for this morning, I turned to my wife and I asked her the question. I said, Hope, what would you do if I turned to you and I said, we're gonna go into this country, but you are just so beautiful that I'm afraid that they're gonna kill me because of your beauty and they're gonna take you to be theirs. What would you say to me, I asked her. And she said, and very true to her personality, she said, I would tell you to man up. You are my husband, let's go. And there's a lot that's going on in this passage that to us, especially in the 21st century, seems weird. It seems odd. But as we explore this diamond cave of God's word this morning, I hope that we'll see one thing in particular. And I hope that we see that the way Abram behaves in this text, in this story, it's not too far, not too different from the way we behave when we meet trials of various kinds. And God here is showing us, God is teaching us through Abram, through this story, that in Abram's trials, Abram trusted his gut rather than trusting God. And this led God to have to intervene, to have to deliver his chosen people because of Abram's failure. And so the text before us, it progresses from The proposal of Abram's plan to ultimately, kind of in the middle of the story, Abram gets some sense of prosperity almost, but we'll find out that it's a false prosperity. And then finally we'll end with God's deliverance, which he brings through a plague. So we move from the proposal to prosperity to the plague. And so in the text before us comes hot off the heels of Abram's tour of the promised land. In the beginning of chapter 12, God came to him. He called him out of his country. He said, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. This is 12.1. And God establishes his covenant with Abram, promising to make Abram into a great nation, promising to make his name great. He says in the beginning of chapter 12, I will bless those who bless you. Him who dishonors you, I will curse. and all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And then in verse nine, we're told that through Abram's tour of the promised land, verse nine tells us, and Abram journeyed on, still going towards the Negev. He's still traveling farther south. This is the land of promise that God has given to Abram and his offspring, but our text opens with a problem. And this is where in verse 10 it says, there is a famine in the land. There's a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. Disaster has struck. A famine has attacked the land, if you will. The promised land is barren of milk and honey. Abram's faith at this point, everything that God has just told him, his faith in God is being tested. I can't imagine the spiritual high that Abram must be coming off of. He's encountered the holy and living true God, and he's called him out of his country. He has said to him, you will be great. He has said to him, you're going to have so many kids that I'm going to make you into a nation. What comforting and encouraging words to have received directly from the mouth of God. But as Abram finishes up his tour, of the promised land, his faith in these promises are tested. And he's faced with the trial of famine. Why does God do this? Why does God immediately move to test Abram's faith? And perhaps you're sitting here this morning and you feel a little bit like Abram. It feels like you yourself are going through various trials, whether it be illness or the budget or a variety of things. I could be contributing to this feeling. The end goal of God's work here is laid out in what we read earlier in James. We are to count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith, it produces steadfastness. And let this steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be complete, perfect, lacking in nothing. That's God's end goal. And through this experience, God is working in Abram. He's teaching him something. He's teaching him to steadfastly rely on God. Because only God, only in God can we be found to be perfect, complete, and lacking in nothing. But how does Abram respond to this test? How does Abram respond when he sees the famine? What does he do? He sees the fertile land of Egypt to the south, and he sees all the prosperity that the Nile River brings to that land, and he says he's going to leave the promised land, and he heads farther south. Now, the text is clear in verse 10. It says that Abram went there to sojourn. What does it mean to sojourn? That's when you don't permanently live somewhere. It means that you're going to live in a tent. It's easy for you to then move around. You're not permanently putting down your roots. It's a bit like living in a military home. You don't know when you're gonna move on to the next location. And so John Calvin points out what Abram is doing here. It's right and it's commendable on one level. He's thinking of his family. He needs to find food. He needs to provide for them. And that is a good motivation, but he goes about it all wrong. And this is seen in the text in two different ways. First, it's explicitly said how Abram goes about it the wrong way. And the second, it's implicit. And we'll come to that. But first, the explicit thing that Abram does wrong. Did you see how Abram behaved before he entered the land of Egypt? In verses 11 to 13, Abram proposed a plan to his wife, Sarah. He proposes for her to lie and to say that she is his sister. Abram proposes a lie. Now Sarai was actually, indeed, Abram's half-sister, so this isn't a full lie, but a half-truth is a complete untruth. So Abram here is afraid. He sees the reputation of the Egyptians. He knows that he has a beautiful wife. He's afraid that when they'll see her, they're going to kill him and take her. So Abram cowards behind his wife's beauty. He says in verse 14, say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you and that my life may be spared for your sake. But did you do you see here the fallen and brokenness of the father of Israel? His concern is only for himself. He's so concerned that he tells his wife to lie. so that he can prosper, so that things may go well with him. That's the first explicit thing that Abram does wrong. And then second is the implicit. Did you notice who Abram did not consult? Notice who hasn't even been mentioned in the story so far. Upon seeing the famine in the land, the first thing Abram should have done is get on his knees. He should have come to God in prayer. The Lord, after all, promised to bless Abram. He promised to establish Abram. But once the famine hits, Abram instantly forgets about God. Abram instantly, he places his faith in his gut. Instead of trusting in God, he forgets how great God is. Imagine how different the story would be if Abram had gotten on his knees. He probably would have stayed in the promised land. He would have seen God's provision firsthand, probably would have sent something like manna from heaven as he willed in the future for the Israelites in the wilderness. But instead, Abram proposes a plan. Abram proposes a lie, a plan which is void of God's counsel and a lie for his wife. And before we move too quickly to judge Abram for what he's done and to say that we would do any differently in his situation, we have the same fallen and sinful hearts that Abram had. We have the same sinful tendency in us to trust our guts rather than coming to God in the times of our trials. Think about it for a moment. How many times in your life, when trials struck, did you move instantly into problem-solving mode, move instantly to, say, devising plans and figuring out what you can do to get yourself out of the situation? We act as Abram has acted. Maybe you didn't, I hope you didn't tell your wife the lie and say that she's your sister, but in times of trial, did you try to find the easy way out? a way which did not seek the Lord's provision, a way that did not seek God's counsel, a way that made you feel like you were in control. Well, Abram is about to see the fruit of his proposed plan. He's about to prosper, but as we'll see, this isn't gonna be a prosperity that he expects. It's not gonna have the effect that he would think it would have. So, Abram is about to learn what happens when you don't consult God. He's about to learn that when God is not consulted, no battle plan really survives the attack with the enemy. Notice in verse 14, it says, that the woman was very beautiful. Things now are about to start moving very quickly. We're given the sense that as soon as they crossed the borders of Egypt, Sarai's beauty spread like wildfire. And in this plan, Abram, he probably thought that only really the people who would be in the area where they sojourned would notice Sarai's beauty. And those would only be the only people that he would have to chase off. But as soon as Sarai's beauty reaches the ears of Pharaoh, as soon as things reach Pharaoh's ears, things go from falling apart to a complete disaster in our story. Because Abram is posing as Sarai's brother, essentially he's trying to act as her father. And so any man that comes and wants to pursue courtship or marriage, Abram is the one with the authority to turn them away. So this is his plan. He's just going to turn everybody away until they're done in Egypt, and then they'll return to the promised land. It's not a horrible idea once we look past everything that's wrong with it that we've said so far. After all, he would have this authority to turn every, rightfully has this authority to turn away every man, every man but one. Abram does not have the authority to turn away Pharaoh, the king of the land. And so when the nobles exalted and praised her beauty to Pharaoh, once Pharaoh saw that she was unmarried, Pharaoh did what was right in his own eyes. And in verse 15, he tells us that the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. He can't help but see Abram at this point, sweating in his tent. His wife has been taken away from him. And what will happen to my wife is probably what he's thinking. And this phrase, taken into Pharaoh's house, it implies that Pharaoh brought her into his house to be his wife. So whether she was his only wife or she joined a consort of wives, anything at this point can happen. But as we'll see in a moment, To spoil the ending, God does protect her. As a result of this union, Pharaoh does bless Abram. He gives to him many things. He gives to him servants. He gives to him animals. And most notably here to highlight is the donkeys and the camels. And for us in the 21st century, this can be something that we can very quickly overlook, especially here in New York, where the nearest farm with a donkey is probably a half hour to an hour away, depending on traffic, or the nearest camel is probably in the Bronx Zoo. Abram, at this point, is essentially holding the keys to a garage full of Lexuses, BMWs, and Ferraris with these camels and donkeys. He has been very blessed. He's sitting pretty well. He's sitting pretty comfortable, but at what cost? At what cost? He may have be sitting in comfort and leisure, but at what cost? No longer does he have his beloved wife, Sarah. On top of that, his mind must be full of dark thoughts, thinking what could possibly be going on in Pharaoh's bedchamber. He sits looking and all that Pharaoh has blessed him with, all of these camels and donkeys, and it came at a cost of a lie. All of his wealth, he has all of this, but he has no life anymore. Without Sarai, how will the covenant be fulfilled? This could be a thought that's running through his head. With what Pharaoh has given him, he does have the beginnings of a great house. but he has no wife to fill that house with. He has no wife to help turn that house into a home, as the phrase goes. And this is the fruit of his labors. This is what happens when we try to face our trials without our father's counsel. And it's true, apart from God, it may seem like we do prosper, it may seem like things are going well and solutions are coming, but as we look around us at all of the work that our hands have done, our hearts sit uneasy. And the Holy Spirit, he moves in us, making us ask, at what cost? I am satisfied, I am provided for, but God has not been glorified. I have forgotten God in my trials. And when we try to find our own solutions, our own problems to our trials, we only find false prosperity. It's like owning an apple orchard, and when the harvest time comes, and all the work that we put into it, the harvest time comes and we pull our first apple off of the tree, and it looks beautiful and glorious from the outside, When we try and face our trials of their own works and we bite into this apple, inside it's rotten and it's mushy and it's gross. It's of no value at all. It's not even worthy to give to the animals to eat. There's no value in it whatsoever. And this is what God is showing Abram. This is what God Is showing us that that when we try and devise our own plans, we actually end up needing deliverance From our own plans. We need deliverance from our trials And so as we look at the false prosperity and all that our hands have tried to produce But we see that it is only a pit of despair and it is a pit that is pushing us farther and farther away from god And at some point during these events, Abram probably thought that everything was lost. He probably thought that his wife is gone. He has not trusted the Lord. Probably thinks that God is no longer going to bless him and fulfill these promises that he gave to him at the beginning of the chapter. And as far as the testing of Abram's faith is going, it feels like he's failing. How many of us fail when our faith is tested? How many of us do not strive for steadfastness under trials? We don't run to God that we may be complete, perfect, and lacking in nothing. We need wisdom, but we don't run to God asking him for it. How many times have we boasted in our own exaltation? And the bottom line is, we do not remain steadfast to God under trial. When our faith is tested, our sin shows us that we only fail, just like Abram. We need deliverance from our failure. We need someone who is faithful because we have been unfaithful, and we have been completely unfaithful to God. With Abram's proposed plan bringing him only false prosperity, we now see his and our need for deliverance. And God gives Abram just that. God delivers Abram. Throughout the story, we've noted that Abram has been trusting his gut rather than trusting God. And the story has unfolded almost in these first several verses with no mention of God so far. And this seems basically intentional that God has not been mentioned. And the story up to this point has only really focused on Abram, Sarai, and the Egyptians. Now, when things seem to be at their darkest, God comes bursting in. The living God brings deliverance to his chosen people. God sends a plague to the house of Pharaoh, and at this point, the jig is up, and the cat's out of the bag, right? Pharaoh knows that Abram lied, and Pharaoh rightfully scolds Abram for this lie. In verses 18 to 19, he says, why did you do this? Why did you say that she is my sister, so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her. and go. And see here God's deliverance of Abram and Sarai. One moment Abram is thinking, I've lost everything because I've lost my wife. And then Sarai is probably sitting and thinking, what is going to become of me during this time? I've been separated from Abram. Their misdeeds and their weak faith have shown them one thing, that they need someone else to get them out of the mud and the mire of their sins. their deliverer. God comes in, he intervenes, exposing all and restoring all. Abram's lie is exposed. Sarai's true relationship to Abram is exposed. But God enters and God delivers them. Not only does he restore them to each other, but he also blesses them. He allows them to keep what Pharaoh has given to them while they were in Egypt. Did you notice in the text, he sends them away with all that they had. And so they have all of the donkeys, all of the camels, all of the servants, and all of the cattle. And so they depart, returning north. They have been delivered. And the same is true for us. We have been delivered. from our trials and our weak faith. We see now our need for deliverance and God has delivered us. God has given to us one who is faithful where we were completely unfaithful. Christ himself, the one who was before Abraham, the one who came up out of Egypt when he was a child, he came to deliver you from your trials. He came to deliver you from your sins. He himself went through trials more intense than anything that we will ever go through. He came to us in a state of humiliation, our confession says. He was born as a man. He was under the law. He suffered the miseries of this life. Think of the friends that he lost. The full wrath of God was poured out on him for our sake. And finally, he was buried, and for a time, was under the power of death. Never once during this time, never once during this state of humiliation did Christ become unfaithful. He was always faithful. And then, brothers and sisters, three days later, he was exalted, and he rose from the dead, and he is now ascended on high, and he sits at the right hand of the Father. And we await the day when our faith is sight, and the clouds will be rolled back like a scroll, and we will see Christ in glory. We wait and long for that day. The day when he will end all of our trials. And so, as we await that day, as we await his blessed return, the day of our trials will come to an end. There are two things that Christ said that I want us to briefly consider as we wait that day. First, if you're here and it feels like you're being buried under the weight of your trials, it feels like you're being buried under the weight of your sins. Mark 1 15, at the beginning of Christ's ministry, he said this, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. This is the kingdom that we are citizens of and this is our call to repent and believe the gospel. And then secondly, Christ also promises us comfort in our trials. He says, to those of you who are burdened, he says, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden. Come to me, you who are burdened. I will give you rest, he says. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart. And you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy, he says. and my burden is light. If you are here and you do not know Christ, if this is a new message that you are hearing and you're feeling the weight of your sin, Christ's message to you is clear. Repent and believe in the gospel. Come to him. He died for you. He was steadfast under trials for you. He has promised rest for your soul. Now, also, if you're here and you have believed in Christ for some time, but you examine your last week and you see your battles with sin, and you see your failure, the message is the same. Come to him now, repent, and believe in the gospel. He was steadfast under trial for you. He has promised for you rest for your souls. And as we await the day when Christ returns, as we consider our trials, let us not run from our trials as Abram did, but let us run to the true and living God, our only source of comfort in life and in death. As Peter says in his first letter, in this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, You have been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found, that your faith may be found to result in the praise and in the glory and in the honor of the Lord Jesus Christ at his revelation when he comes back. And then James, as we read earlier, we'll read it again. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith, your trials, they produce steadfastness. And then let that steadfastness have its full effect in you, that you may be perfect, complete, and lacking in nothing. This is God's end goal in our trials, that Christ would be made known, and a Christ would be glorified. But as we await the day of Christ's return, let us not run from our trials, let's run to God. Let us also stand united to one another. We're not only united to Christ, who is our founder and perfecter of our faith, he is our brother, as Hebrews calls him, We are also united to one another. Let us share each other's burdens. Let us mourn with those who mourn. Let us rejoice with those who rejoice. Let us encourage each other, building each other up day by day until the Lord returns. Are you going through trials? Then run to God. He loves you. He promises rest for your souls. Amen. Let's pray. Almighty Heavenly Father, God of all comforts that we could ever find in this life, we ask that you would be with us as each one of us goes through a season and various different levels of trials. We ask that you would equip us with your Holy Spirit, causing us and moving us to run to you at all times in prayer and trusting your provision that you have for us. And we thank you for Christ. who is our true deliverer from all things, and we await the day of his return. We ask that that day would come quickly, Lord. All these things we ask in your son's name, amen. Let's rise to sing in response hymn 689, Be Still My Soul. ♪ Is on your side ♪ ♪ There nature made ♪ ♪ A cross of grief for pain ♪ ♪ Leave to your God ♪ ♪ To order and provide ♪ ♪ In every change ♪ ♪ Ye faithful will remain ♪ That's your heavenly friend. Through glory and praise, lead to a joyful end. Be still, my soul. Your God will undertake. ♪ To guide the future as he has the past ♪ ♪ Your longer offense hath not been changed ♪ ♪ For every string you shall be crowned last ♪ ♪ Through the waves and winds he'll go ♪ ♪ His voice through the world ♪ ♪ And proudly he'll be known ♪ ♪ He's still my soul ♪ ♪ With ear his praise divine ♪ ♪ And though it's dark and in the vale of tears ♪ ♪ Then shall you ever know his love, his heart ♪ ♪ Who comes to soothe your sorrow and your pain ♪ Be still, my soul, where Jesus can replace. Of His own coldness all He takes away. Be still, my soul, the hour is hastening on. Where we shall be forever with the Lord. There is a boy with grief and fear far gone. Sorrow for love, love's purest joys restored. You may be seated. I invite our ushers to come forward and we'll take up our tithes and our offerings.