Abraham

Only good is spoken of Abraham in the New Testament. He is the only man that is described as the father of all them that believe, whether they be of the circumcision or of the uncircumcision. He's a man that entered into a covenant with God, a one-sided covenant, a covenant of grace, of which the law which was 430 years after could not disannul. God made all the conditions, Abraham made none, but it does say that Abraham believed in the Lord, and it was counted to him for righteousness. When we come to this man in Romans chapter 4, the question is asked: 'What shall we say then, that Abraham our father hath found concerning the law?' and Paul brings out four points in relation to Abraham that have nothing to do with the law. He begins with grace, then he goes on to faith, then thirdly he deals with the promises, and finally he ends with hope. So that here we have four qualities that characterise this great man Abraham, the man out of the Ur of the Chaldees, that causes him to stand completely apart from the law, that he was not justified by the deeds of the law, but by the hearing of faith. All that believe, whether they be of the circumcision or the uncircumcision, they are the children of faithful Abraham.

I don't believe that means that the church has taken the place of Israel. I know that there are some that say that when they rejected the Messiah God has rejected that nation, so that now we have become spiritual Israel, and the nation has been put on one side, and all that God has said concerning that nation is going to come to the blessing of the church. When Paul is speaking to the Galations, he speaks of the Israel of God, he is not talking about the whole of the church, he is talking about the redeemed of the circumcised, the Jew, and nobody else. There is a future for the Jew, or else I'd better take a lot of this chart down. God has made His promises, and He will fulfil those promises, or else, He's deceived that nation from Abraham until now.

Can I say, if you are on the subject of prophecy there is a principle that must be observed. In the subject of prophecy, primarily there must be a literal fulfilment before there is a spiritual application. Now will you understand that? Because there are too many, who are just taking spiritual applications and leaving the literal out of the picture altogether.

Now here's a man, and he's from the Ur of the Chaldees. Will you notice it's in the past tense, for God had said get thee out of thy land. How long ago it was that God did say that, we are not informed. As far as I can work it out Abram was 50 years of age when he left the Ur of the Chaldees. I know, and the Scripture is quite plain upon the point, that he was 75 years of age when he left Haran. So for that whole period God never speaks again to Abram until he's left his land. Indeed He doesn't speak to him again until he has left Haran as well.

I've heard some say that God spoke twice to him. That he spoke to him while he was in Ur of the Chaldees and then He spoke to him again when he was in Haran. Now my Bible doesn't teach that. In the 7th chapter of the book of the Acts it says while he was yet in Mesopotamia, before he went into the land of Charan, the God of glory appeared unto our father Abram, and said: 'Get thee out'. And that's the time that God speaks, when he's in Ur of the Chaldees and He never repeats it again. Here is a tremendous truth that you and I need to understand. Abram couldn't turn to any books in his library and try to find out what God meant when He said 'get thee out from thy land, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house.' He just had God's word. And you obey God's word.

Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, and it's time we got back to this book and we put more reliance upon what God says than what people say, no matter how good and how great they may be. Will you please treat them Just as helps, and not as the Alpha and the Omega.

So then, whether he was 50 years of age or no, God had said to him, 'Get thee out from thy country.' Now brethren, here is a tremendous thing, and here's your numbers again, and my, there's a lot in numbers and in ages. If you work the ages from Shem down to Terah, you'll discover that Shem lived for 150 years of Abram's life. Yet Shem was in such a condition that God couldn't take him up and use him. In fact there a 5 or 6 others in that genealogy that are still alive before Abram's born, and God couldn't take any of them up, because they had been swallowed up by a system that belongs to a world. As Joshua says in the 24th chapter, 'Our fathers served other gods on the other side of the flood'. He was a complete idol worshipper, and ignorant of God and the testimony of God had been so perverted that the very mention of God had gone out of existence.

We just get the historical fact that God had said. But when we turn to the book of the Acts we get the spiritual significance of what God says: the God of glory appeared unto our father Abram. Now brother and sister, at the end of the ministry of the apostle Paul, he could say 'I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. * When the apostle John is set to write the book of the Revelation, he turned to see the voice that spake, and he saw a person, and it's the only time that the Lord Jesus Is referred to as the Son of Man in relation to the church. He is spoken of as one like unto the Son of Man, and He is there standing in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. Now that's strange, and it's something that you'll need to consider and look at.

But to enhance and to give authority to the word, the God of glory appeared unto our father Abram. So now the darkness is already passed and the light has come, and Abram must walk in the light. That is the beginning of his life of faith.

God gave everything to that first man, Adam, but to Abram He gave not so much as to set his foot on. He was as much a pilgrim and a stranger at the end of his days as he was when he first left Padan-Haran to go into the land of Canaan, that was a period of one hundred years, yet he never turned from that pathway in unbelief. He did have his failings, and tell me, apart from the Lord Jesus, who doesn't have failures. But as I have said, they are not refered to in the New Testament Scriptures.

Now it's God speaking to Abram, "Get thee from thy land, from thy father's house, from thy kindred, unto a land that I will show thee" But will you please discover that it is Terah that takes him, and they go with Terah. Now Terah, to solve the problem again, is a picture of the old man. I think we pointed out one night, he was one hundred and thirty when Abram was born, and he was two hundred and five when he died. Now that man Terah held his position of authority while they dwelt in the Ur of Chaldees, they were different days to what they are now. The father was the head of the house, and they did what the father told them to do, and they just didn't please themselves, he was the head. Terah was in authority over Abram, while Abram was in darkness and in the days of his idolatry, but that man sought to retain that authority when God had spoken to Abram and said 'Get thee out from thy fathers house'. He wanted to hold that authority, and, if he left Ur of the Chaldees at 50, and left Padan-Aran at 75, it meant that he was 25 years in no-man's land. He was out of the Ur of the Chaldees, but he wasn't in the land that God would show him of. You will not find anything concerning Abram in that period. He was in the same position as the children of Israel were. They were out of Egypt, but they weren't in the promised land, they were in no-man's land. If you have a look at Deuteronomy chapter I, it's an II day journey from Succoth on the Egyptian side, to Kadesh-Barnea on the Canaanite side. We know they were there in 2 years, but it took them another 38 before they passed through Jordan into the promised land.

Here is a danger, that by faith we can move and we can trust in the Lord Jesus as our Saviour, and then think that we can live the rest of our Christian life in the energy of the old man. Now you can't, brother. So we are exhorted to put off the old man, and put on the new man which is created in true holiness after Him who created all things in righteousness. If we are going to live a life which is a mere negative life, 'I'm not in Ur of the Chaldees, I don't do this anymore, or I don't go to those places anymore,' a negative life but no positive life, your spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ, if you are living in the energy of the old man then that's the kind of a Christian life that you are living, and I'm not surprised that other people don't want to be a Christian like you. Christians can be the most miserable creatures on the face of the earth. After all, the heart has got to be satisfied. It will fill itself with something. If the children of Israel didn't want their hearts filled with all the promises that God had made concerning a land flowing with milk and honey, those hearts had got to be filled with something. And they said we remember the onions, the garlic, the cucumbers, and the melons, let's go back and make us captive, hm?

Now I'm not surprised, if you're just a carnal Christian, living in the energy of the old man, that your desires are still towards the place that you came from, instead of moving in the direction of your spiritual inheritance. Now there's an Abram, and that's the situation he was in, and as I say, as far as I reckon, for a period of about 25 years. God left him there, and the word of God was never heard, and the word was never repeated, and God waited.

But when Terah died, then it says: 'Abram went to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan he came.' The old man had been dealt with, reckoned dead with Christ, buried, put out of the way, and so he was free to walk in newness of life. So, instead of being settled down, first in Ur of the Chaldees, and then in Padan-aran, now his habitation became a tent. Not a wanderer, but a stranger. He knew what was his, even though he never possessed it all the days of his life - 'All this will I give thee.' After God had made mention of the fact that the Canaanite was in the land, He says: 'Unto thy seed will I give this land, ' as if it were in defiance of the claims of the Canaanite who was in possession of it. Abram later on was bidden to look to the north, the south, the east, the west, 'All this will I give thee, and thy seed after thee.' But he is the stranger, and please notice, that's all he is, a stranger. He's not a pilgrim, he's a stranger. Now the pilgrim is progressive.

So that when he comes into the land of Canaan it says he comes as far as Shechem, (it's the same word, though it's Sichem there) he comes as far as Shechem to the plain of Moreh, and he builds an altar there. When he builds an altar, he becomes the pilgrim. So with the tent he is the stranger, and with the altar he is the pilgrim. If he is a stranger he has nothing down here. Well, he's the stranger, Hebrews II will tell you that. If he's a pilgrim, then he's got everything up there, and Hebrews II will tell you that as well -'He went out, looking for a city. ' Here we have no continuing city If we had a city we wouldn't be a stranger, and if we continue then we wouldn't be a pilgrim.

Now Lot, he tried it, but he failed. I'm not going to say Lot was an ungodly man, though he behaved in an ungodly way. I'm not going to say that he was an unconverted man, it's enough for me that God says 'that righteous person'. But there is a difference between a man's standing and a man's state. Being reckoned righteous has to do with his standing, but it certainly hasn't got anything to do with his state. Will you please discover in first Corinthians, lovely isn't it? A bad church? But my, what lovely truth. 'But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification. ' Have you had a look at it? Just consider it for yourself. They are the things that we have got here and now. They are perfection in Christ, that's our position. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, that's perfection, I can't add anything to it, but out of that perfection comes the practical reality, and this is the will of God, even your sanctification. The one has to do with our standing in Christ, the other has to do with our practical state in our living day by day. It would be much for God's glory if our life was a reflection of our position in the Lord Jesus Christ. You will remember that Lot, he started with a tent, but then he went to a house in Sodom, and he finished in a cave, there in the mountain side. That's the way of the transgressor, and it's hard.

Now, why does Abram build an altar on the plain of Moreh? Here we will have to spiritualise a little bit, but nevertheless it will bring out some truth for us, and I trust it will go home. Shechem, wherever you read it just means the border or the shoulder. Actually, if you have a look on your map it's the border of nowhere. But God chooses places and names that have significance, and here Abram has passed over the border, and you'll never find Abram going back to Padan-aran, or find him going back to Ur of the Chaldees, he's finished with it, that's his old manner of life. Forgetting the things that are behind, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God, which is in Christ Jesus, and it would be good for us, if we could turn our back upon that old manner of life and move on in obedience to God's word. He came to Shechem and passed over the border to Moreh. Now Moreh's a lovely word, it just means teaching. Am I going to be critical now? Why is the level of ministry becoming more superfluous, becoming shallow, why? I'll tell you why, because we are not prepared to pass over the border. We still want to enjoy these things, we don't want to turn our back upon them, and move in the direction of God's word, and say goodbye to that which is passed and move into a realm where God can teach. If we want a recovery in teaching, then we don't want the books, but we do want a separated life. And that's where God can teach. I'm afraid, brethren, that that's where we are missing out.

Listen, it's not enough Just to sermonise because you've got a meeting tomorrow night, or a gospel meeting on Sunday, or that you've got to take a class on Sunday afternoon or any other time. The Word to be the man of my counsel, the guide of my feet, a mirror for my soul, and this ought to be the instrument of the Spirit of God by which he can guide me in the way of truth. If I want that then I'll turn my back on my old manner of life.

The precious things of God, you get them free, do you? They are the most costly things that you can ever have. Mark you, what you've got can never buy them. But I'll tell you this, if you want to enjoy them, there's a Man that died on that cross, was buried and rose again, and if ye will be my disciples, the Lord Jesus says, learners of me, then-take up your cross and follow me. There has got to be a personal identification with Christ there at the cross, that I might turn my back upon my old manner of life and walk in a way that pleases God. That's what Abram did. Moreh means teaching, and here Abram is being taught, for all that he has is a revelation of the God of glory. All that he has is the command 'get thee out', and here he's reached a place where God can teach and where God can feed his soul.

He discovers this wonderful truth that it's not just that God has something for him, but that he has something for God. And so he'll take his tent, looking for what God has for him. But now he'll rear up his altar because he discovers that he has got something for God. The Pharisees came to the Lord Jesus, John 8, and they said 'we have Abraham to our father'. The Lord Jesus said 'If Abraham were your father then ye would do the works of your father Abraham.' That's how it is, isn't it? You're looking for similarities that belong to relationship.

If Abraham is our father then we will do the works of our father Abraham. Is he? He's the father of all them that believe. In I Peter we are called strangers and sojourners upon the earth. We stand in the same place as Abram did, then let the works of Abram proceed in your life and in mine. 'Was not our father Abraham justified by works?' Well, go to James, because faith without works is dead. And if you talk to me about faith, I can't see it. There's only one person that can see faith, it says of the Lord Jesus, 'when He saw their faith'. He searches the heart. He tries the reigns. All that I can see is the result of that faith, the outworking of it.

Come, brother and sister, it's alright to know the book, but it's another thing to walk in accordance with the book. God will bring Abram to a place where he has said goodbye to his old manner of life, and he's crossed the border, and he'll never re-cross it again. He has reached the place where God can teach him, and the result of that teaching is he rears an altar unto the Lord. He becomes the stranger and the pilgrim. He started from nothing, for he never had an older brother to guide him, or an older sister, he stood on his own and he moved in simple faith.

Well, let's go a step further, shall we? You know, if we are going to exercise faith we come back to James chapter I again and we'll come to the trial of our faith. God will try it. If faith is not tried it will lay dormant and it will rot. I tell you, when faith is tried it becomes virile, and it becomes bold.

So there was a famine, and it's a grievous famine. We must confess that there were a lot of responsibilities lying in the hands of Abram, looking at the scene when it happened a long way back, I wonder what we would have done if we had been in the same circumstances? I've often said, when the Lord said to the servants 'fill the waterpots with water and bear them out to the governor of the feast', what would you have done if he had said that to you? 'Think I'm going to make a fool of myself? Fill the waterpots with water for a wedding feast, and bear it out to the governor?' Alright to read it, isn't it? You'd find it a different matter if it had happened to us. They had faith and did it.

Now brethren, I am not going to criticise Abram for going. He had a household, a little later on the members of that household who could fight were numbered at 318, and he had cattle and sheep, and my, he was very rich. He had a tremendous responsibility and as usual there is always corn in Egypt. So it says he went down to Egypt.

Before he got to Egypt he lost his peace. And he said to his wife Sarai, 'Say not thou art my wife, say thou art my sister, and it will be well with me. But if they know you are my wife they will kill me that they might save you alive.' He explains that a little later on to Abimelech the king of Gerah. He is going to go down there in fear. Will you please notice that he never builds an altar in Egypt, so he has lost his priesthood and he makes no reference to the promise that God has made, and he has lost the value of the promises. So here are three things that Abram surrendered when he went down to Egypt. He lost his peace, he lost his function as a priest and he lost his joy of the promises. Now that's Egypt.

Now you know what Egypt is, don't you? It's the world. So is the land of the Philistines. The difference is this: Egypt is a political world, and a political world will say 'who is God that I should obey him? I know not the Lord, I will not let the people go.' The land of the Philistine is a religious world, he'll have God, if He'll just succumb to the position that the Philistine has put Him in, that's alright. But God doesn't intend to do that.

Abram has come down into a political world, and he has lost these things that are his heritage, his joy and his blessing: the peace, the priesthood and the promises; the joy of them all have ceased to be. It was the cares of this world that were taking him down. He had tremendous responsibilities and Egypt was going to meet the need. It says this, 'that Abram was favourably treated of Pharaoh for Sarai's sake.' And it was the deceitfulness of riches that would have kept him down there.

Now what does the Lord say about the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches? 'These are they which choke the word of God.' You will notice that Abram made no effort to get out of Egypt. Had it been left to Abram that would have been the end of the story. But it says the Lord plagued Pharaoh, and he sent him out, I'll give Abram the credit that he never went back to Egypt, either, that's the world. So he had two experiences there in his old manner of life. Now it's finished with, and he's passed over the border; he's had an experience with the world that was going to cost him his testimony, and he'd never go back again to it. But he went back to the place where he had built an altar between Bethel and Hai.

Now brethren, it means this, that it doesn't matter the depth of our departure from the Lord in our disobedience, or whatever the circumstance may be, there is always recovery for the child of God, always. Let me just give one illustration, and I could multiply it. Have a look at the leper, for instance; have a look at the good Samaritan; but if you turn to Psalm 103, 'bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy Name. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth be renewed like the eagles.' There's good recovery no matter how far the child of God may sink.

The word 'backslider' never appears in the New Testament, does It now? Listen my brother, listen my sister, everyone of us, we stand upon our own responsibility in relation to eternity. Our personal faith in Christ and nothing less. Many times we talk about backsliders, and they were never saved at all. Now I beg of you, my brother, preacher of the gospel, never persuade a soul into thinking they are going to heaven when they are still going to hell. Preach the gospel plain, preach it simple, but leave repentance and conversion to the One to whom it belongs.

So here's Abram, God had taken dealings with him, God knew that he belonged to Him, he is the man that walked by faith, and there there is full recovery -the peace is back, the altar and his priesthood are there, the promises have become a reality, as though Egypt had never been. But my, he had to bring some of the mud out when he came out, hm? Now remember that.

The altar was midway between Bethel and Hai. Now when he first came to that position and reared the altar God did not make him go anywhere. That man was moving at his own volition, he was going to a land that God had promised. Now Bethel means 'the house of God', and God was certainly going to build a house. Hai means 'a heap of ruins', he could have gone in either direction. If he had gone to Hai it would have been a heap of ruins, he was the last of the line and Abram wouldn't even have been known. But moving in the direction that God goes he becomes the first of the line, and he becomes the father of the nation, and the father of all them that believe.

Now comes the first strife, and it's a strife among the shepherds. What a shame. What are the sheep going to do when the shepherds fight? We were talking about the book of Judges, and when we come to Gideon you'll find the trouble there among the people and God can always find a deliverer. But when you get to Abimelech, Jephther, Samson, and to the end of the book, the trouble is in the leader, and the situation keeps on getting worse and worse until every man does that which is right in his own eyes. Have a look.

So brethren, there is strife among the shepherds. Abram gives Lot the choice. Lot looks at the well watered plain of Sodom, like unto the garden of God. There's a sop for his conscience. My, you couldn't have anything better than that. Like unto Egypt, that'll silence you, Abram. You too have been to Egypt, so you've nothing to say. But my, it was a luscious land, and that's the real reason why he went. I tell you brother and sister, if you want to go anywhere you'll find enough excuses to justify you going. Better stick to the book.

So he went, and it's then that God promises to Abram the north, the south, the east, the west, all this will I give thee and thy seed after thee.

Well, he's moving along and he's getting fresh revelation from God. Verse by verse, brother and sister, not a whole book full, but just verse by verse, and he will follow it along in obedience to God's word. Then there's the battle. He did not need to be involved, it was with Chedorlaomer and his three confederates, the king of Sodom and Gomorrah and their three confederates. And they fight in the valley of slime pits, and a man comes and tells Abram that his brother's son has been taken captive.

Abram could have said it serves him right, you know. Shouldn't have gone, should he? If he hadn't gone to Sodom he would have been all right if he had stopped with me. After all, we will pay the price for what we do. What you sow, you reap, my, we are good at that text, aren't we? Listen brother, it says that when Abram heard that his brother, not his brother's son, had been taken captive it's then that he gathers his household, and his confederates the sons of Heth, and they go and fight against four kings, and as Hebrews 7 records, he returns from the slaughter of the kings. Just a little handful, and yet there were four kings.

His brother's son is a natural relationship, but Abram is not looking at his brother's son, he is looking at his brother, and that's a spiritual relationship. A spiritual relationship is infinitely closer than a natural relationship. Nothing thicker than blood, I've heard it. Alright, what about the blood of Christ, hm? I care not what the relationship is, when once the border of death is passed it is done. But a spiritual relationship is going on for eternity. You know brethren, we are becoming introspective, aren't we? I'm alright Jack. And if it touches any member of my family then I'm there. But are we just as eager when it comes to any member of the spiritual family? Because the cost of that relationship was far greater than any other. Here is Abram, the spiritual man, the man walking by faith; 'Lot deserves all that came to him, he should have stayed as a pilgrim and a stranger with me, he didn't have to go to Sodom and Gomorrah, there were plenty of other places he could have gone to. ' He never considered whether he deserved it or not, he was his brother, and he went to his help. Come brother, there is a lot of lessons there for you and 1.

Have a look at Onesimus in the epistle of Philemon. After all, he had run away, hadn't he? My, if Philemon had dealt with him in judgement you could not have found any thing wrong with him. But Paul pleaded for mercy for the man. And we are taught this lesson, there are spiritual relationships that lie nearer and dearer to the heart of God than a natural relationship. There is many a natural relationship that has turned a child of God from the way of truth. But a spiritual relationship will keep them on the pathway. Lot never learnt.

Abram is returning from the slaughter of the kings, and there is a man lying in wait. My, you can almost hear the hiss of the serpent. Here is the king of Sodom, and he is going to say to Abram, 'Take the spoil, give me but the souls. ' I tell you, Abram would have been in a mixup there and he would never have got out of it. He recognised it later on.

So before the king of Sodom could have anything to do with Abram God sent Melchisedec the king of Salem. He came out with bread and wine, and with a millennial blessing, and God is the God of heaven and the God of the earth. So it is millennial blessing, that is why 'Abram rejoiced to see my day, he saw it and was glad. ' The blessing and provision was such that he could look the king of Sodom in the face, and say 'I will not take so much as a shoe latchet lest it be said thou hast made Abram rich.' He could have fallen into that, and the king of Sodom would have boasted, 'Well, I made him rich', and I tell you, the poor Jew would have had to stand up to that even to the present time, but God would not allow it to happen.

So now he has had his third experience, if the Ur of the Chaldees speaks of his old manner of life - the flesh; if Egypt speaks of a world - a political world, then the king of Sodom and his subtleties and his guile and his mischief speaks of the devil. And he has had three experiences, the world, the flesh and the devil, and brother and sister, they are the three enemies that you and I have got.

I remember that we were at a Bible reading at our own meeting, and I was just a young man, and we were going through Romans 8, and we got up to that lovely question: 'If God be for us, who can be against us?' And a young brother, without a moments hesitation said 'Nobody, nobody can be against us.' An old brother, very kindly said: 'I think if I were you I'd think again. I can tell you three that are against us, the world the flesh and the devil. But they can't succeed, and they can't conquer.' Now these are the enemies that confront you and I in the pathway of faith, and the king of Sodom never confronted Abram again.

When we come to chapter 15 God says: 'Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield,' that is in relation to Chedorlaomer and the battle that was fought. He doesn't say I was thy shield, He said I am. 'And thine exceeding great reward, ' that is in answer to the subtlety of the king of Sodom, 'Take the spoil but give me the souls. ' It is good to know that when you've turned your back upon the mischief of the wicked one, God has treasuries far greater than can be estimated in the realms of men.

So God expected Abram to learn from that battle that God was his shield there, and He still is his shield. That's what our experiences are for, that we might learn from our experiences in faith. If God can do it then, God can do it now. That is how it ought to be, and our exceeding great reward.

You can see how God is moulding a man, as He says in Jeremiah a piece of clay out of the Ur of the Chaldees to put upon His wheel that he might produce a vessel to His praise, and to His glory. And if God can do it for a man like that, God can do it for you and I.