Word of Salvation – Vol.25 No.45 – August 1979

 

God Speaks Blessing

 

Sermon by Rev. J. de Kievit on Genesis 12:1-3

Scripture Reading: Gen.12:1-9, Gal.3:1-18

Psalter Hymnal: 298; 449:1,3, 284 (before sermon), 483 (after), 316 (final hymn)

 

Beloved congregation in our Lord Jesus Christ,

We’ve probably all been following – through the media and in the newspapers the release of the convicted murderer William John O’Meally.  The remarkable thing about it was that the man himself had not been told of his release until just before he was escorted out through the gates.

There he was in gaol not DESERVING to go out and not EXPECTING to go out.  But in a few moments his life had completely changed.  For he was taken to the office of the Governor, and given his release.  Suddenly he was free!

Well, we can all imagine that this absolutely stunned the man concerned.  For what a tremendous thing had happened to him, and what a change to his life!  And all this through a few words that were spoken to him in that gaol!

But now a far more tremendous thing happened in the history of the human race – when God spoke to Abram – when God came ONCE AGAIN – to a fallen and rebellious world!  And spoke words of BLESSING..!

That may not always seem so obvious to US.  For we are SO USED to hearing about God.  We are SO USED to the message(s) He has for us.

We have the Bible, after all.  We can hear His Word preached in church.  And in many areas we have Christian schools as well.  So that you EVEN hear the murmur sometimes that “it is all a little bit TOO MUCH”.  That we may be getting just a little TIRED of it all.

But what a terrible thing if ever this happens to be true of ANY OF US!

For think of the great LOVE; of the GREAT SELF-DENIAL; yes, of the great SELF-SACRIFICE that it must have cost the Lord to come down to this world ONCE AGAIN.  With His message of blessing and salvation in the time of Abram.

For what had been the history of mankind up to that time – and SINCE, for that matter?  Nothing but a foul stream of disobedience, of bloodshed, of denial of God-which had begun in the Garden of Eden and had grown ever since.

God had promised salvation after the fall into sin.  But what had THAT done to turn mankind as a whole back to God in thankful obedience?

And even after the flood, with Noah at the head of a new humanity, the Lord soon had the organized rebellion on His hands from the people of Babel who had got up to the old trick again, of playing God for themselves.

SO WHAT FAVOUR could anyone EXPECT from the side of God?

Even though the Lord had promised not to destroy life again by water WHAT CHANCE, humanly speaking, that He could STILL CARE for such a bunch of die-hard rebels?

And let’s not think that Abram was any different or better.  Perhaps he belonged to the few people who still worshipped the Lord God, but that is not so sure, either.  For in the book of Joshua we read that Terah, Abram’s father, worshipped other gods.  And what we know of Haran, where Terah took his family to live, it seems that it was choc-a-bloc with idol worship.

WHAT A SCENE, brothers and sisters, surely to SICKEN TO THE HEART the Lord God who had created it all ‘very good’, as we find in Genesis 1.  And who had continually shown His favour.

If we see this well, then we are more likely to realize what it meant for Abram to GET this call.  And WHAT IT MEANS TODAY to have the Word OF GOD!

For here we find Him AGAIN, coming down to THIS WORLD; to Abram, speaking NOT of JUDGMENT for which the world surely was ripe, BUT of BLESSING of SALVATION – in His COVENANT of GRACE!
“I will bless you”, we hear.
“I will bless those who bless you.

How UNEXPECTED!  How UNDESERVED!
And yet, here it IS!

 

And brothers and sisters, if EVER we are to KNOW the God Whom we are PRIVILEGED to hear about TODAY, and to worship through Jesus Christ, then we must realize first and foremost the REALITY; no, the MIRACLE of HIS incredible love which He displays here.

For it is CHARACTERISTIC of Him, “God is love”, writes the apostle John.  And this is what it means
– rebellious people the world over, on the one hand –
who GOT themselves into the troubles they find themselves in;
by their own doing, and through their own fault,
– and yet at the same time
the UNASKED FOR and UNDESERVED INITIATIVE
of the love and mercy of God for these same people.
THAT’S the divine LOVE of this God of the Covenant

And you see what He does here, brothers and sisters?
Yes, He BINDS Himself – to Abram,
and – through Abram, to the people of the world!

UNCONDITIONALLY He says,
“I will make you a great nation, Abram.”
“I will bless you, and MAKE you a blessing.”

AND WHY?  NOT because He HAD to,
or because ANYONE had DESERVED it
– BUT FREELY,

And THAT now is the character of God’s Covenant because that is the character of the God of the Covenant.

Now, whenever WE think of salvation, and of our OWN salvation in particular, aren’t we tempted so easily to doubt as to whether we are ‘good enough’ Christians?  Whether we are doing enough to earn or to keep the Favour of God?  That’s the trap those Galatians fell back into also.

But that’s ALL WRONG, brothers and sisters!
That’s not the nature of salvation – because that is not the nature of God!
Although faith and good works must indeed be the RESULT of God’s grace, RIGHT FROM THE START here we are put straight!  It’s the initiative of God’s grace which GIVES us salvation IF EVER we are to be saved, and NEVER our own RESPONSE to God; never our own good works!

THAT’S what we find spelled out here in this Covenant ― in this BINDING AGREEMENT, which is what that word ‘covenant’ means.  Between God Himself and Abram… and all who were to be blessed through him.

Later, the Lord would even add a SACRED OATH to this Covenant in a solemn ceremony with Abraham – to establish it FOR EVER in the mind of Abram, and in the minds of all those who would be his ‘spiritual’ children – that the PROMISES of God STAND FOREVER; that HE can be RELIED upon!

ALL these things the Lord was doing here when He came down to Abram. He was PLEDGING Himself as the GREAT Covenant-Partner who draws His People into partnership with Him.

He established Abram here in eternal life – in Covenant relationship – a relationship of love and grace!  So that Abram could COUNT himself a child, no the FRIEND of God!

THAT is the kind of God HE IS, brothers and sisters, ALSO still TODAY!  Who has taken the initiative.  And on Whom WE today can count!  That is why Paul called those Galatians foolish – because they were again FORGETTING the nature of God’s love, and the reliability of HIS PROMISES!  And underestimating the totality of human sinfulness.

And that is why we also, may never allow ourselves to fall into this trap of Satan.  For once we lose out of sight the greatness of God’s love, we are undermining the ONLY BASIS of our SALVATION.

Now, there are people who are rather afraid that by coming down ONLY to Abram, the Lord OVERLOOKED and even REJECTED all the REST of mankind that lived at that time.  That He shut the door of salvation for all others apart from Abram.

And up to a point this IS TRUE.  For this coming of the Lord to Abram meant that He had turned away from His blessing to mankind IN GENERAL.  And in a different way, that is often an objection against Christianity by unbelievers.  “Why”, they ask, “doesn’t God just accept everybody – as they are?  Why only those who believe in Christ?”

We’ll come back to that, but who could EVER AGAIN lay the blame at the door of God?  Who could have said ANYTHING if He HAD NOT come to Abram?  If He had rejected ALL?  It would have been no more than anyone had deserved.

As it was, there seemed to have been SOME still in the world who kept on worshipping the true God.  Think of Melchizedek who later appears mysteriously in the life of Abraham.

BUT apart from ALL THAT the Covenant of God was NOT about REJECTION of people ― and NEVER WILL be!  BUT about BLESSING; about ACCEPTANCE of SINNERS before Him ― through His Covenant promise!

Indeed, this coming of the Lord to Abram was but a BEGINNING of the GREAT DRAMA OF SALVATION in this world!  In which blessing would COME to this world through Abram first of all.  And later through Israel, But which would find it’s FULFILLMENT; its CLIMAX in Jesus Christ the Saviour who would bring the FULNESS of blessing to our world.  THAT is what the Lord was LEADING UP to, with this speaking to Abram.

You see, ― brothers and sisters ― how RATHER than SHUTTING the door to man, God OPENED it, for worldwide salvation?  Man KEPT turning away.  But God STILL mapped out THIS WAY to BREAK THROUGH with His love and grace.  That’s how GREAT, how WIDE, how KIND are the designs of our God for sinful man AND ALWAYS HAVE BEEN!

Family of Abram ― therefore ― could SHARE in that blessing.   And neighbours; and anyone who came in contact with him.  ACCORDING to their ATTITUDE to him; their TREATMENT of him, and later of Israel.  Yes, ALREADY THEN the grace of the Lord was meant to FLOW ON to others AROUND Abram, too!

“Those who bless you I will bless”.  And the other side of the coin, too, “…and him who curses you I will curse.”

There was GREAT RESPONSIBILITY ― therefore ― for the people of that time TO RESPOND to this speaking of the Lord to Abram.  For from that time on, the flow of blessing and salvation would come ONLY through this man Abram as the instrument of God’s grace!  All they had to do was to recognize how privileged THEY WERE through Abram, and respond,

And so it is STILL for all people TODAY!  For the grace of God is still available to the world.  NOT through Abram any more.  But through Jesus Christ, the GREAT DESCENDANT of Abram.  Apart from Him there IS no salvation.  But, “…ALL who come to Me”, He said, “I will NOT cast out.”

Yes, there was responsibility for Abram himself AS WELL.  For WITH His promises of grace and blessing to His friend, Abram, the Lord demanded also Covenant-RESPONSE!  And for Abram that was to GO ― FROM his kindred; ― FROM his country; ― FROM his father’s house.  THAT was the way HE could show that HE HAD LISTENED to this message from the Lord.  That HE had TAKEN IT TO HEART!  And that in faith he gladly surrendered his WHOLE LIFE into the service of THIS GOD who had called him in HIS LOVE.

And WE TODAY ― brothers and sisters ― still stand under the SAME PROMISES of the same God of love.  Through our Saviour Jesus Christ.  AND under the same RESPONSIBILITIES!

And of US ― therefore ― He also demands the covenant-response of thankful obedience to the Truth of His Word.  For that’s the way WE TOO ― like Abram CAN SHOW that WE have listened in faith.  That WE have taken it to heart.

Yes, the Word of God STILL comes to us, SO MANY centuries LATER, AS it did to Abram!  We STILL have the Bible.  We STILL can hear God’s voice through the church, and perhaps the Christian school.  And do WE REALIZE JUST HOW GREAT a PRIVILEGE IT IS?  How much love and grace THAT REPRESENTS from the side of God TODAY?  Let us NEVER FORGET that it comes UNASKED and UNDESERVED ― but instead, purely because of the great goodness of our Covenant-God.

Let US never take it for granted ― just because we have SO MUCH of it!  For as He bound Himself freely to Abram, so He still binds Himself in His Word of Truth ― with His promises which He sealed when Jesus died on Calvary, and rose victorious from the grave.

Let us never be guilty, then, of turning up our noses at that which is His grace.

For NO schemes of man can straighten the mess the world is in.  Woe, instead, to those who REFUSE to listen.  “Those who curse you I will curse.”  OUR life or death DEPENDS ― therefore ― on OUR RESPONSE ― to Jesus Christ the Son of God, Who was born of that great nation which was promised to Abram.

Let us PRAISE Him ― instead ― for His speaking to our world IN CHRIST – revealing the FULNESS of His Covenant-love.  AND follow Him WITHOUT DELAY in faith ― in grateful response to His promises.

THAT’S the way WE may lay claim to the promised blessing.  AND the way OTHERS ALSO may through US come face-to-face with the grace and the claims of God; and may receive the blessing WHILE THERE IS STILL TIME!

For ONE DAY, God will NO LONGER come to this sinful world in grace, but INSTEAD in JUDGMENT.  And all THEN who have REFUSED His grace; who have BROKEN His Covenant, will find out that ALL there is LEFT for them is the weeping and gnashing of teeth, under the eternal wrath and REJECTION of God.

But those who STAND in His grace, through faith; who are His grateful INSTRUMENTS for the salvation of the world, will then taste the FULNESS of these blessings of which the Lord spoke here to Abram.  They will PRAISE Him for His covenant-love and salvation …to His eternal glory.

Are YOU ― then ― WITH Abram, among the covenant-partners of this gracious God?

Amen.