The Covenant (Again?)

Take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Genesis, chapter 17. Genesis, chapter 17. You follow as I read, beginning in verse 1. When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless that I may make my covenant between me and you and may multiply you greatly. Then Abram fell on his face and God said to him, Behold, my covenant is with you and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.

No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham. For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. And God said to Abraham, Both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh, an everlasting covenant.

Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant. And God said to Abraham, As for Sarai, your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her and she shall become nations.

Kings of people shall come from her Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself Shall a child be born to a man who 100 years old Shall Sarah who 90 years old bear a child And Abraham said to God, oh, that Ishmael might live before you. God said, no, but Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.

As for Ishmael, I have heard you, behold I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly he shall father 12 princes and I will make him into a great nation but I will establish my covenant with Isaac whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year when he had finished talking with him God went up from Abraham then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house are bought with his money every male among the men of Abraham's house and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day as God had said to him. Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. And Ishmael his son was 13 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised. And all the men of his house, those born in the house, and those bought with money from a foreigner were circumcised with him. Let's pray. Father, open the text of your word to us now. We are utterly dependent upon your Spirit. I pray that he would be at work among us to show us your glory and the glory of your Son, the Lord Jesus.

We pray this now in his name. Amen. How many of you knew what you were getting into when you got married? Yeah, yeah. You knew all about it. after you got married, your life would never be the same. You'd have love and fun and love and wonderful days and love and wonderful nights and love and best friend forever and love, right?

Yeah. But you found out that married life was love and arguments and misunderstandings and some love and heartache and cleaning bathrooms and changing diapers and love and a house falling down. Love, right? There was a whole lot more than met the eye when you first thought about it There a whole lot more to it that you never knew That what you find in Genesis chapter 17 You find out that the covenant that God had made with Abraham was a whole lot more than met the eye when he first made that covenant as we saw in Genesis chapter 15.

When God called him from his native land, he made him a number of promises. He said, I'm going to make you a great nation, a great name. I'm going to honor and protect you. I'm going to make you a channel of blessing for all the families of the earth, and you'll get the land of Canaan. But then you remember that God appeared to Abram in a vision in chapter 15, and he formalized all those promises in a covenant, which meant that God was for sure, for certain, going to fulfill all the promises that he had made him before.

Now several years later, he appears again, and he confirms that covenant and expands on its promises, or opens up the promises. to him. That is showing him more of what those promises really meant. They're still the same promises, but now they're expanded. They're still the same promises, but now he sees them in detail. And actually there's more to them than it originally met the eye.

Now you recall that the book of Genesis tells the story of, I would say this, Genesis tells the story of God planting the seed. That is, God planting the seed that grows into the beautiful flower of salvation. He promises that seed in the garden as he talks with Adam and Eve. After they had sinned, he brings upon them the curse and tells them that from now on their posterity in all the earth is going to be cursed.

But in the midst of that curse, he promises a seed of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent. And as we've gone through this book, we've seen God keeping safe the line of that promised seed through the ever-increasing onslaught of sin. And he preserves it in Noah's family, the only family rescued from the universal destruction of the flood.

And then we see that another universal judgment comes at the Tower of Babel and the scattering of the people from that place. But along with that judgment comes again the promise that God will bless all the nations through this seed. Only this time He tells us that the blessing of that seed is going to come through one man, Abram. Now we come to Genesis chapter 17 where God confirms and expands that covenant and opens up wider for us a greater understanding of what he wants to accomplish in that covenant that he made with Abram God wants you to understand what he accomplishes in his covenant.

Many years have transpired since Adam has last met with God. We know this much, that God had promised him a seed in Genesis chapter 15, and then in Genesis chapter 16, we saw how Abram thought that maybe the seed was going to come in Sarah, his wife, through Hagar, the servant woman. It's been 13 years now since that has happened. He has reached the age of 99, and his wife is 90 now.

It's been 13 years since Ishmael was born and they're still waiting for the promise to come true. The promise that God had made in His covenant. My guess is that he and Sarai are getting weary. 13 years since Ishmael was born. Can you imagine the conversations between these two? Man, it's been 7 years and God said that Ishmael's not the son.

Well, when is that son going to come? and then at 10-year mark, and then at the 12-year mark, and at the 13-year mark. I mean, certainly they had many kinds of conversations, and they're probably asking again, will God fulfill the promise of the seed that he made in that covenant? And then one day, according to Genesis chapter 17, verses 1 and 2, God appears to him.

Now, we're not sure how. It doesn't tell us. But God appears to Abram, and he says to him, I am El Shaddai. I am God Almighty. Now, you remember that before in Genesis 15 when He appeared to him, He said, I am what? I am your shield.

He reveals something about His character when He comes to Abram and now He reveals this. I am El Shaddai. I am God the Almighty. Abram you've wondered over these last 13 years where the promise is look I am God Almighty nothing has stopped me I can fulfill the promise of descendants to you now as we begin looking at This chapter, notice that this is not another new covenant.

You may think that it's another new covenant. There's a couple of reasons why I don't think it is a new covenant. Number one, when you read the New Testament, it always refers to one covenant with Abraham. It never refers to many, it always refers to one. And then, the usual word for making a covenant, cutting a covenant, that's what the word normally is. it's typically translated make a covenant in our Bibles, but there's a word, cutting a covenant.

You remember what that means? Whenever a covenant is enacted, there's a sacrificial victim. And we saw in Genesis 15 that Abram whacked all those animals in half and lined them up opposite each other. And you remember that when you make a covenant, you cut a covenant. That is, you split the animal and you walk between its pieces, bringing upon yourself the curses. if you don't fulfill your part of the covenant.

Well, that word cutting is used nowhere in Genesis chapter 17. And for example, in verse 2, it shouldn't read, walk before me and be blameless that I may make my covenant between me and you and may multiply you greatly. That's really, it's confirm or establish. It's not make. He's not making another covenant. He's renewing it.

He is confirming it. So God here confirms His covenant with Abram and expands or gives more details on His original promises. Alright? Well, let's look at this covenant. Recognize that God promises great blessings in His covenant. God promises great blessings in His covenant.

Now, Abram hears that he'll not just have descendants, but that he will be a father of multitudes of nations and of kings. Again, verse 8, the covenant again says your descendants will have the land. Again, there's the land. That's part of the promises. He mentions it in verse 8. But from now on, up through chapter 22, the emphasis is on the seed.

On the seed of Abraham. And he says to him, not only will I give you the land, that you will be the father of a multitude of nations. And by Genesis chapter 25 we see that come true Because out of Abraham comes the nation of Midian comes the Ishmaelites comes the nation of Edom and of course, as we will see, as we all know, comes the nation of Israel.

So there's a multitude of nations that come from Abram. And he says kings will come from him. So out of all these nations are going to be kings. Not the least of which is Ishmael's 12 princes that will be the head of Ishmael's descendants. Isn't it interesting that when God blesses Ishmael, not the child of blessing, but God still blesses him. He gives him 12 princes.

Is that kind of like the 12 patriarchs that are going to come? God blesses Ishmael with those 12. But also, a multitude of kings from the nation of Israel will come from Abraham. All of these nations and rulers from a man and a woman who appear incapable of producing one child. Again, you must see the promise here. Look, you don't have a child yet, but I promise you this.

Whole nations are going to come from you and kings are going to come from you. And here he is 99 years old and he doesn't even have one son. When we talk about faith, we ought to think Abraham, right? Wow. Now, in order to cement that promise, God says, I'm going to change your name from Abram to Abraham. Now, the A-B in Abraham's name is the Hebrew word for father, Ab.

By the way, it comes out later in the New Testament as Abba. All right? Ab is the Hebrew word for father. Abram meant exalted father that is to say exalted with respect to his father so Abram referred to his distinguished lineage but now God says I'm going to change your name from Abram to Abraham Raham or a word like that means father of a multitude and now looks forward to the multitude of nations and kings that will come from this man.

Can you see the amused faces of all the men in Abraham household You got to remember when we talk about Abraham household here we talking about like a movable city right Do you get that? Remember, he's got an army. He's got his own, you know, he's got his own, what do you want to call them? Seals, right? He's got a group of guys like that. He's got tons of livestock.

He's got just all kinds of servants. you've got to remember Abraham now is a very rich man. So, think of this. Now he's going out into his community, and he's commanding everyone, you've got to call me Abraham. You've got to start calling me father of multitudes now. Can you see everybody? I mean, can you see Abraham getting annoyed as they kind of look at each other and smile and giggle a little bit?

Abraham, father of multitudes, give me a break. He doesn't even have a kid that's supposed to get this done yet. right um but abraham knew the whole time that this name was not intended to deceive him it was a promise from god it was a seal on that promise i will accomplish that but most of all do you notice the greatest covenant promise here it's not nations it's not kings it's not land can you see what it is see it at the end of verse 7 and verse 8 and I I'm going to establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojourners of the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession and I will be their God I will be their God the greatest covenant promise of all is that God himself gives Himself to this man and his descendants. This is the greatest covenant promise of all.

It far outweighs all the other benefits. You remember that in Eden, a natural, loving, harmonious relationship existed between man and God so that it was the most natural thing for man and God to walk together in the garden. Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever thought about that? Thank you, Dave. If I kick that over tell me The most natural thing was that they would walk together I tried to imagine that I tried to imagine a relationship with God where I'm not coming to Him and saying, Lord, I love you, but I'll tell you, I'm a rotten son.

You know, I'm just, God, thank you for your grace. And there'd be no interruption in that. Just this natural, harmonious walking with God. That it ceased to exist with the entrance of sin. But now God covenants to become the God who walks with us and loves us and gives Himself for our enjoyment. Gives Himself for our enjoyment.

Three of my grandsons stayed over last night. We were eating breakfast together. And they're all excited because somebody's coming to their house today. and they're excited because they are going to have fun because the folks that are coming and the kids that are coming are fun they enjoy them you ever thought about your relationship with god like that when god shows up it's going to be so great you ever think that way that's the way it's supposed to be you see that's the way it's supposed to be and god covenants here i will be your god I will be your God here's a promise as well that says that all the nations down the line all the nations are going to know you're the people of the real God and if they want to know God they'll have to go to you because I'm going to dwell in your midst I'm going to be your God the true God is covenanted now to be the God of the descendants of this man so they will be the ones they will be the ones who have the mission of showing God to the world again this is something a little off track here but let me just say this Israel had a mission in the Old Testament and they failed and that mission was this we have God and all the nations of the world must know that the true God is with us and they had a mission to make that God known to all the other nations you see and God's making a covenant that says I will be the God of your people he gives himself to them Sarah's name is changed as well to cement the promise now Sarah and Sarah both mean princess It's like a dialectical change.

But her birth name, Sarai, looks back on her noble descent. But her covenant name, Sarah, looks forward to her noble descendants. She is now an equal partner in the covenant. She's now as much a part of the covenant as Abraham is. Of course, Abraham can hardly believe what he hears when God says this to him. He falls on his face in reverence to God and he laughs because he can hardly believe it.

And he says to himself, he's got to be kidding. I'm 99, my wife's 90, I'm almost 100. I mean, can I have a child? I mean, it's so bizarre, so unbelievably good that he laughs. Right? It's kind of like the time that you asked the prettiest girl in your class out on a date and she said yes and you started to laugh and say, you're kidding, right?

Yeah. Really? That's Abraham right here. I mean, that's what he's doing right here. I mean, it's like, okay, I believe it, but I kind of don't. I mean, this is wild.

Are you sure? That's why he's laughing. He says, that's great. Really? Don't you really mean Ishmael, right? That's what's going on, you know?

What you really mean to say is that Ishmael will be the one who bears the covenant, right? because that's more reasonable to believe than the bizarre thing you just said. Really? And God replies, nope, nope. You're going to have a son by Sarah and he's going to show up about a year from now. This time, next year, you're going to have a son. And you're going to name him Isaac.

Isaac. The Hebrew word for Isaac is Yitzhak. You've all heard that. some Israeli, one of the Israeli prime ministers was named Isaac. Yitzhak Rabin, right? That's Isaac. Yitzhak.

It sounds like the Hebrew word sahak, which means to laugh. And Isaac is named laughter. He's named laughter. Laughter because Abraham laughs. Laughter because, by the way, later on during the year, Sarah's going to laugh. but I think it also means this that God's going to laugh at the pleasure of giving them the son and God also says to him Abram I know you love your son Ishmael I haven forgotten him I haven't forgotten him.

I'm going to bless him. He's going to have a great nation too. Isn't it interesting that God doesn't forget the non-elect? He blesses them too. Abundantly. abundantly. How do God's covenant blessings come?

Well, when you look at what he says in verse 21, but I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year. He says this, God's covenant blessings come supernaturally. They come supernaturally. Isaac represents the fact that God's chosen race will not come by natural generation, but by supernatural grace. And sovereignly, by His own sovereign counsel, the Lord elects Isaac and not Ishmael.

He says, no, it's going to be Isaac. So recognize that God promises great blessings in His covenant. land, nations, kings through a promised son and it includes God himself and it's sovereignly and supernaturally accomplished. But that's not all we find in this chapter. Sandwiched between the promises as for you Abram, starting in verse 3 as for Sarah, starting in verse 15 we have this thing in the middle verses 9 through 14 Alright?

Sandwiched right in the middle of this covenant confirmation. And here we need to recognize that God promises great blessing that brings responsibility. God promises great blessing that brings responsibility. Now God's covenant with Abraham is unconditional. It speaks grace to Abraham. It's grace. when God enacted the covenant in chapter 15, who walked between the sacrificial animals?

Who the one who walked between And remember it was God alone who walked between the sacrificial animals It was God who essentially was saying may all the curses of this covenant fall on me if I don't uphold my part of the covenant. And he was also saying, since Abraham at that point was not allowed to walk through, you remember, God alone walked through, God was essentially saying, I'm the only one. I am the only one who's going to see that this covenant is fulfilled.

It was an unconditional, gracious covenant. God Himself said, I take upon Myself the curses and I take upon Myself the responsibility of fulfilling it. You've got nothing to do. And yet, as we come to this chapter, it appears that God lays some conditions on Abraham in the covenant. Walk before Me and be blameless. and then he goes on in this section to talk about, and you've got to do, you've got to circumcise everyone, every male in your household from now on forever.

And if you don't, you're cut off from this covenant. How can this be? How can there be conditions on an unconditional covenant? What we have to see is these are not conditions to bring about the fulfillment of the covenant. God's going to make him a great nation, a great name, bless all the nations, give him the land, produce kings, all those sorts of things.

He's going to do it. Abram can't do anything to make that happen. God's going to do it. But, this is a response to grace. This is a response to grace. Listen, grace never means irresponsibility. it never means sin it never means a free ride in terms of your ethics but rather it calls from us a response by the way have you ever i i'm dumb i realize that but i never saw the connection between response and responsibility this is responsibility in the light of grace see well how can I have responsibility when there's grace?

Because grace causes a response. And God says, this is how I want you to respond to my grace Now these are not actions that merit the fulfillment of the promises They not that They a response because grace has been shown Listen, you can't have a relationship with God without something changing. It's impossible for God to say, I'm going to be your God.

And then everything just go on as it always has. It's like when you get married, right? When you get married, it's no more. And it's not because, oh, I've got to do this. I'm a married guy now. It's not that.

It's that when you get married, that relationship automatically changes everything. I don't go out every night like I did before I was married. I don't spend my money the way I wanted to. You know, oh, yeah, I want to get that. You're married now. So what?

I'm going to get that. You can't do that. You don't do that anymore. You don't say, yeah, there's a gal back home. I married her. I talk to her every once in a while when I need something.

Right? Something changes in the relationship. And so when God becomes your God, there's change, and that change brings about these responses, these responsibilities. And again, notice that these commands are set squarely between promises. All right? Isn't that interesting?

Promise, responsibility, promise. The emphasis is on the promise and the grace, but there's still responsibility. What kind of responsibility? Well, look at the first couple verses. Because of God's grace, you have individual responsibility. He says, walk before me.

Walk before me. Orient your life to my presence, to my promises, to my demands. You don't orient your life the way you want to from now on. You orient it towards what I say. You live life before God in such a way that every single step of your life has reference to God. Your job.

You cannot work at your job anymore without reference to God. Your sexuality. determined by God. What are you going to do with that? Well, what does God say? Your leisure. What are you going to do with that?

Well, what does God say about that? Your family. You can't do whatever you want with your children. You do what God says to do with your children. Everything in your life now is oriented by God. Why?

Because you want to get something from Him? No, because He has already given. You see? He's already given. How am I going to respond to that? I'm going to respond with a life where I walk before God and every part of my life is a reference to God because He's been gracious to me.

He says, be blameless. No, he's not arguing here for sinless perfection. He's saying live a life that reflects the character and the values of God. The word stresses wholeness. That is to say, a person is not a hypocrite who says one thing and does another. There's wholeness there.

You reflect the values and the character of God. So that you can gain God's favor, right? No. No. because He's already shown you favor. That's why you do that. That's a response to God because of the favor He's shown you.

Because of God's grace, you have a corporate responsibility. Notice that from now on, Abram's household has a responsibility. And his descendants have a responsibility. That is to observe this sign of the covenant. So God demands a people who are set apart from everybody else. they're set apart. Here, that's accomplished by circumcision.

Now, circumcision was not invented by Abraham. It wasn't as if this is something new. This was a common practice. It was common in all the cultures around there and the cultures where Abraham lived. Circumcision was common. The difference was this.

Circumcision in all the other cultures were initiation into manhood, initiation into marriage. here he says you circumcise every infant who's eight days old infants now are circumcised what does that mean means that when you're part of god's covenant people this is a lifelong commitment a lifelong commitment all right you're committed to this god and to his people for a lifetime now verse 10 notice it interesting how it put in verse 10 This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised. It's narrowed down to this.

This is the sign. This speaks to the covenant. Circumcision. The whole lot of you are circumcised. If you come into this household from outside, circumcision. If you're bought, circumcision.

If you're born, circumcision. You belong to God. And then as we find, starting in verse 23, Abraham leads his household in obedience to this command. He and his son Ishmael are circumcised. All the men that belong to the household are circumcised. They now respond this way.

I like to call this the obedience of faith. This is not obedience that tries to get something from God. This is not obedience that tries to get God to honor His promises. Rather, this is the obedience that grows out of faith. Faith should produce obedience. I obey because of your promises.

Lord God, you've promised this. So I'm going to respond by taking upon myself that sign. and to be set apart as people who belong to you. Now here's the thing. If this is all we talked about, was Abraham and this, it'd be a nice history lesson, wouldn't it? But you know something? We need to recognize that God, that God's great blessings are fulfilled in Christ.

All of this is pointing forward. If there's anything that I want you to learn from Genesis, it's this. This reveals God to us, and it shows us a God who stays the same even though some things may change. And what we see here in the Old Testament is it's always pointing to Jesus. In fact, Jesus gathers all of the promises of the New Testament into Himself and keeps them and fulfills them all.

All of this points toward Jesus. And because He fulfills it, this becomes true of us. How can I sit here and say to you God requires you to walk before him God requires of you to be blameless God requires of us that we be set apart How can I preach that from this text? This is Abraham. Because Jesus gathers all this up and fulfills it so that it becomes true of us.

Let me show you. Galatians chapter 3. Now in Galatians, which is probably the first book that Paul wrote, probably the first book that Paul wrote, he makes a big deal of the fact that Jesus is the fulfillment of everything that came to Abraham. Alright? Just look in one verse. Chapter 3.

He's making the argument here that the Mosaic Covenant has been set aside, but the Abrahamic Covenant is still operative. that the Mosaic covenant did not annul the Abrahamic covenant. Why? Because of Jesus. Watch. To give a human example, brothers, even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now, the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring.

It does not say, and to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one. And to your offspring who is Christ. You see here, Paul? He's saying all these things that we've read in Genesis where it says, and to your offspring, that is going to come to fulfillment in Christ. He's pointing to Jesus. Everything comes to Him.

Wow! What's that going to mean for us? It's going to mean for us that since Jesus is a fulfillment of all those promises, they apply to us. How so? Jump down to verse 16. I'm sorry, not verse 16, verse 29.

And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. Whoop! You know what that means? It means the promises made to Abraham are ours. They're ours. Because we're his offspring.

So when God said, look at the sky, Abraham, look at the sky. Do you see all those stars? Those are your descendants. You're part of the stars up there. One of my daughters last night we were talking she drove in last night There times when the girls girls come home every once in a while She said you know Dad we outside She says you know Dad when I look up at the stars I think of that, of Genesis 15, and I say, I'm up there.

Yeah, you're up there. You're part of His descendants. It isn't just Jewish people. Anybody who has the faith like Abraham is one of His descendants. And therefore, you're an heir of the promise. In what ways?

Turn to Romans. Romans chapter 4, verse 13. For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. What? Wait a minute. I read C-A-N-A-N.

Canaan. And Paul says, World! I don't see that. Well, here's what happened. Who's the offspring of Abraham? Jesus.

And what did God do? Promised him the whole world. Right? Therefore, in fulfillment of the promise to Abraham, we get the whole thing, not just a little strip of land. We get the entire world in fulfillment of that promise. By the way, it's not going to be the same one we have now.

It's going to be better. You know that, right? Okay. So we get it. Since we're connected to the offspring and we are also the offspring, then we get that promise. Now look at verses 16 and 17.

Same chapter. Watch what Paul says here. That is why it depends on faith. In order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring. Not only to the adherent of the law, not only to the Jew, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham. That's you.

You're part of his offspring if you share his faith. Who is the father of us all. As it is written, I 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 exist. He quotes right out of here, Genesis chapter 17. What's he saying? That promise of multitudes of nations was fulfilled, is being fulfilled as multitudes of people from many nations now come to Christ.

He's the father of that as well. And then, of course, king. Well, who's the greatest king to come from Abraham? Jesus. That's right. What about being set apart by circumcision?

Turn to Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2, verse 11. In Him also you were circumcised. There it is. You were circumcised. With a circumcision made without hands.

By putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised Him from the dead. How have we been circumcised? We've been regenerated. Our hearts have been changed. in the old testament god starts saying this i not only want circumcision i want your heart circumcised and it is accomplished right here it says in jesus our hearts are circumcised we are regenerated we are set apart from the rest of humanity because now we have new hearts and that's going to set us apart because we're going to start to obey god by the way god is our god and where do people who want to find god where are they going to go to the people of God where God dwells.

All these things. So what's our responsibility to that grace? Our responsibility to the grace of God fulfilling all of this in Christ is to respond with obedience. Not to gain anything from God. But after all these things God has done for us I need to respond in a way that reflects His character His values I need to respond in a way that says I belong to Christ Listen.

God has not changed. He is a God of grace in Christ Jesus. He calls sinners to Him with great and gracious promises of life and salvation. of peace with Him, and love from Him. He guarantees all of it and takes upon Himself the whole thing. How do I know that? Because He suffered the curses on the cross.

There was no sacrificial animal in this covenant. God sacrificed Himself and took upon Himself the curses so that we would have the blessings of the covenant. and he calls you to obedience because of his grace if you walk away from genesis 17 walk away with this a god of grace promises great blessings of grace to his people and we respond with obedience father thank you for your word thank you for the fact that that Abraham is our father and that the promises that you made him are fulfilled in Christ and become ours. Thank you for your marvelous work in Christ Jesus.

Help us now to respond in ways that reflect such marvelous grace. We'd respond in obedience. We'd respond with desire to reflect our God and our Savior to those around us. Thank You for Your Word today. In Jesus' name, Amen.