pass through so that you would have access into the most holy place you realize that right now you are sons of abram the same way that he was a son you don't see jesus with your eyes you but you see the stars look around you god is telling you today that he fulfilled his word and as you go through the pilgrimage what does he want from you? I'm going to close with this and we'll go to the supper. What does he want from you? He wants you to live by faith. He wants you to believe him. He wants you to trust him. One of the most beautiful question and answers in the Heidelberg comes in the section on the sacraments. And here's what it says. Why did God give us the sacraments? Why did God give us the Lord's Supper? To make us understand more clearly the promises of the gospel. and to put a seal on that promise. Well, what is God's gospel promise? This is God's gospel promise. To forgive all our sins and to give us eternal life, land, by grace alone because of Christ's one sacrifice on the cross. He has promised you that today, full and free by His grace. So what is God after? The simple trust, childlike trust, that says, okay, Lord, enough is enough, I believe. I trust you. And God says, that's not just for Abraham, that's for you. The Lord says to you today, I promised and I've sworn an oath. And you say, well, can I really know? Can I really know? If you still say that, maybe there's somebody still saying that today. What does he say? Spread a table. When the supper was being instituted, Jesus said, this is the new covenant in my blood. saying that what was promised to Abram came to pass through his life, death, and resurrection. And for anyone who doesn't believe, this is not for you, but for everyone who believes, the Lord says, come. Today is a great day where He announces righteousness and peace. And today He wants you to know as you go through this life that He's given you Himself, Revealed in His Son who died for you and loved you and shed His blood so that you might know and live in assurance that all of your sins are forgiven. Believe Him. Trust Him. And let's come to His table with that kind of heart. Amen. O Lord, our God, we ask that You would strengthen us now in faith to trust You and believe as we come to Your table. Feed us with your grace. Strengthen us in your promises. Thank you for assuring us of the oath. And thank you that we live in the day of fulfillment and we can proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.