Take your Bibles now and turn
to Genesis chapter 13. 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 Hea, unto
the place of the altar which he had made there at the first. And there Abram called on the
name of the And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks and
herds and tents. Now, last week we talked about
Abraham being driven. I told you sometimes the Lord
drives his people, and sometimes the Lord leads his people. He
drives us a lot of times, and his providence drives us. We
can't fight against it. kick and shove all you want to,
his providence will deliver you to the place where you need to
be. It will break you down if necessary.
It will do what the Lord's hand has determined it to do. But
sometimes he drives us and sometimes he leads us. In this particular
case, he drove Abraham down into Egypt. And Egypt forever stands
a picture of the bondage of sin. It is called in the Scripture
the iron furnace. When they were down under that
bondage and that tyranny in Egypt, they were under the hand of Pharaoh
as in an iron furnace, just in the fire. And it forever stands throughout
the Scriptures as a picture of that bondage of sin, sin ruling
and dictating demanding, with no consideration for your person. And then we looked at Abraham
and Sarah as types and pictures. Paul says in the book of Galatians
that Sarah is the free woman, the mother of us all. And in
that particular way, she is a type of the church, and Abram the
faithful, a clear type of Christ. Now, when he came to Egypt, It
was very clear to him when he came to that place of bondage,
when he came just near to Egypt. He wasn't in Egypt yet, just
near to Egypt. Abraham realized the power, and
he realized what this thing of Egypt was
all about. Now, I don't know if he entered
into all the spiritual understanding of it. I don't know exactly how
much Abraham knew. But this much I do know, he understood
something of the power of Egypt. Just like when I went down to
New Canyon to preach, and New Canyon is about 15 or 20 miles
on this side of Houston. But you get a good sense of what
Houston is by the time you get to New Canyon. That's where Abraham
was. When he began to approach Egypt,
he began to see something of the power and the glory of Egypt. And he knew what the prince of
Egypt would want. Of everything that he had, he
knew exactly what he would want. He would want his bride. That's
what he'd want. And so Abraham told his bride
to say she was his sister, which she was by another marriage.
We'll get into that a little bit later on in the book of Genesis. But this brought to my mind a
question, and I asked this question last week and I never did answer
it. I went on and answered other questions, but I never did deal
with the question that I presented to you right off the bat. And
the question is this, how can the church of God be a sister
and a bride? How can that be? How can that
be? And I believe God, the Holy Spirit,
preserves these things in these relationships to show us something
of our relationship both to Adam and to Christ. And Brother Don
brought out a point, I was talking to him the other day and he brought
this point out and I've read it in several of his articles
that are posted on the Internet. There is no one type that is
able to typify his person and his work. There is no one type.
He's pictured as the father, he's pictured as the husband,
he's pictured as the savior, as the king, as the priest. You
can go on and on and on with the pictures. There is no one
picture. And even so, as a husband or a brother, he uses both of
those things in the scripture to describe himself. And so there
is no one type. But I believe God, whatever these
types are and whatever these relationships are, He shows us
these things and preserves these things to show us something of
our own relationship both to Adam and to Christ. And there's
a sense in which Christ has a common relationship to all men. It's
our battle against universal Universalism, I suppose you could
say, where you're talking about universal salvation, universal
redemption, universal whatever, universal love. We constantly
battle those things because that's what the false preaching of our
day has put out. That is the main objection that
we have toward their preaching and so forth. And so with that
in mind, We speak very little on this subject of how he is
actually presented as having things in common with all men. There is a sense in which Christ
is a brother to all mankind. All mankind. He has a body just
like yours. But I can't define it. I can't
limit it to yours. He has a body just like those
bodies over there. He has a body just like folks
who stand up and preach a false gospel. He's touched with the
feelings of your infirmities. That's a general common ground
he has with all men. All men suffer these things.
All men suffer pain. All men suffer sorrow. All men
suffer these things. And likewise, to be a faithful
high priest, he must also suffer those things. And so there's
a lot of things that you can talk about that the Lord Jesus
Christ accomplished in this world that gives Him a common ground
with all mankind. All mankind. And that's why the
Scriptures can say freely. It can say freely. Whosoever
will, let him take of the water of life. Anybody hungry, you
see it? Anybody out there thirsty? Anybody
hungry? He don't have to point at you. He don't have to point at you. We're plainly told in Hebrews
he's touched with the feelings of our infirmities because he
himself became partaker of the same. He knows weakness, sorrow,
hunger, thirst, poverty, pain, suffering of every kind. He took
not on him the nature of angels but the seed of Abraham, Paul
said, wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like
unto his brethren. that he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation
for the sins of his people." Well, why is it that he has this
common thread with all mankind? Because his elect are taken out
of all mankind. The common ground is not so much
with him as it is with us. I'm a son of Adam, just like
every other son of Adam. You see that? In chapter 3, Paul
says this, Though he was a son, yet learned he obedience by the
things that he suffered. That's Hebrews chapter 3, verse
8. I know that Christ came into
this world as a representative man, and that his surety ship
concerns his elect only. But his elect are all sons of
Adam. And to be identified with him,
he is identified with all men. And it's because of this identification
that men mistake his work, I think, to be a universal work rather
than a particular work. It's that very thing. That very
thing. So many scriptures talk about
his humanity. And they find a common thread
there, a common ground, and then they run to that and then they
want to try to turn that. into a universal redemption. But then she is his bride. She is a sister in general and in her relationship to all
mankind, but she is a bride in particular. A marriage foreordained
of the Father and consummated by faith and love in the heart
when he calls them out of this world, chosen of him from everlasting,
joined in an everlasting covenant, joined by his oath of promise,
and joined by an inward work of grace, and joined by a mutual
commitment of heart, he is our husband in particular. And as such, it says in the scripture
that he gave himself for me. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. That's what
he did. Abraham may have had other sisters.
I don't know. It's not clear. We're not given
a complete genealogy of each man in the Scripture just as
much as he wants us to know. But this much I know, no matter
how many sisters he had, only one of them was a bride. You
see what I'm saying? That's the difference. That's
the difference. Now, listen to the Song of Solomon. And you're going to run into
this all the way through that song. I remember the first time
I ever heard a message preached from the Song of Solomon. Henry
went through about 20 minutes telling us that if you don't
know Christ, you're not going to enter into this song. He went
on and on and on about it. Now I understand why. But just
listen to this one passage. Thou hast ravished my heart,
my sister, my spouse. Thou hast ravished my heart with
one of thine eyes, with one chain of thine neck. How fair is thy
love, my sister, my spouse! How much better is thy love than
wine, and the smell of thine ointments than all spices. That's
in chapter 4, verses 9 and 10. And then in chapter 5, verses
1 and 2, he turns it around and she talks about him. Talks about
him. And she says the same thing.
Says the same thing. How can a sister be a bride? That's how. That's how. And then the second question
was this, why would our beloved husband put us into the hands
of an evil king whose intention was to have his way with us?
And that's exactly, we talked about that, that's exactly what
happened in the garden. He put our feet, the prophet
said, in slippery places. This was his intention. This was his intention all along.
Well, why would the living God do such a thing? Because the
biggest reason is this, because this is the only way that God
can reveal his whole glory. There is no other way. We can
know things about God through creation. We can know certain
things about God through conscience. But you can't know God in a saving
way outside of Christ. And you can't know Christ outside
of his redemptive work. That's how he's known. Abram asked Sarah to do this
thing that his soul should live. The Scripture said eternal life
is to know God, but there can be no knowledge of God apart
from this reconciliation. The sinner must be driven into
a place where he is stripped and put into the hand of the
God of this world. That is where he found us, isn't
it? Over and over and over he talks about it, all the way through
the He is going to have to see himself shut up to grace. You
see how God is picturing this thing with him? And he pictures
it here in Abraham, and then he turns right around and he
does the very same thing to the whole nation of Israel. Just
over and over he pictures the same thing. He must be driven into a place
where he is shut up to grace. And Sarah had nothing to keep
her out of the lustful hands of that king. Not one thing,
not one thing can keep her away from that king. You think about
it. All God's elect in this world
under the bondage of sin, and I mean under it. I know we talk
about that a lot, but I don't know how much we really know
about it. There's nothing here. Outside
the restraining grace of God, if Satan wanted you, all he has
to do is snap his fingers. He talks about those in unbelief
and those whom God will not restrain. He said, I can take them captive. The apostle said he can take
them captive at his will. Just that quick. Just that quick. There is nothing. Here is this
lady, this bride. And she's down there in the harem
of the king, and there's nothing to protect her, nothing visible,
nothing out there except the purpose of God. And while she
might be in a scanty dress and down in that harem, I'm going
to tell you something, that evil king ain't going to lay his hand
on her because she belongs to him. Now, that's where God's
elect are in this world. I could go through, I could fill
up a catalog for you of times and places and things where I've
been that I should have died. I should have been hurt. I should
have got a disease. I should have done this. I should
have done that, but I didn't. Why? God had his hand on me. That's why. That's exactly why. Just think. Think how easy God
can turn providence. I heard a preacher say this one
time. All God had to do was take a gnat and put it in the man's
eye, and he had never shot Kennedy. He couldn't hit him. He'd have
missed him with a gnat. Just any little thing can turn.
Everything is under his hand and under his control. Abraham
knew something about that. I don't know that he knew all
the details, but he knew the God he served. He knew the God
who called him. And he knew something about that
purpose of God in Christ. And if God drove him down there,
he'd surely have to protect him. He'd have to preserve him. We must be driven into those
places. Sitting at the right hand of
God, our husband sends forth the heavenly angels themselves,
he said, to minister to those, now listen, who shall be heirs
of salvation. Not those who are called and
enlightened, but to those who shall be as salvation. Angels,
tending them, ministering to them. And then listen to this in Romans
chapter 8. I'm going over this because I
know I'm the one doing the talking and the studying and presenting
it to you, and I'm not getting it all. So I know you're not
getting it all. So that's why I'm recapping over
this stuff. But in Romans 8, verse 18, he said, For I reckon,"
listen to the apostle talk about this, "'I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation
of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of
God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly,
but by reason of him who hath the same in hope. Now, isn't
that exactly what was taking place down there? I know this is talking about
creation and that word creature can be flipped around and used
as creation. You can read it that way. Some
of the different translations read it that way, but Adam is
the head of creation. Creation isn't going anywhere
apart from Adam. Creation hadn't changed at all
were it not for Adam. So Egypt is forever a picture
of that iron furnace of bondage. And I want you to think about
this. Sin brings everything it comes
in contact with into bondage. I don't care what it is. It brings
everything. It brings you into bondage. But
it does more than that. God's holy law. Paul said if
there was a law that could have given life, the holy law of God
could have done it. But it was weak through the flesh.
What happens to the flesh is in bondage. What happens when
that flesh comes in contact with that law? That law becomes bondage. I don't care what it is. Religion
will come under bondage when sin enters into it. It will become
a bondage. I don't care what it is. Anything
that sin touches, it brings under bondage. We are bound by sinful
nature, bound by sinful mind and heart. bound by worldly religion
and lies, and even the law of God, of bondage. The purpose of God put Abraham
into Egypt, but Abraham was not of it, and therefore could not
be holding of it. And he was delivered by the power
and purpose of the living God. Now, tonight I am going to talk
to you just a little bit here out of chapter 13, kind of whet
your appetite some on it. And we'll get into this thing
of Abraham and Lot and that agreement that they come to and the trouble
that they had. But I want you to see this. When
he left Egypt, you see, and here's the thing,
as long as Pharaoh saw Abram as a brother, he had treated
him well, didn't he? I'm going to let you make your
own application to this, see if you're really listening to
what I'm telling you. Treated him real well as a brother or
brother-in-law, if you had it. As a brother to all mankind,
this world will entreat Christ well and give him gifts for the
sake of the sister, the church. But when they find out he's a
husband in particular, then they want no more to do with him,
do they? They don't want any more to do with him. And what
they once loved and were willing to give for now becomes a separation. It becomes a point of contention.
And they want neither him nor God. They want either one of
them. And they view both as a curse. It's the funniest thing. Kathy
and I were talking about this when I got on to this point.
I stopped to have a cup of coffee and we were talking about this
thing and I said, you remember all the places right after we
were married where we'd go and I'd try to work and it wouldn't
work out and we'd go here and it wouldn't work out and we'd
go there and it wouldn't work. It's just God moving you is what
it is. He just moves you around. A war breaks out, you go into
service, you do this, you do that, you lay out your own. You
just look at that providence and you start to look into it
and it just gets thick as a jungle, don't it? But you can still see
those troubled things. This happened, that happened
to block this and this happened to block that. And he just moves. He just moves and takes you here
and takes you there. And all of those things were
like a curse. Everywhere I went it was like
a curse. Everybody around me, I mean, I just like one deal
of being successful. I like one thing of getting this
job. Or one, you know, just always
there was just, you can just go on and on and on with it.
But in the end, when you look back, you can see what it is.
You can see what it is. And Pharaoh and his big kingdom
and all of his glory, so long as that bride was there, she
was accursed. He wanted rid of her. Get her
out of here. Sin can't hold the bride of Christ because she's
his by sovereign decree. And she's his by law, and his
by oath, and his by union of love. That says in Genesis 13,
1, and Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife, all that he
had, and locked with him into the south. And I thought about
this. There's only one direction. Have
you ever looked at Egypt on the map concerning all these places
where they go? Have you ever just turned back
your Bible and looked at the map? You know where Egypt is?
Down here. There ain't but one way to go
out of Egypt. That's up. That's up. Abram went up. Hannah prayed, the Lord kill
us and make us alive. He'd bring us down to the grave.
Who brought him down to Egypt? God did. Brought him down there
to show his sovereign grace and his sovereign power and his sovereign
purpose. That's what Hannah was praying.
The Lord bring us down, but he'd lift us up. He'd lift us up. He'd make us poor and make us
rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up.
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the
beggar from the dunghill, to set him among princes, and make
him inhabit the throne of glory." And I honestly believe this.
Up is the way of the believer. That is the way. That is where
he is headed. We spend too much time, brothers and sisters, we
spend too much time looking here. We are not going here. going
there. And we look. We look at things
around us. We look at situations. We look
at storms. We look at disease. We look at
this. We look at that. We look at work.
We look at poverty. We look at the... Look up! Look up! God brought him down
there to show him his sovereignty in his grace in all things. Everything that concerned redemption,
God is sovereign. especially that providence that
brings it to pass. And seeing Him, seeing that sovereign
grace, seeing that finished work, seeing that Savior seated at
the right hand of God, He's going up now. He's been down. And you have to come down to
go up. You're not going to see these things on top. You're going
to see these things when He brings you down. He goes up. It's the way of the believer.
Egypt's at the bottom and everything else is up. God drove Israel
with a famine into Egypt, but in grace, he said, I brought
you up unto myself. That's what he says in the Psalms.
He brought them up out of the land of Goshen and up out of
the sea and up out of the wilderness and up into the land of promise.
They just kept going up, going up. Psalm chapter 40 verse 2, he
said, he brought me up also, David said, out of a horrible
pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and established
my goings. And are we not said to be raised
up with him? No, he said he did. Once you see them, there's no
other direction. raised us up with him, Paul said,
by spiritual quickening and made us sit with him in heavenly places
in Christ. It said, as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. Paul said we are buried with
him in baptism, risen with him through the faith of the operation
of God. And I just love that first song
where God made the eternal decree and he said, I set my king up
on my holy hill in Zion. And that's where you're going
to look. And everybody don't look, he
just laughs at you. He just laughs. Old people who
think they can take him off that hill and take him off that rule
and shoot him down as the Lord of glory. And you know it's a
phenomenal thing, but at the end of time, when he begins to
wind everything up, there's going to be a glorious resurrection.
And he said, the dead in Christ is going to rise first, and we
which are alive and remain are going to be caught up. Going
to be caught up with him. Caught up with him. Abraham dug no foundations in
this world. He built no walls because he
looked for a city whose builder and maker was God. Faith. I just keep trying to preach
this. I don't know if I'm getting it across. I hope that I am.
But faith fashions its eyes on a person. It fashions its eyes
on Christ. On Christ. is where this life is. In him
is where this sovereignty is. In him is where this rule is.
It's all in him. All in him. And he's seated at
the right hand of God with his eyes on Christ. Peter
jumped out of that boat. I preached on this down in New
Caney when the Lord came to him walking on the water. But I didn't
go to this account over Matthew In Matthew, I think it's Matthew
chapter 14 and Mark chapter 6 and John chapter 6 where these three
accounts are. But in Matthew chapter 14, the
one that I didn't refer to, is where Peter saw him out there
in that storm. And he said, Lord bid me to come
to you. And he said, come on. Come on. We're talking about a storm.
The storm hadn't ceased yet. Christ hadn't entered into the
vessel yet. He was just standing out there
on the sea. And Peter, with his eyes fashioned on Christ, stepped
outside that ship and walked on water until he saw the waves. I don't think there's any telling
what we could do if we could keep our eyes on Christ. I don't
think there's any limit to what God would do with us if we could
fashion our eyes on Christ. But we're so enamored with this
world and we're so given to look somewhere else that we soon take
our eyes off. Peter just got a step or two
outside the boat and took his eyes off and began to sink. But I tell you this, faith finds
no comfort, no joy, no hope, no relief in this world. Everything
it wants and desires is up there. I talk to folks all the time.
Every one of them is the same. They come from different backgrounds.
Some of them male and some of them female. Some of them are
old and some of them are young. But they're all looking for steps.
They're looking for that plateau. They're looking for that thing
that they can get a hold of. It's all in Christ. And God took Him. He didn't set
Him on the plateau. He set Him on top. That's what
it says over in Psalm 1. He put Him on top. And if you
look to Him, you don't need the plateau. You just don't need
it. We look at Him who is the beginning
and the end and everything in between. And faith walks through
this world and it turns from time to time this way and that,
but the tenor of faith is always up. And I tell you this, once
a man sees up, he never desires again to go down, does he? By
the grace of God, he continues. Now, it says here that Abraham
went on his journeys from the south, even to Bethel, unto the
place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel
and Haiah, unto the place of the altar which he had made there
at the first. And there Abram called on the
name of the Lord. Now, Bethel is very significant
throughout the scriptures. Some of you have studied the
scriptures a long time and you know that it means house of God.
House of God. But do you know what Hai means?
Hai means as a heap overturned in ruin. That's what it means.
It literally means what's left after the battle, and evidently
Hai was a place that that a great battle was fought, and whatever
was there, be it castles or houses or fortresses or whatever it
was, is laid there in ruin. And they just called the name
of the place Hai. Heap in total ruin. Well, true worship, and it says
that Abraham built this altar between Bethel and Hai, right
in the middle. Right in the middle. And I started
looking at this thing, and is that not exactly where true worship
finds its altar, is in between ruin and redemption? Ain't that
where the altar is? That's exactly where it is, right
in between. Somebody once said the gospel
is represented by three R's, ruined by the fall, redeemed
by the blood, resurrected by the Spirit of God. But between
that perfect house of God, high and lifted up, that Isaiah saw,
whose train fills the temple, whose glory is the song of the
temple, and that total depravity and ruin of man is the altar
of worship. That's where it's at. And there's
no other place for true worship. I'll tell you, if you can look
within yourself and find something to glory in, something to recommend
you to the Lord, some deed or thought or some affection that
gives you a confidence toward God, you need to look again. You need to look again. If you
can pray a prayer and find in that prayer a reason for God
to hear you, I believe you miss Christ altogether. You see, where Abraham worshiped,
His eye was always on the ruined heap, but it was also on the
house of God. That's where we're brought to
worship. Right in between. Right in between. There's no hope in Hai. Hai ain't
nothing but a heap. Nothing but ruin. But in the
middle, there's an altar. There's an altar. And no matter where this journey
led him. And you can go down and trace
his children. You can go down there and you can talk about
especially Jacob. Bethel is so significant with
Jacob. He just keeps going back there.
And actually, Bethel really got its fame from Jacob. Because that's where Jacob wrestled
with the Lord. That's where Jacob began to first
see those visions. of who God really is, those revelations
of the living God, was in Bethel. And all down through the scripture,
Bethel holds a very significant place. And in this place here in Bethel,
God begins to work in old Abraham. In this savage land of idolatry
and sin, the living God revealed himself in a substitute revealed
himself to be just and justify, and revealed himself to be God
alone. And even so, in these temples
of glory, God has purposed the same thing. He came into this
world, a world of idolatry and false religion, and manifested
the true and living God in his body, didn't he? He came into
the hearts of chosen sinners, and as Paul declared, revealed
his Son in me. And he sets up this altar between
Haiya and Bethel. And we see by this altar his
true right and intentions toward the land. It's his. And he's
going to have it. Built that altar. And he builds
that altar in us. And he says in the building of
that altar, you're mine. You're mine. And no matter where
you go, he keeps bringing them back. Abraham would go this way.
You need to look at that map in the back. Some of them show
the footsteps of these prophets and the footsteps of the Lord
and so on. Look at them. Abraham goes here and comes back
to Bethel. He goes here and comes back to Bethel. Jacob goes here
and comes back to Bethel. Over and over and over. Brings
them back to that altar, back to that house of God.