Now, if you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Genesis chapter 12. I've talked about, in the
very first part of the chapter, we talked about Abraham and that
heart made ready to leave, that heart prepared of God to leave
his father's house and to leave the only land and things that
he'd ever known. And to go into a place that God
afterward would reveal to them. And then we talked last week
about that altar. That altar when he came to Canaan. He left to go to Canaan and it
said to Canaan he came. That's what a believer does.
He goes where God sends him. He does what God tells him. And
he got there and the first thing he did was build this altar.
and worship God. And I told you that was as good
as the surveyor's stake in the land when they had the old land
rush and they went out there and they said this land is mine
and drove that stake in. When he built that altar in Canaan
it was as good as saying this land that God has promised is
mine. It's mine. And he worshiped God
on that altar. And tonight we're going to be
looking at verses 9 through the end of the chapter and this is
a most unusual subject And I want to begin the teaching tonight
with an illustration, something I read about years ago. One day at the old quarry, there
was an old stone quarry, been there for many years, and at
this old quarry there was seen a man standing And his actions
was a bit unusual. This man was standing. Now these
big slabs of granite were about the size of these pews from front
to back, almost as thick and about half as wide. I'm talking
about huge, many tons, laying there in the rough, had been
sawed, taken out from the earth and laid up here on posts. And there was just slab after
slab after slab. And then they'd take this stone,
for whatever purposes, they had in mind and they cut it up into
various sized pieces. Well this man was, you hardly
ever seen anybody down on that end of the quarry. This is where
the stone was taken when it was quarried out and set up here.
Usually they were down on this end where all the pieces were,
hunting for whatever piece suited the need. But this man was down
where the big massive blocks of stone were. And his actions
were so strange. He'd walk up to one end of these
great stones, and he'd stand like this, and he'd look down
that stone. And then he'd walk over to this
side, and he'd look at it. And then he'd go down about halfway,
and he'd run his hand over the surface of it. He'd get down
and look. And he'd get down on the other side, and he'd do the
same thing that he did on the upper end. And he'd look this
thing all over, look down the sides of it. And then he'd walk
over to the next one. And there was just literally
hundreds of these big slabs of stone laying out there. So after
about two hours, he got the attention of the quarry boss and kind of
got the best of him. Half his workers were out there
watching this guy. And it was stone after stone.
He'd go down through there and he'd look. that stone carefully
and run his hand down through there, the old top of it, looking
for imperfections, looking for flaws, cracks, looking at all
these things. And they kept watching him. Finally, he went out to them
and introduced himself. And he said, I'm the superintendent
of the quarry, and I couldn't help but notice your careful
examination of these huge, rough-cut stones, and he said, I just wondered
if there was something in particular that you were looking for. And
he said, well, I've been commissioned by the king. He wants a statue. He wants a full-body statue of
himself, and he wants it hung up, sitting in the great hall
of the palace. And he said, I'm a stone cutter.
He said, I'm a carver. And I've been commissioned to
do this. And I've traveled many miles. And he said, what I'm
looking for, I'm looking for his image in the stone. That's
what I'm looking for. And so as we go through these
stories here in the Old Testament, some of these things are really
going to seem out of the way to you. They're really going
to seem like just Like that big chunk of stone is just laying
there and you don't really, hundreds of people, even the people that
mined it out, didn't know what to look for in it. But he did. He did. And he was looking for
the image in the stone. That's what we're going to do.
When we go through these Old Testament scriptures and we look
at these studies, we're looking for Christ. That's who I'm looking
for. I know there's other things involved in it. I know that. I'm looking for him." Listen
to what Peter said. He told those Jews, they read
this Old Testament front to back. You could just mention a part.
I know exactly that's in Hosea. That's in Hosea. That's over
in Zechariah. I know where that's at. I know
where that's at. If you left out a word, they
could nail you. They knew this book forward and
backward. But listen to what Peter tells
them. He says, this is the stone which you builders set it not."
You set it at naught. You just put it over here on
the side. You didn't see anything special about it. But God made
it the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. And you took this and
laid it aside. You laid it aside. They saw a
lot of things in the Old Testament Scriptures, but they didn't see
Christ. He said, you search the Scriptures. And at that time
there was nothing else, just Old Testament. But He said, you
will not come unto Me that you might have life. So as we go
through and look, may God give us eyes to see His image in the
stone. Now, let's read through these
verses here in Genesis chapter 12 beginning with verse 9. And
Abraham journeyed, going on still toward the south. 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 Sarah his wife, Behold now, I know 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'll kill me, and they'll save thee alive. Say, I pray thee, thou art my
sister, that it may be well with me for thy sake, and my soul
shall live because of thee. And it came to pass that when
Abraham was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman,
that she was fair. And 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. 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 Sarah, Abraham's wife. And Pharaoh called Abram and
said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? Why didst
thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Why saidst thou, She
is my sister? So 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." Now, certainly there's practical lessons here.
I'm not going to deny the practical lessons here. The old writers
had a term for what took place here. They called it equivocation. What that means is a half-truth,
just a half-truth. And a half-truth is worse than
a lie. It's worse than a lie. Because
it's the part of the lie that makes it believable. A half-truth. False religion is full of half-truths. They tell us that Christ is Savior,
but they won't tell you who Savior He is. They'll tell you He was
born of a virgin, but not why or to what end. They'll tell
us He died to put away sins, but do not say how or whose sins
or why. They'll tell us He was raised
from the dead, but not what it means or what was accomplished
in it. They'll tell us He went about
doing good, but they won't tell you that He's the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes. They're full of
half-truths. Half-truths. And they cry, Sister,
when they should have said, Wife. Jacob labored. He labored seven
years for his bride. But a half-truth made him settle
for a sister. That's what's going on here.
A half-truth. A half-truth. And this world,
it will always press God's servant to compromise the truth. But
there's something deeper here than what's up here on the surface. There is something deeper here.
Consider some things before you consider this passage. Consider
this. Abraham is not testified of God
in the same way that men testify of Him. I told you this at the
beginning of our study in chapter 12, that every writer I read
had this man Abraham and lambasted him for the time he spent before
he left. Every one of them. Larry, you've
studied the scriptures. You know exactly. We were talking about
this before the service. Every one of them set him in
a bad light. Set him over here as weak in faith and in rebellion
against God and all these things. Most of the men I read set him
in that light. And at the very least, they make
him out to be a weak, snibbling coward who hardly bears any image
of a man of faith, let alone the father of the faithful. This
man is said a part of God. God doesn't say he was a weak,
sniveling coward. He said he was strong in faith.
That's what God said. Then I must be understanding
something wrong. If I set this man aside as a coward and as
a rebel, then I'm not reading the whole Word of God. And I
warned you about that. Don't take a passage over here
out of context. Read it in the light of the rest
of the Scripture. My soul, you go over to Romans
chapter 4 and you'll find out something about Abraham. He wasn't
a weak, sniveling coward. God doesn't picture him going
around in indecision and just kind of squirming around in doubt.
God said he staggered not. That's what he said. He staggered
not at the promise of God. We act like he's just wringing
his hands and don't know what to do down here in Egypt. God said he was fully persuaded. So I must be reading something
wrong. I must be looking at things wrong. This is not the same man. You listen to the man these men
describe, and then you go over here and you see how God described
him, you think he was reading about two different men. So I
have to go back and take another look. Paul said over in Hebrews
chapter 11, and I believe this, I believe what Abram did, he
did deliberately, with an understanding of spiritual things." I believe
he did what he did because he believed in hope against hope,
which is what caused him to be called the father of all them
that believe. Paul said in Hebrews 11, verse
13, these all died in faith. He's talking about Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, Sarah. These all died in faith. not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,
and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth." They didn't
receive them, but they looked out there and saw them. Christ
said, Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was
glad. This man knew God. This man was
a man of faith. This man was the example of faith,
the prime example set forth throughout the Word of God. And even when
depicting heaven and hell, do you know how our Lord depicted
it? He said that rich man that died and went to hell looked
up and saw Lazarus in Abraham's bosom. My soul, of all the Old Testament
prophets, Abraham's bosom. This was a man of God, a man
of faith. And I'll tell you what else I see. I see the gospel
in this story. A mystery declared which will
always be a mystery to those who know not the Lord. How a
sister can be a bride. How a sister can be a bride.
In Romans chapter 9 and in Galatians chapter 4, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac,
even their son Ishmael, the son of the bondwoman, They're all
pictures of Christ and His bride and the Son of Promise. You go
through the Scriptures and He just tells you straight out.
These were an allegory. These were the two covenants.
This man, you go to Romans chapter 9 where he's talking about the
true Jew. And what does he talk about?
He talks about Isaac. He talks about Isaac. These men
were, I know they live lives just like we live them, but these
men were set apart as pictures of God's true redemption. Ishmael
and Isaac, they're said to be in here representatives of the
two covenants, works and grace. Their lives are declared to be
allegories. And spiritually speaking, Paul
calls Sarah the mother of us all. That's what he said. Free
woman. She's the free woman and mother
of all the chosen seed of God. So what I did was I backed up. I had about 40 pages of notes
and I had a pretty good I'm like Barnard. I had me a Cracker Jack
sermon all piled up here on this thing of half-truth. But it just didn't
gel. It just didn't go down. I mean,
I'm not going to deny that there's some teaching here. I'm not going
to deny that I told you at the outset. I believe there's some
practical applications there to be seen. But it just didn't
gel. It just didn't gel. So I asked
myself this question. And I substituted the name of
Christ for the name of Abraham. I just took Abraham's name out
here and put Christ in there. And I took Sarah's name out and
put the church in. She's the mother of us all. I
just took her name out, put the bride of Christ in there. And I asked myself this question.
Why would Christ our Lord and our Husband subject His bride
to the sinful intentions of an evil king? But ain't that what
He did in the garden? Isn't that exactly what He did
in the garden? He took that man and the woman,
those created in His own image, those He'd chosen before the
foundations of the world, and He set them in the garden Who
else was in the garden? The evil king. And we all know what his intentions
were. That's what the mediator king did with Adam and Eve in
the garden. Why would the sovereign, all-wise
God determine such a fate for his eternal beloved? I'm going
to give you four reasons. Why would Christ subject his
bride to the sinful intentions of an evil king? Well, he did
it, first of all, that his glory might be seen in her redemption. That's why he did it. And that's
why Abraham... I'll tell you this, if you begin
this study in Abraham, I want you to watch this whole story
here while he's in Egypt, because the whole nation of Israel is
going to repeat it in just a short time. They're going to go down
there and they're going to get captive of the king and God's
going to send deliverance and the king's going to say, get
out of here. Get out of here. And take whatever you want with
you. Get out of here. Same thing is
going to happen. He's going to repeat this whole
story with his children. And he's going to repeat it time
and again all down through time. And he repeats it every time
he saves a sinner. That evil king says, get him
out of here. We don't want him. We don't want
him. He's a plague. That's all he
is. He brought this gospel in here
and it's eating us alive. It's like a leprosy. Get him
out of here. We don't want it. We don't want
it. That's what the world says if
everyone God saves. And that's what's going on here
with Abraham. That's exactly what's going on. He did this to show his glory
and his redemption. The reason behind all the dark
mysteries of time and eternity is the glory of God. That's what's
behind it. I don't understand all the inner
workings, and neither did Abraham. He didn't understand all these
things, but God works His will, and He does it in our lives,
and He does it in His providence, and He does it from eternity
to eternity. And so when it's all said and
done, we did just exactly what we wanted to do, and they did
just exactly what they wanted to do, and all we did was what
he determined before to be done. That's exactly what goes on.
Now listen to this, "...if it's not of him that willeth," and
that's what he says, "...nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy." If he has the power and authority to say
to Jacob, I love you, And to Esau, I hate you. And he can
do this before either one of them are born or either one of
them have done any good or evil. If God has the power and control
to raise up a man like Pharaoh just to harden his heart and
bury him in the sea, then where's the responsibility? Ain't that
what men say? Where's it at? Why doth he yet
find fault? Who hath resisted his will? Nay,
but, O man, who art thou that replyest against God? He's the
potter, we're the clay, he's the creator, we're the creatures.
Here's the purpose of God that overrules all things and even
endures those vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, is that
he might make known the riches of his glory. That's why he does.
on the vessels of mercy that he hath aforeprepared unto glory."
That's what's going on down in Egypt. That's exactly what's
going on down in Egypt. "...that he might make known
these riches, even of us," Romans 9.24, "...whom he hath called,
not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles." What is it
that separates the man of faith from the sons of Adam? Is it
not the glory of God in Christ? Isn't that what it is? Who made
you to differ? And if He did, why? He did it
for His glory. He did it for His glory. Paul
said, If our gospel be hid, it is hid to the lost, in whom the
God of this world hath blinded their eyes, blinded them in unbelief,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine
unto them. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light," listen to this, "...the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." That's what He does.
He shows us God's glory in His Son. He shows us His glory in
the accomplishment of salvation and redemption in His Son. And
He shows us that glory all through providence and all in creation
and especially in salvation. And Paul said, we have this glory
in earthen vessels, weak, pitiful, fragile vessels that the excellence
of the power may be of God and not of us. Actually, this thing
of salvation is not about us, it's about Him. It's about Him. And it's about a manifestation
of His glory. The only way for God to preserve
this life and yet freely give it to His beloved is for her
to be trusted into the sovereign hands of God. Not through His
finagling, not through His hiding outside of Egypt, but in His
hands. In His hands. Abraham knew and
embraced the sovereign Christ and showed it by resting the
fate of his beloved wife into His hands. Redemption is a work
altogether of God, first to last, beginning to end, eternity to
eternity. It's all of God. And His glory
is seen in this everlasting purpose of grace. His glory is seen in the appearing
of His Son, in the promise of His Son, in the appointment of
His Son, in His coming into the flesh, His obedience under the
law, His willing sacrifice for sins. It's seen in His suffering,
His substitution, His satisfying of wrath and justice. It's seen
in His resurrection from the dead. It's seen in His ascension
into glory. It's seen in His divine intercession
and rule of both King and Priest. God does these things for His
glory. That's what it's all about. That's what it's all about. And
then secondly, why would our beloved husband give us over
into the hands of an evil king to declare his absolute sovereign
lordship over all things and all creatures? That's why. I wouldn't do it that way, would
you? If I was planning this thing,
I wouldn't have planned on going down to Egypt and turning my
bride over to that king. That ain't how I'd have done
it. But that's how God did it. That's exactly how God did it.
And we question, I'm telling you, we question His providence
everywhere, every step of the whole way. We question that providence.
One day, it looks like God would lay it on our heart enough to
say with Job when the thing happens, not two days after, but when
it happens, it's the Lord. Wouldn't you like to do that?
I long for the day when something happens to me and I'm blindsided
by His providence that I could just say, it's the Lord. Let
Him do what He will. Oh, it's to declare his absolute
sovereign lordship. I get confused and frustrated
along the way, but of this I'm sure every knee's going to bow. Things in heaven, things in earth,
things under there. Every knee is going to bow. Principalities,
those things invisible, those creatures that you can't see,
every knee is going to bow. Every tongue is going to confess
Jesus Christ to be Lord to the glory of God. To the accomplishing
of this thing that manifests God's glory. They're all going
to bow and say Amen. You was just. You was just in
their salvation. You was right. You're right who
chose Him, set Him aside. You're right. You're Lord. You're
Lord. He's Lord of glory. He worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will, and in so doing
worketh all things together for our good and His glory. Nothing declares to me His Lordship,
more than his salvation of this sinner. Nothing. I can't find anything in my past
that don't declare his absolute sovereign mercy. If I'd have went that much more,
if I'd have went this way just that much, if I hadn't stopped
my car just when I did, how many times could you go? How many
places can you go to see his sovereign hand in your past?
Huh? How many particulars had to come
together to bring you to hear His Word and to see His glory? How many things? And here's Abraham,
fresh on to his journey. First thing, he has to go down
and give up his wife. First thing. Oh, I tell you, he's Lord. He's
Lord. Here's the power of the King
of glory. He'll preserve his bride. Preserve
his bride even in the harem of the king. He'll preserve her. Ain't that
where he found you? Paul said, Oh, he said that the
eyes of your understanding would be enlightened that you might
see the hope of his calling and the riches of his inheritance
in the same. and the exceeding greatness of
His power to us who believe according to His mighty power which He
wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated
Him at His own right hand. Far above all principality and
power and might and dominion and every name that's named and
put all things under His feet and made Him to be head over
the church. And His head over the church,
His bride, uncorruptible. Indisputable. Undefeatable. He quickens you who are dead
in sin. Ain't that what he's saying there
in Ephesians 4? Oh my. He said, I wish God opened your
eyes. See His Lordship. See His power. See His reign. See Him who is ascended from
His humility and seated in majesty. Thirdly, Why would the husband
of the church willingly hand his bride over to the evil king?
To manifest the purpose and will of God in preservation of his
elect. He's going to do it. There's
one thing that underlines everything I read in this book and everything
I've experienced in this world, and that is the purpose of God
in the redemption of his elect. Abraham was down in Egypt not
because he wanted to be. He was down in Egypt, not on
vacation. He wasn't there because, I'll
tell you exactly why he was there. God drove him down there. Sometimes
God drives a man and sometimes He leads him. He drove Elimelech,
He drove him out of Bethlehem over into Moab. And then Elimelech
died and his two sons died and one of his sons' brides left
and there was nobody left but Naomi and Ruth. God led them
back, didn't He? Led Him back to Boaz, the kinsman-redeemer. He drove Christ into the wilderness,
but He led Him to the cross. You can go on and on. God drives
us sometimes in His providence, and then He leads us. He leads
us. Oh, He manifests His purpose
and manifests His will in the preservation of His elect. There is a divine purpose in
all things, but especially in those called of God. Paul said,
He hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And then lastly, Why would our
beloved husband give us into the hands of the evil king? Why
would he do that? To manifest his love in us by
our willing obedience. Now listen to me. By our willing
obedience to trust ourselves to his loving care and protection
even in a world that desires to do us harm. He's going to
save his elect and he's going to put in your heart a new heart.
A heart to love Him. A willing heart. A willing heart. A willing heart to do whatever
He tells you to do. And those who by faith have been
joined together with Christ will do what He commands them to do
because they love Him, because they trust Him, because they
believe in Him, because they wear His name. You know, back
in the days of the big steam liners the big ocean-going cruise
ships like the Titanic and those huge monster ships. There was
an old sea-going captain and he, for years and years and years,
he piloted those big vessels back and forth across the ocean. Well experienced. One of the
chief captains of that line. And finally it came up time for
him to retire, and his wife had died a few years before this,
and he was left raising a young daughter. She was about eight
years old when her mother died, and she was about ten years old
now. And this was to be the man's final voyage across the ocean. And so he took his daughter with
him, and they loaded up on the ship, and he was going to certify
this young man as the new captain. And so they took off and for
two weeks everything went just smooth as silk. And then one
evening, just right after dark, a storm blew in. And it was a
bad one. And that big ship began to rock
and reel. Big ole ocean liner. That thing
began to rock and reel. And them big 60, 70 foot waves
began to pound on that thing. And the wind came up and all
of a sudden that ship was doing this and rocking side to side.
feeling more like a rowboat than an ocean liner. And the young
girl was awakened out of her sleep, and looked around for
her daddy, and her daddy wasn't in the room, in the cabin there. And so she looked around, and
things was moving, things was falling off the tables and things,
and sliding around, and the lamps, and she knew something bad was
wrong. And she was scared her daddy wasn't there. And suddenly
she heard a knock on the door. The young ship steward was standing
at the door and he said, your father's up on the bridge, honey,
and he sent me down to tell you and to see if you're okay and
tell you where he was at in case you woke up and was frightened.
And he said, if you'd like, he said, I'll come in and stay with
you until the storm's over. And she said, it won't be necessary.
She said, if father's on the bridge, everything will be all
right. That's what God's teaching Abraham
right here. If God's on the bridge. If he's in control, if he runs
things, if he steers the boat, everything's going to be alright.