Abraham

Well, talking about Bible study, and it being one of the key things that we must do, if we're going to please God, if we're going to progress in the Christian life, you know that as you've been in the church, as you've been reading the Bible, following God, there's a lot of different ways of reading the Bible and studying it. If you can simply take a book and read it from beginning to end, you can start at the beginning of Genesis and just keep reading, right, until you're through to Revelation, and you will learn a lot. You can do that time and time and time again, and every time you do that, you will learn something. God's Holy Spirit will increase understanding. God's Spirit will increase under our concept of what He is saying, and it will teach us. It guides us into all truth. You can take other topical studies as well. I don't use the Naves topical Bible so much, but I used to take a subject out of there and then go through all the scriptures, just so I would thoroughly understand what that book meant. Today you can do that online as you find the topical Bibles and as you find the topical things that are there. It's a very good study. If you ever wonder what it means, what the Bible says, what it means to seek God, for instance, you can go through there and find instances of seeking God and all the scriptures relating to it and get a thorough understanding of what God is talking about in that area, and the book is very thick. There's any number of subjects that you can study. You can look at Greek words, and I'll do that from time to time in sermons, and you see a Greek word and its meaning, which may be a little bit different or not, or just enhance the meaning of the English word that's there. And then you could go through and you can just study every word, every time that word is used in the Bible. You get an understanding of what God is talking about, what he's trying to have us understand in those things. Or you can do a character study. You can find people in the Bible, good people who lived according to God's way of life, and learn the pattern of their lives. Or you can find people who started off on the right path, but then somewhere along the line they let something in their life take them off that path. Whether it was a care of the world, whether it was something in their own heart, whether it was a lust they had or whatever it was that took them off the path, we can learn lessons from that as well.

Today I want to focus, in the beginning here on one word. I mentioned it a few weeks ago when I was here. You remember we were talking about the temple in Ezekiel, the Millennial Temple.

We went through some scriptures on that, and what that Millennial Temple would be like. We learned that there's much more in those eight chapters of Ezekiel than just the detail of what that temple would be constructed. There were some instructions in there that apply to us as God is building his temple in us today. In Ezekiel 43, God makes the comment to Ezekiel, as he is seeing this vision, to learn the pattern, learn the pattern of the temple. Learn the pattern.

Of course, before that he said, Ezekiel, describe the temple to Israel, the house of Israel. If they are willing and if their hearts are right, describe to them the details. Let them know more. Let them learn the pattern of the temple. We talked about how there's a pattern in our lives that God is looking for. The pattern of the temple was the day of life, the way that the religion worked and the people who served God in that time. We have a pattern in our life as well that we should be developing more and more as God leads us and directs us. Let's look at a few places here in the New Testament where the word pattern is used. The first one is over here in 2 Timothy.

2 Timothy 1. 2 Timothy 1 and verse 13, as Paul is writing to a new minister and counseling him on the type of things that he should do as he leads the people that are under his care. He says this in verse 13, 2 Timothy 1. Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Hold fast the pattern of sound words. When we say sound words, we're being led by God's Holy Spirit. It's God's Spirit that gives us a sound mind and a sound mind utters sound words. And he is telling Timothy, hold fast that pattern.

And of course in Timothy he says, you study the Bible. You tell, you keep it yourself and you tell others what the truth of the Bible is. But hold fast that pattern of sound words. Let your speech be patterned in that way. That when you speak, you're speaking from the Bible, from a knowledge base that God has given you over the years as you have studied and as you have learned and as you have gone back over things to learn it. Hold fast the pattern of sound words. One book over in Titus chapter 2 and verse 7. Titus is a very good book to read to, as it has many things to say about younger men, older men, younger women, older women, about elders in the church. And a verse, we'll pick it up in verse 6. As Paul was writing to Titus, he says, Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded. Let them be serious about things. Let them take this seriously. Let them be self-controlled. In all things, show yourself to be a pattern of good works, a pattern of good works, young men. As your life develops, that people can look at your life and see, we know what to expect of him. He will do good things, a pattern of sound words, a pattern of sound of good works.

Over in Philippians 3, Paul, who we know by his example, followed God through the trials of his life and through the good times in his life, always dedicating himself wholly to God. He says in verse 17 of Philippians 3, as he's talking to the church there, Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk as you have us for a pattern.

A pattern? I'm sure I know that Paul took seriously. Every minister should take seriously the pattern of their works, the pattern of their lives. For Paul, he said to his example, to his people, imitate me as I imitate Christ. And he took it as a huge responsibility that he would be living the life he preached and talked about.

I take that very seriously. I hope that you take that seriously because people look to you as people who follow God, who keep his Sabbath, and who do things differently than the world because you believe and you know who God is and what his truth is, that they should see a pattern to your life, a pattern of sound words, a pattern of good works, a pattern of obedience, a pattern of good behavior, a pattern in your life that they come to rely on because they know you and they know that as you are led by God's Spirit, they can count on you to do certain things.

Not like so many people we might meet in the world who one day is very good, but then the next time we're fooled because the things aren't very good. It's almost like they're different people. People of God shouldn't be that way. We should be patterns of God's way of life, and he will teach us the pattern of his life as we yield and as we give ourselves to him. I want to look at one man today who had a pattern of a good life, a man who comes with high commendation.

And as soon as I say his name, I know there's a couple things that's going to pop into your mind immediately, and those are good because his life did spell those very good things that he stood for. But his life was more than just those two things. His life was a pattern that was built, incident after incident, trial after trial, test after test that God gave him, so that he became a pattern that God could rely on and he knew his heart and said that he knew what this man would be after he lived his life that way.

Let's go back to Romans 4 and see some of the things that are said about this man so we can see that God certainly commended him and was pleased with the way he lived his life. Over in Romans 4 and verse 11, Romans 4 verse 11, it says, And he, this man, received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had, while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, the father of all those who believe.

That's how highly God thought of this man. Now, this man didn't grow up in the church if we used our modern-day verbiage. He was called out of the world. He learned of God later in life. And we'll see some of what he did because we can identify with that.

He was a man, like you and me, who had things in his life. But he, when he learned God and was called of God, he began a pattern of life that was far different than he had before. Let's go back to Luke 13. Luke 13 and verse 28. Christ himself said this about this man, Luke 13 verse 28, here in the middle of him exhorting his disciples to stay on the course and not to deter from it, to be in the kingdom.

And then he's talking about those who will stray and what they will feel at the time of the end. In verse 28 he says, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and yourselves thrust out. Those three will be in the kingdom of God. Their life is done. The script is already written. God, as their judge, has already said, they will be in the kingdom.

That's what God wants to say about you and me, but he can't say that today. We're still under judgment. God is still seeing what we are going to do. Abraham lived his life as a pattern of good works that God, that Jesus Christ would say, they will be, he will be in the kingdom. Wouldn't we like God to say that about us today? I know him, he will be in the kingdom. But until we die, God doesn't know that. Hopefully he's seeing a pattern of good works that he can come to expect what we will do in the situations that encounter us, that he will see us growing and making the right choices in our everyday behavior, in the way we are at work, school, in the neighborhood, in the community, in the store, in church. A pattern. A pattern of good behavior. A pattern of Christian behavior. Abraham is already there. Let's go back to Matthew 1.

Matthew 1, verse 1. We have the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Verse 1, Matthew 1. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

And then look where that genealogy begins. Abraham begot Isaac. Isaac begot Jacob. Jacob begot Judah and his brothers, and so on, and so on, and so on. It doesn't go back to Noah. It doesn't go back to Terah his father. It doesn't go back to Shem. He begins the genealogy with Abraham, the father of all those who believe. The father of all those who believe. What a high commendation from God that this man had. We certainly look to Jesus Christ as our example. But God preserves details of other people's lives as well so that we can learn from those. And in the book of Genesis, we have 12 chapters. I'm not going to go through all 12 of them today, where we see a lot of the detail of Abraham's life. I'll give you one more verse to write down. That's James 2, verse 23. And in that verse, it says that Abraham was called a friend of God, a friend of God. Another nice thing to say, isn't it? He was a friend of God. Well, we should be friends of God, too. Do you remember how we are known as friends of God? Christ said how we are known as friends of God. Remember John 15? I think it's verse 14. He said, you are my friends if you do whatever I command you. If you do whatever I command you. Abraham did that. Abraham did that. Let's go back to Genesis 11.

Now, when we think of Abraham, we think of his obedience. And certainly, that's one thing that we should recognize. He owe a God and followed God wherever God took him. Abraham just did it. And that's something we shouldn't discount. But I'm not going to talk a lot about that today because you know that. And that is something that he's known for. And we talk about Abraham's faith.

What faith he had to move wherever God asked him to move, to be willing to sacrifice Isaac and not put that young lad or that young man before God. Those are noble things that Abraham did. He's known for that. His faith was accounted to him for righteousness. I won't talk about those things because we know that about Abraham. But let's look a little bit at Abraham and get to know him a little bit better and see some of the detail that God puts in here about him because there's direct parallels for you and me in his life. Things that we can identify with when we take his life out of when he lived until today. Let's pick it up first here in chapter 11, verse 20.

Let's pick it up in verse 31. Okay. So here we have an identifying characteristic of Abraham. I'm going to call him Abraham, even though the Bible changes. His name was changed later. He came from Ur of the Chaldeans.

Now, we think of Abraham as a nomad. He was a shepherd. He lived in the land of Canaan. He was a prophet. He was a prophet. He was a prophet. He was a prophet. He was a prophet.

Now, we think of Abraham as a nomad. He was a shepherd. He lived in tents. He rose 11 nine. He tells us from the time that he left Ur until the time of his death, he dwelt in tents.

Ur of the Chaldeans is the place that he was from. That's where he spent his formative years. Just like we are spending our time in Orlando now and others of you have spent your time in other cities, Abraham came from Ur. What about Ur? Now, if it said New York City, we would know what New York City was like. We would know what Orlando was like if it said that in there. But he came from Ur of the Chaldeans. What was Ur like? Because that will tell us something about Abraham and the life he had. Now, this comes from the Bible, BibleHistory.com, but there's a number of places that you can find the exact same information about Ur of the Chaldeans because it was a well-known city back in that time. Let me just read from the history they have here. They say, the land of Chaldea contained riches beyond imagination, and Ur, located on the western portion of the Euphrates River, was the wealthiest city in Chaldea. The history in this region exceeds that of the land of Egypt and its pyramids. And then it describes a little bit about what daily life was like in Ur. It says, there has been much understood about daily living in ancient Mesopotamia. The great ziggurat of ancient Ur was built by King Ur-Namu, who ruled the area of Ur around 2100 BC. This would have been approximately 250 years after the great flood of Noah, and the ziggurat was a huge temple to the god, their moon god, that was there. Archaeologists estimate that there were approximately 24,000 people living in the city of Ur during the time of Abraham. The people of ancient Mesopotamia worshipped many gods, and the people of Ur worshipped their chief god named Na Na Na Na Na, the moon god. The people of Ur lived in one of two main areas in the city, a very religious sacred place, or the common district. I'll describe the common district. The people of ancient Ur were a highly advanced culture. The common district was filled with marketplaces, schools, libraries, and many of the people were very wealthy. People had very nice homes with lush gardens and many conveniences. And then the other part of the city they could live in was a sacred place, where the temples were, where this temple, where this ziggurat was. People would pay their taxes there, and it was surrounded by very thick walls, a very another, another very wealthy area of town. So Abraham lived in an area and came from an area, much like what we live in today, minus the cars, minus the airplanes, minus those things. But his standard of living, apparently, in Ur was very good. It was a wealthy city, the wealthiest of the Chaldeans. And Abraham had a very good lifestyle there. He left it. He left it. And when God called him, and when Abraham recognized God and chose to follow him, he left all that behind.

The rest of his life would be spent in tents. Instead of what he was doing in Ur, he would be a shepherd working out in the fields. Isn't it interesting how many, how many men of God were shepherds in their life? The things that people learn from working with those sheep, and having to take care of their every need, is something that God would cultivate in them. Now Abraham, apparently, and I can't say this for 100% sure, apparently had a very good job and was very well known in Ur. He was a scientist, many people would say. And there are several books out, and there's an article by a man by the name of Lyn Torrance. Some of you will know, recognize that name from 30-40 years ago. And in that article he references several historical books. Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World, a book called The Standard History of the World by Israel Clare, and The Conflict Between Religion and Science, written by a man by the name of Theodore Draper, as well as Josephus, the first century Jewish historian. And in that he puts together a picture of the life of Abraham and the city of Ur, what it was like to live back then. We've already described the city. It was quite advanced. It had all the modern conveniences of that day. And they were advanced culture. When Alexander the Great conquered Babylonia, and he went in and he was able to take all their things, he found 1,903 years worth of charts and calendars, where they had calculated the movement of the planets, where they were able to accurately predict when the next eclipse would come. Each sunset, each beginning of day, everything for far out into the future. That's how much they knew about the planets that were around them, the movement of the stars and the movements of the suns. Sun. They knew all that stuff. They put it all together. And they had the charts that go back 1,900 years before that time to show what they were putting together. Now, remember, it was a culture that was steeped in pagan gods, moon gods, sun gods, planet gods, every god known to man. And they each had their own little domain of what they were doing. Abraham, it is said by Josephus, was a scientist, if you will, an astronomer, not an astrologer, an astronomer in that time. He studied the planets, they say. He saw the movement. He was part of that calculating that was going on. And he saw the perfection that was in the universe, how those planets move. And as God worked with him and as he studied those planets, it is said, he came to realize it's not possible that Mr. Moon God over here would do his things, Mr. Sun God over here would do his things, and all these other things would do these things. We would have utter chaos. There is one, one God that is controlling this universe. Only one could make it all happen. And as he studied and as he talked and as he taught people, he began to realize it's not a system of many gods. There is one creator God. It was a radical idea in that time, totally different than what the people of Ur believed, totally different than what the people of the Chaldeans believed in Babylonia. It was revolutionary, but it was true. But as he studied the universe and as he did these things, he began to see, and keep your finger there in Genesis 12, let's go back to Romans 1. He saw exactly what Paul wrote about here in Romans 1 and verse 20.

Of course, God was opening his mind to see these things.

Romans 1, verse 20, says, For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. If people would look at the universe as Abraham, who was studying it and who was quite well educated in that city of Ur, did, he couldn't refute the obvious fact there's not a bunch of little gods. There's one God controlling this. And if there wasn't one God, we wouldn't even be here. Nothing could work in this perfect order unless there was one God.

And he saw by the attributes of this earth there's one God. And as Abraham began to see that, he began to talk about it. Here, let me, according to Josephus, it says, Abraham analyzed the phenomena that were visible both at land and sea, as well as those that happened to the sun and moon and all the heavenly bodies, as proof there is one creator God. And then apparently, and this is a quote, if the sun, the moon, and the planets were gods, they would regulate their own motion and not have to follow laws which had been set in motion. And apparently, and I think this is where there's a little bit of literary license taken, he began to talk about one creator God. People listened to him, but they didn't want to hear it. Just as it says here in Romans 1, they didn't want to hear the truth. They were very comfortable in their system. They very much liked their moon god, sun god, etc., etc. They didn't want to hear about one God. They had their whole society set up about it.

And so Josephus infers, and the historians infer, that Abraham, because of what he was promoting, was asked to leave Ur, lost his position if he wasn't going to stick with what he had always believed. And Abraham left. And Abraham left it all behind to follow the true God.

Now as we, as we left things behind in the world, we might remember those things and say, ah, I gave up a lot. And I dare say Abraham gave up a lot more than you and me. I think he gave up a lot more to follow God than we did. It was a day and age that was different than us. When he left Ur and went to Haran and then God took him to the land of Canaan, he had no idea what he was getting into. He had no idea what the land was like. He simply followed and trusted God every step of the way. And so we find this man who gave up the wealth of Ur for the tents of the land of Canaan and the nomadic life that God had called him to. In Hebrews, you remember that it talks about the men of faith who were no longer looking for a place on earth, but were looking for the heavenly city. Their citizenship is now in heaven, and as Abraham lived his life, he is a testament to that. He was looking to God. He was looking for that city, not to return to Ur, but for that city that would come from God. The city that we talked about last week as we talked about the seventh dwelling place of God.

Let's go back to Genesis 12 and look at a few of the things here about Abraham. In chapter 12 of Genesis, of course, in the first few verses, God gives him the blessing that we talk about.

And in verse 7, as Abraham finds himself in this new land, it says, The LORD appeared to Abram and said, To your descendants I will give this land. He had left Ur. He had followed God to this place that he didn't know had never been to before, and God gives him a promise, I will give you this land.

Well, God makes us a promise, too. So I think we can identify with what Abraham has here. But notice what Abraham does in response to God's words to him. It says, He built an altar to the LORD who had appeared to him. He built an altar.

Now, it doesn't say that he sacrificed, but perhaps he sacrificed to God there. He gave God the obeisance that he deserved. He worshipped him. But he placed an altar there in that place.

Now, he had already left Ur because he was the only one in that community who was believing in one true God. Now, he was in another land filled with strange people he didn't know.

But he had no problem doing what God had asked him to do and identifying himself with the God that we now would call the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He didn't try to hide it. He didn't have any kind of problem from the past and say, oh, maybe I should just lay low here, just worship God and secrecy. Now, he was willing to just build an altar and sacrifice to God. Down there in verse 9, it says, or not in verse 9, verse 8, the last part of it there, again, as he moved to another place, he built an altar to God. And you see throughout the accounts of Abraham, he built these altars to God, and he called on the name of the Lord. He prayed. He prayed. We see Abraham praying, something that you and I have to do. He did that at the beginning of his relationship with God, and all the way through, he called on God's name. He prayed. Without it, without it, we are nothing. Without it, he wouldn't have progressed either. Over in verse 10, we see a kind of a well-known here example of Abraham that shows that he wasn't a perfect man. He had his faults that he had to learn as well. It says in verse 10, there was a famine in the land, and Abraham went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. The jobs dried up in one market, so he moved across to another place where the jobs were plentiful. And it came to pass when he was close to entering Egypt that he said to Sarah, his wife, I know you're a beautiful woman.

The Egyptians are going to love you. So to preserve my life, can we just say you're my sister?

Remember that incident, right? And that's what they did. Now, Abraham, for all the faith that he showed in all the other things, he was young in his walk with God at this point. He sized up what the Egyptians would do. He looked at Sarah and thought, God can protect me, but I think I'll help him along a little bit. I'll kind of change the story up a little bit here just to make sure God does protect me. And maybe in this point in his life, he wasn't looking to God wholeheartedly in faith as he should and as he learned to do later. We do the same things, don't we? We know that God promises to do things. He knows, for instance, in this case, he said he would protect, he, we know he would have protected Abraham. In fact, he did. It was God who revealed to Pharaoh that this Sarah was his wife and God gave favor to Abraham and Pharaoh's eyes that he was allowed to leave that land without losing his life. God can protect. He didn't need the help from Abraham. He didn't need Abraham to do the reasoning and say, well, let's do this.

Let's look at a couple scriptures on protection and God's protection of us over in Psalm 46.

Psalm 46 and verse 1, David, who also came to understand that it is God who protects us. Yes, we do what we can. We don't put ourselves in questionable situations, but we know it's God who provides and it's God who is, who is, who will protect us. Psalm 46, verse 1, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Abraham, in his mind, thought he was in trouble.

God knew exactly where Abraham was. God was seeing what Abraham's reaction would be. Therefore, we will not fear, even though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though the waters roar and so on and so on, whatever becomes, God will see us through. God will protect. He doesn't need our human reasoning. He doesn't need us to change the story a little bit to protect ourselves. He is capable of doing it.

And Abraham would learn that. Over in Psalm 91, we see another of the many scriptures that talk about God protecting us. Psalm 91, verse 1, He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

When we're with God, when we're close to Him, when we're in His shadow, when we're doing His will, He is watching. He knows what is going on. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God. In Him I will trust. And Abraham, over the course of his life, would learn to trust God implicitly. He failed again after this. He failed in a similar situation with King Abimelech.

He took taking matters into his own hands. But He would learn from his mistakes. He would learn from his errors. He would learn, as God would show him, I'm the one protecting, not doing your own thing. Let's go back to Genesis 13.

It was Abraham who came out of Ur who God was working with. He brought Lot with him.

And we see here in the space of one chapter, however many years that entails, both Lot and Abraham are doing well. Their flocks are increasing, their wealth is increasing.

And, as often happens, there was a little bit of consternation between the two people.

Flocks were too, the flocks had gotten too big. Too much land was needed, and they needed to somehow resolve it. There was strife between the herdsmen, strife between Abraham and Lot over this. And Abraham sized up the situation and knew that something had to be done.

Let's pick it up in 13 verse 7. There was strife between the herdsmen of Abraham's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. And it says, the Canaanites and the parasites dwelled in the land. So Abraham said to Lot, Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we're brothers. We're brothers. I don't want this to come between us. I don't want it to upset the unity that we have had all these years. We've got a problem. We have to solve it. And we can't let it come between us because I see this thing that's coming between us. It's going to be a constant thorn in our sides if we don't deal with it. He says, Isn't the whole land before you? Separate from me. If you take the left, I'll go to the right. If you go to the right, I'll go to the left. Abraham was about preserving the peace. He wasn't about compromising anything, but he was a peacemaker. Now, Abraham would have probably had full right in our eyes if he had said to Lot, You know what? We need to separate. I'm going over here to this land because he would have sized it up and said, This is the place I want the pasture to be. You take this land over here. No one could have faulted Abraham, right? But notice what he did there. In a picture of humility, he said, You take what you want, and I'll take what's left over.

Quite a statement by someone who in Ur was quite a statesman, quite an important person. Someone who was now following God, and as he watched God bless him, he would say, No, you know what? I'll esteem you higher than me. You take what's there, and I'll take what you don't want. He knew God would provide wherever, wherever his flocks would be.

When we, we can learn a lot from Abraham because we can identify with this as we have things come up in our lives and family matters and job matters, in church matters, and things between friends and things between families, Abraham didn't put his fist down and say, This is the way it's going to be. I'm demanding my rights. God watched what went on in that situation, something that Abraham and Lot just, it was just kind of an everyday occurrence that happens in our life all the time. Abraham handled it well. He was peaceful. He was willing to give Lot the other choice. He wasn't looking out for himself. Look down here in verse 14. After the, after this whole interlude and this whole occasion, God was watching to see how Abram would be. We don't really know how Abram was back in Ur. He might have been one of those people who would pound his fist and claim what he wanted and demand his rights based on his status. Not in this case. In verse 14, God says to Abram, After Lot had separated from him, Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, and westward, for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.

He sees this and he makes a comment to Abram, repeating the blessing. As in a pat on the back, Well done, Abram. Look how you handled that. You handled that that exactly the right way.

You handled it as a man of God would handle it. And he repeats the blessing to him. And you see that as you read through Genesis as well in the chapters of Abraham. When he passes through these various incidents in his life, God repeats the blessing as if to say, Abraham, I'm going to give you this land. I'm going to make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. You will have this land forever and ever and ever. And with each passing one, he increases the vision to Abram.

As Abram, we can see him growing in the pattern of life, the pattern of good behavior as God worked with him, as God grew him into the man who would, in Genesis 22, be able to put Isaac on that sacrificial altar and be willing to sacrifice him. It didn't happen overnight. It happened throughout his life as he walked with God and as he yielded to God and as God took him through each incident in his life and saw how will Abraham handle this? What choice will he make? Maybe, we don't know who Abraham was in his past life, maybe he will revert to his old Abraham self. Maybe when he's out there and he's got all this silver and gold and herds, he'll become the old Abraham and he'll order to everyone. Abraham never did. He learned the pattern of life of a Christian. He remained humble. He remained loyal to God. And he never. You don't find him putting himself first in anything. Let's go back to Genesis 14. We're not just back, but forward to Genesis 14. Another incident in his life. Abraham is doing nothing, minding his business. When all of a sudden the four kings decide that they're going to come and they're going to attack Sodom. Now, we can identify this within our world. This is just kind of the way of the world, right? People size up what another nation has. They decide, I want what you have. I'll attack you. I'm going to take what you have. We see that in the world around us today. We see Russia over there. Russia sees Crimea. Russia sees Ukraine. Russia sees these things. They want what they have. They want it. They want it. You got it. I want it. We see ISIS. They operate the same way. You've got it. We want it. We'll take it from you. We're going to make it ours. No different here with the kings back in Abraham's time. They go in, they attack Sodom, they carry off Lot, they carry off the possessions, and a servant here we see in verse 13 comes to tell Abraham what had happened. Abraham knows he needs to help. Lot has now been taken. Lot is captured. He's in the hands of these these foreign kings.

It says in verse 14 of chapter 14, when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his 318 trained servants who were born in his own house, and he went in pursuit as far as Dan. And they were victorious. They were able to conquer these four kings. Abram was able to bring back everything that had been taken. Now lest he thought, wow, what a skilled army I put together. I must be a really good commander to be able to do this with 318 men. We see in verse 18 that Melchizedek comes to visit Abram. Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of God Most High, and he blessed him and said, blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High who has delivered your enemies into your hand. Abram, every Christian, it's not you who won the victory. It's God. It's God who gave you the victory. It's God who gives us the victory over sin, ourselves, over the world. It's never us.

It's always God. And Abram learned the lesson. It says here he gave him a tithe of all.

He did what he had been instructed he gave God, a tithe of everything that he had to give. He honored God in that way. As you read in the Bible reading program next week, as you read in the first four chapters of Proverbs there, you'll see Solomon is exhorting his people. Know the Word.

Get wisdom. Get understanding. Follow my commands. Follow my law. Don't abandon them.

Learn them. Put them as an ornament around your neck.

Then in one place there it says, honor God with your substance. Recognize him. Recognize that it's him who gives us everything. Just as Abraham honored God here in the face of victory.

So the king of Sodom, going back a couple verses here, went out to meet Abraham in the valley there.

And in verse 21, the king of Sodom said to Abram, just give me the people, keep the goods for yourself. You know what, Abram? You did a good job. You went back. You covered everything that was taken from us. Just let me have the people back. You can keep all the goods.

A reasonable request or a reasonable comment, right? If you go out and you win, isn't that, doesn't the, to the victor goes the loot?

Oh, that's the way of the world. That's the way most things happen. That's obviously the way it happened back then. It would have been nothing, nothing strange for Abraham to say, okay, thank you. You can have the people. I'll keep everything else. Notice what Abraham said. Abraham said to the king of Sodom, I have raised my hand to the Lord, God Most High, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will take nothing from a thread to a sandal strap, and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you say, I've made Abram rich, except only what the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me. So he said, no, I didn't go out to battle to win riches for myself. I went out to battle to rescue Lot and rescue the people from the hands of this king. That's all I went out there for. God was with me. God delivered me. All I asked for is, just reimburse me for the costs that we had. But he said to Sodom, to the king of Sodom, something that very much surprised him. You can keep everything else. That isn't the reason I went out there. You don't think the king of Sodom was pretty surprised? I'm sure when he heard that. That just isn't the way things are done in the world. Abram made a name for himself. By doing the right thing, no one would have faulted him if he had just said, okay, okay.

You know, there's not many people that would do this. In the history of nations, there's just not nations that go out and win a battle and then give it back to the country.

This is a trait of Abraham. And as you read through, on your own, as you read through Genesis and see some of the traits of Abraham and Jacob, think about their descendants today.

Think about how they handle themselves differently in a world that's much like the world we have today. Today we have fancier weaponry and things like that, but we have the same human nature and the same type warfare and the same people that want to grab something from someone else.

Abraham gave it all back. Now, in the world today, how many nations would go to war, win the war, and not just claim everything for themselves? Would Russia do that? Would ISIS do it? Would the Middle East do it? Would anyone in Africa do it? Would much of Europe do it? How many nations have the trait that we'll go in and we'll fight the battle? Just pay us back for our costs, but you can have everything back? We weren't looking to take you over and we weren't looking to enrich ourselves through warfare on you. One nation, one notable trait among a world of nations, or perhaps a group of nations that way, one notable nation in the world today, would have the same trait that Abraham displayed here. He didn't learn it by example. The world around them, he learned it from God. He learned it from God in chapter 15. After all this, these things, the word of the Eternal came to Abram in a vision saying, don't be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward. Words of assurance. I am with you, Abram. Well done. You handled that situation perfectly. You learned what I wanted you to learn. Let's go over to chapter 16.

Throughout these promises to Abraham, God would refer to his descendants. That his descendants would be as numerous as the stars of the sky. And Abraham, as he's sitting there year in and year out, would look at it and say, where's my descendants? I don't have a child yet.

He believed God, but in chapter 16 we find that in human reasoning again, he and Sarah devised a plan to help God along. Ah, God said he'd give us a child. Maybe this is what he meant. You, Abraham, you take Hagar, you have a child by her, that'll be the way God wants it to work. Human reasoning would seem that way, wouldn't it? Maybe that's what God wants.

You know the story of Hagar. You know what went on with her and how the consternation immediately developed in that family. As soon as Hagar conceived, there was animosity between her and Sarah.

Wrong decision. When we make the right decisions, peace results. Good things result. This wasn't a decision. Abraham and Sarah took matters into their own hands. I'll help God along.

Maybe he forgot. Maybe he doesn't realize how old Sarah is, that she can't have a child, so we'll just do it this way. And then Hagar. Sarah wants her gone, we see in this chapter. And again, in chapter 20, when Isaac is born, they usher her out. And notable in this chapter is what happens as Hagar is fleeing. Abraham's hands are tied. Sarah doesn't want anything to do with her. In chapter 20, when Isaac's born, she wants Ishmael gone. Abraham has a sense of responsibility. He knows he needs to provide for the lad. It's his child. And he wrestles emotionally with Sarah.

And God says no in chapter 20. Let him go. Let him go. Abraham couldn't fulfill what he wanted to do and what God knew was in his heart to do to provide for that person, for that child. In chapter we're here in chapter 16. Let's look at verse 11. Hagar, as she's in the run, distressed, she only did what her masters wanted her to do. The angel of the Lord said to her, as she is in the midst of thinking that she is going to die. It says, Behold, you are with child. You will bear a son. You will call his name Ishmael because the Lord has heard your affliction. He will be a wild man. His hand will be against every man and every man's hand against him. And he will dwell in the presence of all his brethren. She thought she was all alone. She just followed her master's wishes and now she was out in the middle of the desert with nowhere to turn and nowhere to go.

Have you ever felt that way? She felt that way. God comforted her. He knew what had happened and he didn't lose sight of her. She called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You are the God who sees. You are the God who sees. When she thought there was no hope, when she thought there was no way to go, and over in Chapter 20, you are the God who sees. And he is the God who will provide and who will do the things when we can't do them. Abraham couldn't provide for Ishmael. It wasn't going to be a situation. God took care of it. He knew Abraham wanted to. He couldn't, given the family situation. They had created an untenable situation in that house, as we often do when we take matters into our own hands. Not just in family matters, but anything that we should have faith in God. Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years for that child. We can understand why they would have thought, God just doesn't remember. This might have been too hard for him. What he must mean is that he wants us to do this because he hasn't given us a child immediately.

They should have waited. And they learned to wait, that God could even defy age or anything in our physical lives. And oftentimes, when we take matters into our own hands and we reason and we say, God must want us to do this. Yes, he will do this, but if we do this, it'll just help him along.

Oftentimes, it doesn't turn out the way we want. We learn to have faith in God, faith in him, that what he says he will do, he will do.

Let's look at one more in chapter 17 here. Chapter 17, verse 11. Again, God says in chapter 17 that he is going to establish. Abraham is a mighty nation. He will establish his covenant with him. Abraham, throughout this course, is doing things the way God would have him do.

When he's making mistakes, he is learning his lesson. Verse 9. God said to Abraham, chapter 17, As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants, after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants after you. Every male child among you shall be circumcised, and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your fourskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between you and me, or me and you.

And then he goes in and talks about every male child, eight days old, and every male in the congregation there. Now, for all this time before that, there was no circumcision. They were obeying God. He was blessing them. They were a happy family as Abraham was growing. Then all of a sudden God says, I'll make this covenant with you, Abraham. There's pain involved.

You don't think as Abraham. Well, he had no idea what the pain would be. This is the sign.

Circumcision. That word just rolls off of our lips, doesn't it? But I daresay if any of us needed to be circumcised, it wouldn't roll off our lips after it had been done. There was pain involved.

And they might have thought, well, what do we need this pain for? Everything's been going fine. We've been obeying God. We've been following Him. He's been with us. We've been learning. We've been progressing. God is blessing it. Why would He do this now? Well, Abraham didn't let it deter him.

He simply said, okay, we'll go through it. And Abraham was circumcised. And Ishmael was circumcised. And Isaac was circumcised. And every single male in that household was circumcised, young and old. Every single male was willing to do that. Now, if you were a servant at work, you're an employee at work, and your boss says to do something like this, what do you say?

I'm finding another job. Abraham, it's been nice, but you know what? I'm going somewhere else.

No, they all stuck with him. They all had it done.

What does that tell us about Abraham? What does that tell us about Abraham?

What a role model he must have been. What a fixture in their minds. It doesn't say that all these men were converted, but they loved working for Abraham. They saw what God did with him. They knew he was a man of God. And even though they may not have believed it themselves, they saw what was happening, and they wanted to be there, and they were willing to go through this to stay with him. What does it say about Abraham? Over in chapter 18 and verse 19, when God sees that Abraham and all his household were willing to go through this, to enter into the covenant, God, right before he's going to talk about Sodom and Gomorrah, which we're not going to talk about today, makes this comment a great commendation about Abraham. I have known him in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him.

I know what he will do. I know that he's going to command his household after him. I know it's going to be well run. I've watched the man, I've watched him teach, I've watched how his people respond to him. I know when Isaac is born in this household, Abraham will teach him the way to go, and he will grow up obeying God and following him and loyal to him as well. God knew it. He knew it by the pattern of Abraham's life. He knew it by the pattern of growth, by the pattern of Abraham doing the right things, making the right choices, listening to what God had to say and teach him, and making and changing his life as God led him to the point where he could say at the end of his life, he's the father of all believers. He was a friend of God. You could go through and see many more of the details here of Abraham and look and see how God worked with him and what you learned. But let's go back to Romans 12. And as we look at the pattern of life of Abraham, as we see what he did, and he wasn't the perfect man, but he continually grew and he continually allowed God to be that. So even the people around him would see the pattern of his life. Romans 12, let's pick it up in verse 9. Words to all true Christians. And as we read through these, think about Abraham and the things that we've talked about today and the things that you know about that we didn't talk about today, the incidents in Abraham's life. Verse 9, let love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil, cling to what is good, be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Don't set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Don't be wise in your own opinion. Well, Abraham followed that pattern, didn't he? We can see that example.

In his example, we should be following that as well. So one day God can say to of us, he was a friend of God. There was a pattern in his life. Let's go back to 2 Timothy.

1 Timothy, I'm sorry. 1 Timothy 3.

Oh, wrong book. That's why it doesn't look right. 1 Timothy 3, verse 1.

Remembering that God has us all in training to be kings and priests. Remembering that God has a position for all of us and that he wants us to develop in this way, these verses apply. All of us, this is a faithful saying, if a man desires a position of a bishop, he desires a good work.

A bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, self-controlled, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous. 1 Timothy, who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence. For if a man doesn't know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the Church of God?

And he says, not a novice, because it takes time to grow in the grace and knowledge of God. It takes time for God to rewrite our lives and retrain us in the proper pattern. Abraham fulfilled all of these. You and I can fulfill all of these if we yield to God, if we allow him to develop the pattern of a godly life in us.