If you don't have Bibles, you can find today's text on the back of your announcement sheet and before we actually begin, let me pray for us. Lord Jesus, I pray now that you would come and open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf, that they might hear the gospel, that they might hear about your initiative, your deliverance and your perseverance with us. We thank you. We praise you, your name, amen. Well, if you are a visiting, this is the third part in a series I began a few weeks ago on the life of Abraham. And just to give you a little method behind my madness, two weeks ago, if you remember, I began with what is basically the prologue to the life of Abraham. And in the prologue of the life of Abraham, God comes to him and he makes him these great promises. He said, Abraham, he says, go out of your land and leave your family and go into the land I will show you and I will make you a great nation and I will bless you. And he says, and I will make you a blessing to all the families on the earth and those who bless you, I will bless you and those who curse you, I will curse. He makes him this great promise and you remember last week what I did is I went to the new testament and I looked at history's perspective on Abraham. What I did was I wanted you to see the prologue that God initiated with Abraham. And I wanted you to see if you will the epilogue that God finished the job that in history's estimation that Abraham ham is a hero, that he was a hero because of his faith. Now, the reason that I did that is because if you don't understand either the prologue or the epilogue, if you begin to look at Abraham's life, it can be very disappointing. Because as soon as he is called, he immediately drops the ball. He's much like you and me. As soon as Abraham steps foot out of the land of earth, he begins to screw up. And as soon as Abraham's life is basically defined from now on, we're going to see his life is defined by unbelief, it's defined by scheming and at every point he jeopardizes the promise that God has made to him. On the other hand, you will see in the life of Abraham that every time Abraham screws up, every time he jeopardizes the promise that God intervenes. Because why? God is more committed to the promise than Abraham is. You see, and you need to know that about Abraham because it's the same way with you. That God always initiates with you and me, sinners, and he always finishes the job. And as we seek to walk through life in the middle and the middle between the beginning and the end, your life will be full of screw-ups and sin and scheming and stubbing your toe. But the question is, where is God in all of this? And so today we're going to begin looking at Abraham's life really practically out work. And Abraham's life today, today's text is very interesting. It's sort of an A&E version of the movie in decent proposal. When I mean A&E, I don't mean arts and entertainment, I mean ancient Near East. Do you remember the movie in decent proposal? I didn't think it was very good, but nonetheless, in decent proposal, Demi Moore, Diana and Woody Harrelson, David are this couple and they've everything going for them, she is beautiful. And they basically get themselves up to their necks in debt, remember they buy ocean property and everything is wonderful. And then a recession hits, right? The sort of modern day version of famine, famine hits, and they don't know what they're going to do. They don't know how to take care of it, they don't know how to pay for their house. And so immediately, what is he trying to do? He begins the scheme. And so he goes and he borrows $5,000 from his father. They need 50. And with this $5,000, he goes to Vegas and he thinks we can parlay the $5,000 into enough money and they lose it. And you remember in the process, they eat John Gage, Robert Redford. Hello. They meet Robert Redford and remember he's a millionaire, a billionaire, a financeer, and he offers that if Diana will only spend one night with him, he will give them a million dollars and all of their problems will be solved. And then they do what is what CS Lewis calls is the greatest sin that of rationalization. Remember they begin to rationalize and they say, well, if you sleep with him, it really won't change anything, right? We'll just forget it. We'll forget that it ever happened and we'll be rich afterwards. It won't make any difference. And she does it. And guess what? Changes everything. The problems are infinitely bigger than they were when they began. And you see, that's what we're going to see today with Abraham. Abraham is a schemer. And so today, as we look at Abraham's life, we'd be thinking about this. Look it. If you look at today's text, let me read it to you. Genesis 12, where is that thing? Genesis 12. Genesis 12, 10 through 20. It says, now there was a famine in the land, so Abraham went down to Egypt to soldier in there for the famine was severe in the land. It came about when he was near to Egypt that he said to Sarah, his wife, see now, I know that you are a beautiful woman. And when the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his wife. And they will kill me and they will let you live. Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you and that I may live on account of you. And it came about when Abraham came into Egypt that the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful and Pharaoh's official saw her and praised her to Pharaoh and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. Therefore, he treated Abraham well for her sake and gave him sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels. But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. Then Pharaoh called Abraham and said, what is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me she was your wife? Why did you say she is my sister so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go. Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him and they escorted him away with his wife and all that belonged to him. You said, I read a review of an indecent proposal on the internet yesterday. And you know, for one, the guy thought it was a good movie for two. I think he is asking the wrong question. He said, this movie indecent proposal poses the greatest question of all time. What are we willing to do for money? You see, that is not the greatest question of all time. I think the greatest question is what are we willing to do when we are desperate? When we are desperate without hope, what are we willing to do to sort of cover ourselves? What are we willing to do to try and save ourselves? That is what we are going to look at today with Abraham because that is the question that confronts Abraham this morning. So if you look at your text, the first point is this. It is basically the folly of self-sufficiency. Point 1, if you are a notetaker, that is why I say these things. The folly of self-sufficiency. What happens to Abraham? Think about it. Abraham, God has made him this great promise. He has sent him to the land of Canaan and in the land of Canaan immediately there is a famine. So there is a famine which means everyone might starve and so Abraham has two options now. At least two options. He has the option one of trusting God, of having faith. There could have been a famine and he could have said, you know what, honey? To Sarah, honey? God said that he was going to take care of us and we are going to stay right here like he said. Now he could have done that. The other option of course is what? It is rationalization. He could have said, I know that God promised us if we stay here, he would take care of us. However, there is food in Egypt. So if we go down to Egypt, God certainly doesn't mind. God helps those who help themselves. So we will help God and we will actually go down to Egypt and we will stay there for a while. The word sojourn doesn't mean he went to live there. He is just going to hang out and make good and then go back to the land of promise. So there is the problem right there. You see what would Israel be thinking at this point? If Israel were reading this text and Abram is thinking to himself, they are sort of reading it at a dramatic reading and it says, now Abram thought to go down to Egypt. It would have been like when Judy and I were at Florida State, we used to go to the dollar theater by my apartment, the varsity. And the great beauty of the varsity was not that movies were cheap, but it was a completely interactive experience. The people would yell at the screen and they would advise the characters on what they should do. And so imagine Israel reading this and hearing Abraham thinking about going down into Egypt, what would Israel have said? So do it, they would have screamed at the screen, don't do nothing good, can come out of Egypt. It's up to you Sam. And sorry, one of our members gives me a hard time about Egypt. They said nothing good comes out of Egypt, don't do it. And yet what does Abram do? He does it. He goes into Egypt. And as soon as he gets to Egypt, he started with this thing and what we see immediately as we go into Egypt is Abram's tragic flaw. You see, the tragic flaw in the Bible is completely different than anything you see in the movies because you see when you watch movies or read books, what is the great tragic flaw? Usually the character is very self-sufficient. The character is perfect in every single way, but he maybe like Clint Eastwood and played Misty for me. Right? He's a perfect policeman, but he has this sort of pornography habit on the side. And that's his fatal tragic flaw. When you went in the Bible, you know what the greatest tragic flaw is? It's self-sufficiency. You see in the Bible, in the movies everyone is perfect, but they have one thing wrong with them. What the Bible teaches is that all of us are completely utterly screwed up and what is wrong with us, generally speaking, is we try and take care of ourselves. Our tragic flaw is self-sufficiency. And that's what Abram's doing. And so he goes down into Egypt. And as soon as he gets there, what does he do? He realizes I may have made a mistake. They're going to look at my wife and say she is beautiful. And so what does he do? He begins to scheme and he says, OK, here's what's going to happen. They're going to say you're beautiful and they're going to want to kill me and take you. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to tell them you're my sister. Now this is very important for you to get because for one, in the ancient Near East, this would have been a big deal because it would have been the custom for if Abram would have gone in there and they would have said, who is this beautiful woman? And he said, this is my sister. They would immediately begin negotiating with him as if he were her father. And so they would negotiate with him and they would pay him great dowries. And while they weren't looking, he would get to scram back to the land of Canaan. And you need to realize also that this happens three times in the book of Genesis. So Abram, apparently this was his modus operandi. As he traveled around, when he met people and said, oh, this is my sister. Don't touch her. And so he goes in and what happens? He takes a gamble. And he thinks, OK, we're going to tell him you're my sister. And as soon as he goes there, what happens? Pharaoh's official see her and they take her. They take her. They don't negotiate. You see what happened? He gambled and he schemed and he lost. And what should scream out at you from this text is not the hubris of the Egyptians for violating ancient Near Eastern customs. What should scream out at you from this text is the fact that Abraham does not say a word. He doesn't say anything. Several times in this text, he has had a chance to believe God's promise and to call upon him. But when Pharaoh comes and takes his wife, he has a chance to do one of two things. He could have cried out to God. God, you promised me. You promised that you would take care of me. You promised that you would give me children. And this is my wife. You can't let them take her. Or he could have said to Pharaoh. Pharaoh? The Lord God of heaven and earth promised me that whoever blesses me will be blessed. And whoever curses me will be cursed. And he doesn't do it. Why? Because Abraham is behaving the same way that we behave after some huge moral failure. He is either too afraid or he is too embarrassed to ask for help. Imagine. Here is a guy with whom God had intervened. God had chased him down and said all nations are going to be defined by what they do by you and he goes in and basically sells his wife for a bunch of sheep and camel. And you've got to imagine, of course, it says that Pharaoh took her for his wife. It's not clear whether or not Pharaoh slept with her. But that doesn't matter. Do you think Abraham thought about that? He has lost everything. He has jeopardized the promise. He has lost his wife. He doesn't have a thing to his name. And he's embarrassed. And the question is, what do you do when you're beyond hope? What do you do when you're so embarrassed and things are so desperate and bad that you don't know what to do and your situation is hopeless? And the answer is easy. You can't do anything. However, enter the hero. God. You see, the next point is simply this. It's the butt, the UT of God, the butt of God in verse 17. You know, whenever you're reading Hebrew literature, you need to notice this. When you're reading through the Old Testament, you'll see great despair and great wickedness and then right after when the hero comes, the word butt is used. Like if you read through David and Saul, remember Saul was a very wicked king and he was ungodly and all these things. And you'll hear this great long story about Saul and he'll say, but David. David was comely in appearance. David was a ready young man. It'll say Goliath was nasty and uncircumcised philistine, but David. And here you see that Abraham is a schemer and unbeliever. He's a rationalizer. He has blown everything and he's beyond hope and beyond help and despairing beyond belief. But God. But the Lord, rain down plagues upon Pharaoh. You see, the message of the gospel is this is that when we are hopeless and when we're in despair, there's nothing you can do to help yourself, not a thing. And because of that, God must come in. Imagine Abraham thinking. Imagine what he was thinking. If God did show up, how do you think he would imagine God was going to treat him? I'm guessing he imagined that he would be punished or he would have a spanking, but you know what? God did not have to spank Abraham. You know why? Because the natural consequences of his actions were punishment enough. Think about this. If you were around my house for more than an hour, you would probably hear the following scenario several times. Mercy get down from there. And then two seconds later, you would hear and screaming, screaming, screaming, screaming. And when Mercy climbs up on a chair that I told her not to climb up on, and she falls off of the chair and breaks her head and is bleeding. And I run up to her. What do I say to her? Do I walk up to her and fold my arms to go? Yep. I told you. Not only that, Mercy, as soon as you finish bleeding and as soon as it swelling goes down, I got something else for you. I want you to go upstairs and just wait. No, that's silly. Abraham is a child of God. And as a child of God, when Abraham screws up beyond belief when he disobeys and bunks his head, God does not run in and say, I told you so. God runs in with Abraham, the same way that I run in from Mercy and Abby and Flannery. I embrace them and I comfort them and I do letter them. And you see, that's the gospel. You see, the cross, God, God is in the business of smiting or killing that which oppresses us. Now, here's the problem. Pharaoh oppressed Abraham, but the thing that oppresses us is our sin. The Israel was enslaved to Egypt. We are enslaved. The New Testament says to sin. So if God is going to rain plagues upon that which enslaved us, guess where that leaves you in need? The fairly desperate situation you see. But the message of the gospel is this, that Jesus came. And instead of raining plagues upon you, instead of raining plagues upon that which oppresses us, our sin, Jesus rained, God rained all of the plagues he had, all of the anger he could muster, all of the justice he had, and he rained it down, not upon you who deserved it, but upon Jesus who did not deserve it. But Jesus bore our plagues. Jesus was the one who was smitten on our behalf. And so the biggest question that all of us have to ask, whether you're a Christian or a non-Christian is this, what do I have to do with this event that happened across? Did Jesus really intervene on my behalf? Did Jesus really bear the curse for me? Did Jesus bear the wrath of God on my behalf? And if he did, what does that mean? Whether you're a Christian or non-Christian, you have to ask yourself that question. And if you did that, what that means is that all of your sins are not only forgiven, but they are killed if you will, they are dead. But it means much more than that. It means that you're now free. It means that you are free. You see, if the last point here is simply the freedom of the gospel, look at the end, verses 17 through 20 says, but the Lord struck Pharaoh in his house with great plagues because of Sarah Abram's wife. And then 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 so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife, takering go. Pharaoh commanded his main concerning him and they escorted him away with his wife and all that belonged to him. You see, most commentators make a big deal out of the fact that here is Abraham being rebuked by an unbeliever. How shameful that should be that a believer has to be rebuked by a pagan. There is a sense in which there is a truth to that. You remember a couple of weeks ago the article in the stranger, Christ the Paloza, where Rick Levine went to, he is an unbeliever. He is not proud of it. He is very honest about that. He went out to visit Creation Fest and while he was there, he is an unbeliever who was sick and why? He would say, even though I am not a Christian, as I go to this thing, there has to be more to the Christian faith in selling WWE T-shirts. Or would you take a bullet for Jesus, T-shirts and pep rallies for Jesus? He says that this whole thing is true at all. It must be infinitely bigger than this. What I think is that the people who are there don't really get it. You know, I think he is right and you need to hear that and you need to think, how am I perceived by the unbelieving world? There is something here, however, that is much bigger than Pharaoh's rebuke of Abraham. And what is much bigger, what screams in its silence is this. Listen to what God says. He doesn't say anything. God does not say anything. He delivers Abraham and you would expect. You would expect some sort of petty I told you so. You would expect some kind of Abraham, just wait until we get back to the land of Canaan-Pal. When we get home, you are in trouble. He doesn't say a word to him. Why? Because God's goal in delivering us is not shaming us into following Him. His goal in delivering us is not shaming us into some kind of faux obedience. God's goal in delivering us is freedom. You know, the other night, I'm reading the Wizard of Oz to Abbey and Flannery at night and the other night we were reading and we got to the point where Dorothy threw the water on the witch. It's different than the movie. Because you see in the book at least what makes the wicked witch of the West so nasty is not that she's ugly, although she is and not that she has warts and these kinds of things. What makes the wicked witch of the West so nasty is that she gets people and she makes them into her slaves, particularly the winkeys. The winkeys are her slaves. And Dorothy goes, she leaves the Emerald City and the people say, what are you doing? And she says, I'm going to kill the witch. And they said, be careful because she will make you her slave too. And I was reading this to Abbey and Flannery and Dorothy gets an argument for which and she throws water on her and the witch melts and I began to cry. And of course, Abbey and Flannery said, why are you crying? And I said, girls, let me ask you a question. I said, Dorothy, what makes the witch so nasty? And she says, the girls said, will they make people her slaves? And I said, girls, when the witch is dead, are they slaves anymore? And they said, no. And I said, when the witch is dead, this Dorothy who killed the witch come and makes them her slaves. No. I said, how does Dorothy feel about the fact that she got to free the winkeys? And they said, she's happy. And I said, okay, girls. Right, now at this point I'm standing up, okay. I said, what is that? What is the thing that makes us slaves? And they said, sin. And I said, so think about it. If Jesus comes and he throws water on our sin and he melts it away, what does that mean? And they got it. They said, we're free. And I said, that's right, you're free. Scream it from the rooftops. Free it last. Free it last. I'm free. You see the message of the gospel is this, that Jesus has come in the midst of your scheming, in the midst of your despair, in the midst of your helplessness and he melts the witch. He kills your sin. And if your sin is killed, you are no longer enslaved to it. And here's the beautiful part. He doesn't hold it against you. He doesn't say, now you're my slave. What he says is now you are free. And not only that, but I am happy. Jesus delights himself that he gets to save sinners like us. I'll close with that. Let me pray. Jesus, I pray now that you would simply come and you would apply this your word to our hearts that you in some sense would help us to understand what it means to be delivered from sin. And not only that, but to see you is not someone who holds it against us, but in fact someone who's happy. Glad to do it. We thank you and praise you in your name. Amen.