Amen. If you turn in your Bibles to the Book of Genesis, chapter 12 will be in looking at verses 10 through 20. This morning, Genesis, chapter 12, verses 10 through 20 last time, we were able to see Abram worshipping in the land God had promised to His descendants, though it was and would be possessed, owned by cursed peoples for hundreds of years. But it made promises to Abram, Abram at this time is still Abram, God had made promises to Abram about making him a great nation, making him great, making him a blessing, but He made it clear that these blessings would come long after his death, and that he would not live to see any of them in his earthly lifetime. So what was Abram's response to promises of post-mortem exaltation? Worship. He worshipped the God who made promises to him that he would not see before death. He worshipped God in the land promised to him but actually filled with and owned by wicked peoples. He worshipped God while he was seeking a homeland. He embraced the life of a soldier in her because in the words of Hebrews, he desired a better that is a heavenly country and God indeed had prepared a city for him and to leave Hebrews but to apply it and for us. But do we also desire a better that is a heavenly country or are we only looking for the scraps that we can get down here? Is our heart, is our treasure actually in heaven for what Christ will bring back with him? Is that what we love God and long to worship God for? Well in today's passage, Abram continues to sojourn, we're going to see his sojourney and it's a very unusual episode and I love this text. Abram does wrong, he causes others to do wrong, he wrongs others and God blesses him in the midst of it. God blesses him because of what those whom Abram has wrongfully wronged innocently or at least ignorantly due to him. And Abram ends up leaving the promised land after acting cowardly and selfishly. He leaves the promised land. I'm sorry, he leaves the promised land to go to Egypt because of physical hardship, there's a famine. He intentionally hides the truth about the brothers because he's afraid for his own life. He disregards the safety of his wife. He assumes the worst of strangers and it turns out unjustly, most unjustly so. And God protects him and God blesses him in the midst of his misdeeds and he ends up with more material wealth as a direct result of his unbelief and disobedience, a very unusual text for us this morning but a very important one to learn a crucial lesson as Christians this morning. So let's pray for God to give us grace, Father, we pray for your grace that we would hear your word, that we would believe your word, Father, pray that if there are any who are straying from your word, who are embracing false teaching, oh, how you would rescue them, that you would bring them back to your word, you would cause them to love your word alone and to turn away from every false way we pray for your blessing indeed. And then I would preach your word truly and faithfully, remember your covenant, remember your blood, Lord Jesus bless your word to your people, I besiege thee in Jesus name. Amen. Here now the word of the Lord from Genesis chapter 12 beginning in verse 10, this is God's holy and perfect word. Now there was a famine in the land and Abraham went down to Egypt to dwell there for the famine was severe in the land. And it came to pass when he was close to entering Egypt that he said to Sarai his wife and Dean, I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance, therefore it will happen when the Egyptians see you that they will say this is his wife and they will kill me but they will let you live. Please say you are my sister that it may be well with me for your sake and that I may live because of you. So it was when Abraham came into Egypt with the Egyptian saw how the woman she was very beautiful. The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh and the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house. He treated Abraham well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys and camels. But the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife and Pharaoh called Abram and said, what is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say she is my sister? I might have taken her as my wife. Now therefore here is your wife, take her and go your way. So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. And the Lord established this word in our hearts this morning, and this is each the I pray. I want you to notice first of all this morning the dangers of the world, the dangers of the world. Verse 10, now there was a famine in the land and the famine was severe in the land to skip to the end. Severe in the word is kaboed there usually means glory but can mean heavy, the basic meaning is heavy. I don't know what it's like to be in a famine to you. I have no idea. I imagine it's pretty terrible to not be able to feed yourself or your house and Abram had many flocks and many herds. And there was a play where he came from and Caldea was exceedingly fertile. The Caldea is down in the Mesopotamian valley between the two rivers and back when there were no dams to him up those rivers. That was a lush valley. The vegetation was rich, it's rarely ever a new famine or drought and much like the Egyptian basin around the Nile, the mouth of the Nile, all that wonderful vegetation that's there. In fact, when there are famines to this day, better winds will go into Egypt because that's where there's always still corn and food because of the lush valley of the river Nile and all the moisture that it brings to the ground. When Abram had come from Caldea, a prosperous place, and he went to Heron. Any prosper there. You'll need to go back to verse 5 or test to see how Abram prospered in Heron. Notice it, it says, when they leave Heron in verse 5 and all, they took all their possessions that they had gathered and the people, the souls literally, they had acquired in Heron. So in Heron they get more possessions, they get more souls, that means animals and servants. Abram gets wealthier in Heron and he was wealthy in Caldea and now because God has told him to go to this land that's now in a famine, he's going to lose everything. He's going to lose his flocks, he's going to lose his herds, he can't feed them, that's his wealth and he has many servants, we're going to see that later, many servants in his house. He has a large household that he's going to provide for and I guarantee you this, as they're moving in this hostile land with the canonites and they can't even stay in one place too long, so they can't make themselves a target, and then they've left this wonderful lush and wealthy life in this wonderful areas of Caldea and Heron. You know what his servants are saying? What is our master doing? Oh, we heard from God, and we're in this God-perceived land with hostile people and now a famine's coming, we're all going to die, we don't even know where we're going. What is he? Nice. Can you imagine the servants in that house had meal time around in the field whispering, doubting, debating, talking about how foolish their master is, conspiring, all kinds of stuff behind the scenes illegitimately, I know what that's about, not believing, not trusting, not submitting to the man that God has raised up as their master. It would have been very difficult, you know, it's always hard when our expectations are frustrated, when our wishes are denied, when our hopes are dashed and they fall to the ground, it's a great temptation for the flesh to blame somebody, to blame God, right, and to be tempted to sin in other ways. The sin always comes, temptation to sin rather, always comes, clothe in the desire to do good, right? Nobody ever sins because they want to do some pure evil thing. There's always a good reason for it, it always comes clothe that way, right? I have to take this illegitimate money for some good purpose, right? I have to bicker and slander and engage in secret meetings behind the scenes to second guests, you know, the pastor, because it's going to be good ultimately, even though our polity disallows for it. There's always a good reason, right, to violate and to do evil, it always is that way. You're hungry, hungry is from God, turn these stones into bread, that wasn't a bad temptation, right? Jesus was hungry, why wouldn't he eat, turn these stones into bread? I've made you in his image, you want to be like him, eat from this tree, and you'll be like God. Safe wasn't tempting, tempting, eat to some horrible rebellion, right? fulfill your purpose, eat just eat from the tree, right? Turn these stones into bread, take that money, tell that law, you've got a good reason for it, for ordinary people and other situations that's wrong, but through you, there's an exception. That's the way temptation always comes. It's always to do some good thing. Abrams temptation would be to go back to Heron. Of course it would be. Go to Caldea, you are prosperous there, you've got your connections there, you've got your businesses there, your father's house is still there. Go back, reap, reap, replenish, repress, you're not abandoning God's word, we'll go back to this God forsaken, famine land again, so you can follow the Lord, but let's go back to be wise, let's be smart, let's go back to Heron. Let's establish ourselves, let's take some supplies back to this desert, but you say God is given to us, Abrams doesn't do that. I think it's a singular act of faith that Abrams goes down to Egypt. Egypt is not a bad place yet. We think of that because of the Exodus. For the most part in Genesis, Egypt is a good place. Calvin calls it a singular act of faith that Abrams goes to Egypt and not back to Heron. He was moving south, he continues to go south. He goes because he is not going to go back, he's not going to give in to temptation, no matter how much his servants think that's the logical, common sense thing to do, he's not going to do it because he's going to do it with the word of God says. Not what fear says, not what man says, not what business says, but what the word of God says, and the word of God said to him, this is your land, go and sojourn in it. Notice in our text, it's interesting, it's a very unfortunate translation in the New King James, but in verse 10, the whole verse says, now there was a famine in the land and Abrams went down to Egypt to dwell there, it does not say that it's not the word to dwell, the word to dwell is your shadow, he settled, he dwelt. This is the word to goor, to sojourn, Abrams goes to Egypt to sojourn, he had no plans to stay in Egypt, he's going to go down there and sojourn because they have food in Egypt and he can't let his flocks and herds die and this is the wisdom that God has given to him, he's not abandoning the land, he's not going back home, he's going to Egypt because they have food there, this is what you do in the midst of a famine, right? He goes to sojourn there, he is not forsaking the Lord. Think of it, since God has called Abrams, I mean he was in his father's house, he had flocks and herds and it was wealthy and herred and it was great and guilty, you know, they were worshipping moon gods, but you know, it was good on this level and since God has called him one hardship after another, leave everything that you know, every one that you know, go to this foreign land where I don't even tell you where it is so you get there all by the way it's filled with hostile people who are cursed of God and now I'm going to send a famine and yes, it is the Lord who sends the famine, where else did it come from? And you're my chosen, and I love you, you're my bearer of the promise. What is God doing? Well, he's testing Abram's fate, Abram passed the test and the promise land last week, what a wonderful expression of faith in the midst of the promise land being told you're not going to own any of it, any of my blessings are going to come to pass in your lifetime, he continues to worship God, he sojourns in a tent but he builds alters to the Lord because his home wasn't having any new God already owned the land and so he's building these alters to testify to that memorials that if God's land right now, whether I ever get a new care, the Lord is my God, I will live with him forever and he owns the whole earth and Abraham understood that his inheritance was the whole earth. And he lived by faith and he worshiped God in the midst of a hostile land, the midst of pain of nights, even as we are in the midst of pain of nights. And we should worship the Lord because he owns it, all of it, no matter what laws they pass, no matter what they do, this is God's land right now, there is no taking it over. And we live by faith and Abram live by faith and what an awesome thing it was. And now he has a great opportunity to show his faith again. The world is a dangerous place, God does not spare his people hardships, he does not spare them labor, he does not spare them hostile peoples, he does not spare them famine, he does not spare them bearing this. Remember Sarah is there. She can't end children. One hardship that is for so many women who love the Lord whom God loves and they are blessed no less because of him. And it's a hardship and it's a burden to bear. Abram must live out his faith. He did well in Canaan, he worshiped the Lord, he built altars enough land that he had to act like he was a foreigner in. And he was. What's he going to do now in Egypt? I want you to know, secondly, the passions of man, the passions of man, Abram has a problem for his 11, Abram has a beautiful wife and it's a problem, it's a problem because he's afraid of what's going to happen to him because of his beautiful wife and we see him as expressing this fact in verse 11, I know you are a woman of beautiful confidence, by the way critics get on the text here a little bit, Sarah is 65 years old at this point in the text, so you know what the critics are going to say, well she can't be that pretty, that he's going to be so afraid, right, well the critics are unbelievers, so you got to remember that. The critics are unbelievers, Abram lives to 175, that's when he dies. His son Isaac dies at 180, his father died at 205, they're living well beyond 150, 65 is still quite a young woman. See they don't believe that, they don't believe that the ages change, that's all meant to them so then they throw out this part of the text too, well if you start with not believing the text of course it's not going to work, the text tells us why she's still pretty at 65. Her normal lifespan would have been 200 or so, now she dies at 127, we don't necessarily know why, that's still quite old, she's still only about half way there, and most people die around 70, that's 35, you know, in our way of looking at it, but so Sarah is a beautiful woman, ah the critics say, nobody can see that, this is each if they cover up, there's veil on their face, you know there's the hood thing, there's the whatever, can't even see a woman wise Abraham afraid, well this is another place where the facts of the situation actually not only refute the critics but are arguing in favor of the text as we understand it, that it's variation that Moses wrote it with an ancient understanding of the world, because we know from monuments and statues and all sorts of records that are discovered, and you can see them now in ancient Egypt, that women in ancient Egypt did not cover up, did not wear veils and all, look at all the statues, their faces are fully exposed, in fact one of the historians said that the women of ancient Egypt enjoyed all of the conveniences of modern European women, that's how Egypt was, that's how cosmopolitan Egypt was, in fact it wasn't until the Persians came that women would cover up, so that's millennia later, the Persians brought that tradition, so Abraham and Sarah aren't even thinking of covering up, because no one's ever seen that, no one's ever done that, so she's going to go like anyone else and they're going to see her beauty and they do, one other criticism that we should dispense with maybe, it's only about 300 years, they say since the Tower of Babbo, how can Egypt be there in this great nation in this great country? 300 years of the law on time, a lot can happen in 300 years, the United States, if you go back 300 years it's 1723, no one's even dreaming of the United States of America, right, in 1723, it's going to be 30 years before the French and Indian war, when the British are our allies, that doesn't happen for more than 30 years after 1723, there's no frontier, there's no frontier, you know, men out in the wilderness forging the way, there's no trail blazing west, yet Daniel Boone won't be born for 11 more years, if this was 1723, and by the way in a very small church in New York City on Williams Street, an unordained ministerial candidate is asked to become the pastor of this very small Presbyterian church, he turns it down, he's only 19, his name is Jonathan Edwards, that's 1723, look in America now, would you say, well because America wasn't a country 300 years ago, it couldn't possibly be a powerful empire, 300 years later, I think we've already hit our pinnacle when we're in the decline now, we hit our pinnacle a while back, the most powerful nation way, way less than 300 years, but anyway, Abram knows his wife is beautiful and he has a plan, he made this plan before they even left, if you go to Genesis 20, verse 13, he lets us know about his plan, the second time he tries it, and it came to pass, he says, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said to Sarai, this is your kindness that you should do for me in every place wherever we go, say of me, he is my brother, so that's Abram's plan before they leave, Abram did just come up with this, they're going into Egypt, Abram has reason to fear that maybe they might take her, kill him, 25 years later in Sodom, the good citizens of Sodom trying to break into the lost house to to molest two men, what are they going to do to a beautiful woman, a beautiful woman, similar to our people, so Abram has reasons to fear, and we live in a world where the world has been saturated with with gospel truths and basic human rights that come from the idea that all men are created equal, we're all the same, men and women, we're all fully human, no one's more human, no one's less human, we live in that world, and because of that we don't understand how in the ancient times women were objects means to announce servants or pleasure, and that was it, right, and Abram recognizes when he goes to these pagan places they might just kill him to get to her, and so there's no concern here, this isn't just nonsense, however, Abram's fear is not for Sarah, let's just make that clear, and his fear is not, and I've read the commentaries, all Abram so believed the promise of God that through him would come the promise he knew he had to protect his life no matter what, and it was his great faith in the promise of God that led him to, now, the technical rebuttal for that argument is hogwash, that's not in it all, we invent inferences and possible implications of the text when the text tells us the reason why he did what he did, verse 12, therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you they will say, this is his wife and they will kill me and they will literally cause you to live, oh they will preserve your life, I'll just let you live, verse 13, please say, I like this and have the emphatic in the Hebrew, Abram's going to have Sarah with his hat in his hand, he's asking her something that is wicked and he knows him, he has no right to ask for this, she has every right, in fact I would even say the duty to decline, no husband can ask his wife to lie or hide the truth and expect her to do it if she loves the Lord, she loves the Lord, she's going to say no, get behind me, say, because that's what he's actually doing, but Sarah said as much less than Abram, she goes along with it, Abram's one he planted it, did it, is leading her into it, so he has many more aggravations and he does it again for himself, notice again, verse 13, please say, you are my sister, that it may be well with me, not that the promise may come to pass, not that you may be okay, that it may be well with me and he even says it on account of you, because of you for your sake and then he says it again and that I may live on account of you, because of you for your sake, you're too pretty, so we've got to do this and Sarah goes along with it unfortunately, so he's led Sarah now into dissembling their merits, all the commentators agree that Abram is in the wrong, that once you get past the ancient ones who always defend the safe, no matter what, there's always a reason why what they do what they do, and I understand the mindset there, but we really needed the Protestant reformers were great at this, they called out the sins of the sins, because they aren't special super Christians, they sin too, and that's something we need to know, Abram sins dreadfully here, James the Fossil Brown, the Solid Evangelical Conservative Commentary at the end of the 1800s, quote Abram's council was a deception, intended to give an impression that she was no more than a sister, because that's what everybody's going to think, he sins and he tempts Sarah to sin, and quote Calvans says this quote, he sinfully betrays the modesty of his wife, when he dissembles the fact that she was his wife, another dissembles to cover up under a false appearance, if he says she's a sister, everyone's going to not, or think that she's not his wife, just as you think oh she's my sister, she can't be my mother too, right, she's a sister, she can't be his wife, and that's what he wants everyone to think, Calvans says when he dissembles the fact that she was his wife, he deprives her charity of its legitimate defense, anybody who can take her now as a woman to be their wife, and not realize they've done something wrong, especially in that day when, especially when ancient pagan kings in the east would take a woman from a house, and the father could say nothing, and the mother could say nothing, and the siblings could say nothing, if it was his divine right by prerogative to add her to his haram, even the Romans hated the east for their luxury because of that, the Romans could did away with that multiple wives, but to go on, Matthew Henry dissembling his relations to Sarai, he equivocates concerning it, listen to this, teaching his wife and all the servants to do so also, not only is he tempting Sarai to sin, causing her to sin, all the servants now have to pretend like Abram and Sarai are not married, oh yeah the brother and sister, yeah this is the brother quarter, they all have to pretend like it now, they all have to go along with it, how many people is he causing to sin because of his fear? Matthew Henry notice that all this servants to do so, what he said was in a sense true we do know that they have the same father their half siblings, by the way Abram doesn't say that though doesn't, tell people you're my half sister because then that would leave open the possibility that you could be married because at that time the population being less that was still a range of acceptability, and we've looked at that in the earlier chapters of Genesis I'm not going to go back into that, if that wasn't a sense true but with the purpose to deceive, why he's saying, tell people you're my sister so they won't take your my wife which is the truth situation that you want to hide, you want them to believe something false with a purpose to deceive, he so concealed a further truth as an effect to deny it, Matthew Henry says and to expose thereby listen to this, both his wife and the Egyptians to sin, not only his wife, not only his servants, but the Egyptians not, are going to be tempted to sin and it happens, they start giving Abram all this well because they think Sarah is single and they're purchasing her dowry which is what you would do and that's wrong and of course Pharaoh himself could give an adultery with her and that's wrong Abram's doing all and yes we say there's some truth in it, there's some truth in what he said, the best liars know that the best way to lie is to put a little bit of truth in it, that's how false teachers and heretics have their audience right, well some of the things they say are true, well sure nobody can say everything false, Satan doesn't even do that, there's got to be some truth in what you said and what happens is people begin to read these false teachers, their guards down, they become enamored with them, they become oiled to them and they defend them and they lead others astray and Abram is the source of leading people astray, the man of God, the father of the faithful, when he introduces Sarah as his sister he knows immediately they're going to think she's not his wife which is a lie, she is his wife and that's what Abram's and it looks like his plan is to prove it, look at it in verse 14, so it was when Abram came into Egypt the Egyptian saw the woman that she was very beautiful just like he knew they would,
but then something happens that Abram did not intend, verse 15, the princes of Pharaoh also saw Sarah, he wasn't thinking about that, he's thinking about himself, I don't want to die, we'll live if we do this, just make our way through, but because he was thinking about himself and his passions for his own selfishness and cowardice, the Egyptian princes are the same way, they're thinking of themselves and their own passions and they're of sequest flatters to great Pharaoh, so they want to get on Pharaoh, so what's the easiest way to get on Pharaoh's side, point out all the beautiful women that come in Egypt, so he can put them in his harem and since you found her for him, you become the number one guy, he's going to give your little section its lower tax rate or something for a while, and so that's what the princes of Pharaoh did, they let him know, they want to be the first ones to let him know, so they can get the reward for bringing the latest beautiful girl into the harem of Pharaoh, and in verse 15, do not make a mistake, the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house as a wife, as a wife, verse 19 makes you clear, it doesn't say this in the New King James again, unfortunately, where Pharaoh says, why did you say she is my sister, I might have taken her as a wife, that's not what it says, it says and I took literally in the Hebrew and I took her to me for a wife, I took her for a wife, she's added to the harem, now he doesn't consummate the marriage yet, there's probably going to be a ceremony before that happens, thank God, God protected Sarai, but the new American standard, the ESB, even the old NIV says, so that I took her for a wife, that's accurate, he did take her for a wife, that's why she went into his house, there's no holding place for the ancient kings, the women are theirs but not wives, she is to be his wife, she is his wife, and he took her already, all right, probably 29, 25 says the fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe, Abram has fallen into the snare because he feared man and he did not trust in God, and so I want you to notice thirdly the faithfulness of God, I want you to notice the faithfulness of God, Abram's wife is now part of Pharaoh's harem, and Abram's getting rich because Pharaoh is paying this huge dollar to Abram, and it says he treated Abram well for her sake and it was to him, it just doesn't say he had, I'm very disappointed with the new king James and several of these firsts, and it was to him, again the new American standard says, and he gave him, Pharaoh gave him, male donkeys, female donkeys, camel sheep, oxen, male servants, female servants, Pharaoh is giving Abram all kinds of wealth,
and again that's because that's the tradition he has, he is purchasing this man's sister because that's what he said, and so Abram has deceived the Egyptians and he's getting wealthy by deception, but let's look at it from another angle, the church in the world, Abram being the church, each of being the world, are in harmony here, they're in peace, the world has what it wants, the church is prospering and even being blessed by the world, by their one right, where we finally got back to the Tower of Babbo and that's the goal right, we're all going to get a long world in church, we want to be Tower of Babbo again, that's the supreme hope of much of the church, unfortunately the progressive church, yeah everything's great, if there's peace they're satisfying each other's needs, the only slight difficulty with it is that Sarah's virtue is about to be violated at any moment, Pharaoh is going to commit adultery and Sarah is going to be forced to commit adultery and Abram is getting rich off of a lie, she is something that she's not, or she's not something that she is, she's not as white, but she is as white, they would never be paying, so all this has happened, beloved, Proverbs 10-22, the blessings of the Lord makes one rich and he adds no sorrow with it, Proverbs are not assilates, Proverbs don't speak in terms of it's always this way, Proverbs speak in terms of human wisdom, ordinarily in human wisdom it's God's blessing that makes one's here it's Abram's lie, all right, sometimes it turns out that way, and he adds no sorrow to it, you don't think Abram is sorrowful, not knowing what's going to happen, you don't think Sarah is sorrowful, about to be violent in this court with all these pagan women, about to become the latest,
the blessing of the Lord makes one rich and he adds no sorrow with it usually, that's the case, not always, Proverbs 10-2, treasures of wickedness profit, nothing, but righteousness delivers from death, Abram has been delivered from death by his lie, and he is prospering a lot in his wickedness, again, Proverbs don't promise absolutes, only false teachers say that, can't build an absolute promise of God on a proverb that has to do with the way wisdom usually works in this world, and if you think your works can call down God's blessing by doing a proverb, you're trusting in your works, you're legalists, I came through this school of thought, the health gospel, the wealth gospel, they look at these Proverbs about promising wealth, if you do this, promising health, if you do this, well if you just do that, you'll have to have health in wealth because they're absolute promises, and these poor excuses for exit seats don't understand that you have to look at the genre of scripture, and proverb is not didactic, doctrinal teaching is the way of wisdom, sometimes you have to speak to a fool, and sometimes you don't speak to a fool, except the proverb doesn't say sometimes, but you have to assume that, because that's what Proverbs are, they don't speak in absolute, they give wisdom, proverbial, this is the way things usually go, but sometimes the fact of the matter is evil pays off, and the wicked prosper, it happens, there's an entire Psalm written about it, Psalm 73 is Psalm a base out, the first Psalm in the third book of the Psalms, one of my favorite Psalms, truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart, but as for me my feet nearly stumbled, my steps almost slip when I saw the prosperity of the wicked, and how they're always at ease, and how everyone, the song goes on, verse for a dozen verses, and how wonderful the wicked have it, oftentimes that is the case. Temporarily so, and the fact of the matter is sometimes wickedness pays, and Abram is experiencing that, so up until now we've been seeing Abram's plan in action, and on the horizontal it's been working good, other than the fact that he's about to lose his white, white, but some commentators actually speculate here that maybe if God wouldn't have stepped in, Abram might never have left Egypt, he's getting rich, Sarah is going to become a princess, you know there's worse lives than that, he can find another wife, he hadn't happened he's showed me in any way, in fact he's going to become a prince in Egypt with his sister being Pharaoh's wife, he's going to have multiple wives, build his own little hair, some commentators actually speculate, would Abram have ever left, if God hadn't stepped in, his life right now is a mess, he has made things a mess, that there's no evidence of faith in anything he's doing, Matthew Henry says it very bluntly, the father of the faithful fell through unbelief and distrust of divine providence, listen to this, even after God had appeared to him, our text says it, Hebrews says he appeared to him in Caldria, our text says he appeared to him in the land, what God appeared to him twice, and Abram is faithless in Egypt, well he's got reasons, he's got aggravations, it's scary, but he's faithless, do you think you're better than Abraham? Do you think you would do better than the father of the faithful, that you would have done better? Abram is faithless, I know teachers who say your faithfulness can and must fulfill the promises of God for you, for your wealth, for your help, if you're not wealthy or healthy you don't have enough faith, kids didn't get saved, you didn't have enough faith, you weren't faithful in them, God's made these absolute promises, he's delegated conversion of your children to you, that's absolute apostasy and falsehood, the Holy Spirit blows as he wishes, you see the sound of it, but you don't know where he comes or where he goes, so is everyone born in the Spirit, nobody calls down that work of God and nobody can look at to someone and say, well you're suffering therefore you're sending or you're prospering therefore you're obeying, that's not the way life works, any teacher says your faithfulness can fulfill the promise of God is chaining you to hell because you're going to trust in your works and you can't be saved if you trust in your works, you know if we can take all of our best works, our best faithfulness and boil it down and then boil it down again and if you could put it in a thimble and offer it to God, your best of the best, right? Purify, concentrate goodness of your whole life, what should God give you for it? Hell, how can you purchase anything with faithfulness? How can it come anyway but by God's grace? We don't deserve it, we are not any better than Abram the father of the faithful who is in this text again, faithless if you think you have anything to offer God or think you've done anything by which God has to do something for you, you do not know your sins or you do not know that God is utterly holy and he can't even look upon sin, let alone blessings and link his promise to it, your sinful obedience and faithfulness. The father of the faithful has abandoned the word of God, he had good intentions, his plan now seven verses ten to sixteen, the plan of Abraham, here it is. Thank God, in verse 17 another plan, interrupts Abram's mess, verse 17, some of the most treasured words in scripture, but the Lord, hey, we're going to do this and Sarah and Abram are going to do this and look they're getting this, but the Lord, God says enough, God steps in, verse 17, and he plagued Pharaoh in his house with great place, don't you want to know what happened here? Doesn't tell us, we don't know what God did, we know why God did it because of Sarah, Abram may have thrown Sarah to the wolves, but God's going to protect her, it was because of Sarah, wasn't because of Abram, it was because of Sarah, God plagued Pharaoh's house with great place, and we don't know what Pharaoh learned from that, we don't know if God spoke to Pharaoh in a dream, like he does say in Biblical later when Abram pulls the same thing, we don't know if maybe when he's getting into bed with Sarah, Sarah finally breaks down a societal married woman, because the only thing he says is that you're a married woman to Abram, he never says anything about legs or about God, revealing him or about God, doesn't he? The only thing he ever says to Abram, look at it, and Pharaoh called Abram, verse 18 and said, what is this that you have done to me? You know what is God doing in legs? Why didn't you tell me she was your wife? But then the third question, I might have taken her, and again I told you, so that I took her to me as a wife, for a wife which shows that it had been consummate. You know, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter what God did, it doesn't matter how Pharaoh knows what we know, what we learn, what we see in the text, is God was faithful when Abram was not, and that is your hope Christian, that is your only hope, that God will be faithful when you are not, and even in your best faithfulness there's plenty of unfaithfulness, I hope you know that. God was faithful, Abram was not God saved, his sinning servant, 2nd Timothy 2, 13, for if we are faithless, he remains faithful, he cannot deny himself, I want you to go home tonight today, and thank God that his promises do not in any way depend upon you or faithfulness, thank God, because you wouldn't get any, but how? Thank God that he is faithful. The Christian who hopes in his faithfulness is lost, confess your unfaithfulness, even in your best works and trust in Christ alone for grace alone, and when he gives it, give him all the praise and all the honor and all the glory, because you did nothing to get. We don't earn a drop of grace, grace is always an ever unmerited favor that we don't deserve, when are we going to learn that? This is the faithfulness of our God, fourthly in last day, I want you to notice the grace of salvation, the grace of salvation, trying to hurry here. The last three verses, as we looked at briefly, where Pharaoh dresses down, Abram are just a rebuke, it's a rebuke, Pharaoh is not looking for information, he's stating questions that by the nature of them shame the person who is being addressed. And Abram is put to shame before this noble king. Yes, he is the one who appears noble in this text. Pharaoh is noble, Pharaoh is upright, Pharaoh is unselfish, Pharaoh honors others, Pharaoh respects marriage. Abram is a scoundrel, scoundrel caught in a cowardly, deceptive scheme by which he threw his wife to the wolves. When he was made rich in the process, Calvin says, this is why Abram is silent. Quote, he knew he was suffering the due punishment of his folly, he deserved to be rebuke by a pagan king, because this is how far that he is from. Calvin says, he deserves this. He's acted like a worldly person, he's trusted in the ways of the world. Let's come up with this worldly scheme. It's a deception, dissembling, hiding the truth. That's how we protect it in the world. Do we do that? Do we ever do that? Do you ever do that? I'm going to do this to work things out in the world. Oh, it's a lie. It's selfish, it's prideful. We've got to trust in the Lord. What does Pharaoh do? The moment he learns, Sarai is married. Oh, he goes and kills her husband so that he can have her, right? That's what Abram said she would do, what he would do. No, he immediately returns her to her husband, because he doesn't want to commit adultery. There's enough common grace for him to recognize that. He doesn't want to take a man's wife and marry. He says, I might have taken her from my wife. I have taken her really, but I could have consummate it. I could have made her my wife and fooled. She's in my hair. I'm waiting. What were you doing? What were you thinking? He rebukes Abram precisely because he respects marriage and he thinks adultery is evil and he doesn't want to commit it. And far from killing Abram, the last course of our attacks you might not pick it up in the English, but where it says Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had, that means Pharaoh marched Abram and his wife and his servant and all that he had, by the way, he takes none of it back. He takes none of it back. That's how honorable Pharaoh is. He gave it to Abram, he's not taking it back. Abram has to take back his wife because it's his wife. He lied. But Pharaoh literally marches Abram to the border with guards so that no one can touch him so that no one can touch his stuff, the thing he was afraid of. Pharaoh provides Egyptian guards. They take him to the border and no doubt they say, now leave. We don't let people like you and Egypt. We're a little bit more outstanding of a country than you. And he deserved that rebukes because that's the way he acted. He acted like a scoundrel, like an unbeliever. And it's the Egyptians who come off more righteous. All the commentators pick up on that. And yeah, God rescues Abram. God protects Abram, saves him, sends flags on Pharaoh who doesn't realize he's doing anything wrong. And then at the end he gives Abram so much more blessing. Abraham leaves Egypt much wealthier than he entered it. Much like Israel will do many years later. Proverbs, chapter 13 verse 18, poverty and disgrace come to him who ignores instruction, apparently not always. Apparently not an asset. Proverbs never are. Abraham ignored instruction and far from poverty and disgrace he got rich. And God allowed him to keep them all in the sovereignty of God. But he who he's approved his honor. Abraham gets approved by Pharaoh. He's not honored. He's distressed. He leaves Egypt with his tail between his legs because that proverb doesn't always come to pass you. Sometimes wisdom doesn't turn out. Sometimes sin wrinkles it. The complexities of life. Abraham leaves shamed, humbled, a sinner who does not deserve grace and God bless them in the midst of it. Now please and I want to wrap this up soon. But please don't leave saying, you know, I heard Pastor Heipel preach this sermon on how Abram just continued to sin and God blessed him more and more. You know what I'm going to do? Sometimes God does rescue us in the midst of our sins and blesses us in spite of our sin. In fact, I can't say this. There's never been a time when you haven't been blessed in any degree in spite of your sin because you're always a sinner. Right? Always. So that's always the case. And yet Abram does not presumptuously, does not plan to go down to Egypt to tell this lie to get rich. This all happened because he foolishly trusted in himself and in his own deception to try to protect himself and it led to a mass. But that's a big difference than presuming upon God that if I sin, God's going to bless me, that is not what Abram did. It turns out that that's what God did and maybe God might do that to you, but I wouldn't count on it and I wouldn't put God to the test. I would not. I can tell you this many times in my life, God has blessed me in spite of my sin. And all I can do is put up my hands and say, why me, who am I that used to do anything for me when I continually rebel against you? Love at Abram left truly. How would the galley was humbled before Sarai's life? How could she look at him in the face of him? He suffered her to go to Pharaoh's haram and it was Pharaoh that rescued him. Think of all his servants would look at him. What the heck was our master doing in Egypt? What was that about? As they're escorting them out of the city, get out of here. You're too much of a scoundrel for Egypt. Think of how he is lowered in the eyes of the servants and in the eyes of his wife. He's truly humbled but I'll tell you what, God blessed him in spite of his sin. And it's the lesson that Abram had to learn and that we have to learn. Beloved, we do not keep ourselves. God keeps you in spite of yourself. And God is faithful when we, and we always are to some degree, our faithless. Let's pray. Our Father and Heaven, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you for unmerited grace. Lord, we cry out to you. We are not worthy of the least of your mercies and yet you shower us with mercies every day and blessings and honor and one thing goes wrong and we cry out, where is God? Oh God, help us to humble ourselves before you. To even just begin to weigh our unworthiness that we would treasure the mercies and the graces that you renew to us every morning more than we could count. And most of all, we have the promise and the blessing of eternal life, salvation, righteousness, forgiveness of sins. We have that promise and that reality right now. And when we die, we will be with you. So Father, help us to believe and to live humble, obedient, life, fearing you and not men in Jesus' name. Amen.