7. Fulfilling the Promise

7. Fulfilling the Promise - For Notes

7. Fulfilling the Promise - PP

And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him (Genesis 21: 1-2).

God does what He says He will do.

The birth of Isaac, the birth of Jesus, the birth of the manchild, are all in a line. First, the foreshadowing, then Jesus as the Mono-Seed, then Jesus as the many fulfilling all that God speaks. This pattern is always the same – foreshadow – Jesus – us.

Interpreting Abraham. Now, the written account in Genesis seems to spend much more time on Abraham’s back-and-forth’s than it does on the birth of Isaac, the promised son.

I had you read Romans 4 and Galatians 3 & 5. Paul gives us the rule for how we interpret Abraham’s story.

First – all promise to Abraham is to Christ Jesus alone, and then only to those who are inside of Him, that is, who have put Jesus upon themselves (Galatians 3:6 & 22). Then Paul said to non-Judaic Christians – You, like Isaac, are children of promise (Galatians 4:28). And he says that inside of Christ, there is no distinction of natural descent.

Cast Out the Slave Woman. The claim that some promises of God in the Old Testament belong to the natural Judaic outside of and separate from Christ in the gospel, is a rejection of Paul.

This rejection of Paul, especially in our day, is the great foundation upon which the power of the beast is built, and it is the means by which the Church is caught in that power.

I should have included Genesis 21:8-10 in your reading – “Cast out the slave woman and her son; for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit along with the son of the free woman.” Cast out all false claims to the inheritance of Promise.

Enemies for Our Sake. Paul based this command to us on the circumstance from Genesis 21 in which Ishmael mocked Isaac. – But, just as at that time, the one born according to flesh persecuted the one born according to Spirit, so also it is now (Genesis 4:29).

Paul also said, “Indeed, as regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake; as regards the called, however, they are beloved through the fathers (Romans 11:28).

Now, the whole point here is God’s setting of opposition around the birthing of the Son of Promise, as Jesus said, “They hated Me without a cause.”

God HAS Honored Abraham. It is not hard to understand exactly what Paul is saying in Romans 11, and the formation of the modern nation of Is- is not found inside that chapter.

Paul is saying that, in the present time, the natural claim is at war against Christ. BUT – because of God’s high regard for Abraham, God intends to bring many of his actual descendants into the Lord Jesus Christ. This promise of God to Abraham has been happening from the Day of Pentecost until today; it is fulfilled.

Nonetheless, the opposition to the birthing of the revelation of Christ into our world continues in its importance.

Christ Formed Inside of You. It is inside this entire contest and issue that Paul then makes this statement – My children, for whom I travail in birth again, until Christ shall have been formed inside of you (Galatians 4:19).

And so we turn our attention now to the birthing of the final Promised Seed into the human experience, Christ as a many-membered body, many sons into glory.

And the dragon stands in the face of the woman about to bring forth, so that when she should bring forth, he might devour her child. And she brought forth a male, a son, who is about to shepherd all the nations with a rod of iron, and her child was seized into God and into His throne (Revelation 12:4-5).

God Is Telling Me the Truth. Revelation 12:4-5 is clearly the same topic as Galatians 3 & 4 and must be understood only as a confirmation of Paul’s words. – You, like Isaac, are children of Promise. And so we want to switch over completely now to the fulfillment of the Promise in our day and lives.

Here is my rendition of Genesis 15:6, as quoted by Paul in Romans 4:3. – I believe that God is telling me the truth.

– …he was filled with power in faith, into the promise of God, giving God glory. Abraham was convinced to full measure and completion that what God had promised, He is also able to do (Romans 4:20-21).

God’s Promise to Us. Let’s set God’s promise to us before our eyes.

Beloved, we are now children birthed out from God, and it has not yet been made outwardly visible what we will be. We know that if He becomes visible [to us], we will be just exactly like Him, because we will be seeing Him as He is (1 John 3:2-3).

We all, then, having been unveiled in face, are reflecting the glory of the Lord [to one another] as a mirror and are being transformed into the same image from glory into glory, just exactly as from the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18).

God PROMISED to make us just like Jesus.

Does God Do What He Says? Let’s get our connection straight. God promised Isaac to Abraham 25 years before Isaac was born, then again, 17 years before, then again one year before. Then Isaac was born, as God had said.

God promised to make us just like the Lord Jesus 1,963 years ago. Then, God made that promise real to me, personally, 42 years ago. This is the BOTTOM-LINE ISSUE from Genesis 3:1 until now – Did God really say that?

Does God do what He says? Abraham was convinced that He does, and so are we.

A Personal Promise to Us. Now, I have never brought this central Word of Promise in this close before. Let’s place this same certainty held fiercely by Abraham into our own hearts towards this specific Promise in the present moment.

We will be just exactly like Him – we ARE being transformed into the same image. This is a personal promise of God to you and to me. My whole interest in this lesson, then, is to set our eyes upon it.

We must begin with God’s setting, however – And the dragon stood before the woman to devour her child…

Attacking the Promise. The ATTACK against this Promise from the time God first spoke it until today has been constant and devastating. The Nicene Creed was written for the specific purpose of devouring this Promise and its fulfillment. Even those who follow Norman Grubb are hostile against this Promise, having rebuked me directly for believing it.

My response is the same as Abraham’s – I don’t care. I will not fight them, but my certainty is the condemnation of Noah – you could believe God, if you wanted to.

Let the ferocity of our seizing this Promise for ourselves be greater than all the ferocity of opposition. It is so.

Whatever YOU Mean. BUT – what does it mean to be just exactly like the Lord Jesus Christ?

Now, the second Peter stated that no Scripture can be of any “private interpretation.” That’s not what the Greek says, however, but rather, “does not come from any private source.” Nonetheless, it is true that I am the only one who teaches that no word God speaks is of any “private interpretation”; whereas all who proclaim Nicene theology promote it.

Here is NO “private interpretation.” Let it be to me according to what YOU mean by what YOU say.

Speak What God Says You Are. I do not know what God means, but I do know that God knows what He means and that Jesus dwelling inside my heart does all that God means by His Promise to me.

“I do not know what God means,” is always where we begin, but our faith and confidence in God, that He does what He means, brings the true knowing of God.

It has been fourteen years this month when my desperately thirsty soul heard the words “Speak what God says you are.” Those words, entering into me, went nowhere else but into that profound faith in what God had spoken to me when I was 21 years old, that I will be just like the Lord Jesus.

The Jesus Secret. You have some idea in reading my life story the weakness into which God was bringing me, but nothing thus far equals the weakness of June 2006, two months before I heard that wondrous word. And so as I embraced the speaking of all that Christ is as all that I AM, the Jesus Secret, there was no thought of “my performance” anywhere close.

Right now, I hardly know what God means by making us to be just like the Lord Jesus Christ, yet what I do know now fills me with such glorious joy and wonder.

Jesus became as I am, so that I might be as He is.

Vicious Attacks. We cannot over-emphasize God’s setting, for it is critical to the Father in the proving of Jesus through us.

All sharp attack against me because of what I teach has always been on this one point – that I will NOT be like Jesus, NOT in this age and NOT on this earth. I was even rebuked openly on Facebook by a leading union-with-Christ person, that God has no intention whatsoever of making me like the Lord Jesus, that is, that God will NOT keep covenant with me.

Satan’s words, “Did God indeed say,” were a most vicious attack against Jesus; they are repeated endlessly by humans.

We Are Convinced. This is the context, then, in which we apply to ourselves right now what Paul said about Abraham in Romans 4. Before God whom he believed, this One who is continuously giving life to the dead and calling into existence things not existing (Romans 4:17b).

Abraham was convinced – and so are we.

John was clear, that we do not know what we ARE – that we have no idea what it really means to be just exactly like the Lord Jesus. Yet, as we see Him as He is, which God has been giving to us, we discover that we have always been just like Him.

The Importance of Abraham. Now, we will continue this exact topic in the next lesson, regarding Abraham offering Isaac back to God, and in the next three after, that is, Rebekah and Isaac, Jacob wrestling with God, and Joseph proving word – until his time came.

That is, the great issue of you and me being just exactly like the Lord Jesus Christ in this present world. And indeed, in the next lesson, which I have titled “Sharing Christ with God,” we will set out what we presently know that being like Jesus means.
Here we continue with how important Abraham’s faith was to God; Abraham was God’s condemnation of Adam.

Abraham Against Adam. When you and I say, “God IS making me to be just like the Lord Jesus in this present world,” we are honoring God with the same faith by which Abraham honored God.

As Abraham was against Adam, so we are against all Nicene Christianity.

Adam was not deceived; that means that he knew all. Adam knew God; he knew the devil; he knew the lie; he knew the consequences of his choice. Adam had all. Abraham stumbled through life, hardly knowing anything EXCEPT – that when God whispered those quiet words to him, God was telling him the truth.

Reckless Confidence. We have been the same as Abraham, not knowing where on earth we are going. But despite our stumbling foolishness and all our searing weakness, we are not moved from our persuasion that God is making us just exactly like the Lord Jesus Christ ere our present experience is finished.

As He IS – so ARE we in this world (1 John 4:17). – I am part of Christ BECAUSE I am CONFIDENT that I am part of Christ (Hebrews 3:14).

Let our hearts rest absolutely inside this reckless confidence in God – against all devouring voices.

God Is DETERMINED. The issue is the proving of Christ against the accusing words of the serpent. 1 John 3:3 and 2 Corinthians 3:18 ARE the Lord Jesus Christ living in our hearts as every word God speaks. They are the real words against which the serpent spoke.

This isn’t about us “being like Jesus”; this is about the IMMENSE Determination of God to prove Jesus true. God is DETERMINED to make me just like the Lord Jesus.

It is into this Pro-Determination of God, already accomplished, that we set our face, unmoving and unflinching. This is what Abraham did.

No Surprise at All. Yet this was the beginning of Abraham’s faith; we will look at the completion of his faith and ours in the next lesson. And that’s why so few verses are included on the birthing of Isaac. To Abraham, Isaac was an “of course.” Isaac’s birth was wondrous beyond measure, but it was no surprise at all.

Being just like Jesus is wondrous beyond measure, but no surprise at all, for we have known it all along. And only one thing causes us to know what being like Jesus really is, and that is speaking the same word that is Christ, made personal, now as us.

And so we have done and will continue to do.

Reading for Next Time. For the next lesson, “Sharing Christ with God,” read Genesis 22, along with Hebrews 11:17-18 and Psalm 22.

Always read these passages in the presence of God, asking and expecting God to fulfill all that He speaks in your life. Always engage with God concerning His Word in the same way that Mary did.