Abram Begins

Well, this morning we are continuing our study in the book of Genesis, and we come to chapter 12 this morning, which is a bit of a transition out of the first, really what I think, major section of the early world and the study of the Noah, and now we're looking at the call of Abram. And so we're coming to chapter 12 this morning, the first nine verses. And I'd like to back up into chapter 11 and read it beginning at verse 27. So this is Genesis chapter 11, verse 27. Let us give our attention to the word of the Lord. Now, these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred in Ur of the Chaldeans. Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah and the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Ishka. Now Sarai was barren. She had no child. Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country in your kindred and your father's house to the land that i will show you and i will make of you a great nation and i will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing i will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you i will curse and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed so abram went as the lord had told him and lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son and all their possessions that they had gathered and the people that they had acquired in Haran. And they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Morah. At that time, the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, to your offspring I will give this land. So he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and I on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. So Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negev. May the Lord bless this morning the hearing of this word. There has been in recent times a discussion in the Christian community over what the Christian life should look like. Just what the Christian life should look like. There's a debate over what has become known in our day as radical Christian living. versus the normal Christian life. And there have been a series of writers under the banner of living out a radical Christianity who are reacting to the perceived worldliness of American Christianity and American Christians who have simply bought into the American dream of living a comfortable and an easy life. And they've reacted. And there's been a lot of writings as of recent on this subject and they are they are hitting hard they are trying to find genuine and true and real and radical and sacrificial and inconvenient and uncomfortable living for Jesus the other side says well wait a minute Paul said that we should lead quiet life in all godliness working with our hands is that not good enough is giving a cup of cold water in Jesus's name not radical enough. And there lies the discussion. What I find interesting in this whole discussion is that here we are in 2013 and Christians still can't figure out how to live the Christian life. We're still having this discussion. We haven't figured this out in all the, I mean, this is, the discussion is really a repackaged version of the holiness movement that happened years ago. Haven't we figured this out yet? You ever feel this way that the Christian life is difficult and complex? Sure you feel that way. You struggle with that. What does that tell you? It tells you initially up front that we are in a war with our own wills and that we're doing things often that we don't want to do. And we're wondering about progress. We're discouraged about progress. We're always wondering, am I really doing enough? Am I really doing enough? When Jesus said, sell all, give it you have, give it to the poor, then come follow, did he mean that? Are riches evil? There is no doubt the calling of God is radical. And God is committed, as we're going to see in Genesis, to make us pilgrims, to make us sojourn. But we don't naturally accept that. we don't naturally accept that at all. In fact, our life is a constant fight against that. And so how do we get there? How do we get to what the Christian life should be and what it should look like? Is the answer found in upping the commitment levels? How do we accomplish that? Well, that's where Abram's life is such a help to us to study. He's known as the father of the faith. but I hope to show you as we go through this study of Abraham, who will be given the name Abraham soon. As we study his life, I want you to see that this life was a mess. It was a mess. God meant it in Romans 4 when he put Abraham next to the verse, God justifies the wicked. God meant that. And Abram's life is such a help for us. When we come to the New Testament, it's rather surprising when we look at Abram in chapter 11 of Hebrews that he's commended for his life of faith and a following and what a commendation it is. And I believe the scriptures are teaching us a lot about this, what the Christian life should be. But we have to properly orient it by looking at the Lord's work. Abram trusted in the promise that God made to him. And you have a New Testament's perspective that Abraham obtained the greatest victory that has overcome the world, our faith. And now you begin, when you can understand that, to see what the life of following the Lord looks like. When you begin to grasp this, you begin to now understand what following is. I want you to see this morning the relentless call of the Lord. I want you to see the relentless pursuit of the Lord in calling Abram out that we would understand our calling as the Lord desires us to understand it. That we would see it through the lens of Abram and what God is doing. that we would see his power, that we would see his purpose, that we would see his sovereignty, that we would see his desire to complete the work that he starts. The scene before us in chapter 12 is a radical scene. By the end of chapter 11, everything has fallen apart again. And this has been deja vu. We saw history repeat itself in the worst sort of way. And now, at the end of chapter 11, one man has been singled out in Ur of the Chaldeans, a kingdom that was built by Nimrod. First time kingdom was used in the Bible. It was built by Nimrod. His name was Terah. And we know from the Bible that Terah was worshiping the other gods on the other sides of the river from Joshua chapter 24. So whatever happened in the line of Shem, by the end of chapter 11, things went dark. Something went wrong, and the whole thing had been corrupted. And as we looked at last time, the church was almost extinguished. Now it's God's turn to start building a kingdom. Now it's God's turn to start building a kingdom. And that's why chapter 12 marks a pivotal change in the book of Genesis. Everything now is focused on one issue, And the issue is, will God be faithful to his promise that he made in Genesis 3 that he would raise up the seed and bring forth the Christ? Will that come to pass? Will God do that? How will God do that? What extent will God go to to accomplish that, to deliver his people? And that's where this study now turns. And so we're on the edge of our seats as to what God will do. It's a distressing moment. At this distressing moment, at the end of chapter 11, it's at this moment now that God begins to act and everything centers now on one man. I want you to look at chapter 12, verse 1. Now, the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and from your kindred and from your father's house to the land that I will show you. I want you to ponder this for a minute in the first verse of chapter 12. God didn't give Abraham a choice, nor did God come and say, I'm going to now survey the earth and I'm going to look for someone who is noble enough and who is good enough for me to fulfill my promise in. That's not what he does. He doesn't look for somebody who has faith. Notice what happens. God looks down and he zeroes in on this pagan moon worshiper, Abram. There was nothing in Abram that motivated God to do this. In fact, the life was repulsive and I plan to show you that. All we have here is a command. Notice how it comes. This is no suggestion. Abram, you are to leave your country and your father's house and you are to come to me. I want you to look at this call. Leave your land and leave your country. They have done major archaeological excavations over there in Ur, and it was one luxurious place to live, let me tell you. This was an amazing place to live, two great river sources. You had everything under the sun provided for you. You had all sorts of fruits and produce and trees and riches they've unearthed and they've pulled out of their tombs, queens that have been wrapped in sheer gold. it's pretty hard to leave Hawaii and go to the Central Valley, California, isn't it? Abram didn't know. Abram wasn't given that. The Lord doesn't say a thing. You come to a land that I will show you. Now that's not it. The force of the command is this. You are to leave alone, Abram. Leave your family and you leave your father's house. You are to separate out. I want you separate. I want you separate and I want you to come to this land that I will show you. Leave mother, father, brothers, sisters, all of them. I want a separation from your past. You drop everything and you come. Now Calvin summarizes this nicely. I command you to go forth with closed eyes until having renounced your country, you shall have given yourself wholly to me. Now, are you feeling any of this for a minute? Are you feeling how radical this is? Any of this sound familiar, by the way? Yeah, because when you study the words of Jesus, you find this everywhere. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. How about this one? This is a great one for going down to the park and evangelizing. Great crowds accompanied him and he turned and said to them, you can picture this, he turned around and he looked at the crowds and this is what he said, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. You think that would empty out the park? You realize the Lord requires this? This is not a suggestion. This is not a light, you know, well, maybe when he calls you go when he calls you come and we're going to look at tonight in the preaching of the gospel he's calling come come to me now i think it's helpful to stop and consider this from abram's perspective i mean none of the conditions are right leave a land full of prosperity? I mean, this is where dad is. This is my family. Go to an unknown God in an unknown land with an unseen future. Who does that? How are you feeling at this point? Does it raise any kind of emotion? If there's anything I know to be true, it's that family commitments take a higher place than coming to the Lord. It is just true. Blood is thick. I knew a man who had a son in a false religion. And for the sake of keeping the peace, because he didn't want to offend, he didn't say anything. And they kept the relationship. That's great. Keep the relationship. But he never once told his son that it was wrong out of fear. You realize this was the experience of Jesus? Then Jesus said to another, follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their own dead. But you go and preach the kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow you. But let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house. Jesus said to him, no one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom. No one. In other words, you don't start going forward and look back. Piles of people, when Jesus called, would not leave their family. Even one saying, I've got to wait until dad dies. You know, that's the ultimate motivation. That's why we're staying around. Dad's here. What was Jesus' assessment of the people of his day? you refuse to come to me that you may have life. That was his assessment in John chapter 5. You refuse to come. Now, our first response as a pastor, my first response, is to say, boy, let's start getting radical. You know, we need to get priorities right in this place, and we need to get all the priorities right, and you need to start doing this, and you start doing this, and you start doing this and just get with it the radicals come along and you get books on this and boy they pound true i need to get with it you need to get with it you need to come how much radical following of jesus is there isn't it true that we often feel that even after we've come being honest that we start and then we stop isn't that a common experience the progress being so slow you know go sell all that you have and give to the poor sell your house sell everything you have give your money. Jesus said that to somebody who had come wanting to follow. Now this should be distressing. This should be distressing. Who's coming? And the question that we now turn to is how did Abram do? How did Abram do? Where is Abram right now? Well, this is where I think it's helpful to look back at the end of chapter 11 and to look at what the text is showing you. Look at verse 4. Actually, look at 12 verse 4. Where is Abram when he leaves this call? In verse 4, so Abram went out as the Lord told him and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed from where? Haran. Now, Stephen in Acts chapter 7 presents something a little differently, doesn't he? In Acts chapter 7, Stephen says this about Abram. Listen carefully. Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran and said to him, go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you. Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. After and after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living now if we're starting to put this together as the way we should god calls abram and where ur of the chaldeans what happens dad gets up abram get up and they travel dad comes along and they stop where at haran now if he's in haran and the call comes in haran in chapter 12 that means when god when he got up at the first call in order of the chaldeans he went for a little while and planted again stephen tells us god had to remove him from there after dad died that's not canaan the call of chapter 12 is in haran verse 4 tells you that stephen tells you so here's what happened abram hears god's call he gets up takes dad stops at haran pitches again because that was a major center of the moon god worship and he doesn't leave until tara dies and what should you be saying at this point about father abram his obedience was far from complete his obedience was far from complete he's struggling he's struggling to leave and he's struggling to follow and here's where we look at the real truth about life don't we here's where we get honest about life let's survey out abram's life just for a minute stay with me in a survey of abram's life god calls him at the beginning of chapter 12 in the next section actually halfway way down we'll come to this next week he takes off right what happens he leaves the land and he runs to egypt in fear and then he dumps off his wife into pharaoh's hands so he essentially threw away in one scene the two promises of the abrahamic covenant land and seed are gone in one scene first scene after the call god comes down and makes this gracious covenant of grace with him in chapter 15. I'm going to give you a seed. I'm going to give you the seed. It's all grace. Abraham goes and tries to do it himself, doesn't he, with Hagar. He goes and he tries to accomplish producing the seed himself. What a mess. And then we come to another king, Abimelech, and he didn't learn the first time. He dumps off his wife again to her, to Abimelech. And then, here's the last recorded scene of Abraham's life. But to the sons of his concubines, Abraham gave gifts. You say, what? While he was still living, he sent them away from his son Isaac eastward to the east country. This man had serious problems. And the summary is, he had a difficult time leaving family. He has a difficult time trusting God for deliverance and he's always taking things into his own hands. Father Abraham had many sons. And what does all of that tell you? What is the real message to us? In and of ourselves, you won't come. You won't come. And Jesus meant it when he said, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. All our priorities are wrong. All our pursuits are just what I read. We are all about us. And we are in terrible bondage to other masters. And after all of this, when we leave, what are we in a constant fight against? us because we want to go back i mean this was israel god comes and he brings them out of egypt with a i mean they saw the red sea part and he brings them through and he drowns them and they get out and they start complaining what do you bring us out here to die take us back and they led a rebellion to go back because in egypt there were big pots of meat disgusting by the way and let me say this morning that unless the lord sovereignly calls you you're not coming that's how bad the problem is you will simply come in so far as you're not inconvenienced you'll do the christianity thing in so far as you're not put out of your comfort zone that's the best you offer and so you begin to ask the question as we study abram's life well how do you break free of this and these commitments that control us and these commitments. I mean, is it possible that we're committed to be here only in this church because of family? Is that possible? Sure, it's possible. How in the world can a sinner break free? I was just at the gym the other day and this guy walks up and he knows I'm a pastor. Hey, what are you preaching Sunday? So everyone now is hearing this conversation. And I said, I'm preaching Abram's call. Boy, that's amazing stuff. I cannot believe he left all and followed like that. And then in the next breath, what do you think he said? I could never do it. And that's our typical response to the life of Abram, isn't it? I could never do that. That's amazing faith. Amazing faith. And so we take a passage like this. And intuitively, that's where we land. Wow, look at Abram. Is that where we should land? I mean, it almost fits into our mindset that if we are radical enough, then god will bless us but if we understand abram correctly he's already failed he he's stuck in haran with dad this is the second call that the lord had to come and when jesus said no one comes to me unless the father sent me draws him i gotta drag him out that's what he meant where does this all turn and that's why i love this passage because the beauty of this is that abraham's weakness cannot frustrate the lord's sovereign purpose in grace to bless him and that's why we call it grace grace means god decided to do something wonderful for you irregardless of what he already knew you were going to do with it you get that you're a mess i'm a mess and god after he gives this call go what does he say immediately after this here's the motivation verse 2 and i will make of you a great nation and i will bless you and i'm going to make your name great so that you will be a blessing i will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. Now, the inquisitive reader just heard the Lord say, I'm going to do what I'm going to do. Notice the repetition of I will, I will, I will, I will. Here's what I'm doing, Abram, and here's why you're going, Because I decided to do this. It's not God waiting on Abram. It's God saying, it's time. Go, because I've decided to do this. I'm going to make you a great nation. Two promises are land and sea. Those are the promises of the Abrahamic covenant of grace. And those promises are now set before us. Notice this. My benediction, my love, Abram, I am lavishing on you. This is for you. And so he gives these seven blessings that come completely unconditionally, meaning Abraham can't fulfill meeting up to the terms. They're unconditional to him. Well, Lord, what if I throw away my wife twice along the way? The one through whom the seed will come. I'll go get her and I'll bring her back. Lord, what if I start and then stop? The project that I begin, I complete. What if all along the way I struggle trusting you and I keep messing up and I make stupid mistakes and I keep doing the same old sins? I have determined to bless you. Your name will be great. And I say to you this morning, Meet your God of all grace. He lavishes this down upon us. What if I fail as a parent? And I carry a lot of guilt about that. What if I fail? My calling and my gifts are irrevocable. And the God of grace means that I can clean up a lot. Do you realize God made His decision to do this before any of this life we're going to study in the next section? come to us. Now we're ready to listen. Now we're ready to follow, right? Because the Lord says something beautiful here. Your name will be great. Now that should take on a lot of meaning for us right now in our study of Genesis. We've been looking at names. Nimrod said in the Tower of Babel, let's build us a name. And the Lord said the name is on Shem. And the Lord just said, your shim, Abram, will be great. Who's that? It's Jesus. Your shim. Jesus is coming from you, Abram. And I'm bringing that about. And so all of these gospel promises that he's making have their eye on the shim. Abram's going to be blessed because of shim, because of the name that is above every name that is coming. And you realize when we stand up and we make the promise of the gospel and the pastor gives that, that when he says the promise of the gospel is what? And Heidelberg says this, the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. There's your land and seed promise right there. Christ is going to forgive you and Christ is going to give you heaven. And you see, it's at this moment that what happens finally he gets up he gets up and he goes by faith says hebrews abram obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he would receive as an inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was going by faith he went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land living in tents with isaac and jacob heirs with him of the same promise for he was looking to the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is god do you realize when you look over your life and here's the complexity of the christian life but when you're on your deathbeds and you're looking over your life what are you going to say about your life i was a mess but the greatest victory that god gives he's told us in first john is when he gives somebody faith to trust him and that's what abram teaches us that's why we're fixed on ephesians 2 by grace you have been saved through faith and that's not of yourselves it's a gift of god not lest anyone should boast god wants you to see but the end of your life when you pass through the land and you've looked at everything that god preserved you and kept you and held you and so verse 4 abram went as the lord told him. And Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed. Listen, for all of you retired people, that's 10 years after your retirement. The pilgrimage begins. And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son and all their possessions that they had gathered and the people that they had acquired in Haran. And they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Morah. At that time, the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, to your offspring, I will give this land. Notice how this is promise after promise just keeps coming. So he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. From there, he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and the eye on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negev, probably about 800 miles passing through everything. He passes through all the major world superpowers of the day. And he arrives in this land, and there should be a little phrase that strikes you as you read this here in this section. Did you notice it? He passed through the land. And by the end of chapter 9, where is he? He's on a continuous journey Stephen says after his father died God removed him from there to ran into this land in which you're now living and gave him no inheritance in it not even enough to set his foot on wait wait a minute let me paint the picture leave your stability leave your rooted home come to this land i'll bless you i'll make your name great i'll give you an offspring stars is the heavens sand is the seashore that's what it's going to be like he gets there and he's roaming around in a tent and he doesn't even get a foot of the land and you say well what what is this and then it hits him you can imagine he walks in the land he looks around and he sees canaanites everywhere those canaanites those cursed sons of ham how in the world could millions of inhabitants be cleared from the land how in the world could millions of people come from a barren wife how in the world could him from this one pagan idolater all the families all the gentiles in the earth be blessed impossible but not with god all things are possible and god is doing the impossible he has given against impossible odds a man the faith to believe and faith you see doesn't live by sight none of us would ever choose it if you believe today god has given you an incredible gift. And guess what he's committed to? He's committed to the hard process of uprooting you from this world. He's committed to the hard process of purging you from your ties and your worldliness to prepare you for what is to come. And that's why the long story of the history of Israel is one story. God prevailed. Abram trusted the promises that would ultimately be realized in his greater son the lord jesus christ because in christ we are given what a city that has foundations in christ we are given and promised a heaven and this is important for us to close this morning we'll come back to this next time but what a message for us to remember we're all committed to narcissism hedonism materialism as one pastor said the world tells you hunker down save everything head yourselves in with every kind of protection under the sun and we're all trying desperately to establish our little kingdoms here and raise the city of god here you ever notice that on the where the temple should go up there sits a mosque you ever notice on the new wall we put up there was purple graffiti last week in this life there's nothing but problems canaanites are everywhere unbelievers are everywhere Oaks of Morah. Oak of Morah was a tree that they came, oracle-giving tree for the future all the Canaanites would come to. There's Abram passing by it. Troubling, isn't it? The Canaanites are there, and the Lord wants you to know you're passing through all this. You're passing through all this. That's why He's telling you, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all this stuff you're all in search for now I'll add that, but that's not what you seek. I'm committed, says the Lord, to uproot you from this earth and to make you pilgrims because I don't want you ever thinking you're home. You're not home. And sometimes I think, beloved, that the reason we're going through so many discouragements in this life and we often face so much downcast approaches to life and we're so bitter is because we're on a relentless pursuit. We're fighting the relentless pursuit of the Lord to bring us out. And we're trying to hold on too tight. And we're always looking back. So God has decided to bless you. He won't let you, if that calling is upon you, he won't let you remain where you are. You're going somewhere. You may not like where you have to travel, but don't fight him. He's taking you to a good place. His desire for you is good. You may not be called to leave today your family. You may not be called to sell your home. But I'll tell you what this does say you're called to. To leave a former life of sin. And to come to Christ. That calling is on everyone here. And if that calling is upon you, He's committed to bring you there. So that you would learn in all of circumstances of life to live by what faith what drove abram forward were the wonderful promises of god and the text tells you that everywhere he went what did he do he put up an altar you know what he was doing along the way you know what defined him along the way he's worshiping worshiping there's nothing that will show you more to be a pilgrim than your love to worship. And if it's not there, then the Lord will, if he's coming after you, he'll bring you. But don't fight it. Come, enjoy him. Worship the Lord. This is what he's committed to do for you. When we are drawn by his power and overtaken by his love with a determination of his to bless us, it's then that the things of this earth will begin to grow strangely dim have you come out of Ur have you come out of Ur and then stopped at Haran get up it's time to come if you believe these gospel promises come to the Lord come to Christ and you will live come to me says Jesus leave behind your former life of sin come for I have decided to bless you come he who has ears to hear let him hear amen oh lord god we bow the head this morning and we praise you for grace because without you we would not come and we're overwhelmed not by abram's relentless pursuit of you but by your relentless pursuit of him and when that gets us when that lays hold of us your calling and your grace and your power, oh, we come. And so I pray today that this Lord would influence and impact all of us to remember who we are, where we're going, and to not be too entangled in the affairs of this life, but to remember that you have made us pilgrims, sojourning to a home, a better home, a place of a city that has foundations of which you are the builder along the way give us the strength and the peace and the trust to believe you and to not lose heart knowing that you will fulfill every last good word you have spoken or we've seen it at the cross and today we enjoy your peace in jesus name we pray these things amen