Lessons From Abraham

What is it that we should learn from the life of Abraham? What lessons should we learn? I'm sure that there are many, but we're going to focus on one today. Let's notice, beginning in verse 1, Romans chapter 4, verse 1. What then shall we say that Abraham, our Father, has found according to the flesh? For Abraham was justified by works, is something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now, basically, if I could summarize this section, it's simply talking about we are not justified by works. When you were baptized, and you were taken under the water, were you baptized because of your good works, or because of your repentance, or because of your faith, trust, and belief in Jesus Christ as your Savior? You might remember when we baptized a person, we say, have you repented of your sins? That's acknowledging that you've broken God's law, that you are a sinner. Then we say, have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? We go through both of those, emphasizing that. The problem with the Jews in Christ's day is they felt by their good works. How often they fasted, if they prayed, if they gave large amounts of money, if they did good works, they had the phylacteries, and they did all of the physical things, they thought by doing this that they could be justified, or made right, in God's sight. It's not our good works that make us right in God's sight. It's repentance that comes from God, and faith you entrust. Verse 4, Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as death. Now, when you go out and work a job, you get paid. Those are wages. You work forty hours a week, you expect to be paid. That's owed you. Those are your works. But being made right with God, being justified, is not of debt, but it is of God's grace. God, through his grace, his graciousness, his forgiveness, forgives us of our sins. Then he goes on to say here in verse 7, Bless are those who do not work, but believe on him that justifies the ungodly. His faith is accounted for righteousness. Just as David also described the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness, apart from works. Bless are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven. Now, let's stop here, lest somebody goes astray. How are your lawless deeds forgiven? What is lawlessness, anyway? It's sin, isn't it? 1 John 3, 4, sin is the transgression of the law. It's lawlessness. It's not obeying the law. Bless are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven. Our deeds are forgiven when we repent of them and are baptized. Now, how do you repent? What if I were a bank robber?

Once a week, I go into a bank and I say, Stick it up! Give me your money. And they give me their money. I keep doing this, and one day I want to be baptized.

The minister asked me, Have you repented of your sins? I say, Yes. Next week, I'll go out and I just keep robbing banks and rob them. You want a week? Have I really repented? Well, no, I haven't. See, in order to have your lawless deeds forgiven, you've got to stop breaking God's law. Now, does that mean you will no longer sin? Well, of course we sin. We're human. But we are not to live in sin, practice sin as a way of life. And then notice whose sins are covered. How have our sins covered? Well, by Christ's sacrifice. So it says, Blessed is a man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. Our sins are not imputed to us when they are covered by Christ's sacrifice based upon our repentance and our belief in God. Will God forgive our past sins if we don't repent of them and stop doing them? Well, of course we have to. Let's notice the book of James. You might want to hold your place here because we'll come back. But James 2 and verse 14. Now, you know, the book of James was referred to by Martin Luther as an epistle of straw because it debunked everything he taught. He taught grace only. Yet you don't need any works. He taught you didn't have to obey. And yet you come to the book of James and it says the exact opposite. Let's notice in verse 14.

What is a prophet, my brethren? And someone says he has faith but does not have works. Can faith save him? Now, this almost seems like a contradiction between what James writes and what Paul writes. But notice, he goes on to explain. If a brother or a sister is naked in destitute daily food, and one of you said to them, depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what is a prophet?

Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Dead faith doesn't have any action, doesn't have any works, doesn't have any deeds. It is just a profession. Yes, I believe in obeying, but it doesn't do anything. So, you know, this is what he's saying. If we have faith, faith will lead us to obedience. Faith is the catalyst to obey. We have faith. God says, remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. We have faith. What will that lead us to do? Keep the Sabbath day holy. That's what it will lead us to do. Now, we may profess to have faith, but unless it leads us to action, to obedience, to doing something, it's dead. Now, he goes on to explain this. Verse 18, but someone will say, you have faith, I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe there's one God you do well, even the demons believe and tremble. But you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead. It's dead. Now, if you go to a funeral and there's a dead body there, can that dead body produce anything? Can he do any works? Can he go to work? Well, no, it's dead, and that's the way faith is. It might as well be in a casket, buried six feet in the ground, because it's dead. We must have living faith, active faith, obedient faith. And he goes on to explain in verse 21 how this applies to Abraham. Was not Abraham our father justified by works? When he offered Isaac his son on the altar, did you not see him? Did you see him? Did you see him? Did you see the faith working together with his work? And by works, faith lead perfect? And the pew was fulfilled, which says, Abraham leave God? And it was accounted to him for righteousness? See, he believed God, but guess what? What if he had taken Isaac out there, got to the place where he's supposed to offer him, and said, no, this is too much, God. I can't do this. You can't expect me to do this. I refuse to do this. And he would not have obeyed. God would not have said this about Abraham. He believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And he was called the friend of God. You see, then, that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works? When she received the messengers and sent them on another way. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. God is looking for living faith in his people. Now back up to Acts, excuse me, Romans 4 again, Romans 4.9. Now it says, does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only?

Or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. Now then, was it accounted? Or how then was it accounted? While he was circumcised or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. This statement was made about him before he became circumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of righteousness, of faith, which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also.

Verse 12 is an important verse. And the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had, while still uncircumcised. Brethren, Abraham set us an example that we should walk in the same steps of faith that he did. That is his example. For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to receive through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect. So, he was not an heir because of his race, his nationality. God didn't look down and say, well, Israelites are the ones who are going to inherit the kingdom of God. No, the promise is to all human beings to have, to be heirs, not by race or by nationality, but by calling, by election, by being chosen of God, and by faith. We have to have faith in Christ, we have to have faith in God, and we have to have faith in God's plan and promise.

Now, let's notice over here quickly in chapter 9 of the book of Romans. Chapter 9, verse 6.

Not to descendeth the Vishmel or any other children that Abraham had, but the descendants of Isaac. And the same thing is true today. It's not of nationality, it is of those that God calls. For this is the word of promise, at that time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son. Now, with that in mind, let's go over to Galatians, the third chapter. Galatians chapter 3. And let's notice the same thing mentioned here, beginning in verse 5. Galatians 3 verse 5.

It says, therefore he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Just as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. See, he believed God, but remember this, that belief led him to obey God, did it not? We will see that as we move along in this sermon today. Therefore know that only those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham. Not the Jews, by nationality, just because they had the Temple and the Bible or the Old Testament, and so on. But the Scripture foreseen that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying that in you, all the nations will be blessed. So all nations were going to be blessed. So he believed God in that belief, talking about Abraham, led him to obedience.

Now in verse 15, brethren, I speak in the manner of men, though it's only a man's covenant. And yet if it's confirmed, no one annuls it or adds to it. Now to Abraham and to his seed were the promise made. And he does not say to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to your seed who is Christ. So the promise was to Christ. In other words, salvation through Christ, the one seed. Now in verse 26, verse 26 says, For you are all the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. So we become Christians. We all become the children of God through faith. We believe in Christ. We accept Him as our Savior, as the coming Messiah. We believe in God and His plan. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free, there's neither male nor female. For you are one in Christ Jesus.

And if you are Christ, in other words, if you truly have God's Spirit and you're a Christian, if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. So whatever the promise that was made to Abraham, we then become heirs to that promise. So let's go back and take a look at Abraham's life, as outlined in the Old Testament. And as we read through some of these examples, ask yourself the question, did Abraham have living faith or dead faith? Did he have living faith or dead faith? Did his faith cause him to obey God? Let's go back to chapter 12, the book of Genesis. Genesis 12, we'll begin in verse 1.

Now the Lord had said to Abraham, or Abram, Get you out of your country from your family, from your father's house, to a land that I will show you, and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing, and 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. This is the promise of grace, that in him, through him, through his seed, Christ, all the families of the earth would be blessed.

Now in verse 4, you stop and think about this now.

Abraham was asked to leave his family. Abraham was quite a successful, rich individual. He was a ruler.

And yet God called him, told him to leave his family. What if God called you and said, Look, I want you to leave the United States and go over to Australia, and I want you to camp out there, and you're going to live a completely different lifestyle, and you're going to leave your family behind you. Well, that's what Abraham was asked to do. So Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him, and Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot his son, or 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. So Abraham obeyed God. He left his country. He believed God. God said, Leave your family. Go over here to Canaan. He didn't know what Canaan was. Never been there. But it led to action. Action without obedience is dead. Action, or I should say faith without obedience, or without works, is dead. It has to have action. You've got to do something. Now, you'll notice, though, that Abraham was human. Even though God told him to do something, I want you to notice that he still had frailties. And we read of this in verse 11. There was a famine, as verse 10 says, in the land.

And then in verse 11, it came to pass that when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, Indeed, I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. Now, she was 65. Wouldn't we all at 65, all you ladies like to be considered so beautiful that Pharaoh would take you into his harem. And so he said, They will kill me. Therefore will happen in verse 12, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, This is his wife, and they will kill me, and they will let you live. Please say, Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me, and for your sake, that I may live because of you. And so it was, they came into Egypt, Egyptians saw that she was beautiful, and guess what? They took her, and she was being prepared to be in the harem here of Pharaoh. Now, you find Pharaoh treated Abram well, and he had some problems here, though. The Lord plagued Pharaoh, verse 17, in his house with great plagues, because of Sarai, Abram's wife. And Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this that you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Abraham lied about Sarai, his wife. He said, She's my sister. Technically, she was. She was a half-sister.

But she went along with it also. And so Abraham didn't have faith at this point that God would protect him from Pharaoh. So he went along, and he lied. He was not perfect. He feared for his life. So he had some major lessons to learn, did he not? Now in chapter 13, in verse 7, let's notice, chapter 13, verse 7, there was a strife between the herdsmen of Abram's stock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock, and the Canaanites and the parasites then dwell on the land. So Abram said to Lot, Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we're brethren. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate for me. If you take the left, I'll go to the right. If you go to the right, I'll go to the left. And Lot lifted his eyes, and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. It was like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as you go toward Zor. And then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east, and separated from each. And they separated from each other. And Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent, even as far as Sodom. So he gets himself into trouble. But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked, and sinful against the Lord. So they separated. And here is Lot, and he goes down to Sodom and Gomorrah. And all at once, he is in a situation where he is surrounded by people who do not know God, do not know his law. He's right in the middle of them, and who have wrong sexual practices.

Verse 14, the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, Lift up your eyes now, look from the place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, and westward. For all the land which you see I give you, your descendants forever.

And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth. So that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise and walk in the land through its length and its width, I give it to you. So, again, God reiterates and promises to Abraham the land, to him and to his descendants. Now, God constantly reminded Abraham of this promise, over and over again, every time they talk. He said, this is what I'm going to do to you. But you'll notice every time God talks, he adds something. He clarifies, he adds a little more information to what he tells Abraham.

Now, you and I need to constantly remind ourselves of our calling. We need to wake up every morning, and one of the first thoughts that comes into your mind is, Kingdom of God. Why am I alive? Where am I going? What's my purpose? We need to focus ourselves on that. As I've mentioned before, you have to put a card up on the mirror. Kingdom of God, KOG. Somewhere to remind yourself that you get up, that you're just not running off earning a living forgetting about God, but you are there to seek God first. Matthew 6, 33, as we all remember, seek you first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you, physical things. Now, let's notice in chapter 14, there was a war that took place. In verse 2, well, verse 1 says, and it came to pass in the days of Amoraphale, King of Shinar, that you have all of these kings, there are four kings that come down against five kings and make war. Now, when you look at this and you know the historical background, this is an extremely important situation. There wasn't a war. The four kings that invaded this area of Palestine in the Mideast were an alliance of Assyrian rulers and generals. God used Abraham at this time to bring about the decline of the Assyrian Empire by destroying the armies of the four leading kings in that area. In fact, the Austrian chronicles record Abraham, his name Abram, as being a king among these individuals. So, when these individuals came down, probably Abraham knew who they were. Now, when this happened, in other words, when they were defeated, it allowed Egypt to prosper, because the Assyrians, instead of coming to height a power at that time, they were delayed in their, let's say, ascending to become a great people. So, it allowed Egypt then to prosper without being invaded and being subjected to another nation, and it also allowed Abraham and his descendants to grow and multiply and to become a great nation. So, you find that Abraham would not have really done anything here, except Lot was taken captive. And when Lot was taken captive, he went and rescued Lot. And in so doing, he also rescued all the other people who had been taken captive. And among those who had been taken captive were the rulers in the area of Sodom and Gomorrah. Let's notice here.

Verse 11 says, Then they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way, and they also took Lot, verse 12, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed. Somebody escaped, came and told Abram, and Abram got his men, and they went out and defeated them. Now, in verse 18, let's notice how the story goes on. Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of the Most High God. Who was this Melchizedek? Well, he was God, God of the Old Testament. Hebrews 7. You can study that in the New Testament. He brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of the Most High God, and he blessed him and said, Bless be Abram of God, Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and bless be the God, Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hands, and he, Abram, gave him, Melchizedek, a tithe of all. So of everything he took, a tithe, and he gave it to Melchizedek, or to God. Then notice, then the king of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the persons and take the goods for yourself. And Abraham said, I won't take anything that is yours. I'll take nothing, verse 23, from a thread to a sandal strap. I won't, I'm not going to take anything. He didn't want them saying, I made Abraham rich.

So he didn't take anything. But by rescuing lot, Abraham also helped Sodom and Gomorrah. And so they went back, and guess what? They continued to do what they were doing, practicing their evil and their sinful ways. Now in chapter 15, God establishes a covenant with Abram. Genesis 15. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceeding great reward. But Abram said, Lord God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless? In the air of my house is Eliezer, Damascus. So he's reminding God, you said you were going to bless me. You know, you haven't done it yet when you're going to do it. And the only one I have here is Eliezer. Then Abram said, Look, so he states his case again, You have given me no offspring. Indeed, one born in my house is my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This one shall not be your heir. For one who will come from your own body shall be your heir. Now notice that. Remember that. One who comes from your own body. Then he brought him outside and said, Look now towards heaven, count the stars, if you're able to number them. And he said to him, So shall your descendants be. And he believed in the Lord. Notice Chapter 15. He believed in the Lord, and he accounted it to him for righteousness. Now this is what we read back in the New Testament. He accounted it to him for righteousness. Then he said to him, I am the Lord who brought you up out of her of the Chaldeans to give you this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it? Okay, you say I'm going to inherit it. How do I know?

So God makes a covenant with him here, tells him to go out. And, you know, he finds some animals, a turtle dove, a pigeon, a female goat, a ram. They're cut in half. And then there's a fire that comes down and burns them. And verse 18, On the same day the Lord God made a covenant with Abraham, saying to your descendants, I've given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates. That's quite a large area from the Euphrates River down to the land of Egypt, the river of Egypt down to the Nile. So God made this covenant with him. Now in chapter 16, Sarah and Abraham, like many of us at times, tried to work things out in their own way. They know God's promise that someone who comes from your own loins is going to be your descendant. So notice, Sarah comes up with this idea. Sarah I, Abraham's wife, had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid servant whose name was Hagar. So Sarah I said to Abraham, See, now the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please go into my maid. Perhaps I shall obtain children by her. And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. Then Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar and maid, the Egyptian, gave her to her husband Abram, to be his wife, and Abraham had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. He's 85 now. So ten years, God said, I'll give you a descendant. Ten whole years has gone by.

Why did God not do it immediately? Why did God make him wait so long?

So he went into Hagar, noticed, and she conceived, and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. I don't know exactly what she did, but here's Sarah. Sarah can't have a child. She's walking around. Look at me.

I'm pregnant. And she, you know, you're not as good as I am. I'm going to bear you a son for your husband. So there was something going on, and Sarah said to Abraham, My wrong is upon you. So she realized that it was a wrong. There was a rivalry that happened, and that rivalry has continued down to today and plays out in the Mideast today. So verse 16 tells us, Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram. So, Abraham was 86. So why did God wait so long? Now see, Abraham could have believed this. He could have thought, now God said, and heir's going to come from my loins.

I'm the father. He's my child. This fulfills what God wanted. But that was not how God wanted it done. Notice in chapter 17.

Chapter 17, verse 1, Now when Abram was 99 years old, so notice quite a few more years have passed, 99, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am Almighty God. Walk before me and be valeneless. So he wanted him to obey him. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and multiply you exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face. And God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be called Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations, and I will make you exceedingly fruitful. And I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your descendants after you, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. And I will give you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger.

Now, verse 9, God said to Abraham, As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you. And this is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you, and your descendants after you. Every male child of yours shall be circumcised, and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. Now notice, this was after chapter 15, when God had told Abraham that he accounted it to him for righteousness. He had not been circumcised yet. So here we have Abraham, God making this promise. Circumcision is a sign of the covenant that God made with Abraham. Now notice verse 15, God said to Abraham, As for Sarai, your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name, or princess, and I will bless her, and also give you a son by her, and I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations and kings of people, shall be from her. And Abraham fell on his face and laughed. Here he is, 99 years old, she's 89 years old, and he thinks, us have a baby, he laughs, shall be born to a man who is 100 years old, and shall Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child. And Abraham said to God, Oh that Ishmael might live before you. So now he comes back to Ishmael, he's my son, you know, let him be the heir. And God said, No! God was quite dogmatic. No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. And I will establish my covenant with him, for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.

Then notice verse 21. And my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year. Okay, God says he's going to do it. Now chapter 18. So now we find that it's only going to be through Isaac. God has promised it.

Abraham laughs. He thinks it's funny, you know, at this point. But notice in chapter 18 verse 1, the Lord appeared to him by the terribith of trees of Mamre, and he was sitting in the tent door at the heat of the day. Lifted up his eyes, he saw three men, two angels, and one was God. They came.

He said, let me prepare a meal for you. And he says, please, a little water, verse 4, be brought, wash your feasts, rest yourself under the tree. I'll bring a morsel of food. Sent a young man, killed a calf, made some cakes, and had some butter and milk, and gave it to them to eat. Now, let's notice. And verse 9, he said to him, where's Sarah, your wife? So he said, well, she's there in the tent. And he said, I will certainly return to you according to the time of life. And behold, Sarah, your wife shall have a son. And Sarah was listening in the tent door, which was behind him. You know, she didn't come out, but she was sure he's dropping. What's going on out there? What are they talking about? Nabraham and Sarah were old and well advanced in age, and Sarah had passed the age of child rearing. Therefore, Sarah laughed within herself, saying, I have grown old, and I have pleas- please, and I have pleasure, my lord, being old also.

And the Lord said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh, saying, shall I surely bear a child, since I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord?

If you get nothing else out of the sermon today, remember verse 14. The Great Lesson. Is anything too hard for the Lord?

Any time we may be faced with a trial, a test, a difficulty, is anything too great for God to handle. Here's Sarah. She's too old to have a baby. Here's Abraham. He's too old to be the father. Is anything too hard for God?

Now, don't just apply it to Abraham. Apply it to all of us. Is anything too hard for God when it comes to us? This is a lesson that we have to learn all of our lives. Is anything too hard for God? Can God bless us, heal us, protect us, lead us, give us eternal life? Abraham and Sarah had to learn to let God work it out and not do it on their own. This is why God selected the timing for Isaac to be born. It depended upon God, an intervention by God. They had come into the land they were there 25 years before God brought about what he had promised.

Isaac was to be born through faith, trusting and believing in God's promise, not by their own works and their own effort. Ishmael was their own works and effort. They had to have faith that God was going to do it, and God had to intervene in order to do it.

Now, notice verse 17. God said, Well, shall I hide from Abraham what I am going to do, since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation? And all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I have known him in an order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him.

And then he tells him, I'm going to go over there and find out if the sins of Son of Gomorrah are as bad as they say. So God knew Abraham, as it says here, for I know him, verse 19, I know him in order that he will command his children and his household after him. Now, to know here means to learn to know, to come to know, to find out to know, to know by experience. God didn't totally know, but by going through all of these experiences, he came to know that Abraham would follow him. Why do we go through trials?

Why do we go through tests? Why do we have difficulties? Why don't things always work out the greatest? Because God has to know in the end result that we will follow him no matter what. Chapter 19 is the destruction of the Sodom and Gomorrah. Again, chapter 20, Abraham has the same problem he had when he first came into Canaan. This time there's Abimele, king of Abimele.

He said, you know, he's going to see my wife. Now, remember, now she's 99, almost 100. Or I should say she's 90, he's 100. She's almost 90. She's 89 or 90, somewhere in that category. And she's still beautiful. And Abimelech, sure enough, was going to take her. And God in a dream revealed, in verse 7, Now therefore restore the man's wife, for he is a prophet.

He will pray for you that you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die. You and all were yours. So he was about to take her. So Abimelech rose early in the morning, called all of his servants, told them. And then in verse 9, Abimelech called Abraham and said, Why have you done this to us? How have I offended you that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done. Abimelech didn't like what Abraham had done to him. He had deceived him. And Abimelech said to Abraham, Why did you have in view that you have done this?

And Abraham said, Because I thought surely the fear of God is not in this place, and they will kill me. So he's still worried about his being killed. See, there's this one area of his life he hasn't learned yet, that if God could destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, if God could bless him and prosper him, if God could take care of him, make all these promises, could God take care of Abimelech?

Well, sure he could. But, again, he had a weakness in this area. He says, But indeed she is truly my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother. And she became my wife. So, you know, he explains his reasoning. So he faltered here.

It shows that we can be strong in one area and weaken another. Some people might have no problem with tithing. Others do. Some have no trouble trusting God for healing. Others do. Some might have difficulty saying, Well, I've got to work on this Sabbath. Others don't. So, you know, God knows he sees. Let's notice that God intervened and performed a miracle.

Verse 1 of chapter 21. And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had spoken. She conceived, bore Abraham a son his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. It was in God's good time. And Abraham called the name of his son, who was born to him, who Sarah bore to him, Isaac. He was a hundred years old, and Sarah was ninety years old.

You know, when all of this took place. In chapter 22, you might remember the story, that God told Abraham, Take your son, go up to the land of Moriah, verse 2, and offer him there as a sacrifice. So verse 3, Abraham rose early in the morning. He didn't dawdle. He didn't wait to noon. And finally, where's the wood? Where's this? Where's that? No, he got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two young men with him, Isaac his son, split the wood for the burnt offering, arose, and went to the place of which God had told him.

So on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place for all. And Abraham said to the young men, Stay here with the donkey, and the lad and I will go yonder and worship. And notice this next statement. And we, who's we? Isaac and I. We will come back to you.

Now Abraham, we find in the New Testament, knew that if he killed Isaac, he believed that God would resurrect him. Because God had promised through Isaac all of these blessings would be fulfilled. So he knew that God would have to restore his life. So that's why he said, We will come back. So God tested Abraham. This was one last large test. He tested him, he tried him. Just as God will test us. If you'll notice in 1 Corinthians 10.13, I'll just quote it here for you. 1 Corinthians 10.13, No temptation is overtaking you except such as his common demand, but God is faithful, not allowing you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. So God will try all of us, test all of us, but he will help us through it. God is said to try man by adversity to test their faith and confidence. Men are said to prove or tempt God by doubting or distrusting God in his power and his aid. Now notice dropping on down here.

That Abraham did, as God said, God intervened, and he didn't have to kill his son, but figuratively he did. In his mind he did. He was symbolic of God the Father allowing his son to die for the sins of mankind. In verse 12, he said, Do not lay your hand on the lead or do anything to him, back in Genesis 22.12, For now I know. Does God know this of us? Now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.

And so God blessed him and swore to him. In verse 18, In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice. So God must know the same thing of us before we're in his kingdom. Will we obey him and put him above all? Now in chapter 26 you find that these blessings passed on to Isaac, and God said that he would pass them on to Isaac. Now why? Notice verse 5. Genesis 26.5, Because Abraham obeyed my voice, kept my charge, my commandments, my statues, and my laws. Doesn't? It just wasn't Abraham walking around saying, I believe, I believe, he kept God's laws, his charge, his commandments, his statutes, and he obeyed the voice of God, and he was blessed. So you find Abraham in the Bible is referred to as the father of the faithful. He is, in one sense, our father. We become Abraham's children, if we believe, if we become converted. So the promise is made to us. Let's go back and read one final scripture in Hebrews 6.10. Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 10. It might be a good Bible study this week if you haven't read it in a while. Just simply go back, study the life of Abraham. Read Romans 4. Read Romans 14. And you can read here in the book of Hebrews. But let's notice here in Hebrews 6 verse 10. For God is not unjust to forget our works and labor of love, which you have shown toward his name, and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. We serve, we give to the saints. For we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end, and that you do not become sluggish. God said we should not become sluggish in our obedience, in our service, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promise that you and I are to imitate those who've gone before, like Abraham. When you think of Abraham, you think of faith. He is the one who believed God. For when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, Surely, blessing, I will bless you, and multiplying, I will multiply you. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. God called him, and for 25 years he patiently endured. How many years have you been in the church? How many years do we have to endure, patiently, waiting for the promise, the fulfillment of the promise, Christ's return, the kingdom of God being set up, the resurrection taking place, and knew everything that God promises us? So, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men, indeed, swear by the great, and an oath, for confirmation is for them an end of all disputes. Thus, God, determined to show, more abundantly, the heir of promise, the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, that he swore by himself an oath, in which it is impossible for God to lie. Secondarily, God swore, and he cannot lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us, the hope of the resurrection.

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, it's an anchor that holds us in place, both sure and steadfast, which enters the presence behind the veil. And that's a completely different topic that we need to get into sometime. So, that we have the hope of salvation, the hope of the resurrection, the kingdom of God, set before us. The ultimate reward that we are hoping for is to reside with God forever in the new heavens, the new earth, the new Jerusalem. And you might remember in Hebrews 11 where it talks about Abraham, it says that he looked toward that kingdom, he looked forward to the time when the new Jerusalem would come to this earth. Abraham and Sarah were human. They made mistakes. Their weaknesses are outlined in the Bible for us. But they endured to the end. They believed the promise of God, the Word of God, that God was going to do what he said he was to do.

You and I today, brethren, are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.

So, we have that promise set before us. So, God has called us now. We've been elected, chosen, and God is giving us the opportunity for salvation. You and I must likewise persevere and endure to the end, and we will also receive the fulfillment of the promise that God is given to Abraham.