I will give this land. So he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared, or who appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negev. All right, we'll end our reading there, and like I said, we'll pick up the other verses at the end of the lesson. So let's start with a word of prayer. Father, we are grateful for your presence here, and always there's something fresh to us about new beginnings. And so as we start a new quarter with ABF, we ask your special blessing on every teacher. Bless Pastor Cameron and his class. Bless Daniel and his class, and bless us here, Lord. We want to come to you today with open hearts. We want to come with a desire that you would fill us with those things that we need for spiritual enrichment and guidance in our lives, and yet we're unable to produce that in and of ourselves. And so I pray you'll help now. You'll just let the Spirit of God be our real teacher and guide and direct in what is said here today so that both with economy and practicality and warmth, the Word of God is communicated to people today, to your people today. So I ask these things now in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen. Well, we're talking about the life of Abraham and it just kind of occurred to me that some of you who have been in several of the classes, you know, we started this Odyssey with Joseph and went backwards to Jacob and now we've backed up again to Abraham and somebody might be thinking, don't you know your way around the Bible? And I hope I know a little bit about the Bible at this stage of the game. I'd like to know more. But in any respect, you know, sometimes what seems counterintuitive actually has a helpful bent to it. If you've ever done this kind of thing, so what happens is if you're working backwards, see, now you kind of know the end of the story real well. So you know the latter part of the book of Genesis with Joseph. You know kind of the inner part of it there with the story of the patriarchs with Jacob. And now you're coming to the beginning of it all and it helps you, I would just put you on the alert for this, if you desire to read these chapters and kind of be ahead or conversant with what's going to come up the next week. What you'll find is that certain little things stand out to you, maybe in a different light because you kind of know something about why that's important later. So even though it sounds counterintuitive, there can be some blessings in doing this or some help in doing this. So, you remember I had sort of differentiated the patriarchs for you. And so, Abraham we call the Seminal Patriarch, or I do, because it all begins with Abraham. And so, he's the Seminal Patriarch. Now, in between that and Jacob, you of course have Isaac. And I want to point out again, I call him the unremarkable patriarch, but I don't mean anything negative. I don't mean that as a put down to Isaac at all. It's simply that when you look at the coverage that we have in the book of Genesis, we don't know a lot about Isaac. We're not given a lot of details about that. He just seems to be a kind of a, at least from what we have in the record, a kind of a quiet, contemplative person. And we don't have a lot of information, so maybe you wouldn't spend a whole quarter doing the life of Isaac. Somebody said that Isaac is the son of a great father and the father of a great son. And there's something to be said about that. You come to Jacob and then you kind of have the quintessential patriarch. So we backed up now to where the story really begins with Abraham, or Abram as he's known at this point in the story, and obviously being the beginning of the patriarchal age, There's something that's very important to study and know the life of Abraham because he's a very important, notable figure in the story of the patriarchs. He's kind of the start of it all. So in the introduction this morning, I'll take a little bit more time, hopefully, than what I would normally take with just some things to mention to you. So I mention here that he's consequential, and he certainly is. Did you know that second only to Moses, he's the most mentioned and notable Old Testament character in the entire Bible. You'll find some 277 references to Abraham throughout the Bible. That's a lot. So other than Moses, who's of course the lawgiver, Abraham is the one who garners the most attention in the Bible insofar as references are concerned. Here's something else. He's the only person in the scripture to be called the friend of God. Now, there's another kind of a touchstone there with the life of Moses. I mentioned him in the point before, but, you know, Moses, there arose no prophet after Moses, remember, who knew God, do you remember? Face to face. So, there's something Very interesting, and it's not said of any other prophet in the Bible that is said of Moses. Now, here's something about Abraham. He's the only person in the Bible who's called the friend of God. We're not going to take the trouble for the reference. You have it in the notes. There's actually another place, but you have it there in 2 Chronicles 20, verse 7. Let's put Abraham in context of timeframes and dates. So, do you get confused sometimes when you start doing BC? It's like it's in reverse, too, and you can get yourself kind of turned around with this, but I know way back when I was in school, we used this date. And, you know, insofar as we can pin down dates, even looking at more up-to-date conservative sources, this seems to be kind of the date of choice. You may see some small variance in this, but 2166 BC. Anyway, To the extent that we can know it, that's what we're going to settle on for a date. And that's helpful to sort of pin some things down, because in the latter part of this chapter, which we're going to get to at the end of the lesson, Abram takes a trip to Egypt. What might have been interesting to, I mean, you know, if you go on one of these Holy Land trips or whatever else, have you ever been to Egypt? Would you be interested in going to Egypt? You don't need a lot of time in Egypt. I've never been, but I've seen the itineraries for trips. And if you were going to go to Egypt, though, I think one of the things you'd really want to see would be the pyramids, right? You'd kind of feel like, I didn't see what I came to see if you didn't see the pyramids. Well, just start thinking about the fact that Abraham, 4,000 years ago, could have seen the Great Pyramid. So it's kind of like, some of you will smile at this, but if you ever go visit Gettysburg, You know, sometimes what they'll tell you, you walk along that main street there and say, Abraham Lincoln walked by this tree, or Abraham Lincoln saw this tree. And I think, how do they know that? But you know, it makes a good talking point. And I guess the tree is old enough that that could have conceivably been true. But it does sort of set things in history for you. You start thinking about Abraham, Lincoln, and Gettysburg. But you start thinking about the Great Pyramids. And if you go there and look at the Great Pyramid, you think, Abraham could well have seen this. It's just kind of an interesting thing to help you kind of get a grip on what's going on. Let's sort of put it in the context of progeny, the patriarchs that we talked about. So I pointed the time note out to you. He's 75 years old when he comes from Haran into the land of Canaan. He's how old? He's 100 when Isaac is born. Isaac is 40 when he marries Rebekah, and he's 60 when Jacob and Esau are born. If you do the math on this, that leaves 15 years into the life of Jacob. He could have known or did know his grandson Jacob, even to the point when Jacob was 15. And you know, when you're 15, you're old enough to talk to people and remember things significant. I mean, some of us can remember people way back before we were 15. But when you're 15, you're certainly old enough to have somebody communicate things to you that are significant, especially you have teaching kind of a grandfather or whatever, some things they really want to communicate. So he could have known a lot. from Abraham. And then, we don't have time for this this morning, but it's a very curious subject. What did Abraham know? from where he fell in time, because Terah was his father and all of that, so we don't have time to get into that, but it's just kind of an interesting thing. Here's the last thing, and this is really the important thing I wanted to mention by way of introduction today, and that is, he's the premier example in scripture of faith. Don't worry about the references now, we're gonna come back and look at it later, but if you look at Romans 4, 3, it quotes Genesis 15, 6, where it says he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness. So Paul, as you know from Romans 4, pulls out Abraham and says, this is what the Bible has to say about how a person's justified. It's not by works. It's by faith. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. And he pulls Abraham out as kind of the premier example of this and quotes that scripture. But then it isn't just Abraham. It's the writer of the Hebrews. And the writer of the Hebrews in chapter 11 also probably gives more coverage to Abraham than he does anybody else, although he mentions a lot of people there in that hall of faith that you have in Hebrews chapter 11. If you look at the references I've given you there, 8 and 9 and then verse 17, he pulls out two key examples. The faith he exercised or the faith he displayed when he left Ur of the Chaldees in response to God's call, that's verses 8 and 9. There's a little more there too, we'll touch on that next week, verse 9 in particular. But verse 17 was when he was called upon to offer up Isaac. So think about these two great epics in the life of Abraham. He lives in Ur, he's called on to go to a place that he doesn't know. He went out not knowing whether he went, the Bible says. He responded to God's call in faith. And verse 17, when he was called upon that greatest test, at least that we have the record of in scripture, he responds to that in faith. So he's well chosen. And God, of course, is behind all of this. So thinking about That faith is the thing that we really want to zero in on. I'm going to kind of do that in these lessons. We're going to be looking for Abraham's faith. We're going to be looking for how Abraham's faith is tested, how he responds to that, because what it is to study his life is to study the journey of faith, which is the same journey you're on. It's the same journey I'm on. Did you know that? I mean, you might not have left Ur of the Chaldees, but we're on a journey of faith. The just shall live by his faith. And so there's a lot really to get from this. And finally today what we're going to do is, as you notice the title of today's lesson, The Journey Begins. So the journey of faith is what I'm gonna be talking about. And so it's kind of interesting that we have here three beginnings that we're gonna note. And the first one is a new beginning that I refer to as a new stage. So I tried to set a little bit of this for you earlier, but thinking about where this falls in the book of Genesis. And now in particular, where does it fall in relationship to Genesis 1 through 11? If you ever listen to Ken Ham, that rolls off his tongue like nothing. Genesis 1-11. What's going on in Genesis 1-11? Well, of course, you have the story of the fall. You have creation with Adam. You have the fall. What does the fall necessitate? Anybody? What kind of response does God give to the fall? Well, in Genesis 3.15 he gives the first reference to the gospel, so redemption is the whole thing that's going on here. And then we eventually percolate down to Noah, and when we finally percolate down to Noah, Noah had three sons, right? Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Shem, the line is going through Shem, and then you filter on down, if you look in chapter 10 and read on into chapter 11, you filter down from Shem to Eber, and from Eber to Peleg, and then you have the line, it's not Joctan now, you'll see that if you look at chapter 10 verse 21, more details of what we have time for this morning. But the line goes that way and then what's new now is that we're moving on through that now and finally it filters out to a fella in chapter 14 and verse 13 who is called Abraham the Hebrew. That's the first reference that we have to that in the Bible. Abraham the Hebrew. And you can kind of see the correlation between that and Eber. But, Abram the Hebrew, chapter 14, verse 13. So, when we come to chapter 11, verse 27, it says, now these are the generations of Terah. And if you're familiar with the book of Genesis, you know the Hebrew word for that is the Toledoth. They're referred to as the Toledoth sections. And Toledoth is simply the plural of the word that's translated generations or Yeah, we have it that way in the ESV. Sometimes people will say story. That's essentially what's going on. When the writer is ready to transition and begin a new chapter, not just a chapter division like we have, but a new chapter in the story, that's how he introduces it. So you see those verses if you turn back just a couple of pages. If you go to chapter 5, verse 1, you have, this is the book of the generations of Adam. Okay, so we get that story unfolding with all of that death chapter and chapter number five, so and so lived in so many years and he died. Then you get to chapter six, and notice in chapter six, verse nine, I'm trying to show you how what I said a minute ago, how this kind of moves forward. What is God doing? And we get to chapter six, these are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God, so we get to Noah. Noah had the three sons, and then the line is traced down until finally we get to Abram, the Hebrew. So what's really happening? That we're leaving the old world, the flood, creation, all of that is now behind us in the story. And the history of the nations, in other words, how they were divided after the Tower of Babel and Noah, and then his three sons, and all of that, and how God confused the tongues. And if you ever go to a big airport and listen to all the people talking in a big airport, I always say whenever I experience that, man, the Lord did a good job at Babel. But anyway, that's what you have there. But we're leaving that now. And we're coming to something that's epical. Because now God's dealing with one man and one family. He's shepherded this promise in Genesis 3, verse 15. Redemption becomes necessary because of the fall. And God makes the first reference in Genesis 3, verse 15 to the gospel in the Bible when he says to the serpent, you have to remember when you're hearing this verse, we spout this verse off a lot of times, you have to remember this is being spoken to the serpent. And so he says, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, the seed of the woman. Alright, and between your offspring and her offspring, or seed, he shall bruise your head. That's a lethal blow. The seed of the woman deals a lethal blow to the Satan. and you shall bruise his heel. That's a reference to the cross. But you have tied up in that the very first reference to the gospel in all of the Bible. And so what's God doing? Well, he's shepherding this promise to bring this seed through which redemption is going to eventually occur. So we come from Adam. where we find the need for that because of the fall and condemnation, and we eventually get to Noah, and we eventually get to Abraham, and that's where we are in the story. And the whole rest of the book of Genesis is tied up with the patriarchal age. And if you've been in any of the classes that I've had the privilege of teaching, you know that's what it is. The whole rest of the book of Genesis is tied up in the story of the patriarchs until finally you get to the end And you find out in what he says to his sons that it's the prominent ones, but where the redemptive line is going is through Judah. Judah himself is a story of redemption because you remember if you were in the Joseph class, I mean, he has a really spotty, Judah has a really spotty past, sounds like us. I mean, before he got his life turned around, he had a really spotty past. But throughout those days and throughout that story of Joseph, we kind of come to see to the place where Judah has found redemption. Again, we don't have time for all of that. So that's a new stage. Let's get to Abraham in particular now. Because in verses 1 through 9, we have a new life. Something's happening in the life of Abram now that heretofore has not been true. And so one of the things I mentioned to you, and you notice that I sort of called this out in the reading of it a while ago. Now, the Lord said, it says in the ESV, and I don't know what iteration of the ESV you have, but I have one that does give some, not study notes, I have an ESV study Bible on my phone, not this. but a few footnotes, okay? And so it gives a footnote on this and when you look down there it says, or, in other words, it might just well have been rendered, had said. Now the Lord had said to Abram, which kind of indicates that what's going on in Genesis 12.1 is not the first time that God has spoken to him, which is true. So if you look at this in the King James, if you know the King James, it does translate it that way. And it's probably justified. And we know that this is true. I'm just trying to get you conversant with the details here to see what's important here with this new life beginning for Abram. And when I say new life, folks, I'm not just talking about my new life, I moved to Greenville. I'm talking about a spiritual thing. I'm talking about what we would call in the New Testament, new life in Christ. And this is what's happening here. So what does Stephen say about this thing as to when? When the call of God first came to Abraham. Well, let's let Stephen speak for himself. He gives a whole sermon. Brothers and fathers, hear me, which they did at the beginning. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham. The God of glory appeared. Don't miss that. The God of glory appeared to Abraham our father when he was where? Not Aaron. Mesopotamia. Before he lived in Haran and said to him, go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you. Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, that's Tira, we read about that, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living. So it's important to point this out. I'm just gonna make a brief comment on this, and then you can kind of stew or meditate or whatever. But, you know, there are sermons that have been preached. I don't think I ever did. I think I have lived my life trying to avoid these kinds of mistakes, and I'm sure I've made plenty, but there are sermons that have been preached where fault is found even at this early stage with Abraham. Why did he stop at Haran? He should have known better. God called him in Ur and told him to go to… well, he doesn't mention the name of the land, does he? But they stop. It actually says, if you read this, that Terah was the one who packed them all up. and they left. That's the emphasis here. Look at verse 31 of chapter 11. Tira took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, so forth and so on, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan. So they knew Canaan was the ultimate destination. And folks, I think the only thing that I would say to you here is we simply don't have the information to conclude that this is already a lapse of faith on the part of Abram and that he should have known better than to stop in Herod. I'm not willing to say that. I don't think we have the information to support it. It may have been true, but I really don't think so, to be honest with you. Life is far more complicated than that. And it may very well have been just as simple that he was still connected with his father. His father knew. I'm sure he told his father about this appearance of God to him. But if you're gonna draw a distinction between Abraham and Terah and wonder why they stopped there and didn't get to Canaan under Terah's watch, and I can't prove this either, but this also makes an interesting thought, Terah didn't share the vision. The vision didn't appear to Terah and Terah probably was not a man of faith, although we can't really document that either. But Abraham was the vision holder. And so when Tira passed away, God nudged Abram again and on into the land of Canaan he goes. That's not really what I wanted to talk about, but I felt like I had to comment on that simply because I know the sermons that have been preached on it. And I'm not deprecating anybody else. I'm just unwilling to conclude that. I want to talk about the spiritual applications of this, which is what I mentioned a while ago. Abraham is a sinner. Because every man, woman, and child who's born into this world post-Adam is a sinner. Is that right? Yeah, it really is. So, is something different about what God does to Abram that is different about what he does to us? Maybe technically, the Bible says, Stephen says, he appeared to him. I don't know what that means. I don't know whether he saw something or exactly what that means. We're not given any more information on that. I can tell you what, I'd be surprised if anybody in here makes the claim when they were saved that God appeared to you. I wouldn't say that. I remember one time we were having testimonies in a church service and there was some woman was sitting in the back. I really didn't, she'd been there maybe a time or two, but just one of those ones that you kind of keep your eye on, know very much about her. Wouldn't you know? She put her hand up to give a testimony. Now, what are you going to do? So with great trepidation, I recognized her. I didn't know her name. I said, yes, ma'am. And she says something about, I saw Jesus walking on the ceiling. So what do you say in a situation like that? Well, we don't have to get into that. I handled it the best I could under the circumstances and just kind of went along with the flow, you know, and smiled and was gracious. But I don't think that's much how it happens. God begins working in our lives, right? And usually that begins with some form of conviction. so that we come to understand that we're sinners who need to be saved. But in any event, the thing that I want you to see from Abraham's experience is you can notice two things. You can notice grace and you can notice purpose. Same two things that are true of us. So look at this verse. We actually looked at this in one of the sermons I did on the Paul Uncertainties, but it says in 2 Timothy 1.9, Paul's talking about this, and he's talking about this whole issue we're talking about now. And he says, who saved us, God that is, and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own, look at those two words, purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the world began. What's that tell you? Well, it tells you that God knew Abraham before Abraham was even born. God knew exactly what his plan was and when it came time to appear to Abram in order to execute this plan, he appeared to him in totally free grace. There's absolutely nothing to indicate that Abram deserved anything or merited this or that God looked down from heaven. God just doesn't do this. He looks down from heaven, okay. But he just doesn't look down and look at a city like Ur of the Chaldees and then kind of land on Tyr's family and say, well, you know, he's got three sons. I think Abram, I'll get the most mileage out of Abram. These other guys got a few problems. No, folks, it doesn't work that way. We're all problem-oriented. We all have a sin nature. And some folks, you can maybe make the distinction, say, are big sinners and some folks are little sinners. In the final analysis, that may have something to do with the intensity of judgment later, but it doesn't have anything to do with the fact of judgment. All sinners who are unredeemed and unsaved go to hell. So I don't know what floor you're on. And whether it's a little cooler on one than another, I don't know any of that. I'm not glad I'm not gonna find out. But I just know God's purpose and grace are what are evident here. And I think, I did not give you this verse, but what kind of past does Abram have? I'm looking at this trying to figure out. Okay. I think it was harder, personally. I mean, that's just a human answer to your question. I mean, folks, when you look at where we are in the, what is this, the 21st century? When you look at where we are and think about all that's happened and transpired in God's dealings and in the program of redemption, I mean, we're standing on some tall shoulders. I mean, when I sit down to study the Bible, number one, I've got the Bible. Think about Abram. He didn't have any Bible. I mean, so your question actually ties in well to what I wanted to point out. In Genesis 24, verse 2, I think what it did was it left a couple points off the PowerPoint, I think, is what's going on here. I wonder why I didn't see that. I think I have a 1 and 2 under B, and it escaped. Anyway, look at Joshua 24 verse 2, or just listen, I'll read it to you. But Joshua is speaking to the nation. It says, and Joshua said to all the people, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, long ago your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates. Tira, the father of Abraham and of Nahor, and they served, what? Other gods. In fact, in Ur, the prominent one that they worshiped was the moon god. So what kind of past did Abram have? More than likely, he was an idolater. The fact that God saves him and calls him and invests him with this unbelievable privilege and place in Scripture is all a product of pure grace. That's what I want you to see this morning because the more you realize that that's exactly the way it happened with me and you. God didn't look down on your family and say, I get a better deal with him. No, I can't explain to you all of God's reasons for His choices. I just know they happen and that really gets me excited because I think, yeah, I didn't deserve this. But yet it was given to me. But here's another point before we leave this. When that happens, you can mark it down. God intervenes in people's lives not only to display His grace, but He has a purpose. And I don't care how insignificant you think you are here today in the life of this church or in any other church or in the greater scheme of things, but you can mark this down. God has a purpose for your life, and he has a purpose for what he's doing in your life. And we can speak in general terms, you know, greater conformity to the image of Christ and all these kinds of things, but God has a purpose in what he's doing. What was the purpose with Abraham? Well, he's moving forward this program of redemption. So you have in Genesis 12 verses 1 and 2 and 3, the next reference to the gospel in the Bible. You see how this is moving along. Genesis 3.15 and now we land at Genesis 12 verses 1 through 3. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country, from your kindred, I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. I will bless those who bless you. And the more this goes on and is developed, he talks about the promised seed But you say, well, you're reading into that. I don't see the gospel there. We'll just read Galatians 3.8 then. Because Paul says that's what's going on here. Now, Abram didn't have the New Testament to explain all that to him. But Paul says that's exactly what's going on here. I guess since I didn't include that, I'll turn and read that for you. Nor did I put a marker there. All right, Genesis, or sorry, Galatians 3, verse 8. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, in thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. There it is. Can't argue with Paul. So, purpose and grace. And as I say to you in this final part, which we have to dispense with now and get to the last of the chapter, but what Abraham does do is he responds in faith. That's not a work, that's grace too. Did you know that? For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. What is the it? The whole package. the faith, and the whole thing. God gives us all of that. God enables us to respond. And if you struggle with that, just simply think of it this way. In the relationship between you and God, who made the first move? That's a simple answer, isn't it? You don't have to be John Calvin to figure that out. God made the first move. And so, this forever settles. This is what Paul is saying. I think I did give you this. Yeah, there's the Hebrews 1.8, the two examples that the author of the Hebrews, by faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out. So it's very difficult for me. And I told you this in the study of the other ones that we like to pin things down sometimes with greater specificity than what God gives us. And so people, you know, well, when was Jacob saved? Was it in Genesis 28 or Genesis 32? Yes. One of those places. I mean, I have an opinion, but it's that, an opinion. When was Abraham saved? So some people say, well, God waited until Genesis 15, 6 to say he believed in the Lord and it counted to him for righteousness. And what I have to tell you about that conundrum, we will say more about it when we get there, is that that doesn't preclude it being true earlier. I can see no distinction in the kind of faith that the author to the Hebrews is talking about here when he left Ur of the Chaldees than what Moses is talking about in Genesis 15 and 6 when he responded to God's promise. So, if I had to land, I'd land here but, again, it's an opinion. Abraham obeyed. The author of the Hebrews says that's one of the two singular examples I'm giving you of his faith. The other is about when he was called upon with Isaac and we have to move. Okay, so a couple things here before we close. Let's read these verses because we have a little story here that's kind of in and of itself. We need that background. So now, verse 10. Now, there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai, his wife, I know you are a woman of beautiful in appearance. And when the Egyptians see you, they will say this is his wife. Then they will kill me because they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me. Who's he thinking of? because of you and that my life may be spared for your sake." When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. And when the princess of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house, and for her sake, he dealt well with Abram. So Abraham gets a bunch more wealth. He had sheep, oxen, mail, donkeys. Male servants, female servants, female donkeys and camels. But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. So Pharaoh called Abram and said, what is this that you have done to me? Why did you not tell me she was your wife? Why did you say she is my sister so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife, take her and go. I mean, nothing like a boot in the, you know where. Take her and go. And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had." So a new walk. Why do I say that? Well, because he no sooner gets to the land of Canaan, and he sort of, you know, he goes to Shechem, he goes to Bethel-Ai, then he gets down into the Negev, the southern district of the country. Actually, that's where he spent most of his time, Hebron. But he gets down there and a famine hits. What would you do? And again, there's some sermons that have been preached on this. I'm a little bit more willing to stick my neck out here, but I'm not willing to be quite as condemnatory as some of the sermons that I've heard, because what would you do? I mean, he knows that, in general, God is going to give him the land. He doesn't know a lot of details. And so what's he supposed to do? I mean, you could say, well, he should have prayed. and asked the Lord for food and trusted God. Okay. Can't disagree with you. How many of us are batting a hundred on that? Not too good. So, in some ways this move to go to Egypt, it's not forbidden. The scripture doesn't speak to the fact that it was wrong. And it's sort of a natural, perhaps, move for him to make. But I will say this, if you measure it by the results, what happened when he was there? These two conclusions are not necessarily the same, but it turns into a disaster. Whether it was okay to do or not, I can't be dogmatic. I can only tell you that it turns into a disaster. Why is that? Because if you look at what goes on, number one, you have fear. He's afraid he's going to be killed. And all you have to do is look at chapter 20, verse 11. I'm a little short on time, we're not gonna do it, but all you have to do is look at chapter 20, verse 11, and you can see that when he did it again later in his life, he says it was because of fear. He gets down there where the Philistines are, and Abimelech, and he says, surely the fear of God is not in this place. He's afraid for his life. Folks, look, I'm not, I'm not preaching against Abram. I'm just saying, though, you have to treat the Scriptures honestly and you have to be also fair in your own life. When we operate by fear, that's not faith. It's that simple and yet that difficult because God gave us fear. Fear is an important emotion, but it can cross the line pretty quickly, can't it? And so it's there. It's really good to be afraid of a hot stove. It's really good not to be afraid of driving 100 miles an hour on State Park Road. That can keep you from making a bunch of foolish decisions in your life. But this is not a good one. He has to resort to deception. He lies about Sarah. I mean, because his motive is to deceive, that's the test that I usually apply. People say, was it a white lie? What's the motive? His intent is to deceive. So it's a lie, even though it's a half truth. the likely acquisition of Hagar. Well, that's why I made it a point to read you verse 16. He acquired male servants and female servants and Hagar was an Egyptian. So, it's probably at this juncture that he acquires Hagar for Sarah and, you know, there's problems there. Not to mention the loss of testimony. I mean, Pharaoh, when God sends these plagues And Pharaoh, however God communicates and he figures this out, I mean, he says, you're a persona non grata. You can leave. We have a term that we use for that today. It's called deportation. You can say that's a hard word, but that's what's going on here. He gives him the boot. He says, get out of here. Well, that does wonders for your testimony, doesn't it? And so what does God have to do? God has to intervene because God's all about protecting what He's doing. God's shepherding this plan of redemption and Sarah's the one through whom Isaac is going to come. How can that happen if Abram pawns her off on the Pharaoh? That was great. But again, it just mirrors some of the things that you and I pull. And so God protects Sarai by sending these plagues. And finally, when Pharaoh wakes up to what's going on, he deports Abram. God has to do all that to get them back on target with what his plan is and get Abram back into the land of Canaan. It could have been cushy there in Egypt, if you think about it. Was for 400 years for the Israelites until a pharaoh arose that put them under harsh bondage. So what I wanna say by way of conclusion is, What we're going to see, and this is kind of what I'm personally looking for and excited about, I'm sure we'll see other things, but this story, it just keeps unfolding, like what we've seen this morning. He has moments of stellar faith. I mean, it's a stellar, mind-boggling moment of faith, really, when he leaves Ur of the Chaldees, but that's God's grace working. But looked at from a human standpoint, it's a stellar moment of faith, and there are many others in the life of Abram. But as the story unfolds, then we see these occasional lapses. Or you could maybe go so far as to say backslid a little. I just see that in the mirror every day. Do you? Yeah, I would say that a lot of it's encouraging. Maybe I don't know how you look at it, but it's encouraging to us when we look at the great men of the Bible. Absolutely. You nailed it. You nailed it. And that to me is the practical, devotional, there's some theological stuff in here, don't get me wrong, you can tie your teeth on, but this is the whole to me, studying Abraham's faith and seeing how, as Jeff said, it just mirrors the same kind of tests. You're going to hear me talk about tests a lot. The same kind of test that we face. Well, it's time to quit. So, thank you for coming today. I hope you come back. And we'll be in chapter, just if you want to read ahead. By the way, we only get 11 lessons in this quarter. So, I have to kind of combine some stuff. We're going to be looking at chapters 13 and 14 next week. Other chapters, we'd be able to slow down a little bit, but we're having to kind of move a little. Heavenly Father, bless us. Thank You for the folk that were gathered today to hear Your Word. And now, Lord, we go into our worship service. I pray that You would bless all those things that have been put in place and give us the ability to worship You today in spirit and in truth. In Jesus' name.