Talk with you some, but we're very, very glad to have you.
I want you to turn to Genesis 11 this morning, and I want to read the last few verses of that chapter as I begin this lesson this morning. The text tells us, "This is the genealogy of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor and Haran. Haran begot Lot. And Haran died before his father, Terah in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans. Then Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarah, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah. But Sarah was barren; she had no child. And Terah took his son, Abraham, and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter in law, Sarah, his son Abraham's wife, and they went out with them from Ur the Chaldeans to the go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. So, the days of Tyra were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran."
This is our introduction to Abram. We commonly know him as Abraham. His name is changed. That's documented for us in Genesis 17, that his name was changed from Abram to Abraham. But in these few verses that I've read, really all we know is that Terah was Abram's father, that Nahor and Haran were his brothers. That Lot was Haran son, which would make him Abraham's nephew. That Sarah was Abraham's wife and she was barren, that would play a pretty significant role in the life of Abraham and Sarah and us, for that matter. Terah takes his family and heads towards the land of Canaan, but only gets to Haran. And in Haran, he dies. And then the text in Genesis 12 changes everything. Genesis 12 indicates that the Lord had spoken to Abraham in Ur too. Chapter 12 and verse one says, "Now the Lord had said to Abraham." Indicates that he had said it prior to what stated in Genesis 12. Iin verse four of the same text, "so, Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him." It seems as though God had spoken to Abram prior to what he had said to him in Haran. But again, we don't know that specifically what exactly he said. In Acts the Seventh Chapter, here's what the text says, as Stephen is giving his defense before the High Priest. "The high priest said to Stephen, are these things so? And he said, brethren and fathers, listen, the God of glory appeared to our father, Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, Get out of your country and from your relatives and come to a land that I will show you. Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, he moved him to this land in which you now dwell." All that to just say that the transition between Abram coming from Ur of the Chaldees with his father, and then going on to the land of Canaan, not a land that he knew exactly where he was going to but going on to that land, there's a lot in there we don't know. You may be asking, Why did God choose Abraham? We don't know. I don't know of any indication in Scripture that tells me God chose Abraham because of this. But at 75 years old, Abraham leads his family, basically loads up his family, and takes them to a place, that the Bible says, he does not know where he's going. But he takes them some place. Why did God choose Abram? Well, I just said we don't know, and I don't know that it's necessary for us to know, but the Bible really tells us nothing about Abram's life before leaving Haran.
But it's interesting to me that uninspired secular history tells us a lot. There's a lot to be said about Abram's life that the Bible doesn't tell us, I think probably because it's really unimportant to the overall scheme, but I find it interesting, and it may be something that helps us understand a little bit better why Abram did what he did. Apparently Abraham, as he would be called later, rejected idol worship and pagan religion. His father apparently did not do that. One reason, or possibly Terah had gone and was willing to go to the land of Canaan, which was his original intent, possibly because he knew that pagan religion and idol worship was prevalent there, possibly. Again, we don't know that for sure. But there are writings in the second and third century BC and on into the second century AD that are Jewish writings, and they tell us something about what Abraham may have experienced. Pseudepigraphics, writings, that, and that really is the idea of they're falsely ascribed. They're falsely inscribed, so they're not sure who the particular author was, but these things would help us understand, to some degree, whatever they are, not inspired writings, but they may help us understand some insight into why Abraham was like he was. That he felt like this idol worship was empty, and he pleaded with his father. One of those books that we find, that's not inspired, but one of those books that we find is the book of Jubilees. And one of those early chapters in that book, it's stated that Abraham said, "Oh, Father, there is not any spirit in these idols, for they are mute and they are misleading of the heart. Do not worship them. Worship the God of heaven, Who sends down rain and dew from the earth, and who makes everything upon the earth and created everything by His Word. Then all life is in His presence." And this literature, again, that may not, it's not inspired, but like Josephus, we use it as a historical document and use it for whatever advantage we think we can obtain. But Terah, evidently, according to the book of Jubilees, admits Abraham is right. He tells him that he's right, but he's not willing to not worship these idols, for fear that his monotheistic beliefs might damage how his neighbors feel about him and that they might kill him.
These documents even tell us that later, Abraham, in his 60s, set fire to the shrines that his father had accumulated, again, pure speculation. But the fact of the matter is, is that apparently, anyway, Abraham had decided who God really was, who the true God really was, even possibly before Jehovah had called him. And it may be that, in a sense, Abraham called on God to call him. Again, that's speculation, but it could very well be that Abraham had chosen God even prior to God choosing him. As I said before, what we know is that the biblical account is true, but we don't know what really transpired between Abraham and Terah until we have this text read for us in Genesis, 12 stated for us. So, look at that statement. "Now the Lord had said to Abram, Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Now, when God called Abraham, when the true God called Abraham, it may very well have been that Abraham had decided you are the true God, and I've evaluated that, and I have determined that you are the true God, and God says I'm going to call you to do something for me. And all of us are aware of how important Abraham becomes. The story of Abraham now, beginning in Genesis, 12, gets fully documented for several chapters, really through chapter 25. We're told about the story of Abraham and how significant is it to us is that we are called children of Abraham. Romans, four, "Therefore it is a faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all."
There is great significance to the story of Abraham. And I want this morning to mention what I think is a very practical, some very practical points about his faith. And I talk about this from a practical standpoint, and not so much just from a theological standpoint, although it is. It is important about that, and I think that the text would indicate those things to us. But I would suggest that in our minds, when we think of Abraham, we think of faith. If I said to you, what is it that Abraham really teaches us? There could be a variety of things, variety of answers to the question, but I think the issue really is Abraham has faith, and it's the kind of faith that we ought to have. Chapter four, verse 12, I think, indicates that, really, that the entirety of Romans four indicates that. That the faith Abraham, that is something that all of us should have. So, I want this morning to mention just a few things that I think will help us, because I think from time to time, all of us struggle a little bit with faith. I don't know about you, but it seems like, on a weekly basis, I hear about, even among this group, people who are trying to overcome difficulty. And I don't mean by that that they've lost faith. What I mean by that is they're trying to establish what it is that faith can do in their lives. We go through different struggles in our life, and I'm that's going to be one of the fifth, the last point, that I want to make this morning. But I want to mention these things because I'm hoping that one or more of these points can help us as we think about the kind of faith that we need to have, the kind of faith that Abraham had.
So, let me mention these, what I call Abraham's faith, and the steps that he went through. First of all, let me suggest this, that it was rooted in one true god. That may not be as significant to some of us, but I think if you'd lived in Ur of the Chaldees, if you'd moved to Haran, if you would have have been gone to the land of Canaan, where all this pagan worship, where all this idol worship and these false religions were. If you had done what Abraham had done, you would have had faith, and it would have ultimately had to have been rooted in the one true God. In a meeting last week in Lufkin, preached on a theme that I called Considered, Convinced and Convicted, and you'll probably hear a lesson or two in the coming weeks and months about some of that, because several of these lessons were lessons that I delivered for the very purpose of being there, and for some things that they asked me to preach about. Considered, Convinced and Convicted. That's apparently what happened Abraham. In the land where all of these pagan false deities were, Abraham had to be convinced that Jehovah God was the one true God. And if need be, let me suggest this morning, this is probably not as critical for this group, but if you're here this morning, and let me just say it this way, because I don't know. Maybe if you're here this morning and you're not sure about who the true God is. I think sometimes we may possibly not talk about that as much, because we just assume that people among us, and I think accurately so. I think that most among us would certainly believe that He is the true God, and that we've looked at evidence to help us sustain the idea that he's the true God, the conviction that he is the true God. But if you're here this morning and you have questions about that, let me ask you to go back and really consider the evidence. I had a mother whom I have known in the past and has been a friend of mine and Beth. I had a mother last week, tell me about one of her sons, "I am convinced that he is now a non believer." And I asked her further what she meant by that, and she said, "I'm not sure he believes in God." I want you to think about that. Here is a boy who has grown up in a family of four boys, and he has now apparently he has reached a conviction in his own life, or at least a conclusion. I don't know how convicted he is of that, but at least a conclusion that says I'm not sure God does exist. Maybe he's agnostic, maybe he's a full fledged atheist. Maybe he. Simply doesn't believe. But the fact of the matter is folks that can happen, not just in that family, that can happen any family. And she asked me, "What should he do about that?" I said he should do what all of us should do. He should look at the evidence. It's not a question of what I want him to believe. I said it's not a question of what you want him to believe. It's not a question of even what you believe. It's not a question, you may believe in God with all of your heart, but that doesn't mean he will. But you've reached the conclusion because you've studied the evidence. I said the same thing must be true about your son. Just have him go back and look at the evidence. I believe that Abraham was convinced, and it may have been that he was convinced under some difficult circumstances.
Secular history would tell us that his father was not the believer that Abraham was, that his father may have believed it intellectually, but was unwilling to practice it. But Abraham was convinced, and he was convicted. If you're going to have faith, the first thing you have to believe and be convicted about is that God is. But without faith, it's impossible to believe. You've got to believe that God is, Hebrews 11, and that God is a rewarder of those who seek Him. But the very first thing is you have to believe in God and don't just assume that. I think it's wise that in our homes, we talk about it. In our classes, I think especially among our younger people, we deal with what we commonly call evidences or apologetics. I think that is critical. I think it's a vital because in many places, they're not getting what the truth about that is. They're getting what other secular minds are saying, and we have to be careful about that. So, if you're in this audience this morning, and you may have doubt, you just may have doubt about who God is. Let me encourage you to do something objectively and openly, go back and look at the evidence about that and see what conclusions you are willing to reach about that.
Then secondly, let me suggest this, that Abraham believed in God's promises. If I ask you to name the three promises that God gave Abraham, you could name those promises. You'd say, land, nation and seed promise. And I think for the most part, that's an accurate way to describe those things. Land, nation and seed promise. But Abraham saw none of those come to pass. He didn't see any of those come to pass personally. You've ever thought about that? But God did keep some short term promises to him. He gave him a son in his old age. He gave him some things to think about that would say, You can trust me in the short term. You can trust me in the long term as well. And even though he never saw those promises fulfilled in the long term, he believed God's promises. That's what we have to do. Let me so let me simply say to you this morning that part of having the faith of Abraham is you believe in God, but secondly, you believe in the promises that he's made. And sometimes those promises that we so much enjoy, that we so much look forward to, they're not happen yet, and they may not happen in our lifetime. They won't happen. All of them certainly won't happen in our lifetime. But let me ask you a question, do you believe in those promises? Read a little bit further in Hebrews 11, and think about the promises that God made to Abraham, that Abraham never saw, and in some cases, that we still have not seen. Do you believe in those promises?
Thirdly, let me suggest this, that his faith was active. Genesis 15, six and Romans four tells us that Abraham believed God. May I suggest this to you, there is a difference in believing God and trusting God. I think all of us in this audience would say, I believe in God. But do all of us in this audience trust God? There is a difference. Belief is intellectual acceptance to a truth. Belief is saying, I believe this thing. Trust has to do with how much risk we're willing to take based upon our faith. You've heard this. This illustration is far older than I am, but I've heard it. Preachers have used it all through the years, and I think it's, I think it's a good way to show the difference. Belief is accepting the fact that someone could walk across Niagara Falls on a tight rope pushing a wheelbarrow. Trust is being willing to get in the wheelbarrow when that happens. You see the difference? I may say, I believe that can happen, but if I trust the person, if I trust that that can actually happen, I'm willing to get in the wheelbarrow. Those are two different things, because trust has a personal element. Always does. In second, Timothy, one verse 12, Paul says, "I know." Listen to this. "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him." The text says, against that day. We know what that passage says. Paul says, I know whom I have believed. That wasn't just I know that he exists. It said I trust what he says. I know whom I have believed. I am persuaded that he's able to keep what I have committed to Him. That has to do with the promises, that has to do with an active faith that says I'm not only going to believe in who he is, but I'm going to trust who he is. And I will tell you that there are folks here in this audience this morning, on all of us, to some degree or another, that we have active faith, but we have to continue to trust that God's going to do what he says. Those two and three really, in essence, kind of go together.
Let me mention this as number four, his faith was patient. God's promises came years and decades, centuries, and in some sense, his complete promises, in terms of the fulfillment of the seed promise, is going to come even later in the future. Turn over in your Bibles, I don't have this on charts, but I want you to turn to Hebrews six please. Look at Hebrews six beginning in verse 13. Listen to what the Hebrew writer says, this is Hebrews six, verse 13, I want you to turn your Bibles there. I think this would be important to look at while we're reading this. Verse 13, "For when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by Himself, saying, Surely blessing, I will bless you and multiplying, I will multiply you. And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise." After he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. Do you think that you could have done what Abraham did? You know we live so far after the fact of Abraham, I'm not sure. I'm not sure it's saying the same thing, to say that my faith is like Abraham's faith, in the sense of Abraham didn't have a lot of things that we now see and that we now know. He didn't have those things. I'm not sure how much he knew about the Christ who would come, about the Messiah who would come. I don't know how much he knew about that. I just know what he was told and the promises that he was given. I don't know how much of that he understood. I don't know how much of the land promise, how much of the nation promise, how much of the seed promise, he actually understood. But he patiently worked toward that because he trusted in God, and that's what has to happen to us too. We have to have patient faith and just trust that God will do what he says will do.
Let me make this final point this morning. I'm going to read a passage from Romans four just a moment, in just a moment. But I want to read this final passage and make this final point that Abraham's faith struggled, yet it grew. God had promised an error. It was taking a long time. What I find interesting about that is, is that even with his great faith, he decided to help God. You remember that? Sarah decided to help God. She was barren. She decided that she needed to help God's plan along, and Abraham consented to that. Said, let's help that. Let's let's see what we can do about and Ishmael was born. Genesis 16 tells us that Ishmael was born. And you know what's happened ever since? There's been trouble. There's been trouble ever since because they wanted to help God along. Abraham failed the test of honesty twice. Remember? Told them, told authorities that Sarah was his sister, as opposed to his husband, her husband, because he feared death, because he was married to this beautiful woman in Genesis 12, chapter 20 and 12 as well tell us that. So, Abraham sinned. But the man we see in Genesis 22, who is willing to offer Isaac, is a different man than we see in the early parts of Genesis. His faith grew even though he made mistakes, his faith grew. And may I suggest that that's why I put this, this particular point about Abraham's faith up here, folks. This may be the greatest thing about his faith for me. He struggled. He struggled. I think he probably struggled some with his faith. I know what God's promised, but evidently, God's not going to do that. Now, God ultimately fulfills some things in Abraham's life that helped him understand that, but he struggled. Yet while he was struggling, he grew.
You know, people in great faith in Scripture, were sinners. Aren't you happy about that? Aren't you glad to know that people in Scripture, who of them was, said they had great faith, those people struggle from time to time. That's one of the, I don't know if I can say that's a good thing, but that's a good thing for me. It helps me. It helps me because I struggle. As big a figure as Noah is in Scripture, Noah sinned. I want you to think about that. God saved Noah in a flood. God saved Noah's family in a flood, and then Noah sins. Abraham sinned. Moses sinned. Moses was not allowed to enter into the promised land. He could look from Mount Nebo he could look across and see it, but he was not allowed to go in. I want you to think about that. Moses. (Yes. Thank you.) I want you to think about that. Think about David. Think about who David, what David did. David, it's well documented. I don't know everything that happened in David's life, but I know some of the major things that happened in David's life, and it was disaster, and it created havoc the rest of his life with his entire family. And yet, he was a man after God's own heart. He was a man who struggled. He was a man who sinned. And I'm going to tell you when I think about people like these, these men, I'm just grateful that God included them so I can see. You know, if I struggle, I still have faith, and if I struggle, I can still be pleasing to God. That gives me the kind of hope, that gives me the greatest kind of hope.
So, I want you to ask yourself this morning about these five things, is your faith rooted in the true God? If you're questioning that, then go back and look at the evidence. Go back. Do you believe that what God has told you is going to happen? Do you have an active faith? Do you have a patient faith. Even though you struggle are you still growing in your faith? Those are really the five things that I want to mention this morning, and I want to share something with you in Romans four that I think gives us even greater confidence. So, turn over there, if you would. I want to close with this this morning. This is a reading from Romans, the fourth chapter. I want you think about what Paul says in reference to the life of Abraham. Paul says, "For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." Now there's a lot more involved in this text than just when I want to call to your attention, and I realize that, but I want you to think about how it relates to us. Verse 14, "for if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, because the law brings about wrath. For where there is no law, there is no transgression, therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations in the presence of him whom he believed God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did, who contrary to hope, in hope, believed so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, so shall your descendants be. And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead since he was about 100 years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God and being fully convinced," look at this, "and being fully convinced that what He had promised he was able to perform. And therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus, our Lord from the dead. Who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification."
When, on occasion, you question your faith or you doubt the One in whom you have faith, or you struggle with faith, or there's a point in time in your life where you just may question, you just, sometimes, you're not sure. Just go back. Go back and think about Abraham. Go back and think about what all he went through, and ask yourself, Does my faith reflect Abraham's faith? I think it's important from time to time to just go back and look at these Old Testament examples. That's why I wanted to preach this lesson this morning. Just go back and think about that and let us reflect the kind of faith that Abraham had, he had the faith that we all need to have. May God help us to do that. As always, thank you for your kind attention. If you're in this audience this morning and you are in need of our help, but more importantly, you're need of the Lord's help. If you're willing to believe that Jesus is the Christ, repent of your sins, confess his name before men and then be willing upon that confession and be buried with him in baptism. That'll make you a Christian. That's all he wants. That's all he wants you to be is a Christian. If we can help you do that this morning, or if your life reflects a need that you just want God to help you, let us pray for you so that God may help with that. If you have a need this morning, come.
