THE WAY OF OBEDIENCE
Text:Gen 12:1-20
12 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
4 So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
6 And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.
7 And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.
8 And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.
9 And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.
10 And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.
11 And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon:
12 Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.
13 Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.
14 And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair.
15 The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.
16 And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels.
17 And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram’s wife.
18 And Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?
19 Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way.
20 And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.
Introduction
- Abraham is probably the second most important person in the Bible, second only to Jesus Christ.
- The amount of scripture devoted to the story of Abraham emphasizes his importance.
- For example, only eleven chapters in Genesis describe the creation of the universe, the great flood, the offspring of Noah, the tower of Babel (i.e. the 19 generations that precede Abraham). Yet God devotes almost fourteen chapters to this one man (chapters 12-25). And the reality is this, the rest of the bible is the story of all his young ones.
In the great roll call of faith in Hebrews chapter 11, the writer says more about Abraham than any other
Why is Abraham such an important character? Because in Abraham, all nations are blessed. The greatest blessing being that Jesus Christ is his offspring. Abraham’s faith was counted as righteousness and as such he is an illustration of salvation by grace through faith (cf. Rom. 4:1-4). Abraham is the father of the faithful (cf. Rom. 4:11, 16).
The journey to a bold obedience begins with
1. The Call Of Faith (Gen. 12:1-5)
- The call of the Lord to Abram came first while he was still living in Ur. (cf. Acts 7:1-3)
Abram moved Sarai, Lot and his father, Terah, from Ur to Haran and lived there until Terah died. (Gen. 11:27-32)
Let’s look at this call.
1) The call of faith is the call to fulfill God’s
- God was calling Abram forth to ultimately fulfill His purpose of bringing the Messiah into the world through a nation (i.e. Israel) that He would single out to be a light to the World.
God will ultimately make a one-sided covenant with Abram, a blood covenant, an irrevocable covenant of promise. The promises of this covenant will be both
Question: Am I fulfilling God’s purpose in my life? Being saved is awesome. But being saved is not the end result of fulfilling God’s purpose; it is the starting point.
- God’s purpose is much larger than my individual salvation. God wants all men to be saved. God is ultimately going to redeem creation because of the work of the cross.
2) The call of faith is a call to receive God’s blessings. (Gen. 12:1-3)
1] By answering the call Abram received the blessing of
2] By answering the call Abram received the blessing of a
3] By answering the call Abram received the blessing of a
- The thing that makes the promise of these blessings so amazing is that when God promised them to Abram, he was
But God had promised, and Abram believed; therefore, he took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions…and departed to go to the land of Canaan. (Gen. 12:5)
How many blessings would Abram have forfeited if he did not answer the call of faith? ALL of them. We often miss out on the blessings God would give to us because we fail to answer the call of faith. (cf. Heb. 11:6)
3) The call to faith is the call to
- In order for Abram to enter Canaan, he had to first leave Haran. He had to follow God’s direction.
As long as he was stuck in Haran, God’s purposes for his life could not be realized.
A half-way obedience is always costly because half-way obedience is ultimately
2. The Cultivation Of Faith (Gen. 12:6-9)
- When Abram got to the place where God wanted him to be, God immediately began
v. 6 – The Canaanites were in the land. The Canaanites were very immoral people. Abram must have thought, “Surely this is a mistake. This is the land God wants to give me?”
When our faith is tested we need God’s guidance and direction. Note what Abram did. He built an altar to the LORD. (v. 7) Verse eight says that at his altar he called upon the name of the LORD. Abram was cultivating his faith. He needed to do that. He needed a faith that could grow and trust God even when things didn’t seem to be the way he thought they should be.
All of us need an altar where our faith can grow. The truth is that as Christians we do. (cf. Heb. 13:10, 15)
If we are going to cultivate our faith, we must meet with God at the altar.
- A part of the altar will be
- Prayer and bible study help us to grow our faith. Meeting with God at the altar is where we can get alone with God, worship God, identify ourselves with God.
- Without close fellowship with God, a journey to a bold obedience is going to be impossible.
3. The Conflicts Of Faith (Gen. 12:10-20)
The reason we need to cultivate and grow our faith is because the further we go, the
At the moment of recognizing the severity of the famine, Abraham should have turned to God and leaned on the promise God gave him, “Abram, I will give you a land. I will bless you.”
- Abraham is the only person in Canaan who could say, “I don’t know about you cats and what you are going to do to survive this famine, but I’ve got a promise from the Lord.”
- Instead, Abram did what seemed to be the sensible, logical thing. He moved to the fertile banks of the Nile River.
Note here that Abram is not operating in the realm of
He almost
In the midst of Abram’s wandering from God’s will, God did not forsake him but intervened and plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. (Gen. 12:17)
- Point: Even when we are not faithful to God, God is
- How embarrassing for Abram. He was literally kicked out and disgraced. But that is always the end result of disobedience and pride.
- Abram left Egypt humbled and wiser. Note the first place he goes. He makes a bee line for the