All right, we're going to look
at Genesis 12 first this morning, and then Lord willing, the next
hour we'll look at Psalm 16, and that's the right order to
do it in. We need both of these. One big message really. And we're
just going to take it in two chunks. And so this is vital
we see this first. We see types in the scriptures
of our Lord. We've spent a lot of time there
on the Ark. It's a type, a picture of Christ.
It teaches us something about Christ. But there's also anti-types. There's images of people doing
things in this book. And stories that take place that
are the exact opposite of who our Lord is. We see that in the
disobedience of Jonah, and how the Lord used that to show us
how He saved sinners. We see that in Abram here in
our text, that he's an anti-type of our Lord. And hopefully, if
I can hurry, we'll get to it at the end. You'll get to see
that, and it's beautiful. But it's an anti-type. Why do I care
about those? As I look through my daily walk
in this world, I'm an anti-type. I'm an anti-type. I don't want
to be, but I am. I had a man in high school tell
me one time, a teacher, he said, you want to be a man? Be like
me. And I thought that arrogant idiot. Well, 40 years later, you look
back on it, that man cared for me. He was a man in this world. I want to do that. I want to
be a good example. And so often I'm not. So often I'm not. And the Lord's going to be glorified
in it. He's going to save His people through it, and I'm going
to thank Him for it. It might be painful, but it's
so. This isn't just a historical
fact. This seems kind of out of place, isn't it? Here Abram
finally made it to Canaan. He built an altar. He worshipped
God. And then as a family, he went down to Egypt. He tried
to pawn off his wife, and then they come back. Quick and easy. Two paragraphs in the original
text. Is this for our good? Does this speak of Christ? This is something we can learn.
Can we learn from it? Of course we can. Can we be reproved from
it? Of course we can. Have our hearts broken on it.
The Lord has to do that, BS. And all these things are a benefit.
This is grace. That's what this is. This isn't just a historical
fact. This is a story of God's grace to sinners. That's what
it is. Grace in spite of ourselves.
You know, that's what grace means. Grace by any other means isn't
grace. It's a gift. It's a wage. An
earned, not a gift. It is a gift. Any other way,
it's a wage. You did something to merit it.
When you absolutely do not deserve it and you get it, that's what's
called grace. And that's what this is. That's the definition
of grace. And it's hard for me. I don't
want to be charismatic. But I am a character. I don't
want to be emotional, but I have emotion. I'm a man. And I've
heard people get up and they don't say lies. They tell what
seems to be true, but it's as dead as a doornail. And I thought
about this yesterday. If I got up and I said, I'm going
to tell you all about my wife, Kimberly. And I said, well, Kimberly, she
is my wife. And in the Greek, wife means this. And in Hebrew,
it means that. And these are all true facts.
And she was a spouse to me. And I've known her this long.
And she's this tall. And I really care for her. She'd slap me in
the mouth. What? You don't care for me?
What's wrong with you? Y'all know better than that.
This happened to Abram. This happened to me. And I hope
I don't get emotionally connected to it too much. I hope I don't
break down and cry in front of you, but that's alright if I
do. What's the context of this? God had called Abram out of Ur
of the Chaldees, in southern Iraq, and He said, I'm going
to bless you. Pack your house up. Leave your mother and father. Is that what He told him? Leave
them. You're grown. You're 50 years
old. Gather your house and go where
I tell you to go. And Abram took Lot, his nephew,
and he took Terah, his father, exactly against what God taught
him to do, and they went the opposite way. They took the easy
way around. And he said, well, we're just walking by faith.
Just so happens we stopped in Heron. That's convenient, wasn't
it? He got tired of walking, using all his excuses. And he
got up there and he stayed there. He got settled in. He said, this
must be what the Lord wanted. This is what we had. And God
killed his father. Says later on in the scriptures,
he's a heretic. I don't worship him. He did all that to bring
Abram to Canaan, where he wanted him. And he brought him there,
and he went up the mountain. He could see Bethel on one side,
the house of God, and he could see Haea on the other side, destruction
and ruin. He knew what he was. He knew
there's two natures in him. And he built an altar and he worshiped
God. He said, thank you, Lord. Thank you. I need you. I praise
you, not myself, not this world, you. Now he's got all his ducks
in a row, doesn't he? Now he's a mature believer. No,
he ain't. He's finally in Canaan. He built an altar, worshiped
God, and it says in verse 10, and there was a famine in the
land, and Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, to spend
just a little time. Let's go down there for a season.
For the famine was grievous in the land. The first thing Abram
finds out is it's not as pleasant for the flesh where God put you.
It's not so pleasing. It's not always so wonderful
where God put you. There's a grievous famine in
the land. The place of God's blessing is rarely a place of
ease, of comfort, and of pleasure. It rarely is. Where God's going
to bless you, there's going to be some strife, and there's going
to be some rubbed wrong ways, and there's going to be some
pain and suffering. It ain't going to be kick your feet up
in a hammock and drink little drinks with umbrellas in them.
It ain't a vacation. There's going to be some hard
times. Brother Walter Gruber said this.
God gave him these words years ago and we repeat them because
it's true and I've experienced it. Many of you have too. He
just had started down there in Mexico and it's a hard thing.
You have to be recognized by the government that you are a
missionary and there's paperwork and that's hard. Hard beginning
down there. Somebody went and visited him
and said, Walter, are you happy? He said, my happiness has nothing
to do with this. This is where God put me. I hope those people
didn't take that hard that he said that, you know what I mean? I ain't rubbed it the wrong way
all the time. I don't want you getting that idea I'm telling you what happens
in my life and in your life too, right? He said, happiness don't
matter. That's what I've told you before.
Happiness comes from the word happenstance. Happens every now
and then. We ain't supposed to be happy
all the time. That's not what the word even means. But he was
content. He was satisfied with what God
had for him. We'll see that next hour right
here. Abram wasn't. He wasn't satisfied. Famine coming
to land. Well, let's hightail it out here.
We'll just do it for a little while. Just for a little while.
We'll sojourn. Sojourn's got a lot of trouble
in it, don't it? Well, where was God going to bless Abram,
where it was grievous, where it was great famine. It says
in verse 11, And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter
into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I
know that thou art a fair woman to look upon. This is the first
mention of Egypt in the Scriptures. And it's always a sinful place.
They were coming near into Egypt. Throughout the Scriptures it's
a a symbol of the world, worldliness of sin. Isaiah wrote to us in
Isaiah 31, woe unto them that go down to Egypt for help. What
was Abram doing? It hadn't been written yet, but
he was going down to Egypt for help, wasn't he? Going to the
world for help and stay on horses and trust in chariots because
they are many. There's a lot of folks down there.
Can you imagine that going through Abram's mind? There's a grievous
famine. There's not a couple of things.
Pasta ain't missing at the grocery store, but we got everything
else. Y'all remember that two years ago? Rice is out, but we
can still get tortillas. There was a grievous famine,
just about starving. He had a lot of mouths to feed,
didn't he? He was put in charge. He was accountable. He wasn't
just responsible. God was responsible, gave every
bit of this to him. He was accountable. It was going to land on his head.
He was ahead of his household. And it's his job to make sure
these people's fed. And so he said, well, it's going
to land on me. Well, Egypt, they might be having the same famine
too. But there's so many of them. They have storage down there.
They're prepared well. They got deep wells. Stockpiles
of food. Surely we can get a little bit.
It's going to be better. Less grievous. See if it still is
a famine. Less grievous than what we got going on here. We'll
go down there. But just for a while. Just for
a while. We're sojourned down there. We'll
just be passing through. We'll go spend the summer down
there. Spend a year or two. Then we'll come back. We'll come
back. Going to Egypt is leaning on the arms of the flesh. That's
what that is. That's not trusting the Lord.
That's not looking to Him. He didn't say Abram leaned on
the Lord, did he? Did he call out to God? Did he
call unto God and say, Lord, You brought me here. You promised
me these promises that my seed is going to go forth and Christ
is going to come of that. And this lineage, you promised
me that. It's going to be the stars of the sky. I believe you'll
feed me." Did he say that? No, he went to his own understanding,
his own logic, and he leaned on the arm of the flesh, didn't
he? At the end he does. We'll see that at the end. He
should have done that the first thing, didn't he? As soon as
that famine came, he should have went to prayer. Went to his Lord. Worshipped him and thanked him
and asked him to provide what he promised he would provide.
Inquire of him. We see that now, don't we? Can
you and I read this and say, well, that's what Abram should
have done. What do I do? Do I know better? I know better,
don't I? What do I do? Fret, worry, complain,
murmur, look to this world, don't I? Instead of just stopping and
praising God. Thank you, Lord, you sent this
family. Seek the Lord when there's trouble. Don't run from it. If
it's hard, if the Lord's put something in your hand to do
and it's hard, do it anyway. Do it. Stick with it. Stick with
what He's given us. Paul told Timothy that, didn't
he? He said, Timothy, you be ready to preach in season and
out of season. Whether you feel like it or not, whether you stayed
up till 11.59 last night and you got up at 3.30 this morning,
it don't make a difference, you get up and preach. You scribbled
your notes down in 20 minutes, it don't matter, get up and preach.
Or you're really prepared and something's burning in you and
you got to tell them people, you get up and preach. Don't matter if it's
hard or easy, you do it. Do it. Abram left the place of
God's blessing and took refuge in this wicked world. What a
lesson we can learn from that. Why go to Egypt for help and
famine? You think of that? Why would I go to Egypt? Why
not go to the one that sent the famine? Why would I go somewhere
for water? Why not go to the one that made
water? Who's the living water? Does
God use this world to supply our need? There's a fine line
between faith and fatalism. And it's a dangerous line to
walk. Well, we won't go out if the Lord wants me to eat. They
do these things. Oh, if God has got people He
wants to save, He'll save them. He won't send no preacher to
them. They'll be fine. You sit on your couch and say,
well, if the Lord wanted me to eat, He'd send it to me. No, you walk to
the grocery store and you get groceries, don't you? The Lord
uses this world. He uses means to supply our needs.
He sure does. He gives nations for you, He
says. He supplies all our needs. Gives us jobs so we can go out
and work a given occupation. We've got police and firefighters
and doctors and medicine and all kinds of things. Wonderful
things, isn't it? Look at all He uses to provide
for His people. Where's the line then? When is
it wrong to turn to the world? When it's against God's Word. It's flat wrong. Things I see in my life, I say,
what I'm doing is flat wrong. I want to quit it. I want to
do what he says. I believe him. Let's grow more
and more. It's my days. I want to do what
he says. I want to honor God. He was talking about the types and
anti-types of Jonah. Jonah said, well, he's down there
in Joppa. There's a ticket to Tarsus. If the Lord didn't want
me to go, this must be what he wanted. Abram here, well, a grievous
famine has come on. I've got a great idea. We'll
go to Egypt. The Lord didn't want me to go.
He wanted me to build a river here. I wouldn't be able to cross.
It's not a good thing. That's against God's word. Are
we to worship Him? That's the hard truth. I've lived
it. I'm not looking down at nobody.
I'm preaching to myself. I've walked this world this way. I've
done what Abram's done. I know. Fitting the worship of
God around my life instead of building my life around worship.
Living where there's no gospel. That's called going to Egypt
for help. I've done it. I said, I'll be fine. I can listen
online. The internet's the same as in person. No, it ain't about
starvation. You're talking about going into a famine. I've lived
it. God's able to provide. And we
should seek Him first. Seek ye first the Kingdom of
God. And all these other things, they're going to be provided
for you. That'll be fine, won't it? The flowers and the lilies, do
they toil? I sat on that quite a while. The flowers, look how
well they're adorned. The Lord waters them, He nurtures
them, takes care of them. Do they toil? They toil not.
How could they? Can they toil? They'll start
hammering and pouring concrete. Lilies can't do that. That's
laughable. I can't either. I'm totally dependent on Him.
I'll ask you this question too with Abram on the hard truths
section. Is it ever right for a believer
not to publicly worship God? I ask myself that. Is it ever
right for me to not worship God? Have I ever been in Egypt where
I wouldn't worship Him? Where I just, well, there's just
things, I gotta work and I gotta do this and I gotta do that.
Is it right? I may have to do things or get fired, but is it
right? If I'm in Egypt, I need to run to the Lord. as fast as
I can and call on Him. Call on Him. I'll turn over Psalm
146. Psalm 146. We'll begin in verse 3, Psalm
146, verse 3. Put not your trust in princes
or in the son of man, that's a lowercase s, in men in whom
there is no help. His breath goeth forth, returneth
to his earth. In that very day his thoughts
perish. Happy is he that hath the God
of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. What about this Lord? Happy is
those that the Lord has saved, has chosen, has made His, has
called to life, given lots of... and those that worship Him, and
all of our hopes in the Lord. And He tells us what a benefit
that is, in case we don't understand. Look in verse 6, "...which made
heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is therein, which keepeth
truth forever, which executes judgment for the oppressed, which
giveth food to the hungry." You hungry? God said, He'll feed
you. The Lord looseneth the prisoners.
The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind. The Lord raiseth them
that are bowed down. The Lord loveth the righteous.
The Lord preserveth the strangers. He relieveth the fatherless and
the widow, but the way of the wicked He turneth upside down.
The Lord shall reign forever. Thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord. When we're
in need of anything, when we're in prison, when we need to be
loosed, when we need food, when there's water that we need, anything
to do with the seas, if there's a storm and we're on the seas.
We need to see truth today. Whatever it is, praise ye the
Lord. Let us call unto Him. Call on
His name and the Lord will bless you. Alright, back in our text here
in Genesis 12. It says in verse 10, And there
was a famine in the land, and Abram went down into Egypt to
sojourn there, for the famine was grievous in the land. And
it came to pass when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that
he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou
art a fair woman to look upon. Therefore it shall come to pass
when the Egyptians shall see thee, and they shall say, This
is his wife. They will kill me, but they will
save thee alive. You're going to live, but I'm
going to die. Say, I pray thee, that thou art my sister, that
it may be well with me for thy sake, and my soul shall live
because of thee." One sin leads to another, doesn't it? Stop attending the worship of
God, and stop sinning with His saints, and then next thing you
know we're telling our wives to prostitute themselves out
so we can save our own necks. That's a big jump. That's what
happened here, wasn't it? That's exactly what happened
here. Key words to this sin that's committed. Key words that's my
sin that I commit is that it will be well with me. You do
this so it'll be well with me. Looking out for number one. Wasn't
thinking of God's honor. Wasn't thinking about the brethren.
Wasn't thinking about his wife. Just thinking about me. Thinking
about me. Remember now, Abram, he was young
in the faith. He's got a whole lot of baggage he's carrying
around, doesn't he? Some people say, how could a
believer act like that? How could a believer do that?
An old believer knows, don't they? I've lived it. I know what I'll
do. I know what I'd do if the Lord took His hand off of me.
Goes quick, don't it? Abram's faith was mentioned and
proven. That doesn't make sense, does
it? It says he staggered not at the promises of God. He knew
he was going to have these children. He took Isaac up on that mountain.
That was later on, wasn't it? That was later on. Thankful the
Lord looks at what he's put in us and not what we are by nature.
Verse 14, and it came to pass that when Abram was coming to
Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman. She was very fair. The
princes also of Pharaoh saw her and commended her before Pharaoh,
and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house, and he entreated
Abram well for her sake. Because he gave him, his wife
to him. And he had sheep and oxen and
he asses and men servants and maid servants and she asses and
camels. Oh, what a great inheritance he had, it seems. He had so much. That's what he wanted. He said,
I need it to be well with me. And boy, that's what happened.
Look at all his coffers. Look at all these fields packed
full of sheep and camels and everything. Got plenty of servants.
Male and female. Plural. Out the door. What wealth
he had. He said, it'll be well with me,
but you look at the cost it took. We have no idea how costly our
sin is. Abraham woke up that next morning.
He might've thought this is a good idea. And I bet he woke up that
next morning and said, I hope that was a bad dream. And he rolled over
and looked and Sarah wasn't there. What have I done? He's going
to have to live with that, doesn't he? That's a great cost for him
to have all his servants and his cattle. What cost did it
come from my sin? God had to give His only begotten
Son. He had to bear it. He had to
become me. What a cost. If God did not intervene, Abram
would have only seen Sarah far off. He gave her away. He got
his reward, didn't he? And he would have never seen
his wife again unless she was holding the hand of Pharaoh walking
up and down the street. He'd have never had dinner with her
again, anything. He'd have been permanently separated
from her if God didn't intervene. But God's grace overrules. Remember,
that's how it started. This is a story of grace. Did
I get myself in a jam? Willingly, I sure have. God's
grace overruled. It intervened. That doesn't excuse
my sin, doesn't excuse Abram's sin, but it rules it. It comes
in and makes everything right. That's what the Lord gave Paul
to write in Romans 8, 28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose. What's all things mean? All things. A-L-L. All things. Are there
things I meant for evil? Yeah. Does that fall into all
things? It does. It truly does. Look what God did in spite of
Abram. Here's Abram. Just like me. I'm so thankful
the Lord left us in there. Just like me. Prone to wonder. Prone to leave the God I love
and run to everything I think. Look what God did in spite of
Abram. Verse 17. And the Lord plagued Pharaoh
and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. Everybody got sick. And Pharaoh
called Abram and said, what is it that thou hast done unto me?
And why didst thou not tell me she was thy wife? What said thou?
She is my sister, so that I might have taken her to me, to wife.
Now therefore behold thy wife, take her, go thy way. Here's
your wife, get her, go. And he commanded his men concerning
him, and they sent him away and his wife and all that he had.
Everything I've given you, don't give it back, you just go. We're
gonna see this happen again in Egypt. Take your stuff and go. Get out of here. Pharaoh had
found out that Sariel was not Abram's sister, but his wife.
My brother Todd said, how do you, I always wanted to, how
did he find out? Said that it's plagued. I guess she was the
only one that didn't get sick. And he said it's contact tracing.
We know about that in our day, don't we? Well, you're the only
one that didn't get sick. What's wrong with you? Who are
you? And then he found out. And he said, you and him, get
out of here. Who looks morally, outwardly,
people should worry about this walking in life and being a Pharisee,
who looks like the right one here? Pharaoh knew the difference
between right and wrong, didn't he? It was written in his heart.
He knew adultery was wrong. And he said, I ain't doing this.
Go away. And here's God's prophet sitting
right there, the one that didn't sin. What a thought, huh? The Lord's grace is in spite
of ourselves. Pharaoh knew that that was wrong. It was written
on his heart as it is with every man. And everything Abram did
resulted in him losing Sarah. All the decisions he made, all
his bride ideas, it all ended up in him losing his bride. And
everything that God did brought her back and gave him all that
he had in abundance. He went there to solve a famine.
God solved it, gave his wife back to him in spite of himself.
Chapter 13, verse 1. And Abram went up out of Egypt,
he and his wife and all that he had, and lot with him into
the south. And Abram was very rich in cattle
and silver and in gold. Abram came out of this smelling
like a rose. Pharaoh did what seemed right, and he was plagued.
And Abram sinned, and God gave him great increase. That's a fact. That's what happened
in spite of Abram. And you know what the natural
man says? What does that old, wicked heart say? Well, if that's
the case, shouldn't we just sin more and grace shall abound? Shall we sin more that grace
may abound? God forbid. God forbid. That's what Paul
told us, wasn't it? What a shameful thought. Job was hedged about,
wasn't he? He looked at Satan. The Lord
did, and he said, have you considered my servant Job? He said, I can't
touch him, you got him hedged about. He said, you take that
hedge down, you let me get a hold of him, and he'll curse you.
The Lord had a physical hedge about him so Satan couldn't touch
him, but the Lord hedged his heart about, hadn't he? What happened
to Abram? Every bit of this right here
was the hedge around him. It sure don't look like it. Sometimes
the Lord will cut that hedge down just enough so we can reach
over. Get zapped a little bit, won't he? We think we get a free
run of things. The Lord is still in control.
He had him hedged about. Verse 3, And he went on his journeys
from the south even to Bethel, to the house of God, and to the
place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel
and Hai, and to the place of the altar which he had made there
at the first. And there Abram called on the
name of the Lord. After all these things happened,
do you know what he returned to? His first love. He went back
to the place of the first. You know what the Scriptures
tell us? Turn to your first love. Run to Him. Worship Him. Call
out on Him. What about tomorrow? Run to Him. Call out on Him. Turn to your
first love. Abram learned to call on the
name of the Lord, didn't he? That's what we read David wrote
in Psalm 23. He said, Surely goodness and
mercy shall follow me. No matter how hard I run, no
matter how far south I go, it'll follow me. Goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell
in the house of the Lord forever." We're in His house, ain't we?
He's put us there. I may feel like I'm running hard,
and I ain't gaining no ground. He's got me. And His grace must
be there in spite of me to bless me. Well, how can God do that? How can he do it? I told you
this is types and anti-types. That's the life of a believer.
Just wrong. Wrong. That's all I am. And God
is gracious and good. That's all He is. Kind to me,
long-suffering to me. How could that be possible? Why
would He do it for a wretch like me? I want to give you the types
and anti-types. I want you to see this anti-type
of Abram here in this text. We just read it and you can go
home and read it again and dwell on it. Abram went down In disobedience,
didn't he? He disobeyed God, wasn't reverent
to God, and he went down. Christ came down in obedience,
honoring the Father. The reason was Abram was in great
famine. He was hungry, looking out for
himself. Christ came because we were in
great famine. We were starving to death. Abram's
wife, she was so lovely. Oh, she was 65, 70 years old.
And all of Egypt noticed and all the king's men noticed. She
was a beautiful woman. Beautiful woman. And he had her
tell a lie so he could be separate from her and save his own neck.
Christ's bride is so hideous. He told us the truth. Laid down
his own neck so we could be with him. Abram said, say you are my sister.
Christ said, I am your husband. I'll tell everybody. That's my
bride. Abram got rich in this deal,
didn't he? Christ became poor for our sakes. And Abram did
all this to save his life. Christ did it to lay down his
life. When the Lord came to this earth, he honored the Father
and he was glorified in it. When Abram fell in sin, It honored the Father because
of Christ and Christ was glorified in it and His grace to His people.
You see that? Abram wasn't content. He wasn't
satisfied whenever he left Bethel. Boy, he was satisfied when he
got back, wasn't he? We'll see that next hour.