Abraham - Departure and Restoration

Could we look in Hebrews chapter 11, please? Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 8. That's good to see everybody that's come today. Beautiful facility here. We thank the Lord for that.

Hebrews 11 and 8. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country.

Dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked or waited for the city which has foundations. Whose builder and maker is God.

Now, I want to look at Abraham in Genesis, but Abraham is commended for his faith. But he had times in his life when his faith wavered. Just like with you and me.

God had a purpose for Abraham. And we're going to see that. And he has a purpose for you and me.

The difficulty is there are choices. In salvation, we can go God's way or man's way. We can stay in the world and not be saved.

But even after we're saved, there's still the choice. God's way or man's way. Of course, the Lord Jesus, the perfect example.

When he said in the Garden of Gethsemane, not my will, but your will be done. Sometimes we can think that God's way isn't the best way. And the devil can make it very appealing that the world's way, man's way, is the best way.

None of us are immune from this. None of us are home yet. And we have these challenges.

Now, God says that the things that are written aforetime were written for our learning. And I've been enjoying looking at Abraham the last little while. And the things we can learn from this man.

So turn with me, please, to Genesis chapter 12. Genesis 12 and verse 1. And I'm reading from the New King James Version. Now the Lord had said to Abram, get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you.

I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him and Lot went with him. And Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son and all their possessions that they had gathered and the people whom they had acquired in Haran and they departed to go to the land of Canaan.

So they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem as far as the Terebinth tree, I know there's different translations here, or the oak tree or the plain of Mora and the Canaanites were then in the land. Now, let's just stop there for a minute.

Abram was living in Ur of the Chaldees, Babylon, a place of idolatry, of darkness. The Lord called him as we read in verse 1. The Lord spoke to him. I don't know how but God called him to go to a place and he didn't know where, where it was.

Brother, sister, God has called us. So many of us here today. He's called us out of the darkness of this world that's headed for destruction and he's taking us somewhere.

We can forget that. We're on a journey. This world isn't our home.

But God was not just calling Abram to Canaan. And it wasn't just to a city that has foundations that Abram was looking for. God was calling Abram to a relationship with himself.

And hasn't he done this with you and me? To me, this is thrilling. I mean, who are we? Dust and ashes. And yet the living God, the God of this universe, the God who created us, who's keeping our hearts beating, wants us to have a relationship with himself.

And he wants us to enjoy this relationship. He wants to reveal himself to us. Just like when the Lord Jesus was here with those 12 disciples for three years or so.

He, little by little, he was revealing who he was to them. And their hearts were thrilled. Oh, they had their lapses just like us.

But notice, the Lord said to Abram in verse 2, he says, I will bless you and you shall be a blessing. God called Abram out of Ur the Chaldees. He wanted to bless him.

But the blessing wasn't to stop with Abram. It was so Abram could be a blessing to others. And I know through Abram's descendant, eventually the Lord Jesus, the savior of the world.

Interesting the contrast between God's plan for Abraham in chapter 12 and what we read about in chapter 11. The builders of Babel or Babel. In verse 4 of chapter 11, they said, come let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens.

Let us make a name for ourselves lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. Basically, they're saying this is what we're going to do. Man's way.

In chapter 12, we see God's way, God's plan for this man, I'm going to call him Abraham. Even though that his name wasn't changed until later. So we get a contrast as I've been saying between man's will, our will, and God's will.

And I don't know about you, but especially when I was first saved, just started reading the Bible, the thoughts came into my head that if I went God's way, it was going to be terrible. And life was a struggle for me when I was first saved. My life had to go 180 degree turnaround because the way I was living before I was saved.

And I used, at first I thought if this is the Christian life, I don't, I mean, it's too much for me. And yet I didn't want to go back to the way I was living. I knew I couldn't go back there.

So all I could do by the grace of God was put my trust in him, even though I didn't know how it would turn out. So Abraham leaves, Ur, travels the 500 miles or so up to Haran, you know, the fertile crescent. Ur is here in Babylon.

He goes up to Haran. But that's really only halfway to where God wanted him in Canaan, which is another 450 miles. Now, can you imagine traveling almost a thousand miles in those days? Well, he gets stalled out a bit in Haran.

Maybe because of the influence of his father, we're not told the details. But don't we get stalled out sometimes in God's purpose for our lives? Maybe some of you here today and that's where you're at. You started out well, but there's been problems.

It hasn't been easy. And maybe the temptation, well, I know God has a plan for me, but I'm just going to put it on cruise control. Well, after Abraham's father dies, he sets out and it says they came to the land of Canaan.

You know, the economy of expression in the Bible is amazing. I mean, even from Haran down to Canaan, 450 miles, just says, and they came to the land of Canaan. But then verse 7. Then the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to your descendants, to your seed, I will give this land.

And there he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel. And he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east.

There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. So Abraham journeyed going on still toward the south. I enjoy this expression at the beginning of verse 7. The Lord appeared to Abraham.

Don't you wonder what that was like? Was it what we call a theophany? Was it the Lord Jesus? And I don't know. But to me, it seems because the Abraham responded to God's call and was willing to travel to where God wanted him to be, God's going to reveal himself now a little more. And don't we long for this? I mean, this hymn that my brother gave out.

It was the longing of our heart to know the Lord better. Isn't that one reason why we're here? But the Lord made a promise here in verse 7. Now that Abraham's where God wanted him to be, he says to your seed, to your descendants, to your offspring, I will give this land. Abraham could have thought, how can this be? Now we didn't read it, but in the last chapter in verse 30, it says Abraham's wife Sarah was barren.

She had no child. And so God's talking about his descendants. And not only that, but the Canaanites, the ungodly Canaanites were all around.

So it's a promise that humanly speaking didn't seem possible. And isn't that the way it is with us? Often God's will seems the bar is too high. At least it's often the way with me.

But notice Abraham's response to what the Lord said to him. We read about he built an altar, he pitched his tent, and he called on the name of the Lord. He built an altar.

The Lord appeared to him. And so to me the response when the Lord makes himself real to us, it's not just going through the motions, but there's heart worship. How are we doing at worship? Does the Lord get anything from us on a Sunday morning? How about Monday morning? Do we appreciate who he is and what he's done? David worshiped.

Somebody said worship is maybe the greatest thing any of us can do. John chapter 4, the Lord is looking for those that will worship him in spirit and in truth. There may be a lot of things we can't do, but any of us can be a worshiper.

Worshipper, as was said this morning, worship isn't a matter of gift. It's not a matter of age, experience. It's a matter of heart.

Giving our appreciation for the one to whom we owe everything. But also his tent. Abraham seemed to be a wealthy man even back in Ur.

But here he is living in a tent. And to speak to us of being a pilgrim, in Hebrews, we read that Abraham looked for a city that had foundations, eternal foundations, whose builder and maker is God. We can get stalled out like Abraham did in Herod and just live for now and forget that we're going somewhere.

This is just temporary. I know the Lord knows we need houses to live in. I mean, live in the Midwest, in Iowa, in the winter.

The tent's not too practical. The Lord knows. He knows we need vehicles to get around, but this isn't everything.

And the society in which we live can try to put us into a mold that having things right now is everything. The latest, the greatest. More, more.

Abraham lived in a tent. At our conference back in Spring Creek, uh, last year, I think it was last year, Sandy Higgins spoke Sunday afternoon. I missed the first part.

I had to take some people to the train station, but he was talking about giving. And Sandy said this. He said, you might think I'm morbid, but he says, there have been times when I've been sitting by my fireplace and I'm thinking, you know, one day somebody else will own this.

He's right. Just temporary. Are we living for what's temporary or for what's eternal? We have a choice.

Abraham had a choice. But there's one more thing. It says that Abraham called on the name of the Lord.

I've often wondered what that meant. But to me, it suggests dependence. Dependence.

Abraham was dependent. I mean, Canaanites all around him. He'd come this far because the Lord told him to.

It was all new to him. He's, he's dependent on the Lord, but it also speaks of fellowship. God spoke to Abraham, and now Abraham's speaking to him.

Again, the relationship we have. And you know that in a good relationship, there needs to be communication. God wants to hear from our hearts.

So, everything's good then for Abraham? No more problems in life? Problems in every life. Difficulties. Challenges.

What do we read here? Verse 10. Now there was a famine in the land. And Abraham went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land.

So, big difficulty. Abraham's responsible for a number of people. No food.

What to do? Abraham had a choice. Trust God? Had God brought him from Ur? A thousand miles or so? To starve now? I don't know what was going through Abraham's head, but he decides to go down to Egypt. We don't read about God telling him to do that.

And as the events unfold, it doesn't look like it was a good idea. Even Abraham, a man who's commended for his faith so much. Really so.

But to me, there seems to be a lapse here. Because of the pressure. He figures he has to do something to handle it.

He's going to do it his way. You ever been there? Not easy to wait on the Lord. Sometimes.

I've often said in the big things in my life, I've had to wait on the Lord far longer than I ever expected. And there's always the temptation when the Lord doesn't seem to answer, and there's difficulty to take matters into our own hands. So he goes down to Egypt.

And you know that Egypt in the Bible is often a picture of the world and living without God. Verse 11, and it came to pass when he was close to entering Egypt that Abraham said to Sarai his wife, Indeed, I know that you're a woman of beautiful countenance. Therefore it will happen when the Egyptians see you that they will say this is his wife and they will kill me.

But they will let you live. So there's a difficulty, there's departure. He goes down to Egypt.

And now there's doubt. In this man of faith, what do you say doubt? And Abraham's afraid that he'll be killed because they'll want his wife. You say what's doubtful about that? Well, back in verse 7, the Lord told him to your descendants, to your offspring, your seed, I will give this land.

Abraham doesn't have any descendants at this point. So if he's killed, God won't be able to keep his promise. So easy to doubt the Lord.

Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. So in verse 13, Abraham says, please say, he's talking to his wife, please say you are my sister that it may be well with me for your sake and that I may live because of you. So now there's deception.

I don't usually do alliteration, but somehow for this section, it just seemed to happen. Our brother spoke on this this morning, our brother John. Was Abraham telling a lie? Well, let's say it was a half truth because he and Sarah had the same father, but not the same mother.

So she was his half sister. But the purpose was to deceive. He didn't want people to think she was his wife.

Now, I don't know what he was thinking. If people thought, well, she's your sister, wouldn't it be easier to take her then? I mean, I don't know. Verse 14.

So it was when Abraham came into Egypt that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. She was 65 years old, actually midlife because she lived to be 127. But anyway, verse 15 says the princess of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh and the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house.

I hope we can enter into this. I mean, these aren't just words. These are real people, Abraham and Sarah.

And they weren't just some old fogies living a long time ago. When this happened, they were living in the now. They were on the cutting edge.

So what happens? Sarah's taken into the harem of likely one of the most powerful men in the world, the Pharaoh. How would you like to be there, sister? Do you think Abraham's having second thoughts about going down to Egypt? And what was it like for Abraham knowing his wife where she was? I don't know how he could sleep at night. Brother, just imagine if that was your wife.

Man's way usually ends in disaster of one kind or another. And can I appeal to the younger especially? God's way might seem it's going to be a desert for you and the world's way, man's way might seem so appealing. But there's example after example in the Bible that prove the fallacy of that.

Verse 16, Pharaoh treated Abram well for Sarah's sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys and camels. So he's doing well materially.

He's got all this stuff. He's got all these animals, but he doesn't have his wife. Is it worth it? Verse 17, but the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarah, Abram's wife.

God is very gracious. It seems to me Abram is out of the mind of the will of the Lord. He's done his own thing and yet God is so gracious.

Abraham belongs to the Lord. And so the Lord comes in here and some way plagues the palace with these great plagues to protect Sarah. Verse 18, and Pharaoh called Abram and said, what is this you have done to me? Why didn't you tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say she's my sister? I might have taken her as my wife.

Now, therefore, here's your wife. Take her and go your way. Good testimony, Abraham.

You want to talk to Pharaoh, Abram about the Lord? When we go our own way, when we're not trusting the Lord, we're not a good testimony. There's no weight to our life, to our words. So the Pharaoh scolds Abram and how did he find out Sarah was his wife? Did Sarah tell him? Was it because of the plagues? Interesting the things the Lord doesn't tell us.

I don't have an answer for that. But Pharaoh tells him off and in verse 20, So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. So he's not only dishonored, but he's deported.

You know, Pharaoh just didn't say, okay, get out of here, Abraham. He had his men, the last verse in the chapter, verse 20 says, Pharaoh commanded his men and they sent him away. It wouldn't surprise me if they escorted him all the way to the border of Egypt.

Get out. So this man of God has failed. His faith has wavered big time.

What to do? What to do for you and me when we make mistakes? And there may be some here today. And uh, you've gotten away from the Lord. He never intended it, just little by little and he never intended it.

Is that the end? Was this the end for Abraham? My time is almost gone, but I just want to look at the good part of this. Abram's restoration chapter 13 verse 1. Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had and lot with him to the south. That is to the Negev, the southern part of Canaan.

That was very dry. Abram was very rich in livestock and silver and gold. And he went on his journey from the south as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar which he had made there at the first.

And there Abram called on the name of the Lord. I believe Abram's a wiser man now than when he went down to Egypt. He's been humbled and it wouldn't surprise me when Sarah was in Pharaoh's palace that Abraham talked to the Lord and confessed his error.

Now I'm just surmising. I don't know as we're not told. But when we go astray, that's what we need to do.

First John 1 and 9, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins of parental forgiveness and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I'm so glad our God is a God of restoration. David said in Psalm 23, he restores my soul.

And if there's anybody here and you've gone astray, my friend, there's a restoration for you. Abraham is going back. He knows he needs to get right with God.

He knows he needs to be where God wants him to be. And Abraham knows he needs to be where God is. Oh, he's wealthy, verse 2. He's very rich in livestock, silver and gold.

But that's not enough. He wants God. And so he's not content just to be in the Negev in the southern part.

He wants to go back to Bethel where he was before he got off the rails. Interesting, Bethel. As you know, Bethel means house of God.

And you know, to be where God wants us to be is a great protection. When I was first saved, I was in a cult the first year. And then for three years I was with the Pentecostals.

And there's some very godly people there. But I didn't know anything about the assembly. I started going to assembly meetings.

I sat back a year because I didn't want to jump into anything. I didn't know what I was jumping into. And after a year, I asked for fellowship.

This is in Windsor in Canada. I remember the first breaking of bread in fellowship. Two things were impressed upon me.

One was the sense of the Lord's presence. I so appreciate it. It was all about the Lord Jesus, that meeting.

There's no program, no soloist, no this, that and the other. It's just one-on-one with the Lord himself. But there's something else that was impressed upon me.

I've been saved now for five years. But what was impressed upon me was I'm home. I'm where God wants me to be.

And by the grace of God, I've never had cause to think otherwise. Are you where God wants you to be spiritually? God has a plan for your life, just like he did for Abraham. He has a purpose for your life.

He wants to bless you. He wants you to be a blessing for others. And so we see as I close, the things that didn't characterize Abraham when he was in Egypt, the tent, the altar, calling on the name of the Lord.

You don't read about that, but he's back now. He's in his tent. He's having fellowship with God, calls on the name of the Lord.

And he's at the place of the altar. There's worship. So what do we learn from this man, Abraham, in these chapters we've been reading? God's way, man's way.

God's will, my will. Each of us has a choice.