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[0:00] Genesis chapter 12, if you would, please. Genesis chapter 12. You had a reprieve last week.

[0:14] And we... So we're going to pick up, just try to hit it running, with a couple of points that you had mentioned.

[0:30] Or that we all had mentioned, I suppose, regarding those first six verses. Our study this morning, or we're going to pick up, at really with verses 4 through 6.

[0:49] But those first verses there, 1 through 6, if you refresh yourself, God told Abram to leave your country, right?

[1:03] You remember that. And what did Abraham do? Say it loudly. He left.

[1:14] I like that verse, not because it reminds me what I should do. Now, does God tell me anything that I ought to do?

[1:25] In His Word. Does He give any instruction for the believer? The church?

[1:39] Well, that's to me, isn't it? Are we part of the church? Not the church as many, if not most, of your neighbors might say.

[1:53] We are the church, the body of Christ. Now, does God give the body of Christ instructions? Yes. Yes.

[2:04] Are they for this dispensation? Yes. Read all of the letters from Paul. He splits it about half and half, if you notice, except for maybe Philemon.

[2:21] But all the other letters from Paul, who is the apostle to the Gentiles, the one given the message of salvation by grace through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's for this time, this dispensation.

[2:39] The apostle Paul splits his letters about halfway, almost, between doctrinal and practical. This is the doctrine, therefore do this.

[2:53] Because you're a Christian, you do this. Now, here's my question for me, isn't it? Along with Abraham. God told Abraham to go.

[3:08] And what did Abraham do? He went. God tells me some things to do. And I should do them. I am so thankful that my salvation does not depend upon my practical application.

[3:27] But I'm going to be a lot happier if I obey. I'm going to be happier. If I want to live a life that is full of joy, I'm going to have a lot better shot at it if I obey the Lord.

[3:54] Now, that doesn't mean that that gets me to heaven. Listen, you can't be good enough. Because all fall short of the glory of God.

[4:09] I need a righteousness that goes way beyond me, don't I? Way beyond me. And that righteousness is in Christ Jesus.

[4:24] So, nevertheless, God tells Abraham to go and Abraham went. Right. Now, God then also tells Abraham that a promise.

[4:40] He gives him a promise. And that promise is, I'll make you a great nation. I'll bless you. And I will make your name great.

[4:53] I'll bless those who? And I'll curse those who? Curse you. Right. So, Lot takes his household and Lot.

[5:08] Abram takes his household and Lot's household and leaves. Well, that's true.

[5:28] And that's in Christ. Paul will make mention of that, won't he? Now, in fact, in Galatians chapter 3, if you want to remind yourself, Paul explicitly quotes this.

[5:43] Meaning in Christ. So, it's through Christ that all the nations of the earth are blessed. Now, he takes his household.

[5:57] He takes Lot's household. Lot, by this time, is not a child. Lot has accumulated his own family.

[6:10] Not only a family, but herds and servants. So, Lot has a household as well. They go to Canaan. They stop near Shechem at the Oak of Moreh.

[6:27] Now, that's where we left off. So, God gave Abraham, Abram. I know I'm going to probably switch them up because I always think of Abraham when I say the name.

[6:42] But, God gave Abraham a directive. Abraham obeyed. This is going to be mentioned a few times in other scripture.

[6:57] About Abram's obedience. So, let's just look at a couple, if you would. Hebrews chapter 11, verses 8 and 9.

[7:09] Now, you already know that if it's in chapter 11, it probably has to do with faith. Faith. This is the hall of trophies, if you will, about faith.

[7:27] So, by faith, Abraham, when he was called, he obeyed and he went. He went to a place where he was to receive his inheritance.

[7:44] He went out. He didn't know where he was going for sure. He didn't know exactly what this was going to look like.

[7:56] But he went. Do you know anyone who says, well, I don't really see what God's doing in this.

[8:10] Therefore, I don't really need to obey. Oh, they won't word it that way, perhaps. But, you get the gist? Now, I know no one here has ever felt that way.

[8:24] But somebody's going to be tempted someday. To think that. My situation's a little different. Right? Mine's different.

[8:35] God kind of missed this one. But he didn't. He didn't. I can trust him. Romans chapter 8 is all about my confusion, isn't it?

[8:50] The bottom line is, all things do work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose. And the great thing there is, the reason that does that is because God foreknew.

[9:13] And those he foreknew, he called. And those he called, he justified. And those who he justified. And that word justified is the term declared righteous.

[9:28] God declared me righteous in Christ. And because of that, glorification will be realized.

[9:42] That's the great promise. So that I do know all things work together for good. Now, sometimes, that's one thing for me to say it here in the light.

[10:02] But some days are dark, aren't they? Then it's harder to remember. So I need to rehearse it while I have light. Because dark days come.

[10:15] And we don't need to be searching for answers in the dark days. Because emotionally, I won't be looking for it. God told Paul.

[10:29] Now, Paul had the privilege. We're supposed to bring everything to God, right? In prayer. We're told, make all your requests known unto God.

[10:40] Like, I could hide it. But it's rhetorical. Make all your requests be made known unto God. And trust him.

[10:53] Now, Paul, though, had a unique privilege. Being an apostle, Paul had the authority to bring to God a request and actually get an answer.

[11:08] Direct revelation answer. So Paul brought the request for healing. And God's answer to Paul was, My grace is sufficient for you.

[11:21] Now, Very frankly, when I pray for healing, I want the healing more than I want the grace.

[11:34] I'm thankful for the grace. But usually when I bring that request to God, I'm looking for relief, am I not? So that's why today, In light, I need to rehearse it because dark days come.

[11:51] And emotionally, I'm not going to be looking that way. I'm thankful that my hope is not based on my emotions. It's based on the veracity of the almighty God.

[12:08] Thank you, Lord, for that. Because I know that in spite of myself, I have hope. I'm thankful.

[12:20] Okay. And Romans 4, Romans chapter 4, verses 2 through 5, here's what he talks about, Abram's faith.

[12:34] Oh, I skipped Hebrews. I kind of digressed, didn't I? Okay. By faith, Abraham went out and he lived, he went to the land of promise, living in tents.

[12:50] He did not have it in hand, but he goes on later to say, all these were looking for a city not made with hands.

[13:02] Okay. Romans chapter 4, verses 2 through 5. If Abraham was justified works, then what? He'd have something to brag about.

[13:16] If my salvation was dependent upon my work, Roger thinks I won't make it, but no.

[13:30] And he's right. Well, there are two of you. We're not going to take a vote on that. We already know the answer, don't we? Because it doesn't matter what you said.

[13:41] We all in this room could deny it, but will God be wrong because I deny it? No. No. He's going to be faithful.

[13:53] He's going to be faithful. So, if Abraham's justification was by works, then what? He has something to boast about.

[14:05] But, what? Not before God, because what does the word of God say? And here's the quotation.

[14:17] Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned or credited to him as righteousness. It was because of the belief.

[14:29] faith. That's faith. So, now he goes on to explain it better. So, now, to the one who works, his works are not reckoned as, as a, right, it's not reckoned as a favor, but rather as, right, it's like going to a job.

[14:59] When you get your paycheck, when you get your paycheck, well, maybe not for everybody, but, you've probably worked for some where you thought, boy, that was a gift, but, anyway, when you work, you expect a return.

[15:17] You're trading your effort for pay, right? Well, that's as it should be. And that, Paul explains that.

[15:28] And he says, look, if it, if it was, if his righteousness was based upon his work, then God owed him. But what does it say?

[15:40] But, verse 5, in Romans 4, verse 5, now, to the one who works, his wage, to the one who works, his wage, did I hear someone?

[16:00] I'm on verse 4? Yes, I meant to go to verse 5, I'm sorry. But to the one who does not work, but believes in him, who justifies the ungodly.

[16:13] So, it's not based on works, it's belief on him, Christ, who justifies the ungodly. His faith is reckoned as righteousness.

[16:25] righteousness. So, the faith of Abraham, is pointed out to be, this is why Abraham was justified, this is why I'm justified, this is why I'm justified.

[16:42] So, for this reason, jump down to verse 16, I need to move on here. for this reason, it's by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be a guarantee to all descendants, not only those who are descendants of the law, or based on the law, not only Jews, but also those who are of the faith of Abraham, us.

[17:15] spiritual children, yeah. Right. So, here's the point of salvation.

[17:29] It's for God's glory. It is to show God gracious. It's not because I'm good, I'm not.

[17:40] And it's not because I'm important, I'm not. It's because God shows himself gracious, so that no man can boast.

[17:57] Right? No one boasts. God cannot deny himself. He cannot deny himself. So, and in Galatians chapter 3, it goes on and he talks about, we've already mentioned this about the seed of Abraham.

[18:18] And, so, we'll, we'll move on then. Look at chapter 12 in Genesis, chapter 12, verses 7 through the end, and even the first verse of 13, if you will.

[18:35] that's a, a rather long stretch there, but we'll, we'll go through it as, as we can.

[18:56] Notice verse 7, what does he say? He says, he says, he says, he says, this is another Christophany, isn't it?

[19:12] He appeared to Abraham. So, he doesn't always, sometimes he just speaks to him, but this time he appears.

[19:23] Okay, he appeared to Abraham, and what does God say? Okay, he says, now, this land right now is in Canaan because, remember, Abraham's already moved there.

[19:41] He's by the Oaks of Mamre in Shechem area. And, there are other people living there.

[19:52] That's right. Now, what does Abraham do? he builds an altar. This is the first of, I think, four that he's going to build in Canaan.

[20:09] So, he builds an altar. What does he then do? This will, you're jumping into verse 8 through 9.

[20:22] He went on. Where does he go? hill east of Bethel. Okay, he, okay, he's going north to a mountain between Bethel and Ai.

[20:40] Now, at this point, this is an aside, but at this point, this is written to whom? To Israel. This is their history.

[20:51] this is an anachronistic name. It is not at this time called Ai. At this time, it's called Luz.

[21:02] Genesis chapter 28, verse 19. You don't have to go there if you don't wish, but Jacob actually names Bethel.

[21:14] I said Ai. Bethel is what I meant. It's between Bethel and Ai. Bethel is not called Bethel by these people. It's called Luz.

[21:27] It's Jacob later on who will call it Bethel. Do you remember why? Well, that's what it means. It means yeah.

[21:46] Yeah. Okay. So, he takes all the household. He goes there. It's about halfway, as far as I could see, between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea.

[22:01] And what does he do there? He builds another altar and what does he do? Okay.

[22:13] Now, just as a point, the name of the Lord there, it's all in capital letters and that's the name Jehovah. But, Abram doesn't know God by Jehovah at this point.

[22:30] At this point, if you want to jump ahead a little bit, chapter 17, verse 1, God tells Abram who he is.

[22:44] Abraham knows him by this name. I am the God Almighty. That's the name. And if you go to, where is it?

[22:58] Exodus 6, 3. Exodus 6, 3. Someone read that out to us, please. Okay.

[23:23] What Lord? Okay. Jehovah. I am Jehovah. Jehovah. Jehovah. Jehovah. Jehovah. Jehovah. Jehovah. Jehovah. Jehovah. Okay. That's how we know that.

[23:36] Now, it's a history written to Israel, so he wants them to remember that this is the God. This is Jehovah God speaking.

[23:50] So, he speaks to Abraham, but Abraham doesn't necessarily know him as Jehovah. Abraham knows him as God Almighty or Almighty God.

[24:01] the Christ says, but by him Lord, I did not make myself made to him. Right. I didn't tell him Jehovah.

[24:16] So, he calls on the name of the Lord, but he's, it's God Almighty. Now, that has nothing, it's the same person.

[24:29] God is the same person, but this is a progressive revelation. He's going to reveal to Israel a little more about who he is and give them a covenant name, if you will, by which they're going to know him.

[24:49] it is Jehovah. Yeah, there's no mix-up on numbers of gods here.

[25:03] It's the same person. Right. Now, by the way, well, AI is going to be, if you remember your history, AI is going to show up later.

[25:23] No. It's the number two city that they're going to attack. It's number two after Jericho.

[25:37] So, this place is going to show up again. Of course, it's a fairly small area, so they're, you know, it's reasonably small compared to vast areas, so they are walking about in it, but a lot of things happen in what we would consider a fairly small space geographically.

[26:04] So, then he continues to go south. It's called the Negev. It's the arid southern part of Canaan.

[26:16] So, he continues on to go south. You see that? Okay, now, we're down around, what, verse 9 by now?

[26:29] Verse 9 or 10? Okay, so now, beginning at verses 10 and going on, what are they going to do?

[26:41] they're going to, why does he go to Egypt? There's a famine in the land, pretty good one, and he has, he and Lot have a bunch of herds.

[26:57] It takes, you have to feed them. So, they're going to go to Egypt. Now, what did Abram ask of Sarai, his wife, when they approached Egypt?

[27:22] Tell him you're my sister, why? Why would he ask that? Okay, there are beautiful women, so why does he ask her to say she's his sister?

[27:40] Right. He was afraid that he'd be killed, so he says, tell him you're my sister, so that it may go well with me and my soul will live.

[27:58] I'll stay alive. So, does she do that? Yeah. Now, we will know later, we already mentioned it early when Abram was called, we mentioned Sarai, in chapter 20 he's going to explain by Abram's, Sarai's his half-sister, that is, her father is his father, but her mother is not his mother, daughter, and he married her.

[28:37] So, he's going to say later on, and, you know, actually I didn't really lie. now, do, but his intention was to deceive.

[29:02] No one ever tells what we sometimes call a half-truth, you know, a smatch of truth, a snippet of it is true, but it's way out of context, in order to make you think something different, come to a different conclusion, a wrong conclusion.

[29:30] I've never been tempted that way, of course. See, and I'm thankful for this. My dad used to, well, I may have gotten a couple of well-deserved thrashings for it, but, he said, telling half a truth is the same thing as lying.

[29:56] That's no truth at all. Because, you, you know, I punched Rodney. Well, why'd you punch him?

[30:06] Because he punched me. I forgot to tell him that I pushed him down the steps. first. You know, that part I left out. See, trying to deceive.

[30:25] Even though it may not be technically wrong, it's still wrong. Well, this is kind of what he's asking Sarah to do.

[30:35] He wants to stay alive. I'm glad that my salvation and my hope is not based on my performance. Abram's still righteous because he still believes God.

[30:54] Now, he doesn't act righteously, but he's still righteous. That's never been rescinded. So, he says, Sarah, leave out this part that we're married.

[31:11] Because apparently, even in the pagan land, the marriage was respected. So, the way around the marriage was to kill the husband.

[31:25] Oh, David. Huh. Imagine that. Marriage is respected but not life.

[31:35] So, did that work? Okay, to a point.

[31:49] We have a no, we have a no, we have a to a point. To what point did it work? They didn't kill Abram. What else?

[32:02] What else? What else? What did that? Yeah, he was treated kindly. He was treated kindly.

[32:15] Hey, you brought me. Well, see, what happened was that Pharaoh's servants, now, when we think of servants, we kind of think of household menial task servants, but anyone who was appointed by the king to do something.

[32:36] Daniel was a servant of Nebuchadnezzar, even though he was number two in the kingdom. Same thing with Joseph later on. You know, Joseph is still a servant of Pharaoh, even though Joseph is number two.

[32:53] actually, he really was number one as far as decision making and running the place. So, that's still a servant.

[33:05] And, so, Pharaoh's servants see her, and they recommend her to Pharaoh, say, hey, you've got to see this woman.

[33:18] She needs to go into the harem and be another trophy on the wall. So, what's Pharaoh do? Exactly that. Now, what happens?

[33:29] Here's the to a point and the no. And how? He sends plagues upon Pharaoh and all his household.

[33:47] So, Pharaoh and his servants are plagued. Now, what happens? Pharaoh reproves Abram for the deceit, right?

[34:12] Now, does he kill him now? No. But he does kick him out. He says, get out of here.

[34:24] I don't want you around here. Now, how did Pharaoh find out? We don't know. We don't know.

[34:36] So, whether God gave him intuition or it's not said that it's revealed to him.

[34:47] It will be revealed to another guy, but it's not revealed to Pharaoh necessarily. We just simply don't know. And I leave it at that. In any case, Pharaoh's right about it, and out he goes.

[35:02] So, where does Abraham go from here? Back up. He's heading back to Canaan. Right. Now, incidentally, what did God do to Pharaoh's house?

[35:22] He sent plagues. This has nothing to do with the plagues of the exodus. They're not sent for the same reason.

[35:40] God did not plague Egypt in the exodus because Egypt mistreated Israel. God did not plague Egypt in the exodus because Israel deceived Pharaoh.

[35:56] In fact, God says specifically, for this reason I raised you up, Pharaoh, to display my glory so that all the world will talk about me.

[36:09] So, God plagued Egypt in the exodus because Egypt would not let Israel leave.

[36:23] So, these are not the same thing. this, this, this, and I'm thankful that I live today and I don't get plagued because I misbehave.

[36:34] of course, I know people who do get plagued because they misbehave, but for me, it's a trial. For you, it's a judgment, you know.

[36:47] I'd better be careful about that, hadn't I? You know, life's tough. Life's tough. I don't need to make it harder, by the way, but it's going to be plenty tough enough.

[37:00] Yeah. To Joe's defense, though, God did say, look, he did not tell a mistruth about me.

[37:18] He didn't, he didn't lie about me, as you have done. See, you people, Job's counselors, Job's counselors said, we know God, and this is why you're suffering.

[37:37] And Job's big question was, why am I suffering? Why is this happening? God doesn't tell him, does he?

[37:50] God says, where were you? Where were you when I laid out the heavens? he says that, metaphorically, he says that to me, doesn't he?

[38:06] When I worry about what's happening to me, metaphorically, I need to look out and say, where were you, Roger, when God designed the grass and the trees?

[38:20] When he said, there will be photosynthesis, and I will create energy actuated by sunlight and I'll do it by breaking up the two most stable molecules we know about.

[38:42] Water and carbon dioxide. Who does that? God. God. So I need to remember that, don't I?

[38:54] I need to remember that. So, he's heading that back out. He's leaving. With even more stuff.

[39:10] And I'm leaving now. so, have a wonderful day. Is that fast? How fast?

[39:23] Okay, you did that purposefully. Okay, I'm going to stop there anyway because next week, God willing, we'll pick up with chapter 13 verse 2 through 13 and have a wonderful week.

[39:43]  Thank you.