Abram and Lot Separate

Well, in our examination of the life of Abraham, we have come to Genesis chapter thirteen, and we have watched Abraham go down to Egypt in order to avoid a drought a famine, and have an experience there in Egypt that gives us a glimpse into perhaps the principal weakness in Abraham's life, either his great fear that caused him to misrepresent his relationship with his wife or just lying in and of itself. Take your pick. But either way, we see this great weakness in the life of Abraham. And we come out of this picture of the great weakness in the life of Abraham not to what one would expect. Again, I'm not talking about what we expect because we know the Bible. I'm not talking about what we expect because we know the story. I'm talking about what we would expect if we'd never heard it before, If you'd never heard it before. And you begin in chapter twelve and God makes this incredible promise to Abraham, well, first of all, you'd probably assume God's making this incredible promise to Abraham because he's better than anybody else God could find. And after that, you'd assume that God's making this incredible promise to Abraham, a promise that God says is going to come to pass that you would probably see Abraham live an exemplary life. Now you then come to this portion in chapter twelve where he goes to Egypt and not only lies about who his wife is, but actually gives his wife away to another man. So what you would probably expect in chapter thirteen is for God to come back and say, you remember that stuff I told you I was going to do with you. I'm gonna find somebody else, thank you very much. And that's what you would expect to find in chapter thirteen. But we don't find that in chapter thirteen. In fact, we find a reiteration of the promise in chapter thirteen. Quite unexpected, is it not. I want you to understand something. As we read about Abraham and the New Testament, we find his name sixty nine times or seventy two times in sixty nine verses in the New Testament, over and over and over again in the New Testament, the Father of the faithful. He is referred to over and over and over again. I want you to understand that as you find that in any Testament, it is not as much about the righteousness of Abraham, as it is about the glory of God, and we'll see that here in chapter thirteen. That with the glory of God in the righteousness of Abraham here in chapter thirteen. And so as you'll look with me, let's look here, and we'll look at it in sections. Here there are four things that we're going to see. We're going to see the grace of God in that first verse, the goodness of God in two through seven, the providence of God in eight through thirteen, and then the plan of God again reiterated there in fourteen and following. But let's look at the grace of God here beginning verse one of chapter thirteen, again remembering what has come before, look give verse seventeen. Let's back up and look a our seventeen chapter twelve. But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarah, Abram's wife. So 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, Take her and go. And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. Chapter thirteen, Verse one. So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had and lot with him into the Negeb. We see the grace of God in verse one. Not only did God not get him, but Pharaoh didn't get him. Pharaoh didn't get him. Not only did Pharaoh not get him, Pharaoh let him leave with all of his stuff. The grace of God, the grace of God in Abram not being wiped off the face of the earth right there immediately in that moment. So here's what we learn about Abram or Abraham. What we learn is that the righteousness that we see in the life of Abraham is actually a result of the grace of God. That God is going to fulfill this promise. But he's not going to fulfill it because Abram is inherently righteous, but because of the goodness of God. But because of the grace of God, it is unmerited favor being shown to Abram. He is not worthy of it. It is not because he is a sinless man. And as we have followed the seed from Genesis chapter three, when the seed was first announced on down to when the seed came through the line of Seth, on down through when the seed was revealed as being protected in Noah, on down to the flood where the seed was protected on the Ark, now down to Abram, where the seed is protected and continues to be promised further ahead in the future. As we see this, we recognize that whether it's Adam or Seth, or Noah or Abraham, none of them is in this line through which God will bring the promised seed because of any inherent righteousness in themselves. It is because of the grace of God. Therefore, right after the promise is made, in case there was any confusion, in case you were thinking, oh, wait a minute, God tried with a with Adam, but Adam sinned, So then God's gonna try again with Seth. Then God's gonna try again with Noah. Now God's gonna try again with Abram. And of course Abram is going to succeed because he is going to be the righteous one. Immediately right after he is introduced, his sin is unveiled for to see there is none righteous, no, not even one. That's why this promised seed is promised. Because it's this promised seed that's going to do away with man's unrighteousness. It's this promised seed that's going to bring about righteousness. It's this promised seed who is going to actually impute righteousness because of his righteousness, he is going to keep the law perfectly and be able to impute righteousness to others. By the way, newsflash, in case you thought, okay, we missed it, we missed it. The promise seed wasn't Kan or Abel. Okay, the promise seed was Seth, Now we missed it. Promise sed wasn't Sath. Maybe the promise seed was Noah, Now we missed it. Maybe the promise seed was Abram. Okay, no, we missed it. Now Abram's going to have the promise seed, and the promise seed is going to be Isaac. No, the promised seed is Jesus. All of the stops in between are just means to an end, because every last one of these individuals has the same problem, and that problem is that the first atom was their federal head. We've talked about this before, and as their federal head, this first atom sin. And we find in Romans chapter five that because of the sin of the first atom, that all men sin in him, and death reign because of the sin of atom, and death would continue to reign because of the sin of atom. There is this problem, and you'll see the problem over and over and over again. When you get men who are born who are the seed of the atom, they're all born in sin. So it's not until we get to the person of Jesus Christ, who's born as the seed of the woman, but not as the seed of man, that finally we have the second atom and a new federal head that's the promised seed. So we see this picture of the grace of God. Even though look with me, if you will, several passages scripture. Go with me to Romans chapter four. Let's look at several passages here in Romans chapter four. Look at those first three verses. What then, shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about. But not before God. For what does the scripture say Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. It was credited to him as righteousness. He wasn't righteous, but it was credited to him as righteousness. Now go with me, if you will down to verse nine. Is this blessing then only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised. We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. So we see not because of works. Go with me down to verses twelve and thirteen, and to make him the father of the circumcised, who are not merely circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. For the almens to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. Abraham was not righteous because of anything that he did. It was by faith. Look at me, if you will, now in Galatians Galatians chapter three. Galatians chapter three, and this is an important paragraph. We'll read this whole paragraph Relatians chapter three. Look at one through six. Oh, foolish Galatians. By the way, that's a very kind translation that word foolish there. That's a very very kind translation of the word there in the Greek, You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this, Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the spirit? Are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain? If indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Just as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, as righteousness. So what do we see coming off of chapter twelve into chapter thirteen. The first thing we see is the grace of God. The righteousness of Abraham is about the grace of God, and he demonstrates this for us by showing us in stark relief, Abraham's faith in obeying and going when God said go, and Abraham's sinfulness the first time out of the gate when something goes wrong. We see the grace of God. Why is this so important? This is incredibly important because we've talked about this before. Oftentimes, when we look at the Old Testament and we look at character studies in the Old Testament, we go back to the Old Testament and we look at it from a moralistic perspective. They did this, and good things happened. They did this, and bad things happen. Therefore, this passage is about not doing the bad thing, but doing the good thing. And usually in Genesis chapter thirteen, what's Genesis chapter thirteen about. Genesis chapter thirteen is about these two men who had a choice. One chose to go over near Sodom and the other one chose to go to the Promised Land. And so the lesson learned is be like Abraham and not like Lot, and don't choose to go live by the sinners. News flash, Abraham is one of the sinners. That's not the lesson in the passage. It's not the lesson in Genesis chapter thirteen. Genesis chapter thirteen is not trying to teach you that you need to choose like Abraham and not choose like Lot. Genesis chapter thirteen is trying to teach you that even Abraham, the father of the faithful, is only righteous because of the grace of God. So don't you dare think that you're more like Abraham and less like Lot because of a choice that you made. You need to throw yourself on the grace of God. Throw yourself on the mercy of God. That's what we see here in Genesis chapter thirteen. We see the righteousness of Abraham is all about the goodness of God. First and foremost, because the grace of God. Secondly, because of the goodness of God. Look at the goodness of God showed him. I told you he left with all of his stuff. Look back with me if you will, in Genesis chapter thirteen, and looked there that first verse again. So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife. By the way, that's the goodness of God. He didn't have to leave with his wife. Pharaoh took her as his own wife. It could have been done right there, and Pharaoh could have just said, you were wrong for what you did. You get to die. But number one, we see the goodness of God because Abram left. Amen, he got to leave. Secondly, he got to leave with his wife, and thirdly he got to leave with his stuff. Didn't deserve one of those three things, didn't deserve to leave, didn't deserve to leave with his wife, and didn't deserve to leave with his stuff. But in the goodness of God, he got all three. None of them he deserved. But look at this, look at verse two. Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning. By the way, you also see the goodness of God, because where did God allow him to go? This is where he left, And he's going back to the place where he left. God calls him out, and he goes to the place where God calls him, and all of a sudden there is a famine that comes, a drought that comes. So he leaves this place where God had promised him and God had called him, and he goes into Egypt and goes into sin. Not only does he come out, not only does he come out with his wife, not only does he come out with his stuff, but he gets to go back to the place God promised him, between Bethel and Ai, to the place where he had made an altar at the first and there Abram called upon the name of the Lord and Lot, who went with Abram also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together. For their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together, and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herd of Lot's livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizites were dwelling in the land. God was so good to them that the land could not contain both of them. God was so good to them that they had so much abundance that they overwhelmed this place where God had promised, and as a result they had to separate. Listen to what Calvin says to this In the commencement of the chapter, Moses commemorates the goodness of God in protecting Abram, whence it came to pass that he not only returned in safety, but took with him great wealth. This circumstance is also to be noticed that when he was leaving Egypt, abounding in cattle and treasures, he was allowed to pursue his journey in peace. For it is surprising that the Egyptians would suffer what Abram had acquired among them to be transferred elsewhere. He went to Egypt and sinned, and God increased his wealth because he deserved it. No, just the goodness of God. And by the way, anyone who's offended by that, let me help you real quick. Who's you're sitting here talking about. Well, that's just that's just not right. That doesn't seem right. If you are anywhere around average income as an American, just anywhere close to average income as an American, If you have a household income of somewhere around thirty five forty thousand dollars, your entire household income somewhere around thirty five to forty thousand dollars, you are more wealthy than seventy percent of the rest of the people on the planet. Over a billion people on this globe live on less than a dollar a day. Abraham's been as good to you as he or God's been as good to you as he's been to Abraham. You don't even know it. You don't even realize it. You eat two three meals a day. Most of the world knows nothing of that. We live in such peace and prosperity and abundance. We sit around and have arguments and debates about, you know, for whom we're going to vote, not even recognizing that most of the people in this world don't have that privilege, let alone the privilege of eating multiple meals a day. God's been good to you, and you don't deserve it. You thought said and did things on yesterday for which you deserve death and hell, and yet you're gonna eat two three times today. God's been good to you. God's been good to you. He has shown you mercy, and you do not deserve mercy. He has shown you. And let me say this, when you look at this wealth that Abraham has accumulated, here's the other thing that you learn. Let's just get this right out there, in one sin for all. This just completely negates that whole idea that somehow, if you do all the right things then you get wealthy. You do all the wrong stuff, then you won't get wealthy. That's not true. God gives wealth to whom he will give wealth. There are evil wealthy people, and there are people who love God with every fiber of their being, serve God with every fiber of their being, have more faith in their little pinky than you have in your whole body, and they live on less than a dollar a day. And yet the Word of Faith movement would have us believe that it's all about knowing the right formula and naming and claiming the right stuff works righteousness. People would have us believe that it's all about us doing those right things, and if you do those right things, then you'll end up in you know, no, absolutely not. Abraham and Lot have this great wealth because of the goodness of God. But here's what I want you to see as well. You don't believe that this is about the goodness of God. The guy who chose to go and pitch his tent near Sodom also had wealth like Abraham, the guy who chose to go and live with the unrighteous. He was blessed beyond measure as well, the goodness of God, not just the grace of God. And that we didn't get what we deserved. That Abram didn't get what he deserves, but the goodness of God as well. He didn't just not get what he deserved, he also got a whole lot of other stuff that he didn't deserve. You and I need to understand that that's what we see in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ that it's not only God could have said. Listen, you get to be saved, period, end of discussion. That's it. You get to go to heaven when you die. Be happy with that. The rest of it's going to be nasty. But not only did we get saved, but in God's goodness, he has given us more than we could ever ask for, more than we ever deserve, and for most of us, more than we ever appreciate. God's been good to us. And if we're not careful, what will begin to happen is we'll begin to sit back and say, because here's the game that people play. The game that people play is I have more stuff than that person, Therefore God likes me more. Or I have more stuff than that person. Therefore I must be more righteous, or I must be more diligent, or I must be whatever. I must have figured out the secret biblical formula. And as a result of me having figured out the secret Biblical formula, I have more stuff than other people have. Nothing could be further from the truth. You got stuff because of the goodness of God. But here's another thing you need to understand. Abram's got all this stuff because that's what God determined he needed in order for him to be and do what God intended for him to be and do for God's long term redemptive plan. You better believe Abram's got no more stuff than he needs in order to carry out the plan that God intends to carry out. That's what he's got. That's what he's got, and that's what you've got, And that's what I've got. By the goodness of God, that's what we've got. We also see the providence of God. Here's what I want you to see. Go back to verse one here, and it's interesting. In the Hebrew there's a prepositional phrase here. So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had. Then there's a prepositional phrase there, and the prepositional phrase is and Lot with him. Now here's why that's so important. There is a separation that takes place if you notice there in chapter twelve and the sojourn in Egypt, you didn't see Lot, but there's a separation that takes place in chapter thirteen between Abram and Lot. And that's much of what this chapter is about. This separation, this necessary separation between Abram and Lot. By the way, you could argue that one of the reasons God gave both Abram and Lot so much was so that they had to separate. But God had to separate abraman Lot. Why is it important that God separates abraman Lot. Here's why it's important. From Lot, you get the Morbites and the Ammonites, And if you know your Bible, you know that sometimes they're a problem. If Abram and Lot don't separate, you got the Israelites, the Morbites, and the Ammonites all mixed up together, and you got both of them in the Promised lamb. So in the providence of God, God separates not abraman Lot, but he separates the Israelites from the Morbites. That's what's happening here. God separates his people through whom the promised Seed will come from another people group through whom the promise Seid will not come. That's what you see here in the separation between Abram and Lot. You see the providence of God. But not only do you see the providence of God in that they separated, but in how they separated. Look with me, if you will next paragraph beginning at verse eight. So Abram said to Lot, let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsman and my herdsman. He should have said, in between your descendants and my descendants. But anyway, for we are kinsmen, is not the whole land before you separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left. Wait a minute, time out. Abram's putting the decision about who gets the promised land into Lot's court. He doesn't say, God promised me this land, so I'll take this and you, since you're not part of that promise, you go take the land that's not the promised land. Abram didn't say that. He looked at Lot and said, you choose now. News flash, here's what God was not doing in heaven. And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan valley was well watered everywhere, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zor. This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other. Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lots settled among the cities of the valley, and moved his tent as far as Sodom. Now, the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord folks. That is the providence of God. That's God protecting the promised Seed. That's God working out your salvation in Christ, long before you were ever born, and long before Christ was ever incarnate. That's the providence of God. That's the providence of God. God said what he was going to do, and he saw to it that he did it in his providence. By the way, let me just share this with you as well. When you look at this picture of the providence of God, this is not the only time that you see this picture of the providence of God. There is a famine in the land, so Abraham goes to Egypt. There is a femine in the land. So Jacob sends his boys to go by grain in Egypt. They stay in Egypt. By the way, they're not happy. While they're staying in Egypt. It comes time for Abram to leave Egypt. How is Abram going to leave Egypt? His wife has been taken in by Pharaoh. Somehow, God's got to get Pharaoh to let Abram's people go. Later on, his descendants are in Egypt, and how are they going to get out? God's got to get Pharaoh to let his people go. So what does God do to get Sarah? Later, Sarah out of Egypt? A plague against Pharaoh? What does God do to get his children out of Egypt? And that's a plague against Pharaoh. Abram leaves Egypt with his pockets filled to overflow. Later on, his descendants leave Egypt the exact same way. That is the providence of God. By the way, there was another seed who had to escape to Egypt as well. His name was Jesus, and he went to Egypt to escape the wrath of King Herod, and then he came back out to that very same land of promise. Don't you think for a moment that that's a kuinkidink that's the providence of God and the salvation of his people. That's what this is. This is not about Abraham didn't even make the choice. And so if we go here with our moralistic lenses on Genesis chapter thirteen is about making the right choice in where you go and choose to live. Abram didn't even make the choice, and he's a sinner from the word go. He gave away his wife. You think he wouldn't have gone to live in Sodom. He gave away his wife. You think he wouldn't have been influenced by the immorality in Sodom. And yet, in the providence of God, Abram puts the choice on Lot. And Lot goes to Sodom and not Abram, and the seat is protected once again by the way. The first time, Abram believes God and he separates himself from his people, and God makes a promise. Now Abram believes God, and he separates himself from Lot. Therefore God reiterates the promise after the separation. Look at what happens here we see of God or the promise of God. The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, lift up your eyes and looked from the place where you are northward and southward, and eastward and westward. For all the land that you see, I will give you into your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Arise, walk through the length and the breath of the land, for I will give it to you. So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of memory, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord. Here's what's interesting. God makes this promise to Abram, and Abram has done absolutely nothing to deserve the promise. Do you realize that he goes to Egypt and he sins, and as a result of him going to Egypt and sinning, he comes out with more stuff that he went in with. God separates him from Lot, and then God reiterates his promise. Why because this is not about Abraham's righteousness. This is about the goodness and the greatness of our God. And oh, by the way, whomever God chose to work in and through was going to be a sinful man. How do I know that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So whatever God does from Adam to Jesus, He's going to be doing it with sinful individual rules whom he uses in spite of their sinfulness. Well wait a minute, though, so I mean, how do we how do we How do we handle that? How we work that out? I'll go back to Romans again, this time Romans chapter three. Let's begin there in verse nine. What then, are we Jews any better off? No, not at all, For we have already charged that all both Jews and Greeks are under sinned. As it is written, none is righteous, no not one. No one understands, no one seeks God. All have turned aside together. They have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, and their paths are ruined and misery. And the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God for the works. For by works of the law, non human being will be justified in his sight. Since through the law comes knowledge of sin, So nobody's going to be justified through the works of the law. Now look beginning of twenty one. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God. So the law and the prophets bear witness to it. By the way we're in Genesis, that's part of what the law. So it bears witness to this righteousness that is spoken of in Romans chapter three. What we're reading in Genesis chapter thirteen bears witness to this righteousness that is spoken of here in Romans chapter three, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, For there is no distinction for all of sin and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ, Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation in his blood to be received by faith. Now, that word propitiation means that he satisfies the righteous requirements of God. He satisfies the indignation and the wrath of God. Here's what's important, because we look back at Abraham in Genesis chapter thirteen, and we say, well, wait a minute, that's just not right. How's God gonna use Abraham? And he's sinful, and in his sinfulness, God turns around and he reiterates the promise because it's not about Abraham, it's about God. Okay, okay, fine, I get that it's not about Abraham, but it's about God. But what about Abraham sin? He doesn't know. Jesus, I'm glad you asked. God put forth as a propitiation in his blood to be received by faith. Doesn't saying which direction does it? Jesus paid it all all to him. I owe sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. But look at this. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. So here's what happens in Christ. People are looking in there, going, you know what, God, you justified that Abraham character. And I saw what he did. How could you work with him? Well? Because he had faith? And oh, by the way, in case you were wondering how I could work with him and how I could justify him, here's my son, the spotless, sinless lamb of God. I'm going to crush him who knew no sin. I'm going to kill him who had done nothing wrong. And his righteousness that was achieved by him keeping the whole law will be imputed to those who did not keep the law. Through his active obedience and through his passive obedience in dying on the cross, he will pay the penalty for their disobedience. Now does anyone think God would ask that that's anything other than sufficient? Not that it's fair, because it's not. That the godly would die for the ungodly, not fair, that the righteous would die for the unrighteous. Not fair. But God doesn't have to be fair. He's God. Do you hear me? God didn't have to be fair. He's God. By the way, that's good news, because fair is death, hell, the grave. Praise God that God does not have to be fair, but he does have to be just. And back in this passage here in Romans, look at what he says. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just, because He's got to be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Did Abram know Jesus, Nope, but he knew that there was a promised seed, and he had faith, he believed the promise that was to come. Did he understand that promised seed fully? Nope, newsflash, neither do you. That's why, by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not as a result of works, So that no man can boast, not Abraham, not you, not me. You see in Genesis chapter thirteen what we see the unbelievable glory of God and the righteousness of Abraham, because his righteousness is not inherent in himself. We see the grace of God and that he did not get what he deserved. We see the goodness of God and that God lavished upon him what he didn't deserve. We see the providence of God in that God protects him and in him the promised seed, through which not just he, but all of those who would be justified would ultimately be saved. And finally, we see irrid reiteration of the promise of God. And it's that promise of God that's important. Abraham's no better than you, Abraham's no better than me. It's not about Abraham. If we learn anything from the life of Abraham, let us learn to trust the Lord, our God, because if he can use a man who would give away his wife, he can use you in me. Amen, he can use you in me. A couple of things to take with us. Number one, Genesis chapter thirteen ought to crush once and for all any reliance we have on works righteousness. It ought to crush once and for all any reliance we have on works righteousness. Maybe because we look at this righteousness in Abram coming out of Genesis chapter twelve, and there is no way we can attribute it to works. He doesn't do anything in chapter thirteen. There's nothing. In fact, there's not even a hint of report. We don't see a picture of repentance from what he did in Egypt to what we see in chapter thirteen. That doesn't mean it didn't happen. I don't know, but the Bible does not put forth a picture of Abram coming out of Egypt saying, Oh God, please forgive me for what I've done. How could you use me to bring forth this promise seed after what I've done. That doesn't happen in chapter twelve. It doesn't happen in chapter thirteen. And yet God reiterates the promise that are a crush in you and in me all reliance on works righteousness. You can't get there from here, folks, this is not about works righteousness. And that's the Old Testament. Do you catch that, even in the Old Testament you don't get this picture of works righteousness. Not only that, you don't even get this picture of somehow this sacrifice based righteousness. We see that he builds an altar. We can assume that perhap there was a sacrifice on the altar. We don't have it here, do we? This sort of crush in us once and for all, this idea of works righteousness. Secondly, this sort of crush in us once and for all this idea that you and I deserve the wealth that God bestows upon us. That's a very Americanized idea that somehow our wealth is somehow equate it with our righteousness. In fact, listen to words that we use. If a man two men come into church, and you know I'm telling the truth, two men come into church, you have two friends coming to visit you at church, and your one friend that's coming to visit you at church. It is a man who's you know, he just he doesn't have much at all, but he's a great guy, great friend, You love him, works hard, works with his hands, got callouses that he's earned. Kind of a rough, scraggly fella. But he's just good people, salt of the earth kind of folks. He lives in a trailer home. That person comes in, and you're probably gonna say, hey, you know that's my buddy, so and so, good guy, salt of the earth. Now you have a friend who comes in. He's filthy, stank, nasty rich. Not just rich, filthy, stank, nasty rich, Okay, beyond rich, he's just rich, rich, rich, rich rich, a multime multime, multime millionaire. When that guy comes in, you know what we're gonna say, The Lord has really blessed him. You know, it's the truth. That's what we say. The Lord has really blessed him. That's American slang for he's got more money than most people. Blessings equal money. That's how warped our thinking is in this regard. Unless you've learned how to be broke and blessed, you don't know how to be blessed. And if you want to learn what it looks like to be broke and consider yourself blessed, next time we go on on one of our trips, if we go to Romania, if we go back to Zambia, you just come with us. You just come with us. Just spend a week in a third world country. You will never again equate being blessed with having a lot of money, because you'll meet some of the most blessed people you've ever met in your life, some of the most content people that you've ever met in your life, and they have nothing. That is a very Americanized idea that somehow the evidence that God is blessing you is that you have a lot of financial wealth. That's not necessarily the case. This ought to crush that in us once and for all. Here's the third thing. Here's the third thing. And not only should it crust any reliance on works righteousness, And not only should it crush once and for all this idea that somehow, you know, the blessing is about the accumulation of tangible wealth. But here's the third thing. This ought to crush once and for all, the idea that you and I struggle with that somehow God can't use us because of something we've done. You need to just let that go right here, right now. Henceforth, now and forever more. Let that go, that idea that God can't use you because of something you've done, that there is something in your past that's bigger than a dead Jesus, that there is something in your past that somehow just puts a red X on you, and that somehow God can't bless you, somehow God can't use you. Nothing could be further from the truth. By the way that ties back into this mentality of work's righteousness. I don't care who you are. I don't care what you've done. All have sin and falls short of the glory of God. You give God your today, you give God your right now, and you let him take care of you tomorrow. God can use you. Does that mean? Does that mean that there is nothing from which you can disqualify yourself? I didn't say that, you believe me, you asked. David disc qualified himself from the privilege of building the temple, absolutely, unequivocally, irrevocably. He disqualified himself. He did not get to do that. But that doesn't mean that he didn't get to be used by God. Amen. Even if there are things from which you've disqualified yourself, that does not mean that you can't be used by God. Just let that go right here, right now, forever. Let it go, because you and I have but one hope, and that one hope is that we are seen by God through the lens of the finished work of Jesus Christ. That's it. God made him who knew no sin, to become sin for us in order that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. In Jesus, your works will never allow you to stand before God is justified. But the finished work of Jesus Christ and his righteousness imputed to you, will never allow you to stand before God is anything other than justified. Amen. It's Christ, and it's him alone. It's the work of Christ in his work alone. It's the blood of Christ and his blood alone. We have no other hope and we need no other argument. As the hmn writer writes, could you bie with me? Father, as we bow, we thank you for your goodness, the goodness that you have shown us in your son Jesus Christ, and thank you for walking us through this incredible picture of your providence, as you, long before we were born, long before the incarnation of your Son, were working out our salvation through flawed and fragile men like Abraham. Thank you for allowing us to see your grace and your goodness and your providence and your promise again. And I pray that as we continue to journey through Abraham's life, that we would continue to understand the great work that You've done in and through him, but that it ultimately comes to fruition in the person and work of Jesus Christ, who is the Promised Seed, who is our only hope, who is our source of justification, sanctification, adoption and righteousness, glorification. And I pray for those under the sound of my voice who have trusted in anything else, that your word would ring true in their lives and their hearts and in their minds, and that they would come to a place of repentance and faith, laying down all dependence on work's righteousness and taking up only the finished work of Jesus Christ. This we pray, this, we ask, this, we believe, this, we desire in that name that is above every name, that name at which every niece shall bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, the name at which every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. In that name we pray Amen passsssssssssssssssssssssss