Genesis 12:1-9
The Faith of Abram

  1. The Gospel to Abram
    1. Why Call this the Gospel?
      1. Because the Bible does.
      2. Matthew begins his gospel - An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
      3. When John the Baptist is born Zechariah (Zacharias), he exults - Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant, 73 the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us74 that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear,75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. (Lk 1.72ff.)
      4. And Mary, hearing that she will bear Christ, has already praised God - He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever. (Lk 1.54ff.)
      5. Paul in particular uses the example of Abraham as an example of faith (in contrast to works) as a way of gaining favor before God.
        1. Romans 4:13 - For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith.
        2. Galatians 3:6-9 - Just as Abraham "believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness," 7 so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham. 8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you." 9 For this reason, those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed.
        3. Galatians 3:16-18 - Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring; it does not say, "And to offsprings," as of many; but it says, "And to your offspring," that is, to one person, who is Christ. 17 My point is this: the law, which came four hundred thirty years later, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. 18 For if the inheritance comes from the law, it no longer comes from the promise; but God granted it to Abraham through the promise.
      6. Hebrews says the same thing 11:8-16 - By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 By faith he received power of procreation, even though he was too old-and Sarah herself was barren-because he considered him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, "as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore."

        13 All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, 14 for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.
      7. We shall then be very much at fault if we do not see the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed in this passage and in all the story of Abraham.
      8. If we do not recognize the gospel here, then we don't understand the gospel.
      9. These things are written for your sakes upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
      10. Moses may have written this down, but even he longed to understand this passage in the way that I am about to preach it to you.
    2. Abram's Election and Calling
      1. Abram is chosen unilaterally and unconditionally by God.
        1. He has not deserved to be chosen
        2. As Joshua 24:2 reminds us, he served false gods with his family beyond the river Jordan.
        3. There was nothing about Abram to commend him to God - nothing great, nothing holy, nothing good.
      2. Noah may have been chosen by God, but at least he was "righteous in all his generation"
        1. We know from his later sinfulness, of course, that his righteousness was by faith and not be works.
        2. Still, that statement - he was righteous in all his generation - at least offered plausible grounds for God choosing him.
        3. With Abram, there are no plausible grounds. He is a pagan among pagans.
        4. True, he is a descendant of Shem whom Noah blessed, but there are other descendants of Shem.
        5. Why not Nahor? Why not Lot? - in order that God's purpose according to election might stand not of works but of him who calls, that salvation should be by grace alone.
      3. Here we have pure grace to Abram
        1. He does not deserve it
        2. He does not seek it
        3. He is not able to desire it apart from a sovereign and gracious act of God
        4. So God comes upon him and in a moment converts him by preaching to him the gospel.
      4. Our election and calling are, of course, like Abram's
        1. What had we done for God, that he should set his love upon us?
        2. Why should he come to us and say, Get up! Get out of the world which is passing away and be a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven
        3. And such was the power of those words that we believed, and believing we obeyed.
        4. We did not deserve or seek the gospel; we did not desire it.
        5. We were no better than our contemporaries, yet God picked us and loved us and called us.
      5. Stop trying to justify yourself, no one can earn God's grace
      6. Rather believe the promises God has made, that he gives you eternal life and all things for free.
    3. The Promise of Blessing
      1. God overwhelms Abram with the greatness of the promise
        1. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
        2. God, who had come before (in ch. 3) to curse, now comes to bless.
        3. What men had been striving for by works; Abram receives for free
          1. He gets a name
            • The men in the time of Noah were "men of renown" (Lit. men of name)
              • And what were those names.
              • Ha! There's irony for you.
            • Nimrod may have been a mighty hunter before the Lord, but where are his children?
            • The builders of the Tower of Babel wished to make a name for themselves - but who were they?
            • By sweat and hard work they sought to obtain what they could not.
            • For free, by grace, Abram is given what they could not secure. His name is great in the earth. In him all the families of the earth are blessed.
          2. He gets a great nation (i.e. a city)
            • Cain built a city - It was destroyed in the flood with all his descendants
            • The Babylonians built a city - It was left half finished as a monument to their arrogance.
            • Ur of the Chaldeans was a mighty city - now it is an archaeological site.
            • Entirely by their own power they strove. And their own power was not enough.
            • But Abram will be made into a mighty nation entirely by the power of God.
          3. And God will bless those who bless him and curse those who curse him.
            • Actually, he will curse those who speak evil of him
            • The Hebrew uses different words here.
            • Abram receives what Lamech, son of Cain, boasted in - extreme vengeance.
            • Vengeance is mine, says the Lord.
      2. Thus, God preaches the gospel to Abram.
        1. Only believe and I will restore what you lost in the Fall
        2. Paradise will be regained.
  2. The Impediments to Abram's Faith
    1. The Cost of Believing
      1. The grace God offers is free, and yet it will cost Abram everything he holds dear.
        1. The threefold command -
          1. Leave your country
            • First Ur, then Haran
            • Stephen makes this clear in Acts 7
          2. Leave you kindred
          3. Leave your father's house.
        2. Each deprives him of something more precious than the last.
        3. For this, he has been promised replacements
          1. He leaves his own country to be made a great nation - But he must leave first
          2. He leaves his own kindred, but is promised that all the families of the earth will be blessed in him - But he must leave first
          3. He leaves his father, but is promised a son - But he must leave first
      2. He cannot, at one and the same time, live in Ur or Haran and in the Land of Promise
        1. To head for the Promised Land is to leave his world behind
        2. To stay in this world is to demonstrate that he doesn't really believe God's promise to him.
      3. This is the call of the gospel
        1. Come, take up your cross and follow me.
        2. Luke 14:27ff. - And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28"For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it- 29"lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30"saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'
        3. Acts 14.22 - We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.
        4. 1 Peter 4.1ff. - Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same intention (for whoever has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin), 2 so as to live for the rest of your earthly life no longer by human desires but by the will of God. 3 You have already spent enough time in doing what the Gentiles like to do, living in licentiousness, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry. 4 They are surprised that you no longer join them in the same excesses of dissipation, and so they blaspheme. 5 But they will have to give an accounting to him who stands ready to judge the living and the dead.
      4. Oh, how we love this world and cling to it
      5. Let Abram be our example and our encouragement
        1. He lost his life for the sake of the gospel; and at the resurrection he shall find it again.
        2. Let us believe as he believed, for we have been promised such blessings as were promised to him.
        3. We have been called out of the world to be citizens of heaven
        4. Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also
        5. What are these to us when we have such abundant and precious promises in Christ?
        6. Acts 7.5 - [God] did not give [Abram] any of [the land] as a heritage, not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him as his possession and to his descendants after him, even though he had no child.
        7. Yet Abram believed and persevered.
        8. Are we not on surer footing this day?
      6. Let Christ be our example as well
        1. For did he not leave behind his heavenly home?
        2. Indeed he came to earth for our sakes, and the Canaanite was then in the land, yet he came to conquer us and subdue us to himself.
        3. Because he did this, he has received the name that is above every name
        4. God blesses those who bless him and curses those who disdain him.
        5. In him we are all blessed, for he is our mediator.
        6. The devil took him and showed him all the kingdoms of the earth, but Christ preferred the kingdom of God which he would bring in.
        7. Let us then have this mind as well that for the joy set before us we may endure the sufferings of this present life, waiting patiently for the reward that will come when Christ appears.
    2. The Improbability of Fulfillment
      1. Sarai is barren
      2. Abram is 75 years old
      3. The Canaanite is then in the land.
      4. No man could psyce himself up to believe against these odds - God must grant Abram a powerful faith or he'll never leave
      5. Yet Abram believed God, that he was faithful and would bring it to pass.
      6. Come and believe though all appearances are against it.
  3. Abram Responds and His Faith Is Confirmed
    1. An Immediate and Complete Response
      1. Abram is not made right with God by his works; but it would be a strange faith in the promises of God if Abram did not get up and set out to the new place where God was calling him.
      2. What kind of faith is that? A dead faith, no faith at all.
      3. By these actions, we see that Abram's faith is alive - he believes that whatever God calls him to is better than what he is leaving behind.
      4. He moves out unreservedly, taking all his possessions
        1. This might at first seem worldly, but consider the alternative
        2. He could leave some things behind, as though he might return to claim them.
        3. In taking everything, he confesses that he isn't coming back, he doesn't have one foot in his former world.
        4. He's putting all his treasure into the promised land
        5. So let us as well lay up all our treasure in heaven.
      5. Believe that this world is passing away and that God has given you a glorious home in heaven and you will obey God with a joyful heart.
      6. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness
      7. Sell your possessions, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.
    2. A Typological Conquest
      1. Explain "Typological"
      2. Shechem south to Bethel and Ai, south to Negeb
      3. Tracing out the way by which Israel would conquer this land
      4. God is preaching the gospel to Abram and us in picture form.
      5. The whole land will belong to Abram's descendants
    3. The Appearance of the Lord
      1. This is an amazing moment; don't miss it
        1. The Lord appears to Abraham
        2. He has not appeared since he came to judge the serpent and the woman and the man.
        3. He has spoken with Cain, with Noah, and earlier with Abram
        4. He has judged Cain and the flood generation and Babel (but not as one who appears, rather as one who sits in heaven.)
        5. We've heard his voice, but he himself has been off camera.
      2. Now, suddenly, he appears
      3. God, who had been made far off by the Fall, has just drawn near again to man.
      4. He has drawn near, this time not to curse but to bless.
      5. What the children of the woman longed for has come
        1. They had been driven out of the garden out from the presence of the Lord.
        2. Now God has promised to bring them back in.
        3. Isa 51.2,3 - Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, but I blessed him and made him many. 3 For the LORD will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.
      6. So he builds and altar
      7. And in Bethel, again, he builds an altar and calls upon the name of the Lord
      8. He is a builder, but not like the builders of the tower of Babel
        1. He builds no tower but an altar to worship God and confess his dependance upon the Lord.
        2. Yet truly this altar is a better tower than the tower of Babel; it's top is in the heavens, for at that place man met with God.
        3. Jacob will later come to Bethel and will see in a dream a stairway to heaven with angels ascending and descending. "And he was afraid, and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

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