There are sweet expressions on each face and I know that it's love. Spirit of the Lord, sweet Holy Spirit swain heavenly now you're right here with us filling us with your love blessings. We lift our hearts to break without the child. We'll know that we have been revived when we shall leave his place. Hold a second. There are plenty you cannot read till you know him in his fullness and believe you're the one to prophet when you say I am going to work with Jesus. Fall away. Sweet holy spirit sweet heavenly double you're right here with us, filling us with your love. And for these blessings we with our hearts and grace. We have the doubts. We'll know that we have been reminded. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for your spirit and the spirit of this place. The sweet spirit of this place. Dear Heavenly Father and the fellowship that we have with one another. And we know as we come into the word today that there will be great encouragement in that as well as through the music and the fellowship here this morning. And we're grateful. And it is our prayer that all that we say and do and think would be honorable to you. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated, ladies and gentlemen. And thanks each one of you for being here today and got a good day of worship here today. You got a bulletin, got the notes there, all included there. And we've got for Wednesday night, our supper is pumpkin soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Can't beat that, can you? Shelley's making her famous pumpkin soup and then we'll do some grilled cheese sandwiches. Have a good time. You can bring something that goes along with that if you like. And 05:00 for supper, 06:00 for our Bible study, the book of Hosea. Got men's breakfast here this week in the fellowship hall as well, and all of the other good things that are coming. Except this is not the week of science club. We forgot to take that out of the bulletin. That was last week. But all those other kids activities are taking place now. The big one you need to know is that next Sunday is hot luck and it's our Thanksgiving potluck and we will have turkey and ham. But it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without all the other stuff. And so I've got a sign up sheet. There's also one online. If you've done it online, we'll make these sync together. You can do it either place, but I'd love to pass this around and go ahead and have you sign up what you can bring here's. Always the challenge when somebody passes around something is that you get caught up in the moment and you just and it never goes anywhere else. And if you are the one, we will call you out. So I'll pass that you can think, hey, what could I bring? And put it on there. And we'll have a really good lunch next Sunday. In fact, I'll start right here with Lyn, who's not going to be here next Sunday. And you can keep that passing. Either that or cook it before you leave Lynn and just deliver it into the freezer over here. We'll be fine. And let's see, Francesca's birthday is what, this week? What day is it? The 6th. That's today. Happy birthday, Francesca. I wish you were here. She's off in Arizona. I go in Francesca for several months. But when you talk to Francesca, tell her happy birthday. And then Trevor Bowman is getting married today, maybe right about now. I don't know. Is that right? If not now, real close in North Carolina. And so, of course, Rosie's there and the big wedding today. Congratulations to him. And I think that's all the announcements. Brandon Floyd is doing great. Oh, yes, excellent. Excellent. Brandon, John's nephew, had the brain bleed. We'll call it amen. And we are really glad that turned out well. And a very dangerous situation. Yeah. God bless, Brandon. Yes, thank you. So we now have somebody who's going to work on our masterpiece back there, and they are going to start work right away. And it will help when we leave today if we would take all the chairs and stack them that way. So some of you men, especially, if you don't mind, piling up a few chairs and going over that way, that'll clean that out. Wednesday night, we're going to meet in the fellowship hall completely. And by next Sunday, it'll be inhabitable in here. And we will go for that. So anyway, we're excited to get that patchwork done this week. And so you'd be praying for that. It's one of those things you start working on an 80 year old mud wall. You never really know what's going to happen when you start digging. So we are praying that everything goes beautifully and wonderfully in all of that. But let's see, we have a couple of guests, and we're always glad to have guests here. I've got a little book, Why I'm a pretribulational Premillennialist, and you should be two, and that is three quarters of the book right there just in the title. And I would like to give that we got JT back here from Las Cruces, but moving here to town, hopefully, right? Yeah. JT is a tile layer. If you need some tile aid, call JT. Very glad you're here. Look forward to getting to know you. He's got the best haircut in town. Yeah, we use the same barber. God bless you, JT. Olvin, is that correct? Olvan here in town from Colorado now lives here. His mom lives here as well. And Olvan, we're very glad that you are here visiting with us. God bless you. And I will give you all a gift here in just a second. And glad to have the walkers back. Always genie and Lynn. Thanks for being here today. And John and Sharon, glad you're back, but you've been two or three Sundays in a row, so now you're now you don't get gifts anymore. We don't want to go broke or anything. So glad that you are here and the rest of you as well. Why don't we stand and shake someone's hand, greet them and then we'll come back and sing him number 330 in just a moment. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Holy Spirit. You're right here with us, filling us with your love and forgive. Relive our hearts and brains without the doubts. We'll know that we have been revived and we still leave this place. Now just turn the page one to 329 and we have the Spirit song. It's one that I think you'll know the tune of it when you get there. By the second verse, you'll know the tune of it. And let's see, I'm going to go ahead and tell you now. See on the second verse, 1234 lines down it says, you'll enter into life in Jesus name is bad theology. So we're going to change it to you'll. Enjoy. I think it works. Oh, enter into joy. We're going to change life to joy. You'll enter into joy in Jesus name. It says, give him all your tears and sadness, give him all your years of pain and you'll enter into life in Jesus name. But that's not how you get into life in Jesus name, by giving him your tears. You do it by placing your faith in him. And so you'll enter into joy in Jesus name. Here we go. I feel like preaching on this song because it's got a nice tune to it. It needs rewit written several times. You notice at the bottom music and words by John Wimber. I don't know if that name rings a bell to any of you. John Wimber was the founder of the vineyard movement. The vineyard movement doesn't hold to my theology and change that just a little bit. And so a few things I tweak, but it's a nice song. Let's just sing it and enjoy it. How's that go? Enter into joy in Jesus name and the spirit song, him number 329. Let him fill your heart since sadness by your soul, let him have the things that hold you and your spirit like a dove will descend upon your life and make you whole. Jesus, come into your left. Jesus comes, come and fill your hands. Oh, come and sing this song with gladness as your hearts are filled with joy. Lift your hands and sweet surrender to his name for give him all your tears and sadness. Give him all your years and pain and you'll enter into joy. Jesus, come and fill your land. And just down the page there him number 330, spirit of the living God. Indeed, that is our prayer. You may be seated. Thank you very much. Brenda and I have a little special music to give to you all because last week no one was able to name that tune I was giving away that 2022 Ford F 150 on the Name That Tune and nobody was able to get it. And it was that song. He didn't throw the clay away. And we mentioned it was a beautiful song. So Brenda and I learned the song this week and we are going to sing he Didn't Throw the Clay Away. I came back to Him a wrestle unworthy so scarred from sin but he did not dispatch he started over again and I blessed the day he didn't draw the clay away over and over he molds me and makes me into his likeness he fashions the clay of his own honor I am today all because Jesus didn't throw the clay away he is the Father. I am the slave loaded in God's image he wants me to stay when I stumble and fall when my vessel breaks he picks up those pieces he does not throw the clay away over and over and makes me into his lightness he fashion the clay of their soul of honor I am today all because Jesus didn't throw the clay away any of you ever messed up a little bit and needed a fresh start? And indeed we got it. That even will fit our sermon today as we talk about abram in just a moment. But before we get there, let's have a little time of offering and reflection. And if you give once again, our Missionaries of the Month have been for October and November. Normally it's one month, but they just had a new baby and they need all the help they get. So Eric and Rebecca elrod olivia, Emily and Elliot, their children. So if you market missions, it goes to the Elrods. If you leave, it undesignated. And of course, it goes to the ministry of our church. There's an offering box back there. You can give either during this time of offer or at any time. And we are grateful, by the way, that if things go as planned, which is a big if when you're dealing with an 80 year old mud building, but if things go as planned, then we'll just be a couple of $1,000 short of the cost on it. And then we still have some more costs later on to take care of some roof issues and some exterior issues. But anyway, that's coming along. If you give to the building fund, of course it'll go to that project as well. Now, with that, let's have a word of prayer and come into a little time of reflection and offering. Heavenly Father, thank you for the ability to come and be in this place. Thank you for each one of us could give stories of how we messed up so many times and yet you didn't throw away the clay. And for this we're grateful. And take this old lump of clay, you as the potter, we are the clay, and you make it into a vessel of honor and we are most grateful. We pray for the Elrods again today and ask that you give them great encouragement in India and the work that they are doing there and keep their child safe. We pray for Trevor as he's getting married even now, and just pray that you bless that marriage and that family in immense ways for the work of the Lord especially. And then as we come into the sermon and learn a little bit more about the life and times of Abraham, we pray that there's some encouragement there for us as we see this man of faith who sometimes doubt it. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Let's have a little off tour and then we'll come into preaching. Music video. Last week I gave away a Ford F 150 for knowing the song. This week I'm giving a good feeling. Who knows the song? Yeah. Praise the Lord to God be the glory is the song. You know that one? Of course. I couldn't give anything good away. Now, Shelley, if she had known last week, then she wouldn't have gotten stuck in the driveway this morning on the snow, had to dig out in her Sunday shoes and walk over to Whitney's and write down with her. See, Shelley, you should know the old gospel songs a little better. Now we come to Genesis, the 15th chapter. We went last week. We spent some time on Genesis 15, one through five. And today we're going to pick up and get a little bit of a review of one through five and then take the rest of the chapter and see a mysterious delay that takes place in God's promise to Abraham as we continue to study the life and times of Abraham. And we are going to see what strangely can kind of be a little encouraging. We're going to see Abraham, the one who is the stalwart we saw this little last week, we'll see it again this week. The one who is the stalwart of faith. Abraham believed and it was credited unto him as righteousness. We're going to see him look at God again and again and again and say, Are you sure? Are you really going to come through with that? When you think of through the Bible, were there any that ever had doubt beside Abraham, or was he the only one? Remember. Moses, I can't talk. What do you mean? And even Joshua, though the fear is not expressed as much. If you look at Joshua, chapter one, how many times does it say, fear not, do not be afraid? Just reiterates that, hey, I don't want you to have fear through there. And we could hit the pages of the Scripture, the well known portions, the unknown portions, and we would find there is fear and doubt that comes along in just about every vessel of honor that God has ever used. But sometimes you and I feel like I'm the only person that ever has doubts. I'm the only person that ever wonders. And I know that in doing enough pastoral ministry over the decades that some people are more prone to doubts and fears than others are. And that really is not any kind of a character default or character flaw or anything. It is just the way you're wired and this is the way that you are made. I remember I had one fellow for a long time in a church that I was in. He would come about once a month and say, pastor, I just don't feel like I'm saved. And we'd go back through it again and get some reminder that you're saved by grace, not by works. And it's a gift. And you placed your faith in Jesus Christ. Oh, yeah, my faith is in Jesus and come through that assurance. And then in about a month he'd come back and say, I just don't feel it. So some people are more open and prone to this than others. And I think Abraham will stand as an encouragement that even the patriarchs let's see, I think I can put it this way. Even the patriarchs put their pants on the same way we do, one leg at a time. There's really no difference in them and us. This is speaking of Elijah, but remember the passage of Elijah in the book of James where it speaks of Elijah and it calls him a man of like passions. Like passions like us. And you're thinking Elijah, you know, the guy that calls down fire from heaven at the prophets of bail. That doesn't sound like me. But the scripture gives the characterization of Elijah as one like us. I think we might see a little bit of ourselves in Abraham today as we continue studying the life and times of Abraham. Let's go to James Tisu's work on Martin Luther. I am not a real big Martin Luther fan, you all might know this, but he certainly made his mark on humanity. Didn't he end up on the Christian world? And here is James to So in 1860 he painted a picture of Martin Luther's doubts. Well, the whole purpose of that picture is one nobody ever painted a picture of Abraham doubting, but they did paint a picture of doubt. And they painted a picture of Martin Luther as he stands here as one of the priests in the Catholic Church. And everyone else here in the picture is devoted and going through and Martin Luther standing off over to the side saying I don't know, something's not right here. Something doesn't line up. Well, just as Abraham turned out to be from the song we sang a little bit ago, a Vessel of honor, martin Luther came and did some honorable things as well. This early November, we can think of his October 31 nailing those thesis on the wall and carrying that out. So as we think of Martin Luther's doubts and Abraham's doubts, let's get a reminder of verses one through five, which again we looked at last week. So I'm just going to go over it very briefly here. Genesis 15, verse one. After these things, the word of the Lord came to abram in a vision and said, fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And Abraham said, oh, my goodness. Thank you, God. I feel so encouraged. No, he said, what are you going to give me? I'm childless. Steward of my house is Eliasar Damascus. Behold to me, thou hast given no seed. Lo, one born in my house is mine heir. Now remember, of course, that the biggie in God's promise to Abraham was you would have offspring and those offspring would become like the dust of the air. So, verse four. Now behold, the word of the Lord came up to him saying, thou, this Elazar, shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. Basically, he's saying, hey, I've been reneged on my promises. You're just impatient. Hang on, you're going to have a baby. Verse five, and the Lord brought him forth and said, look now toward heaven and tell the stars if thou be able to number them. And he said, So shall thy seed be. Okay, little bit of blessing from God. I am your exceeding great reward. A little bit of doubt from Abraham. The Lord comes and says, I'm not giving up on you. We should quit doubting me, but I'm not giving up on you. Go look at the stars. So shall thy thy seed be and gives them that encouragement. And then in verse six, very famous verse because it's quoted many times in the New Testament and misused many times by preachers, but it says, and he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness. Here's this great passage of Abraham's belief. Now, I do want to point out this says nothing about Abraham's salvation. This talks about in this context that we're in. Abraham says, okay, you're going to provide, you're going to do it, I believe. And that was counted into him as righteousness. You come here. And that display of doubt that we see in verses one through six, I guess this roller coaster, wouldn't you say? You got a little bit of a roller coaster in verses one through six? You got the top of the hill. You know I am your exceeding great reward. You got the bottom. What are you going to do for me? It goes back up to the top and look at the stars. And he believed, and it was counted under him for righteousness. Oh, here we go. Well, that is the background. We come into what is a very mysterious covenant experience that's given in the Bible. If you've studied the Bible very much. You know this scene that we're about to read about and play out before us? Well, we're not really going to play out before us because I didn't bring any Heifers. But anyway, we're going to picture it out before us. You know, this scene because it's somewhat of a well known passage of Scripture, certainly not on the top ten, but it's up there. And if you've read it or know about it or heard about it, no doubt you had a few questions about it because it's kind of a mysterious little scene that takes place and you'll come to the end of the scene. If you're very honest with the passage, you'll come to the end of the scene and say, what's that all about anyway? Because it's not your normal, everyday kind of occurrence, even with Israel or Abraham or people of faith or certainly those of us in the church today. So what is it about? So we pick up in verse seven. Then after he believed in the Lord, he counted it unto him his righteousness. Genesis 15 seven. He said unto him, I am the Lord that brought the out of er of the Caldis to give you this land to inherit. It silly. Work through verse by verse because I have a hard time reading the whole passage. I am the Lord that brought you out of the ur of the Calvis. Now, first of all, did Abram know who he was talking to already? Yeah, it's pretty clear. Read verses one through six. He knew he was talking to the Lord. So why I am the Lord. Did he know that he had come out of ur of the Caldes? Yeah. So why are we stating the obvious? I am the Lord that brought the out of er of the Caldes. You can kind of picture Abraham if he's a little what's a good Hebrew term? Ticked off. If he's a little ticked off, he's saying, duh, I know who you are. I know who you are, where you been. I've been here the whole time. Yeah. So why does the Lord give by the way, I maybe shouldn't put that attitude into Abraham's mind, Abram's mind? Because he may not be thinking that at all, but I might be thinking it. Yes, Lord, I understand who you are and where we've been. So what's up here? It sounds to me a little bit as I'm sort of thinking through this passage and why is the Lord introducing Himself this way? It sounds a little bit like the beginning of legal jargon. I, Randy White of Cast, New Mexico, do hereby declare it sounds like legal jargon. Now, you know that the best way to interpret Scripture is to let Scripture interpret Scripture. So here's what we have to kind of do, especially when we're early in Scripture like this, we have to come and say, Sounds like and we make an assumption. I think this might be legal terminology and that maybe the Lord is about to enter into some kind of legal contract with Abram, and he has just given, you know, the here comes to the court, the Lord God, the one who brought him out of the Caldes and sets that forth in a legal set. Now, that's our assumption. We don't really know that. We're just assuming. I don't have a problem with assumptions at all. I think you ought to just question your assumptions, right? This is what a scientist does. You know, I think if you mix this and mix that, it'll go bang, bang. And so let's try it, right? Let's see if it mixes. Mix that, see if it bangs this. It's called a science experiment. Don't you remember in the science fair how you did this and then you found out, does it bang or not? Okay, here the thing we can do is look further into the scripture. Well, the next time we would find kind of this pattern is Exodus Chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20. Does anybody remember anything that's found in Exodus Chapter 20, the Ten Commandments? You win the prize, Lynn, which is a good feeling deep down inside. And the Ten Commandments are found in Exodus chapter 20. Well, the Ten Commandments are kind of a, shall we say, a legal document, a legal contract that the Lord is entering into with the people of Israel. And in Exodus Chapter 20, verse two, that is introduced by saying, I am the Lord God that brought thee out of Egypt. Same pattern, I'm the Lord that brought thee. I am the Lord that brought so we don't have a lot to go on here, but I think we got a little bit to go on to say. It is unusual kind of speech for the middle of a conversation. And so there must be something to it, and it sounds legalese. And the next time we see it and practically the only other time we see it actually is in the Ten Commandments, which is also a legal kind of thing. So it looks to me like we can probably say, I think we're about to enter into a covenant or a legal contract that is taking place. So again, in verse seven, I brought the out. I want you to notice something right at the end there. Let's say I brought the out of earth, the Caldis, and then it closes by saying, to give thee this land to inherit it. Now, let's just analyze that very quickly. It's as plain as the nose on your face, but God has promised to give whom what? Yes, I heard somebody whispering it. He promised to let's get there just in his plaintiff sense. I give thee this land to inherit it. Thee is Abraham. Abraham, as he's called here. I am going to give you Abraham, this land. Now, we could go back. We won't, but because we've only been what six sermons, five sermons previous in this. And so you haven't forgotten that God a number of times had said, I'm going to give you this land. You remember, walk about it and all that kind of stuff, the promises. You're going to get this land. So he says it again here, I will give you this land. Now, let's continue on in verse eight. And he said, this is Abram. He said, Lord God, where shall I know that I shall inherit it? Great confidence. You can almost hear a couple of kids on the playground, right, prove it. Are you really going to give it to me now? Again, I guess we could take Abram here and he left Earth, the Caldis, they stopped in Haran for a long time. He sort of wandered through the Promised Land for a while, you remember. And then he ends up down in Egypt for a long time, and then he comes out of Egypt, and then Lot leaves, and then he has these battles. I don't know how much time it is. We could do the math on it and figure it out. But you got a little bit of time going on, and he's still got nothing. So maybe you can understand a little bit here. Yes, I've heard you talk before, and nothing's come of it yet. So what's very interesting to me about this, how shall I know that I shall inherit it? That is two verses from Abraham believed, and it was counted unto him as righteousness. All we ever quote is, Abraham believed. We don't put it in its context. Abraham said, Are you really going to give me a son? Abraham believed. Are you really going to give me the land that's this roller coaster that we're on here, on? What is happening when you actually take it into its context here? And so it looks to me like again, here comes to the court, lord God, who brought Abraham Abram out of the Caldiz, he has promised to give the land just right there, I might say. Maybe God is about to give him the land. Maybe this is the legal thing where he's about to sign over the deed and say, it's yours, take it. Maybe that's an assumption. Maybe. Excuse me. There again in verse eight. Then whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? Really? In all of chapter 15, I know we're only eight verses in, but in all these eight verses, abram has never spoken a single word of faith. Everything that came out of his mouth was, Prove it. I don't think so. There wasn't a see, now, I know verse six says, Abram believed, but I'm talking about what was coming out of his mouth, and he only believed after he was coaxed a bit out under the stars. You remember. Here's a guy that doesn't seem to be showing a lot of faith. Well, let's continue. So he says, I really want to know. Verse eight, we pick up in verse nine, he, the Lord God said unto him, take me a heifer three years old. I should change the artwork away from Martin Luther. I got you a picture of a heifer. This Heifer was painted in somewhere before 1859 because that's when James Ward died. Okay, so there's an old heifer right there. So here is the word beginning in verse nine. He said unto me, take me a heifer of three years old and a she goat of three years old and a ram of three years old, and a turtle dove and a young pigeon. Okay, we got three mammals, a heifer, a goat and a ram, and two birds, a turtle dove and a young pigeon. Let me just say, we won't get into all the reasons whatever. There is a challenge in the Hebrew here. On the three it says, bring heifer three, bring shego three, bring ram three. Now, we don't know if that's three years old as it's translated here, and most of the English translations go three years old. If you read the Hebrew translations, the majority of them say, bring me three heifers, three goats, three rams. So it's definitely three. Is it three years old? Is it three of each? It could be, yes. But we know we got pepper, goat, ram, and we definitely know we have two birds, not any more than two, a turtle dove and a young pigeon. Now, verse ten, he took him all these, that is, Abram took all these and divided them in the midst and laid one piece against each other. But the birds, he divided not. Do you ever feel like you're missing part of the story? Bring me a heifer. Okay, here it is, Lord. Slice them right down the middle. Well, I'll lay them out there facing each other. You're thinking, why are you doing this, April? I don't know. What's up with bringing the animals anyway? Why? You're slicing the big, big animals, the mammals, but you're not slicing the birds. But here's the scene that we've got, that's why again, I called this the mysterious Covenant experience. So he goes on in verse eleven it says, and when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. Okay, got dead animals, you shall have foul come. And Abram doesn't want them on there. Drive them away. This would all be well and good if we knew what was going on and why. But do any of you say that's just odd? I am, Lord. God brought you out of me to bring me a Heifer. Okay, Lord, there it is. Stay away, birds. Either we're missing part of the story, or the story is just mysterious, hard telling which, but let's continue. So, verse eleven, Abram drove the folk. Verse twelve. When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. So what's going to happen this afternoon about 430 with the time change. That was a time change joke and only Ursula got it. Yes. A horror of great darkness fell upon him. Now, again, this sounds ominous. This sounds bad, but we don't know what to do. We spiritualize this or is there something physical about this? What in the world is really going on? It's pretty hard for us to know. Now, let's stop there and just jump down to verse 17 and finish out this scene. It says, and it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. That's the picture there again. What is it? A heifer or three, a goat or three, a ram or three, a turtle dove and a pigeon. They get sliced in half. They're facing each other, one on each side. Keep the fowl away. It gets dark, I'm scared and all of a sudden a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passes through. You get it, right? Makes perfect sense. I don't know if you are me. You have to look at that and say I don't understand what this is all about because remember what started it. All what started it was Abram said, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it somehow? This is some kind of confirmation that he's going to inherit it. But it's a weird confirmation. How does that help Abram to know now? I think we could we could speculate and I like speculating. We could speculate. This is how that encouraged Abraham to know that he was going to receive it and come up with all of our various ideas. In fact. I don't think it's a bad thing to put forth every idea we can come up with and then pull forth every idea that anybody else came up with and then look at them all and weigh the pros and the cons and look at it and analyze it and try to figure it out and say. Oh. There's some insight there. But you've got a problem here. And all that kind of stuff. It would be interesting. I wonder, however, and I've done a little bit of the reading on what all this means and what I found out is everybody seems to think it means a different thing and that the Bible doesn't tell us what it means. Maybe there is always going to be for us here a little bit of mystery in all this and maybe we're better remember. One of my old rules of Bible interpretation is don't let the Bible say more than it actually says. And what it says is, bring me some animals. And he did. For some reason, he cut them. Then he got scared. And then again, in verse 17 this smoking furnace and burning lamp if I was an artist, I don't even know how I would paint it. The smoking furnace and the burning lamp is this a gas fired furnace, a propane or what? What is you know, what is a smoking furnace and a burning lamp? And why are they going through the middle? And how does this encourage Abram that he's going to know? Somehow here you definitely got what we'll call the shakya glory of God. Shakya is a Hebrew word that means visible. And so visibly, God is passing through the pieces. Now, I think, and I've tried to do it before, but I quit being a parrot about eight or ten years ago. Parrot just repeats what he heard. I used to read the commentaries and say, oh, this is about the cutting of the covenant and the ceiling of the covenant and all this kind of stuff. And so I would repeat that. And then I actually read the Bibles and found out there's nothing really to support it. All I know is all these animals got slit, a burning furnace when smoking furnace went through, and a burning lamp. That's all I know. Mysterious? I'm not so sure it's not just bad to leave some mysterious in the word that we don't have to be able to absolutely interpret everything we can just say as one of my favorite answers on our Astheologian program is now we see through a glass darkly, then we shall see face to face. There are some things we just don't know very well and we could speculate or we could just leave it like it is. And I think I'm just going to leave it like it is that somehow both audibly as the Lord is going to speak here, and visually through these animals and the smoking furnace and the burning lamp, god is giving Abram encouragement that the land is still in the promise there. Here is a picture, by the way, of Abraham guarding his sacrifice that would be Abram at this point, chasing off the fowls of the air as he's got the sacrifice. That also was James Tiso. The first one was James Tiso. James Tissue is actually Jacques Tissue, which sounds an awful lot like Jacques Cousteau. So that's probably why he now goes by James. He painted he was most famous for painting portraits of British women. And then towards his older years, he got interested not so much in the British women, but got interested in the Bible. And so he started painting pictures of the Bible. One of the reasons he's so popular is because he actually, in the about the 1870s, made a trip to the Holy Land, what is today Israel, and went into Jordan and also down to Egypt. That was quite the trip and that day. Now, if you'd like to go January 31, I'll give you information. But nonetheless, he actually knew what the land looked like. And so he came back and he painted all these Bible pictures. And I think most of them are in the Brooklyn Museum in New York. Now just in case you needed a break from the sermon. Now we're back to the sermon here and let's pick up and back up again to verse 13. So the great darkness fell. Verse 13. Then it said and he said to Abram the Lord said to Abram no of Assurity that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them 400 years. And also that nation whom they shall serve when I judge and afterwards shall come up out with great substance. And thou shalt go thy fathers in peace and thou shalt be buried in a good old age. Let's stop right there now. Let's read verse 16. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again for the iniquity of their amirites is not full. Now that we've read those verses that we skipped, it's all clear. No, still not all clear, is it? As a matter of fact, maybe now we have more questions than we had to begin with. Because in verse seven, the reason I wanted to stop there for a moment, god said and we could go back and look at the earlier references. God said, I will give thee this land. How do I know that? I know that. I know you're going to give me this land. Bring me the animals, slice, pass through. Now let me tell you something. And what he says my interpretation of verses 1213 14, 1516 is abram. You're not going to get the land. I mean, I'm giving thee this land, but you're not going to get it because again, look. Verse 13 your seed will be a stranger in a land that is not theirs. Serve them inflict them 400 years. That nation I will judge, they will come out of that other land with great substance. That's a good news, bad news kind of thing, okay? Your descendants are going to be rich, rich, rich. But for 400 years, they're going to be in a land that's not theirs. And then they'll come out of that land 400 years from now. And you verse 15, you'll be buried at a good old age. Where's the land? Verse 16 in the fourth generation, they shall come here there again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not full. Looks to me like he's saying, I'm not going to deliver on the promise yet. You'll have children, I've told you that. Your children will have descendants. Their descendants will go off into slavery, their descendants to come back. 400 years from now. You're going to die and be buried, but you're not going to get it. Let's jump down to verse what we read through verse 16. We'd already read 17. Let's pick up an 18. In the same day the Lord made the covenant with Abrams, saying, unto thy seed I have given this land from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river of Freddy's. And then in 1920 and 21. It talks about all the people groups that are living there. But again, notice in verse 18, unto thy seed I have given the land. Compared to verse seven, to thee I give the land. It looks to me like Abram, this great man of faith, we picture him as his faith never wavered. He always just trusted in the Lord. It looks to me like he came and God was ready in the courtroom to give him the land, and he just pushed it too far. How do I know? Well, I'll tell you what. I'll let you die at a ripe old age in a land that's not yours. Remember it's. Acts, chapter seven, verse five. Stephen is preaching his great sermon. I think it's one of the maybe the greatest sermon of all time is that preached by Stephen as he stands before the Jewish people. And Stephen is trying to convince the Jewish people that Jesus is their Messiah, jesus is their promised King. And the reason they are not accepting him as their promise king is because Jesus didn't overthrow the enemy. He got put on the cross by the enemy. That doesn't sound like what we were to expect in our Messiah. And Stephen, the thesis of his sermon, if you will, in Acts chapter seven, is, let's see what's the opposite of don't count your chickens before they hatch. What he's saying is, what you see is not what you get. What you're seeing right now of Jesus, the one who got killed, okay, rose again, but he's gone, didn't overthrow any enemies, didn't establish any kind of kingdom. That's not the end of the story. It's not done. And that's easy enough to say, okay, yeah, you expect us just to believe you. And what Stephen does is say, hey, let's go back through our history and let's see how many times it could have been counted as lost, but it came later to be gained. And he says, the court calls forth Abraham. Remember Abraham, who was promised to land, but he never got it? In fact, Acts, chapter seven, verse five says that God, I quote, gave him none inheritance in it. No, not so much as to set his foot on not so much land he had, couldn't even put his foot on it. He was a sojourner, he didn't own a bit. He never got a single piece of land, it looks like. Again, I could be wrong. And someday I'll have to ask God, if you get there before I do, ask the question and send me the answer. God, were you about to give him the land? And yet he came and said, I got to know that I know that, I know that, I know that, I know. And you said, I tell you what, I'll fulfill the promise, but I'm going to do it to your descendants 400 years now, the fourth generation down there after Egypt, I'll make sure they come out of their rich with all the gold of their neighbors. I'll make sure they make it into the Promised land. There's something that makes me think the 400 years before all this takes place, and then remember when the spies came into the promised land or the people were coming and they sent the spies into the promised land, and they were like, no, we can't do this. Those people are too big. Their walls are too big. No, we can't do that. And they got 40 years in the wilderness. I wonder if the 40 years is just like, I'll tell you what, I'll start out with a 10th of what I gave Abraham, and let's just see if you're ready for it after the end of the 40 years. By the end of the 40 years, they said, let's do it. Let's trust God now. This time, let's go for it. And I think that we could probably pick this pattern in Scripture that we would find out that those patriarchs are a lot closer to same constitution as I am than I thought. Here I thought they never wavered, they never doubt, they were never disappointed. And yet here comes Abram, if I'm reading it right, says, I will cut and seal this covenant. Perhaps if that's what the picture has got, you will know that it's going to be yours. But your faith is going to have to grow here a little bit. You're going to have to have a long term faith. So much that the writer of the book of Hebrews talks about Abraham looking for a city whose builder and architect is God, and he comes with that lifelong faith, not turning on God, not rejecting God, but never having so much of a piece of square foot of land that was his, and he dies and goes to heaven with that knowledge. Now, let's try to transfer that to today. I'm not always a believer that you have to apply it to our lives, but let's go ahead. Okay. You know, the Lord said he's going to come back and rapture someday. Remember in the 1970s, it was about to be over with. You've read the book, right? And here you are. Remember 88 reasons why the Lord is going to come back in 1988. Does anybody remember that book? Does anybody remember 89 Reasons Why the Lord's coming back in 1989? Does anybody remember the people who went to Garland, Texas, because that's where the Lord was going to come back and rapture them? Does anybody remember, I don't know, four blood moons over and over and over and over and over. He's coming back for us. He's coming back for us. He's coming back for us about two weeks. He's coming back. I think maybe from some of these little vignettes that we have in scripture, we probably just got to learn, the Lord will do it in his time. And I just trust him. And I don't really have to know anything other than God said it. Maybe they'll bumper sticker. God said it. I believe that. That settles it. That was probably a 70s bumper stick or two, wasn't it? God said it. I believe it, that settles it. And really, we could just say, God said it. That settles it. God said it, that settles it. I may struggle with it, I may wonder if it's ever going to come through, but maybe I'll just keep my mouth shut to know that what God has said God will do comes through every time. And sometimes it's a 400 year delay, but God comes through. And even if you look at the closing of this passage here, you got in verse 18, in the same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abrams, saying, unto thy seat, I have given this land. But then look at it. It says, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates. When you look at that, you have to say, God never did it. That's from the Nile to the Euphrates. I'm going to give it. The Jewish people have never inherited the land from the Nile to the Euphrates to this day. There's not been a single day in history when they had possession of the land from the Nile to the Euphrates. And yet that's what God said he's going to do. Now, sometimes we can look at those kinds of things and we say, well, I must be interpreting it wrong. Actually, what he meant was, I'm going to give you a nine mile stretch between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordanian mountains. That's what I'm going to that's what he meant. That's how you interpret that. And he just wanted them to know how bountiful it was going to be. And so he used this flowery terminology that isn't very accurate geographically. Well, I think it's better just to say, God said it, he's going to do it. I'll trust that someday the descendants of Abraham will have that land. Now, probably, if I were to guess, they'll have that land after the Rapture, they'll have that land. Probably when the Lord comes again and establishes his kingdom on earth and in the kingdom of God, he will carry out each one of those. So we come here, we'll end with Jan von Hoffs picture of Abram standing out under the stars. And Abram believed, and it was credited under him as righteousness. Abram doubted. Abram believed. Abram doubted. Abram believed. He doubted. He believed. He doubted. He believed. He doubted. He believed. Which side of the coin are you on today? Doubt, believe. Stick around, it'll change. You'll go from great confidence, great mountaintop, down to a great valley experience. I think that one of the best things that we can do in our Christian life, is to learn to kind of ignore those highs and ignore those lows and just go at it. I've always said, I'll just give you a practical example as a pastor, and then we'll quit because I can keep going because we gained an hour that should become a church thing, where the hour that you gain goes to church and not to sleep anyway. Oh, no, no. Skip the one you lose as a pastor on Mondays if you're not careful. A pastor on Monday. Either is on top of the world, conquering everything, or they're in the dumps. And it all depends on yesterday's offering or yesterday's attendance or yesterday's music or yesterday's how warm the handshakes were or whatever the whole feel of that Sunday. And fortunately, God gave me the ability a long time ago just to say it's always too early to judge your ministry based upon yesterday's sermon or yesterday's attendance or yesterday's failure or yesterday's victory, whether it's the greatest great or the lowest low, it's too soon to make the determination whether or not this has come out well or not. You got to kind of swing this through. Okay, one more illustration, and I'll go. I've been reading about Richard Nixon. Remember him? A guy has come now, he's done a bunch of study on documents that have been released just in the past few years because they were under lock and key for 50 years, and now they're out. And it turns out that Nixon died out there in San Clemente as a crook, and maybe it was actually a legal coup that he was in the right all along. When you look at all the documents that are there, could it be strange enough that Nixon would come out smelling good 50 years later, maybe 75 years later, maybe 100 years later, when all is said and done and all the stuff is out and you find out, is that guy that was the crook after all? And here's the good guy. Who knows? But the moral of the story is, let's not figure out whether we're doing great or doing terrible based upon how we feel today. Let's just keep on going and trust in God's word one day at a time, sweet Jesus. Amen. Let's pray heaven. My Father, we're grateful that in the frankness that the Scripture presents these men that we call the patriarchs and the great Hebrews of the faith, the Scripture just presents them as they are, when they are, or how they are. And that encourages us because we're on that roller coaster of doubt and faith and encouragement and discouragement and how good it is to know that we can just walk. God will do it in his time and in his way, and we can trust in that fully and completely. We just pray that we would have that gift of the Spirit, which is patience, dear Heavenly Father, that fruit to the spirit of patience, and that we doing so would be able to carry it all the way on into the distance. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Well, the good news is that our Lord has provided salvation for any man, woman, boy or girl, has done it through his work on the cross that we haven't preached about today. But it is the center and the foundation of the reason that we have hope is because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. And we would love to visit with anyone individually about all of that. And as we go from here, let's just be reminded there we go. That there's a sweet, sweet Spirit. Ah, the sweetest spirit would be if the men stack the chairs. God bless you all. We'll see you Wednesday for supper as well, and I'll see you back here.