God's Promises to Abraham

God's Promises to Abraham
Now the LORD had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your kindred and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."  (Gen_12:1-3)

These are some of the most strategic promises in the word of God. They are repeated to Abraham (Gen_13:14-18; Gen_15:5; Gen_17:1-8; Gen_22:17-18). They are confirmed to Isaac (Gen_26:2-4, Gen_26:24) and to Jacob (Gen_28:13-14; Gen_35:9-12). 
They are woven throughout the Old Testament (Neh_9:7-8; Psa_105:6-11; Isa_51:2). They are elaborated upon in prominent chapters of the New Testament (Romans 4 and 9; Galatians 3 and 4; Hebrews 6, 7, and 11). 
Ultimately, we will see that these promises are at the root of the new covenant of grace.  
These promises to Abraham flow forth one upon another. 
This is so typical of our God of promises. He does not merely sprinkle His word with a promise here and there. He pours them out like a cascading stream. Included within these divine commitments are some of the monumental purposes of God: namely, a Promised Land, the nation of Israel, the Messiah, and worldwide missions.  

First, God's promises included a Promised Land. "Get out of your country, from your kindred and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you." This new land would be spacious, with bountiful provision: "a good and large land . . . a land flowing with milk and honey" (Exo_3:8). Then, in that land of blessing, God would develop the nation of Israel. "I will make you a great nation." Eventually, through that nation, Messiah would be birthed, fulfilling the promise to bring God's blessings to all who would believe. "In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." The Lord Jesus would be that specific, individual seed that would offer God's blessed salvation to all the world. "Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, 'And to seeds,' as of many, but as of one, 'And to your Seed,' who is Christ" (Gal_3:16).
 This promise contained the gospel. "And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the nations by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, 'In you all the nations shall be blessed' " (Gal_3:8). 
The gospel is the good news of God's saving grace. This good news is for all the world to hear. 

Lord God of majestic promises, what a grand plan You have laid out in only a few sentences! Help me to read Your word with alertness regarding Your promises. Please shape my thinking and my expectations by Your mighty promises, in Jesus name, Amen.

Why seek ye the living among the dead?

“Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
- 2Pe_1:4

Vanish for ever all thought of indulging the flesh if you would live in the power of your risen Lord. 
It were ill that a man who is alive in Christ should dwell in the corruption of sin. “Why seek ye the living among the dead?” said the angel to Magdalene. 
Should the living dwell in the sepulchre? 
Should divine life be immured in the carnal house of fleshly lust? 
How can we partake of the cup of the Lord and yet drink the cup of Belial? 
Surely, believer, from open lusts and sins you are delivered: have you also escaped from the more secret and delusive lime-twigs of the Satanic fouler? Have you come forth from the lust of pride? Have you escaped from slothfulness? Have you clean escaped from carnal security? 

Are you seeking day by day to live above worldliness, the pride of life, and the ensnaring vice of avarice? 
Remember, it is for this that you have been enriched with the treasures of God. If you be indeed the chosen of God, and beloved by him, do not suffer all the lavish treasure of grace to be wasted upon you. 
Follow after holiness; it is the Christian’s crown and glory. An unholy church! it is useless to the world, and of no esteem among men. 
It is an abomination, hell’s laughter, heaven’s abhorrence. The worst evils which have ever come upon the world have been brought upon her by an unholy church. 
O Christian, the vows of God are upon you. You are God’s priest: act as such. 
You are God’s king: reign over your lusts. You are God’s chosen: do not associate with Belial. Heaven is your portion: live like a heavenly spirit, so shall you prove that you have true faith in Jesus, for there cannot be faith in the heart unless there be holiness in the life.

“Lord, I desire to live as one
Who bears a blood-bought name,
As one who fears but grieving thee,
And knows no other shame.”

Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?

“Art thou become like unto us?”
- Isa_14:10


Isa 14:10  With well-prepared speeches, royal invitations to death: "Now you are as nothing as we are! Make yourselves at home with us dead folks!" [Message Bible]


(ASV)  All they shall answer and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? 

What must be the apostate professor’s doom when his naked soul appears before God? 
How will he bear that voice, “Depart, ye cursed; thou hast rejected me, and I reject thee; thou hast played the harlot, and departed from me: I also have banished thee for ever from my presence, and will not have mercy upon thee.” 
What will be this wretch’s shame at the last great day when, before assembled multitudes, the apostate shall be unmasked? See the profane, and sinners who never professed religion, lifting themselves up from their beds of fire to point at him.
 “There he is,” says one, “will he preach the gospel in hell?” “There he is,” says another, “he rebuked me for cursing, and was a hypocrite himself!” “Aha!” says another, “here comes a psalm-singing Methodist-one who was always at his meeting; he is the man who boasted of his being sure of everlasting life; and here he is!” 
No greater eagerness will ever be seen among Satanic tormentors, than in that day when devils drag the hypocrite’s soul down to perdition. Bunyan pictures this with massive but awful grandeur of poetry when he speaks of the back-way to hell. 
Seven devils bound the wretch with nine cords, and dragged him from the road to heaven, in which he had professed to walk, and thrust him through the back-door into hell. Mind that back-way to hell, professors! 
“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith.” Look well to your state; see whether you be in Christ or not. It is the easiest thing in the world to give a lenient verdict when oneself is to be tried; but O, be just and true here. Be just to all, but be rigorous to yourself. Remember if it be not a rock on which you build, when the house shall fall, great will be the fall of it. 
O may the Lord give you sincerity, constancy, and firmness; and in no day, however evil, may you be led to turn aside.

For faith is a power, hope is a promise, but Love is a Person.

LOVE is a Person

“God is Love.” (1Jn_4:8).

For the past few days we have examined briefly the three great Virtues — Faith, Hope, and Love. The Scripture tells us that the greatest of these three is Love. The reason is clear — Faith is a Power, Hope is a Promise, and Love is a Person.

That Person is the Lord Himself.

Jesus said, “He that has seen Me, has seen the Father.” Christ came to reveal to each one of us the God that nobody knew. There were the fiery gods of the pagans, demanding the sacrifice of children to appease their demands. There were the brooding gods of the Hindus, leaving man in a never-ending-circle of searching — only to worship a cow.

There were the capricious gods of the Greeks, who leave man in doubt and dismay at the unpredictable twists and turns of life. And, of course, there is the angry god of Muslims, who evidently requires that his devotees slay all infidels to prove their faith, and then kill themselves in an unholy holy act to insure themselves 70 virgins in heaven. (By the way, did anyone bother to ask the virgins how they feel about this?)

And even the Christian Faith is filled with mixed images and vain imaginations about the One True God — leaving most of us motivated out of guilt, shame, or fear — rather than faith, hope, and love.

But God is Love — and we need only look into the face of Jesus and all our confusion about God is dispelled. So, now abides faith, hope and love — and the greatest of these is Love. 
For faith is a power, hope is a promise, but Love is a Person.

And once this Person befriends you and walks with you day by day — your faith will soar to heights unknown, and your hope will be securely fixed like an anchor in heaven as you sail the high seas of this spinning world.

COURAGE IN LIFE'S STORMS

COURAGE IN LIFE'S STORMS

"There stood by me this night an angel of the God whose I am, whom also I serve, saying, 'Fear not, Paul; thou must stand before Caesar: and lo, God hath granted thee all them that sail with thee.' Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even so as it hath been spoken unto me."-- Act_27:23-25.

SAID A boy to his mother, "What is fear like? I have never seen him."
Paul might have said as much, because his life was hid with Christ in God. He had learned to detect the voice of Christ. 
Some cannot do so, for it needs the practiced ear and the obedient will. But all through his Christian career the Apostle seems to have derived comfort and strength from special revelations. Through the murky darkness of the storm, Christ's ministering angel sped to his hammock, and standing beside him, bade him be of good cheer. And there is no storm that beats on our life which does not bring God's angels also to our help, though we may not see their forms or hear their voice. The one condition of Angel-help is that we belong to their Master. We must be able to say: "Whose I am, and Whom I serve."
The Prayer of Faith. In Act_27:24 the R.V. rendering is "granted." It signifies that Paul had asked and God had granted his prayer, and given him his request. What a promise this is! It is said of Miss Havergal that she went to stay with a family not one of whom was definitely for Christ. On the first night of her stay she wrote her well-known hymn, "Take my life, and let it be, consecrated, Lord, to Thee." And during her short sojourn under that roof she won for her Lord the entire household. So we may claim that all who sail with us in the ship of our life shall become God's children.
The Courage of Faith is consistent with Commonsense. Even though Paul had God's assurance, he felt that he must do what he could, as though all depended on his sagacity. Faith ought not to make us act presumptuously or foolishly. Holy calm and stillness rule in the heart of him whose mind is stayed on God.
We are likely to encounter many storms in our life before we anchor in the Fair Haven of Eternity, but in the heart of every cyclone there is a point of rest; and in the fiercest storm that sweeps our world, we may hide in the secret place of the Most High, and sing Psa_46:1-11.

PRAYER
By day and by night, in life and in death, may I ever be true to Thee, O Lover of my Soul, my ceaseless Friend, my unchangeable Saviour. Into Thy hands I commit my spirit! AMEN.

Substance, not Shadows, under Grace

Substance, not Shadows, under Grace

For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect . . . Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.  (Heb_10:1 and Col_2:16-17)
Another better aspect of grace is seen in the difference between a shadow and the substance that casts a shadow. Shadows supply various benefits, but they have critical limitations. Shadows can provide a visible outline of a actual reality, but they cannot supply what is inherent to the reality. Also, shadows can give indication of an approaching person, but they cannot provide a relationship with that person. The old covenant of law is likened unto a shadow: "For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come." The new covenant of grace (God's sufficient resources freely available in Christ) is the substance. "The substance is of Christ."  
One of the shadow-like characteristics of the law was contained in its sacrifices. "For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect." 
Christ would perfectly fulfill all that those ancient sacrifices pictured, and He would make all of their desired benefits fully available to all who would believe in Him. The Passover lamb is a clear example of this truth. "Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb . . . For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you" (Exo_12:21, Exo_12:23). This shadow of temporal deliverance becomes substance in Christ, who delivers us from eternal judgment. "Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us" (1Co_5:7).  
Another shadow-like characteristic of the law can be seen in its righteous commands. Whatever the law demands is related to holiness, to righteousness. "You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy" (Lev_19:2). This call to righteousness can only become a substantial reality through the Lord Jesus Christ: "that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith" (Phi_3:8-9). 
Lord Jesus, You are all of the good things to come that were foreshadowed in the law. Help me to avoid being caught up in the shadows of the law. May Your Spirit draw me to the unlimited spiritual substance that is found in You alone, Amen.

That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2Ti 3:16  All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 
2Ti 3:17  that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. 

2 Timothy 3:16
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God,.... That is, all holy Scripture; for of that only the apostle is speaking; and he means the whole of it; not only the books of the Old Testament, but of the New, the greatest part of which was now written; for this second epistle to Timothy is by some thought to be the last of Paul's epistles; and this also will hold good of what was to be written; for all is inspired by God, or breathed by him: the Scriptures are the breath of God, the word of God and not men; they are "written by the Spirit", as the Syriac version renders it; or "by the Spirit of God", as the Ethiopic version. The Scriptures are here commended, from the divine authority of them; and which is attested and confirmed by various arguments; as the majesty and loftiness of their style, which in many places is inimitable by men; the sublimity of the matter contained in them, which transcends all human understanding and capacity ever to have attained unto and discovered; as the trinity of persons in the Godhead, the incarnation of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, &c. The purity and holiness of them before observed, show them to be the word of him that is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity; as also their harmony and agreement, though wrote by different persons, in different places, and ages, and at sundry times, and in divers manners; what seeming inconsistencies are observed in them may, with labour and industry, by divine assistance, be reconciled. The predictions of future events in them, as particularly concerning Josiah and Cyrus, by name, long before they were born, and especially concerning Jesus Christ, and which have had their accomplishment, and many others in the New Testament both by Christ and his apostles, are a proof that they could not be the writings of men, but must have the omniscient God for their author; the impartiality of the writers of them, in not concealing the mean extract of some of them, the sins of others before conversion, and even their sins and failings afterwards, as well as those of their nearest relations and dearest friends, strengthens the proof of their divine authority; to which may be added, the wonderful preservation of them, through all the changes and declensions of the Jewish church and state, to whom the books of the Old Testament were committed; and notwithstanding the violence and malice of Heathen persecutors, particularly Dioclesian, who sought to destroy every copy of the Scriptures, and published an edict for that purpose, and notwithstanding the numbers of heretics, and who have been in power, as also the apostasy of the church of Rome; and yet these writings have been preserved, and kept pure and incorrupt, which is not the case of other writings; nor are there any of such antiquity as the oldest of these: to which may be subjoined the testimony of God himself; his outward testimony by miracles, wrought by Moses and the prophets, concerned in the writings of the Old Testament, and by the apostles in the New; and his internal testimony, which is the efficacy of these Scriptures on the hearts of men; the reading and hearing of which, having been owned for the conversion, comfort and edification of thousands and thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand: and 

is profitable for doctrine; for the discovering, illustrating, and confirming any doctrine concerning God, the being, persons, and perfections of God; concerning the creation and fall of man; concerning the person and offices of Christ, redemption by him, justification by his righteousness, pardon by his blood, reconciliation and atonement by his sacrifice, and eternal life through him, with many others. The Scripture is profitable for ministers to fetch doctrine from, and establish it by; and for hearers to try and prove it by: 

for reproof; of errors and heresies; this is the sword of the Spirit, which cuts all down. There never was, nor is, nor can be any error or heresy broached in the world, but there is a sufficient refutation of it in the Scriptures; which may be profitably used for that purpose, as it often has been by Christ and his apostles, and others since in all ages: 


for correction; of vice; there being no sin, but the evil nature of it is shown, its wicked tendency is exposed, and the sad effects and consequences of it are pointed out in these writings: for instruction in righteousness; in every branch of duty incumbent upon men; whether with respect to God, or one another; for there is no duty men are obliged unto, but the nature, use, and excellency of it, are here shown: the Scriptures are a perfect rule of faith and practice; and thus they are commended from the usefulness and profitableness of them.

2 Timothy 3:17
That the man of God may be perfect,.... By the man of God may be meant everyone that in a special relation belongs to God; who is chosen by God the Father, redeemed by the Son, and called by the Spirit; but more especially a minister of the Gospel; for as it was usual to call a prophet under the Old Testament by this name, it seems to be transferred from thence to a minister of the New Testament, see 1Ti_6:11 and the design of the Scriptures and the end of writing them are, that both preachers of the word, and hearers of it, might have a perfect knowledge of the will of God; that the former might be a complete minister of the Gospel, and that nothing might be wanting for the information of the latter: 


thoroughly furnished unto all good works, or "every good work"; particularly to the work of the ministry, which is a good one; and to every part and branch of it, a thorough furniture for which lies in the holy Scriptures; from whence, as scribes well instructed in the kingdom of heaven, do Gospel ministers bring forth things new and old, both for delight and profit: though this may be also applied to all good works in common, which the Scriptures point unto, give directions about, as well as show where strength is to be, he had to perform them.