Unconditional Versus Conditional

Genesis 17 – Part II

 

https://www.valleychristianchurchmorenovalley.org/conditional-versus-unconditional/

Pastor Martin Saine Continues taking us through Genesis 17

Gen 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. Gen 17:2 And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” Gen 17:3 Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: Gen 17:4 “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. Gen 17:5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. Gen 17:6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. Gen 17:7 And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Gen 17:8 Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” Gen 17:9 And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. Gen 17:10 This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; Gen 17:11 and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. Gen 17:12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. Gen 17:13 He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. Gen 17:14 And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.” Gen 17:15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. Gen 17:16 And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.” Gen 17:17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” Gen 17:18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!” Gen 17:19 Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. Gen 17:20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. Gen 17:21 But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.”

Covenant review: Step 1. Promise of a coming Covenant Gen 12:1 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. Gen 12:2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. Gen 12:3 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.” Step 2. Promise of a physical possession- Land Promise Gen 13:14 And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; Gen 13:15 for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. Gen 13:16 And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Gen 13:17 Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.”

Step 3. Signing the deal

Gen 15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” Gen 15:2 But Abram said, “Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” Gen 15:3 Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!” Gen 15:4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” Gen 15:5 Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” Gen 15:6 And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness. Gen 15:7 Then He said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.” Gen 15:8 And he said, “Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?” Gen 15:9 So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Gen 15:10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. Gen 15:11 And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. Gen 15:12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Gen 15:13 Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. Gen 15:14 And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Gen 15:15 Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. Gen 15:16 But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” Gen 15:17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. Gen 15:18 On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— Gen 15:19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, Gen 15:20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, Gen 15:21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

Big Picture, THEN Details! The Big Picture is defined in Genesis 12, 13, and Signed in Genesis 15.

The Promise, Covenant, DOES NOT CHANGE!!! IT CANNOT BE ABROGATED or FORFEIT! IT WILL NOT BE DENIED! IT WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN!

God will add details along the way, but the Promises to Abraham do not change. In fact, they CANNOT change because they are unconditional! Jer 31:35 Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for a light by day, The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, Who disturbs the sea, And its waves roar (The LORD of hosts is His name): Jer 31:36 “If those ordinances depart From before Me, says the LORD, Then the seed of Israel shall also cease From being a nation before Me forever.” (ad olam, olam) Jer 31:37 Thus says the LORD: “If heaven above can be measured, And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel For all that they have done, says the LORD.

The unconditional nature of the Abrahamic Covenant is in contrast to the Mosaic Covenant which is CONDITIONAL! Jas 2:10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.

Entirety of the American Penal Code…

That was the Mosaic Law. Nothing in it was unrighteous, in fact it is perfect in every way! The problem lies in the simple fact that ALL have been found guilty of something, and are therefore guilty of everything!

The Law was a schoolmaster… Gal 3:22 But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Gal 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Gal 3:24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Gal 3:25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. Gal 3:26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Gal 3:27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Gal 3:29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Step 4. Additional details Gen 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. Gen 17:2 And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” Gen 17:3 Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: Gen 17:4 “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. Gen 17:5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. Gen 17:6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. Gen 17:7 And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting (olam, olam) covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Gen 17:8 Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” Gen 17:9 And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. Gen 17:10 This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; Gen 17:11 and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. Gen 17:12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. Gen 17:13 He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. Gen 17:14 And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.” (how can a child break a covenant he knows nothing about at 8 days old?) Gen 17:15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. Gen 17:16 And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.” Gen 17:17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” Gen 17:18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!” Gen 17:19 Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. Gen 17:20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. Gen 17:21 But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.” ```` Gen 17:22 Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham. Gen 17:23 So Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same day, as God had said to him. Gen 17:24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. Gen 17:25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. Gen 17:26 That very same day Abraham was circumcised, and his son Ishmael; Gen 17:27 and all the men of his house, born in the house or bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

Conditional Versus UnConditional