THE BEGINNING OF THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT.
Grace Bible Church & Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
Copyright © 2009 by Pastor Robert R. McLaughlin
Gbible.org
02/24/08

Rom 9:1-4, “I am communicating doctrine, I am not lying, my conscience bearing joint testimony with me in the Holy Spirit, but I have a great sorrow and constant pain in my right lobe, so I could wish that I myself would be accursed, consequently, separated from Christ, but it cannot be, for the sake of, or on behalf of my brethren, the racial Jews, my fellow countrymen, national Jews according to earthly descent, who are Israelites, to whom is the adoption as sons and the glory [the Shekinah glory], and the covenants and the gift of the law, and the worship of the true God, and the promises.”
We now move to the next three Greek words, Kai hai diatheekai, correctly translated and the covenants. This is referring primarily to the Abrahamic covenant, though others are included as well. The Abrahamic covenant was the beginning of the Jews, and the beginning of God's promises to Israel. The whole issue in these covenants is very simple. God is faithful, and God keeps His word; God will fulfill every obligation. The integrity of God makes it impossible for Him not to fulfill an obligation. Remember that the integrity of God is composed of His justice and His righteousness, and the only Jews to whom these promises are pertinent are the spiritual, rather than the physical, seed of Abraham. Only those Jews who receive the imputation of Divine righteousness (+R), as did Abraham, in Genesis 15, where Abraham was told that his progeny would be as the stars of the heaven, or like the sands of the sea. In that passage it also says, “Abraham had believed in the Lord [GEN 15:6], and it was credited to his account for righteousness.” The only Jews who receive the promises of the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic, and New Covenants to Israel are those Jews who have +R. Remember that the justice of God imputes blessing to the righteousness of God only, and no Jew is a true Jew until he has the righteousness of God.
Human life imputed at birth, plus Adams original sin, equals the first potential, the potential of salvation. Then the pertinent doctrine, the Gospel, equals the first hope or absolute confidence that when you believe in Christ you have eternal life. Then comes the adjustment to the justice of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There can be no blessing from God, unless you possess God's righteousness. Through perception, metabolization, and application of doctrine, one attains maturity and develops capacity to receive Divine blessing. We have the imputation of eternal life, plus the imputation of blessing in time which equals the third potential: Pertinent doctrine plus undeserved suffering equals absolute confidence that when we stand at the judgment seat of Christ in a resurrection body, we are going to receive the imputation of Divine blessing; and this is the plan of God. So, there can be no blessing, no eternal blessing to anyone, without +R.
The ditheke, the covenant, is a disposition made by God to Abraham, and in this case we're dealing with the heritage of Israel. Like all the covenants, this is a part of the Divine decrees, and Abraham is a beneficiary without merit. God promised Abraham, he would crack the maturity barrier. God promised unconditionally certain things to Abraham and his spiritual seed; not all Israel is Israel, only those who believe on Christ for +R, as Abraham did in GEN 15:6. These promises are forever so you have to have God's life, eternal life. These promises demand a point of imputation. God can only bless on the basis of His righteousness (+R), not on the basis of our righteousness; today we have people inserting their own self-righteousness, and of course that does not work. We can't reinvent the wheel; God's already done it; it's His plan, not our plan! There is no place for self-righteousness, or any action or any deed no matter how legitimate, no matter how wonderful, or no matter how legalistic; there's simply no place for any human effort to try to gain blessing from God. The justice of God is free to fulfill the Abrahamic covenant to any Jew (anyone who has the genes of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) who is born again through faith in TLJC. That is absolutely necessary. So, all of these promises we simply call the Abrahamic covenant are merely a summary of everything that God promised to Abraham and to his spiritual seed.
GEN 12:1-3, Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
These verses emphasize the isolation and separation necessary for the development of the new race. The third dynasty of Ur is about to be destroyed, and God is separating Abraham from that famous Acadian nation. This is why verse 2 says And I will manufacture from you a great nation. This does not refer to the seed of Ishmael nor does it refer to the seed of the five sons of Keturah. Abraham had seven sons; but the great nation would come through one only, Isaac: one great nation called the Jews, the Hebrews. Now there are a lot of nations from Abraham; many of them are descendents through Ishmael, or descendents from Abraham through the five sons of Keturah. However, the great nation in GEN 12:2 is elected, but not adopted until the Second Advent, because while Israel has been great in the past, it is nothing compared to what will happen in the Millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. Israel will be the source of blessing for the entire world. Israel in the Millennium is the great nation. Israel in all eternity after the Millennium is the great nation, but the only racial Jews who can be in that great nation are those who are qualified by having +R and eternal life. No-one can qualify without believing in Christ for eternal life.
Now it becomes important, and that's why Paul was so burdened in Romans 9, because these Jews, many of them in arrogance, thought that they recognized their great heritage, but they misinterpreted their heritage and related it to physical birth, rather than the new birth. That's why, to one of the leaders of the Jews, the Pharisee Nicodemus, Jesus said; “Ye must be born again.” Even though this man was a Pharisee and a brilliant scholar and understood his racial heritage, he was still relating the heritage of Israel to physical life rather than spiritual life. But at least he was positive, for he is one of the Pharisees who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as a result of His earthly ministry. Being born again is only possible through believing in the salvation work of our Lord. That was the challenge, not only to Nicodemus, but to all Jews: They must be born again. So, our Lord tells Nicodemus that it isn't a physical re-birth; it's a spiritual re-birth. It's a birth by means of the Spirit, from the water of the Word and from the Spirit. It isn't the physical seed of Abraham that has the great heritage of the future; it is the spiritual seed of Abraham, those who are born again. When God promised unconditionally He simply said I will. That's it. “I will manufacture from you a great nation, I will bless you, and I will cause your name to become famous, therefore become a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you.”
That brings us to today. The United States of America is a client nation of God, right now. We do not have the spiritual heritage of Israel. We have a glorious heritage of freedom, but nothing compares to the spiritual heritage of Israel in the past. So here we are today, a client nation of God. With that we have the responsibility. We have, first of all, the freedom with its privacy, its property, and its umbrella of authority. We have the freedom to evangelize. From this freedom comes the ability to advance to maturity. From this freedom comes missionary activity to reach out to any nation, or any group of people wherever they may be found, who are positive toward God and God-consciousness, and they will hear the Gospel. God will provide the missionaries and the means, and they are generally sent from a client nation. One other thing that's keeping us going today, and is very important to continue and protect, is that we as a nation are not anti-Semitic. We have some anti-Semitic people in the nation, but as a nation we are not anti-Semitic. We are pro-Semitic with relationship to the Jewish people. We have offered our country, as a client nation to God, as a haven for the Jews, where they have the same opportunity and the same citizenship that we have. No distinction is made and they are protected. We are about to have a great attack of anti-Semitism in this country, which is just one of the many manifestations of Satan's action.
One of the worst things that you can ever do, is to ever become involved with anyone who is anti-Semitic. We want to stay absolutely clear from that vicious, monstrous evil. Nothing is more Satanic than anti-Semitism. The greatest Satanic movement in all of history, reaching its peak in the middle of the Tribulation, is anti-Semitism. The reason for Satanic opposition to the Jews is related to the four unconditional promises (covenants) of God: The Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic, and New Covenant. All of these covenants guarantee the future of Israel and have not yet been fulfilled, with one exception. God will destroy any person or any nation involved in anti-Semitism. It is not God's will for you to enter into anti-Semitism. Racial prejudice is one of the greatest evils you could ever imagine. Whenever anyone feels any racial prejudice, all they have to do is remember that Christ was judged for that person on the Cross.
How did all of this evil in the Middle East start? We must begin with a descendant of Shem who for 99 years was an Arab, and the Arab's claim him as one of them. However, at age 99 God claimed Abraham for Himself and started a brand new race called the Jews. Let's review the profile of Abraham so that you will know something about him as an Arab and how he became a Jew. This applies directly to America's war in the Middle East.
Abraham was called Abram in the Bible before God changed his name. Abraham was a Gentile who became a Jew when God started the Jewish race through him at age 99. He was the ninth generation descended from Noah's son, Shem. He was born in the city of Ur about 2161 B.C., and the accounts about Abraham are found in GEN 11:26 - GEN 25:11, with the focus on four important aspects of his life. First, his migration: Abraham's story begins with his migration with the rest of his family from UR of the Chaldeans in ancient southern Babylonia (GEN 11:26-32). He and his family moved north along the trade routes of the ancient world and settled in the flourishing trade center of Haran, and there, at the age of 75, Abraham received a call from God to go to an unknown land that God would show him. Remember at this time in human history, there was no Bible so God spoke personally to those whom He chose. The Lord promised Abraham that He would make him and his descendants a great nation, according to GEN 12:1-3. However, like many promises from God to His people, because they are so fantastic, they seem unbelievable. The promise must have seemed unbelievable to Abraham because his wife Sarah (Sarai) was childless and he had no children. GEN 11:26 And Terah lived seventy years, and became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. Terah was an Acadian unbeliever and in JOS 24:2, he was an idolater. His name Terah means delayed; he's well named for he delayed Abraham from getting to the place where the Lord wanted him. God had a plan for Abraham, but as long as Abraham stayed with his father he was delayed in fulfilling the will of God. Now, the king of Ur was a very well known worshipper of the moon God called Ur and Ur was the great center of moon-god worship and other forms of idolatry. The city of Ur built the famous ziggurats, a system of terraced platforms on which temples were erected. It was a very prosperous and high class city! Now Abraham was saved in this city under most unusual conditions. Ur of the Chaldees was a great and powerful empire; however it was destroyed after Abraham left. Abraham left Ur to go north and then south down to Canaan, and on his way to Canaan Abraham passed the Amorites who were on their way to destroy his home area. Now, if Ur had a lot of believers then Ur would have been spared, but the Lord was going to have Ur destroyed; therefore He told Abraham to get out of it. There were only three believers in Ur, Abraham, Sarah, and Lot; so the Lord took the pivot out, and then He destroyed one of the great empires of the ancient world, the third dynasty of Ur. Abraham's spiritual life was very limited in Ur, and he needed to get to a place where he could learn doctrine without being distracted. You may find out that your spiritual life is limited because the place where you are or the people you're with become a stumbling block to your spiritual growth. Sometimes, geographical change is necessary for spiritual growth.
Abraham stayed with his father, and that was a mistake because his father led him down the path to reversionism. His father was a priest of the moon-god Ur, as well as one of the wealthiest men in this city. So Abraham is in a place that was prosperous and secure, and no one ever dreamed that the dynasty would ever come to an end; however, it was destroyed right after Abraham left. Why? Because the Lord Jesus Christ controls history, and since He knew what was going to happen to Ur, He got Abraham out. This is why we should always be sensitive to the leading and guidance of the Lord, and this can only be done by learning the mind of Christ through Bible doctrine. When Abraham left Ur, it was entering into the peak of its prosperity, and he appeared to be leaving a sure thing, a good thing, but it wasn't. But he left! HEB 11:8 tells us how he left, “By means of doctrine resident in the soul, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.” This verse brings out the importance of resident doctrine, positive volition, and being motivated by that doctrine. The change of geographical location was the basis for separating Abraham from his family and relatives. The principle is that when family or relatives hold you back then family has to go and relatives have to go. A lot of people cannot seem to handle the family relative problem, but Abraham did. Relationship with God must have priority over relationship with people. Your number one priority demands that you have a right relationship with God. Emphasis on people over God must be set aside; this includes emphasis upon yourself. The greatest issue is always doctrine vs. the details of life. Whether its family, friends, loved ones, success, pleasure, social life, sex, status symbols, materialism, or wealth.
There's a very important principle brought out by the life of Abraham. The glory road which is saving grace, living grace, super-grace, dying grace, surpassing grace, was not open to Abraham in Ur of the Chaldea. It wasn’t because of Chaldea, but rather because of his family and relatives; Abraham never hit super-grace until he was totally separated from all his relatives. He had to be separated from his father and his nephew Lot! Therefore, it was necessary for Abraham to have a permanent change of residence. Abraham’s spiritual growth was the most important thing! Abraham was uprooted in time, so that he will be rooted forever in the eternal state. He left social life, family life, and friends. He was leaving a place where he was well known and apparently a place where he was even appreciated, and that is always very difficult! To leave some environment where you're appreciated, or in some cases, you think that you're appreciated, but your being appreciated is also keeping you from getting Bible doctrine, is vital. Note also that Abraham had positive volition, and doctrine was available to him in Ur of the Chaldea, up to a point. When it ceased to be available, God had to uproot Abraham and get him out of there. It ceased to be available when Abraham's family and relatives and friends and social life and perhaps even his celebrityship - when these things got in the way of his advance down the glory road. Wherever there is positive volition toward doctrine, God provides the spiritual food even if it means a change of residence. The circumstances in Ur of Chaldea limited Abraham from becoming a spiritual champion, invisible hero, and finally a visible one. When Abraham obeyed he did so from the motivation of doctrine in the soul. Doctrine in the soul motivates the believer to come to doctrine class in spite of whatever distractions are a test to you.
So, there must be separation from those loved ones or friends residing in the cosmic system. However, a very important principle; it does not have to be physical separation. There are two categories of separation from people: First there is mental separation. In mental separation, there is one-way antagonism from those in the cosmic system toward you. Your volition protects you from becoming antagonistic toward them by your use of impersonal unconditional love. Mental separation emphasizes the integrity, honor, and doctrinal application of the believer residing inside the PPOG. Impersonal love is not influenced by those loved ones who are residing in the cosmic system, who are apostate and/or antagonistic to doctrine. Impersonal love functions on its own integrity and perpetuates its own priorities from the metabolization of doctrine. Impersonal love emphasizes personal love for God while setting aside the functions of personal love for friends or loved ones. Impersonal love does not compromise the believer's status inside the PPOG.
Secondly, there's physical separation. There are some cases where switching from personal love to impersonal love will not work. For example, getting false information in the local church. You must leave physically as well as under the principle of impersonal love. When a woman is used as a punching bag by her husband, she should leave (ROM 12:17-19). The most basic reason is to avoid the compromise of doctrine resident in the soul. Physical separation means to avoid any personal contact with a person under any circumstances. This means severance of all relation with that person of any kind. Physical separation is sometimes needed to maintain one's priorities and to use one's volition to remain inside the PPOG (PRO 13:20; 2TI 3:5-6; 2TH 3:14). Separation from unbelievers inside the cosmic system is taught in 2CO 6:14-17. Every time you hook up with something or someone in the cosmic system, you are in partnership with the cosmic system. Separation is also important in social life (JER 15:16-17; 1PE 4:3-4). The believer is to separate from a superficial social life, a fun crowd. There comes a time when the believer grows spiritually, and his first function is to separate from the crowd that will lead him in the wrong direction.
Abraham, in effect, had to choose between his father whom he loved dearly and the will of God, and at the beginning he loved his father more than the will of God. We all must decide in our lives whether we love the will of God and the word of God more than anything else in life. If you do, you take one course of action. You take in doctrine every day either through face to face teaching or by tapes, or any of the many methods available today. You learn from whoever is your right Pastor-teacher. Remember, every Pastor-teacher is assigned to a certain congregation (ACT 20:28). Every believer is assigned to a certain Pastor-teacher (1PE 5:3). That particular Pastor-teacher is to equip the believer to execute the Christian way of life (EPH 4:12).
So, Abraham was told to separate from his father and his relatives and to leave Ur according to GEN 12:1. Sooner or later in your spiritual advance you're going to have to face the issue of family members or friends who are not positive or are aggressively negative. The ones that are closest to you are often the ones that hinder you from taking in the Word the most, and nothing is more important than the Word. Abraham was told to get away from his father and to get away from the geographical location of Ur in order to advance in the spiritual life.

THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. PART 2.
Learning God's will for your life.

03/02/08

In relationship to our main verse in ROM 9:4, we have begun a study on the covenants, mainly the Abrahamic Covenant.
We have been noting the question of the will. First, there's the viewpoint will of God. In other words, what does God want you to think? Obviously, He wants you to think Divine viewpoint (ISA 55:7-9; PRO 23:7). There is also 2CO 10:1 “Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ-I who am meek when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent!” Paul had heard that they were gossiping about him, saying he had been cowardly when he was with them, but harsh and demanding when he was writing letters. Remember 1TI 5:17-20, Those pastor-teachers who have ruled well with the result that they keep ruling honorably, they must be considered worthy of double honor, most of all those who work hard to the point of exhaustion in the study of the word and the teaching of doctrine. For the Scripture says [DEU 25:4], ‘You shall not muzzle the bull while he is threshing, and [DEU 24:15] The laborer is worthy of his wages.’ Do not receive an accusation against a pastor-teacher except on the basis of two or three witnesses. Those who continue in the sin of receiving or making accusations, reprimand in the presence of all, in order that the rest of the congregation also may have respect. So be careful what you say about God's man behind the pulpit; let the Lord deal with him. As for God's man behind the pulpit, remember such scriptures as: 2TI 4:14 “Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds.” (See also ISA 54:17; 2CO 13:8).
So the Corinthians were gossiping and trying to discredit the apostle Paul. In 2CO 10:2-6 Paul is saying, please don't force me to take a hard line when I'm present with you. Don't think that I'll hesitate a single minute to stand up to those who say I'm an unprincipled opportunist. The world is unprincipled. It's dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn't fight fair, but we don't live or fight our battles that way. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.
So, first, there's the viewpoint Will of God. Secondly, there's the operational Will of God. What does God want you to do? The operational Will of God involves everything that a Christian should do to the glory of God. Thirdly, there's the geographical Will of God. Where does God want me to be? This category has to do with location. However, the geographical Will of God is never considered apart from the operational Will of God.
And the third is the geographical will of God which is where God wants you to be and that's solved by resident doctrine.
Now, there are also classifications of the Will of God.
There's the directive Will of God which is the same as the desire of God. These are direct commands. It was the directive Will of God that called Abraham out of Ur of Chaldea, and it was the directive will of God to which he responded.
The permissive Will of God is permitted, but is not God's desire. For example when God permitted Abraham to lie twice about Sarah not being his wife.
The overruling Will of God means Jesus Christ controls history. For example when God revealed to Pharaoh that he was touching Abraham's wife in GEN 12:17-20. The overruling Will of God also took place when God took Abraham's father from Abraham when he was in Haran.
There are seven basic mechanics of the Will of God, or how you can receive Divine guidance: 1) Guidance through prayer (ACT 11:5). 2) Guidance through objective thinking of Bible doctrine (ACT 11:6). 3) Guidance through perception of doctrine (ACT 11:7-10). 4) Guidance through providential circumstances, the people we meet (ACT 11:11). 5) Guidance through fellowship and comparison of spiritual data (ACT 11:13-14). 6) Guidance through recalling of doctrine (ACT 11:16). 7) Guidance through disaster. In other words, you have to have a shock or a great disaster in order to realize what's really important. This happened with the death of Abraham's father.
The principle is that Bible doctrine in the soul plus the free will in man equals Divine guidance, and the execution of the Will of God.
Abraham was getting doctrine in Ur of the Chaldea, but because of his family and relatives, he never reached spiritual maturity until he was totally separated from them. This is why the Lord said to Abraham in GEN 12:1 “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house, To the land which I will show you.” Abraham had to be separated from his father and his nephew Lot! Therefore, it was necessary for Abraham to have a change of residence because his spiritual growth was the most important thing. Abraham had to learn the principle of separation, but Abraham made a mistake and went to Haran which means the dried up place. As long as God's people do not separate from those weirdos who are in reversionism, they will be dried up spiritually as well.
Abram's name is also interesting. The first part of his name Ab means father, and ram means high and windy places. Abram lived in a very flat place, Ur of the Chaldees was very flat and it was hard to find a place above sea level anywhere. However, Abram was called father of heights because his father, who was one of the chief priests in Ur, named his son after the only high place around. Going over 100 feet in the air was the famous temple, and the last 75 feet a famous tower, on top of the tower another famous temple: the Ziggurat of Ur, and Abram was named after this. So his name actually means father of the heights or father of the high places. Abram was obviously ear-marked for a life of religion and idolatry in Ur, but God had better things for Abram just like God has better things for you. In HEB 1:4 “We have become as much better than the angels, as we have inherited a more excellent name than they have.” (See also HEB 6:9; HEB 7:19; HEB 7:22; HEB 8:6).
In our study of Abraham, there are five geographical locations that illustrate different principles concerning his life. The first is Ur which represents separation from glamour (Ur was the glamour city of Abram's time) and all the human advantages of life. 600 miles north up the Euphrates river we have Haran, the trade center between Syria and Egypt, and it represents the dried up spiritual life. It represents separation from the idolatrous place of Ur, but not enough separation. It represents going in the right direction, but making a wrong turn into the dried up spiritual life. The third area is Canaan which represents the place of blessing, the place of positive volition, and the place of spiritual advance and blessing. Then there is the Negev; Abraham will break camp and go south from Canaan into the Negev, which represents not rejection of doctrine, but neglect of doctrine. The key to the Negev is neglect. It represents neglect of doctrine, apathy, indifference, once interested, but now starting to get sloppy in the daily attendance to Bible class. Then, after he was in the Negev a while, he went on down to Egypt, and Egypt is the place of the rejection of doctrine. To neglect the Word is to reject the Word, but the neglect comes first. First comes the Negev and then comes Egypt, and both came after Canaan, the land of promise. For us it is a picture of individuals getting into doctrine, and then falling away! So don't miss the principle behind those five cities:
- Ur represents separation from glamour.
- Haran represents the dried spiritual life.
- Canaan represents the place of blessing.
- The Negev represents neglect of doctrine.
- Egypt is the place of rejection of doctrine.
GEN 11:28 And Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
Beginning in verse 29, we are getting ready to move out of Ur but before Abraham can be taken out of Ur, we have to have some weddings.
GEN 11:29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves.
Please notice that the subject is the man not the woman. This of course is an old custom that goes back to the nature of the male; he is to be the aggressive one, he is to do the wooing or the charming. No male should stand around waiting to be introduced when he finally thinks that he spots someone who is his right woman or someone who is attractive; you just don't stand around and wait, you get into action as quickly as possible. By the way a woman in response can be aggressive. She doesn't have to stand around and wait for the right man to be aggressive, he doesn't have to be the aggressor on every occasion.
Before we study this verse, we have 18 principles concerning the selection of a mate or really 18 reasons why relationships fail: 1) The most obvious one: bad decisions in the selection of a mate (PRO 12:4). This is why believers should never make a decision for marriage until doctrine matures them. 2) The inability to handle personal problems before, during, and even after the marriage. If you can't deal with your own problems how will you deal with the problems of your mate? (1CO 7:28). 3) Another reason relationships fail is because of failure to learn and apply the problem-solving devices. This means that if you are unstable in the intake of doctrine that you bring that instability in any of your relationships in life. 4) Relationships fail because of taking bad advice from friends, ministers, mommy, daddy, etc. People with problems will usually listen to anyone. Remember PSA 1:1 “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!” In sharing your problems with others, when you tell your side of the story, the other person always looks like the rat. One of the signs of growing up is keeping your personal problems private and to yourself. 5) Relationships also fail because of disloyalty or unfaithfulness on the part of one or both mates. Faithfulness is extremely important in the selection of a mate (PRO 6:23-32). 6) Relationships fail because of no personal sense of responsibility on the part of one or both mates. Many are getting married today as children mentally. 7) Remember that relationships and marriage are not designed for perfect people, but for people with old sin natures who are far from perfect, so don't think there's a person for you who is perfect. It is true that God has designed someone who is perfect for you, but that does not mean that they will be perfect. 8) Therefore, the only thing wrong with marriage is not the Divine institution of marriage designed by God but the people involved in marriage. 9) No woman can be successful in any relationship unless she has learned to entertain herself. Ladies, if you can't stand to be alone and he has to be there, you'll never be successful in marriage. You did not marry an entertainer, but a provider. 10) No man can be a successful lover of a woman and at the same time be a lover of himself. Arrogant men do not make good lovers; this also includes the sexual realm. 11) No man can exercise his authority properly without honor, integrity, and virtue. If he has no honor, integrity or virtue, he will abuse his authority. COL 3:19 “Husbands, love your wives, and do not be embittered against them.” 12) No woman can respond to authority without humility, integrity, and virtue. COL 3:18 “Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.” If she lacks these qualities she will be hypersensitive and react to authority instead of responding. 13) Beauty, health, and attractiveness are not necessarily permanent; the only permanent thing we have in this life is truth or doctrine. God is permanent, so relate your love life to God! Doctrine is permanent so relate your love life to doctrine! 14) Because the body is related to the soul only the right soul can satisfy the body of the woman or the man. The greatest sexual organ is the soul not any other part of the human anatomy. 15) Beauty is not the basis for recognition of the mate God has for you! Recognition signals are not related to the body but to the soul. 1CO 7:9 talks about the burning of the souls wanting to be with each other, not lust, when it says “But if they do not have self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.” This is soul compatibility; it has nothing to do with libido. It refers to when two souls have climaxed because the two people are soul compatible, even though they are not yet able to make love and enter into extreme intimacy. No sex can compare with the sex between right man and right woman. Therefore, it is better to marry than to burn in personal love for right man or right woman after you have made the soul identification. 16) Recognition signals are revealed in the soul, so how are you ever going to find the right one if you're touching the body and not the soul? Many people today begin their relationship with the touching of the body and not the soul, when in reality the soul must be touched first. In other words men, she has a soul, she thinks, she has a viewpoint and opinion. In the right man right woman relationship that will turn you on as well. There's PRO 18:22; PRO 19:14; GEN 2:22; ECC 9:9; 1CO 7:17, for those of you who doubt right man, right woman. 17) Identification is made in the soul, but there is also a physical attraction to you because God has designed it. For men, your right woman may not be attractive to someone else, but she will be attractive to you, and the same is true for women. 18) The right woman is never shocked by the good or bad points of her right man and vice versa.
So much then for the introduction to a wedding in Gen 11. In GEN 11:29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai; The name Sarai is very meaningful; it means contentious, a fighter, domineering. We think of men many times like this, but here is a woman who was a fighter. Ten years younger than Abraham, Sarai (Sarah) was his half sister; they had the same father but different mothers according to GEN 20:12. She was contentious at times, a fighter, and even domineering. However, she was a ravishing and stunning woman because whenever she is described it takes two and sometimes three Hebrew words to describe her beauty. She had maximum beauty, the epitome of feminine magnificence after 65. Many probably would like to know how did she stay that way, and we'll actually take that up in view of the fact that she is famous as being a nag. Abram married a nagging woman, he was carried away by her great beauty, and she was one of the most beautiful women of the ancient world. Living at home under the authority of his father Terah, Abram apparently never had the full impact of her personality until after marriage. Many men have started with a terrible handicap by marrying someone who was totally attractive to him but whose soul turned out to be totally unattractive. However, Sarai was a woman whose beauty did not fade. She was a very petty woman and quite a nag; however we are going she made God's hall of fame as time goes on. She starts very poorly and ends very well.
GEN 11:29-30, “And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah. And Sarai was barren; she had no child.”
The barrenness of Sarai is mentioned because it constitutes a test to determine if the circumstances of life are more real than the attributes of God. God has told Abram in Ur that out of him would come many great nations, and yet the first thing he finds is that Sarai is barren. So God says to Abraham in effect, What's more important to you, what I say, My word, My character; or your circumstances? That's what God is saying to you right now. One of the things that Abraham had to overcome through doctrine was that God is more real than the apparent adverse circumstances. God must become more real than adverse circumstances or you will be miserable all of your life. Always remember that the persistence in learning doctrine causes the believer to seek Him who is invisible.
HEB 11:6 And without doctrine resident in the soul it is impossible to please Him, for he who is occupied with the God must be convinced by resident doctrine that He is, and that He becomes a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. This is how the invisible becomes more real than the visible. If God is not more real to you than people, through perception of doctrine, you will never discover the true meaning of life. Doctrine has to be real to you; in fact, it has to be more real to you than anything else in life or as HEB 10:35 says “you will throw it away as trash.” When God becomes more real to you, and Christ becomes more real to you, and the power of the Holy Spirit becomes more real to you, all of this will be because Bible doctrine has become more real to you than anything else in life.
The more doctrine we learn the more real become the unseen blessings designed for us from God the Father from eternity past. The more doctrine we learn, the more real becomes the Lord Jesus Christ...we are able to see Him Who is invisible. The more doctrine we learn, the more real becomes the plan of God and the perfect essence of God behind that plan.
So in the first half of his life Abram must face a challenge. Is Bible doctrine more real to me than the circumstances of life, or are adverse circumstances more real than doctrine? It took Abraham about half of his life to work that out. Once he worked that out things worked out a lot better for his life.
All of us have problems in life that take time to work out; they can't be worked out instantaneously. God is not the little fairy god-mother who touches you with the wand and tells you that everything is going to be alright. Work out your problems through the daily intake of doctrine. Don't look for solutions; look to the source of solutions, doctrine resident in your soul. The environment for all solutions to the problems of life is bound up in doctrine resident in your soul.

THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT. PART 3.
God must remove from our reach the things that hinder our spiritual growth.

03/09/08

We are now ready to study the promises made to Abraham which has to do with the Abrahamic Covenant.
GEN 11:29-32, Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah. Sarai was barren; she had no child. Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife; and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans in order to enter the land of Canaan; and they went as far as Haran, and settled there. The days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran.
So Terah, Abraham's father is dead. This was a great adversity for Abram or Abraham, however, under the plan of grace, great adversities can become great blessings. Abraham is about to receive one the greatest blessings of his life, the Abrahamic Covenant. The death of Terah was a shock which brought about the recovery from reversionism for Abram, and removed Abram from Haran (the dried up place). The principle is that God must remove the things that hinder our spiritual growth. Often what seems to be a demotion in the eyes of the world is actually a promotion in the eyes of God. HEB 12:27 This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Many times the Lord will take people or things away from us so that we will learn the value of the eternal things which we possess. HEB 12:28 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; We have an unshakable kingdom! We should not only be thankful, but also overflowing with worship, and deep reverence before God, for God is not an indifferent bystander. HEB 12:29 for our God is a consuming fire. He's actively cleaning house, and He won't quit until it's all cleansed. ROM 8:29 tells us, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren;” This message is designed for the soul and the human spirit to feed on Christ, not just on His teachings, He is the One to be truly worshipped. PHI 2:9 “Therefore also the God has highly exalted Him to the maximum, and bestowed on Him the name or rank which is above every name, and that every tongue should acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, resulting in the glory of God the Father.” When you think in this manner, then passages like PSA 45:11 become a reality; “Then the King will greatly desire your beauty; Because He is your Lord, bow down to Him.” Accept your thoughts of despair and of faith, your doubts and their solutions, your moments of madness and their passing away. Become a part of the solution not the problem. Remember that the only opportunity you have to glorify Him and live His plan for your life is in time. Like Job, be determined only to cling to God, even if He slays you, even if He challenges your faith (JOB 13:15). If you lose your faith, then remain faithlessly His. Paul said in 2TI 3:1 “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.” As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, self-promoting, slanderers, addicted to lust, and allergic to God. The Bible says stay clear of these people. Peter said in 1PE 4:12 “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;” When life gets really difficult, don't jump to the conclusion that God isn't on the job. Be glad that you have the opportunity to taste a little bit of what the Lord Jesus Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner (1PE 4:14-17). Remember, people are watching how you handle sacrificing your life, death or eternity. MAT 5:16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Be generous with your lives. Open up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, the generous Father in heaven. The point is that we all need to go through situations when we are alone with God and get down into solitary confinement with Him.
MAT 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.”
He brings gifts into our lives, things like affection for others, exuberance about life, and serenity. Life has its share of trials and adversities, but as JOH 16:33 says, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
So, we now go back and review the Divine command given to Abram when he was in Ur of the Chaldees, and this is the Abrahamic covenant. GEN 12:1-3, Now the Lord had said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Abram not only needs to be separated from certain people, but he also must be in the environment of freedom for spiritual growth to occur. That's why the doctrine of privacy is so important,, we are to let others grow at their own pace not ours. So in GEN 12:1 the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you;” This is the breaking up of a family, always remember that God has the right to make up and break up families. God broke up Abram's family, but a new family will be made from which will come a great race and a great nation, the Jewish race or the nation of Israel. After salvation the believer has two obligations to God: The first of these obligations is a negative, responsibility to separate from the distractions to the intake of Bible doctrine. This is the only way you will ever remain faithful to doctrine and acquire spiritual growth. The second of these obligations is positive, the responsibility of executing God's will under the principle of Divine guidance. This always calls for maximum doctrine resident in the soul.
In GEN 12:1 the term “to the land” which in the Hebrew phrase el-ha'arets means literally the land of God. There is only one land and simply leaving Ur is not getting into the land. That's the story of a lot of believers, they leavethe world and the bad habits that they have developed, but they never go forward to the promise land, the land of doctrine and glorification of God. Not only is Abraham going to see the land, but he is going to enjoy the land. So the whole verse says GEN 12:1 Now the Lord had said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will cause you to see and to enjoy;”
Notice something very interesting about the Divine command. The specifics are all on the part of certain things you have to do, the negatives. For example, Get out of Ur, get away from your family, and your father. Then there are the positives, “go to the land which the Lord will show you.” While the land is specified as to direction, there is certainly no detail here that encourages obedience. Abram is not given all of the Divine promises that he will receive if he goes to the promise land, he is just giving the direction to go in, as God does to us at times. There are many commands in the Bible that we are told to obey without God telling us what type of blessings we will receive if we fulfill them. This requires faith in the character and nature of God. Therefore you have to have faith that if you do what God wants you to do, that you will get blessed. However, that is not to be your motivation, your motivation should be PHI 1:21 “For me, living is Christ, likewise dying is profit.” Or PHI 3:7-8, “But whatever quality of things were gains to me, those things[gains] I have concluded as an expert as loss for the sake of Christ. Not only this but more than this, I conclude as an expert all things [Paul's pre-salvation human achievement] to be loss because of the surpassing greatness of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have forfeited all things, also, I keep on concluding as an expert them to be piles of dung in order that I may win for Christ.”
When someone in authority over you gives you an order, you don't have to know the whys all the time, just do it. Until Abram becomes a good recruit, where he will go ahead and obey an order without questioning it, he's not any good to God. You have to learn to obey God and do it whether you feel like it or not. Once you do, you continue your spiritual growth. For Abram, not much is said about the land he is to go to, but to receive the land, Abraham will have to fulfill: HEB 11:8 By means of doctrine resident in the soul, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. This is the way in which faith is tested. What God does not make clear to us through personal revelation of His word to us, He intends for us to operate in by means of faith, trusting in the object of faith, God Almighty.
So, details are not given on the land yet, that will come later. In the spiritual realm there must be a relationship between your personal motivation and your spiritual life, the Bible calls this doing it as unto the Lord (PRO 16:2). So to believe the promises of God before you see the results of those promises is the greatest demonstration of growing up spiritually.
So, what is the Abrahamic Covenant? First of all, let's describe the word covenant. A covenant is an agreement between two parties. There are two types of covenants: conditional and unconditional. A conditional (bilateral) covenant is an agreement that is binding on both parties for its fulfillment. Both parties agree to fulfill certain conditions. If either party fails to meet their responsibilities, the covenant is broken and neither party has to fulfill the expectations of the covenant. An unconditional (unilateral) covenant is an agreement between two parties, but only one party has to do something. The Abrahamic Covenant is an unconditional or unilateral covenant. God made promises to Abraham that required nothing of Abraham.
GEN 15:18-21 describes a part of the Abrahamic Covenant, specifically dealing with the dimensions of the land God promised to Abraham and his descendants. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite.” The actual Abrahamic Covenant is found in Genesis 12:1-3. The ceremony recorded in Genesis 15 indicates the unconditional nature of the covenant, to understand this unilateral covenants, you need to understand the unconditional promises.
GEN 15:1-7, After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.” And Abram said, “O Lord God, what wilt Thou give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Since Thou hast given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.” Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who shall come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. And He said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.”
Here we see three pictures, all of which serves to illustrate the point that the One who made the covenant or the promises has the ability to keep them. The first one is the stars. You see, God has solved greater problems than Abraham's. There are millions and millions of stars in space all moving at unbelievable rates of speed. They do not collide, but hold their orbit. God has established a traffic pattern in the universe, this requires knowledge, and God has omniscience. It also requires power and God has the omnipotence to accomplish it. Immutability is also required, God cannot change, if He weakens, the universe collides!
COL 1:16-17, “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”
No matter how you look at it, if God has the power to hold the universe together, God has the power to handle any problem you or Abraham, or anyone ever had, or ever will have. So, not only has Abraham been promised an heir from his own loins but also he is told that even as the stars are innumerable, so will his seed be.
Then there is the promise of salvation (verse 6). This points back to a decision that Abraham had already made, he believed in the Lord, in fact Abraham had been saved for over twenty-five years, he had salvation. God is simply saying to Abraham “you trusted Me and at the time you believed, and I credited to your account My righteousness. I provided everything. I did the most for you at the point of salvation, providing eternal life and justification. You did not earn or deserve it, just as with the stars, I do the work.” This passage also brings out faithfulness (verse 7). GEN 15:7 And He said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.” In other words, “I been faithful to you in the past Abram, and I will continue to be faithful to you in the future.” Has God been faithful to you in the past? As a part of God's faithfulness, He always provides the doctrine or the opportunity to get the doctrine necessary to pass each test before it comes. Bible doctrine is your way of escape from each test, and that doctrine is provided by the faithfulness of God. God will never give you something for which you do not have the capacity, be it blessing or testing. God is faithful to the Royal Family of God, this is why HEB 10:23 says “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;” You have the most fantastic escrow blessings on deposit for you protected by the faithfulness of God. The more doctrine you have in your soul, the more you see God's perfect character, and the more you advance to spiritual maturity. This results in the things around you which was formerly distracting to your spiritual growth becoming less and less important. All of these illustrations point to One Person, and that Person is not only God, but also God the Son. God the Son is the One who went to the Cross, and God the Son is the One who provides for us in time. Understand¬ing these illustrations and hearing the promises and the unconditional or unilateral covenants, there is no excuse for Abram, or any other believer, to worry about anything. Another cure for Abram's doubts and fears is the doctrine of the word of God, suggested in verses 8-11. Many believers are often filled with doubts, fears and anxieties because they are ignorant of certain parts of doctrine. Abram expresses ignorance of doctrine in verse 8, And he said, “O Lord God, how may I know that I shall possess it?” He entertained anxieties about the possibility of inheriting the land which God had promised him. Abram saw the land occupied by the Amorites, as well as many giants. Not only that, Chedorlaomer and his forces had been moving back and forth throughout the land, threatening to envelop it. Abram wondered how he could ever hope to inherit this land. Although it was humanly hopeless, it was not hopeless to God. Remember the words of our Lord in MAT 17:20 “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain [a huge obstacle in your life], ‘Move from here to there,’ and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you.” Abram will learn a little bit later, the truth behind GEN 18:14 “Is anything too difficult for the Lord?” Abram was simply ignorant of or had rejected certain doctrines that would have given him assurance. The Lord said in effect, the biggest problem we have to deal with is the sin of worry and fear (ROM 14:23). The first thing Abram needs to do is to get back in fellowship with God under the enabling power of God the Holy Spirit. Therefore in GEN 15:9, The Lord said to him, “Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” This was not new or strange to Abram, because he knew how to chart the stars. Remember that before the scriptural record there was the Stellar record, the record or the witness of the stars. Abram knew about the witness of the stars. So, the first thing Abram needed to do was to rebound and confess his fear mentioned in verse 1, he also needed to confess his doubt in verse 2, his arrogance in blaming God in verse 3, and his lack of faith in God in verse 8. Then next, the Lord said “Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” The she-goat and the ram both spoke of the work of Christ in salvation. Specifically, the she-goat was the reconciliation offering, while the ram depicted propitiation. The turtle dove and the young pigeon spoke of the Person of Christ and His heavenly origin, the turtle dove portraying His deity and the pigeon His resurrected humanity. Neither bird was divided, because deity cannot be divided or killed. Furthermore, the Lord Jesus Christ is never subject to death again, having risen, and therefore, there will be no dividing or killing of the young pigeon. Now, what was the Lord saying to Abram by bringing these doctrines of Christ before him? Through the heifer, or the rebound offering, He was saying, “Abram, you need have no worries with regard to your sins because by confessing them you are forgiven and your sins are blotted out.” The dumbest thing in the world is to try and cover our sins and conceal them. If you have an ounce of character, integrity or virtue, it bothers you. You're only lying to yourself. Therefore, there is no place for a guilt complex or for anxiety about past failures. If you are going to have any discipline in the future it will be over future sins. But be sure you offer the heifer, for it is absolutely necessary to rebound before you can get rid of your fears, worries, doubts and lack of faith in God. You see, up to now Abram was still worried. God had given him a promise and is about to give him a covenant, but he was still worried. He will keep on worrying, no matter if he has a thousand promises, because he has not used rebound. He has not confessed his sin of worry, and he is therefore out of fel¬lowship. You cannot claim the promises of God and appropriate them when you're out of fellowship. You must first confess your sin of fear, worry, doubts and lack of faith in God.
Thus, Abraham offered the heifer, which is the rebound offering, because it was necessary to get back in fellowship before he could even claim the promises of God. So first of all Abraham had to confess his sins. Now, in GEN 15:10 we read, Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds. Abram first divided the heifer, then the she-goat. The point is, if Jesus Christ provided reconciliation (the heifer or the rebound offering, the removal of the barrier between God and man), can He not meet our problems in time? He can, therefore, stop worrying. Then he divided the ram, the ram was the propitiation offering. The point is that if God the Son, hanging on the Cross, satisfied God the Father, and all of the Father's claims against us, can He not handle our problems in time? He can - therefore, stop worrying! The turtle dove spoke of the deity of Christ. Jesus Christ is God - deity. He is always faithful (immutable), He always keeps His Word (veracity), He keeps on loving us and He is eternal in nature. Can a Person like that solve my problems? He can, therefore, stop worrying. The young pigeon represented the resurrected humanity of Christ, which is seated at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. If the humanity of Christ is thus engaged on our behalf, He can certainly meet our needs in time. Therefore, stop worrying.
As soon as Abraham divided, or cut the heifer in half, we know he had rebounded. When he walked between the pieces of the heifer, he was saying in effect, “I have confessed my sins.” When he killed the other animals, it was analogous to being under the blood of Christ trusting in Him as his Lord and Savior. Doctrine is vitally important in our lives, as believers, and when we are worried, it is because we are not using doctrine.

Grace Bible Church & Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
Copyright © 2022 by Pastor Robert R. McLaughlin
Gbible.org

Lesson Resources:

2112 099 The Beginning of the Abrahamic Covenant
02 21 08 Rom 9:4; Gen 11:26 12:3; Heb 11:8

2112 100 Abraham chooses God over family and friends.
02 24 08 Rom 12:17 19; 2Th 3:6 14; 1Pe 4:3 5; Mat 7:6.

2112 101 How to know God's will for your life.
02 27 08 Isa 55:7 9; 2Co 10:1 6; Act 11:1 16.

2112 102 Abraham teaches us that in the selection of a mate, you need to understand why relationships fail.
02 28 08 Gen 11:28 29; Pro 12:4 5; 6:23 32; Eph 5:25 28; Col 3:18 19.

2112 103 There never is any divine revelation in the dried up spiritual life.
02 29 08 Gen 11:30 32: Act 7:2 4 Gen 12:1

2112 104 Your scale of values changes radically when you are up against eternity and death.
03 02 08 Gen 11:27 32; Gen 12:1; 1Co 10:19 20; Luk 16:22 29.

2112 105 God must remove from our reach the things that hinder our spiritual growth.
03 05 08 Heb 12:27 29; 1Pe 4:12 17; Gen 12:1 3.

2112 106 The Abrahamic Covenant or the Unconditional, Unilateral Covenant of God.
03 06 08 Gen 12:1 3; Mar 10:28 30; Col 3:17, 23; Gen 15:1 21

2112 107 The Abrahamic Covenant There is no place for a guilt complex or for anxiety about past failures.
03 07 08 Gen 12:2 3; Gen 15:1 10; Rom 4:16 21; Luk 12:27 32.

2112 108 The Abrahamic Covenant The ceremony in Gen 15 indicates the unconditional nature of the covenant.
03 09 08 Gen 15:1 21; Mat 13:4, 19, 32.

2112 109 The mystery and true message behind the Abrahamic Covenant.
03 12 08 Gen 15:1 21; Mat 13:4, 19, 32.