Gen 12:3, And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." 
	We now come to the great promise made by God to Abraham. It is the great promise of God to man that encompasses all of eternity. In it is vested the entire essence of God’s character including His Faithfulness, His Compassion, His Grace, His Mercy, His Omnipotence, His Omnipresence, His Omniscience, His Fellowship, Forgiveness, Holiness, Generosity, Gentleness, Integrity, Love, Guidance, Patience, Peace, Longsuffering, Goodness, and Wisdom, just to name a but a few.   
	The full weight of this promise falls upon the last statement of this verse, And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. It is here that we see the full inclusiveness that has always been in the heart of God toward His creation. In Jesus Christ, as we will see, the entire creation of humanity is enabled to become partakers of the fullness of this promise made by God to a single man all those thousands of years ago. 
	God considered Abraham as the type in which He always intended for man to know God. Abraham trusted God and had faith in Him to deal with all the aspects of what life on this earth entailed. No matter how impossible a thing looked, Abraham knew that God would provide.
	Now this did not mean that Abraham was perfect. We read in this morning’s chapter about his actions in response to his fear of being killed because of the beauty of Sarah, his wife. Abraham did take matters into his own hands at times, and did make some dreadful mistakes. The reality, however, is that he always turned again to God and sought after God with all his heart. He was the friend of God and God was his friend. Whatever God asked, Abraham did, often without any recorded questioning or doubt. He trusted God to do all that God promised to do. That was why God made such a tremendous promise to and through Abraham. 
	God valued the very personage of Abraham, even to the point of making certain that Abraham knew what was going to happen to Sodom and Gomorrah. God did not keep from him the eventual outcome of those two sinful cities.  
Gen 18:17-19, And the Lord said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed? "For I have chosen him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice; in order that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him." 
	In this passage, we can see the esteem that God had in His heart for His friendship with Abraham. There was a communion between them that transcended the relationship of Creator with creation. God even listened to Abraham as he spoke to the Lord for the sake of even ten righteous men in the cities. There was a fellowship and camaraderie between them which both of them enjoyed and cherished. Listen again to the Lord’s consideration of Abraham … For I have chosen him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice… Just as Abraham counted on God to fulfill His promise, so did God count on Abraham to do all that was required of him with regard to being absolutely honoring to the Lord. 
	This was evidenced when God instructed Abraham to offer up his son of promise, Isaac, as an offering to God. It was in this young lad that all the manifestation of God’s promise rested. Despite that, Abraham willingly chose the road of self-denial in order to do that which was required of Him before God. In his faithful obedience to God, the Lord was blessed and made the proper provision for the sacrifice required.      
As we read in Gen 22:15-18, the Lord then reaffirmed His promise to Abraham in much greater detail and with specific encouragement and admonition. Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, "By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice." 
	With further regard to Isaac, the Lord honored the promise to Abraham and reaffirmed it directly with Abraham’s son, as we read in Gen 26:2-5. And the Lord appeared to him and said, "Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. And I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws." 
	The Lord reemphasized that all the nations of the earth would be participants in this promise of blessing. He further guaranteed it to Jacob in the dream at Bethel. Gen 28:13-15, And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. Your descendants shall also be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold, I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." 
	It was much later; again at Bethel, that God established the nation in whom all the other nations of the world would be blessed. Included in the promise was the pledge that a company of nations would proceed forth along with kings, ultimately resulting in the one true King of all mankind, the Christ. Gen 35:10+11, And God said to him, "Your name is Jacob; You shall no longer be called Jacob, But Israel shall be your name." Thus He called him Israel. God also said to him, "I am God Almighty; Be fruitful and multiply; A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, And kings shall come forth from you. 
While the nation of Israel was the vehicle of God’s maintenance of the promise of blessing for many centuries, it can never be overlooked that God’s promise was for all the nations of the earth. All the people would come to know the blessing of God’s pledge to Abraham. It was never meant to be an exclusively Jewish blessing. The company of nations, heralded in this passage, fully includes the Gentile nations that have received the blessing through Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul recognized this as we find recorded throughout his letters to the churches.
In Rom 4:13 we have the following: For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. It details the fact that the promise was the result of Abraham’s faith in God rather than his birth into a particular people. Because he believed and trusted in God, it was accounted unto him as righteousness. This is the same faith that we have in Jesus Christ. It matters not the nationality of our birth. What does matter is the relationship that we have with God through His Son. It is the living relationship of faith in God to do all that He proclaims that He will do by the death and resurrection of His Only Begotten Son.
	As the Apostle Paul further writes in Gal 3:6-9, Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "All the nations shall be blessed in you." So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. We are fully included in the blessing of Abraham as we are believers by faith in Jesus Christ. 
	And in Gal 3:16-18, we are further encouraged as we read, Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, "And to seeds," as referring to many, but rather to one, "And to your seed," that is, Christ. What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise. 
	It is all by virtue of the seed, Jesus Christ, in Whom all the fullness of God dwells, that we are incorporated into those who hold onto God’s promise with the every fiber of our being. He is the Promise so declared by God to Abraham, to Isaac, to Israel, to the People of God throughout all the centuries past. The Israelites held onto the Law as the token of that blessing from God, but here again, the Apostle Paul puts it in its appropriate perspective.  
Gal 3:24-29, Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. 
	And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. All of the barriers conceived of by men have been eliminated in Jesus Christ. God has shown His open heart in the absolute implementation of His faithful pledge. It matters not the nationality or the birth placement or the economic status, or the gender. In Christ, all those who believe upon Him are freely made partakers of the guaranteed blessing to Abraham.  
This reality so moved the Apostle that he earnestly praised God for all that the Heavenly Father has accomplished in Jesus Christ. Eph 1:3-6, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 
	As well, this great blessing should cause us to consider how we deal with our thankfulness and giving glory unto God. It should also fully affect the manner in which we deal with one another in Christ Jesus. Please turn to Col 3:5-15 and let us read it together. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him — a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all. And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. 
	We are to honor God in the manner in which we honor His Son’s people throughout this earth. Everyone included in God’s promise are to live lives that proclaim and herald this blessing. We do not live unto ourselves as His people. We are not isolated and insulated from the reality of who we are now in Him. As we go forth, we do so with the standard of Christ as our emblem of the manner in which God has blessed us, and through us, will bless others in the love and the faithfulness and the joy and the power and the grace and the mercy of His Only Begotten Son!
	This blessed reality will be absolutely on display for all of eternity as proclaimed in Rev 7:9+10. After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." 
	Let us ever hearken back to this promise made by God to Abraham. Let us fully rejoice in the truth that God’s eternal Being is completely vested into it by the death and triumphant resurrection of His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. To His glory alone, so be it!
And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Ps 86:8-10. There is no one like Thee among the gods, O Lord; Nor are there any works like Thine. All nations whom Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord; And they shall glorify Thy name. For Thou art great and doest wondrous deeds; Thou alone art God. Amen.