But I want to look at chapter
12 and 13. We're going to focus... I thought
at first, and I wrote in the hymnal, it was going to be mostly
on chapter 13, but as I was looking back, they're tied together,
I believe. So we'll see that in this. Let's
ask the Lord to be with us. Father, we thank you for your
word. Thank you especially for your
spirit that illuminates your word to us so that we can see
the Lord Jesus Christ with his God-given faith and lay hold
on him, abandoning all hope in ourselves, finding no reason
for confidence in our flesh, and yet finding every reason
for confidence in Christ, having full assurance that by the blood
of Jesus Christ, even sinners as we are are accepted by him,
accepted at the throne that has been made by his blood, a throne
of grace. And so we pray, Lord, open your
word to us and teach us today of your mercy, your grace, your
faithfulness. Thank you for the Lord Jesus,
in Jesus' name we pray, amen. We're gonna pick it up, verse
10 of chapter 12, Genesis chapter 12, verse 10. And I wanna read
through Verse 13 of chapter 13, putting
these things together. It says, "...and there was a
famine in the land." Abram was in the land of Canaan and there
was a famine. There was no bread, nothing to eat. 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 to 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, that they shall
say, This is his wife. and they will kill me, but they
will save thee alive. Say, I pray thee, that thou art
my sister, that it may be well with me for thy sake, and that
my soul shall live because of thee." And it came to pass that
when Abram was come near to Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman
that 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, he treated
Abram well for her sake, and he had sheep, and oxen, and he-asses,
and men-servants, and maid-servants, and she-asses, and camels. And
the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues
because of Sarai, Abram's wife. And Pharaoh called Abram and
said, What is this that thou hast done to me? Why didst thou
not tell me that she was thy wife? Why saidst thou, She is
my sister? I might have taken her to me
to wife. Now therefore behold thy wife,
take her, and go thy way. And Pharaoh commanded his men
concerning him, and they sent him away, and his wife, and all
that he had. 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, in silver, and in gold. And he
went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the
place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel
and Ai, unto the place of the altar which he had made there
at the first, and there Abram called on the name of the Lord.
And Lot also which went with Abram had flocks and herds and
tents, and the land was not able to bear them that they might
dwell together, for their substance was great so that they could
not dwell together. And there was a strife between
the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle.
And the Canaanite and the Perizzites dwelt then in the land, and Abram
said to Lot, There was a strife, this argument, this contention
between Abram's and Lot's people, the different groups, these herdmen. And Abram said to Lot, Let there
be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen
and thy herdmen. For we be brethren, is not the
whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee,
from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to
the right. Or if thou depart to the right
hand, then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes, and
beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere
before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden
of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.
Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed
east, and they separated themselves one from the other. Abram dwelled
in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the
plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were
wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly." So here we
have two things happening. First, God sent a famine in the
land of Canaan, where Abraham was. And because of the famine, he
left Canaan and went to Egypt. Andrew, would you mind going
out there and seeing if the light is solid on the recorder? If it isn't, if it's blinking,
push it once. The blinking light. If it's solid, leave it just
like it is. So there was a famine in Canaan,
and because of the famine, Abram went to Egypt. And then after
the ordeal with Pharaoh and Sarai, after that, Abram returned from
Egypt to Canaan, and he built an altar there, the same altar
that he had before built, and he worshipped God there at the
altar. And then after the altar, after
the scene at the altar, there's this scene where lots, herdmen,
they had lots of sheep and donkeys and camels, all these things
were too much for the land, and so there was a argument, a strife,
a little fight between Lot's herdman and Abram's herdman. And that's what prompted Abram
to tell Lot, don't let there be a strife between us. We're
brethren. So that's the scene, and you
can see how Abram actually offered Lot to go whichever way he wanted.
He says, if you want to go to the right, then you go to the
right. I'll go to the left. If you want to go to the left,
that's fine. I'll go to the right. So whichever
way it went. Whichever way Lot decided to
go, that's the way that Abram would have him go. Because Abram
was trying to remove the thing that caused argument between
them. So there's two trials here. Two trials and the first one
was brought on by the famine. And I want you to see what happened
here. In chapter 12, Abraham had faith, but his fear for his
life overcame his trust in God. And he put his beloved wife,
his dear sister in Christ, whose name was Sarai, placed her life
in danger because of his fear for his own life. And he told
her to say that she was his sister. In fact, in chapter 20, you see
that when Abram departed from Ur of the Chaldees and Haran,
at that time he had told his wife Sarai, he said, I want you
to tell people wherever we go that I'm your brother. Now she
was his brother. She was his sister. She was the
daughter of Abram's father, but not the daughter of his mother.
But Abram had invented this story. Really, it was a lie, wasn't
it? It was true, but it was a lie because it didn't tell the whole
truth. When we don't tell the whole
truth, then we tell a lie. We might tell a lie By changing
the truth, but we also tell a lie if we don't tell the whole truth.
And that's why when you're standing in a court of law, they always
ask, will you swear to tell the truth? The whole truth and nothing
but the truth. Tell it all and don't tell anything
but the truth. But Abram asked Sarai to tell
this lie because he feared for his life. And he created the
problem himself. Now, Pharaoh initially blessed
Abram because Sarai had told Pharaoh that Abram was my brother. And you can imagine what that
did to Abram. What would you think if you told
your wife, now look, I'm worried that they're going to kill me
for your sake. So this is what I want you to say. Just tell
them that I'm your brother. That way they won't think you're
my wife and they'll treat me well for your sake. But it went
further than just treating Abraham well for Sarai's sake. In fact, Pharaoh blessed Abram
because of the lie that Abram had Sarai tell to Pharaoh and
his men. And so, what does that cause
when someone treats us well for telling a lie? What does it cause
us to feel? Doesn't it cause us to feel hypocrisy? It does, doesn't it? We feel
like, I'm being blessed for telling a lie. I'm living a falsehood. I'm living a lie. And so this
hypocrisy that Abram was now living because of the lie must
have made Abram feel awful inside because he was treated well for
the lie that Sarai had been compelled by her love for him to tell Pharaoh. She was telling this story because
of her love for Abram, her faithfulness to Abram, and yet it was because
of that that her life was now in danger. Abram was in a pickle
here, wasn't he? His wife was in danger. He had
told a lie. He was being treated well by
Pharaoh. He was a hypocrite. He felt awful. It made the famine
in Canaan seem a little more attractive than the wealth in
Egypt, I think, at this point. I can imagine that it was. Well,
Abram's faith was limited. His faith needed to grow. It
needed to increase. And his faith was mixed with
unbelief. Now this is true for all of us.
Abram is called the father of all who believe. All who believe
in the righteousness of Christ. No man has perfect faith. All of us, while we're in this
life until we reach glory, have faith that's mixed with unbelief.
Our act of believing, which is our reliance and dependence,
are always imperfect. Our faith is not righteousness.
Our faith can't be a substitute for righteousness. But the one
we believe, the Lord Jesus Christ, is our righteousness. Though
we have small faith and have unbelief mixed with our faith,
our strength is not in the degree of our faith. It's not in our
understanding. It's not in our knowledge. It's
not in how much we depend. Our strength is in Christ. And
that's a hard lesson to learn. That's why this trial came to
Abram. And that's why we're looking
at it now. God's given it to us to teach us this is the way
we live. on the Lord Jesus Christ. Trouble
comes because of our unbelief. The trouble comes to try our
faith. And when the trouble tries our
faith, it exposes our unbelief, the weakness of our faith, which
in turn causes us, by the grace of God, to look to the Lord Jesus
Christ as our all, because we realize we have nothing. No foundation
on which we can depend, because we've come to the end of our
strength. Abram feared for his life, and
he got himself in a real mess because of what he had done.
He put Sarai's life in danger. Now, true knowledge and true
dependence, which is true faith, always leaves us with nothing
and persuades us that in Christ we have all things. We believe
Christ, we don't believe ourselves. How many times have you heard
that ridiculous statement when people say you need to believe
in yourself? That's exactly the opposite of
God-given faith, because faith leaves us empty and causes us
to abandon all confidence in ourselves and find our all in
Christ. Abram's faith was weak, and he
was tested. He was tested to show that he
was weak. And he was tested in order to
increase, to purify his God-given faith, to refine it. Now, when
trials expose our unbelief and yet lead us to see that Christ
is our all, what does that do? It leads us to seek our all and
find our all from God's Word with the persuasion that He is
the Lord Jesus Christ, truly all of our righteousness. This
is what faith does. God tries us. It leads us to
see from God's Word that I must find my all in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And when we're persuaded from
God's Word that, yes, that's the only place you find acceptance
before God, sanctification before God, Even the love of God is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything we need in order to
be accepted by God is only in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what faith teaches us and persuades us. God is that one who gives
us that faith. And that trial, that trial is
a refining trial. God causes us to see that Christ
is all of our righteousness, that His obedience alone, His
payment for sin is the covering for all of our sin. We're accepted
before God only in Him that He is all worthy. He only is wise. He only has strength. He is unchanging
and faithful. He is all true. Then our faith
is strengthened and this effect of trouble to break us down and
humble us and to leave us weak in ourselves to show us Christ
that Christ is all. This effect of trouble proves
the genuineness of our faith, that our faith is God-given,
that it's upheld by Him and that He refines it. And this is the
experience of the walk of the believer in his life. It's a
constant, continual returning to Christ, as Abraham returned
to the altar here, after having been tortured by that inward
stress of the new nature, because of our unbelief, driving us to
Christ. Now, Abram's fear, the lie he
asked Sarai to tell, which was a half-truth, and the hypocrisy
of that lie that led to preferred treatment from Pharaoh no doubt
had an effect on him. He no doubt felt the shame of
his hypocrisy. And a greater fear than the fear
he had for his own life, which was a fear that Sariah had been
exposed to danger. And even a fear that he had put
the promise of God at risk. Now, I've thought about that
phrase carefully. Think about Abram. What he thought
was God had promised him that through his seed the Lord Jesus
Christ would come into the world and that he would be the one
in whom God would bless Abraham and all of his children and all
the world. And yet Abram's foolishness here
had exposed Sarai to this danger. He must have thought that he
had put at risk the fulfillment of God's promise. Is that possible? Well, if it were possible for
us to cause God's promise to fail by our own failure, by our
own weakness, even by our sin, then we would have done so, wouldn't
we? But that But thank God that His promise cannot fail. Because
it does not depend on us. It depends on His truth. It depends
on His power. It depends on His faithfulness.
It depends on His Son. And so the lesson here is pretty
clear, isn't it? that the promise does not depend
upon me. We have no basis for pride to
think that, well, if I don't do my part, then God's going
to, the whole plan is going to fall apart. That thinking is
what leads us to this attitude of spiritual pride because we
think, well, things are going well, so it must be because I
was faithful or something like that. Ridiculous. No, God's troubles
and trials in our life drive us to see that it's our privilege
to come to God and worship Him and draw from Him this faith
that leads us to see Christ as our all. So the famine in Canaan
seemed better, I suspect, than the stress in Abraham's soul
for his hypocrisy and for the danger he put Sariah in. and
for the fear that he had in losing God's promise. That must have
caused him a great grief of soul, don't you think? But note this,
though there was never a time that God's promise was at risk
of failing, yet because of his unbelief, Abraham's assurance
of that promise was greatly weakened. You see, God's promise cannot
fail. God is immutable. That means
He cannot change. God cannot lie. Hebrews 6, 17
and 18 says that when God made an oath, when He wanted the heirs
of salvation to have a strong assurance, He gave them two things
which were impossible for God to lie. One, His immutability. He could not change. And two,
God's word that cannot fail. cannot lie. Two things. God is
unchangeable, unalterable, and He cannot lie. But Abram, at
this time, had seen the result of his own foolish unbelief,
again, which is always mixed with our faith, and so the trial
brought that out, and it left him feeling a lack of assurance,
and so his assurance was greatly weakened. Thus, to Abraham, it
must have seemed, it must have seemed that when Sarai was taken
by Pharaoh, that he was at risk, that God's promise was at risk.
Now, all of this struggle within Abraham was the result of the
stress of this new nature. You see, when God saves us, he
gives us his own spirit. And the spirit within us struggles,
wars against the flesh, our natural self, what we are by nature.
And that struggle is constantly there. And that's what we call
the stress of the new nature in us. Because it shows us our
weakness. A constant battle between what
we would do, and by the Spirit of God we want to do, and what
our flesh wants to do. And there's this constant struggle.
And it never shows up greater than in this area of faith in
Christ. And the promise of God is that
sin shall not have dominion over us because we're not under the
law, we're under grace. God's going to win. Christ's
work in us and his work for us is our victory. So this was the
result, the stress of the new nature. And he must have felt
his own wretchedness. And he cried out to God, no doubt.
And all of this awareness of his... unconquerable fear that he had.
He couldn't overcome his fear. This awareness of his own lie
and involving Sarai in his lie. The danger that she was in. And
even that pain that he felt in his conscience because Pharaoh
had treated him well. It didn't serve. None of that
served to lessen his fear, but only increased it. And so the
loss of assurance of God's promise of a son and blessings all seemed
to be shaken by what Abraham was now experiencing. And so,
when he had messed things up, we see here, if you look in Genesis
chapter 12 again, I've given you a distillation of what happened
here. It says that after Pharaoh had taken him, it says in verse
17, and the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues
because of Sarai Abram's wife. What is this? This is God coming
in and acting in His sovereignty on behalf of His chosen servant,
His redeemed son, adopted son, Abraham, and making a difference
between him and Pharaoh, and plaguing Pharaoh and his house,
because, justly, Pharaoh had taken Abram's wife, even though
he did it under the cover of not realizing that she was his
wife. God plagued Pharaoh. God protected
Abraham. God kept His promise and He made
sure that His promise would not fail. What we see here is that
the fulfillment of God's promise depends upon God and it is His
grace that did this. When Abraham had messed things
up, the God of all grace came to his rescue. When it seemed
that his unbelief had gotten him into an impossible situation
and left him and his wife, at this terrible predicament, then
the Lord acted. And the Lord acted for His own
name's sake. He acted for His own cause and
purpose. And in acting according to His
eternal purpose in Abraham, in Christ, what did He do? He worked
all things together for Abraham's good. God plagued Pharaoh. He
plagued his house. Pharaoh understood. that this
must be because of Sarai. And he had to return her or he
would die. So God instilled fear into Pharaoh. And he saved his chosen friend,
Abram. Because in scripture, Abraham
is called the friend of God. Here you see how God in his providence
works all things in our life through the trial of our faith. Not only to build our faith,
but even in the circumstances of our life he works all things
together for our good. Jesus said in John chapter 10
verse 28 and 29, No man is able to take my sheep from me and
my father. No man is able to take them from
my hand. And my father, who is greater than all, no one is able
to take them from his hand. Abram was one of Christ's sheep.
No one could take him from God's hand. God's promise was going
to be fulfilled. All things work together for
good to them that are the called according to his purpose. That's why God worked it together
for his good. God's purpose. Abraham was the
called, remember? He called him out of Ur of the
Chaldees. So in every trouble, even in
our death, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Look
at this in Romans chapter 8, in verse 37. A couple of verses
here. I want to show you the consistency
of the testimony, the promise of God in Scripture concerning
things that would shake us. Especially because of the weakness
of our faith and the weakness of our old man in us. He says here in Romans chapter
8 in verse 36, "...as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all
the day long." Now that concerns us, doesn't it? Look, I'm the
Lord's people. Why am I being killed? Why are
things, it seems like my whole life is laid waste? Listen to
what it says. As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long. It's for the Lord's honor, for
His name's sake, for His glory, to fulfill His purpose in the
earth. And what is that? We are counted as sheep for the
slaughter, nay, but in all these things we are more than conquerors
through Him that loved us. That's an amazing thing. Even
when it looks outwardly as if we lost We're more than conquerors
to Him that loved us. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
15. The same thing is reiterated there. He says in 1 Corinthians
15 in verse 57, it's a summary statement, the conclusion. He
says, but thanks be to God. Thanks be to God. Can you hear
Abraham speaking here? Thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He always gives
us the victory in 2 Corinthians. Just turn over a page. 2 Corinthians
2 verse 14, it says, Now thanks be unto God, which always causes
us to triumph in Christ. He always does. And He makes
manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place. There's
never a time when God's people lose. The battle is the Lord's. God tells his people, stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord. Look to Christ. See the victory has already been
won. He sits on the throne. He himself
holds all things in his hand. Nothing escapes his will. Nothing is outside of his purpose. All things are designed to work
together for our good. Even the death of Christ, and
especially the death of Christ. By wicked hands you've taken
Him, and you crucified Him. But God meant it for good. That's
the story of our salvation. When sin abounds, what happens
with grace? When sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. And so we see it here in Abram's
life. In every trouble, even in our
death, we're more than conquerors. We will look back across our
life and we'll see that all things that God has given us in this
life, whether it be trouble, Whether it be easy times or hard
times, good times, what we consider blessings or what we consider
difficulties, struggles, things that bring us down and make us
feel so weak. Whether it be physical loss of
health or death itself, in everything we have the victory in our Lord
Jesus Christ. Always have that victory. We
triumph in His conquering. Our being healed from the plague
of our sin is because of His death. He bore our sins in His
own body on the tree. Revelation 12-11 says they overcame
Satan by the blood of the Lamb. By the word of their testimony,
which is the gospel of Christ and Him crucified. And they loved
not their lives, even unto death. Because that's what faith does.
It causes us to walk in this life as strangers and pilgrims.
Seeing our inheritance is eternal and in the heavens. Now, notice
that the end of the trial of Abraham led him to come again
to Christ. To come again to God by Christ
at the altar. In chapter 13 it says, Abraham
went 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,
in silver and in gold. Even out of the trial, God blessed
him. And he went on his journeys from the south, even to Bethel,
unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between
Bethel and Ai. Unto the place of what? Unto
the place of the altar which he had made there at the first,
and there Abram called on the name of the Lord." Every trial
leads us back to Christ. That's the genuineness of our
faith. In John chapter 6, the Lord Jesus
asked the disciples, he says, when they were leaving him, he
said, will you leave me too? And Peter said, where will we
go? You have the words of eternal life. We've been shipwrecked
on the grace of God and the mercy that's in you alone. Where else
are we going to go? That's the genuineness of faith.
He leaves us stripped and bankrupt and naked and wretched and blind
and poor. And drives us to Christ who is
rich in grace and mercy and all things God has given to him.
Now, in Genesis 12, we see the walk of faith. We see faith's
victory in God's faithfulness. We see faith's triumph in Christ. And we see the stress of the
new nature. Galatians 5.17 says the Spirit... Let me read that to you, because
I'll misquote it. Let me read it to you. Galatians
5 and verse 17. He says, the flesh lusteth against
the spirit. That's our inward corrupt nature,
always lusting against the spirit, trying to get the dominance. And the spirit against the flesh
is constant struggle. And these are contrary, the one
to another, so that you cannot do the things that you would.
But if you be led of the Spirit, you are not under the law. To
be led of the Spirit means to be given this faith to look only
to Christ in everything. And seeing Him, that's being
led of the Spirit, because it's the work of the Spirit of God
to give us this sight of Christ, to show us the things of Christ. So in Genesis chapter 13 then,
moving on, we see that faith is tried again. And this is interesting. This time faith is tried not
by famine, but by strife between brethren. Now Abram was the one
who was called out of Ur the Chaldees. And when he left, he
took Lot, his brother's son, his nephew, with him. So Lot
and Abram were the only ones on earth at this time who had
the promises of God. Amazing, isn't it? And yet, in
this family, at the place of the altar, after Abram had been
delivered from famine, and the foolishness that we just talked
about, the lie, the hypocrisy, the fear, and the lack of assurance
because of his unbelief, all these things, and yet we see
Abram having returned to the altar, and now when he thinks
everything is fine and good, A strife arises between him and
the only other man on earth that we know of who was a child of
God at that time. I'm sure there were more. But
that's an amazing thing. And what trial was that? What
a trial that was. It was because Abram and Lot
had so many flocks and servants that they ran out of room. Prosperity
was the occasion for the strife. In chapter 12, it was their need that was the
occasion for the trial. It was the famine that led Abraham
to leave Canaan, obviously with Lot, and returning back into
Canaan. But in chapter 13, it was having
too much that caused the strife. Their plenty caused them to run
out of room. Haven't you been tempted to fight
within your own family when you run low and run out of things?
And don't you grow anxious and short-tempered when you can't
take care of all the things God has given you? Isn't it mostly
managing all of the wealth you've been given that causes you the
greatest grief? It is. It's ironic. It means
it's the opposite of what you would expect. You would think,
if I won the lottery, if I, you know those things, I've even
entered them. I feel ashamed to tell you. I've even entered
those things. 7,000 a week? What could I do
with 7,000 a week? Man, I could live comfortably. I wouldn't have any other troubles.
Actually, that would be the beginning of trouble, wouldn't it? It would
be the beginning of trouble. Let me quote to you what What
Matthew Henry said, if I can find it here. Matthew Henry said
this about, well, here it is. Matthew Henry said this about
riches. He says, there's a burden of
care in getting them. There's a burden of care in getting
riches, isn't there? Man, I got to go to college,
I got to get my act together, I got to get a good job, I got
to save, I got to do all these things. You order your life around,
accumulating this comfortable lifestyle. There's a burden of
care in getting them. And then there's a fear in keeping
them. I got to lock up my house, make
sure that nobody breaks in. Cyber security, the Russians
are going to take it. Then there's a temptation in
using them. Isn't there? I don't know if
I'm spending this. I just bought something. I shouldn't have bought
it. I know I did that. I was wrong. And then there's a guilt
in abusing them. Isn't there? There's a sorrow
in losing these riches. And there's a burden of account
at last to be given concerning them. That's what riches are.
Denise's mom said, you know, I think it would be better off
if we just didn't have anything. It would make things a lot more
straightforward, wouldn't it? But we must learn this lesson
well. Listen to this lesson. It is not wealth that makes a
man useful to Christ. It's faith. Faith is the true
riches. Riches, according to Proverbs
11, 4, riches profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness
delivereth from death. And the only way to have righteousness
is by faith in Christ, isn't it? I fled for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope set before me by faith in the Lord Jesus. Faith in Christ is the gold we
must labor to possess. Having Christ, we have all things. Hebrews 13.5 says, let your conversation,
your manner of life, let your manner of life be without covetousness. Covetousness means always wanting
something more. Something you don't have. Or
being afraid of losing what you have. And be content with such
things as you have, for He has said, I will never leave thee,
nor forsake thee. You see, if you have Christ,
If you have nothing but Christ, you have all things. But if you
have everything and you don't have Christ, you really have
nothing. Contentment with God-given faith is great gain. That is true riches. 1 Timothy
6 says, Godliness with contentment is great gain. And Godliness
is that Godliness that comes through faith. Troubles do come
to all of God's people. Remember when Paul and Barnabas
preached the gospel to those three places, Lystra, Iconium,
and Antioch? And then they went to another
city, and after they'd gone to that city, they came back to
Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. Those people that they first
preached to, and they told them this. It says they confirmed
the souls of the disciples and exhorted them to continue in
the faith. Don't go beyond Christ. Stay
there. Abide in Him. Continue in the
faith. And they said that we must, through
much tribulation, enter the kingdom of God. Acts 14, 22. Much tribulation. That's the experience of the
life of the walk of faith. And we think, as a kid I used
to think of tribulations coming like, I'm going to be driving
down the road and my tire is going to go out. Well, that's
trouble. But it's that struggle, that stress of the new nature
that comes within because of our own foolishness, this struggle
between the spirit God has given us in Christ and our old flesh. He says that this is a struggle. But this is the way God's designed,
that we enter the kingdom of God. Tribulation comes from without. Poverty, riches, sickness, persecutions,
all sorts of things from without give us trouble. But the greatest
trouble comes from the stress of the new nature. Trouble is
constantly with us, we believe, because the Spirit of Christ
is in us. And because our old self, our
flesh, is constantly at tension and at warfare. As I read to
you from Galatians 5.17. Why? That's the question. Why? Why do troubles come? Why has
God given us trouble? Troubles come that we may learn
to trust. Not trust in our riches. Not
trust in men. But in the living God. Especially
don't trust yourself. He that trusteth in his own heart,
the Proverbs say, is a fool. And Paul told Timothy, charge
them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded
nor trust in uncertain riches. There's nothing more uncertain
than riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things
to enjoy. Troubles come that we might learn
that our entrance into God's kingdom is not by our strength.
It's not by our strength. It's by Christ's strength. It's
his faithfulness. God gave Paul a sight of heaven. Remember? He took him up to the
third heaven. A sight of heaven. What an amazing
thing. He sent Paul, after that he sent
him a thorn in the flesh. Why? Paul said it was this reason. Lest I should be exalted above
measure through the abundance of the revelations. That's the
tendency, you see. When God blesses us, whether
it be with riches or spiritual blessings, what does it cause
us to do because of our old nature? Well, look at me. I got all this. Man, you don't know anything.
I've been to glory. I've seen it. Let me tell you.
No, lest he should be exalted above measure through the abundance
of the revelations. Paul said, there was given to
me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet
me. Lest I should be exalted above
measure. He knew his own tendency to pride. And for this thing,
Paul said, I besought the Lord three times that it should depart
from me. And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for thee. All you have Only the only foundation
on which you are going to stand and have strength and find it
is God's grace in Christ. My grace is sufficient for thee,
for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Paul said, Most
gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that
the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure
in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am
strong. 2 Corinthians 12 Now, Paul needed
help from God. And that help came to him in
the form of trouble and weakness. God had to make Paul know by
experience that his strength did not come from himself, but
from Christ. And this is a hard lesson to
learn. We learn it. We think we learn it. I used
to think, man, as soon as I learn that lesson, it'll be great.
I'll get beyond that point. But it's not like in college
where you take the test in your first calculus class and you
pass it. And you think, man, I'm glad I'm over. I can move
on from that one. Never have to think about that
again. God's tests keep coming back to us over and over again.
Just like I remember when I first learned to hang sheetrock. Had to hammer upside down. Those
days they didn't screw it in, they hammered it in. And hammering
upside down is just an unnatural position. And so the first thing
they had me do, I was about, how old were we Rick? We were
about 18 or something, was hammer upside down on the ceiling all
day long. Bam, bam, and my wrist just wore
out. It seemed like after about 10
minutes of that. But I kept going the rest of the day. The next
day my wrist was all swollen. I couldn't hardly move. It was
stiff. And they said, go back in there and start hammering
again. Same thing. Learn the lesson again. Same
trouble. Over and over. Because God refines our faith.
He wants us to know that Christ alone gets all the glory. Salvation comes by promise. By
God's grace. And it will always be that way.
And so realizing that gives us a settled peace and a settled
confidence in trouble. We see that the Lord has the
victory because He will not fail. He cannot lie. He will not fail
to fail. He will not fail us. But I think
what's interesting here in this strife between Abram and Lot
is that this strife actually teaches us something else. It
was the cause of their strife came through their riches. But
the trial between brothers is a very grievous trial, doesn't
it? I mean, isn't it? Isn't it a
grievous trial? Why does this struggle between
brethren, is that a grievous trial? Well, because on earth
we really only have one people with whom we have a genuine fellowship. It's those who truly believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we find ourselves in
strife with them, that's a great trouble, isn't it? Those that
we ought to love, we find trouble with them, and that causes us
trouble. There's a verse I handed out on the table back there. I heard this a long time ago. Better, it says in Proverbs 15,
17, better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a stalled
ox and hatred therewith. It's better to have some water
and vegetables boiled together and just drink that broth than
it is to have a stalled ox where there's love. I'm talking about
vegetable broth with love is better than a whole ox on your
plate where there's hatred. And there's a spiritual meaning
to that too. It's better to have nothing in yourself where God
has given you faith and therefore that faith works by love than
to have a whole barn full of sacrifices to offer. It's better
to have Christ than it is to have these other things. with
hatred, because only through faith do we have this love that
God has given to us for one another. But we find in this strife between
brethren, this proclivity in us to lust for what is not ours
and to stubbornly hold to our own way. Nothing causes me greater
grief than this inward corruption that strives to be noticed, or
strives to have something, or stubbornly holds to my way, when
there's no point. There's no point in it. Our job
is to point one another to Christ, not to ourselves. And the other
thing that causes us grief is that we believe that we've been
forgiven much, but when there's strife, then we find ourselves
slow to forgive. And so all these things cause
us causes offense, internal stress, and there's just this groaning
that goes on within us. That's a trouble, isn't it? And
so we see this great need in ourselves to be forgiven. Now,
Abraham told Lot, he said this, he said, In verse 8, Abram said
to Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee,
and between my herdmen and thy herdmen, for we be brethren.
Is not the whole land before us? You see, notice this, that
Abram had just come out of this trouble in Egypt. And what did that trouble do,
do you think? Don't you know it humbled him? Don't you know
it made him realize his inward corruptions? Don't you know it
made him realize with great assurance that the promise God had given
to him would be fulfilled in spite of his sin? In spite of
his unbelief. And it caused him to bow even
lower in worship of God's faithfulness. And he himself knew himself to
be a sinner. And now, now there's a cause
for strife. And what does Abram do? Because
of the first lesson, he says, what? Don't let there be strife
between us. He was humbled, wasn't he? He
knew from the first lesson his own tendency to doubt God. His own tendency to do, to fear
men. His own tendency to expose himself
to trouble. And he realized he had left Canaan
in famine, gone to Egypt and found nothing but trouble there.
And now here he is in the land of Canaan and he says, look,
my inheritance is not in this world. We have been given the
promises of God in Christ. Don't let there be strife between
us. It doesn't matter. You can take it all. We have
Christ." And so he went on to love his brother a lot. And Lot,
of course, chose the best land because Lot was the less mature.
What a humility on Abram's part. Lot was Abram's nephew. God had spoken to Abram and Abram
had carried him along the whole journey. And later on, when Lot
is taken in captivity with the king of Sodom and Gomorrah and
all these others, Abraham goes and rescues him. And intercedes
to God for him when he's in Sodom and Gomorrah. The whole thing,
Abram is doing all these things for Lot. What a love Abram had
for his nephew Lot. And yet Lot, he doesn't seem
to get it, does it? And you would think this Lot
is a lost man if you looked at his life. But God tells us later
that he was truly a man God had given this grace of faith. I
see the strife here. I see it as a trouble. All these
troubles come to us in this life. And God is teaching us over and
over again. He humbles us, He points us to
Christ, and then He causes us to be at peace with one another
through that humbling process, through that gift of faith, because
we're left only with Christ. And we see this world and all
its goods are not worth anything. Christ is all. Let's pray. Dear
Father, we thank you for your mercy. We thank you for this
grace of your faithfulness. You've given us promises. You've
given us the assurance of them in Christ. We have gone to Him.
You've given us that grace, and yet you continue to teach us
these lessons over and over again. You expose our foolishness and
our unbelief, and then You reassure us that our all is in Christ.
And even through these troubles, You cause us, teach us to love
one another as we have been loved, to forgive one another as we've
been forgiven, and to go to You over and over again to the altar
where our Lord Jesus Christ laid down His life in order to bring
us to God, the just for the unjust. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.