Genesis chapter 11. Tonight we want to begin a new study in the prayer time and Bible study on the life of Abraham. And certainly, he's one of the great men of Scripture. Outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, there's no greater individual in the Bible than this man Abraham. And if you read Genesis very carefully, you'll discover the first 11 chapters of the 50 chapters cover 2,000 years of world history. It's amazing to think back. And then the remainder of the book covers just 400 years. of history. The first 11 chapters deals really with the history of this world, the formation of this world and governments and the great flood and the Tower of Babel. And then God focuses down on one man and his descendants, Abraham. And from Abraham, God will select a nation, the nation of Israel. And of course, if you know your Bible history, you'll know that from the nation of Israel came the greatest blessing to the world, the Messiah, the Savior of the world. So it's a very interesting book, Genesis, and Abraham is pivotal. And this chapter 11 to chapter 12 is a transition chapter. where we leave the great global perspective in terms of looking at the world and the flood and the Tower of Babel, and then it focuses down just on one man and his descendants. And God wants you and I to pay very careful attention to this man. He's a very significant man. And his life, his legacy, continues to influence the world today, because we are partakers of the legacy of this man, Abraham. Well, let's read how it begins, the story, in Genesis chapter 11, verse 27. It says, now these are the generations of Tira. Tira begat Abram. Now, the word Abram means Exalted Father. Later on, God will change his name to Abraham, which means Father of a Multitude. So, he'll go from Exalted Father, when we first meet him, to eventually becoming Father of a Great Multitude, Abraham. Now, these are the generations of Terah, Tira begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran begat Lot. And Haran died before his father, Tira, in the land of his nativity in Ur of the Chaldees." Now, Ur of the Chaldees will come up in this story, and it's somewhere, we believe, around southern Iraq, near the city of what's called Nasiriyah, or Nasiriyah today, in southern Iraq. And then it says in verse 29, and Abram and Nahor took them wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren. She had no children, or had no child. Tira took Abram his son and Lot the son of Aran his son's son and Sarai his daughter-in-law his son Abraham's wife or Abram's wife and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan and they came on to Haran and dwelt there. The days of Tira were 205 years and Tira died in Haran. Chapter 12, verse 1 says, Now the LORD had said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee, that I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee. Make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curses thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot was with him. And Abraham was 75 years old when he departed out of Haran. Amen. God will bless the reading of his word. Now, this man, Abraham, if we were to describe a word, or use a word to describe him would be this word faith. It's very much associated with his life. And you'll discover that even in the book of Hebrews in chapter 11, when the writer is giving illustrations of faith, Abraham comes up more than any other person. And yet, when we read the story of his life recorded in Genesis, we'll discover he wasn't perfect in his faith. In fact, on a number of times, when God tests his faith, he fails and has to repeat the test because of his failures. Now, Abraham, we know, grew up in a place called Ur of the Chaldees in southern Iraq, or we believe it's in southern Iraq today. wasn't a godly place. It was a Hamite city. Although Abraham was a Shemite from the line of Shem, this was from the line of Ham. And somewhere along the line, his ancestors had moved from a Shemite city or Shemite region to this Hamite city. And it was a very powerful city. It was a very wealthy city. It was a very cultured city. In fact, the historians believe there may have been at least 250,000 people that lived in Ur of the Chaldees. Maybe that was the reason why Abraham's ancestors moved there or migrated there in search of the wealth and the pleasure of that Hamite city, a Sumerian city. Now the Hamites were ungodly, and many of the ungodly nations descended through the Hamite line, through the descendants of Ham, the son of Noah after the flood. And Abraham's family were tainted like Lot's family later were tainted in being in Sodom and Gomorrah. They were tainted by the Hamite idolatry and the Hamite ways. If you turn to Joshua 24, Joshua gives us an interesting insight into the type and the character of the people that Abraham was descended from, who lived in Ur of the Chaldees. It says in Joshua 24 verse 2, and Joshua said unto all the people, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nacor, and they served other gods. So straight away we discover that the Shemites ancestors of Abraham from his father Terah, and no doubt before that, they corrupted themselves with the idolatry, immorality, and all the things that went alongside such behavior. Before even Abraham was born, they were caught up in this. So Abraham was born into a very wealthy, cultured, city, Ur of the Chaldees, but a place and a family that was corrupted by the sins of that place. And it was there that God called him. God began to work upon his life. Now, we discover in the book of Acts, that God called Abraham when he was in Ur of the Chaldees. If you go to Acts chapter 7, Stephen, in his sermon there, tells us something we don't know from the book of Genesis. And you have to put all these little bits of evidence together. Because when we read the call in Genesis chapter 12, verse 1, where it says, the Lord said unto Abraham, get thee out of thy country, This was really the second call of Abraham. Because in Acts chapter 7 and verse 2, Stephen tells us in his great sermon, he says, the God of glories appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia and dwelt in Charon or Charan. and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come unto the land which I shall show thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and he dwelt in Charon. And from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land wherein ye now dwell." So God had to come to him twice. The first time was in Ur of the Chaldees, And God told him, you leave here, this cultured, wealthy place, and you're to go to a place that I'm not going to tell you where. I'm not going to give you a map, not a GPS. I'm not going to tell you how long it'll take you to get there. I won't tell you how long it will take from where you leave to where you end up, or how many months or years you will be a pilgrim. But you have to go, Abraham. And he told Abraham to go alone. In fact, in the book of Isaiah, we also discover in chapter 51, verse 2, he called Abraham alone, to leave his father, leave his kindred, leave his culture, leave his city in Ur of the Chaldees, and separate himself completely from that, and become this pilgrim, following the Lord. Now, that wasn't an easy thing for Abraham to do, to leave that wealthy, cultured place, Ur of the Chaldees, probably he only spoke the language of that place, and to go out to an unknown place through dangerous, difficult territory, and just go as the Lord leads, with no determined outcome. But we discover it in Genesis 11, and that's why we read it carefully, that Abraham only partially obeyed the call the first time. Because it says in chapter 11, in verse 31, Antira took Abram, his son. Notice the language here. God has said to Abraham, you go. Leave your father behind, leave your family behind, leave your culture behind, leave your city behind, and go out by faith. And Abraham certainly obeyed part of that. He left the city. He left the culture. He left, no doubt, the business prospects in a place like Ur. But he didn't leave his family. He took his father with him. He took his nephew Lot with him. Now we're not told whether Abraham was unable to separate himself from them, they wanted to come with him, or whether Abraham just wouldn't leave them. But by going with his father and his nephew, he didn't make it to the Promised Land. We discover that they went to a place called Haran, instead of the land of Canaan. And there they dwelt at Haran, until his father Tira passed away. So you get a sense here that the Abraham is not strong yet in the faith. Yes, he has some faith, but not perfect faith. We could call it an imperfect faith. And the good thing about God is, although God knows we are weak. God calls us to do things. When we do make mistakes, when we lack perfect faith, he doesn't cut us off. Remember the story of Jonah, the mistakes he made, the failures he made? And you go right through the Bible, you discover many examples of men and women of God making mistakes, failing. Now, there's a consequence of Abraham making these mistakes. And we'll discover not just here, he will be delayed going into the promised land, but Lot who will come with him will cause him nothing but problems. And the descendants of Lot will cause problems for the children of Israel for generations. So there'll be a price to pay in not exercising perfect faith when God calls him. But the wonderful thing about God is he doesn't cut us off. when we are not perfect in our faith, in our response to his words. And Abraham is called here by the Lord, and he does go partly. In fact, we may even put it this way, he does the significant thing. He at least separates from her. and the people there, and the idolatry there, and the culture there, and he gets himself out of that place. And that wouldn't have been easy. As I said, that would be the only place he knew, I'm sure. And that was the place of prospects. That was the place that the world would say, you should stay there, Abraham, because that's one of the great cities of the world, Ur of the Chaldees. But Abraham, Hebrews 11, verse 8, tells us, By faith Abraham, when he was called to go into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed. That's what God records with him. He obeyed. And God commends this man. Now, it's easy for us to look at Abraham and say, huh, 5 out of 10, 6 out of 10. But remember, Abraham doesn't have a Bible, like you and I. He doesn't even have the story of Abraham to learn from. And from what we know, from what Joshua reveals, none of his family are believers, they're idolaters. And the culture that he grows up in and he lives among are ungodly people, very ungodly people. It's not going to be easy for Abraham. to walk away completely from all of that. And we have to give him credit that at least he gets going, gets moving, gets part of the way. But then notice something else about this call that comes the second time. In chapter 12, verse 1, after he didn't perfectly obey the first time, God comes to him down in Haran and repeats the call. Now you've heard me say this before, when God tests a person, if they fail the test the first time, it's like the MOT, or the driving test, he makes you repeat the test often. And here Abraham is going to face the second round. Didn't perfectly obey the first time, and then God comes the second time and he says, Abraham, go. And this time, go make it to the promised land. And God says in verse one, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee. But even in the response to this call, and we'll look at it in a moment in more detail. In verse four, it's very clear. He doesn't fully obey it either. Because it says, so Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him. Now, if there was a full stop there, we would say, well done, Abraham. Belatedly, you've made it. But notice there's a little semicolon. And the lot went with, oh dear. God had said, look at verse one again, get thee out of thy country. He'd done that. "'Get thee from thy kindred.'" Well, in a sense, he had more or less separated from all of his relatives and extended neighbors and the culture around him. But then God says, "'And from thy father's house.'" Oh, he didn't do that. Just couldn't let go, Abraham. Couldn't leave dad behind the first time. God had to remove dad. And now the second time when God calls again and gives very specific instructions, you leave your father's house, leave them all, Abraham. They're not the ones that I've called to this place. Abraham just couldn't leave Lot. And if you know the story of Abraham and Lot, not only will Lot become a thorn in the flesh for Abraham, but in the end, God will have to separate just as he did with Terah. And sometimes when we don't obey God the first time, God has to then force us down the same path only in a more painful way. And here Abraham will discover it would have been wiser to obey God the first time. So Psalmist says, as for God, his way is perfect. But then God, in his command, in verse 1 of chapter 12, doesn't just issue the command, although God could just have made that verse 12 a stand-alone statement, and Abraham would have been required to obey it without question. But God, in his mercy and his grace, gives the command, and in the command, he provides promises to Abraham. And you'll notice that these promises come from God to Abraham. In verse 2, you see that all over verse 2, I will do something. This is not you, Abraham. You do what I tell you to do. But I tell you, Abraham, what I'm going to do in your life, and your family, and your legacy, and your testimony, and your descendants, Abraham. And God says to Abraham, the first thing, I will make of thee a great nation. Now, this seemed an impossible thing for God to fulfill. Because we were reminded at the end of chapter 11, verse 30, that Abraham's wife, Sarai, as she was called here, had no children. She was barren. And Abraham is 75 years of age. She is 65 years of age. And yet God says to him, listen, you go as I told you to go, as I am telling you to go. But here's one of the promises I make to you, Abraham. I will make of you a great niche. And I'm sure Abraham, the devil, would have come to Abraham's sedation. You don't even have one child. Never mind. You don't even have a family, Abraham. Do you really believe that God is going to make of you and your wife childless pensioners great nation. And this is one of the reasons why Abraham is such a great man of faith, although we mentioned his imperfections, that he is going to believe these promises of God despite the evidence that seemed to contradict it, despite all the scientific evidence and biological evidence and physical evidence that seemed to contradict this could ever be possible. Abraham believed God and God's promise that I will make of you a great nation. In fact, Abraham became a father of many nations through Ishmael and other descendants. But the greatest nation he made of Abraham was, of course, Israel. But then God says something else about Abraham. I will bless thee or bless you. Now, as far as we know from reading the bits of the evidence, although Abraham was not impoverished when he left Ur of the Chaldees, you certainly wouldn't have called him a very wealthy man, or at least from the evidence there, it doesn't appear that he's a very wealthy man. And certainly he doesn't appear as a man of great significance. when he leaves Ur of the Chaldees at 75 years, or at least Haran, sorry, at 75 years of age, to head out to live in tents as a pilgrim. But yet as we read through the story of Abraham from chapter 12 all the way to the end of his life, God did make him great. God made him a very wealthy man. God made him a very successful man. He would fight wars and win the wars. God made him a man of significance. Even in his day, he had a great name and carried a great name. But of course, God blessed him and made him great, not just materially and in terms of his position and influence in his generation, but God made him a great man spiritually. God molded and shaped him for the next century and made him a Columbus of faith, a tower of faith, that when we get to the New Testament, the New Testament writers constantly draw from him as an example of what it is to have great faith. And God molded and shaped this man for many, many years. But not only did God promise to bless him, that's the second thing God promises him. He says, I will make thy name great. Thy name great. Well, there's a lot of people trying to be famous today, aren't there? Everybody wants their name to be respected, revered. And the great and the good, they want their name not just to be revered and respected now, but even after their death. And often they leave lots of money for their name to be hammered up on the side of buildings, don't they? or great statues erected to them, and great trust funds set up with their name attached to it, or they sponsor colleges or universities, and they say, I want my name to live on after I die, and my business name to live on after I die. God says to Abraham, I'm going to make your name In fact, God wouldn't just make his name great. God would make Abraham's name the greatest name outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. And wherever you go in the world today, the name Abraham is known. Muslims, Jews, Christians, all hold the name Abraham in the highest honor and the highest respect, just as God promised here. Now, when God had made this promise to Abraham, as I said, Abraham was childless. He may even have been relatively penniless. We're just really not sure, but certainly he didn't appear to have any significant substance. He was 75 years of age. He was leaving a city and a prosperous place to go out and live in tents and spend the next 100 years with no permanent dwelling, like a Bedouin. We could almost use the term, like a gypsy. Maybe that would help us understand it better. And yet here we are, over 3,000 years later, and what do we discover? all the kings of the Sumerians that Abraham lived among. We don't know any of their names, do we? Or hardly anybody knows their names. In fact, the name Ur of the Chaldees is only famous for one thing. Abraham came from there. And God has kept his promise that he made all those years ago to that man, that elderly man, You could almost call him a pensioner, 75 years of age. And God made him great. And God blessed him. And God blessed his descendants. And his descendants have become a blessing to the world. We're blessed materially through the descendants of Abraham. If you went to Balamina this morning and shopped in Mark's and Spencer's, that's Abraham's descendants. started that business. He's shopping CNAs. That's Abraham's descendants. If you follow Chelsea or Manchester United or Aston Villa or many of these Premier League teams, they're owned by the descendants of Abraham. Many of the great banks, 20% of all the Nobel prizes for science and economics have been claimed and awarded to a tiny group of people that make up a fraction of 1% of the world's population, the descendants of Abraham the Jewish. And the Jewish people have been a blessing and continue to be a blessing to this world. If you use your mobile phone, it's the Abrahamic descendants who invented the technology. If you go to the dentist tomorrow and get your teeth extracted or fillings, you'll discover that the anesthetic they used was invented by the descendants of Abraham. And all through the centuries, Abraham's descendants have been a blessing to this world, just as God said. All those years ago, in Genesis chapter 12 and verse 2 and 3. In fact, in verse 3, God makes it even wider. He says, I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curses thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. In thee, through your line, Abraham. Of course, What I've been referring to have been medical, scientific, and financial blessings that have come, literary blessings that have come through Abraham's descendants. But of course, the ultimate blessing to the world wasn't financial, wasn't scientific. It was what? That baby that was born of Abraham's line in a manger in Bethlehem. And Matthew chapter 1 is very careful to record the genealogy of Jesus Christ, and you trace it very carefully through the descendants of who? Abraham. And you come to Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ not only gave the ultimate blessing, but then he was the foundation stone for the 12 apostles, which were all of what race? Lauren? Valimina? No. Jews, who give us the New Testament, the Jews, who was the race of people that preserved the Old Testament in the Hebrew language, the Jews. To them were given the oracles of God, Paul says in Romans. So they've been the greatest spiritual blessing. to us and every single one of us here in this room tonight who are saved, are being blessed through Abraham. You ever think about that? So when we study his life in detail, you have a very personal interest in understanding the character and the calling of Abraham. I'm gonna finish by saying this because of time. Many of the blessings of Abraham, that God promised here flowed. In fact, let's put it stronger than that. The greatest proportion of blessings that flowed from Abraham's life, the vast majority, flowed from his descendants and his legacy long after he was dead. He didn't live to see them. He didn't even understand when God said that, made those promises that day, how far would be the extent of blessing that would flow from his decision to have faith in God's promise and in God's calling. And let me make a very simple application and a personal application. Many of the blessings of your life and my life, of living the Christian life, Many of them will flow into our descendants and to other generations. Just look around this place, this hall, if we make it even more personal. The vast majority of people who built this place never lived to see the blessings of it flow today. Isn't that right? The vast majority of people who raised the funds, who gave of their time and their energy to see not just this building erected, but the one next door erected, they did so by faith, with prayer, with hope that God would use their labors for other generations to build upon and be blessed through. And you know, that's the same in your life and my life. You may be sowing a seed today in the Bible Explorers, or the Sunday School, or the youth ministry, or the women's ministry, or doing some other ministry in the church, or you may be giving or helping in some particular mission endeavor, and you may think, well, where's the upside for me? Where's the return on this? And in life, you may not get a return. It may get some return, but it may take centuries. It may take eternity to reveal the blessings that flow from your labor, your faith, and your sacrifices. And Abraham is here recorded in Scripture, and all this detail is given in Scripture to encourage you and I to just keep on serving. to keep on sacrificing, to keep on believing the Lord. And even when you don't see anything immediately, just leave it in God's hand. You do your bit and leave God to do his bit in the future. Abraham is a great example of God's calling you and I to live by faith and no name in history outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. is more famous, more influential, than this gypsy, this Bedouin from Ur of the Chaldees. And from his descendants have sprung the Moseses, has sprung the Joshua, the Caleb's, the David's, the Samuel's, the Mastion, the Mark, and the Luke, and the John's, and the Apostle Paul's, And all through the ages, his descendants have continued to bless this world, all because one man had said in God's calling and in God's Word. What an encouragement, isn't it, to all of our hearts to go and do likewise. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your Word this evening. We have already learned much from Abraham, even in this introduction to his life. And the first revelation of who he is in the Bible speaks so much to us, encourages us, strengthens our faith, even convicts us of our lack of faith. Lord, we pray that we will be like Abraham. that we would commit ourselves to walk by faith, not by sight. We would commit ourselves to take God at his word and just let him lead. One writer said, when God calls you, you just sign your name and leave him to fill in the details. And Abraham did that. And because he was willing to simply believe God, God made him great. And God made his legacy great. And Lord, we pray that you would do the same in all our lives, that we would be like Abraham and walk by faith. For these things we ask in Jesus' precious name. Amen.