In this sermon, the preacher discusses the importance of Abraham in the Bible and how he has remained famous for over 4,000 years. Abraham was not only a wealthy man but also a generous one. The sermon then goes on to explain that God is now shifting his focus from dealing with the entire race of mankind to dealing with individuals, starting with Abraham. The preacher outlines the four patriarchs that are crucial to understanding the Word of God: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. These individuals' stories are explored in the rest of the book of Genesis.

Friends, if you have your Bible, you'll want to turn with us today to the 12th chapter of the Book of Genesis. We are now getting well on in our Through the Bible program, and as we said last time, we're halfway through the Bible chronologically, but that is not actually true. Of course, we've finished 11 chapters of the Book of Genesis, and we are moving slowly this time because we're going to be at this five years, the Lord willing. We trust that you have notes and outlines to follow along with. If you do not have them, write in and ask for yours. Now, for those of you that believe in the program and want to support it, we will send to you, if you request it, our book, Going Through Genesis. It will give you not just an outline of the Book of Genesis, but an outline of each chapter of Genesis, and that's very important. Now, we have concluded here the first 11 chapters, and it might be well, since this is a tremendous break here, just to have a brief review. In these first 11 chapters, we have seen four great events. Creation, the Fall, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel. These are tremendous events, and it's in this section that we've seen that God has been dealing actually with the entire race of mankind. Not so much individuals, but actually with the race of mankind. All the way from Adam to Abraham, God had not appeared to anyone, only to Adam and to Abraham. And God is dealing with the human race at this time, the entire universe. Now, there's a radical change here at chapter 12, and through the rest of the Book of Genesis, we have something quite remarkable, and that is, now we have brought before us four individuals. Now, it's no longer events, but God now is dealing with a man, and from that man, he'll make a nation. And we have in this first section, Abraham, the man of faith, Genesis 12 through 23. Then we have Isaac, the beloved son, Genesis 24 to 26. And then Jacob, the chosen and chastened son, Genesis 27 through 36. And then Joseph, suffering and glory, Genesis 37 through 50. And these are the four patriarchs that are so important to the understanding of the Word of God. And we are taking up their story now in the rest of the Book of Genesis. You see, God now has demonstrated, and I trust that he has to your satisfaction, that he can no longer deal with the race, because after the fall of man, you have the great sin of Cain. And what was his great sin? Pride. I tell you, he was angry because of the fact down deep in his heart, he was proud of the offering that he brought, and it was rejected, caused him to hate his brother. You see, that leads to envy, and pride was the sin of the devil. It is the sin of the mind. And then at the flood, that was the lust of the flesh. We saw that the things, even the imagination of man and his actions, everything was to satisfy the flesh. And then we saw the tower of Babel, and that was open rebellion against God. Now God had to bring the flood to judge man if God had waited even another generation. And he had been patient 120 years, and from the day of Methuselah, 969 years, God had been patient with the world. And they hadn't turned to him, and I'm confident that any person will say that 969 years is long enough to give anybody an opportunity to change their mind. And they didn't change their mind. They are now in open rebellion, asserting a will that is against God, none seeking after God. And the tower of Babel reveals that. Now God is going to have to do something differently. He turns from the race of mankind, and now he takes an individual, and from that individual he's going to bring a nation, and out of that nation he'll bring a Redeemer, and to that nation he'll give his revelation. Actually, this is the only way, apparently, that God could do it. Or let's put it like this. If there were other ways, this is the best way, because we can trust God to do the thing that is the best thing to do. Now when God called Abraham, you're going to find out he's the man of faith. We said last time, we attempted to point out that Abraham was one of the great men that's been on this earth. And we were using, by the way, the secular measuring rod for that. And I believe that today the world would accept that he was the world's most famous man. More people heard of Abraham than anybody that's ever lived. Three great world religions came from him. There are men ouching in that desert today that never heard of the President of the United States. They never heard of who won the golf tournament. They do not know who is the football hero. Never heard of him. They've heard of Abraham, and the interesting thing is the heroes of today will be forgotten tomorrow. For 4,000 years now, Abraham has made the headlines. He's a pretty famous man, friends. And then, if you want the measurement of the world, he was a generous man. He was a wealthy man, tremendously wealthy. He was the John D. Rockefeller, and the Henry Ford, and the Paul Getty, and anyone else that you want to put in the list, and sheiks of one of these rich oil countries in the Middle East, all rolled into one. By the standard of his day, he was a very wealthy man. But he was a man of faith, and I recognize that the world somehow or another doesn't feel like that that is the way that you measure an individual. Well, that's the way God measured him. God said he's a man of faith, and we'll find as we go through here that that is the thing that's developed in his life. Seven times God appeared to this man, and each time to develop faith in his life. He was not perfect at first. Fact of the matter is, he fell on his face. God gave him four tests, and he fell on his face, on all four of them, friends. But like Simon Peter, he got up and brushed himself off and started again. May I say to you, if God has touched your heart and life, you may fall, but you're sure going to get up and start over again. Now we're going to see that as we get into this very rich chapter here, and this is very important, by the way.