"Promise" 1 Chronicles 1:26-54 Sunday Evening Worship Service

In recent years, millions and millions of people have mailed off a vial of saliva to a lab and waited for an email that promises to tell them who they really are.

A chart comes back.

Percentages, regions, ethnicities, unexpected connections.

Sometimes it's exciting, sometimes it is unsettling.

I have lost count of how many times in the last few months I have somebody come to ask for prayer because of something surprising they got from one of these tests.

People discover relatives they didn't know existed.

Family stories that turn out not to be true.

What's striking is not just the science behind it, but also the motivation behind it.

No one takes a DNA test just to learn the chemistry of the thing.

The reason people do these tests is because they're searching for their identity.

They want to know who they really are.

It's become this little boom market in the world where people hit a certain age, and according to uh Google, that age is around 60 or 65.

That's the uh Ancestry.com's key market right there, where you have people that are wanting to find out more information about who they are so that they can leave the legacy behind.

They can pass along that information.

People want to understand how their life fits into something or to a family that is bigger than them.

That is, in a sense, what is happening in 1 Chronicles.

When Israel came back from exile, remember they were banished from the Promised Land for a century.

When they came back from exile, God didn't give them a DNA report, which in a sense would have been helpful because when they came back from exile, the tribes were all mixed up and meshed up.

God didn't give them a sentimental family tree, but he gave them a theological genealogy.

A list of names that didn't just say who they were related to or where they came from, but a list of names that identifies Israel's place in God's eternal plan.

I mentioned this before a few weeks ago, but I want to repeat it.

This is one of the key differences between Chronicles and Samuel and Kings.

Samuel and Kings is not locating Israel's identity.

Samuel and Kings is describing almost like the prophetic news report, describing what happened, who the kings were, how they served before the Lord, and what kind of the moral judgment was in their life.

Chronicles has a totally different function.

Chronicles is given to the readers so they can locate their identity in the covenant of God, in what God is doing in the world.

That's how this book is functioning.

It helps people understand who they are in God's plan.

And we get tonight to verse 27 to Abram, who of course is renamed Abraham.

And if you've read Genesis 12 through 16 or 17 recently, you recognize how important the renaming is.

The renaming comes not just after Abraham responds in faith, but the renaming comes with the institution of circumcision, with the promise that the blessing will not go through Ishmael, but through Sarah.

And so much so that Sarai is renamed Sarah.

God renames both Abraham and Sarah to drive home the point that he is making from them a promised nation.

He tells Sarai, Your name will no longer be Sarai, your name will be Sarah, because through Isaac, who's not yet even born or conceived, the promise will be passed on.

Abraham then stands in as the first Jew, the first circumcised person in God's covenant promises, the first to receive the identity of the promised nation.

Our outline tonight will look through to Israel belongs.

We'll follow all of the descriptions of what Israel possesses from this little genealogy here.

And of course, it begins with the basics of the promise.

Israel is God's promised nation.

Now, we're jumping in the middle of a genealogy.

So to remind where we've been, these promises begin back with Adam in the age of innocence, when there was no sin in the world.

That's where the genealogy began in chapter 1, verse 1.

And God ruled the world because he walked with mankind.

There was no sin, there was no conscience even.

There was just complete harmony with God.

When sin enters the world, death comes with it.

The age of innocence is, of course, over.

The tree of life is hidden.

The tree of knowledge of good and evil has been exposed.

And that leads to the era of conscience, where people are living according to their conscience.

In that era, which is basically verse 1 all the way down through verse 4, there, that is the era where there is no law in the world.

There are no prophets in the world.

There is no right or wrong outside of conscience.

And God even tells, speaks to them in that era and says, You should know what is right for you to do.

Sin offering is crouching at your door.

It's your desire to master it.

You should rule over it, God tells Cain.

It was given to them what was right to do, and that's why that's called the era of conscience.

But conscience gives way to nations.

Conscience did not restrain sin, so the world was overwhelmed with violence.

God floods the earth and starts a new time period, the era of nations.

And we looked at that last week.

That's where all the nations come from, beginning at the end of verse 5 or verse 5 there, all the way down to verse 26.

You get a list of all those who fathered nations, how the world was populated, and how they related back to the ark.

And there's, of course, the promise that goes from Genesis 3 that God's going to send a Savior to the world.

And so the question is, what nation is that savior going to come inside of?

What nation is going to be God's favored nation?

And God answers that riddle by not choosing any of the nations that come from the table of nations.

That's the big twist in Genesis.

The table of nations launches the nations around the world, but then God chooses exactly zero of them to bring the Savior into the world.

He establishes the nations and then chooses a new nation that was not a nation to bring the Savior to them.

And that begins in verse 27 with Abram.

Abram was called in verse 27, and this teaches us that through Israel to them belongs the adoption.

Abram was told, unlike everybody else in Genesis who had children according to their identity, Abram was told to leave his father and mother, to leave his family lands, to leave his whole life, to set out from where he was and to be made into a new nation.

Everybody else in Genesis relates back to their father and their mother.

That's who they are.

And that's jarring in a genealogy when you almost in a sense starts over.

The ESV does a good job with a paragraph break here because you're jumping from Abraham to a whole new thing.

But Abraham left his homeland.

This is Genesis 12.

Left his homeland.

Went off where God told him to go off to in faith.

Understand how jarring that is.

This is a world without careers.com.

There's no LinkedIn back then.

You didn't have job placement agencies.

When you left your family, you left security, you left stability.

The legacy you passed on to your kids was your property.

It was your possessions.

When you set off from home, you forfeit all of that.

So as Abraham obeys the Lord, he's walking into the unknown by faith to start a new nation.

How ridiculous is that to start a new nation?

But that's what Abram did.

In so doing, Abram becomes bound to God in a covenantal relationship.

He was chosen from the nations, and he becomes, he leaves his father and mother in their homeland, and he becomes a child of God.

God binds himself in Genesis 15 by covenant to Abraham.

Genesis 40, or sorry, Isaiah 41, verse 8 refers to Abraham as a friend of God, and that's repeated in the book of James as well.

Isaiah 41:8

Abraham is called a friend of God.

Through that friendship, he enters into a covenantal relationship with God.

And he is made a child of God.

He belongs to God through sonship.

He's made his own family.

It's him and the Lord.

This is what adoption is.

Now Abraham isn't adopted like we are.

He doesn't have the spirit of adoption that dwells in his heart.

He's not brought into the body of Christ.

He's not adopted into a like a Christological family of God, so to speak.

Rather, he starts a new family, a nation of God.

We have the spirit of adoption in our heart.

So the Bible uses the word adoption a little bit differently for us.

We are brothers and sisters with Christ.

Abraham is adopted into a kind of a sonship relationship with God where he becomes truly a son of God.

This is the promise to Israel.

All of Israel then will be known for adoption.

They will all be known for their sonship.

Well, Abram gives way to Ishmael and Isaac right away.

Verse 28, the sons of Abraham or Isaac and Ishmael.

What a tragic story.

There's a whole bunch that goes on in there.

Isaac and Ishmael have a relationship with each other that is complicated to say the least.

Do you remember God was promised Abram he would have a son?

After a while, Sarah got tired of waiting.

And Sarah, remember if you remember the story, this is not the kind of story they flannel graph in Sunday school, by the way.

Sarah comes to Isaac and says, Let's be done waiting.

Why don't you sleep with Hagar, my maidservant?

And what follows is a complex series of relationships.

Abram agrees and sleeps with Hagar, and Hagar falls pregnant, and then the oddest thing, Hagar gets angry at Sarah for getting pregnant with Abraham's son.

Why?

Well, you can tell Hagar is reluctant in this.

If you ask why, you I'm gonna think about it a little bit longer.

Hagar works for Sarah.

She's basically a slave to Sarah.

And then Sarah says, Oh, one of your duties, you're gonna sleep with my husband.

And then she gets pregnant by that.

Hagar's mad.

Hagar goes, is just angry at Sarah.

Sarah goes and complains to Abram, remember?

And tells Abram, this isn't right.

Because she got pregnant.

Well, this is Sarah's idea.

And that phrase that Abram listened to the voice of his wife, the only other time in Genesis that was used was when Adam listened to the voice of Eve.

This is not good.

And so Sarah complains to Abram, and then the text says, Abram tells Sarah, go do whatever you want to to Hagar.

She belongs to you.

And so Sarah goes and abuses Hagar.

This was Sarah's own idea.

And Hagar, of course, runs away weeping.

The angel of the Lord meets Hagar out in the wilderness and comes to her and tries to comfort her.

I'll make you a nation.

Your son will be a wild donkey.

But I'm going to make twelve tribes from him.

Twelve nations will come from him, and they will be strong and immovable, and they'll be planted in the land.

That is the same promise that's going to happen through, that was the same promise given to Abraham.

It's not the promise given to Abraham, although it is the same kind of promise given to Abraham.

A whole nation will come from Ishmael.

And so it is interesting, the genealogy here in Chronicles goes to Ishmael first.

These are the genealogies of Ishmael.

Nebyoth and Kedar, Abdil, Mibsim.

You don't recognize these names, of course, right?

These aren't, in a sense, Christian names.

Nobody names their kids this in the church because they're outside of the promise to God.

Mishma, Duma, Masa, Hadad, Temah, Jatur, Nafish, Kedimah.

These are the sons of Ishmael.

So it traces down Ishmael's family tree.

And it doesn't stop there.

You get the 12 nations from Ishmael, of course.

You remember what happens next is, well, I'll get to that in a second.

But then it goes in verse 32.

The sons of Keturah.

Keturah, what in the world?

That was Sarah's newmaid servant.

After she drove Hagar away, she replaced him with Keturah.

Sarah dies.

Abraham marries Keturah.

Did you remember that part of the story?

They have children together.

She bore him in verse 32, Zimron, Joxon, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah, the sons of, and then you get their own tribes, the son of Joxon, Sheba, and Dadon, the sons of Midian, Epha, Epher, Hanak, Adiah, Elda, and these are all the descendants of Keturah.

And so it chases down the other children that Abraham had.

Now, in the middle of, in the back of your mind, you're thinking of, but doesn't the New Testament say that Isaac was Abraham's only son?

Yes.

Because he was the only son of the promise.

Ishmael was not the son of the promise.

And it gets even weirder.

Remember when God then goes, after the whole Ishmael fiasco, and the angel of the Lord goes and fetches Hagar and says, Go back, submit yourself to Sarah.

That's what the angel of the Lord tells Hagar to do.

Go back and submit yourself to Sarah and spend the rest of your life with her, and I'll give you twelve tribes, and your son will have a nation from them.

And Hagar does that, even though she's already been replaced with the new midwife, the new handmaiden.

Anyway, Hagar comes back.

Then the angel of the Lord goes to Abram and says, First of all, you are going to have a son, you're going to name him Isaac, and it'll be next year, a year from now.

And you're going to circumcise yourself, and everybody from you is going to be circumcised.

Do you remember what Abram's response to God was when God told him that?

He pleaded with him to take Ishmael instead of Isaac.

He said, Would you just reckon Ishmael is my son?

Why are you telling me a year from now I'm going to have another son?

Just count the language is why don't you count Ishmael?

I always think of the basketball play where there's a foul and is it on the floor or was he shooting and the ref comes in and the basket goes in the hoop and sometimes they'll wave it off and say no, it was on the ground, and sometimes they'll say no, count it.

And then the free throw.

That's the language Abraham uses here.

Why don't you just count Ishmael, God?

You're the ref, count Ishmael.

He's born, he's alive.

I love him, is the idea.

Count him as my son.

And God tells him, No.

No.

You'll have a new son, Isaac, and you will be marked by circumcision.

You remember what Abraham does after that?

He goes and circumcises Ishmael and himself.

At age 90, he circumcises himself, then he circumcises Ishmael.

God is not persuaded by that.

God instead says the promise will go through Isaac, who is yet to be born.

And so the genealogy tells you the background of Ishmael and his family, and the background of the rest of Abraham's kids.

But now it focuses in, in verse 34, on Isaac.

What you learn from the story of Ishmael and Isaac is that to Israel belongs promise and patriarch.

The patriarchs come from, not Ishmael, but from Isaac.

It's not Abraham, Ishmael, and Mishmah, but Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The patriarchs go with the promise.

The New Testament refers to Isaac as Abraham's only son because he is the only son of the promise.

Israel is not from Ishmael, even though Ishmael is from Abraham.

Israel is from the promise of God.

The patriarchs belong to them.

This leads third to Jacob and Esau.

What a classic Old Testament story.

This is verse 34.

Abraham fathered Isaac.

The sons of Isaac, Esau and Israel.

Remember, Jacob wrestled with the Lord and had himself renamed.

Chronicles refers to him by his new name.

Chronicles refers to Abram as Abraham.

And now it refers to Jacob as Israel.

Abraham fathered Isaac.

Isaac, of course, two sons, Esau and Ishmael.

Esau and Ishmael.

Fighting him on the way out.

And they lived their whole life that way.

They lived their whole life that way with Jacob fighting and outmaneuvering and swindling and cheating and basically being rascal is too nice of a word.

Scoundrel might be too strong of a word.

Somewhere between rascal and scoundrel, that's Jacob.

And that's his life.

And that goes on to personify Israel.

So unlike Ishmael and Isaac, where God says the promise is going with Isaac because of his mother, what is the distinction between Jacob and Esau?

Because they have the same mother.

The distinction here becomes that of election, is not of virtue.

Please don't think that God looked down the tunnel of time and chose Jacob because he saw that Jacob would in his own faith choose God where Esau would not.

If anything, the opposite happens, right?

Esau is weeping and begging to be received by God, and he's not received by God.

Meanwhile, Jacob is out there doing every manner of evil thing to his family.

But God chose Jacob.

That's so the New Testament teaches you that God's purpose in election will stand.

That Israel has kind of tattooed on their forehead, so to speak, this concept of election.

God chose Abram from among the nations for no other reason than he wanted to choose Abram.

He chose Israel from among the nations for no other reason than he wanted to choose Israel.

It wasn't because they were more numerous than the other nations, that they were more lovely than the other nations, or any of that.

He chose Israel because he wanted to.

And he chose Jacob before the twins were even born or had done anything good or evil.

He chose Jacob so that his purpose and election might stand.

The older, it is said, will serve the younger.

So that salvation does not depend on man who wills or man who runs, but on God who chooses whom he wants to save.

That is the lesson of Esau.

Esau sought salvation with tears and didn't have it.

But he did have children, verse 35.

Eliphaz, Rahul, Jaush, Jalam, and Korah.

These are the sons of Esau.

Now it's going to trace down their family lines.

Eliphaz was Esau's son, and you get his family tree there, verse 37.

Rael was Esau's son, you get his family tree.

So it chases down their generations, but they're almost insignificant.

Because Esau stands to remind you that to Israel belongs election.

And with election comes the glory.

The promises of God.

The angel did not wrestle with Esau, the angel wrestled with Jacob.

God touched in that sense Jacob.

Disjointed his hip.

Jacob had a vision of the glory of the Lord.

Israel saw the glory of the Lord, not Esau.

And so the story of Jacob and Esau teaches you that to Israel belongs election, and to Israel belongs the glory of God.

It was Jacob that saw God's glory, not Esau.

Well, then you get an odd twist in the family tree here.

Verse 38.

Seir is, there's no family tree for Seir.

It's not one of Esau's kids.

It's just kind of plopped right here.

Seir comes out of nowhere, so to speak.

Seir comes out of nowhere, so to speak, and has his own family.

Lotan, Shibol, Zibon, Anad, Dishon, Ezir, and Dishnon.

And then you get their family trees, the sons of Lotan, the sons of Shibul, the sons of Anon, verse 41, the sons of Ezir in verse 42.

This is an odd list.

They're here in the pages of scripture without ancestry.

They just appear.

Seir settles in the south of Israel.

Geographically, they're outside of the promised land.

They're around the promised land, but they're not around the worship of God's people.

There's no record of Seir worshiping the true God.

Whereas Abraham comes from the line of Shem, who knows?

It's implied based on where they are in the genealogy.

They're also from the line of Shem, but we don't even know that.

They don't have knowledge of the true God.

They don't have access to God through worship.

There's no temple in Seir, there's no priests in Seir, there's no prophets there that go to them.

They're outside the worship of the true.

God.

In a sense, you might have heard the question what happens to people that what happens to the pygmies in the desert island or whatever, to which who die without ever having heard of the gospel, to which I say there are no pygmies on desert, deserted islands.

But behind that is this idea, what happens to somebody who's outside scripture?

They live their whole life without ever seeing the Bible.

Well, Seir represents those people.

They're so close to Israel, but there's no record of worship or the word of God there at all.

They provide a contrast.

Worship does not come to the world through Seir, but worship comes to the world through Israel.

They're outside, Seir is outside of the covenants and the fellowship and the worship of God.

Seir had ancestry, they had territory.

They did not have access to God.

Israel had access to God.

Israel, at this point of their existence, doesn't even have territory yet.

God had promised Abram and Isaac he would give them this land.

He promised Israel they would have the land, but Israel is on his, you know, two feet off to Egypt at this point.

Yet Seir has the land, but they don't have worship.

And then finally, the genealogy ends here with Edom.

Edom joins us in verse 45.

Sorry, not verse 45.

Eim uh joins us.

Where does Eam Edom join us?

Verse 43.

These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before any of the kings reigned over the people of Israel.

Bela the son of Beor, the name of his city being Dinahaba, I suppose.

It's amazing that didn't catch on.

And as you go through this, you'll notice this is the genealogy of the kings.

Bela died, and Joab, the son of Zerah of Bozir, reigned in his place.

That's a different line.

So there's a king here, he dies, a different family son reigns on the throne.

Verse 46, Hushem died, and Hedad, the son of Bedad, who defeated Midian in the country of Moab, reigned in his place.

So now a new line again.

The name of this city being of Eath.

This is all happening around the Dead Sea, by the way, is where these things take place.

Hadad died, then Samlah of Mistrichah reigned in his place.

So another family.

Selma died, and Shaul of Rabioth of the Ephorites reigned in his place.

So again, another a whole other tribe of people rises as king.

Verse 49, Shaol died, and Baal Hanan, the son of Akbor, reigned in his place.

Another line.

Baalhanan died, and Hadad reigned in his place, and the name of his city being Pai, again, another entire city, a new tribe takes over the Edomites.

His wife's name was Mahatbel, the daughter of Metred, the daughter of Mezahab.

And then Hadad died.

You get a list of their chiefs.

The chiefs of Edom were the chiefs Timnah, Alba, Jathas, Ahalambah, Elah, Penum, Kenanaz, Temon, and Mibzar, Magdal, Iram, these are the chiefs of Edom.

So that's an odd list, also, isn't it?

It should jar you.

It's in here to be abrupt that you recognize there's no dynasty with the Edomites.

They have no kingly promise.

They have barely have land.

It's one tribe and one family rising into power, and there is no kingdom to pass down to their children.

One guy reigns over the tribes, they're called kings, but I'm telling you, these are more like glorified, you know, mayors.

You know, they might be the king of their little town.

But when they die, it's some new guy who takes over.

And even there's no consolidation, even.

This person might reign over this county, so to speak, but he dies in somebody from another neighboring city or take over that county.

It goes back and forth.

There is no stability whatsoever.

No dynasty, no kings.

It's like Israel in the days of the judges.

Everyone did what was right in their own eyes, and there is no lineage at all.

Which stands out in a family tree, because everybody in a family tree comes from their parents.

They're listed under their parents, not these people.

It's just one king after another without relation to each other.

It's interesting that that didn't happen to Israel.

Israel had Saul, then David, and then a long line of kings from David.

Why is that?

When David became king, or when Saul was king at least, the Edomites were every bit as strong as Israel was.

So why is it that Israel got a dynasty that lasted for hundreds of years, so much so that God himself said it's an irrevocable dynasty.

It's an eternal kingship.

It's only the promise of God.

Edom was not promised the land.

God called Abram and parked him in the middle of what became the Edomite land.

Abram went up on top of the hill and overlooked Israel and overlooked the Edomite land.

And told Lot, which one do you want?

And Lot chose Israel, but it wasn't Lot's choice to make.

God told Abram, I'm going to make this your land.

And Abram built an altar.

That's where he did the sacrifices at that altar and said, This is going to be my land one day.

Edom here represents that the land and the kings belonged to Israel.

So look at this list.

This is what you're reading names that you don't know, many of which you've never seen before, but what a what a Jewish person back from exile would read in the list we just read is that Israel has adoption.

Israel has the promises in the patriarchs.

Israel has election and the divine glory.

Israel has worship.

Israel has land.

Israel has the kings.

But you know what Israel doesn't have at this point?

They don't have salvation.

They don't have a saving relationship with God.

They have a genealogy, they have promises and covenants, but they don't have their savior, and they don't have salvation.

And that is the great tension in the Old Testament with Israel.

They are God's people, but man, they fight him at every turn.

Not all Israel is true Israel.

Not everybody who descends from Jacob is in a saving relationship with God.

And so I want you to, we'll leave Chronicles behind and flip over to Romans chapter 9.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 9 in the New Testament.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

Paul's contemplating this very fact.

I'm not saying Paul had his devotionals this morning in 1 Chronicles 1, but I wouldn't be surprised.

He says in Romans 9, I'm speaking the truth in Christ.

I'm not lying.

My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit.

Remember, it's always jarring when a scripture writer tells you, oh, this part's really true.

Like the whole Bible is true, but here Paul says, no, this part is extra true.

I'm actually speaking the truth.

In fact, notice how many times he doubles down on it.

I'm speaking the truth in Christ.

I'm not lying.

Also, my conscience bears me witness.

Also, the Holy Spirit is inspiring this.

That's true of all scripture, but Paul's just reminding you here.

This is a five-fold declaration, it's true.

Paul says, I am overcome with sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, because I wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

Paul says, I would trade my salvation for the Jews to be saved.

They're the Israelites.

And notice the list that Paul goes through.

It's the same list that's on your screen.

They have adoption.

To them belongs adoption.

What Chronicles narrates through genealogy, Paul narrates through theology here.

Israel is not descended from Abraham merely.

Israel is taken as God's son.

They were adopted as God's son.

Verse 4.

To them belongs the adoption.

To them belongs the glory.

What Seir was cut out of, what Esau was denied, Israel had.

Israel did.

To them belonged the promises.

God gave Israel the promises of God, from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob.

The promise eventually going through Judah.

Then to David and Solomon, all the way down.

It was inside of Israel.

To them belong, verse 5, the patriarchs.

They didn't come through Ishmael.

And from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever.

Amen.

The covenants, the promises, the patriarchs.

All of those were given to Israel.

Even it uses the word glory here.

Theirs is the glory.

That's not abstract radiance of God, like they stumbled into the tabernacle.

That's the covenantal privilege of being chosen as God's people.

The other nations didn't have that.

The word in verse 4 for worship, it's the word Latriya, the word for like an organized worship offering up to God.

Israel had that.

The Edomites did not.

Edom had kings before Israel did, but Israel had the king who fulfilled the promises.

The inheritance culminates not in the land alone, but in the Messiah.

The Messiah comes, and the people that were given to whom the Messiah was given rejected him.

And this crushes Paul because he's looking at everything Israel had, he's counting up all they had and wondering, why aren't they saved then?

The covenants were theirs, the patriarchs were theirs, the promise was theirs, the worship was theirs, the access to God was theirs, and yet they rejected Christ.

Meanwhile, the seers of the world and the Edomites of the world and the Americans of the world, who are not covenant participants with God, get grafted in.

And salvation comes to us.

We become promises, children that are counted as children of the promise.

Look at verse 8.

The children of the flesh are the children, it's not the children of the flesh who are children of God, verse 8 says, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

The promise fulfills itself in Christ, who goes to the nations.

You can look at the end of chapter 9.

As Adidas says in Hosea chapter 9, verse 25, those who are not my people, I will call my people.

Those who are not beloved, I will call beloved.

In the very place where it was said to them, You are not my people, they will be called sons of the living God.

God brings his promises to the world.

His promise is not in land alone, but in the Messiah.

The nations will come to faith in Christ.

And it's so ironic that that's how God fulfills his promise to Abraham.

He told Abraham in Genesis 12, I'm going to make a nation out of you, and through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

What a twist that the nation Abraham makes rejects God, and yet the nations of the earth are blessed through their rejection, through the crucifixion of Christ.

We know, of course, the story doesn't end there.

It's still on your screen.

Edom shows that the land promises went to Israel.

God will restore Israel.

He will use the salvation of the Gentiles to provoke Israel to repentance, and the gospel will come back to Israel.

And those days, at the end of this era of human history, all of Israel will be saved.

Chronicles opens by reminding the readers that we're returned from exile.

Don't trust in your identity for your strength, your numbers, or your prestige, but trust in the promises of God that are passed down generation to generation, even all the way to us.

We're not from Israel, but we received the promises of God through Christ.

Lord, we're thankful that your promises go to the world through Christ.

That we have received Christ.

Ours was not the patriarchs, ours was not the promises, ours was not the access to worship, the lands.

That all belonged not to Ishmael, but to Isaac.

If anything, we are with Ishmael in this kind of story, Lord.

And yet you brought us salvation.

You made people who are not your people your people.

So that your people who had rejected the covenant promises will be provoked.

We're grateful for Christ.

He fulfills these promises.

All of the promises of God are yes in Christ Jesus.

He fulfills all of them.

We're so thankful that you've given us Christ.

It's in his name we pray.

Amen.

And now, for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.

If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, iBC.church.

If you want more information about the Master Seminary or our location here in Washington, D.C., please go to TMS.edu.

Now, if you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, D.C.

area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emmanuel.

I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.

But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.

Now may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.