By the way, Sunday after service,
we'll have the Lord's table in the afternoon. Our dearly beloved
fry bread makers are going to make some dearly beloved fry
bread and we're going to have fry bread and chili. Can hardly
wait. Of course, I gave this announcement
out so we may have visitors from Tennessee coming in here because
they love our fry bread and chili. Genesis chapter 11. I'm going
to read the last two verses of chapter 11 and read the first
verse of chapter 12. The title of my message tonight
is Death. Genesis chapter 11 beginning
with verse 31. And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son
of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law. and his
son Abram's wife, and they went forth with them from Ur of the
Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan, and they came to Haran
and dwelt there. And the days of Terah were 205
years, and Terah died in Haran. Now the Lord said unto Abram,
Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from
thy father's house into a land that I will show thee. And I
will make thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make
thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. Let us pray. Our Father, we are thankful that
we can read this account of Abraham in these early days
when you called him out of his land to go to a place that he
knew not and a place that he would never set foot upon. Yet
he followed your command, was obedient to you, and headed toward
Canaan. Father, we thank you that we
have him as an example of what it is to be a faithful man in
Scripture. For we know that his faith was
God-given. He didn't work it up. It wasn't
by nature a faithful man. But you had brought him by your
grace to that place and given him faith to trust the merits
of Jesus Christ. We know that so because even
our Lord said, Abraham saw my day and was glad. We thank you,
Father, that we have your word. It teaches us and causes us to
understand. It is what we know of you and
what we find in this book is glorious and magnificent. We
are joyous to be able to call you our God and bow to you in
humble worship and thanksgiving and praise for all you've done.
Father, we remember those who are sick, those who are in trouble,
those who are shut in. We ask, Lord, you'd be with them,
Margella Wayne and Ethel and Peggy Lambert and the others
who requested prayer. We're thankful for the good news
on this young lady. We pray that you continue to
minister to her and her family. I pray for my daughter, Sarah,
as she's Facing now the probability of pretty soon having this bone
marrow transplant. We ask Lord you'd be with her
and comfort her. Watch over her. Help us Lord
to remember each other in prayer, to call each other's names out.
Help us Lord to worship you tonight, to consider the greatness of
who you are and what you've done for us. Help us Lord, we pray
in Christ's name. Amen. Now these verses account for
the call of Abram to leave his homeland and by faith, according
to Hebrews chapter 11, by faith to venture to a land that the
Lord God would show him. Now the destination of that land
is mentioned in chapter 11 and verse 31, Canaan is mentioned,
but it's not mentioned in chapter 12 and verse 1. Now this has
given rise to some opinions concerning when Abraham was called or the
idea that perhaps he was called twice from what's in Mesopotamia
and then again at Haran to leave Haran and go to the promised
land. However, the call is not mentioned in the 11th chapter
and makes the journey more of a historical account, a simple
statement of fact. And the record in chapter 12
verse 1 is the illumination of the account that declares God
to be the reason behind this sojourn. It's not mentioned,
the call is not mentioned, it just says Terah took his family
and left, but the call is mentioned in verse 12, or chapter 12 and
verse 1, and I believe that is an illumination of what actually
went on in verses, chapter 11 and verses 30 and 31. Now both
Ur and Haran are in Mesopotamia, so it might have been that God
called Abram twice to leave, first in Ur and then at Haran
after the death of his father Terah. but is often the case
when we have these accounts like this and they seem either out
of place chronologically or one thing doesn't explain another
clearly. The New Testament account of
a historical account in the Old Testament that took place in
the Old Testament is a full exposition of the record and what it meant.
What this means is found in our understanding in the New Testament. A full exposition of the record
is seen in Acts chapter 7 in the sermon that Stephen gave
when he was disputing with the accusers among the Jews. If you'll
turn there in Acts chapter 7, in verse 2 it said, and these are
the words of Stephen, men and brethren and fathers hearken,
the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was
in Mesopotamia. So that kind of says the call
came while actually in chapter 11 and verse 31, but it's not
mentioned until chapter 12, when he was in Mesopotamia before
he dwelt in Haran or Charon and said unto him, get thee out of
the country and from thy kindred and come into the land which
I shall show thee. Then came he out of the land
of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Charon, and from thence, when
his father was dead, he removed him into the land wherein he
now dwelt." Now this is an illumination of what actually happened there.
According to Stephen, remembering that these words are recorded
by inspiration, the series of events followed this scenario. Abraham was called of God to
leave the earth, Chaldees, and venture to a land that he had
not seen and would not set foot upon. He obeyed the call and
took his family with him. His journey was interrupted when
he stayed for a time in Mesopotamia in the area of Haran. And why
he stalled in his journey is not revealed. But the physical
condition of his father, which ended his life, may have played
in his decision to stay there. At any rate, Abraham did not
leave Haran and take up the journey again until the death of his
father. That is a clear fact. Now, we'll
take a look at this from another angle next time. But for tonight,
we'll consider what Abraham was Consider that Abraham was stalled
in his journey until the death of his father. That was important.
He was he was headed toward Canaan. God had told him to go and he
was going and he got his whole family and for some reason they
stopped at Haran. but also his father died in Herod,
according to the word of God. So this reveals something true
about how the effects of the tithes of the flesh often can
and do stymie us in our sojourn here, and that only the death
of those tithes allows us to move forward, and that's just
the case with every believer. Our Lord spoke of these things
in the parable of the sower, describing them as the heat of
trials, the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches.
Other things also serve to hinder, as Paul clearly sets forth in
Galatians and Colossians. There he called the flesh bondage,
from which we must be delivered. He called it a continual, intractable,
opposing enemy of the Spirit, which prevents us from doing
what we would. Evidently, Abram was prevented
somehow from going into Canaan. He stopped at Herod. Paul also
spoke of vain philosophy, empty philosophy. What is philosophy?
Two words, philo and sophia, are words that mean searching
for the truth or love of the truth. But we know if you've
studied philosophy, it doesn't have a whole lot to do with truth.
It has a whole lot to do with conjecture. Paul also called
the keeping of the law the elements of the world, or the rudiments
of the world. And Paul in the epistle to the
Romans stated this as a fact of the believer's life, saying,
with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve
the law of sin and death. The death of his father released
him to go on to Canaan. Other vagaries of the flesh like
fear of censure, loss of reputation, and pressure from peers caused
Peter and Barnabas to leave the fellowship of believers. Believers
saved by grace through the gospel of freedom and the gospel of
grace and joined the ranks of the legal work for salvation
crew of the Judaizers. These were believers who did
this and they were stalled. They were stopped. They were
stopped until Paul came and withstood them face to face and told them
that they despised the grace of God for what they were doing.
That they were making a mockery of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Judaizers desired to destroy
the liberty and in state bondage among those at Antioch. And whatever
the reason that made Abraham stop his journey, we don't really
know, it's not really told us in scripture. We know that it
was the death of his father that resulted in his taking up the
journey again. And that's what I wanna talk
about tonight for a few minutes. The first thing is this, we need
not think on any level that we have overcome
the influence of the ties of this world. Don't think you have,
because you have not, and neither have I. It is our lot in this
life as children of God to be at war with ourselves, with ourselves,
until we occupy the grave. That's going to happen. That's
going to happen. That's the promise of God. Over
in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul said this to the Corinthian
church concerning that battle that rages within the believer. In 2 Corinthians chapter 10,
verse three, he says this, for though we walk in the flesh,
we do not war after the flesh. What does that mean? Our war
is a spiritual war. And we do not apply to the flesh
to mortify the deeds of the flesh or to undo sin. We don't apply
to do that. We, through the spirit, according
to Romans 8, mortify the deeds of the flesh. He says, for the
weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They do not come from
the flesh, but mighty. They're mighty weapons through
God to the pulling down of strongholds. Now, what are those strongholds?
They are not outside us. They're not governments, they're
not magistrates, they are within us, these strongholds. What are
the strongholds? Our opinions, our bent of our
own flesh, how we were raised, the baggage we bring up with
us, all these are strongholds that ultimately, according to
the flesh, will oppose God. Our flesh opposes God on every
hand. That part of us opposes God. They're not caught up through
God pulling down the strongholds, casting down imaginations. Imaginations. Reasonings is what that word
means. Our logical mind of the flesh
often reasons out things and generally these have to do somehow,
whether we're willing to admit it or not, of what we feel about
ourself in reference to God and our salvation. That's where they
usually pop up. And we say, well that doesn't
happen. Well we might do a good deed and try to keep quiet about
it, but just wait on an opportunity to tell somebody about it, because
that's what we are. Because we count on things. We
might feel that we have reached a state of freedom and are able
to do something, but we might feel that someone else should
not do it. They shouldn't do it. That's the reasoning of the
mind. Pulling down strongholds, casting
down imagination and every high thing or high opinion or high
idea that exalted itself against the knowledge of God or the acknowledgement
of God. What do we acknowledge God in?
In all of our salvation. from stem to stern, from alpha
to omega, from beginning to end, from a to zizard, we say God
did it all. That's what we know and we're
to acknowledge that. Remember the beginning of the
reprobate mind is that it refuses to acknowledge God as He is and
for what He's done. That's how it begins. So this
is within us. This is our flesh. It's a stronghold. It's a stronghold and it's a
high imagination and high things that exalt itself against the
knowledge of God. Well, how do we do that? Well,
we're going to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps. We're going
to try real hard. We're going to pray more, read
our Bible more, and attend more. We're going to witness more.
All these things. How do we do that? How do we
cast down these strongholds? How do we cast down these imaginations?
It's the only way to do it. We bring them all to one place. the obedience of Jesus Christ
not our obedience to Jesus Christ but to his obedience we finally
by God's grace and through his spirit mortify the deeds of the
flesh this way saying all of our salvation is because of his
obedience and none of ours bring it all to Christ's obedience
do you feel like you've done a good deed look to Christ's
obedience. Do you feel like you've done
something wrong? Look to Christ's obedience. Do you have a high
thought that opposes God? Look to Christ. Your hope is
in Jesus Christ's obedience alone. And having readiness to revenge
all disobedience, which is these high thoughts, these strongholds,
to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
What is our obedience? How do we obey God? We obey God
by relying wholly upon Christ's obedience. It's His obedience
that saved us, folks, not us. His obedience saved us. What a violent and bloody war
is engaged when we take all our imaginations and high things
in our heads and always play into a false notion of salvation
and are always against what we know of God and must acknowledge
about God to cast them down by acknowledging that our salvation
from beginning to end is entirely based on the obedience of Christ
because that's what it is. That's what it is to believe.
Many people say they believe, but they believe they have something
to do with their salvation that makes them an unbeliever. We
bring everything to the obedience of Christ, and this is the war
that goes on within our hearts, within our minds, because we
love to believe somewhere down the line we've done something
righteous and worthy of note. There's none righteous, no, not
one. There's none that doeth good. There's not a righteous
man on earth that doeth good and sinneth not, sayeth the scriptures. this is the affliction of the
soul of the lords that afflict your souls. This afflicts our
souls. We have to give it all up to Christ. Because our souls
have to take pleasure in what we do. Our only obedience is bringing
all things to the obedience of Christ. And what was the acme?
The epitome of the paramount act of His obedience? What was
it? Let's look. Philippians chapter
two. Philippians chapter 2 Philippians chapter 2 it says
this of Christ in verse 8 and being found in fashion as a man
he humbled himself and became obedient unto what? death even
the death of the cross. This was the height of his obedience
that he died. He said, well, everybody's going
to die. Everybody don't die a death like this. You're going to die
because you ain't got no choice. You're going to die because you're
going to wear out. That's why you're going to die. Your body's
going to stop functioning. You're not going to have any
breath anymore. God's going to take that last breath from you.
You're going to pass off this world. You don't have anything
to do with it. You can't stop it. Christ didn't die like that. Christ voluntarily, willfully,
by the power of his deity, quit living. He said, I'm going to die. Why
did he do that? Because that was the price that
you owed to God for your sin. Death. And that price has to
be paid. for you to survive and be delivered
and be saved. So Christ was obedient to death.
When he took that vinegar upon his lips, he lifted his head
and with a loud voice cried from the cross in agonies and blood,
he cried with a loud, powerful, strong voice, it is finished. And he gave up the ghost. He died voluntarily. It was a
magnificent, successful, substitutionary, propitiatory, justice-satisfying
death. And it's the only hope we have
of making it all the way to Canaan, because we'll get stalled along
the way. It's that death, that blessed death. This, dear brothers
and sisters, is what it'll take for us to continue on the sojourn.
The ties of the flesh will inhibit us, stall us, And only the death
of the flesh will invigorate us to continue. And that death
was supplied by Jesus Christ alone. That's the death we look
to. We don't look to our own death,
because it ain't going to accomplish nothing. We look to a death that
actually accomplished something toward God. In Romans chapter
8, In verse one through four, here's the way it said, there
is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Jesus Christ,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. For the
law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free
from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sinned his own son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in
the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. How
did he do that? He died. He died in the room instead of
his people. The death of Christ, the death of Christ is the death
we apply to for the death of the flesh. We apply to that. We don't apply to our own will,
our own ability. You think that You can stop corruption
by applying to corruption to stop it. It won't work. It won't work. Through the Spirit
we mortify the deeds of the flesh. The death of Christ is the death
we apply to. This is what it means to reckon
the old man to be dead. The Lord said, reckon the old
man to be dead. Reckon yourselves dead to sin.
You say, I don't feel dead to sin. You've got to reckon it. You've got to reckon it so. How? By looking to Christ. That's
the only way. Death sets us back on the journey.
Death set Abraham back on the journey. Oh, in Colossians chapter
three. Colossians chapter three. If
ye then, in the word of Darius Caius, since ye then be risen
with Christ, risen from what? From the dead. Seek those things
which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of
God. Set your affection, your mind,
your love, what motivates you on things above and not on things
of the earth. For you are dead And your life
is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then we shall appear with him also. What's the next
words? Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.
Why? Because we're not to mind the
things on the earth. Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection,
evil concupiscence, covenants, which is idolatry, for which
things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience.
this is the high aim you see the high aim and aspiration of
the believer and the tenor of his life to glory in what enables
him to continue on the sojourn and that is trusting in the merits
and the obedience and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ that's
why Paul says in Galatians chapter six Galatians chapter six and verse
fourteen through sixteen he says this God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross or the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ by whom
the world is killed to me and I am killed to the world to the
world The world besets us. Unbelief
besets us. Paul said to the Hebrew children
in Hebrews chapter 12, in verse 1, he says, wherefore seeing
we are all so compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily
beset us, let us run with patience the race set before us. How? Looking. That's how we do it. looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy which was set
before him endured the cross, despising or disregarding the
shame, and is set down on the right hand of the throne of God.
His death, looking to His death, enables us to continue the journey. The death of Abraham's father
got him back on the road. He was staying in Haran. I don't
know how long he'd have stayed there. But as soon as his daddy
died, he got up and headed toward Canaan. The days of Terah were
105 years, and Terah died at Haran. Now the Lord said to Abraham,
get thee out of thy country. and from thy kindred and from
thy Father's house into a land which I will show thee." Don't
count on yourself in this sojourn. Have no confidence in the flesh.
Look to the death of Jesus Christ. Father, bless us to our understanding.
We pray in Christ's name. Amen.