We're just kind of having a Bible study, really, is what this is on Sunday night for a while here. Next Sunday night will be a little different, I think, because I got something else in mind. Genesis chapter 11, we're going to talk about the life of Abraham. You know, I don't know, a few decades ago they started doing things You know, I was still watching TV back then like everybody else. But they started doing things they called mini-series. And what it was, it was a long story. It was like a series for a while that showed the entire life of even generations of people. You know, that roots they came out with, it was like that. There were several of them like that. It was very, you know, attracting and moving because you saw a whole life. You didn't just get a snapshot out of somebody's life. You didn't just get stuck with one little frame of their life. You saw the whole thing from beginning to end. That's how it is in the Bible. God gave us the history of a lot of these men from beginning to end, their life. And God gave it to us so we should know it, we should be familiar with it. When we talk about the God of our fathers, we need to know who our fathers were, how they lived, what their life was like, what were they about? If this great cloud of witnesses that we are aware of, that we're a part of, if we're a part of this big thing, the kingdom of God, then how are we gonna do it right if we don't even know or are familiar with those that came before us? Abraham was sort of the beginning, the beginning of faith, walking by faith. Believe in God. Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. That's Old Testament. I mean, that's the New Testament verse, but it talks about what happened in the Old Testament. Abraham believed God, and that's what God wanted. It's what he's always wanted from man. There's a difference in the dispensations in the Old Testament and the New Testament, but it's still, that is a constant. He didn't get saved any other way in the Old Testament than believing and having faith in God and trusting in Him. So let's start here, and I want to try to hurry before I run out of a voice again. Genesis 11, let's go down to verse 27, and we'll start there. Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. I don't know if I'm saying that right or not. And Haran begat Lot. And Haran died before his father, Terah, in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. I can't imagine Arabs saying that, Haran, you know, or something like that. Or Haran, I don't believe they said it like that, so I don't know. And Abram and Nahor, the brothers, 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 Izcah. But Sarai was barren. She had no child. And Terah took Abram, his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, his son, his son's son, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth with them from Ur the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan. And they came into Haran and died there, Haran. Dwelt there, I'm sorry. And the days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran. All right, Abram's life is an example of how a patient and long-suffering God works to develop a poor man into a soul that can be called a friend of God. Now Abraham's life is an example of that. Really, there's my others, but Abraham's the first one. And we get to see a lot of detail about Abraham's life. We get to learn a lot of his secrets. A lot of these things, I'm sure he would have kept secret if he could have. But God spilled the beans and told the whole world forevermore all about Abraham. And if this is true of Abraham, then it's surely true of every person. It's a process that requires time and the passing through many experiences. That's what life is. It's a lot of experiences. It's not just a few. It's a lot of experiences. You know, me and Dad were talking the other day about cars and stuff and how many. You know, we do a lot of transactions in our life, don't we? He said he had, I don't know how many things, he told me that he had the stickers off the windows of cars and trucks he bought through the years. Life is made up of a lot of transactions, experiences. Abraham was a very special person in the history of the world. And he had more of an impact on humanity If you'll think about this, then probably any other man who ever lived besides Christ himself. I believe that's right. Do you know that all of the people in the Middle East are descendants of Abraham? All of them. What's the biggest turmoil in the world? Where's the sore spot? Where's everybody focused? You know, all of the strategies in the military and everything, we've got a big part of our military sitting over there right now. Has been. It's been there off and on through all of the centuries and the decades here. Abraham was a very special person. And he had more to do with the history of this world than about anybody else. Yet he didn't start out as a spiritual superhuman. You know, he wasn't a Dalai Lama or nothing like that. He was just a poor boy that lived over there in Ur of the Chaldees. Had a couple of brothers and probably some sisters. You know, he was just like all the rest of us. He was 70 years old when when he first began to obey the call of God. Now think about this, 70 years old, lived 70 years before we enter into Abram's life, other than the fact that who he was born to and his brothers and all that, we got that information right there. But we don't know nothing else until he was 70 years old. And we're just talking here, Raymond said he's 79. You know, I'll be 70 pretty soon. What if nothing happened until now? If God didn't speak to me, God hadn't ever led me, I hadn't ever been called to do nothing until now. Seems unusual to us. He was a hundred years old before God put the baby Isaac in His arms. The promise. A hundred years old. before he held any kind of tangible evidence of God's promise to him that he had by faith took a hold of decades before that. And he was much older than that before he finally settled for good in the place where God had told him to go. Abraham's gonna do a lot of wandering around here and a lot of getting close to where he's supposed to be and then off in yonder direction and off in yonder direction. I see a lot of people's got that in their life. I guess probably I've had it in my life too. It took a lot of years. He spent his life trying to get to where he was supposed to be in the first place. He got close. I mean, he was there in the place and then he left. It's a generational thing, because Jacob did the same thing. He's a grandson. The work of God takes time. So it's wise to get started when we're young. Remember that. Remember thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not. You know, get to it. You ain't got much time. I know y'all are young right here. Here's our young people's bench right here. They're young. You're over there, Dakota. Y'all are young, too. Nick and Anna's young. I mean, don't waste no time seeking God, seeking God's will. Doing what you can to serve God. Don't waste time. Don't fool around. Don't get sidelined. Don't get distracted. Focus on what's important. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Don't get sidetracked with worldly things and thinking you need what the world's got and what everybody else has got. You need to try this and try that. You need to move here and move there. Find out where God wants you and stay. and have roots and grow to where God can use you. We can see from Abram here that it took a long time, a long time. Psalm 119 verse nine, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word. Do it when you're young, do it when you're young. I fooled around too long when I was young. And then when I did start serving God when I was young, I still fooled around and getting serious about studying the word of God for myself. I followed what other men said and what other men told me and I followed other people for a long time before I ever really got to the point where I was seeking God's will for me from God himself instead of trying to do what somebody else had done or be what somebody else was. Abraham's life started just like everybody else's. He was born into a family. He had brothers and probably sisters. The Bible doesn't tell us, but that's not uncommon for the Bible not to mention the women. And that's the way it is. I didn't write it and I can't help all the women that are offended now because of that. But that's the way it is. He took a wife. And just like his brother did. And everyone else did. I mean you get it? Abram was born in Ur of the Chaldees to his father Terah. And his brother got married and he got married. His brother had kids. Abram didn't have any kids. Works that way sometimes. Abraham, he had a lot of family, but it came a lot later. And Abraham, God had a lot more in mind for him than he did for his brother. But from that point, I mean, everything, he just looked like everybody else. But from that point, things started to be different in Abraham's life. He had no children because Sarai was barren. So his life was different than his brother who had children. Y'all agree that life's different when you have children than it is when you don't have children? Oh yes, quite different in so many more ways than we even know. I mean, besides the noise, besides the sleepless nights, besides the extra groceries, I mean, besides all of the extra things that come along with children, There's just, there's things that are not physical and tangible that children in your life do for you. You don't have children, you're missing some things later on. And I'm not being critical or mean to people who don't have children. I'm just telling you how it is. There's some things you miss in life. That's an experience of life that molds you and changes you in very profound ways. And if you miss it, you're different. You're different. And some people, God just chooses that it's that way. It's God's will for it to be that way because He has other plans for them. Abram was called by God and dealt with in a special way. In the first verse of Genesis chapter 12, if you're still there. Genesis 12.1, now the Lord had said unto Abram, now that's past tense, you see. Had said unto Abram. Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee. So God had said that to Abram, you know, sometime before. We don't know how long exactly, because the Bible won't tell us that, but we know that God had said that to Abraham. God had said to Abram. I keep mixing them up, saying Abram and Abraham. You know, it's the same guy, remember that. And the Bible seems to teach that Abraham's father was not the spiritual man that Abraham was. Listen to these scriptures in Joshua chapter 24 and verse 2. You can study the Bible and run around and you can find a lot of information that you don't find in the place where it's talking about. Now, this is not mentioned in Genesis, but in Joshua it is. Joshua 24 and 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 Nahor, and they served other gods. They served other gods. He's talking about Abraham's father served other gods. But Abraham's call and his walk with God must have had some influence on his father because he took his family and left Ur of the Chaldees and went to Haran. The Bible does not say here that Nahor went with them, but either he went with them or he followed later because when Abraham sent his servant to get a bride for Isaac, there's where they were. The sermon went to Herod, Herod. Not I-ron, Herod, I don't know. Should have listened to Scorby say these before I tried to say them so many times. The preaching of Stephen in the New Testament gives a little more light about Abraham's call to leave his country, his kindred, and his father's house. In Acts chapter 7 and verse 2 through 4, Stephen's preaching, he said, men, brethren, and fathers, hearken, the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Choran, now that's Haran, that's the same place, and said unto him, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and come into the land which I shall show thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in And from thence, even when his father was dead, he removed him into this land wherein you now dwell." So it appears like Abraham's attachment to his family was a hindrance to his obeying the call of God, which that would not be uncommon at all. Not many people that are very happy when God calls their children away to do something somewhere else. I think of Kimberly and Doug down there. They had one child, one daughter. And she's on the other side of the world, 10,000 miles away with her only four grandchildren living in Myanmar. Well, that's not easy. And you know, they get to fly over there once in a while and see them. They can FaceTime. You know, all of that. It didn't used to be that way. When you left, you were gone. That was it. And they didn't expect to ever see you again. Really. Realistically, they didn't think they'd ever see you again. So it was like saying goodbye until we meet in heaven someday. So to think that Abraham had a little problem leaving his family, everything he'd ever known, that's understandable. Only when his father was dead did he comply, and then he still took Lott with him. I've always looked at this, you know what I mean? The order was, the way I understand it, leave him. You, take your wife. You go where I'm telling you to go. I'll show you where to go. Just leave there. Get out of there. Well, it was a two-stage thing, and then he still took Lott with him. And then he has to get on down the road and we'll get to that sometime, maybe not tonight, but Lot had to go too. And immediately when Lot was gone, Abraham heard God's voice again. When he got clear, when he obeyed completely, then God spoke to him again. So Abraham has obeyed God and went into the land of Canaan. In Genesis 12 verse 4 and 5, So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him. And Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran. And they went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came. So each time Abraham obeyed what God had said, God either spoke to him or appeared unto him. In 7 and 8, just go on reading there. Skip a verse and read another, 7 and 8. And the Lord appeared unto Abram and said, unto thy seed will I give the land, this land. Unto thy seed will I give this land. You're standing on it right now. And there builded he an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him. And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord." He called it Bethel. You all know what Bethel means, don't you? What does Bethel mean? It means the house of God. It's an important place there. As the worldly influence decreased, the godly influence increased. And you ought to notice that. It's a way to work in your life, too. If you'll turn off the worldly influence and turn on the godly influence, you'll see a drastic change in your spirit, in your view of life, in everything about you. It'll improve drastically. We call it separation. Come out from among them and be you separate, saith the Lord, and I will receive you. You got to. If you want to get close to God, you got to draw away from the world. If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. You can't love the world and love God. So as the worldly influence decreased, the godly influence increased. Abraham got away from his family that was worshiping other gods. Got away from hearing that junk all the time. Got away from their way of living and their way of thinking and his mind cleared. And it'll do that for you too. One of the greatest things of my life is just being kind of isolated for about 20 years. And not hearing so much of what I used to hear all the time. You just hear it and hear it and hear it, and if that's all you hear, you're going to believe it. You're just going to adapt to it. You're going to conform to it. You're just going to be absorbed by it. You step out of the... You just step out of it. Step out of the room. The smoke-filled room, step out of it and breathe some fresh air for a while. It'll clear your mind and make you think better. So, each step Abraham took away from his kindred and the influence of his past took him one step closer to God and a better relationship with Him. And this is the first time that God has appeared unto a man. Well, you know, let me just say right there, that's not what God does in every case. If your parents worship other gods, then God might call you away from them. In fact, I'd say it's the will of God to be separate from them and their paganism and their other gods and stuff. You're not going to be able to serve God that way. Abraham, such a special man. That's how he started. God had to pull him out from away from them. If you got godly parents and godly, a godly heritage, a goodly heritage. That's what David said. I have a goodly heritage. That's wonderful. What a great blessing. But the reason he had that was because of old Abraham back here. to obey God and believe God. It takes one to start. Abraham's family had diminished, you know, the Lord God Hashem, blessed be the Lord God Hashem, that was Abraham's ancestor. And my, if you look at the timelines here, it's amazing how much they overlapped here. Abraham, I may have it written here somewhere, but But he, you know, their lives overlapped. So, I mean, Shem lived a long time after Abraham was born. So this is the first mention of Abraham. This is the first time God has appeared to a man in the Bible. Now, God spoke to Noah, but it never says that God appeared to Noah. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, but it never says that God appeared to Noah, but God appeared unto Abraham. That's different. And this is also the first mention of Abraham building an altar. And this is spiritual progress. This is a closer walk with God. We can talk all day long. We can blab about what we think and what we believe and what our opinions are and what we know. How about building an altar? That takes it another step farther. What do you do with an altar? Well, you die on an altar. You sacrifice on an altar. I mean you turn it into real life, what you say you believe, it becomes real tangible stuff on an altar. This is a spiritual progress and it shows that Abraham has better knowledge and a clearer understanding of God, building an altar. He knows some things already, don't he? Hey, we're way, way before Moses and the law and all the stuff where the Bible talks about altars and how to build the altar and the sacrifices and all that. We're way before that. Hundreds of years before that. And Abraham built an altar. He knows some stuff. I wonder what he knew. Well, there's quite a bit. So thus far, Abraham has heard God speak to him, believed, he's obeyed, and he saw God appear to him, and has received the promises of God concerning himself and his posterity. The promises. God had just told Abram, get out of the land, out of thy father's house, get away from it, just leave there and take off. I'll show you where to go. Now that's all God had said to him. And now it's advanced this far. Abram, he's got the promises of God concerning himself, the land, and his posterity forever. He's not playing religion or handling spiritual things lightly. He's made a great sacrifice, and he's separated himself as God has commanded, almost. In verses nine and 10 in chapter 12, it says here, and Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south, and there was a famine in the land. I mean, when times get hard, you gotta do stuff, right? And Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was grievous in the land. Well, well, there's a sermon there. I was talking to somebody the other day, and the first time I ever got up to preach, I did all I could do to study and write down, and I lasted about 15 minutes, less than 15 minutes, really. And now, I see a sermon in every verse I read. Well, there's one there. There was a famine in the land. Times were hard. It was hard to make a living. You know, it was tough. So what do you do when the going gets tough? Well, move to St. Louis and get a job. Yeah. Or go to North Dakota. Or go to Saudi Arabia. You can make big money quick over there. You know. Well, I've known a few people who've done all that, and I've never seen I can't think of one that I know that turned out better because they did it. It cost them everything, usually. It nearly cost Abraham, too. Where did he go? Down, not up. Down. It's always down into Egypt he went to sojourn. He didn't go down there to stay. He was just going to go down there and make a few bucks. Get back up here. That was the plan. But the plan never works. Naomi's husband, what was his name? Elimelech. Naomi. Same thing. Famine in the land. And they went off down to Moab to sojourn. Ten years later, they're still there. The boys die, the dad dies, Naomi's left alone with her two daughters-in-law. Poor as dirt. Boy, they didn't prosper. Didn't prosper, didn't really do them any good. When they come back to Israel, Boaz was there, their near kinsman. Well, he was prospering well, wasn't he? He wasn't poor. Things weren't poor in Israel then. Back home, where they'd left, because it was tough for a while, so they left. This is what happened to Abraham. Take that lesson in your life. Just stay put. Wait it out. God will take care of you. You ain't gonna starve to death. You don't have to trade everything that's worth anything in your life to make more money. Yes, sir. I'd rather be, I'd rather, I'd rather be poor. And I'd rather eat beans every day than to live somewhere where my family's going to be lost in the evil of the place. Egypt was an evil place, a bad place. Wasn't nothing good going to happen down in Egypt. But that's where they went. But he still has Lot with him too. Now there you go. Lot went with him down into Egypt. Do you reckon Lot learned anything down there? Well, you're making a lot learned in Egypt. Well, Joseph said to his brothers, you know, he said, I know that to spy, to see the nakedness of the land thou art come. Well, how did people do in Egypt? I mean, what was the common thing? Nakedness. They were pagans. Idle worshipers, ungodly people, and that's the way it was, kind of like in our day, where nakedness is everywhere. That's what they saw in Egypt, when Lot went down there. Lot was younger. Lot wasn't married, that we know of, then. You want to take your single son, you know, that's a young man, take him somewhere like that? You want to take him to these places where all this evil and ungodliness is going on and let him watch it? Let them people talk to him? Let them invite him and try to entice him into their way of doing things? Well, it's possible that the influence of law had something to do with his going on still toward the south maybe maybe lot was just that way and ending up in a mess in egypt obviously from what we know about lot he was the one with an eye for the worldly riches and fellowship because when that when abraham said abraham said look we just can't do this we can't fight with one another now you just you pick which way you're going to go and i'll go the opposite direction you pick that way i'll go this way well lot what does the bible say He looked toward the well-watered plains of Sodom. He wanted the good, the rich, the easy. That's where he went. And we all know how that turned out, don't we? Abraham went the other way. Abraham lived in tents while Lot lived in the city. City life. What'd Lot end up with? Nothing. Two daughters and a mess. And shame. Everlasting shame. That's what he ended up with. I just really have a real problem with people, preachers, and people who like to exalt Lot. and try to use Lot as an example of a Christian. What is the matter with people? I mean, we're living in such an ungodly time. And if you're a pastor of a church, and you're pastoring people and trying to get them to follow God and live holy lives, and you really want them to live clean and stay undefiled, and you teach them that? I don't jive. I don't go together at all. Seems to me like you're teaching them that it's okay to live that way because Lot did. He was saved as the Apostle Paul. I've heard preachers say that. How do you know Lot was saved? Because it says Lot was a just man. It says that about Cornelius too. Before he was saved. So what about that? You want to talk about words and making doctrines out of words? You're twisting the pure doctrine of the word of God, of holiness and righteousness and what's right and wrong, what's good and evil, what's clean and unclean. You're twisting it all up and turn it upside down over one word. It's very shaky. Lot had influence. He lived with Abraham who believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Lot had been around Abraham. Lot knew the truth about God. But Lot was just like Judas that we talked about this morning. Lot chose a different way, even though he knew. And so it vexed his righteous soul. Yes, it did. He knew better. That's why he said, do not so wickedly, my brethren, to the Sodomites. He knew it was wicked. He knew it was filthy. He was grieved by it. But he didn't have enough of a spine to get out of it before it was too late. And his family was eat up with it. God would have spared Sodom if Lot and his immediate family would have been godly people. 10 people is all it took. And if you count Lot and his sons and his sons-in-law and his daughters-in-law, That would have, it would have counted for 10 people and his wife. So his family was lost. So it's obvious that Abraham was not at peace in going into Egypt. He was expecting trouble because he came up with a scheme to try to keep him from getting killed because of his wife. He knew what he's going into. That's why he talked to his wife before they even got there and said, now look, you know, they're going to look at you and they're going to try to, they're going to want you. Cause that's how they are down there. And I want you to tell them now, if they do, you know, if they try to take you, you tell them that I'm your brother and that way they won't kill me to get you. How old are they? Wait a minute here. How old are they? Well, he was 75 when he came into the land of Canaan, and this is some time after. We don't know how many, but a matter of time has passed. So we know that he's at least 75. What would that make Sarah? 65? So she's 65, and she's so fair to look upon that, I mean, it got the attention of everybody in Egypt when they went down there. And guess who got her? The king. She must have been a looker, I'm telling you. 65 years old, or else they had better food back then or something. The great failure of Abraham was in going down into Egypt in the first place. He would not have ended up in Egypt if he had not journeyed, still going on still toward the south. He left Bethel. Why didn't he stay at Bethel? Why do you need to stay there? It's in the land of Canaan. It's where God said, look around you. This is what I'm going to give you. Why do you need to stay there? Why do you keep on traveling? And going still further south, going still further south, journeyed still, going on still, journeyed, still going on, still toward the south. Now that's what I got on my paper. I guess that's right. He left Bethel, the house of God, and went into the world because of the famine. He went to the world. Left the house of God, went to the world. You know, people that have a church, they can go to where they can hear the word of God and where they can worship God with people that they're in one accord with. And you give that up in order to make more money. or live a little higher somewhere else. And you give it up and you go there and ain't no place like that there for you. It's not going to end well for you. You're going to pay a very high price for that folly. This is a common way in which many people get derailed and shipwrecked in their spiritual life. When there's a famine in the house of God, you know, this is a different kind of famine. When there's a famine in the house of God, they drift out into the world and find their sustenance and pleasure there. Things get dead and still and cold at the house of God. People just start finding their thrills somewhere else. Same thing. You're going down, you're going down, and you're going down into Egypt. You better stay put. Many end up losing their wives and families in the process. I wonder how Abraham felt laying in the tent by himself, knowing his wife was in the king's house, wondering what was going on. Why'd I come down here in the first place? He wasn't poor. I mean, he wasn't destitute. It wasn't like he was a homeless person. It wasn't like he didn't have anything. Abraham was well off. He could have managed without going down to Egypt. Why? Well, it turned out, but he almost lost his wife in the whole deal. It's better to stay in the house of God and wait out the famine. It'll not last forever. Famines don't last forever, remember that. God, in his mercy, protected Abraham and Sarah in Egypt in spite of it all, and they were thrust out by the Egyptians. In verse 20, and Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away and his wife and all that he had. Now we skipped a bunch there, but I mean, God made it hard on Pharaoh until he realized something wrong here. Why am I, why is all this happening to me? And they found out what had been done. It was one of those deals where it was, what's that word? See, oh my. He didn't outright lie because she was his half-sister, I suppose, the way I understand it. But it was not the truth. She was his wife. God, the world will never accept you if you're a true child of God, so you shouldn't seek to be involved with them. Pharaoh kicked him out. When Abram left Egypt, he was rich, and so was Lot. Verses 13, verse one and two, and Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him into the south, and Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. He went up out of Egypt. This is the first time that it's mentioned that Abraham was rich, too. All right, he's rich, but he's headed back to where he started. You like running in circles? What was that you said today, Nick, about deer, there's a disease they get where they just run around in a circle until they die? Man, that's terrible. Well, this is kind of, people get that disease, too, I think. trying to learn about God, trying to follow God, trying to find God. They just run around in circles sometimes. Backtracking, that's what Abram's doing now, backtracking. Back where he come from. Here we go. Abram went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel. That's where he left because of the famine. Went back there. back to Bethel, and Ai, unto the place of the altar which he had made there at the first." Well, I don't know how Abraham was, but this is how I would be. If I got there, I'd look at that altar and I'd think, what a fool I have been. What all have I gained? You know, even if I did gain some cattle and riches and all of that, look at what it's done. You know, now we got this dark thing in our life. Why we got, and we got these memories that haunt us. We've got, we left things bad. Things were not good with the people in Egypt when he left. They thrust him out. That means they kicked him out. Get out of here. You can't live with us. We don't want your kind of people with us and you're going to do us that way. They were wicked people. Abraham was the represented God. But Abraham done them wrong. They done Abraham wrong, but he shouldn't have been down there and none of it would have happened. See, that's the complexity of things. You get out there messing around in the world and maybe you don't do nothing wrong, but it's all going to turn out wrong because you ain't supposed to be there. And then people are going to try to do you wrong, then you're going to do something to... See, that's what happened. Abram knew that was going to happen before he went down there because he warned his wife about it and formed a plan to deal with it when they got there. And when they got there, sure enough, it happened just like Abraham thought it was going to happen. Well, if he knew that, if I got back to that altar, I'd be looking at that altar and I'd just be thinking, why didn't I just stay right here? If I had just stayed right here, all this wouldn't be in my memory, in my heart. And those people wouldn't have those feelings toward me. And Lot wouldn't have got his mind full of junk. You're always going to be sorry when you leave the way of God and where God's planted you, you're going to be sorry. Unless God calls you and God moves you, you better stay put and just keep working. There Abram called on the name of the Lord. He went back to the altar he'd made there at the first, and there Abram called on the name of the Lord. When Abram got back to the place God wanted him to be, Lot had to be separated from him. And this is an example of how things work together for good for them that love God. It was the riches that forced them to separate. All that stuff he got in Egypt. You can make a lot of money if you go to the city. You can make a lot of money if you go off on these high-paying jobs and sacrifice your family and you're never with them and you're gone all the time. You can make a lot of money. But when he got back to where he was supposed to be, he split up the family. Now Abram's finally again at the point to go forward with God and so the Lord speaks to him again. Chapter 13, verse 14 through 18. Let's read this. We're just about done. And the Lord said unto Abram after that Lot was separated from him. Did you get that? Lot left, and when he went over the horizon, God spoke to Abraham again. Lift up now thine eyes. This is what God said to Abram. And look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward and westward, for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever." And that's what all the trouble's about over there right now. You know how big Israel is right now? Well, it ain't that big. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, Abram, arise. Walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee. Then Abram removed from his tent and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron. and built there an altar unto the Lord. Now that's Abram's second altar that he built, but he still has one more to build. The third and final altars in Genesis chapter 22, verse nine. It says there, and they came to the place which God had told him of, and Abram built an altar there, and he laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son. and laid him on the altar upon the wood. You know what that's about. That's Abraham's third altar. He's fixing to offer to God everything that God has promised him. He's willing to give it up if that's what God wants. But he's standing there in faith, believing. We read in the New Testament that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from whence he received him in a figure. Now to me, that's very plain what that means. Abraham knew what this altar meant and what God meant by this trial that he had just put him on. He understood. You know the Bible talks about in Galatians that the gospel was preached before unto Abraham. That's what it says. Abraham knew, he understood that God was going to give his son to die for the sins of the world. And what he was doing was, I mean he was doing the same thing with his son. He was, he was given, he was fixing to sacrifice on that altar Isaac, in whom were all of the promises. All of them were about, remember? He had Ishmael, and God said, that ain't him. You know, he don't count the promises are gonna be in Isaac, or in the son that I will give thee. So, well, I'm gonna stop there. So I'm fixing to run out. It's good if you study the Word of God. You can do this at home. You can do this and you ought to. And you ought to do it while you're young. You ought to get familiar. You ought to familiarize yourself with these people of the Bible. Your fathers. If you're going to worship the God of our fathers, then you better know them. All right. Well, it looks like I quit just in time. All right. Well, let's stand and we'll have a word of prayer and we'll be dismissed.