Abraham

Turn with me please to the book of Genesis chapter 12. Our brother finished up by saying, sirs, I believe God. I want to speak a little bit about Abraham, a man that was characterized by belief in God.

Abraham believed God. It was counted or reckoned unto him for righteousness. So, Genesis 12 and and verse number one.

Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee.

And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Now chapter 13 and verse number six. And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents, and the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together, for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together.

And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle, and the Canaanite and the Parasite dwelled in the land. And Abram said unto Lot, let there be no strife, I pray thee. Verse nine, is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me.

If thou will take the left hand, then I will go to the right. And so on. Now chapter 15, please.

And verse, I think it's verse number well, seven. And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gave thee the land to inherit it. And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And he said unto him, take me a heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old.

And I'm not interested so much in that different sacrifices, but verse 16. But in the fourth generation, they shall come hither again. For the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full.

Now chapter 18 and verse one. And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre, and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. And he lift up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood by him.

And when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground. And he said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. Let a little water, I pray thee, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.

And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts. After that, you will pass on. Now chapter 22 and verse number two.

And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son, or thine only Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, that I will tell thee of. Now final verse in chapter 25 and verse number nine. Well, verse eight.

Then Abram gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years, and was gathered to his people. And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the sons of Zoar, the Hittite, which is before Mamre. Now God will bless the reading of his word with what our dear brother has brought before us.

Now you might wonder what have we got to do with a man called Abram that lived so long ago? And yet, you know, he's called the father of the faithful in the book of Galatians, isn't it? The father of the faithful. So we all have a relationship with this man, Abram. He's our father.

And you may have noticed in the Gospels, for instance, in Zacchaeus, the Lord told him, you also are the son of Abram. I don't think he was telling him just that he was a Jew, but he was rather telling him that he had a relationship with Abram. He was like his father.

Abram believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. And we believe that it was true of Zacchaeus. We find a man in hell and a man in heaven in Luke 16, and he's in Abram's bosom.

How did he ever end up there? Because he was like his father, Abram. And I thought, and I asked myself, I wonder how much I'm like Abram. How much are you like your father, Abram? Do you act as he acted? And I'm just going to take a few minutes, like our brother, maybe a few more than he did.

But anyhow, we want to look, first of all, from Exodus Genesis 12 and 1, Abram's call. Wonderful thing to be called by God. We're not told the whole details, but you remember when we come to Stephen that our brother has been bringing before us.

Stephen, he says that the God of glory appeared to our father, Abraham. The book of Joshua, the last chapter, tells us that Abraham dwelt on the other side of the flood. He's not talking about Noah's flood, but he's talking about the river Euphrates.

And he said they worshipped idols. These were people that worshipped heaven. And I can see Abraham away in those days, and he's looking up to heaven, and he's wondering who made this great creation.

Others were worshipping idols of wood and of stone, and they were worshipping the stars, likely the sun and the moon and the stars. And he's saying, who made this great creation? And he had an interest in learning more about God, so God revealed himself to him. And I think if we can look back on our own conversion, and we should do that every day that we live, and thank God for ever saving us, that God ever revealed himself to us.

We may not have been bowing down to idols of wood and stone, but there were other things that were idolatrous in our lives, things that occupied us, but God in his mercy, whenever we began to think a little bit about eternity, God revealed himself to us. And he calls this man out, out from the world, the idolatrous world in which he lived. And what a thing it was for this man to obey the call.

Do you ever leave your country to live in another land? Well, I did, but I wasn't like Abraham. I knew where I was going. I booked a plane fare and so on.

Actually, I paid the fare from money I won gambling. But anyhow, I came, and there was a couple waiting for me at the other end, and I'll tell you, I landed in the wrong airport, and the plane was diverted. I missed a plane in New York, but anyhow, I couldn't get in touch with the people that were to pick me up, and I spent the night in the airport.

And I thought, my, I'm in a strange land. I would have taken the first plane back. Glad I didn't.

I remember struggling. Well, finally I got in touch with my friend and Uncle Andrew, my wife's uncle, and Andrew says, take a bus down into Detroit. There's a Greyhound bus outside there, and I wish he had come and picked me up.

I wasn't used with traveling. First time I'd been away from home. And you know, I struggled out with my two suitcases to go outside, and I sat them down to open the door, and the door opened on its own.

I'd never seen an automatic door before. I thought, man, I'm in the wrong place. But imagine going out to a place with nobody to meet you.

I thought, I'll give it two years. Thank God I did. It's the best thing I ever did, as far as relocating is concerned, because God reached and saved me here.

But God called Abraham out, and he had a definite purpose for him. He would have thought, what's God going to do with me? Why do I have to go away from my kindred? And God said, you come out, I'm going to make of you a great nation. And I wonder how often Abraham thought about that when his wife was childless.

And he said, the slave of my house, this Eliezer, the steward of my house, he's my heir. God says, no, I have something better for you. And I just want to point out that God saved you and he saved me for a purpose.

You ever find what the purpose was? Someone re-emphasized this, and I'm going to re-emphasize it. No matter what God has called me for, we don't know. And we shouldn't tell God what he saved me to do.

We should ask him, what will you have me to do? But I want to be available for God. And in order to be available for God, no matter where he's going to use me or use you, we need to know the word of God. Abraham believed God.

And it was counted unto him for righteousness. He wanted to know what God had for him. You ever wonder about that? What's the most important gift or what's the most important thing that you and I could do? I know men that were great teachers.

I knew them. I know some today, too, but, you know, if you ask them, what's the greatest gift? Many of them would say, I'd love to be able to preach the gospel with power. You see, it doesn't matter if God has called you to be a Sunday school teacher or a personal worker.

That's as important, maybe today, almost more important than standing on a platform. Because you can reach people that we could never reach. But anyhow, God has called you for a definite purpose.

And then we read of Abraham's choice. There are lots of choices that come to us in our lives, and I've often wondered what would have happened if I had gone one way years ago. Where would I have ended up today? Never know one choice and especially one wrong choice could take you far away from God.

But, you know, here we have Abraham and Lot. Such a difference between these two men, even though they were both believers, and it comes that they can't dwell together. Their flocks, God had increased them so much.

And now they have to make a choice. And the wonderful what Abraham did, he said, I'm going to let God make my choice. Lot saw the well-watered plain.

That's what you would want if you were going to have a herd. You'd want a well-watered plain. But, you know, I want to just mention one thing and pass maybe on.

It says in verse 7, there was strife. When there's strife amongst God's people, we lose our power. And as well as that, we lose our testimony.

How would that be? The Canaanite and the Perizzite were in the land. Why are those two brought in here just at this juncture? Well, it's to show that there are people that they're right with us. And they know.

They know what kind of people we are. They know what our testimony is. They know if we go to all the meetings of the assembly, they know far more about us than we would know.

And especially maybe with Facebook, although I'm not on Facebook and I don't think I'll ever be on it. Never is a long time. But anyhow, I think you know enough about me.

There's a lot of things I know about myself I wouldn't want you to know. But anyhow, here he is. He says, God's going to make the choice.

And I tell you, God's choice is always right. He said, it doesn't matter what way you go, Lot. I'm going to go the other way.

So we have his choice. Now we come to 15 and verse number 8. And here we read about the covenant that God made with Abram. I don't want to go into the details of the covenant, but it's wonderful how God told him what was going to happen.

You know, those who are close to God, they find out the mind of God. Peter couldn't find out the mind of the Lord. In John chapter 13, he was too far away from the Lord, it would seem.

But he asked the one that was close to him. The one that was leaning on his bosom is the one that got the answer. The urim and the thummim were behind the breastplate of the Lord.

Get guidance right from the very heart of God. That's where we need to get our guidance. And Abram was able to tell him, he said, but what I just want to say before I pass on.

Verse 16. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither. Children of Israel are going to go through the fiery furnace.

The land of Egypt, slaves. But he said, that fourth generation, they shall come hither again. For the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full.

You ever wonder why when the children of Israel went into the land, they marched around the city of Jericho for seven days. Not 13 times, but for seven days. Why did the walls not fall down the first day? Well, I'll tell you, because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full.

God doesn't work too soon. Doesn't work too late. His timing is perfect.

And he was giving these dear people an opportunity to be saved. You say, why doesn't the Lord come and take us all to be with himself? Because the iniquity of this world is not yet full. God doesn't judge unripe evil.

But this old world, we can see it, can't we? It's fast filling up the cup of its iniquity. And soon the Lord is going to come in and judgment. Thank God we can be like Ruth.

She was patiently waiting. She shut her door. There was a door from her house to the world, Jericho.

She shut the door. But the window was open. What's she waiting for? I think she'd heard about the Ark of the Covenant.

For us, the Lord is coming. But don't give up hope for your loved ones. Keep on praying for them.

We no doubt are living in the last days. But God is giving sinners an opportunity. And if you're not saved here in the meeting this afternoon, go in for God's salvation.

Boast not thyself of tomorrow. Thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Now we come to 18 and 1. Beautiful story of Abraham sitting in his tent.

Abraham always, it seems that after he left the Chaldees, he always had a tent. That's his pilgrim character. Are we like our father Abraham in that? Are we just traveling through this world or are we settling down like Lot? So Abraham, he had a tent and he had an altar.

His tent was a separation from the world. His altar was a separation unto God. We need both.

I like to speak on separation. It's still a good truth today. Often I speak it from the little book of Ruth.

Chapter 1, separation from. Out from her kindred and her place where she was raised. Chapter 2, separated with.

Gleaning with God's people in the field. We need each other. Separation unto.

If we glean in the field, we'll soon meet Boaz, the Lord of the harvest. Chapter 4, separation for. To bear fruit for God.

So here's Abraham. He's able to fetch. Well, he tells this man and the angels.

Of course, this man, I believe it's a theophany or Christophany. It's a it's the Lord himself. When I was first saved, it was a brother used to say, if the Lord came to your house today.

And you could actually see him standing in your living room. Would you feel comfortable in his presence? Well, tell you that search your heart. Abraham felt comfortable in the Lord's presence.

Wash your feet. And he said, I'm going to bring you something to eat. He didn't have to go and bake unleavened bread.

There was none in his house. Lot was different. He had to go and make unleavened bread for the Lord to eat.

If you go to the next chapter. But anyhow, he fetched a calf tender and good. I can never mention this or read this.

But what I think of a brother, Harold Paisley, years ago, conference in Frostburg, Frostburg, Maryland. He spoke about the tenderness of the Lord. He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground.

So tender. Nothing in the world to sustain him. Just in an enemy's country.

You know what David said of Solomon? My son is yet tender. He was going to rain. But he said.

Tell the Lord to take care of his son. Tender. God is a tender heart.

And here's a calf tender and good. How tender was the Lord, as I've said, even to live among us. To rub shoulders with sinners.

One that was absolutely spotless. That could never sin. How tender was he on the cross.

When he was forsaken by his God. How he felt the agonies of the cross. We entered a little bit into it this morning.

The best we could. But the Lord is tender. But the label I have here is Abram's communion.

He was enjoying the presence of the Lord. Do we enjoy the presence of the Lord? We were talking recently about Paul at Asos going on to Ephesus. The beginning of Acts chapter 20.

You have seven young men that were companions of Paul. He needed companions. Good companions in his life.

We need good companions. We need to be a good companion. And then he needed the companionship of God's people in the assembly.

He waited a whole week, practically, so he could break bread with them. He needed the local assembly and so do we. But then he walked.

He sent the others on by ship and he walked. Why? He wanted to be alone with God. Wonder how much time we spend alone with God.

The hidden manor was in the sanctuary, wasn't it? We need to get into the sanctuary and feast on the things of God. And if we feast on the manor, you know, that's Christ in humility. That would bring us down, wouldn't it? Squeeze any little bit of pride that we might have out of us.

So we might enjoy the things of God. Come to 22. We're almost there.

Abram's convictions. Do we really have convictions? Are we men and women, young people, that really have convictions? What a conviction this man had. You're going to be the father of many nations.

They're all going to come through this boy, this man Isaac. But I want you to offer him up on Mount Moriah. Abraham was never more like God than he was at this time.

Willing to offer up as well, beloved son. Our convictions likely won't cost us too much. Nothing like this.

But I want to end, and I'm going to end with the next scripture, chapter 25, with Abraham's cave. It's not the only cave in the word of God, but it's a great contrast to the cave where Lot went, isn't it? Where there was an immorality. Lot went from a house in Ur of the Chaldees to a tent, but he never had an altar.

Even though he was a righteous man, he might have been separated from the world in some ways, but it was in the legal way. He ended up in a house. He pitched his tent towards Sodom, but he ended up in a house and then later on in a cave.

What an awful thing it was. But here's another cave. When Abraham gave up his house, he never had another house.

He was looking for a place that had foundations, whose builder and maker is God. There were no foundations in the tent. But now he passes off the scene and they bury him.

Where do they bury him? In the cave of Machpelah. You say, what does that mean? Machpelah means two openings. They buried him in the cave of two openings.

What does that mean? I think it's obvious. It means there was a way in, but there's a way out. Maybe you've buried a loved one.

Some of us have. It's not easy. But you know, when you put them down into Mother Earth, you know there's a way out.

Thank God for the resurrection. You say, is it going to take place? Absolutely. How do we know? It's already commenced.

Don't have to... The Lord's the first fruit of them that sleep. And those loved ones have gone before. Men like Abraham, even though he was a rich man in many ways, he never entered into the full inheritance that God had for him, but he's going to in the future.

Going to have his reward. And as they put him into the grave there, they had this thought and view. He's coming out again.

They buried him in the land. There's a future for Israel, you know. We don't believe in a replacement theology.

The future for Israel, but you know, there's a future for those that die in the Lord. Isn't it wonderful to look forward? None of us know what a day may bring forth. May not last.

Any of us could go before the clock strikes 12 tonight. But if you come to my funeral, maybe you won't, but if you do remember this, they might put me in the ground, but I'm coming up again. So may God help us.

That we might be like our father, Abraham. I'd like to be more like my own earthly father. He was a man that really knew his book and knew his God.

They used to say when we walked into a meeting, and I was a little boy walking behind him. It was like two ducks. Just walked exactly like him, but to be really like our father, Abraham.

To enjoy communion with our God and to know there is a future. No matter what happens, we'll be faithful to him. God is faithful.

And remember, I might end up as her brother Jesse did. He believed God. Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness.

What about you? What about me? Do we really believe God and live our lives to please him in view of a future day when we're going to be with the Lord and we're going to be like him?