Title: Sanctification in Abraham
Text: Genesis 17: 1-8
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Date: June 8, 2011
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Sanctification is the work of God’s grace whereby God sets apart and makes his children consecrated unto him: by divine election in Christ, by the circumcision of Christ made without hands wherein he put away the body of the sins of his people by the sacrifice of himself and by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. God himself will receive the glory for sanctifying his children unto himself.
Proposal: What God does for Abraham in our text show us how that by the Lord’s work of grace in the hearts of his people God sanctifies his children from ourselves to Christ by whom we are saved.
I. SANCTIFICATION IS ALL OF GOD’S GRACE
Genesis 17: 1: And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram,
This was not when the Lord began his work of grace in Abraham’s heart. God began his work in Abraham when Abraham was 75 in a land of idolatry (Genesis 12: 1-5). Abraham did nothing to merit God’s coming to him, God came to Abraham first; this work of sanctifying Abraham from idolatry to God was by God’s grace, worked in Abraham’s heart by the word of promise. The result was Abraham believed God and went out.
Hebrews 11: 8: By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
Over and over, the Lord spoke to Abraham, revealing more about God, more of Abraham’s weakness, each time renewing his promise to Abraham, and the result was Abraham worshipped God, not himself.
Now look to Genesis 15: 1-6—all the promises given to Abraham concerned a Seed which the LORD God promised would come from him. This seed has reference to the multitude of God’s elect, whom he purposed to save before the world began (Hebrews 2:16). The heir was the immediate son Isaac. But God promised Abraham that from his lineage, God would send the seed of the woman, Christ his Son, who would crush the serpent’s head and redeem God’s elect.
Galatians 3:16: Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
This covenant was ordered and sure because this covenant work was entrusted to the Son of God by God the Father. It is the covenant work to which Christ referred when he said, “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” (John 17:4). When from the cross Christ said, “It is finished.”
We see that this work of sanctification is by grace, when we consider the error Abraham made prior to our text in Genesis 16. Abraham waited but no son came. So he and Sara came up with a plan. Sara gave Abraham Hagar, her handmaid, to wife. Abraham produced a son, named Ishmael.
Paul told us in Galatians 4 that these two women represent THE TWO COVENANTS. Hagar represents the old covenant—the same which Adam broke in the garden plunging the entire human race into sin; the same as the covenant of works which God would give on Mt. Sinai which declared the transgression of our offense in Adam; like Hagar came second behind Sara and was a handmaid to Sara, the covenant of works came second in time and is a handmaid to shut our mouths in sin.
Sara represents the everlasting covenant of grace made in eternity between God the Father and God the Son, that new covenant written on the heart of his people by God; like as Sara was first, the everlasting covenant was first before the world began, made first to Abraham while the law on Mt. Sinai was not given until 430 years later.
So when Abraham looked to Hagar we behold the sin of mixing fleshly wisdom with God’s wisdom; our works with God’s work; law with grace. Abraham turning to Hagar was an act of unbelief, not of faith. It was touching the unclean. The result was Abraham produced a child of the bondwoman, the product of his will and works.
Thirteen years passed. Though Abraham had done this thing, he is a child of God’s grace. God made his promise to save Abraham therefore God will not let Abraham return to his former idolatry, but will keep Abraham separated unto himself. So our text begins, And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram (Genesis 17: 1). Sanctification is all of the grace of God.
II. SANCTIFICATION IS BY GOD CONTINUALLY REVEALING CHRIST TO US.
Genesis 17: 1: And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
This is the first place God revealed himself as El Shaddai, the Almighty God. God is all powerful to bring to pass that which he has promised; all powerful to accomplish the salvation of his people in Christ without any help from our impotent hands; all powerful to keep and nourish his children in all times of trial through the Holy Spirit. When God makes us to behold his glory in the face of Christ Jesus, he manifest El Shaddi—the Almighty God—in our hearts.
Walk before me, and be thou perfect. First, this is a statement of fact—in Christ his Surety, through faith in Christ, Abraham was perfect. The only reason God did not destroy Abraham for looking to Hagar (his will and work) is because Abraham was perfect in his Substitute and Surety the Lord Jesus Christ.
Malachi 3:6: For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
Secondly, this statement is a promise. Since God put Abraham in Christ, because Christ has made the believer the righteousness of God, nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. We shall not be left to turn aside and perish. By this very act of God not leaving Abraham to himself but speaking to him in power we see:
Romans 6:14: For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Thirdly, this is the command by which the Spirit of God upholds and strengthens our faith. Abraham had just turned from faith in the LORD God to the law when he turned to Hagar. God instructs Abraham in effectual power not to turn from the God of promise—from the promise of God—from salvation in Christ—from him in whom we have fulfilled the law back to works of our hand.
Galatians 5: 1: Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. 2: Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. 3: For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. 4: Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. 5: For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. 6: For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
III. SANCTIFICATION IS BY GOD MAKING HIS COVENANT IN OUR HEARTS AND CONTINUING TO RENEW HIS EVERLASTING COVENANT IN OUR HEARTS.
Genesis 17: 2: And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
In other words, “Abraham, I will do all the work, I have promised to do! I will fulfill my covenant between me and thee without your help.” God in Christ has fulfilled the covenant of redemption. He shall fulfill his promise to keep us unto the day of salvation. It is the blood of his covenant that purges our conscious from dead works to serve the true and living God.
The LORD God promises “I will multiply thee exceedingly.” Even as God brought forth Christ, so he brought forth Abraham; as God brought forth Christ, so he brought forth Isaac; as God brought forth Christ, so he brought forth all Abraham’s spiritual seed; as God brought forth Christ, so he sheds his grace into our hearts and multiplies us personally, exceedingly! Notice the “will’s and shalls and everlasting”(Genesis 17: 4-8)
2 Corinthians 1:20: For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.
True sanctification from our dead works comes from God circumcising our hearts from the filth of our flesh by speaking to us personally in the heart, declaring his name to us--God our Savior—El Shaddi--and from continually making his covenant of grace new in our hearts.
What most speak about as sanctification is little more than a cutting of the flesh by the law. But like as Abraham the Father circumcised all his children—Jew and Gentile—truly the work of circumcision is wrought by God the Father in Christ on the cross and in the heart of his people through the Holy Spirit.
Colossians 2: 11: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: 12: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. 13: And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14: Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15: And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
Romans 2:29: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
This is always the result—“Abraham fell on his face, and God talked with him.” And so Abraham obeyed God. True sanctification is not becoming more confident in the work of our flesh, but beholding our all sufficient El Shaddai so that we cease looking to ourselves and trust God who is able to do all that he has promised. Having these promises we repent from our former idolatry, declaring with Paul: “we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3: 3).
Amen!