A FAMILY ALTAR (Part 2)

The Altar of Gratitude

Abraham moved from Shechem and pitched his tent somewhere between Bethel and Ai. We know that “Bethel” is Hebrew for “House of God.” Beth = House and El is of course God. But what about Ai? What does the name Ai mean? Well, for what it’s worth Ai means “ruins.” Abraham is now situated somewhere between the House of God and a place of ruin. So, it’s kind of like a picture of where Abraham is at on his pilgrimage. He’s somewhere in between the place of death and destruction and the place of life and edification. Anyway, “There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD” Genesis 12:8b.

If the first altar Abraham built was one of gratitude then the second is one of attitude! And I mean “attitude” in the good sense of the word, i.e., Abraham has a proper “attitude.” Abraham called on the name of the LORD – “Jehovah” – which is the covenant name of the covenant-keeping God. The first altar Abram built, then, was an altar of commemoration. On this altar Abram offered up a “thanks offering.” He made an offering in thankful remembrance of the LORD who had just appeared to him again repeating promises of a blessed offspring. Abram in this offering was also thanking the LORD for rescuing him from his spiritual bondage in Ur of the idolatrous Chaldeans.

We shouldn’t miss the significance of the first altar. It helps us to understand the significance of the second altar. The significance of the first altar is found in the words of the LORD, Abram’s Redeemer. Genesis 12:7 “The LORD appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’” We need to see then that Abram built the first altar as an expression of his faith in the LORD. He built it believing that, 1. The LORD would give him descendants, and 2. The LORD would give them this land. Therefore he built the altar to acknowledge that he accepted his responsibilities as head of his family, i.e., his (promised) family to come.

Think about it, Abram’s father Terah had just died, Abram was no longer part of his father’s house. He was now head of the house – the new house wherein he was its father. By building the altar he was therefore showing his gratitude to the LORD who appeared to Him with promises. However, this second altar, though also built out of gratitude, illustrates to us Abram’s attitude. For this second altar, unlike the first, which was for commemoration, is an altar of consecration! For we see that Abram at this altar is consecrating, i.e., dedicating, his life to the service of God.

Abram “called on the name of the LORD.” That’s what it means to call on the name of the LORD. It is to sacrifice yourself on His altar, which is to offer up your life in service to Him and everything He is. It is to set yourself apart, sanctify yourself, in His service. For Abram it was to say, “I’m done with Ur of the Chaldees and all its idolatrous ways! It is forever behind me. I go forward in faith!” Fitting here are the words of St Patrick who said,

“I bind unto myself today

The strong name of the Trinity,

By invocation of the same,

The Three in One, and One in Three.”

“Abram called on the name of the LORD.” What Abraham is saying here is what the psalmist says, “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness” Psalm 84:10.

I remember my dad asking me, “Son, what are you going to do when you leave school?” I didn’t give any smart answer like, “I’m going to be a doorkeeper in the house of my God.” I didn’t know God then. I had the wrong kind of attitude toward God – then! I thought you could just ignore God. I thought you could just pull out God as a deep conversation piece, a philosophical discussion, you know, like young non-Christians who get a head full of the Theory of Evolution from the State school? There comes a time when a young man or woman starts asking the big questions. And, if you’ve been taught to ignore God all your life then you have developed a bad attitude. However, we should all have an attitude of gratitude towards God even just for being our Creator!

Let’s begin working toward a contemporary application. We should be building altars to God everywhere we go. And I don’t mean altars in order upon which to sacrifice animals. That disappeared when the One whom the sacrifices pictured appeared! So, in a sense, the animals received a blessing of sorts too when Christ was sacrificed. Since Christ poured out His blood, the animals are no longer needed for sacrifice. They have been liberated! But, more importantly, so have we! So, no more building altars for animal sacrifices to God. “It is finished!” said the living sacrifice Jesus Christ as He offered Himself up to God for us.

The altars we build today are not literal but of the figurative type. We don’t look around for a few choice stones upon which to offer up sacrifices. No, we look for quiet places to erect our altars, quiet places where we, like Abraham, can call on the name of the LORD.

We are the Family of Abraham. We’ve been engrafted into his family tree through faith. Therefore, like our father Abraham we should be building altars to keep up the family tradition.

Fathers, the altar is the place where you should go every day to pray for your family. Pray every day for the forgiveness of your family. Pray every day that the blood that was drained from Christ will cover the sins of your family.

Mothers, the altar is the place where you should go to pray for your husband and your children. It’s that quiet little haven where you meet with God. It’s the place where you ask the LORD to help you look after your little ones. It’s the place where you pray for your husband and your children’s future.

Children, the altar is the place you find it so hard to go! You’d rather watch the telly, phone a friend, read a book. You’d rather do just about anything than call on the name of the LORD in prayer! Well, the altar is the place where you learn the proper attitude towards God. Don’t ignore Him, for that’s what non-Christians do. “Draw near to Him...” and He gives you His Word, His promise that “He will draw near to you.”

The altar is the place where we meet as a family. It’s the place where dad reads the Bible out loud to his wife and his children. And of course the altar is where Christians meet every Lord’s Day all over the world. Beloved! Followers, disciples of the LORD Jesus Christ, have you been neglecting the Family Altar? Is the sum total of redemption just to you the fact that you are saved? Is that it? “Oh I’m saved. I’ll just sit on my hands till the LORD comes for me.” Is that it for you? I suspect that that’s it is for a lot of Christians today!

Look back at what we looked at what we’ve looked before. Look at the second half of what the LORD promised in Abraham in Genesis 12:4, “And in you [Abraham] all the FAMILIES of the earth shall be blessed.” We know that this word “families” becomes “nations” in the New Testament. But nations are made up of many families, are they not? So how then do you expect your family or nation to get the full blessing if you won’t build a metaphorical altar and call on the LORD to receive it?

There’s much more to the blessing than salvation as great a blessing as that is. There’s a blessing to be spread to all the families of the earth. By the way, the LORD won’t meet you at the altar with a 4x2 plank in His hand! He wants you to meet with Him so that He can bless you, not clobber you! He’s not going to say, “Where’ve you been?” THUMP! He wants to bless His people, but He also wants you to ask Him. If you call on Him then you’ll know the blessing is coming from Him, and then you’ll give Him the glory, just like Abraham when he built his altars

Conclusion

Let each family be a living sacrifice on God’s altar for the sake of Jesus Christ. Abraham built an altar and called on the name of the LORD. He consecrated his life into serving Him with thankful remembrance. Let Christians follow the example of our father Abraham that the LORD may bless us along with him. May we all glorify God and enjoy Him forever!

A FAMILY ALTAR (Part 1)

A FAMILY ALTAR (Part 1)

“And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.” Genesis 12:7.

Introduction

We met with Abraham just as he was leaving Haran on his way to the land the LORD was going to show him. Haran had been a bit of a crossroads on Abraham’s journey. Apparently the name “Haran” actually means “road” or “highway” and can even accommodate being translated as “crossroads.” Abraham’s father died in Haran, but undeterred, Abraham has continued on in his pilgrimage. God has kept his word to Abraham. Therefore, Abraham with his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, have left Haran. They’ve now arrived in the land of Canaan (which is the land the LORD was going to show Abraham) and they’ve brought possessions with them, i.e., sheep, goats, cattle, donkeys and such like. Therefore, they’ve accumulated a bit of wealth along the way and they even have some servants in their train.

“So they came to the land of Canaan” Genesis 12:5. “And the Canaanites were in the land” Genesis 12:6b. So the LORD kept His Word. Abraham is safely in the land of Promise, i.e., Canaan. He is moving through the land and he and his entourage are at a place called Shechem. Apparently the name “Shechem” means “shoulder,” as in “shoulder of a hill.” It reminds me of Ben Lomond on the banks of Loch Lomond in Scotland. When viewed across loch Lomond Ben Lomond is a mountain with two shoulders and a head in the middle! Well, Shechem is likened to a shoulder that bears a load, a place of burden. Anyway, Abraham it was while Abraham was here that the LORD appeared to him again and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” Genesis 12:7.

So what did Abraham do? Did he say to the LORD “What am I? Chopped liver? LORD, You’re giving all this land to a bunch of people I’ve never even seen! I don’t even have any descendants yet, no not one!” When asked what he would leave for his future descendants, the actor Woody Allan jokingly said something like, “Why should I leave them anything? What have those good-for-nothings ever done for me?” Well, even though Abraham at that point had no descendants, he just believed that God was able to deliver what He had promised! His faith in God and His Word was growing stronger.

The LORD had promised to show him a land and here it was. The LORD appeared to him and promised the land to Abraham’s seed. So what did Abraham do? “And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.” Genesis 12:7. Then, when he moved from there he also built another altar at the next place.

 We ask the question, Why did Abraham build these altars? What do they mean? We’ll mainly look at two things found in our text, the Altar of Gratitude and the Altar of Attitude. And hopefully we’ll learn the following summary of what we’ll be looking at, We all ought to strive to be living sacrifices on God’s altar.

The Altar of Gratitude

While in Shechem, (i.e., the place of burden) Abraham built an altar to the LORD. So what kind of an altar was it? Well, it was an altar of commemoration. Abraham built this altar in remembrance of the LORD who appeared to him. Therefore, he build it out of gratitude to the LORD, to visibly show his gratitude. The LORD had made Abraham a promise and the LORD held good on what He promised. So Abraham with a thankful heart wanted to display to the LORD his gratitude. So he built an altar and gave a thanks-offering to the LORD who had appeared to him.

So then, you’re probably wondering where the sacrifice bit comes in. Well, in the original Hebrew the word translated here as “altar” means “place of sacrifice.” This comes from a word which means “to slaughter for sacrifice,” e.g., when Noah came out of the Ark after being saved from the Flood Genesis 8:20 says, “Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.” We take it that Abraham did something of the same.

This opens up the question, how did Abraham know to sacrifice an animal to God on an altar? For that matter, how did Noah know to shed the blood of animals in sacrifice to God? Where is the command to do these things mentioned in Scripture? Well, we don’t see God instructing these men personally on how to sacrifice. That doesn’t come until Israel under the command of Moses. It’s then that we see that God gave Israel clear instruction on the sacrificial system. But how did Noah and then Abraham know? Well, we get the impression they knew what God did in the Garden for Adam and Eve after the Fall.

Genesis 3:21 says, “Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.” Now, you are at liberty to imagine what you want, but, where did the LORD get the animal skins? From animals? Of course God could have just made a couple of sheep-skin coats for Adam Eve out of nothing. However, if you keep in mind that the Bible is also the record of Redemptive History you’ll begin to see the significance of what God did for Adam and Eve.

The LORD most probably shed the blood of the animals in front of the naked Adam and Eve. He shed the blood to demonstrate that their nakedness could only be covered by a sacrifice God made the sacrifice. The animals sacrificed belonged to Him. As the LORD through the psalmist says, “For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains. And the wild beasts of the fields are Mine.” Psalm 50:10-11. So God when He covered Adam and Eve and clothed them with something that belonged to Himself. God was the One who made the sacrifice, not Adam and Eve. He made the sacrifice because of their sin.

The LORD had told Adam that he would surely die if he disobeyed Him. Adam died spiritually the day he sinned (i.e., his love for God died) – but an animal or animals died physically that very day. The animal died that died as the LORD made its skin into tunics and covered Adam and Eve with them, died as a temporary substitute. It’s important that we remember this, for it helps us to understand why Abram is building altars.

Meanwhile back at the ranch. Here we see Abram copy what God had done for Adam and Eve. The LORD sacrificed an animal to paint a picture of the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world! But the thing is this: Abraham did it as a memorial. He made the sacrifice out of gratitude. The sacrifice of animals in the Old Testament was a picture of what happens to a man upon whom is the curse of God remains. Like the sacrificed animal he will surely die. As it has its life drained out of it, even its very life blood, so will he! As it becomes a holocaust, a burnt offering, so will he in Hell! As the animal becomes a sacrifice to the living God who is a consuming fire, so will he, forever! Abraham the father of believers believed this, and so should we.

I find it terrifying, but trying to make it go away by not believing it doesn’t help. There are people in hell right now who tried that. Therefore never treat what God says in His Word lightly. Abraham, then, knows that he has escaped the wrath of God, the consuming fire. So Abraham is thankful. He’s really thankful. So he selected some choice stones and he built an altar, an altar of gratitude. He thanked God from the bottom of his sin-scarred heart that it was an animal that was placed on the altar and not him.

Did Abraham know that all of this was a picture of what the promised “serpent-crusher” would do? Well, we’ve already seen last week that Abraham had the gospel preached to him (Galatians 3:8). And if like me you believe that substitutionary atonement is at the heart of the Gospel then clearly Abraham, the father of all believers, is justified by faith! Abraham believed that God would provide a substitute, a substitute that would pay the price owed for his sin.

This substitutional atonement is was acted out by Abram building the altars of sacrifice. Did Abraham know everything we now know? Of course not! How could he? However, was Abraham justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone? You bet! Although Christ & Calvary was in the yet distant horizon Abraham could see it afar off. For even Jesus said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” John 8:56.

God gave Abraham eyes with which to see into the far off future, even the eyes of faith! So Abraham built an altar, an altar of gratitude!

A FAMILY PORTRAIT (Part 2)

The Family Trek

“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.” Genesis 12:1.

Introduction

In one sense it’s true to say that Abraham went out not knowing where he was going. For Hebrews 11:8 says, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would afterward receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.” He might not have known where on earth he was going. However, he certainly knew he was walking towards heaven, for Hebrews goes on to say, “For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” Hebrews 11:10.

Like Christian in Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress Abraham was heading for the Celestial City. Abraham wasn’t rushing out to hammer in some wooden stakes in a land grab, you know, like what they did in the Wild West frontier of America. Abraham wasn’t after a handful of dirt. Every human being gets awarded that in the end. In fact all we are is a handful of dirt, and that’s what we’re awarded on our coffin when we die. “For dust you are, and to dust you shall return” Genesis 3:19b. You’ll get a plot of land – six-foot deep!

Abraham was seeking more than dust, more than a piece of real estate. He was seeking much, much more than that. Instead of hammering in stakes he was upping stakes. Abraham was looking for a City not built with hands – the Celestial City. Abraham was looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of his faith. The Jesus who was eventually going to come through his own loins. “Get you out of your country ... to a land that I will show you.” Who spoke these words to Abraham? Was it one of the wooden or stone idols of the land of Ur of the Chaldeans? Ur was full of pagan idols. Ur was apparently the name of a moon goddess. The word “Ur” means brightness or flame. However, One brighter than the moon appeared to Abraham! One brighter than the sun – ten thousand suns!

Stephen in his address before they stoned him says, “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran” Acts 7:2-3. The only other place in Scripture where God is called the “God of glory” is in Psalm 29. There David says, “The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders; the LORD is over many waters.” This is the God who poured out the water jars of heaven upon the face of all the earth in judgment. This is the God who poured out fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah. This is the God who appeared to Abraham – to lead him to glory.

Christian in The Pilgrim’s Progress had just climbed the hill called Difficulty. Two men came running up to him. One was named Timorous the other Mistrust. They told Christian that they were turning back.

Timorous said, “The farther we go, the more danger we meet with; wherefore we turned, and are going back again.”

Mistrust said: “Just before us lie a couple of lions in the way, whether sleeping or waking we know not; and we could not think, if we came within reach, but they would presently pull us to pieces.”

Then said Christian, “You make me afraid; but whither shall I fly to be safe? If I go back to mine own country, that is prepared for fire and brimstone, and I shall certainly perish there; if I can get to the Celestial City, I am sure to be in safety there: I must venture. To go          back is nothing but death; to go forward is fear of death, and life everlasting beyond it; I will go forward.”[1]

Jesus Christ says, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking    back, is fit for the kingdom of God” Luke 9:62. O Christian, what are you afraid of? The LORD has given you His Word. And His Word endures forever. He has made you a promise, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” King David knew this when he wrote, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” “For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” The God of Glory appeared to Abraham to bring him into His Celestial City. Abraham trusted that the LORD would lead him there. And now Abraham is with the LORD in Glory – even the Celestial City. And so are all who trust in the God of Abraham who manifested Himself in the LORD Jesus Christ. He is the same LORD who says, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit everlasting life.” Matthew 19:29. He is the same LORD who says, “Have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of  Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” Matthew 22:32. The same LORD who said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” John 8:56.

So let us begin to tie things together. God called Abraham out of Ur – out of the “flame.” Abraham was to leave his family and all their false gods behind and he was to trust that the God of glory was going take him to a place of glory. Ahead, as we follow the life of Abraham, you’ll see that your journey to the Celestial City is fraught with danger just as it was for Abraham. However, remember we as Christians are all in this together. Like Abraham there will be many obstacles to be overcome. No doubt we’ll make many mistakes along the way but trust in the LORD always. You can’t go back. There’s nothing there – nothing but death! The LORD, after many had turned from following Him, said to those who remained, “‘Do you also want to go away?’ Then Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” John 6: 67-68.

It’s nice to know who you are and where you come from. But don’t spend your life looking at church records. Don’t spend your life walking around graveyards looking at headstones. For that is to go barking up the wrong tree. All you’ll find are a bunch of dead relatives. As the angels said to the women the day Jesus was resurrected, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” If you trace your family tree back far enough and you’ll come to Adam. And Scripture says that we are all dead in Adam. But those who are grafted into Christ’s Family Tree shall live with Him in glory forever! For Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though He may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” Luke 11:25-26.

It was through the loins of Abraham that Christ in His humanity came. From Adam, Seth, Shem, Abraham all the way down to Jesus Christ. Wouldn’t you like to belong to that Family Tree? We’ll according to Scripture we are grafted into Abraham’s Family Tree through believing in Christ! Think about it, instead of looking through old church archives for your rellies, you can just crack open the Bible and see them listed in its pages! However, you won’t see your name written there. You’ll just have to take it on faith. For Jesus has the record of His Family Tree all the way back to Adam through Abraham. And this Book is called “The Lamb’s Book of Life.”

So instead of skulking around graveyards with big magnifying glasses looking at moss-covered headstones, you need to come to Jesus. You need to ask Him if you are one of Abraham’s offspring. But before you do, keep in mind what the Scriptures say, “Know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham” Galatians 3:7. As the Scripture says,  “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6. You must believe, for that’s what faith is, belief, and that’s what Abraham had.

Jesus says, “Whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.” Matthew 12:50. God has honored Abraham by listing his name in redemptive history as the “Father of the Faithful.”

Conclusion

We’ve been reminded that genealogies denote continuity. A Family Tree only tells you where you’ve come from. It is to look back and find all sorts of criminals and skeletons in your closet. God told Abraham to get out from his country and kindred. Therefore, Abraham stopped looking at his Family Tree and went on a Family Trek. So let me ask you where you are. Are you stuck up a Family Tree somewhere, hoping that you’re descended from royalty? Are you hoping that some rich rellie has died and left you a fortune? Or are you turning your back on all of that and going on a Family Trek to the Celestial City? Well, let me remind you that if you are a Christian then fellow believers are your family. We are in this together!

All Christians who are waiting, like Abraham, for that city which "has foundations, whose builder is God” are your family! Let me encourage you by reminding you of the One who is related to us. He is even our blood relative – the blood He shed on a cross for the forgiveness of our sins! They called “His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” Luke 1:21. He kept God’s Law perfectly on behalf of all His family. For all men are sinners and fall far short of His glory. He propitiated the wrath of God for the sake of His people. He became our substitute and covered the sins of every Christian with His own blood. And yes, like those in our Family Tree He died. However, the God of Glory raised Jesus from the dead that we might have everlasting life through believing in Him. So, as Christians let’s encourage each other in the LORD along the way.

Yes, it’s good to know where you’ve come from, but it’s even better to know where you’re going!

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[1] Vol. 1, pt. 2, p. 26. (Check John Bunyan volumes for reference)

LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED

“‘Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. ² In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. ⁴ And where I go you know, and the way you know.’ ⁵Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?’ ⁶Jesus said to Him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” John 14:1-6. (NKJV)

These well-known words of Jesus are like opening up a chest full of treasure! Gold, sparkling gems, precious jewels and a deed for a house, a mansion! It’s all yours simply through believing in God and also Jesus, His only begotten Son! For, He says, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.”

And what might cause our hearts to be troubled? Lack of wealth, ill-health, and certainly the death of a loved one? Well, as tough as they are Jesus says we shouldn’t fret too much about these things. Why? Because He has fixed all of our problems! But, you have to trust in Him to produce the results. He is telling us to believe in Him!

Jesus is not saying that you shouldn’t grieve the loss of a loved-one. Jesus wept at the tomb of His friend Lazarus! However, He is saying that He has made everything right for you – if you are believing in Him, which is to say that there will come a day when all wrongs will be righted by God!

Some of the newer translations of the Bible render the word “mansions” as “rooms.” “In My Father’s house are many rooms.” However, I would much rather dwell in a mansion than a room! Wouldn’t you? The word simply means that there are many dwelling-places – enough for all who believe. Jesus then said that He was going to prepare a place for you.

Never mind rooms or mansions, the Devil, at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry offered to Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, the things he had stolen, if Jesus would bow down and worship him, Satan. The idea was that instead of Jesus going through all the ordeal of going to the cross and being crucified He could have it all simply by surrendering to Satan and becoming one of his followers.

Would it not have been far easier for Jesus just to swear allegiance to Satan than to go through the hell of His crucifixion? Don’t miss what Jesus is saying in these verses. He is saying that He is going to prepare a place for those who believe in Him. Going where? He was going to the cross at Calvary!

He was not just going to tidy-up a room before your arrival in Heaven. He wasn’t just going to make few beds, clean out the cupboards and hoover the carpet! No! He was going to purchase you a mansion! But more than that He was going to purchase you yourself – if you are a believer in Him!

He was going to suffer the wrath of God so that you will not have to suffer it when you die! He was paying God in full the price that we human beings owe to God for not giving God our undivided attention and utmost obedience in everything we think, say and do! Jesus put God first in everything. None of us do! I don’t!

So, the gateway into !His Father’s house was by way of Jesus’ obedience in everything even unto His death on a cross. Jesus lived the perfect life that none of us can live and He paid the penalty that according to the Bible each of us owes God.

Now, we have heard about Neil Russell’s action-packed life, how he travelled here, there and everywhere! As a sergeant, as one of the “Rats of Tobruk” he won a medal – a D.C.M. (Distinguished Combat Medal). Neil was a very brave man indeed as well as being a loving father and grandfather. It seems that his life was full of adventure.

As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ he will at present be with His Lord in glory. He will be awaiting the resurrection at the Last Day, that’s the day when he gets his body back, his renewed body! That’s the day when he gets his room, his mansion! Meanwhile, like the rest of us here, Neil has to wait for the Lord to work all things together for good, to bring His great plan to its final conclusion!

So, what is God’s great plan? Well, in brief, He was going to create creation. He was going to make mankind in His own image. He was going to send His Son, the middle Person in the Trinity, into His creation as a human to live a perfect life representing all who believe in Him, He was going to pay the death-penalty we owe to God for not following God as we should, and He was going to be raised from the dead, and return to Heaven.

Then He and His Father were going to pour out the Holy Spirit, which They did. Then at some future point after the Holy Spirit has worked with the Word throughout the earth He is going to resurrect us all from our graves and judge the living and the dead! Then all His followers are going to live with forever with Him here on the renewed earth!

 When Jesus was on earth His disciples were wondering where He was going. Jesus said to them, “You know the way.” It was then that Thomas said to Jesus, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” I reckon I’d be exactly like Thomas. “Lord, what are You talking about? Show us in concrete terms. Seeing is believing and all of that!”

How did Jesus respond to Thomas? ^“Jesus said to Him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” John 14:6. I became a believer in Jesus Christ through wrestling with this verse! Who does this Jesus think He is? God? I thought it was the most arrogant thing for any human being to say, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

The Bible makes it clear that Jesus is the Mediator between God and man. The way to God is through Jesus Christ. There is great comfort in knowing the way! It means that we can stop pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps! It means that we can stop beating ourselves up for being failures when it comes to pleasing God! God knows you cannot save yourself. That’s why He sent a Saviour into this world, His only begotten Son! He is the way!

He is the way into Heaven. He is the way to get right with God. He is the way to have your sins, all your sins past, present and future forgiven. He is the way to a clear conscience before God. He is the way to find comfort when grieving. He is the way to getting a room in God’s house, a mansion!

Let these words of Jesus sink in, be comforted by them, Jesus said … “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Therefore, “Let not your heart be troubled.”

A FAMILY PORTRAIT (Part 1)

A FAMILY PORTRAIT (Part 1)

“This is the genealogy of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood … Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and begot Terah. After he begot Terah … Now Terah lived seventy years, and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

This is the genealogy of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot … Then Abram and Nahor took wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai … But Sarai was barren; she had no child. And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there … Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family 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.” Genesis 11:10-12:3 (truncated)

Introduction

Have you ever wondered why the Bible makes such a big deal of genealogies? I’m sure most evangelicals just skim over them as they read through the Bible. I’m, of course, presuming that most evangelicals read through their Bibles! Anyhow, what do you do when you get to one of these genealogies such as the one (abbreviated) above? Remember 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

So then, what benefit to us is a family tree of a bunch of people who died thousands of years ago? Well, for one it shows that Christianity is a religion that deals with real flesh and blood people. However, more than that, genealogies in the Bible demonstrate continuity.

The Bible isn’t just a book of “wise sayings” though it is full of “wise sayings” (e.g., Proverbs). No! The Bible is also the record of the History of Redemption.

The History of Redemption begins with the First Man Adam and ends with the last Adam Jesus Christ. Luke chapter three traces the lineage of Jesus as to His humanity, from Mary through her father Heli all the way back to Adam the son of God. I’ll just mention in passing that Matthew in his Gospel tells us that the father of Joseph, Mary’s husband is called Jacob. I know it’s extra-Biblical, but the Jewish Talmud states that Mary’s father’s name was Heli. Therefore, I believe Luke’s Gospel records the genealogy of Jesus all the way back to Adam!

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you and I could trace our roots all the way back to Adam? Then we would know where we’ve come from! But then again, it doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out all of us must be descended from Adam! If Adam was the first man then we must be related to him. And of course the Bible tells us that all of us are. However, I’m afraid that to look at Adam is to look at Bad News because the Bible tells us that we all died in Adam. The whole of humanity died to God when Adam our earthly father sinned against God (Rom. 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:21; 22).

So, after that brief introduction, let’s get on with it. In the following we’re being introduced to Abraham, or “Abram” as he’s known here. (The LORD changed his name from Abram to Abraham later). Anyway, we’ve been given some of his family history. He’s descended from Shem who was one of Noah’s three sons (Shem, Ham, and Japheth). And just as an aside, the name Semitic in “Semitic Peoples” comes from the name “Shem.” The Old Testament historian Albert Edersheim says,

Regarding the division of earth among his three sons, [ie, the sons of Noah], it may be said generally, that Asia was given to Shem, Africa to Ham, and Europe to Japheth.[1]

Presumably Albert Edersheim took the Tower of Babel into consideration when he wrote that. Because, as you know, it was after that episode that God scattered man from there “abroad over the face of all the earth” Genesis 11:9b.

So, we pick up the story, His-story, the history of Redemption in a place called Ur of the Chaldeans. Abraham dwelt there with his family when the Lord said to him Genesis 12:1, “Get out of your country, from your kindred and from your father’s house, to a land I will show you.”

Let us look at a couple of things in general in the following, The Family Tree and The Family Trek. The general gist of what we’re looking at is this: It’s good to know where you’ve come from, but it’s even better to know where you’re going!

The Family Tree

A family tree lets you know where you have come from. It never ceases to amaze me the way some Australians brag about some of their ancestors. I mean everywhere else in the world they try to hide the skeletons in the closet! But not in Australia! Lots of Australians are proud of the fact that they’re great grandfather or whatever was a convict. And when you look around you today it’s not hard to see that many are trying hard to keep the family tradition alive!

Crime always seems to be on the increase. However, I don’t know if you’ve noticed that something else is on the increase. More and more people, it would seem, are tracing their family tree. I have an Australian relative who was tracing her family tree. She was in Scotland and England looking at old grave-stones and church records. I suppose knowing the history of your family gives you a sense of belonging. It’s nice to know where you’ve come from, who your family is. Just ask someone who was adopted as a child if they’d like to know who their real family was, but what’s the LORD doing with Abram here? Well, He’s going to make a new family out of him.

In fact we’re told in Genesis 12:2 that the LORD is going to make a great nation out of Abram. Before the Flood there had been two great families: The Family of Cain and the Family of Seth. One family was the seed of the serpent and the other the seed of the woman. You’ll remember the LORD said to the serpent after the fall, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed.” Genesis 3:15a.

We know that the ultimate Seed of the woman is the last Adam Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:16). However, Jesus was a long way ahead in the future. So, after the Flood nations began to form from Noah’s three sons. And through the loins of Shem eventually Abram arrived in the year 2165 BC according to one reputable scholar.

The LORD here has chosen Abram and he is going to make him into a great nation. However, we see that there’s a little snag back in Genesis 11:30, “But Sarai was barren; she had no child.” Abram’s wife Sarai was unable to give Abram any children. A slight technical difficulty if there ever was one! It makes you wonder why God didn’t choose a man whose wife could conceive. However, as the angel Gabriel said to Mary, “With God nothing will be impossible.”

I remember reading a book by a man by the name of Curtis Crenshaw. He dedicated the book to his son with these words,

Every father wants a son; God has granted Me one. Naturally he has my name. My constant prayer for him is that he will stay in the truth of God’s Word, not be side-tracked into some false gospel, and that we shall spend eternity together in heaven. He is a joy to my heart.[2]

Abraham too wanted a son and so did his wife Sarah. However, it was going to take a miracle from God for this to happen. We’ll see also up ahead that Abraham and Sarah occasionally got side-tracked. Occasionally they got in trouble by venturing from the truth of God’s Word. However, the LORD was ever faithful to keep bringing them back onto the straight and narrow. But just before we move onto our second point let me ask you this question: Those of you who have done your family tree, Have you noticed that most, if not all your ancestors have one thing in common? They’re all dead!

All of Abram’s ancestors were dead and his father Terah was about to die in a place called Haran. Some of Abraham’s ancestors lived to good old ages. But nevertheless, to look at your family tree is to look at a bunch of dead rellies! And more people today are looking among their dead relatives as they search for meaning.

Some of our Asian neighbours even worship their dead ancestors. More and more today are asking the question: Who am I and where do I come from? Albeit in general terms, but the Bible answers those questions for us. You can look at all the grave stones you want as you seek to discover who you are. You can look at all the church records, all the Baptismal Rolls, all the Marriage Records, all the Obituaries, yes obituaries. You can look in all of these places but all your ancestors, like those of Abraham, are dead. All you’re doing is looking at records of a bunch of dead people in the pages of human history.

We’re all descended from Adam and we’re all spiritually dead in Adam. There’s no life in obituaries, there is no life in church records. There is no life carved on the head-stones of the graves of your dead relatives. And there’s a head-stone somewhere waiting for your name! There’s no life in these things, but there is life in the pages of Redemptive History. And that’s what the story of Abraham is all about – life! His family tree contained a bunch of dead people. He was the end of the line (or so it seemed). His family line was about to end with him (his wife couldn’t bear him any children). He knew from whence he had come, a long line of dead people, or was it? What about Enoch who was and then was not? What about your Enochs? What about your Seths? There’s something special about Abram’s genealogy. However, it wasn’t so much as to where it came from but more to do with where it was leading. It’s a good thing to know where you’ve come from but it’s even better to know where you’re going.

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[1] Alfred Edersheim, Old Testament Bible History, Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids, 1876-77, (1890 reprint in 1980), p. 58.

[2] Source reference