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[00:00:01] Romans chapter four, beginning at verse one.
[00:00:06] What then shall we say that Abraham our forefather has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not toward God.
[00:00:24] For what saith the scripture? And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness.
[00:00:34] Now to him that worketh the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness, even as David also pronounceth blessing upon the man unto whom God reckoneth righteousness apart from works, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin.
[00:01:12] Is this blessing then pronounced upon the circumcision, or upon the uncircumcision also.
[00:01:19] For we say to Abraham, his faith was reckoned for righteousness.
[00:01:26] How then was it reckoned when he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.
[00:01:37] And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision. That he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might be reckoned unto them, and the father of circumcision, to them who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision.
[00:02:12] For not through the law was the promise to Abraham or to his seed that he should be heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith.
[00:02:22] For if they that are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of none. Effect for the law worketh wroth. But where there is no law, neither is there transgression. For this cause. It is of faith that it may be according to grace to the end, that the promise may be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, a father of many nations have I made thee before him whom he believed, even God, who giveth life to the dead and calleth the things that are not as though they were, who in hope believed against hope to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, so shall thy seed be. And without being weakened in faith, he considered his own body now as good as dead, he being a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb.
[00:03:34] Yet looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
[00:03:53] Wherefore also it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was reckoned unto him, but for our sake also, unto whom it shall be reckoned, who believe on him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.
[00:04:18] And then a few verses, well known verses from Hebrews, chapter eleven, from verse eight.
[00:04:26] Hebrews, chapter eleven, from verse eight.
[00:04:40] By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance.
[00:04:51] And he went out not knowing whither he went.
[00:04:55] By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise, as in a land not his own dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him, of the same promise. For he looked for the city which hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith, even Sarah herself received power to conceive seed when she was past age, since she counted him faithful, who had promised. Wherefore also there sprang of one and him as good as dead, so many as the stars in heaven, in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable.
[00:05:44] These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own. And if indeed they had been mindful of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.
[00:06:12] But now they desire a better country, that is a heavenly wherefore God is not ashamed of them to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city by faith. Abraham, being tried, offered up Isaac. Yea, he that had gladly received the promises was offering up his only begotten son, even he to whom it was said in Isaac shall thy seed be called accounting, that God is able to raise up even from the dead, from whence he did also in a figure receive him back.
[00:07:03] Last Thursday evening we touched on the life of Abraham, and we underlined three lessons from his life. And the first was the necessity of divine vision. And the second was that everything must be of God. There must be no mixture. But what begins with God will end with God. And the great lesson from Abrahams life is not only that the God of glory appeared unto him. It all began with divine vision. There can be no faith without a seeing with the eye of our heart of the Lord. But then everything has to be of God. And the third lesson last week was the obedience of faith.
[00:07:54] By faith, Abraham obeyed to go out.
[00:08:01] And we spoke of the fact that really obedience is the only evidence of real faith.
[00:08:12] Now, I want to go on this evening. If the Lord helps us to take one or two further lessons in two evenings. We cannot possibly cover the life of Abraham adequately. Because he is really one of the great fountainheads of so much in the word of God. That's why he is called the father of all them that believe.
[00:08:39] I think there is a wonderful little phrase in Romans chapter four. Which perhaps is often overlooked.
[00:08:48] And describes so marvelously. The whole calling of Abraham. And your calling and my calling.
[00:09:00] And it is, if I can find it now, verse 13. For not to the law was the promise to Abraham or to his seed. That he should be heir of the world.
[00:09:22] Heir of the world through the righteousness of faith. I think that's the most wonderful phrase. And probably is overlooked by so many of us. We know that Abraham looked for the city, which has the foundations.
[00:09:39] We know that he saw a fulfillment, as it were, of the purpose of God. But what a tremendous calling was Abraham's. To be an heir of the world through faith. And when I think of what the apostle Paul said in romans eight. About being heirs of God. And joint heirs with Christ. How much more wonderful it is when we understand that our calling is, in the end. To inherit the whole world, the whole universe. Now, the lesson I'd like to underline this evening. To go straight on from where we stopped last Thursday. Is the fourth lesson. And it is that the life of faith is a life of pilgrimage. There is nothing static about faith. You cannot somehow or other get converted. And then stay stuck there for the whole of your life.
[00:10:39] As if somehow or other, by getting converted you've arrived. And every single thing is now yours. In experience, of course, everything is yours. But it's got to be possessed. You now have a birthright. And that birthright includes everything. But unless you possess it, it will not be yours.
[00:11:00] For you have precisely what you have through faith. By the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
[00:11:08] What you have through faith possessed and the life of Abraham teaches us so clearly that the life of faith is a life of pilgrimage in Hebrews chapter eleven it puts it very simply and very beautifully in chapter eleven and verse nine by faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise as a land not his own. Thats a very strange thing to say isnt it? By faith he became a sojourner. If he did say by faith he became an inhabitant it would have seemed more logical. But it says by faith he became a sojourner. By faith he became a pilgrim.
[00:12:07] We find this I think again and again. For instance if you turn back to Genesis and chapter twelve.
[00:12:15] Genesis chapter twelve verse four it says so Abraham went as the Lord had spoken unto him and the last part of the verse and AbraHAM was 75 years old when he departed out of HErEM. And then verse five and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan and into the land of Canaan they came verse six. And Abraham passed through the land unto the place of Shechem and then again verse eight. And he removed from thence unto the mountain on the east of bethel and verse nine. And Abraham journeyed going on still toward the south. The whole life of Abraham is a life of movement. He is moving on from place to place. From the moment the Lord spoke to him he started moving.
[00:13:15] The Lord said to him get thee out. And from that moment, the moment AbraHAM obeyed his life became a life of movement. He was moving on all the time. It was not as if he felt at any point that he had arrived.
[00:13:34] Maybe other saints of God teach us about being established, being settled being sort of solidly and permanently based but Abraham has this aspect of the life of faith to teach us that it is a life of moving on. You can never SETTle down you can't settle down to even an experience you've received of the lord. If you make that experience however wonderful it is everything you have lost the moment you feel you've arrived and that you've now got the which eclipses all other experiences you have ceased that life of pilgrimage, the life of faith is a life that makes you move on all the time. One Peter two and verse eleven puts it again like this one. Peter chapter two verse eleven it says beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims.
[00:14:46] These people were in some cases citizens, in other cases they were certainly inhabitants but because they had found the Lord a tremendous change had taken place and they were now sojourners and pilgrims. This was no longer their home. This earth was no longer their home. The things of this world were no longer their home. They had become pilgrims and sojourners. You have the same thing again in chapter one and verse 17. And if ye call on him as father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to each man's work past the time of your sojourning here in fear, the same thought again we have in Hebrews and chapter 13 and verse twelve to 14. Here it is even more clearly put by the writer of the hebrew letter, wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered without the gates.
[00:15:54] Let us therefore go forth unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have not here an abiding city, but we seek after the city which is to come. Now this is all the more remarkable because the writer of the hebrew letter has already said in the previous chapter that we have come, we have arrived at Mount Zion. We have come to the heavenly Jerusalem. We are actually there. But now in the next he qualifies it by saying, we haven't got an abiding city here just because spiritually we have arrived at the city of God. Just because spiritually we have been born, as it were, of the city of God. We are citizens of the city of God. We are no longer, we no longer have a permanent residence, as it were, here in this thing called Babylon. We are constituted by our spiritual birth, pilgrims and sojourners.
[00:17:11] Living faith must always make us such. There is something about an evil heart of unbelief that always wants security, and it wants the security of being accepted by this world and being acceptable by worldly standards.
[00:17:34] And that has been the undoing not only of many a child of God, but many a work of God.
[00:17:41] We reach the age where, from where we were once ostracized and derided, and the offscouring, we become accepted and people speak well of us. And then there comes into our heart a longing for complete recognition. According to this world's standards.
[00:18:05] Faith constitutes us and keeps us pilgrims.
[00:18:13] It means that by living faith we are always seeing through the things which are transient and earthly, though apparently permanent, to those things which are truly eternal.
[00:18:31] There are those who would say, from what I've said, that therefore we must own nothing, we must possess nothing. We must this, that and the other.
[00:18:42] I have no doubt at all that the Lord sometimes calls upon some of us, knowing the kind of people we are, to give up everything. We must never think that a person who has sold everything and given up everything is a spiritual crack.
[00:19:01] There are those who God has called in that way. But on the other hand, we must never make the mistake that everyone must sell all their possessions and everything along that line. To be a pilgrim, the Lord Jesus said, we are to make friends of the mammon of unrighteousness.
[00:19:26] In other words, there are times when we can reach a place of spiritual ascendancy where we can use the things of this world for the kingdom of God.
[00:19:41] Now, I'll give you an illustration of what I mean. It's a digression, but it may help some of you. C. T. Stud gave away a fortune of 30,000 pounds at the beginning of this century. Now, 30,000 pounds at the beginning of this century was no small fortune. In one week, he gave away every penny.
[00:20:04] His family was scandalized and many christians were horrified by the action of the young C. T. Studd. Of course, they were later to be far more horrified by his actions. C. T. Studd had that great capacity for horrifying the smug in evangelical Christendom from beginning to end of his life.
[00:20:30] But the fact is that God led him to give away everything. And by doing that, he constituted him a pioneer of faith. And by C. T. Studd, thousands upon thousands have entered the kingdom of God. I'm one of them.
[00:20:51] On the other hand, I knew a lady, a titled lady, who also had a great fortune and who wondered. So she told me in her younger days whether she should give it all up. But God showed her that when he won the battle in her life, that it all belonged to him to invest it.
[00:21:12] And she invested it. Now she gave not 30,000, but she gave I don't know how many times, 30,000 pounds through the years to the work of God. The scripture gives me Bible, british and foreign Bible study, and many other great works and many other things. Now, my point is this. You have two ways there. One gave up everything, the other let go of it and became a steward.
[00:21:45] It is because of our finite little minds. We would like to push everyone into one mould and say, either one should give up everything, or everybody should invest everything if they've got it.
[00:21:59] The real key to the whole situation is to be a pilgrim. And for some it might mean the giving up of everything, and for others it will still mean the giving up of everything. But in a different way.
[00:22:19] Pilgrims, I suggest that only faith can make us a pilgrim.
[00:22:26] Only faith can enable us to tweet as valueless the standards of this world.
[00:22:36] And only faith can enable us to see through the things which seem to be so permanent and so secure and so desirable to those things which are truly valuable and truly eternal.
[00:22:58] You notice that, of course, in Abraham's life there were some remarkable milestones, if you like. If you turn to Genesis, chapter twelve, there are just one or two of these that I believe have got some real spiritual instruction in them.
[00:23:23] When Abraham finally got rid of his father, or the lord took his father, and he was able now for the first time to be where he should have been at the beginning without his father, he went forth out of the land of Hiran and into the land of Canaan. And the first place he came to was Shechem.
[00:23:51] By it says the oak of moreh. And in Hebrew shechem means shoulder. The shoulder and more means teacher.
[00:24:07] And I think we come to our first great lesson in a life of pilgrimage. A life of pilgrimage is not just freedom. Full stop. Some people's ideas, oh, I'd love to be free. I'd love to be free. Free of all worldly possessions, free of all worldly responsibilities, free of all of accountability to anything or anybody. Lovely. A life of pilgrimage. A kind of spiritual hippie.
[00:24:35] You sort of like a little butterfly, you go on, you wander backwards and forwards, you come to this meeting and taste it. You see, suck a little bit of honey out then, and then off you are to another meeting. Suck a little bit of honey out of there, off you are to another meeting. It's a spiritual hippie's existence. And there are plenty of spiritual hippies.
[00:24:52] Not necessary. They may have short cut hair and looked very, very square and old fashioned, but spiritually they're hippies because theyre always on the move in the wrong way.
[00:25:05] This life of pilgrimage is not a life of pilgrimage for them. For them its a marvellous deliverance from all accountability, discipline and responsibility.
[00:25:18] But the first thing in the life of Abraham is he comes to shechem, which means shoulder. And the scripture says the government shall be upon his shoulder.
[00:25:33] And until you and I are prepared to be taught by our Lord Jesus, we will never get anywhere in a life of pilgrimage.
[00:25:45] The enemy will turn a truce into our destruction.
[00:25:50] As we see it again and again amongst believers, we find that freedom, spiritual freedom, is just given a little twist and it becomes something which is freedom for the self life, freedom from self sacrifice, freedom from discipline, freedom from responsibility.
[00:26:13] That is not spiritual freedom.
[00:26:18] The apostle Paul was the freest spirit in the world when he was a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ. He wrote the greatest letters that have ever been written by the spirit of God, where he soared into the heavens, into heights and into depth. So free was his spirit, so free was he that he was able to take the. That no one else had ever before put into human language when he was a prisoner of the Lord Jesus and physically chained to a roman soldier.
[00:26:58] That is freedom.
[00:27:02] Well, now, when we see it like that, I think it transforms our whole attitude to things. Shechem. Have you come to your shechem yet?
[00:27:11] Come to the place of the shoulder of government. You're under the government of the Lord. We could put it this way, under the lordship of Christ.
[00:27:21] You're being taught of the Lord so that he is able to teach you.
[00:27:27] And then we find another very interesting thing. It says then in the next verse, verse eight. And he removed from thence unto the mountain on the east of Bethel. By the way, you will notice he built an altar there. You will always find that dear Abraham was always building altars everywhere he went, every place he came to that had some spiritual significance. He built an altar because really, it was a picture of Calvary. Not only was the man saved by the lamb of God, but he was identified with the lamb of God. He also wanted to know something of a life that was crucified with Christ and a life that was really in the spirit. Now, you will notice the second thing in verse eight. He came and he pitched his tent. It says, having Bethel on the west and AI on the east. Now, bet el in Hebrew means house of God. I think everyone knows that. And just means heap, heap or ruin.
[00:28:33] And it is interesting that he had the ruin on the east side of him, and he had the house of God on the west side of him. Where the sun came up was on the heap, the ruin. And where the sun went down, there was the house of God. And I think it is brother knee who so beautifully says that the heap of stones that are really just like a ruin have, in the mercy of God, been built together into the house of God.
[00:29:07] And that is another great lesson about pilgrimage. Don't think pilgrimage means freedom from your brothers and sisters.
[00:29:17] Many, many people think a life of pilgrimage means goodbye, been lovely to see you all.
[00:29:26] But I don't want to get too near as an idea inherent within us all, because we're all individualists at heart that somehow. What a lovely thing, a life of pilgrimage.
[00:29:39] That means alone, being alone, like Sir Francis Chichester sailing across the sea. Alone with God. Alone with God. And many people make these wonderful sort of sentimental things about being alone with God. You will have to be alone with God so that you can be built together with your brothers and sisters.
[00:30:05] There is absolutely no question about it that anyone who has not got a life with God alone will not be able to put up with fellowship.
[00:30:19] You will get a circuit of fellowship that will destroy you.
[00:30:23] If we want to know a real life of fellowship, then the heap of stones have got to get orientated, one to another. They've got to find their relationship, one to another. And so a house has to be built out of a heap of stones. Don't you think that is something to take note of? This life of fellowship is not just being a loner. It is being built together into a holy temple in the Lord, a habitation of God in the spirit.
[00:31:01] You will notice that dear Abraham built an altar there, because there is no other way in which stones that are unrelated can get related to one another and really be built together other than through the work of Calvary. The Holy Spirit has to apply the work of Calvary very, very real and practical ways for that to take shape. Now, you will notice that after Abraham went down into Egypt, and here's another little point about pilgrimage, he made a mistake. We shall talk about that in a moment. He made a mistake. He fell away from the purpose of God. He went down into Egypt. And we have the whole account in this chapter twelve from verse ten onwards, right to the end of the chapter. But this is what we read in chapter 13 and verse three. And he went on his journeyings from the south, even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and AI. In other words, do not think that the life of pilgrimage means that you make no mistakes.
[00:32:07] But if it is a life of true pilgrimage, when you have made a mistake, you will always have to come back to the point where you departed out of the way of the Lord. God is so careful on the matter of our education. We lose nothing.
[00:32:28] You can spend 15 years in the far country, but when you come back to the Lord, you find the Lord takes you right back to where you left off.
[00:32:38] It doesnt mean that 15 years is then necessarily wasted, for then the Lord makes those 15 years yield value. But the point is, you come back to where you first pitched your tent and from which, on some issue, you departed out of the way of the Lord. Get this clear, everybody. It sinks in so few hearts. If you have an issue with the Lord, don't think that by not settling it, you will never have to face it.
[00:33:10] The Lord may wait for you for 20 years, 40 years. If he tarries but at the end of it, you will face that issue, for there will be no going forward in your life or in my life until we face the issue that is before us. Now, if we would get hold of that, really get hold of that, and only faith can help us. If we could get hold of that, and by faith understand that what God says about this matter is true and that he's not trying to destroy us, but get us through, then we will face the issue, however difficult, and we will come through, and there will be no going down into Egypt to have to come back again to the same point before we can go on.
[00:33:57] I think that this whole matter of a life of pilgrimage is summed up by the apostle Paul in Philippians chapter three and verse 13 and 14. Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold, but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal under the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. That is a life of pilgrimage, always pressing on, always pressing on, always stretching forward, always conscious of the more there is to be possessed. Movement, movement, movement. That is a life of faith. Only faith can make us such pilgrims so that we're moving on all the time. It's interesting that verse 20 says, for our citizenship is in heaven, when also we await for a saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's to do with the city, this whole thing. Our citizenship is in heaven. That's where our abiding city is. And because we have seen something about this, we are pilgrims.
[00:35:25] Faith has constituted us pilgrims. Humanly speaking, being a pilgrim would have done nothing toward the fulfillment of the Lord's word to Abraham. Now just think. Just try for a single moment if you can, if you've got an imagination. I know some people's imagination is nearly nil, but try by grace to stir up a little bit of imagination without getting wild and think for a moment that you are Abraham. Now just think that God had promised to you a land, and within that land there was some purpose of his to be fulfilled, and that there was this city which has the foundations, which had some connection with his being found in that land and settling in that land. And then think that God said to you, in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed, and so on and so forth.
[00:36:27] I suggest to you that human logic would have said, settle, settle.
[00:36:35] If this land is going to be yours, settle.
[00:36:39] Don't just go backwards and forwards in tents.
[00:36:45] Get some plot of it and settle down. Don't be a spiritual hippie moving backwards and forwards all the time. On the move, on the move. On the move. Settle down. Have a good family life, because you've got a seed that is to come. And in this seed, all the families of the earth are going to be blessed. I suggest to you that it that only revelation could have made Abraham a pilgrim.
[00:37:18] It wasn't the normal way for there to be a fulfillment. Now, you mark my words on this matter. The enemy will come to you many, many a times through that strange and rare commodity, common sense, and will say to you through human logic. Now, don't be stupid. If God has said so and so and so to this is the way it's going to happen, such and such, such and such and such and such, you will find again and again that the way of faith is the way of pilgrimage.
[00:37:52] It may seem to you to be diametrically opposed to the very fulfillment of what God has said to you.
[00:38:01] But if you will only follow the Lord, you shall see a performance of all that God has spoken to you.
[00:38:11] And then I want to move on to another lesson. If it is a life of pilgrimage, another and perhaps supreme lesson of Abraham's life is the trial and triumphant faith.
[00:38:28] I suppose his life is the greatest illustration of the life of faith in the whole Bible and the trial and triumph of faith. I think of those words, for instance, using new testament phrases in one Peter, chapter one, verse seven. That the trial of your faith, being more precious than gold, that perished, though it is tried by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom, though now ye see him not yet believing, ye rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory. And then there is another phrase that I would add to that in this matter. It's one John, chapter five, and verse four and five. For whatsoever is begotten of God, overcometh the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. And who is he that overcomes the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the son of God?
[00:39:49] Now, I think here we have a tremendous lesson to learn from the life of Abraham. And there are three ways in which we see the trial and triumph of faith in Abraham's life. I can only touch on them because of time. Maybe on another occasion we'll take it more fully. First of all, we have the trial of his faith and the promised land.
[00:40:12] The trial of his faith and the promised land said to him, get thee out into a land that I will show you later on, God said, walk, arise, get up, walk to the length and breadth of this land. For unto you and to your seed will I give it forever and ever.
[00:40:44] Now there can be no faith without the word of God.
[00:40:51] Never think that faith is a kind of make believe that will get you into something that God has never promised.
[00:41:00] First, God must say something. And when it begins with God, there is God given faith. When God says, get out into a land that I will show you, then comes faith to obey God and to go out not knowing where you are going. Only that God is going to perform his word, the trial of his faith and the promised land.
[00:41:30] It's hard to move with God step by step and not know everything. I don't know what kind of person you are. Some people are dim anyway.
[00:41:40] And when people are dim, they can be. They can be very obstinate, but they can also sort of wander around. They don't need to know that. But the average person likes to know before they do anything.
[00:41:54] You know, you want to know all the ins and outs. What does it mean? What will it cost? What. Where am I going exactly? What will happen? How will it happen? What are the stages? Will it be difficult to begin with or difficult later? We want to know everything it says of Abraham. By faith, he obeyed to go out not knowing whither he went. I suggest to you that that is the hardest thing in the world. That if the Lord had said, now, Abraham, you shall go from ur to this point, point to that point, to the next point, to that point, and then from there you shall turn southwards and go to this point and to that point and to the other. Now you'll have difficulties at Heiera, but I shall bring you through them. And when you come to Shechem, you'll have even greater difficulties. But don't worry, I'll get you through that. You'll have a marvelous time at Beersheba. But after that you'll have a rather bad time, such as that, you know, it would have been all so much easier. Well, now we know it. Now we know. Now I can trust the Lord.
[00:42:59] I mean, now I can trust the Lord. I mean, he's revealed it to me. He's revealed to me what's in store. I understand it. But to go out not knowing whither he went, that is the trial of faith. No, it is that wonderful word which in their authorized version is translated trial. But in the revised version and later versions is put as proof the proving of your faith. It's more than just trying. God never tries what's not there.
[00:43:30] He proves that's the positive side rather than the negative. He proves that the faith that is God given will come through.
[00:43:40] If God has given you faith, he can try it.
[00:43:46] Because what is God given will come through. Whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world.
[00:43:53] And what is this that overcomes the world?
[00:43:58] Our faith.
[00:44:00] And who is he that overcomes the world but he that believes that Jesus is the son of God?
[00:44:09] His going out was a triumph of faith.
[00:44:13] And right at the very beginning of Abraham's life, right at the beginning of his spiritual pilgrimage, we have this first great lesson that he triumphed through faith. He left everything. He left a settled condition. He left security. He left an established way of life, a routine of life. All the possessions that he had, he left the whole thing. Yes, he took father with him, and he took his nephew with him, which he shouldn't have done. But nevertheless, he did go out. He obeyed to go out, and he didn't know where he was going. He trusted the Lord. I say that was a triumph of faith. Abraham had been a Bedouin all his days from birth. It wouldn't have been quite so difficult to leave one gypsy like experience for another.
[00:44:59] To have left one sort of unsaved gypsy life type of life for a saved gypsy type of life.
[00:45:07] But he had a totally different kind of life. His was an educated, sophisticated, refined, settled city life. And he left it all. And he didn't even know where he was going. He didn't know the stages on the journey. He didn't know what lay in store. All he knew was that the Lord said, I will bring thee into a land that I will show thee. And I think it's very beautifully put by Stephen in acts seven, where he puts it like this.
[00:45:35] Speaking of the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham. He says it like this. Get thee out. Verse three. Get thee out of thy land from thy kindred, and come into the land that I will show thee. I think thats a very beautiful change of word. And come as if the Lord is there. Come into the land that I will show thee.
[00:46:01] Therefore, in this matter of the trial of his faith in the promised land, when we come to Genesis, chapter twelve, and from verse ten onwards, we find the collapse of faith. Now, I think that this is a great encouragement to us all. If only Abraham had been a man that never fell, most of us would in the end be quite depressed. We love these hero stories where people never fall, where everything they do is right. But it doesn't help us. But when we find out that Abraham was tempted just as we are and fell and was restored, then I say its a tremendous comfort to frail believers like you and me. And the fact of the matter is Abraham was told to get out of ur of the Chaldees into a land that God would show him. And he was meant to stay there by faith.
[00:47:02] Now here again we learn another little lesson about never systematizing God.
[00:47:10] Let me ask you a question. I don't want you to answer it out loud, but let me ask you a question.
[00:47:16] Is famine always out of the will of God?
[00:47:22] Or let me put it this way. Are there times when you are in the center of God's will. In the land that he has shown you? And famine comes by the will of God.
[00:47:34] That was the crux of the matter in this connection. Abraham. If he had only believed God, had only trusted God. Ravens could have fed him.
[00:47:48] He could have had Elijah's experience a thousand years afterwards.
[00:47:53] But he got his mind working and said, egypt, Egypt, land of plenty.
[00:48:01] There they store everything and down to Egypt, Sarah. And down they went to Egypt. We won't blame Sarah. Some people always blame Sarah for everything published. Sarah said to Abraham, what about going down to Egypt? It doesn't say so. So on this occasion we will not say that. Sarah said to Abraham, what about going down? It was probably Abraham himself thought himself well, plenty in the land of Egypt. Down to Egypt we go. Sarah, saddle everything off we go. Now the fact of the matter is as soon as they've gone down. That Abraham, as you know I said last week, had to say to Sarah, now Sarah, you're rather beautiful.
[00:48:41] I think it would be wise lest they try to kill me in order to get you. That you say you're my sister.
[00:48:50] It was a half truth.
[00:48:52] There are not too many believers who tell brazen lies.
[00:48:56] The fact of the matter was, as you know, they both shared the same father but different mothers.
[00:49:03] They were related. Sarah was his half sister.
[00:49:07] And so Abraham was really hiding in a half truth.
[00:49:14] It got them into an awful lot of trouble, terrible troubles. Came to Pharaoh's house until he called in his wise men and found out what was wrong. And oh dear, dear dear. Then Abraham had to explain and says something for Abraham. That pharaoh was so nice to him and sort of said, oh, well, I understand, and paid Sarah a thousand silver pieces.
[00:49:38] I said, actually they came out of the whole thing rather well.
[00:49:45] Perfectly honest as usual. It came out with increased flux and quite a lot of silver.
[00:49:51] There are no occasion when the people of God have ever come out of Egypt. That they haven't taken something out of it.
[00:49:57] Anyway, the thing is that putting all that on one side. The fact of the matter is that Abraham should never have gone down into Egypt. God would have kept him in times of famine. Now, there came famine later in Jacob's day. When it was God's will to drive them down into Egypt.
[00:50:19] So that's why I say, never systematize God. Never say, ah, ah, ah. Here comes famine. Now. I must stick to churchillian sort of spirit. Chin out. We're gonna stay here whatever comes. No, no, no. There are times when famine means move.
[00:50:33] And there are times when famine means stay.
[00:50:37] For God will keep you alive.
[00:50:41] It's interesting we must depend on the Lord, not upon some teaching.
[00:50:47] It is our lord who has the key to everything.
[00:50:51] But when Abraham comes back. And comes back to the very point where he fell, where he departed from.
[00:51:00] We have then a wonderful triumph of faith. From then on, he dwelt in the land. And he never left it for the rest of his life.
[00:51:11] He learned his lesson now, dear child of God, if you make one mistake in your spiritual pilgrimage and out of it learn the lesson that keeps you from ever making that same mistake again. It's worth it, I say it's worth God allowing you to make one mistake. To keep you from making the same mistake again and again and again and again. Isn't it?
[00:51:36] Abraham never again went out of the land after this one departure. He learned his lesson. And he stayed within the land for the rest of his life.
[00:51:48] Strangely enough, he committed the same sin again.
[00:51:53] With this substantial difference. That it was in the land.
[00:52:00] Quite a time later on, in the southern part of the promised land.
[00:52:06] He came into the territory of the king called Abimelech.
[00:52:10] And he said exactly the same thing. Sarah, you say you're my sister.
[00:52:16] And the same thing happened. Abimelech took Sarah into his hiring.
[00:52:21] And then the most dreadful scourge fell upon the whole family. And in some dream, Abimelech got the answer. It was this man, Abraham.
[00:52:31] And he called him in front of him. But even though Abraham still made the same. It shows that there are deep things in us, or all of us that have to be dealt with. And take sometimes years and years to get dealt with. Abraham, at least he learned this one lesson. This time he fell in the land. I don't know whether we can say that relatively. There are sins more terrible than others. But at least this was in the land. He learned this one great lesson. He never went out of the land again. He dwelt in that land in tents as a pilgrim with Jacob and Isaac and Jacob all the days of his life.
[00:53:10] At the end of his life he even had to buy the ground in which he buried sand. And of course, later himself and Isaac and Rebekah and Jacob and Leah. And the tombs are with us to this very day. That was the one place that he had to buy it.
[00:53:33] He never possessed the land physically.
[00:53:38] It was a triumph of faith.
[00:53:42] He did see the end.
[00:53:45] It's very beautiful, that in Hebrews eleven, it puts it like this in Hebrews eleven. And verse ten, verse nine. By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promises, in a land not his own dwelling, in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the ayres with him of the same promise. For he looked for the city, which has the foundations, whose builder and maker is God, and underlined that little word. For he became a sojourner in that. For he looked for the city. He saw that the city of God had some vital connection with that land.
[00:54:30] Dear child of God, that's what you and I need to see. God will never show us all the details and he won't show us all the stages and he will not show us all that's in storfars. But he will show us the end.
[00:54:43] Many a believer has not seen the end of God. If we could only see the city of God, which has the foundations, we have the end in view, and we know why we must stay within these boundaries and why we must dwell and why we must be pilgrims and why we must follow the Lord. Well, there's one thing that's the trial of his faith and the promised land. Now another lesson concerning the trial of his faith was lot.
[00:55:19] The trial of his faith and lot.
[00:55:26] Austin Sparks, brother Sparks used to say, years ago, I remember on many occasions, lot was a lot of trouble to Abraham.
[00:55:38] It was a kind of little phrase that has stuck in one's memory all down through the years. Lot was a lot of trouble.
[00:55:48] He was.
[00:55:51] When we have lots with us, we'll always have trouble.
[00:55:56] Not lancer lots, but lots.
[00:56:05] Lot and his men. They spelt trouble for Abraham and his men in chapter 13, Genesis 13.
[00:56:16] From verse five to seven, we read about the strife that began to arise between Abraham and lot and lot's men. And Abraham's men.
[00:56:27] Now, the triumph of faith in Abraham is beautiful to behold.
[00:56:35] For when the issue came to separation and there was absolutely no way through for the purpose of God to be fulfilled, and there are times such as this than separation?
[00:56:49] For lot essentially was not looking for the city which had the foundation.
[00:56:56] He had never seen it.
[00:57:00] He never saw that city.
[00:57:02] He went out because it was his uncle. He followed on with a second hand experience. God preserve us from a second generation.
[00:57:12] Every movement of the spirit of God. Has been killed by second generation.
[00:57:18] Because they have never seen what the first generation saw.
[00:57:25] Lot never saw what Abraham saw.
[00:57:29] He went along content with a secondhand experience. To live in the lap of Abraham.
[00:57:35] To follow in his original experience.
[00:57:38] And when the trouble came, it would have been the easiest thing for Abraham to have said. Now then, lot, we've got to separate. You understand that, and I understand it. We're going to have endless strife, endless bloodshed and bad feeling between you and me. Unless we separate now. Then I take the hill country. You take the plain.
[00:58:03] That's what I would have done. That's what most of you would have done.
[00:58:07] We would have felt it was far, far, far too important a thing.
[00:58:11] To allow the purpose of God. To be frustrated by a man like lot.
[00:58:17] Self indulgent, half asleep. Spiritually, you can't say, lot, choose.
[00:58:28] If you take the right hand, I'll take the left. If you take the left hand, ill take the right. I suggest that that showed the beauty of Abrahams character. Spiritually, the man could trust God.
[00:58:47] He didnt have to assert his rights. He didnt have to fight for his rights. He didnt even have to grasp the purpose of God. Or the work of God in his hands. He didnt even have to take what God had told him was going to be fulfilled through him. And said, ive got to protect them. Ive got to protect them. God has given me something so precious, I must protect it.
[00:59:05] He was able to surrender the whole thing to God and say, lot.
[00:59:09] Without a vestige of superiority.
[00:59:14] Lot, what do you want? Choose what lies before you. And it says very simply. Lot saw the plain. That it was fertile and well watered. And heavily populated. And he chose to play.
[00:59:34] Lot never thought of his uncle for one single moment.
[00:59:38] He never entered his head. God has called my uncle. He brought him out of earl of the counties. Because of his tremendous purpose. He is the one that must choose. And I'll have what's over. He saw with his eyes something that seemed so easy.
[00:59:57] I'll take that, he said.
[01:00:00] An uncle can have the scraggy mountains.
[01:00:09] Of course, that's exactly what God had planned anyway.
[01:00:15] Abraham didn't lose a thing.
[01:00:19] Poor Abraham would have been vexed beyond measure. By the life of the people of the plain of Sodom and Gomorrah.
[01:00:27] It says that righteous lot was vexed by them. So you can imagine what it would have done to Abraham.
[01:00:37] But after all, lot got what he chose.
[01:00:39] Some people are all the time complaining about their circumstances, got what they chose.
[01:00:46] Oh, life is so hard. Family life is so hard. You chose it.
[01:00:57] You only knew my husband, but you chose him.
[01:01:01] You only knew my wife. You chose my children. You had them.
[01:01:12] Its not that were saying you shouldnt. Were only saying we get what we choose.
[01:01:20] Lot chose the plane.
[01:01:23] And with it he chose all the problems of the plane.
[01:01:29] Abraham chose nothing.
[01:01:31] He left it to God.
[01:01:36] And when you leave the great choices and decisions of your life to God, you are in the safest hands in the universe.
[01:01:48] Then when the problems come, you fall back on God. Lot, I don't know what he did. We have no record that he had a prayer meeting or anything else. I only know that Abraham got him out of it by his intercession. Lot, as we've said, was a lot.
[01:02:10] You see what God said to Abraham? What beautiful words in Genesis 1314. And the Lord said unto Abraham, after that, lot was separated from him. Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art northward, southward, eastward and westward. And that included Sodom and Gomorrah. That's the interesting thing. For all the land which thou seest to thee will I give it and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth. So that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then may thy seed also be numbered. Arise. Walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it, for unto thee will I give it. And Abraham moved his tent and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hivron, and built there an altar unto the Lord.
[01:03:02] The fact of the matter is that God appeared to Abraham after Lot was separated from him, and said, abraham, it's all yours.
[01:03:18] You left it to me. Lot chose this. I give the whole lot to you and to your seed forever.
[01:03:29] Now, that's not the end of the trial of Abraham's faith. We shall not get beyond this point tonight. So fear not. I won't go further.
[01:03:37] I will just stay with Lot because there's so much to learn from him.
[01:03:46] Lot couldn't even rescue himself in Genesis 14. When these kings sweep down and take the people of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain, Lot couldn't do a thing. He was a believer. But he was so compromised he couldn't do a thing.
[01:04:06] Swept away.
[01:04:09] It was his uncle who had to pursue the armies. Not even the king of Sodom seemed to be able to do anything.
[01:04:17] Dear Abraham had to go the whole way to Damascus to get his dear beloved nephew back.
[01:04:28] Men of true faith and spiritual character are always having to rescue their weaker brethren.
[01:04:39] I wonder on what side you are.
[01:04:46] All believers fall into two categories.
[01:04:50] Those who are having to be continually rescued and those who have to do the continual rescuing.
[01:04:59] Let me put it this way. Those who know how to intercede and pray, and those who are compromised by the flesh and this world.
[01:05:13] God help us. We don't want to be lots, we want to be Abrahams.
[01:05:20] It is of course a wonderful tray in Abraham that he was prepared to go so far to rescue his nephew. After all, his nephew was a load of trouble.
[01:05:32] He could have said too far.
[01:05:36] Damascus. And Damascus is some fair journey from Sodom, from the southern end of the Dead Sea. It is quite some journey. And really I think that it is interesting to see how Abraham was prepared to travel such an area to rescue his nephew. He might have felt he's a selfish young man, selfish to a degree. He chose the plain. Let him learn.
[01:06:06] Many of us are like that, were not too keen on rescuing one another. First time, yes, second time. But then we feel, let them learn.
[01:06:20] Maybe its good for them to stew for a while.
[01:06:25] But there is something about Abrahams, the trial of his faith, concerning lot.
[01:06:33] I have a feeling that Abraham saw God's highest for his nephew and he never came down to another level.
[01:06:46] It is very beautiful that when he rescued lot and brought back everything that had been stolen, restored everything, on his way back, he was met by Melchizedek, that mysterious person who we believe to be an expression of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has neither beginning nor ending, who met Abraham from Jerusalem, from Salem, king of Salem, king of righteousness, king of peace, and met him and blessed him and Abraham. And listen to this.
[01:07:24] Not only would take nothing from the king of Sodom, not a thing, except the food that the other young men who were from Sodom had eaten.
[01:07:37] He refused to take anything else because he said, lest the king of Sodom say, I have made Abraham, Richard, he not only did that, but he gave a 10th of all that he had to Melchizedek.
[01:07:52] Now that spiritual character, I would have thought after you'd gone all the way up to Damascus for some other king, rescued your own nephew and brought back everything you might have said when he said, now look, take everything. Take all the goods. That's what the king of Sodom said. Take it all. Take it all.
[01:08:08] Abraham could have said, well, yes, you take a third. I'll take two thirds or something like that. But not a stick.
[01:08:21] That is the triumph of faith.
[01:08:25] You know, there are times when we are tempted to take things from the spoil of our victories for ourselves and glory in them.
[01:08:35] I was in that. I was in that great victory. I did this. I did that. What we're really doing is we're taking it. You know, I was there.
[01:08:48] It is quite remarkable, the people who were there in years afterwards.
[01:08:54] I'm always meeting people all over the country who tell me they were with us in the beginning.
[01:08:59] Indeed, indeed, there are so many of them. That we would have been a sizable company.
[01:09:06] And you know how well ostracized we were in those days. But it is amazing how years afterwards everyone seems to have been in on the beginning when it was costly and hard.
[01:09:23] Abraham said, I don't want any of it. If I am anything, it is because of the Lord.
[01:09:31] And he shall be my glory. Now, the beauty of this is that the Lord immediately came to him. And the Lord always does. He doesn't come before. He doesn't say. Now then, Abraham, Abraham, don't take anything. Don't take anything. Don't compromise yourself, Abraham.
[01:09:50] Keep yourself pure, and then I'll bless you. Oh, overflowing blessings. The Lord is very careful on these. He never comes in till the right time.
[01:10:04] Did you notice it was only after lot had been separated from that. The Lord said to him, now then, it's all yours, Abraham. I want you to know it's all yours. You've got through. You triumphed. It's all yours. Now the Lord comes to him out. He said, I will take nothing. And gave a 10th of all his income and possessions to Melchizedek. The Lord came in and said, Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. There could never have been a word from the Lord so wonderful or precious given to a man than that I am thy shield, thy guardian, thy protector and thy exceeding great reward.
[01:10:48] Then there was a covenant made.
[01:10:51] And here is something very interesting. For when that covenant was made with Abraham and the sacrifice, when it was a burnt offering, the animal was cut in quarters and laid there. Then Abraham saw a smoking furnace and a flaming torch going up and down between the divided creature. And a horror of great darkness came upon Abraham.
[01:11:15] This is spiritual experience.
[01:11:20] Some people seem to think the only time you ever get a horror of great darkness is before you were saved.
[01:11:26] Let me tell you from my own little experience that on a number of occasions when God has dealt with me, there's been a horror of great darkness.
[01:11:37] Because Abraham knew that in the covenant that God was making with him and establishing with him both for the land and for his seed, it was going to cost Abraham everything.
[01:11:50] And his spirit, if not his flesh, intuitively knew everything.
[01:11:57] He saw that sacrifice in pieces and saw himself, if you like, in Christ.
[01:12:07] Unable to manipulate himself anymore, unable to do it in peace.
[01:12:12] He sought a smoking furnace, a baptism of fire and a flaming torch.
[01:12:20] And a horror of great darkness came upon him. But the covenant was made.
[01:12:27] Well, I said I would end with lot, and I will, because the Lord established again that great word. Lift up your eyes. See.
[01:12:38] And all this land with all these ites in it, I am going to drive the whole lot out and I will give it to you. And he even said to Abraham, the people that shall come forth out of your loins, remember, he had no children.
[01:12:51] The people that shall come forth out of your loins shall become a great people and shall go down into Egypt for 400 years and shall come out a multitude that no one can number.
[01:13:02] And I shall give them this land in perpetuity.
[01:13:08] But Abraham's trial of faith and lot was not over.
[01:13:15] When we come to Genesis 18 and Genesis 19, we have the whole story of Sodom and Gomorrah and the judgment of God upon them. And it is a very interesting fact that we have here again the trial of Abraham's faith. You would have thought by now, having rescued his nephew, that perhaps there would have been a little more spiritual insight in his nephew. Perhaps his nephew would have said, all these people in the plain, they're so terrible. Even though you have rescued them, they are still godless. Not only godless, they're depraved.
[01:14:01] It is a very beautiful story, how the Lord appeared to Abraham.
[01:14:05] It is, of course, the basis of that New Testament comment about exercising hospitality, for some in so doing have entertained angels unawares.
[01:14:17] It says, the Lord appeared unto Abraham three men.
[01:14:25] One of them was the Lord, two of them were angels.
[01:14:30] And Abraham went out and said, I beg you, have a meal. Don't just go on your journeY, have a meal. And they turned in. Well, we won't go into all the songs because that remains for another time when we talk about the trial of his faith and the promised seed.
[01:14:43] But here is one very great lesson. When they said they were going to go, they said they wanted to go on the way to Sodom. And they went out from Hebron and walked along that road through the wilderness of Judea to where it begins to drop away down to the Dead Sea and to Sodom and Gomorrah.
[01:15:06] And then the Lord said, when the two went on, shall I hide this thing from my friend Abraham?
[01:15:14] And so he told him that the evil of SODOm had come up to him, and he had determined judgment.
[01:15:23] And I believe that God knew exactly what Abraham was going to do, because he saw in Abraham a reflection of himself.
[01:15:33] And abraham immediately began to argue, well, you know the story. I wont go into God. You remember he said, if there are 50, would you forgive?
[01:15:43] And the lord said, yes. And then he said, 45. And the Lord said, 45. I said, dont be angry, Lord, 40. And the Lord said, if there are 40 righteous people, I will keep back judgment. And then he said, lord, 35. And he went on down and down to ten.
[01:16:06] There were not ten righteous people in the cities of the plain.
[01:16:12] But it was Abrahams intercession that saved lot.
[01:16:19] And those angels that went down, you will remember, they went to lots home, and they told him, get up and get out as quickly as you can and do not look back.
[01:16:34] Lot's sons in law refused to go, but Lot, his two daughters and his wife, they fled in the clothes that they stood up in.
[01:16:49] It was only a man of faith who could have interceded in the way that Abraham interceded.
[01:16:59] I believe that intercession is always based on living faith. To shut yourself away and intercede for a people, a nation, a situation, a person is so stupid, unless God has given you spiritual insight. And with that insight, living faith.
[01:17:22] And out of that faith comes a ministry of intercession.
[01:17:29] We have to leave it there. Of course, lot's wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.
[01:17:39] Years ago, I closed with this little story. It's just a human story, but it's always captured me.
[01:17:49] Years ago, I read in some book, and I don't even know where it is. I've never been able to trace it again, that there was a certain place east of Bani Naim, sons of Naim, where you could see a most amazing view of the Dead Sea and stone, or sodom, as we call it.
[01:18:15] And I was with Paul. I remember we asked them a guide that we knew very well. Do you? No, no, no. You can't see it there, he said, you can't see it there. But in the end, he was prepared to take us. And when we went to Hebron, one of the sheikhs of the area, the potter, for many generations. He was a bit surprised when he heard we were going to Bani Naim, and he said, I will come with you. I learned later it was because there's a big terrorist cell in Bani Naim, which they've just discovered a few months ago and cleared up. And I think that was the reason he came with us. There's no trouble. But when we got there, he, by the way, didn't think you could see the Dead Sea. When we got there, we asked, yes, yes, yes. Some of the people said, if you go on to the turkish fort outside, and this place, by the way, was, to us, prehistoric, I don't think they'd ever seen a tourist before.
[01:19:00] I mean, it wasn't like anywhere else. It was absolutely like going back centuries. And we went out to the old ruined turkish fort, and there we saw the most amazing sight, looking right the way down to the Dead Sea, and all the end of it with Sodom and, of course, Gomorrah, where they were originally. When we came back, because there was excitement in the village, because we had the sheikh with us as well. They wanted us. Would we have tea? Would we have this? Would we see the mosque? And then they kept on saying, luta is buried here. Luta is buried here. And we couldn't think who Luther was. So I said, it can't be Luke.
[01:19:37] So Paul said, no. And then we thought of others. I don't. We got a whole number of names. And then finally again, lot.
[01:19:47] Now, I don't know why there should be a tradition that in some little tiny place overlooking the Dead Sea, there should be a tradition. Lot is buried there. But I said to Paul at the time, wouldn't it have been amazing if when Lot died, he had said, bury me on the spot where my uncle interceded for me and saved my life?
[01:20:14] For there was the very spot, traditionally, where Abraham stood and interceded for his nephew.
[01:20:27] I wish we were people like that.
[01:20:31] Does he give any encouragement to anyone who has unsaved relatives to pray on, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house.
[01:20:48] May God give us all grace to be people of faith. And when the trial comes, and remember, sometimes the trial comes on issues that we dont even think were being proved, we dont realize it is the proving of our faith.
[01:21:04] May the Lord help us to triumph through the grace of God.
