A Covenant Promise

Welcome to this weekend's In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley. Are you aware of God's elaborate plan that unfolded before and after the birth of Christ? Here's part one of the series explaining why Jesus came. Let's read three verses together. Genesis chapter 12. If I should ask you, why did Jesus Christ come to this earth 2,000 years ago, 90% of the people would probably answer, in order to save me from my sins.

And that is true. But that is not the only reason Jesus came. And I think one of the most beautiful demonstrations of the faithfulness of God is wrapped up in the whole concept of Christmas and Bethlehem and what happened the night that Jesus Christ was born. But I want us to see something here because what God did for Abraham, he has also done for us. And so the first reason I want us to see for Jesus Christ coming was this, that Jesus Christ came in order to fulfill an irrevocable, unchanging, unalterable covenant promise which he made to Abraham some 6000 years ago, about 4000 years before Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. So I want to describe something to you about a covenant. And then I want us to look to see what God said and how he operated in the life of Abraham, and then how that applies to us today and I want you to see the great detail to which God went to in order to fulfill what he had promised.

Now if you will think for just a moment about what's happened here. Abraham, his name at this point is Abram, but we'll call him Abraham because God changed his name. God reached down out of nowhere, it seems, and chose to reveal himself to Abraham.

Not because Abraham was good, not because he was going to be good, not for any other reason except God and his sovereign wisdom and sovereignty chose to speak to it. So having chosen him, he just he said what we just read here in Genesis chapter 12 and verse two and three. And then if you'll move over to chapter 15, and notice what he says in verse one and two. After these things the word of the Lord came on Abram in a vision saying, fear not Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.

I will be your protection and I will be your provision because I am making a covenant with you. Then if you'll notice up in verse six, the same chapter the Bible says, and he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness. Now, the word believe here is the word meaning that he stayed upon God. That is he rested upon him. He trusted upon him.

He rested in him. He rested in the Lord in faith and he counted it to him for righteousness. And so he had made him this promise about his son and so forth.

And so verse eight, Abraham says, How do I know that I'm going to inherit this land and all the things that you're talking about here? So then the Bible says, now watch this, the Bible says that God put him to sleep and putting him to sleep, something happened. He saw something and that is these animals, which he noted. If you'll notice here, he said to him, Take me and heifer three years old, a she goat three years old, a ram of three years old and a turtle dove and a young pigeon. He took unto him all of these and he divided them in the midst and laid each piece one against another. But the birds divided he not.

Then he, of course, kept the fowl away. Verse 12. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham and a horror of great darkness fell upon him. God said to Abraham, Know of assurity that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them. And they shall afflict them 400 years, which is his prophecy of the time of Egyptian bondage for 400 years. Then he says in verse 16, But in the fourth generation, they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites are not yet full. So for 400 years, he said, Your family will be in slavery in this particular land, which you and I know to Egypt. Then, if you'll notice, he said in verse 17, It came to pass that when the sun went down, that it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace and the burning lamp that passed between those pieces. In the same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Under thy seed have I given this land and so forth.

Here's what I want you to see. God chose to reach down and unveil himself to a man who did not know Jehovah God. Likewise, the Bible said he made a covenant with him. Now, let me explain to you very briefly what we mean by covenant here. A covenant is a binding contract between two people. But here God is making a covenant with Abraham, and at the same time, God is assuming the total responsibility for fulfilling that covenant promise or that binding relationship. So when two groups or two men made a covenant, here's what they would do. They would take an animal and divide it or say a series, as God did here, and spread them apart.

Then they would strike with a knife apart, let's say the wrist or the hand of this palm, and he would slit the hand of his palm. And they put these two together, raise their hands and make a covenant and mixing their blood. And so that they became blood brothers, covenant brothers. And a covenant brother was really stronger than a blood brother.

So that when they made this covenant, then oftentimes they would take a torch and walk up and down between these animals. And that torch was a symbol of judgment upon the one who broke that covenant. Now, that was the covenant binding upon both of them. And likewise, it bound their families together and their family's families. So a covenant was more than a promise. It was a promise binding by not only their oath, but their blood. It was a covenant promise binding two people together involving everything they possessed. Now, in the light of that, here is God saying to Abraham, I'm going to make a covenant with you.

But here's the difference. On this occasion, he tells Abraham to divide these animals. And then the scripture says that God put Abraham to sleep. But in the midst of all of that, God allowed Abraham to see this smoking furnace. If you'll notice here in this particular chapter, he says a smoking furnace and a burning lamp.

And so what does that symbolize? That here is God symbolical in the smoking furnace. And here is the Lord Jesus Christ symbolized in that burning lamp because you see, Abraham was put to sleep. God did not say to Abraham, now here's what I'm going to do and here's what you must do. But God said to Abraham, I am assuming the full responsibility of this covenant. So it is God the Father and God His Son, the smoking furnace and the bright shining lamp walking up and down through those animals as a symbolism of the covenant relationship that God was making to Abraham.

Here's what I want you to see. When God made his covenant promise with the nation of Israel, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that each one of Abraham's sons, Isaac, the covenant promise was reiterated to him. Jacob, the covenant promise was reiterated to him. The son that is key above all the rest is the son of Judah. And Jesus has been called the lion of the tribe of Judah. It was through the genealogical line of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and through the Jacob line, the son Judah.

And through that line, if you'll recall that when Matthew wrote the book of Matthew, the gospel, that he started out by saying the genealogical line of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob and he traces him all the way down to Joseph, he says, whose wife was Mary, of whom was born the Lord Jesus Christ. In the mind of God, here's what I want you to see, now don't miss this. In the mind of God, when Almighty God makes a promise, the sovereign creator of this universe will move heaven and earth in order to fulfill every single promise he's made precisely and exactly. I want you to listen to what he says.

You don't have to turn to it. Mark the verse if you'd like. In Deuteronomy 23, 21, he says, when you shall vow a vow unto the Lord thy God, thou shall not slack to pay it for the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee and it would be sin in thee. That is, if you fail to keep that vow.

Here's what I want you to see. In the 12th chapter of Genesis, the sovereign God of this universe made a vow. He made a covenant promise with Abraham and he and his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, walked up and down in the midst of that cut animal, those animals, in order to declare to Abraham that the covenant would be fulfilled. Listen, it would not be fulfilled through Abraham alone.

In fact, it would never be in the strength of Abraham. But it was to be in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Smoking furnace, burning light, God the Father, God the Son, joining hands, walking up and down through those animals to verify the inevitability and the everlasting power of that promise and of that covenant. Now, I want you to go back for just a moment.

I want to show you something. In the 12th chapter, when God made his covenant promise with Abraham, he says in verse three, and I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that cursed thee. Then he says, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

Now, notice what he said. He said in thee that is out of thee will come that which will bless all the nations of the earth. The night Jesus Christ was born, God the Father was fulfilling the last of that covenant promise when he said to him that all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in thee. For in Jesus Christ, the whole world has the opportunity of being saved. It is in Jesus Christ that God's redemptive plan was offered to mankind. It is in Jesus Christ that men found their hope of life everlasting. It is in Jesus Christ that men found their purpose for living. It is in Jesus Christ that we find direction for life. It is in Jesus Christ that we discover who God really is. It is in the coming of Jesus Christ that all the world, all the nations of the earth have been blessed. Salvation was offered to the world that day.

Now, I want you to think about something. If you'll turn to Matthew chapter 26, because he came not only to fulfill the covenant promise that he made to Abraham, which he fulfilled precisely and exactly, but you'll recall in the upper room that night before he was crucified that he spoke of a new covenant, the old covenant of Abraham. Jesus Christ said he came to fulfill that covenant promise which he has done, but he likewise came not to fulfill an old covenant but to establish a new one. And this is what he says in Matthew chapter 26. Look, if you will, beginning in verse 26. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to his disciples and said, Take, eat, this is my body. Now, watch verse 27, 28. He took the cup, he gave thanks, and he gave it to them, saying that each one of them was to drink a little out of that cup.

Drink ye all of it. For this is my blood of the New Testament, or which is, in essence, the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sin. Listen, here's what Jesus was saying. And somebody says, Well, why didn't he explain what he was saying?

I'll tell you why. When Jesus spoke most of the time, the reason he made no explanation is because the people who heard him speak in that day understood exactly what he meant. He said, This is my blood of a new covenant which I'm establishing with you and with all who will believe after you. That is the covenant that, listen, that God Almighty, the same God who made the covenant with Abraham, who moved history, who changed nations, who uprooted emperors, and who guided the stars of the heavens so that they would be in the right place at the right time, at the very time that Jesus Christ was born. God moved the heavens, listen, before the foundation of the world when he put everything in orbit. Listen, think about this.

God Almighty set the time clock of the orbits of the universes and all that the right star would be at the right place at the right time to announce the most significant thing that had ever happened in the universe after that time. And my friend, you're worried about whether God has forgotten his last promise to you. No way. Amen.

No way. And you see, that was the covenant promise between Abraham and God. But look at this promise. He says, This is my covenant. He says, This is the blood of a new covenant that I'm making with you. And the new covenant is this.

Listen, watch this. The new covenant is that I am now assuming the responsibility for your life. I'm assuming the responsibility for the pardon of your sins on the cross. I'm assuming responsibility for your provision. I'm assuming responsibility for your protection. I'm assuming responsibility for your everlasting and eternal future.

I'm assuming responsibility for your life. So therefore, under the new covenant, when men receive me as their savior, they also get me as their life. And Jesus Christ comes into the life of men today to live through them. A life which no man can live.

Because man is not capable of living the Christian life. It is Christ living within us, dwelling within us, living through us, the life that He promised. So when somebody says, Well, now I believe that you can receive Jesus Christ and be saved, but I just don't know that I believe Jesus Christ will live through me. Now watch this.

I want you to see this. When God makes a covenant promise, God will move heaven and earth to make that covenant promise come to pass. All of history is proof of that for the Old Testament covenant. Now in the New Testament covenant, listen, if God chose with the blood of animals to make a covenant with Abraham and lived up to that covenant, will He not much more live up to His divine sovereign everlasting covenant with His Son when it is the blood of Jesus Christ that sealed the covenant between you and Almighty God? My friend, that's why you and I do not have one single legitimate reason for ever doubting one single promise in this book. When He said this is a new covenant, which I'm sealing with my blood, what Jesus Christ was saying in essence was this.

Every single thing I have promised you, you can bet my blood that it will come to pass. God the Father, in love for you and me, sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ into this world, born in a manger in Bethlehem. He was God come in the flesh, but He came to die, and He hanged there upon the cross between godless humanity to say, by the shedding of this blood, I am establishing a new covenant that all who will accept me as their Savior, their Master and their Lord, are eternally kept by my Father who is in heaven.

And let me tell you what that means to us. He who said, I'm establishing a new covenant, who said, I will save you, likewise said, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. I don't need but one reason for believing that Jesus Christ is coming again, just because He said so. Amen? If God the Father will keep a promise to Abraham, will not God the Father keep His promise to you and me when the sealing of that covenant was the blood of His only begotten Son? That is at least the beginning of what the Bethlehem story is all about. Thank you for listening to Why Jesus Came. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.