God's Promise to Abram

For many of us, we’ve received many different gifts throughout our lifetime and they’ve been special in different ways. Some gifts were fun toys whenever we were younger. Perhaps other gifts were simply time with loved ones doing things that we enjoy doing. Some gifts are costly and others are relatively inexpensive. We know people in the Bible received various gifts. Abraham received a gift a couple of chapters ago as he and his soldiers defeated some enemy kings and Abraham received a lot of possessions and wealth. We know that Joseph received a gift from his father: the coat of many colors. Jesus received several gifts as a youngster as the wisemen brought gifts to honor Him. Gifts are a good thing and we see one such good gift in our text this evening in Genesis 15 as God promises Abram a gift: Himself. What a tremendous blessing and gift!

As we continue to go through the life of Abram, we find ourselves in Genesis 15 and we will be looking at God’s promise to Abram, Abram’s faith in God, and the covenant made between both parties. As we do this, we can’t miss the fact that Abram continued to place his trust in the Lord every step of the way. Sure, he messed up - like we all do - but he kept coming back to the Lord because the Lord had been faithful to His promises. We know that God is faithful to His Word and His promises - we see this in Hebrews 10:23

Hebrews 10:23 CSB

23 Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful.

We have the benefit of several thousand years of Scripture to see this truth - Abram didn’t have that luxury, yet he experienced God’s faithfulness and knew that he could trust in Him. He could trust in God with his safety, his family, his life. Again, he took matters into his own hands and there were consequences when he did this - just as there are consequences whenever we do the same - but he has faith in the Lord.

Let’s start out this evening looking at God’s promise to Abram in Genesis 15:1 - Could someone please read this verse? What does God promise Abram in this vision?

Genesis 15:1 CSB

1 After these events, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield; your reward will be very great.

He promises Abram Himself as his shield and reward. This is a great promise! Abram and his soldiers are coming off of an impressive victory in Genesis 14 and now the Lord shares that He Himself is his shield and reward. This is great news to someone who is fighting for his life at times against neighboring people groups and armies. We see in the Old Testament that God promises to be a protector of His faithful people! One such place is Psalm 91 where the Psalmist notes

Psalm 91:1–3 ESV

1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” 3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.

God promises to be a refuge and fortress of His people. He promises to deliver them from enemies! He promises to be Abram’s shield. The second part of the promise is the central theme, though, as God promises that his reward will be very great.

Thoughts on this promise? What does God mean that Abram’s reward will be very great?

Abram is already rich, prosperous, relatively well-known. God has already promised to give him many descendants. What is the significance of this? Back to Genesis 12:3 we read that God promises that all the nations of the earth will be blessed through Abram. We know that this is looking to Jesus Christ! Jesus coming from Abram’s line and redeeming sinful humanity from the curse of sin. MacArthur notes that Abram’s descendants would be the ones who would bring forth Jesus. Jesus is from this lineage and, therefore, God’s promise is not only great for Abram as an individual, but it is great for those who will come after him as well.

Let’s look at Abram’s response in the next few verses. Could someone read Genesis 15:2-5? Abram immediately assumes he will have to adopt a son. What does God share in these verses?

Genesis 15:2–5 CSB

2 But Abram said, “Lord God, what can you give me, since I am childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Abram continued, “Look, you have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house will be my heir.” 4 Now the word of the Lord came to him: “This one will not be your heir; instead, one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “Your offspring will be that numerous.”

Again, God has come through and been faithful time and time again for Abram - yet he is still a little bit confused. God has promised him a mighty nation, but there’s a problem: He is childless. How can God fulfill this promise due to this problem? Abram seems skeptical at this point because he asks, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me?” MacArthur points out on page 29 that this is a rather bold question for a sinner to ask of the Almighty God - but people ask similar questions all the time to God.

Put yourself in Abram’s shoes here. God promises that He is for you and that your reward will be great. You know that you will have a legacy and offspring… What is the only way that this even makes sense in your brain as an 80 year old?

By adopting a servant to become your rightful heir. This is something common in the ancient world for people who couldn’t have children or who didn’t have a son to carry on their family name. They would often adopt a servant! Roman Emperors did this from time to time as well. We know that Julius Caesar adopted Augustus who would later become emperor after his death.

This is what Abram immediately thinks that he will have to do. Abram was given the promise of God nearly 5 years before this… It’s been 5 years and he still hasn’t had a son. He’s not getting any younger - but God continues to make promises, so maybe this is the solution! What does God say about Abram’s proposed answer in verse 4?

God says no! Further, the heir will be from his own body.

Do you think this would have encouraged Abram? It probably did. God promises that he will have a biological child. God has promised to protect Abram, He has led him and delivered him time and time again. This would have likely been a confidence boost at 80 years old that God has spelt out what will happen and he doesn’t have to start looking at his servants and figuring out which one he should choose to adopt.

Not only will Abram have 1 child, but his child will have many offspring as verse 5 explains.

Have you ever been outside on a clear evening and looked up into the night sky and counted stars? What is the most that you’ve ever counted? 50? 100? 200? More? It is estimated that there are 1 with 21 zeroes after it stars in the observable universe. That’s a whole lot of stars and there are more that we can’t even see because they are beyond what is observable with our modern technology! This is an unfathomable amount of stars and God tells Abram that his offspring will be as numerous as the stars in the nighty sky!

As one commentator puts it, Abram must leave the future to the God who created it.

Thoughts on this promise?

Please read Genesis 15:6. What does it mean to believe the Lord?

Genesis 15:6 CSB

6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

One good way to look at believing in the Lord is doing so in the past and present tenses. To believe in the Lord means to have faith in Him. We place our faith in the Lord at one moment in time, for many of us, in the past. With that in mind, we are called to follow Him and obey Him. To believe in the Lord means to have faith in Him and to obey Him presently. Here, Abram places his faith in the Lord even though what the Lord is sharing with him doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. The promise hadn’t come true over the last 5 years, why would you think that at 80 years old it would suddenly come true? Abram has faith in the Lord and that’s Who he chooses to believe in.

We’ll read out of Romans 4 in a little bit, but what do you think it looks like to be credited with righteousness?

To be given something that is not your own. In the New Testament the idea of justification shows up and justification is a legal term or transaction in which one party is deemed innocent. In the New Testament, we read that Jesus bore our sin on the cross - Jesus received the punishment we deserved and we are declared innocent and given His righteousness. How does this happen? It happens to those who believe. That is what we see with Abraham in the text - He believed and was credited with righteousness.

Please read Genesis 15:7-12. Abram asks for more answers in verse 8, why do you think this is the case?

Genesis 15:7–12 CSB

7 He also said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “Lord God, how can I know that I will possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 So he brought all these to him, cut them in half, and laid the pieces opposite each other, but he did not cut the birds in half. 11 Birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. 12 As the sun was setting, a deep sleep came over Abram, and suddenly great terror and darkness descended on him.

Because this is important information. He wants assurance!

MacArthur brings out a good point on page 31 regarding sacrifices. It is easy for us to read the Old Testament and get a little bogged down in the details and mud. What we have to understand is that God requires sacrifices.

Hebrews 9:22 CSB

22 According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Hebrews 9:22 shares with us that there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. People ask why Jesus had to die on the cross… Without the shedding of His blood as the propitiation of our sins on calvary, there would be no forgiveness of sins. This is a bloody scene!

The covenantal language cannot be missed here. The purpose behind the animals being killed and cut in half is to bind the parties to the covenant. Both parties would walk through the pathway and this would symbolize their obligation to the covenant. Yet, Abram doesn’t walk through. He is not the one under obligation as we’ll see in ver 17, rather God is the one who is promising that all He has promised will come to past regardless of what transpires with Abram’s offspring. God will keep His part of the covenant.

Please read Genesis 15:13-21. This news is bittersweet. What part is good, what part is bad?

Good: His offspring will have many possessions. He will guide them.

Bad: His offspring will be oppressed and enslaved.

Where does this take place? Egypt - as page 31 shares with us.

Abram’s descendents will be wanderers as he was for 400 years and then they will be enslaved in Egypt. But verse 14 brings about a surprising positive twist. God will bring about something good from this bad situation.

What happened whenever Abram and Sarah went to Egypt in chapter 12? Sarah was taken into Pharaohs house and Abram was given many possessions - animals, servants, and wealth. Whenever God sent a plague on Pharaoh’s house, they left wealthy. The same will happen with his descendants. They will go to Egypt but God will deliver them and bless them after the plagues.

Abram can take comfort in knowing that his offspring will be blessed and provided for just as God provided for and blessed him. Again, the reason they are blessed is not because of who they are or because of their great works, the reason is because God has made a covenantal promise with Abram.

Whenever you are going through a difficult season of life or a difficult situation, how does it help to know that God is still with you?

It doesn’t take away the pain or confusion, but it does help you remember that you are not alone and that He is still faithful to His promises. Abram knows that even though things are hard and don’t entirely make sense, God has promised him a great nation. That helps on tough days. It helps us to know that God is for us and with us whenever we are struggling.

Again, in verse 17 we see that God passes through these animals and this illustrates that God has made this promise. God passed through. God did the action. God will make good on His promises because that’s who He is! This is where our confidence comes from!

[Skip ahead to Romans 4]

One of the things that MacArthur intentionally does in this study is focus on Romans 4 so that we can see the significance of Abraham’s faith and what it means to be justified by faith in the New Testament. We know that our works cannot save us - the only way one can be justified before the Father is by faith in Christ.

Because of this truth and how important it is for us today, I wanted to structure our study tonight to spend our last little bit studying Romans 4 and looking at Faith.

Could someone read Romans 4:1-5? In these opening verses, Paul talks about boasting. Why is it impossible for a Christian to save themselves?

The Jews in the 1st century world believed that Abraham was the perfect example of justification by works. In fact, people today feel the same way. They say that Abraham worked and believed in God and because of his great works, that was what caused God to save him. Romans 4 shares with us that we are not saved by works because if we were, we would be able to boast. Verse 3 reminds us that this isn’t true. Abraham isn’t credited with righteousness because of his works - as Romans 3:27 reminds us, boasting is excluded - instead, he is credited with righteousness because he believed God. Works help us boast before other humans, sure, but our works are dirty rags before our holy God! They are useless!

Verse 5 shares with us that the people who are credited with righteousness are those who do not work. This seems opposite. We think that those who work deserve something - a wage or a credit. That’s not how the economy of God works. Our words don’t earn us anything! God’s work is what saves. Therefore, what must be done is to simply believe. Again, believing God doesn’t mean just praying a prayer or repeating some words. It means to have faith in Him and to obey Him.

As Martin Luther shared several hundred years ago, “We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.” After all, James 2 shares with us that faith without works is dead. Notice the order of this: Faith comes first. We believe God first and then we obey and work. Our works without faith are useless.

Please read Romans 4:9-12. Is salvation only for Jews or is it for Jew and Gentile alike?

Romans 4:9–12 CSB

9 Is this blessing only for the circumcised, then? Or is it also for the uncircumcised? For we say, Faith was credited to Abraham for righteousness. 10 In what way, then, was it credited—while he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? It was not while he was circumcised, but uncircumcised. 11 And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while still uncircumcised. This was to make him the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, so that righteousness may be credited to them also. 12 And he became the father of the circumcised, who are not only circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith our father Abraham had while he was still uncircumcised.

Paul is clear (and the Gospel is clear) that is for all who believe regardless of their ethnicity or past! The point of these verses is to share that Abraham was credited with righteousness and believed God before being circumcised. Meaning that external circumcision, while being the mark of Jewish males, is not required for followers of God.

Paul’s point is simply this: There is only one way to be justified and that is through faith. God is the father of all who believe in Him - regardless of their past actions or circumcision status.

Please read Romans 4:13-17. What makes someone a descendent of Abraham according to these verses?

Romans 4:13–17 CSB

13 For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 If those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made empty and the promise nullified, 15 because the law produces wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression. 16 This is why the promise is by faith, so that it may be according to grace, to guarantee it to all the descendants—not only to the one who is of the law but also to the one who is of Abraham’s faith. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: I have made you the father of many nations— in the presence of the God in whom he believed, the one who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist.

Faith!

Paul will share this truth in greater detail in Romans 9-11 as he will share that the children of the promise are those who believe - not only ethnic Jews, but that Gentiles have been grafted in. This is in response to Genesis 17:5 which shares

Genesis 17:5 CSB

5 Your name will no longer be Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I will make you the father of many nations.

Abraham is not only the father of the Jews, but he is the father of of “us all” meaning, in Paul’s context, all those who believe - all of the church!

How does it make you feel to know that our faith rests in what God has done, not what you or I do?

This gives us peace! If we had to earn our way, we could un-earn our way too! We don’t earn it, we simply receive it.

What is so unique about what Paul does here is that he in verse 17 shares that God gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist. Literally, Abraham and Sarah were past the point of bearing children - yet God is the giver of life. He can raise people to life and he can open the womb of an older woman as he will do later in Abraham and Sarah’s journey. He also speaks the nonexistent into existence. MacArthur notes on page 34 that this drives home the fact that God can declare us as justified and righteous, not because we are these things on our own, but because of what Jesus has done. Galatians 3 brings this point into the limelight

Galatians 3:11–14 CSB

11 Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith. 12 But the law is not based on faith; instead, the one who does these things will live by them. 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. 14 The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus, so that we could receive the promised Spirit through faith.

This is where Paul is going with the importance of Abraham’s faith.

Please read Romans 4:18-25. Why did Abraham believe that God would come through and keep His promise?

Romans 4:18–25 CSB

18 He believed, hoping against hope, so that he became the father of many nations according to what had been spoken: So will your descendants be. 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body to be already dead (since he was about a hundred years old) and also the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 He did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 because he was fully convinced that what God had promised, he was also able to do. 22 Therefore, it was credited to him for righteousness. 23 Now it was credited to him was not written for Abraham alone, 24 but also for us. It will be credited to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Because he was convinced that God would do what He had promised. He gave glory to God and knew that God would come through because He said He would.

Often in life, faith in God looks radical to non-Christians. Who in their right mind would believe that God would come through whenever a team of leading doctors give someone a terminal diagnosis? Our world says that this is hopeless, yet as a Christian, we know that God can do whatever He chooses. From a human perspective, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to trust that Abraham and Sarah would have a biological child - yet, against what makes sense, Abraham trusted. Even though it seemed crazy, he believed. Verse 21 is a key verse here

Romans 4:21 CSB

21 because he was fully convinced that what God had promised, he was also able to do.

God has the power to do anything. God has the character to do whatever He promises. Therefore, in the words of Robert Mounce, “Faith is total surrender to the ability and willingness of God to carry out His promises.” We don’t ask, “Can God do ______” we instead, as Christians, ask, “Will God do ______”

The point Paul comes back to at the end is that Abraham was credited with righteousness because of faith. And because this is the economy of God, it follows that anyone who has been justified or will be justified since will be justified the same way. Not through works, but through faith. Our ultimate hope as Christians is found in verse 25 which reminds us that this has been accomplished for us through Christ. Because He died on the cross and was raised, we can now be justified before our holy God through faith in Him.

Thoughts on Romans 4 section?

Application questions:

Look on page 36. How does it make you feel to know that God’s plans are bigger than we can ever understand?

Good! Abraham didn’t get the full picture/view, yet he trusted step by step and was obedient. It’s the same for us - we are simply called to trust in Him and obey His Word.

Some people believe, “God works all things together for good for everyone” is a Bible verse. Does the Bible ever make this promise?

No. Romans 8:28 shares this

Romans 8:28 CSB

28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

To those who love God. Those who trust in Him and obey Him! Important distinction to make.

What are some dangers of growing comfortable as a Christian?

See page 37. We’re pilgrims passing through. We are adopted sons and we have an eternal kingdom to look forward to as we have been born again (John 3). Therefore, we have to keep our focus in the right priority. We can’t get comfortable by what this world has to offer. We look ahead and we look around, we don’t get cozy in the mean time. We live out Romans 12:1-2 and we do not conform.

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