Okay, well here we go. It's three o'clock Jason. Welcome to the webinar. Thank you so much. Yeah, here we are.

We're going to discuss Genesis 15 through 29 and Matthew 9 through 15. And by the way, this is Jason Dome. He's the pastor at Sovereign Redeemer Community Church, just up the road. We thought about sitting in the same room, you know, and doing this together, because we're not that far away. We thought this would be way cooler.

So here you go. But okay, so Jason, here we are in Genesis 15. We've gone through the four major events already in Genesis. Creation, Fall, Flood, scattering of the nations. And the way I've taught to my children that I learned to walk through the Bible, it's like this, create creation, fall, flood, scattering of the nations.

So you can understand Genesis in fours, and that's the first four. And the second four is the section we're in right now, four great patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. So four great events, four great patriarchs. And we started with Abraham in chapter 15, which he actually started in chapter 12. But now we're working through these great patriarchs.

When we get to chapter 36, right at the end there, we hit Joseph and Joseph continues all the way to the very end. Enormous amount of words given to Joseph. So anyway, that's where we are in Genesis. That's where we are in the history of the world. By the time we get to the end of Joseph, we will have probably experienced 2, 400 years of the world's history, something like that, maybe more.

But so anyway, we're in this, well, we're learning our roots. We're seeing where we came from We're seeing what families we emerged from in the world. So what are your thoughts about this big section? Well, we read 15 chapters in Genesis, so it's quite a sweet, but the very first verse for this week's reading is Genesis 15, 1. And it's just an astounding verse.

It's really one of the most precious verses in all the Bible. Let me read it. 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. Some of the translations have it, I am your portion, your very great reward. So here God puts himself forward to Abram.

He hasn't even changed his name yet, but he puts himself forward as the protector or the portion of Abram and his great reward. So God made Abram a rich man, but really the true riches in Abraham's life was God himself. Yeah, and let's don't forget that that promise to Abraham is also promised to every child of God. Right. All the promises of Abraham flow to all believers.

This is the, this is the, well, you call it's a such a comforting, it's one of the most wonderful verses in the whole Bible. I am your shield. I am your exceedingly great reward. And when you hear those words, your it's not just Abraham. It's me.

It's Hey, Jason, it's you. It's me. And What a blessing. And I think that that takes us to the great theme really of the whole Bible. And that is that God makes promises to rescue and sustain his people throughout all their attacks, through national upheaval, through famines, as we've read about already through war.

You know, Abraham's already experienced a war. And it's also been revealed that he has weaknesses. You know, he lied. He was covering his own skin. But even through your own weaknesses, even through your sins, God is faithful.

He will see you through. And that's why he says, I am your shield. I am your exceedingly great reward. God is the center of, God and his rescue of mankind is the central message of the whole Bible. So there we are, 15.1 gives it to us.

Yeah, and I think all true children of Abraham, which are the children of faith, it's not as genealogical children, it's those who believe in God and it's credited to them as righteousness. All of Abraham's true children spend the rest of their lives trying to grow in God becoming their reward, taking your eyes off of earthly rewards and learning to savor God, know God, grow in grace. Amen. Hey remember that song we used to sing a long time ago with our children? Which one?

Abraham. Yeah and actually we have Jacob's ladder in this week as well Down down the genealogical tree we're at Abraham and Bethel and his his encounter with God, a ladder between heaven and earth, and the angels ascending and descending, and God speaking to Jacob from his ladder. So there's all this rich history of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You've already referenced this, but in chapter 20, Abraham says of his wife, she is my sister to Abimelech. It's the first time it happens, but it's gonna happen again with Abraham, then it'll happen again with Isaac.

So we sort of see the sins of the father being experienced in the life of the son also. But what struck me was in chapter 20, after Abram hasn't done what's right, he says she is my sister, but God tells a Demilech, you are a dead man. And just to kind of the precious truth there is that even though Abram wasn't thinking right about things and he wasn't doing, I think he was doing a sinful thing there. God rescued him anyway by appearing to this king and saying, you're a dead man if you don't let this woman go. Amen, that is so amazing.

You know, there's another snapshot really of the history of the world since Ishmael and the rise of the Islamic communities in the world. In chapter 16, there's this disclosure of Ishmael that he will be a wild donkey of a man. And this kind of sets forth the prophecy of the conflict between the Arab jihadists and the Kingdom of God. And that conflict, of course, continues today. Maybe it's escalating today, it seems like it is.

In, I may be skipping ahead, but in the last chapter of our reading, we're now in the life of Jacob. And he meets Rachel and negotiates a marriage with her father Laban. And then he, what has gone around comes around and he gets tricked himself. You know, his name means supplanter and he supplanted his brother Esau a couple of times and gained what God would have gladly given him through trickery and and now the the tricker gets tricked and so anyway this is a New Testament teaching to whatever a man sows that he will reap God's of God's never mocked do you think Jake God's ever done that with us, Jason? I know God is sending people to do the same thing to us.

Yeah, we have 20 minutes today, Scott. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that works all around the block. God does desire to reveal our sins to us and sometimes He does it through wrongs that people do to us, which we've done to others or at least thought of others And he does it to humble us. He does it to bring us to repentance. And God is good.

He's in control of all the difficulties that we have. He was in control of Laban, something random didn't fall out of heaven upon Jacob when he encountered Laban. This was God's plan. The trouble that he had was God's trouble that God brought on him. And that we just can give thanks.

If our hearts are humble, and we'd really want to learn from the Lord. Although it takes Seems like we're kind of thick-headed I may be skipping around some but chapter 19 Genesis 19 is one of the hardest chapters to read in the Bible. There's so much defilement in Sodom and Gomorrah. And in the lead up to chapter 19, you see Lot in that region, and then he's pitching his tents towards Sodom and then before you know it, he's living in Sodom. Yeah.

I think it's at 1 Peter, it says that he was torturing his righteous soul day after day. So the Bible actually speaks to whether Lot was a true believer or not. He was, he had a righteous soul, but it was tormented by the defilements that he allowed to be around him. He should not have been living there. He should not have had his wife and his children in that environment, but he did, and it cost him almost everything.

And look at God's mercy. Yes. I mean, God sends an angel, two angels, to hold his hand to walk him out of Sodom. Now his wife broke off. She couldn't leave Sodom.

But God was so kind to Lot. Even though his heart got him in so much trouble, his worldliness really was harmful. God gives him, God, hey, here's the, God gave him two angels to hold his hand, to walk him out of the city. I think he was probably hesitating. God gave him help along the way.

This is God's mercy. God will preserve his people. God preserves his church. And if he has to send an angel to walk you out he'll send an angel to walk you out. In J.C.

Ryle's Holiness he has a chapter called Lot Lingered and it talks about that text and the lingering of Lot around the defilements of Solomon and how people of God shouldn't linger. We should run, should never, should not turn back. Amen. You know, those doors of Lot's house are so significant. What you let in those doors determines everything.

And Lot suffered, and of course his daughters suffered the greatest as a result of what he did with the doors of his house. I think these are chapters that are sometimes hard for Americans to read with understanding, in the sense that with all of our flaws and problems and sins in our nation, we're still a nation of laws and the rule of law, generally speaking is honored here. So when Americans hear of a husband saying, oh, say you're my sister, cause I'm afraid they'll kill me because you're beautiful. Or when we read about Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot offering up his daughters, we have no frame of reference for that. So if you're reading through this in family worship, your kids are gonna say, what are those idiots thinking?

Well, this is because we live in a place where the rule of law has kept us out of situations that actually give us a framework for understand. These men were trying to save their skin and probably for very good reason. They've probably seen things we've never seen. Yeah, amen. Hey, just a couple more things to say about these Old Testament texts and then we'll move on to the New Testament.

In chapter 21 you have Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah and that wonderful promise God will provide. God sees and God will provide. And back also in chapter 24, Abraham seeks a wife for Isaac. He's 40 years old when he gets married. And you just see how God used this father and this trusted servant to help this man get married.

But anyway, there's so much to talk about here, but we've seen quite a range of history here. Scott, just one comment before we leave the Old Testament. This is the second week covering a lot of ground both weeks, but in both weeks you really didn't need the New Testament text to talk about Jesus. Last week you and Carlton were talking about Jesus from Genesis 3.15 and the promise that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. Now we're talking about Jesus again, Abraham almost offering up his only son, the son that he loved.

And so, the point being that the whole Bible is really about Jesus. It's wonderful to have the New Testament and it's clearer, brighter, but Jesus is all over the Old Testament. This is going to be happening every week we're going to be finding Jesus in Old Testament text. You don't have to reach to do or misinterpret anything. He is there.

Amen. Amen. Well, hey, let's jump there. Let's go to Matthew nine and we find Jesus. And what's he doing?

He's walking by a tax office and there's a guy in there by the name of Matthew. It's just a regular day. And Jesus comes by. I just love this story of the conversion of Matthew and then of course he goes on and he writes this gospel. Just a marvelous beautiful story And then all of Matthew's friends show up in his house.

All these messed up people. And Jesus says, you know, he came to call sinners, not, you know, not the holy. And it's just a beautiful picture of conversion. And really, you know, Matthew opening up his home and his heart to his friends who don't know Jesus. Yeah, yeah.

A tremendous couple of verses there. I think verses 12 and 13. When Jesus heard that he said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, but go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." This is just one of the things that we see over and over again in the gospels that the real impetus of conversion is God giving you the gift of having a sense of being sick in your soul and needing a physician. The people who don't have a sense of that never run to Jesus to heal them.

But Jesus came to give life to those who, He helps them to feel sick and so they go to him. Yeah, and right after that great scene in Matthew's house, there's this boom, boom, boom, one healing after another. A ruler whose daughter dies shows up. The woman with the flow of blood for 12 years, two blind men go up, then a mute and a demon possessed man shows up. This is all in chapter nine.

And then chapter nine ends by saying, well, he was healing every kind of disease and sickness and you know Matthew says he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Yeah. Broken people he loved Jesus was He loved broken people. And in Isaiah 35, God through the prophet says that in the times of the Messiah the lame will leap like a deer. I remember preaching that text.

Oh, that was so much fun. All of these healings and miracles have a truth behind what's actually happening, which is these are marks of the Messiah. God promised to send a Savior. And he said, when the Savior comes, you'll know him because he'll be doing these things. These are the things that he's doing in chapter nine.

One thing that's remarkable in chapter nine is how it opens up. It opens up with a paralyzed man being brought to Jesus. And Jesus says, Not you're healed, but your sins are forgiving you. And just striking, the Friends didn't bring this man to Jesus for that purpose. But I think the great truth there is that people whose arms and legs don't work, the biggest problem is not that.

Our biggest problem is our sins. And it would be better to crawl into heaven, having our sins forgive, than to walk into hell. We see this all over the gospels. Yeah. Well, hey, and then after that chapter, it's like this next chapter 10 is full of realism.

You're going to be persecuted, you're going to be betrayed. I'm sending you out as sheep among wolves and, you know, fathers will betray daughters and mothers and daughters-in-law, brothers against brother, you'll be betrayed. And then he says, you know, disciples not above his teacher, they did it to me, they're gonna do it to you. So after all this beautiful healing, he sort of brings us down to a sense of reality that it really is a world of trouble and the rejection of Jesus Christ. At the end of chapter 11, we have just a really, really famous, everyone will recognize it intimately.

It's 11, 28 through 30, Jesus says, "'Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden "'and I will give you rest. "'Take my yoke upon you and learn from me "'for I am gentle and lowly in heart "'and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." We see here what we see in many other places which is Christianity isn't primarily institutional. The institution of the church is important. But this is primarily goes way beyond structures and performance and things like that. Christianity is about people who are weary, they're heavy laden and they go to Jesus for rest.

They find rest for their souls. Yeah, what wonderful text. Yeah, and then in the next chapter he says I'm the Lord of the Sabbath. And then he goes into all the parables, the sower, the tears, the mustard seed, all these things, and he feeds five thousand, probably twenty five thousand people and declares himself to be the bread of life. Anyway There it is, it's such a marvelous section of scripture.

There's so much beauty here, we could talk all day about it. And any parting shots, Jason? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, just one parting shot. Matthew chapter 13, the parable of the soils. There are the four soils and you have sort of four different results.

Two of the four look to be, like there's real Christianity, real life there, but time and circumstances show that there really was no real life, there was no root there. If you don't understand that parable, you'll go through your Christian life observing things in the church and not really understanding what you're seeing and becoming disillusioned when people turn away, when actually Jesus has taught us that it would be so. Right, amen. Well, my parting shot is kids don't miss chapter 14 where the disciples are struggling against their oars, that things are not going well, and it's in the fourth watch of the night and Jesus comes walking on the sea and it's he starts walking by them like he's passing them up and they think it's a ghost and they're scared so he gets in the boat and calms the sea. I often wonder if he thought that was funny.

– Ha ha ha, that was a good story, there you have it. – Okay, hey Jason, thanks so much. What a blessing it's been to do this stuff. Let's sign off, we've done our time here, we're actually overtime, so we'll shut the discussion down. Many blessings to all you who are reading, pray that God gives you great joy and great happiness and going through these marvelous testimonies of how God preserves his people through his Son Jesus Christ.

See you later.