Abraham and the Torch – Timothy Keller [Sermon]

the passage on which the teaching is based is print in your bulletin it's nice long passage and it should be where you are if you've been singing if you haven't been singing It's on page 19 Genesis CH 15 veres 1 to 21 after this the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision do not be afraid Abram I am your Shield your very great reward but Abram said oh Sovereign Lord what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eleazar of Damascus and Abram said

you've given me no children and Abram said You' have given me no children so a servant in my household will be my heir then the word of the Lord came to him this man will not be your Heir but a son coming from your own body will be your Heir he took him outside and said look up at the heavens and count the Stars if indeed you can count them then he said to them then he said to him so shall your Offspring be Abram believed the Lord and He credited to him as righteousness he

also said to him I am the Lord who brought you out of er of the caldes to give you this land to take Poss possession of it but Abram said oh Sovereign Lord how can I know that I will gain possession of it so the Lord said to him bring me a heer a goat a ram each three years old along with a dove and a young pigeon Abram brought all these to him cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other the birds however he did not cut in half then Birds of

Prey came down on the carcasses but Abram drove them away as the sun was setting Abram fell into a deep sleep and a thick and Dreadful Darkness came over him then the Lord said to him know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and they will be enslaved and mistreated 400 years but I will punish the nation they serve as slaves and afterward they will come out with great possessions you however will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age in the fourth

generation your descendants will come back here for the sin of the amorites has not yet reached its full measure and when the sun had set and darkness had fallen a smoking fire pot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said to your descendants I give this land from the river of Egypt to the Great River the Euphrates the land of the kenites kenites cadit Hittites perizzites and rephaites amorites Canaanites gites and the jebusites and this is God's word now we go back

to series we've been doing and we're looking in the Bible at persons people who have had unusual encounters with God direct encounters with the the raw presence of God and almost in every case extremely strange and sort of uh awe inducing uh narratives most of them are pretty famous uh there's two places where Moses has a face-to-face encounter with the Holy with the presence of God and one of them is the burning bush very famous another one is where he's up on the mountain and God puts him in the Clift of The Rock and the

glory of God passes by uh another one of course we've already looked at is Jacob wrestling with uh with God wrestling in the dark another one which we haven't looked at yet but it's coming is Isaiah who comes into the the temple and uh and he sees the Lord high and lifted up and there's smoke and there's earthquake and everything is trembling these are all um oh I don't know how to put I say they're all Sensational and and perhaps as a result of that they're all very very uh famous but this situation in which

Abraham one of the great figures of History has a face-to-face meeting with God it's one of the strangest it's one of the weirdest uh of all the of all the stories in the Bible and it's very very seldom looked at it's not very welln it's not very famous we're trying to remedy that tonight you know a little way one of the things that I uh I'll just say this by way of beginning is that uh to my surprise I've I have never had this as a subject of any sermon or teaching I've ever done I

look through all my files and doesn't show up I've never done I've never have and yet as some of you know if you have been around this is my favorite this is the most significant passage for me in all of the Old Testament I refer to it actually fairly often I've just never had a chance to sit read the whole thing and look at it as a whole it's a it's an astounding thing and I'm not going to say much more let's just get right into it and you'll see the relevance of it pretty quickly

in verse one it says after this the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision do not be afraid Abram now right away that U you know raises the question why is Abram afraid what's going on and so we have to step back for just a moment and we have to ask ourselves uh who is Abraham and what is his relationship with God and why is he afraid and why is he struggling and so on now if you stand back and look at Abram you see that uh the the history of Abraham and

uh God starts back in Genesis chter 12 and when you read all these chapters in the this book of the Old Testament you will see that there's four great crises or thresholds uh four great incidents in which God comes in some way or another to Abraham in the very first one it's in Genesis chap 12 in the very beginning where and God refers to it here in verse 7 and he says I came to you in the first time when when Abraham was living in ER of the caldes and God comes to Abraham and this

is what he says he says Abraham get out get out of your country it's amazing the way God just he you know he just uh just rattles them off get out of your country get out of your people and get out of your family he says leave your country leave your people leave your father's house he says I want you to leave everything that's familiar to you and I want you to go he says get out to a land a place that I will tell you of and the book of Hebrews says so Abraham got

out not knowing whether he went and that was the first then later on and here we're into one of them right now when he made this promise to Abraham he says Abraham I want you to get out because I will make a great nation of you and out of your descendants out of this great nation will come one through whom all the peoples of the world will be blessed now that means since Abram got this promise that he would be a great nation his descendants would be a great nation that meant he understood this that

that meant two things that first of all God would give him a child God would have to give him a son if he was going to be a great nation and his descendants were going to be this this great people and out of out of whom all the nations of the world will be blessed and secondly uh he also Not only would need a child he'd need a land he would have to have a place and so here in Genesis 15 he comes and says will I have a child will I get this land and

God says yes but if you look rather carefully he says I'll give it to your descendants if you read all the stuff he says he says I'll give it to your descendants and the fact of the matter is Abraham never got any land Abraham never owned any land in his entire life except a little piece of land in which he and his wife were buried so you see God says come out I will give you a land but then he says and um uh well not exactly you um your descendants about 400 years from now

then in uh Genesis 17 Abram comes to God and he says Lord God you say you're going to give me a child we've been waiting for 25 years I'm 99 my wife is 90 and the Lord says and just wait and then finally a child is born Isaac and when we get to Genesis 22 God says to Abram Abraham take thy son thine only son whom thou lovest and offer him up as a sacrifice to me kill him now you see the best way I've ever heard this schematized and I can't can't remember who I

I all my great ideas come from Anonymous people uh that I can't remember anymore but I remember once uh hearing a minister say he says let me schematize Abram's life it went like this God says I'm going to send you out and Abram says Where and God says I'll tell you later right now just go and then he says I will give you a land and Abram says Where and God says I'll tell you later just wander and then he says I'll give you a child and Abraham says how and God says I'll tell you

later just wait and then finally God sends a child and he says Abraham kill your child and Abraham says why and God says I'll tell you later walk up the mountain take the knife take the fire and in every situation Abraham passed that threshold and he triumphed a very normal guy a very ordinary person with lots of weaknesses as you can see if you read the entire biography the entire account but at those critical places he faced those unbelievable circumstances and he triumphed Abraham led a big life that's the best way I can put it

Abraham led a life of Mastery circumstances did not master him he mastered them life did not push him around he mastered life you know one of my favorite frightening lines is the place in MC Beth where Shakespeare says each new mourn new widows howl new orphans cry new Sorrows strike Heaven on the face that's life each morning there's new widows there's new orphans there's new mourners new pain new every day every morning circumstances come at you it comes at you now what are you going to do the circumstances come at you what's going to happen

either they're going to knock you over either they're going to master you or you're going to master them how can you master them how can you be like how can you be like Abraham because see that's what Abraham did every one of these things that came in all kinds of circumstances disappointments disillusionments contradictions he had a life like a real life at every point he was able to live a big life a life of Mastery or another way to put it is a life of Faith because you see what did he do here's the secret

in verse 6 it says Abraham believed the Lord and this was the secret you see it's one thing to believe in the Lord and that's very good but what Abraham did was he believed the Lord you see that see of course in order to believe the Lord You Have To Believe in the Lord but you can believe in the Lord and not believe the Lord what Abraham did was he trusted the promises he trusted the things God said no matter what the circumstances he took hold of them and he trusted them and he based his

life on them and as a result he lived this big life and so can you uh you see there's this very interesting passage in Hebrews chapter 6:1 17 that refers to Genesis 15 as we're going to see in a minute it refers back to the fact that God came to Abraham and made a promise and and in Hebrews 6:17 uh we read it says God wants to make the unchanging nature of his purpose clear to The Heirs of what was promised so he confirmed it with an oath that we who have fled to take hold

of this hope may be encouraged we have this hope as an anchor for the soul firm and secure we have this hope now that's a wonderful Passage message we have this hope like an anchor for the soul now that's what Abram had Abram took God's promise he didn't just believe in God he believed God and he used it as an anchor now here's what here's the only thing I know about anchors uh the only time I've virtually ever ever navigated in a boat was for uh for many many years when my children were small not

real small sort of in the middle we used to go spend um a week each summer at Lake Erie with my wife's family and my oldest son is a fisherman and because my oldest son was a fisherman my middle son always had to fish too and uh and at least once I I used to put it off and try to do it as seldom as possible one once every year uh they wanted me to rent a boat and take them out into the lake so they could fish and uh I found it a frightening experience

and here's why you either had to fish just as the sun was coming up which seemed pretty awful to me or at least on vacation or as the sun was going down and so that's of course when I said yes let's do it and what what would happen is You' get in the boat it would be a little motorboat some old motorbit and what you had to do is you had to get as far out in Lake Area as you possibly could now Lake Erie is kind of like a sea if you know the Great

Lakes when you get out there you get out as far as you possibly can and you can hardly see the land and for a land lover like me that's rather frightening in this I would look and I say I think that's where we came from you go out a couple miles and then of course you'd have to fish until it just started to get dark and then you had to run back in before before it became dark because you'd be totally lost you wouldn't even know what country you were coming back to I mean cuz

there's more than one country out there on the Lake Erie and uh and so I would get out there as far as we could I would look and the thing that would frighten me is because of the the currents because the water would take us everywhere I was just very frightened that as we would fish or something like that the currents would take me away from the land or take me even away from the part of the land I was on you know it's a pretty big lake and so my only hope was our anchor

why well what's the anchor do the anchor does not hang down into the water because you see the water moves around you have to get it beneath the water into the Rocks which don't move around and if you get it down into the Rocks then the visites of the water don't matter now the reason that the anchor is used here as a metaphor uh in Hebrews 6 it says if you what what is your hope what is your hope what is the anchor of your soul what is it that really makes you feel like boy

I've Got Confidence to live life if it is whatever if it is your job if it is your looks if it is your talents if it is a friend do you have a friend who's an anchor the one thing that makes you feel like that that will always be there no no friend will always be there no family will always be there no Talent will always be there your look certainly will not always be whatever it is that you put your anchor down into if it's a circumstance it's like putting it in the water all

this stuff is water everything but the promise of God is water it's ebbing and flowing if it looks like it's flowing now it'll EB later that's the way water is you have got no hope unless you can put it beneath the water into something that's not water if you anchor your life into circumstances nothing you'll be tsed all around this says the only way that you've got hope is if you anchor it into something that's not a circumstance something that doesn't change something that's heavier than Heaven and Earth something that will Outlast Heaven and Earth

not only will it Outlast your uh your friends not only will it Outlast your looks your abilities your job it will even Outlast the rocks at the bottom of Lake eruri it's the promise of God and Abram was able to get the anchor of his heart down that far how did he do it well it happened one day like this see in verse 8 he says and here's this just goes to show you that he's a human being like all of us God had given him these promises and he says I will give you this

land I will make you a great nation I will bless all the Earth for you I will give you a child and I want you to live as if those things are going to happen no matter what it looks like no matter what the circumstances put your anchor down into that and what does Abram say he says okay he says in verse 8 but how can I know how can I know boy there's there's a guy like us see he's not he's not made of something else but how can I know and God says let

me help you get the anchor down and this is what he does verse 12 as the sun was setting oh pardon me not verse 12 let's start up all the way up here at the top the first thing is God says so the Lord said to him bring me a heer bring me a goat bring me a ram each three years old along with a dove and a young pigeon now what in the world is he doing and what's interesting here is that Abram it says Abram brought all these to him cut them in two

and arranged the halves opposite each other the birds however he did not cut in half and when the birds of prey came down on the carcasses Abram drove them away what is going on now the reason this sounds so difficult to understand is because with don't live in that day and time Abraham wasn't even really given instructions God says bring me these animals and Abraham immediately knew what to do with them he came and he cut them in pieces except the small birds and he laid them out what's going on he was doing something that

everybody in those days and times would have known but you and I don't and so we have to understand you see how did they sign a contract how do we sign a contract yesterday I did a wedding and at the end of any wedding in New York City uh at the end of the wedding you get out a piece of paper it's called a license and the bride and the groom sign it and then there's two witnesses that sign it and then I the minister sign it see in a sense at the wedding you get

up and you make these promises you say I take you in plenty and in want and in joy and in sorrow in sickness and in health as long as we both shall live but you see what if the one of the what if one of this the partners says how do I know you will deliver these things How will I know oh Sovereign groom how do I know oh Sovereign bride that you will give these things to me and you know what the BR bride and the groom do they say I'll sign I'll sign I

won't just say this you know I won't just say this I'll sign because in our culture when you sign there's consequences if you break your word frankly if you haven't signed there's no consequences except maybe the black eye U of that one person but there's no real consequences until you sign so some say how do I know that you are going to give us this you say I'll sign but not back then because you see Abram lived not in an written culture but in an oral storytelling culture and the way they made contracts was actually

I mean I occasionally you've heard me joke about this maybe uh a lot more effective than the way we do because what they would do is whenever they made a contract and someone says okay you promised me how do I know you will do it the way they would put themselves in a position where there were consequences for the Brokenness of their word is that they would act out the consequence of unfaithfulness right before everyone so for example let me let me read you something that's pretty interesting this is in Jeremiah 34 in Jeremiah 34:18

we read this this is what the Lord says you have not obeyed me the men who violated my Covenant and have not fulfilled the ter terms they made I will treat them like the calf they cut in two and walk between the pieces the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem who walked between the pieces I will hand them over to their enemies and their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth now do you realize what he's saying in those days the way you took an oath

was not by signing how wimpy what would that mean here's what you would do is you would take an animal he would slay it you would cut it put it down on the ground and you would walk between the pieces and this is what you were saying you're saying if I do not do everything that I am promising now may I be cut off may I be destroyed may may my flesh lay on the ground to feed the birds of the air and the beasts of the field that's what you're doing a fairly effective way

don't you think a lot better than signing huh you see Vivid but when you did it you were bound you acted out the curse now when Abraham was told bring me all these pieces he immediately knew what was going on this was a covenant ratification Ceremony this was the making of a contract he knew right away and he figured what did he figure well he didn't figure what actually happened no one on the face of the Earth figured what actually happened here's what happened verse 12 and then the Lord said to him oh pardon me

verse 12 and I didn't right I did verse for uh 13 verse 12 as the sun was setting Abram fell into a deep sleep and a thick and Dreadful Darkness came over him now this is actually a little hard to understand does it mean he actually got went into his sleep and he dreamed about it on the other hand down here in verse uh 17 it says then when the sun had set and darkness had fallen a smoking fir pot and a blazing torch evidently it's almost like the a Darkness came over him a darkness

of heart a darkness of mind it was overwhelming it crushed him to the ground if you've ever been in Smoke thick thick smoke where you you cannot breathe you're about to die you have to get down to the ground you have to stick your your nose you know right on the ground hoping that there might be a half of an inch of clear air well it's like that spiritually there was this unbelievable Darkness this unbelievable horror this unbelievable Terror it was a dreadful darkness and it came over him and it put him almost into a

into a kind of trance and out of that dark cloud God spoke about dark things and he says know for certain that your descendants will be strangers and he he explains to Abraham the history of his descendants that they are going to be slaves they're going to be Exiles they're going to be away from this land and they won't come back for 400 years but then finally in verse 17 and when the sun had set and darkness had fallen a smoking pot and a blazing torch appeared now this smoking pot and blazing torch nobody quite

knows exactly how to translate this it's very hard to know but here's what we know something appeared and these are the same words the words for smoke and the words for Blaze and it's the same words used to describe the top of Mount Si when God came down on it years later and the same words that were also used to describe the pillar of God's presence the fiery Cloud the see the pillar of God's presence his Rashia kind of Glory sometimes looked like smoke it was called a cloudy pillar sometimes it looked like fire but

here's what it was it was severe it was it was the presence of God and it was a pain to even look at it and the best way I've ever heard to describe this was one Minister who put it this way he says at that minute suddenly in the midst of the darkness a searing streak of lightning appeared and held its shape it spewed fire and smoke and Sparks it was the presence of God but it wasn't just the presence of God that astonished Abram but what it did look verse 17 it passed between the

pieces it went down the aisle made by the pieces and here's the reason this was so strange this is so incredible this is the gospel this is the whole gospel there is there is no place in the New Testament that gets as thoroughgoing as this here's what's going on you see there's always two promise there's always two problems excuse me with trusting God with living confidently there's always two problems with living a confident big life why is it that you and I aren't living the same kind of life that Abraham I there's always two problems

the first problem is Lord how can I know about you see when Abram says Lord how can I know how can I know all these great things are going to happen how can I how can I trust your promise how can I know about you how can I know you'll come through and it's absolutely astonishing that what God does is he appears and he passes between these pieces do you now know what he's saying do you know what he's saying to Abraham do you know what he's saying to you he is saying I have promised

to bless you Abraham I have promised to be your God and to bring Salvation to the world I have promised to bless you and if I don't do what I say may my immutability experience mutation may my immortality suffer mortality may my Infinity suffer limitation infinitude may my power suffer powerlessness May the impossible become possible may I be cut off may I be destroyed may my body be ripped to pieces God's saying this now if you think that's amazing it is but that's not all because Abraham looks at God at this point in a sense

and says what most of us say wow all right but that's not only my that's not the only problem I've got with living a big life Lord how do I know about you fine you've made this promise how amazing how wonderful that you have passed between the pieces that you would make a promise like this but you know I guess when it comes right down to it Lord I guess I never really thought you would break your promise not really the real problem is how do I know Lord about me here you've given me this

wonderful promise and you say you're going to do all this but I don't I don't think I can come through you said you will be my people I will be your God I believe you'll be my God but how am I ever going to be your person I will let me down I will let you down you will finally get tired of me you will finally say how many many times will he break will she break the promise that's it this is the 50th time that's it finally you will give up on me how can

I know about you well now I know because you passed between the pieces but how do I know about me and here's the thing that Abraham knew and that we'll all know in a minute once we realize this God walked through the pieces alone he did not say Abraham now you do it and let me tell you this is absolutely absolutely unique and stunning because we know this from history and archaeology that whenever a king would enter into a covenant relationship with a a vassel a lesser king or a conquered king or a servant whenever

a king would enter into a covenant relationship with a with a servant either both the king and the servant would go through the pieces both would say if I don't do my part let I may I be as eaten by the birds of the air and the beasts of the field or just the servant would go through but when the King goes through by himself this is what God is saying God is saying Abraham I'm going to go through for both of us this is the gospel the gospel that salvation in the Christian faith is

not a Cooperative effort it is not God helps those who help themselves it is not a partnership God comes through and says I will take upon myself the curse of the Covenant for both of us Abraham may I be cut off in I don't do my part of the bargain but Abraham may I be cut off if you don't do yours Abram I will bless you even if it means and it did that I would have to die don't you realize that centuries later Darkness came down again you read about it in Mark chap 15

ver 33 where it says and at the sixth hour Darkness came over the whole land and the 9th hour Jesus cried my God my God why hast Thou forsaken me and Isaiah 58 says Isaiah 53:8 says something that Abraham didn't know Abraham had no idea what it was going to cost God to make the promise he did but Isaiah says about the Messiah he was cut off from the the land of the living for the transgression of my people he was stricken his immortality did become mortality his immutability did suffer mutation The Impossible became possible

God died God was cut off God was trampled into the dust the darkness came down on him now what is God doing here's how we apply this first of all will you see that all of your problems and I mean all of your problems and I mean all of your problems come because you don't trust the promises of God your anchor is not all the way down do you know why you're worried you don't trust his wisdom you really don't do you know why you're angry and maybe bitter you don't trust his Justice do you

know why some of you hate yourselves because you don't trust his love and his grace in fact do you know why you disobey anytime ever when you ever do the wrong thing because you don't trust that God God himself God's presence is better than anything you could possibly get by disobeying in other words you believe I better do what will make me happy because if I trust God if I trust God if I trust God all the way to the bottom I will miss out your lack of selfcontrol your lack of self-esteem your anxiety your

bitterness whatever it is your anchors in the water you got to come all the way down this is the problem you need an anchor for your soul well how do you get it well first of all very simple very very simple two or three ways to put it number one go to God and say how do I know isn't it wonderful Abraham came and said Lord I need to trust you more I don't see how and what did God say did he say how dare you how dare you question me no isn't it wonderful God

says I'll show you you know when the when the when the man came to Jesus and said would you please heal my son and Jesus says well of course I can if you believe and what does he say I think I believe helped my unbelief and Jesus healed him because here's the gospel here's the gospel the people who think they see are blind and the people who say I'm blind are finally beginning to see and the people who think they have lots of faith you see have not gotten any and the person who says I

wish I could believe I don't believe I want to believe that's the beginning of belief because you're going to him because you see saving Faith or I should put it this way faith that turns great turns masterful starts by saying I don't have it the minute you finally say that God comes he'll do something you have to go and say how do I know you have to go to him you just tell him you don't have it he doesn't clobber you John the Baptist sends a messenger remember those of you who came in the morning

service earlier in the fall John the Baptist sends a messenger says are you the one who is to come or should we look for another and Jesus doesn't say how dare you how dare you question me he sends a message back if you go to God and you say I know what my problem is I don't trust you I don't trust me I don't have this Mastery help me God will he will respond then secondly and here's the most important thing the way you get the anchor for your soul is to not is to major

in the major not major in the minors what are the issues forget about whether or not God invented the world in 7 24-hour days or whether he used Evolution don't worry about it sure have made the front page of the New York Times big deal let's not talk about abortion let's not talk about homosexuality let's not talk about tongues let's not talk about denominations let's not talk even even about you know whether all the Miracles in the Bible happen don't you understand if Jesus is who he says he is if Jesus is the one of

whom the darkness came down if Jesus is the one who was cut off from the land of the living if Jesus is the one everything else falls into place you're not going to get an anchor for your soul you're not going to get Faith by studying archaeology or by looking at the peripherals you've got to do exactly what God did for Abraham he showed him the gospel you've got to go to Jesus you've got to see him doing what he did and you know what he did Jesus Christ loves you so much there's an anchor

for you because it wasn't just water that wouldn't dislodge Jesus Christ from us even hell God poured hell itself down on him he was ripped to pieces and he stayed there's your anchor look at that if you do you'll trust if in some ways it's intellectual because if you go to Jesus Christ first everything else in the Christian Life falls into place how do you know there's a God look at the evidence for Jesus how do you know how do you believe in miracles well Jesus is who he says he is Miracles no sweat see

how why do you believe this or why do you believe that you know I don't think Christians are right about this or that if Jesus who he says he is and he says it you see everything falls into place intellectually but personally what you need is to see him you need a sight of him you need a vision of him have you gotten any of it tonight have you been moved have you you cried outside or inside a little bit that's the way the anchor goes down and eventually nothing will move you nothing will move

you and you will say Lord God you are my shield not circumstances and you are my exceedingly great reward don't you see he doesn't say my dear friends he doesn't say I've come to bring you your reward he says I've come to be your reward I've come to give you Jesus let's pray help us father to get our anchor way down and the only way to do that is to like Abram admit our problems admit our difficulties admit our doubts and talk to you as if you're there but secondly help us to see the center

of it all is Jesus who he said he is is he God who became changeable vulnerable breakable killable is he the one who was cut off is he the one who passed through the pieces and said I will pay the penalty if I break my word I will even pay the penalty if you break your word father thank you for a Salvation like this how will we escape if we neglect so great a Salvation we pray it in Jesus name amen for more of this series series and other resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian

Church please visit www. gospeland life.com