Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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7th Chapter of Acts Then said the high priest, Are these things so? And he said, Man, brethren and fathers, hearken. The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charon, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.
Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charon.
And from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land wherein ye now dwell, and he gave him none inheritance in it. No, not so much as to set his foot on, yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.
And God spake on this wise that his seed should sojourn in a strange land, and that they should bring them into ******* and entreat them evil 400 years. And the nation to whom they shall be in ******* will I judge, said God. And after that they shall come forth and serve me in this place.
I'd like to turn back to Genesis and the 11TH chapter and we'll see this recorded in the Old Testament Genesis Chapter 11.
And verse 31 Antero took Abraham his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son son, and Sarah his daughter-in-law his son Abram's wife. And they went forth with them from ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan. And they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. And the days of Terah were 205 years. And Terah died in Haran.
Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house unto a land, that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee. And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him.
And Lot went with him, and Abram was 70 and five years old when he departed out of Haram. And Abram took Sarah his wife, and Lot his brothers, his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered and the souls that they had gotten in Haram. And they went forth to go into the land of Canaan. And into the land of Canaan they came.
And Abram passed through the land under the place of Sikkim, unto the plain of Morah.
And the Canaanite was then in the land, And the Lord appeared unto Abraham, and said, Unto thy seed, will I give this land? And there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.
And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel.
And pitched his tent, having Bethel on the West, and Hai on the east. And there he built in an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.
And Abram journeyed going on still toward the South, and there was a famine in the land. And Abram went down into Egypt, a sojourn there, for the famine was grievous in the land. And it came to pass, when they were come near into to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarah his wife, Behold, now I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon. Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say.
This is his wife.
And they will kill me, but they will save thee alive. Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister, that it may be well with me for thy sake, and my soul shall live because of thee. And it came to pass that when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld a woman that she was very fair. The Prince is also a Pharaoh, saw her and commended her before Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house, and he entreated Abram well for her sake.
And he had sheep and oxen, and he ***** and men, servants and maidservants, and she ***** and camels. And the Lord plagued Pharaoh in his house with great plagues, because of Sarah, Abram's wife. And Pharaoh called Abram and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Why settest thou? She is my sister, so I might have taken her to me to wife. Now therefore, behold, I wife, take her.
Go thy way.
In Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away, and his wife and all that he had. And Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him into the South. And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. And he went on his journeys from the South, even to Bethel, under the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Hai, and to the place of the altar which he had made there at the 1St.
00:05:19
And they are Abraham called on the name of the Lord.
I were told in Scripture that Abraham was the father of those who have faith. And so if each one of us here in this room have put our trust in the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we can say that we are, in that sense, the children of Abraham now. That is, we are those who have faith just as Abram did. I trust if there's anyone here tonight who is not yet received the Lord Jesus as Savior, that you will do so. How important it is.
We should know the Lord is our Savior. Apart from Him, there is no blessing. This world is trying to go on independent of God. But there's a day of reckoning coming, a solemn day when God will have to deal in righteous judgment upon all those who have rejected the Lord as Savior. But I believe that there are many very practical lessons that we can learn from the life of Abram, and perhaps these can speak to us. This meeting was specially planned for those.
Who are young and so with life before you, how important it is and that we should have a guide, that we should have direction for our pathway. Where are we going to get direction? But from God himself. He is the only one who really is able to direct us aright.
There's a verse in Jeremiah that says, wilt thou not from this time cry unto me? Thou art my father, thou art the guide of my youth. And so there's another verse in the Psalms that says, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way, but by taking heed thereto, according to thy word. And so if you know the Lord is your Savior, God has given you a guide book and he's done more than that. He's also given.
One who is spoken of as the captain of our salvation, bringing many sons to glory. And if you know the Lord is your Savior, why your salvation is eternally secure. The Lord Jesus isn't all the way home, Savior. He's never going to let one of his own down. But you know, dear young people, we can have a smooth path or we can have a rough path.
God knows the path of blessing for us, and if we decide that we're not going to follow the light and wisdom and instruction of His Word, He's not going to give us up. He loves His own to the end. But we can bring trials into our own life, because whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. And so we can learn a lot from Abraham in connection with the path of faith. He not only was the father of those who have faith, but he also.
An example to us of God's dealings. And as I say, there is something that I can learn. Perhaps you can learn too, as you look at the life of this man of God.
For I believe it's full of instruction for us, tells us that whatsoever things were written aforetime or written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. And as I read those verses in Acts Chapter 7, I just read them to shelve how remarkable it was that when God called Abram out from UR of the Chaldees. Why there's a whole outline given to us about.
What God was going to do?
He told him that he was to come into this lamb, he was not going to have an inheritance, that he was going to sojourn in that lamb for 400 years and then that God would judge that nation well. It shows us, dear young people, that God knows the future. He has a plan marked out for us and he knows the future better than we know it ourselves because.
Because he's in control of everything.
He's the one who is on the throne, as the scripture says.
He the most high rules in the Kingdom of man, and none can stay his hand or say, what doest thou? He's in control. And so we see that when God called Abram, I was able to outline the future for 400 years. Does he know the future? Does he know what's ahead for you? Yes he does. And he wants you to have a safe and a happy path.
Through this world, and I say again, if we would only follow his precious word with our eyes upon the Lord Jesus, it says thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And so I just wish to say to each young person here tonight and to all of us now, let us ask the Lord for direction for every step of our pathway. Look into his word. Never go contrary to this.
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Work because it's God's Word. And then if there's something that there isn't a direct answer in the Scripture, or we don't have a direct answer for everything in the Scripture, but then we can turn to Him in prayer. He says, let us come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
And also I wish to say that the Lord has an individual interest in each one of us. He looks down in this room tonight and he has an individual interest here. As we read this story, he mentions the name of Abraham, of his wife, of his nephew. It mentions the name of his father. And so he knows all about us and He wants to guide us each one.
Individually, no two of us are alike.
When you go to school, why? I don't know how large the classes may be, perhaps 25 or 30, but God's school for us is not like that. He has an individual tuition for each one of us. We're all different, and he knows our frame. He knows all about our background. He knows about our families. He has, I say, an individual interest in every one of us here tonight.
And he wants us to come to him.
With that confidence that there is no one else that really fully enters into all things about our life. I've always especially enjoyed that verse in the Psalms that says pour out your hearts before him. Because I don't know very many friends that you really feel you can pour out your heart to. But there's one and you can just pour out your heart. You can tell them everything because he knows, He understands, and he cares.
It says.
Because he careth for you, the Father himself loveth you.
Then I might just mention too that before the call of Abraham he was a heathen. We're told this in another place, that before he was called they worshipped idols. So this is perhaps a little answer to what we hear people say sometimes. What about the heathen? Well, Abram was a heathen and God called him and so.
We can't always understand all of God's ways, but we can say, shall not the judge of all the earth do right? And secondly, we can say that God is able to reveal himself to anyone, anywhere. He's able to make himself known. And he revealed himself to Abraham and called him out from his heathen, idolatrous position. The God of glory appeared to Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia.
Now, this wasn't a very easy thing for Abraham, and it wasn't very easy for his wife.
History, ancient history tells us that Mesopotamia had made great advancements. It was perhaps a very advanced kind of society in which he lived with many comforts. And the God of glory appeared to him and said, get thee out from my country and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee. That wasn't perhaps easy for Abraham to think about that.
What he might say, must I leave all the comforts of Mesopotamia, and where am I going to go?
As we travel about, we're able to get a map, we're able to get pretty well any information that we like about places where we're going. But when Abraham left, God didn't tell him anything about the place that he was going to. He just simply said unto a land that I will tell thee of, and then a land that I will show thee. So you see that with Abraham, he must go in faith.
And that's very important, too.
Because the Bible says we walk by faith, not by sight. We must have confidence in God. If we're looking around and wanting to be directed by the wisdom of man, we're always going to be uncertain because men have very, very different opinions. The world is full of all kinds of opinions. Opinions about what to do, where to find happiness.
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Why the printing press is constantly rolling off all?
All kinds of instructions about how to find some satisfaction and happiness, but you know it's not found in the wisdom of man. God let one man have everything that he wanted, and that was King Solomon. He said I withheld not my heart from any joy. He tried everything and his answer was all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Then he saved another man, Saul of Tarsus. He took away everything from him. He allowed him to get in prison, where he was even forgotten by his brethren. And this man was able to say in prison, Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice. Where is the secret of happiness? Is it in possessions like in Mesopotamia?
No, dear young person, true happiness is only found in Christ.
Christ is everything, without him you have nothing. And even if you're a Christian, if you don't give him His rightful place in your life, you will not find what you're looking for. It's only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Abram must learn this lesson and that he's called out from her of the Chaldees. And I might say too, a little word for his wife. This must have been a real thing for his wife, because when Abraham.
This call, perhaps you can picture the situation as he says to his wife, why God has called us to leave all this civilization, these comforts, all these things. And she says, where are we going, Abraham? Well, he said, the Lord will show us. Are we going to have as nice a house as we had here in Mesopotamia? Well, no, we're going to have to live in tents. Well, for how long?
Well, I don't know, he'd have to say as long as God says so.
You know, that's faith, isn't it? That's confidence in God. But oh, it's the path of blessing. The one who has learned to put his hand, so to speak, in the hand of the Lord and say, Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, has learned that true happiness is to be in the company of the Lord Jesus, in the path of his choosing. I commend that path to you.
One Christian man said.
The path of faith is worthwhile if it were 1000 times harder than it is, because it's the company we're in. You know very well I'd rather go over a rough Rd. a very rough Rd. in good company than over the smoothest Rd. smoothest highway in America in bad company. Yes, it's the company that really makes it. And King Solomon himself, that man who was so very.
Blessed, as we mentioned a few moments ago, that he withheld not his heart from.
Joy. He made this statement. He said, If a man give all the substance of his house for love, it shall be utterly contemned. That is, he says, I look on it with contempt, I gain something far more than what I gave that. He says, I looked on with contempt what I gave up because I got love. And what is the real love that counts? The love of Christ constraineth us, that we should not live unto ourselves, but unto him who died.
For us and rose again, and I say to you, dear young person, to live your life in the company of the Lord Jesus and in the enjoyment of his love, his true happiness.
So Abraham and his wife Sarah were called upon to take this step and we find another person that goes along with them, a man named Lot. Perhaps this speaks to some of us here tonight.
Lot seemed to go along with Abraham, but he didn't have the faith for it himself.
When Abram came out from her of the Chaldees, Lot came with him.
When he stopped in harem, lot stopped there too. When he came into the land, why he came along with him. When he went down in Egypt, he went with him. When he came back out of Egypt, he came with him. And there may be some young person here and you're just following along with your parents and the testing time is going to come sooner or later, whether you're doing what you're doing for the Lord or just to please your parents.
Now it's very nice to do what is pleasing to our parents.
But sooner or later we're going to be tested as to whether what we're doing is really being done for the Lord. The testing time came in Lot's life. He had to be tested. And poor Lot, his heart wasn't. In the past, he had only been a follower on. And So what I'm saying to you, dear young people, you have to have your eye on the Lord. If it's just on some other Christian, you're going to be disappointed.
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The psalmist said I've seen an end of all perfection.
And if you're looking at someone and you think, oh, that's a good example for me, you're going to be disappointed sooner or later unless it's the Lord Jesus. He's the altogether lovely one. He's the one that you can really trust. So Lot comes along, and then there's another thing. Here we find that Abram allowed his father to take the lead in this expedition.
God hadn't called Terah, but Abram allowed his father to take the lead. You notice the way this 31St verse of the 11TH of Genesis reads, and Terah took Abram his son.
But we learn from what we read in Acts that the God of glory hadn't appeared to Terah. The God of glory had appeared to Abram. And so I say again, it must be a personal thing. You must be doing what you do to please the Lord. And Tyra takes over here. But Terah was not a man of faith. There's no mention in the Scripture at all that Tirah had living faith. He just was a man who?
No doubt loved his son.
Abram So he said, well, I'll come along. And out of respect for his father, I suppose he let his father take the lead. But his father wasn't at all prepared to come all the way into the land that God had showed them. So it tells us here that they came as far as a place called Haran called Charan in Acts Chapter 7. It's the same place.
And historically, they tell us that it's a place where the caravans come from.
From the east and from the West could meet and it was a sort of a place where you could.
Shall I say be halfway. And it's a very interesting thing to notice that that's where Terra stop. He stopped at a place where he said, well, I don't want to altogether break with the world, but I can see that Abraham has something. And so here they stop in Heron and they remain there for quite a length of time. They stayed in this place until the time that.
Terra died. We see that Terra wasn't.
Willing to go all the way into the land that God had shown them. And so isn't this a lesson for us? Is, is someone else hindering you and following the Lord Jesus? It may be a relative, it may be a friend. Is someone hindering you from following the Lord? Well, you say they're willing to come part way, but it's a sad thing here that Abram really didn't move on into the path that God had for him.
Him until after God had come in and taken Tyra away. And so God dealt in this, and he removed Tyrah. And when Terah died, Abram began to remember what God had said.
Notice in the 12TH chapter in the first verse. Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house unto a land, that I will show thee.
All this came back to Abram's mind when this sorrow came into his life. Maybe God allowed some sorrow or disappointment to come into your life. Maybe there's been some friend or person that you have looked to and depended on. Maybe the Lord has removed that prop and He's testing you. This happened with Abram and Abram remembered that the Lord had said, Get thee out from thy country and from thy kindred.
And from my.
Father's house, well, he could have said, well, I am partially obedient, I have left my country because he did leave ur the Chaldees. He could have said in the main he had left his kindred, but his father was the one who was really taking control in his life and his father was not a man of faith. Is there someone who is not a true child of God or perhaps not walking by faith well, maybe hinders you.
Well, as I say, the Lord came in and he brought this all back to Abram's mind. And Abram said, I want to give the Lord his rightful place. And if there's been a problem and a trial come into your life, perhaps the Lord is saying the same thing to you. Maybe he's saying right tonight to you, I want you to give me first place in your life.
It says in Matthew chapter 6, Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. There is no other place. The Lord will not occupy second place in your heart and mind. He must have first place. The scripture says that in all things He might have the preeminence. Are we willing to give him that place?
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I was attending a wedding some.
Few years back and there was a brother in the Lord that was speaking and told about a young couple and when they were married someone had given them that little verse that in all things he might have the preeminence. He said I went to visit them and he said they had been married for I forgot now how many years, 15 or 20 years, and he said I was glad to see that text still hanging on the wall well.
The text on the.
Wall is nice, but it's better still when it's true. The Lord wanted to have first place in Abram's heart, not Terah, not Lot, but the Lord Himself. And he wants to have first place in your heart and mind, in your life and mine. So we see here that.
This sorrow that had come into Abraham's life, the loss of his father, was turned into a blessing. It is not a good thing when God allows the sorrows of life to become a blessing to us. Oh, how many of us have had to learn through trials and through sorrows. We sing a little hymn sometimes through waves, through clouds and storms, God gently clears the way. We wait his time. So shall the night soon.
And in perfect day. And so there was a blessing even in his sorrow, when he lost his father. And these things all came back into his mind. The second verse. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.
Well, that's what God wants to do. He wants to bless us.
By the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross, He has laid the foundation for fullest blessing to every believer. And if you are a true child of God, as far as your standing before God is concerned, you are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. You couldn't be more richly blessed than you are.
Someone asked a Christian one time, do you have the second blessing? Well, he said, I don't know anything about the second blessing. He said, I've got them all blessed with all spiritual blessings. Every blessing is ours. Sometimes we don't enjoy them. You might have a box full of precious jewels and you might just pick out one of them and spend the rest of your life enjoying the one precious jewel. But the box is all yours whether you enjoy them or not. And so.
Blessed with all spiritual blessings, may the Lord grant that we will enjoy more of what we have in Christ. The Lord said, I will bless thee. And then he said more than that. He said, I'll make you a blessing. And oh, what a blessing you can be. You say, well, I can't do very much. Oh, what a blessing it is among any in any assembly, in any family, in any group of young people.
Where there's one person who has a real heart.
For the Lord.
Jonathan might have said, well, I'm just one person, I can't do very much. But Jonathan was willing to risk his own life for the good of the people of God. And God used Jonathan to accomplish a great victory over the Philistines. He just needed to be willing. There was a little boy and he had a lunch and the people were following the Lord, and that little boy was willing to give up his lunch to the Lord, and the Lord fed 5000 people from that boy's lunch. There's no.
What a blessing you can be if you're just willing to give what you have to the Lord. So he'll bless you and he'll make you a blessing. Wasn't that far better than living in Haran Only you say, well, I like to meet the world halfway. I I like to go to the meeting and be with the Lord's people, but I also want to have my hand on both. That was Karen, but Abram left Karen and he came into the land that God had told him of and it says here.
In the end of the third verse. And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. That's because from Abraham's seed the Lord Jesus was born, and we know that He was the 1A promised seed, through whom every person who will ever be blessed will be blessed through him. So what a privilege was given to Abram, so it says in the fourth verse.
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So Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken.
Unto him.
All those words are so wonderful. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him. He didn't depart because his father Tyra said so. He didn't depart because.
He didn't depart because his father Tyra said so. He didn't depart because at least he had some fellowship with Lot who was coming along with him. He did it because the Lord had spoken unto him. Oh dear young people, are we really allowing the Word of God to have its authority in our lives?
It's a wonderful thing to allow the Word of God to be the light, the direction, the guidance for our pathway. Let me quote that verse again. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
So Abram departed and it says, and Lot went with him, and Abram was 70 and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
He wasted a good few years there in in.
Karem. But now he's 75 years old. Of course I know people lived longer, but still quite a good bit of his life had already passed by. And maybe there's someone here and there have been some wasted years in your life. Maybe there has been. What? What do we have left? Well, we have the rest of our time. And Peter says that we should not live the rest.
Of our time to the lust of the flesh, but to the will of God. I think God tells us about Abram's age here because we might say, well, it's no use. I've wasted so many years and I've made some bad mistakes in my life. But we do have the rest of our time. And the rest of Abraham's life was a great blessing, a blessing to him and a blessing to others. And who can tell what a blessing you could be?
And the best time to begin is now that's.
That's why it says in 2nd Corinthians 5.
It says that we henceforth should not live unto ourselves, but unto him which died for us and rose again. So it tells us he was 75 years old when he departed out of Haran, and Abram took Sarah his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and all the souls.
That they had gotten Haram.
Why does it mention this?
Well, you know, the expression about burning your bridge is behind, and I think that's really what it's telling us here.
In other words, if Abram had said, well, I'll go into Canaan and see what it's like. If I don't like it too, well, at least I'll have a few things back here that I can come back to if I decide to return to Haram. But you know, if he had done that, there might have been a temptation when trials came for him to backtrack. And the Bible says, no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back.
Is fit for the Kingdom of God.
I'm sure all the young people know that little song that we sing. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back. So this was what Abram was doing. He said I'm not going to leave anything back here. That might be a temptation. If I get discouraged to go back. When I leave Heron, it's going to be for good. I don't want to go back. Something like the decision that Ruth made in the book of Ruth When?
Decided to follow her mother-in-law into God's land. She said, where thou goest I will go. Where thou lodgest I will lodge. Where thou diest I will die. In other words, she said, I'm not going back to Moab. They're not my people, they're not my gods anymore. She said the Lord shall be my God, thy people shall be my people, and thy God shall be my God.
What a fine decision and dear young people.
May there be real decision in our lives. You know that verse multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. And you know, some decisions are intensely important in our lives. Not that we can make a decision once for all and expect that we're going to live the rest of our lives on that decision, but there do come points where important decisions are made.
And it's so important that these decisions are made in the light of God's presence.
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So they didn't leave anything back in here and where they could go back. And it says it's kind of a unusual way it's worded here. And they went forth to go into the land of Canaan and into the land of Canaan they came.
Did you ever stop to think why it's worded that way? Well, you know, sometimes we start out to do things, but we don't do them. We say, yes, I'm going to do that, and we start out, but we don't fulfill what we have said.
Well, my father used to say sometimes he said some people have a good wishbone with a poor backbone. Well, I think that's true too. But he not only had a good wishbone, but he had a good backbone too. He decided that he was going to go.
And he and the company, they went ahead and, you know, as I said, this was not an easy thing because they had turned their back on a good, comfortable civilization back in Mesopotamia. And now here they were coming into a land where they didn't know what it was like. They didn't know whether they would ever have a home in that land. And actually they never did.
Abraham never had any part of the land as it I read it. I read to you in Acts.
That he could call his own except a burying place. It says he gave him none inheritance in it. He didn't have one square foot that he could say this is mine. And dear young people, heaven is our Fatherland, Heaven is our home. I'm not saying that we couldn't have some piece of property that we should. We could call our own in the sense of living on it. But I believe that we ought to hold all these things loosely.
I used to wonder what the Lord meant.
He said to that young man to sell all that he had and take up his cross and follow him. But I believe that the Lord just meant this, that when he got saved there was a new ownership for all that he hath. You know, before you're saved, you call everything you possess your own. You say that's mine. But after you're saved, why? You say it all belongs to the Lord and I'm just his steward.
It all belongs to him. There's a change of ownership.
It's all his. And so if you'll have a piece of land, well, it's a privilege to use it as the Lord's steward. If you have a car, it's a privilege to use it as the Lord's steward. So that's really what it means. He didn't have any inheritance, but he had the Lord, and he was possessing it as the Lord's steward and just enjoying what was provided for him by God himself.
Well, it tells us then in the eighth verse. And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sikkim, unto the plain of Morah, and the Canaanite was then in the land. I expect this is put in just to remind us that it wasn't all easy, because as you know, the Canaanites were great enemies of God's people. Even to this day we know that Israel have many enemies.
Back in the land of Israel.
And so he just mentions this to show that when Abram came there, it was not just a sort of an easy possession to come in and pitch his tent and live there. I suppose every bit was contested as he went along. And so it is the Lord Jesus prepared his own for this. He said, in the world ye shall have tribulation.
But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
World, he's warned us unto you. It is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for his sake. And so perhaps that's why the Spirit of God mentions here the Canaanite was then in the land. But notice the next verse. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed, will I give this land? And there he buildeth an altar unto the Lord who appeared.
Him.
Just when things become difficult, then the Lord appears to him. He had appeared to him back when he was in Mesopotamia and said, Abraham, I want you to leave your country and your kindred. He didn't appear to him in Haran because God didn't want him to settle down there. So he didn't have the comfort of the Lord's presence there. But now at last, when he has come into the place where the Lord wanted him by, the Lord appeared to him.
And when he came and found the Canaanite in the land, as I say, he might have been discouraged. So the Lord appeared to him. And haven't we often find it true? We take some step, we see new problems rising, and the Lord stands by us and says, I, I won't forsake you, I'll take care of you. Oh, how good it is. Paul was forsaken even by his brethren. And he says, notwithstanding, the Lord stood.
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With me and strengthen me. So he gives the Lord his rightful place. He builded an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.
Then it says, And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethlehem, pitched his tent, having Bethel on the West, and Hai on the east, and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.
So here we find that he comes in and he has something that he never had back in Mesopotamia. He never had in Egypt when he went down into Egypt later in the chapters. But he had two things that are exceedingly important for us as Christians. He had a tent, which was a reminder that he really was only a Pilgrim and a stranger in the land.
And God constantly reminds us of this.
Heaven is our Fatherland, heaven is our home, Paul said. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God. What are we here in this world where heaven's representatives, United States, sends ambassadors to other countries? They represent United States in a country that is not their own.
And Paul said, I'm just simply a representative of heaven here in this world, and that's really what we are. So Abram had a tent as though he were saying, well, this is not really a permanent abiding place for me, but he had an altar. And that meant that he did have what is most important. He had a way of approach into the Lord's presence.
And all this is so lovely, God has told us.
The Lord Jesus in his prayer in the 17th of John said.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Christians are not part of it. We find Christians getting mixed up in things of this world, but we're not really part of it. What would you think of the United States ambassador over in Canada? Have he got mixed up in the affairs of Canada? You'd say, well, he'll probably be recalled if he's not careful. Yes. It's not his place at all. He is to represent United States and Canada.
This is the Christian's place here in this world. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. So he was a Pilgrim there. He just had a tent, but all he had an altar. And all I wish to say to each one that you and I have that altar. It would be a miserable thing just to have the tent without the altar, to feel you didn't belong here and not to have one that you can talk to, one that you can approach to.
One who has touched and won your heart because the Lord Jesus.
Gave himself for us. He laid down his life for you and I on Calvary's cross. He was the true sacrifice. He was the one who in love to us, went to Calvary's cross and all. Surely we can say, as a little hymn puts it, love that transcends our highest powers, demands our soul, our life, our all. We belong to him. So here's Abraham now, and those places are very.
That we read about here.
He says it was a mountain with Bethel on the on the east. And I rather Bethel, pardon me, having Bethel on the West and Hai on the east. Well, I like to think of it in this way. These two words have meaning. Hey, I means a heap, and Bethel means the House of God. And you know, the sun rises in the east and it sets in the West.
And so it's to me just as though he passed on through life.
And he said, as I pass on toward the end, he had the House of God before him. And what did he leave behind? You say, well, if I follow Christ, I've got to leave a lot of things behind. Well, he said, I just leave a heap behind a heap. Paul said that. He said what things were again to me, those I counted lost for Christ. And so if you give anything up for Christ, it doesn't compare with what you gain.
Abram really was saying.
I leave the heap behind, but I have a House of God before me.
You know, some of us, as we get a little older, we begin to realize maybe when we're young, we think life has a lot to offer. But as we get older, we realize, you know, we don't leave that much that's important behind. What's ahead is so glorious. What's ahead? Glory shines before me. We have a home above. So this is where he pitched his tent. This is where he had his altar. This was a very, very happy place for Abram.
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And you'll notice after.
After he had gone down into Egypt and got away, that in order to get restored, he had to come back. And I wish to say, if there's anyone here tonight and you've got away from the Lord, if there's anyone here that's got away from the Lord, why, In order to get back, you've got to get back to the place that you left behind. You've got to get back to the place where you give the Lord Jesus His rightful place in your heart and in your life. Nothing will be right until you do.
All you said but.
Abraham had good reason to leave that land. He when he came in he probably expected great things, but it says in the 10th verse and there was a famine in the land.
And Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was grievous in the land.
Well, this was not out of famine for bread, but you know, there is many kinds of famine that we can have in our lives. And I say this very practically to you, dear young people. There may be a famine in the assembly. Maybe things aren't just the way you'd like them to be. There may be a famine because you don't find a job. There may be a famine that comes because of ill health. There may be a famine for friends. There's many, many kinds of famine. And the Lord puts us.
The task, he says, do you really value my company most of all? Do you value my approval most of all? Or are you thinking about things for yourself, things that you can get? Well, Abraham was put to the test, Lot was put to the test, and dear young people were all put to the test. Some of us are a bit older. We've been through it. We're put to the test and the test is this is the Lord enough for us or do we have to go back?
To the world, do we have to say well?
There's a lot of things that I've been disappointed. I didn't think they'd be that way. So I'm going to try the world out. And so we find when the famine got grievous, Abram said, well, I'll go down into Egypt. And Egypt, you know, wasn't there. It wasn't watered by the rain of heaven. It was watered by irrigation. And it's used in the Bible as a little picture to us of how the world.
Tries to work out its own way through.
Through problems and doesn't rely upon the Lord and God brought his people, Israel into the land of Canaan. He says it's not like Egypt. It'll be watered with the rain of heaven. And he wants us to draw our resources from him. But he does allow these little testing times for us. And are we going to turn aside to the world? And when Abram decided to go down into Egypt, why we see that he left his tent behind. He left his altar. He was no longer content.
To be a Pilgrim, it wasn't important to him now that a breach had come between him and access into the Lord's presence. Now his big thing in his life was got to get away from these problems. I've got to get away. And he takes his journey down into Egypt to sojourn there. And when he starts down in there, why, he realizes that he's going to have another kind of a difficulty too.
Maybe things aren't going to work out as well as he.
Had hoped and so when he starts to come down to Egypt. Why he says to his wife don't you say that you're my wife just say you're my sister. I've thought of it sometimes like this to say that Abraham that to say that Abram was her wife was really to recognize her proper relationship to her husband.
But to say while I am a sister, why, that was really a denial of the truth.
Relationship that existed, you know, there are many, many who will say yes, I'm a Christian, I'm saved but do we realize, dear young people, that we're really part of the bride of Christ and that we belong to him. We're not just children of God, although that's true, but.
And, you know, it's amazing how the world will accept Christianity on some terms, but they don't want one who is truly separated to Christ, really devoted and belonging to him. When you're married, you know, you belong to each other. And so here we find that Abram decides that he's going to deny this relationship. Sarah enters into it, too. And what did he have?
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Down in Egypt.
Where he left behind his tent, he left behind his altar. He didn't even enjoy his relationship to the one who was his bride. Oh how often this happens. Those who turn aside into the world, they don't enjoy the Lord and they don't even enjoy the things they expected to enjoy. I heard it said and I believe it's true. When you're saved, you're spoiled for this world. If you're spoiled for it, you never can enjoy it again in the same way because.
You have a divine guest within the Holy Spirit of God. Give the Lord Jesus his rightful place and you'll be happy. But a Christian can't be happy, and Abram wasn't happy down there.
Well, you say he prospered though. Yes, so he did. He became very wealthy down in Egypt and sometimes when a Christian side steps the path, things seem to work out for a while.
When when the ship that Paul was on in the 27th chapter of acts started out why the South wind blew softly? Everything seemed to go well for a while until a big storm arose so it seemed to go well and it's.
Says Abram was entreated. Well, he became very, very wealthy. And I might say something else also happened. A young girl was brought into the home and then afterwards became the source of trouble and sorrow to his home for years to come. And not only sorrow to his home, but it's part of the plague that Israel are having right over now in their homeland is what Abram did in the story that I'm telling you about.
He brought Hagar back from Egypt and she was the source of trouble. And so you know, you say, well if you get away, the Lord restores. But dear young people, I want to tell you this, the Lord does restore, He restored Abram. But we reap what we sow We reap what we sow and it's a sad thing, you know, we can get restored, but we may still have to carry with us some of the results of our self will.
Well, I'm saying this to you in love. God desires your.
Richest and fullest blessing. He wants you to be a happy, fruitful Christian. He wants to bless you and make you a blessing. But there's no other way but to give the Lord Jesus his rightful place. It was a sad thing when Abraham had to be rebuked by Pharaoh, who was the king of Egypt and Janelle. Sometimes when a Christian gets away from the Lord, even the world has to say, well, I'm surprised.
The way you act, I thought you said you were a Christian. It's a sad thing when the world has to say that to us. If we get careless, they'll tell you. You know, I've often said the world sets a very high standard for the Christian. They seem to know how we should act almost better than we know ourselves sometimes. And they're quick to tell us if we're not acting just as we should. Support Abram got rebuked.
But I'm glad to say, and you're glad to notice too, I'm sure, that all this.
Produce something in the heart of Abram. And Abram said, I'm going to go back. I'm going to go back. And he came back and he came right back to the place that he had left. He came right back to the place where he had his altar at the 1St. And there the Lord communed with him. There again he pitched his tent. There again he had his altar. He was restored. How? How lovely. The Lord is able not only to keep us, but if we stray, He's able to restore.
Well, I trust that these few little things that we learn from the life of Abraham will speak to our hearts. I say, dear young people, for this meeting, especially for you, may the Lord encourage you to walk in the path of faith. It may not be easy. There may be testing times come with Abram. The testing time came when his father died. The testing time came when the famine came in the land.
Again, when he was rebuked by Pharaoh, these little things came.
But God's hand was behind it all. And as I said to you before God knows the future, He knew what was going to happen for 400 years afterwards. And God knows the future and He wants you to walk in the light and wisdom of His Word. May God use His Word to the blessing of each one of us here. Because God is the God of Abraham and we know Him now revealed in Christ, and we can say as we sing sometimes.
Israel's God is ours. The one whom they knew is their God is the same one, and He's been more fully revealed in Christ. May the Lord grant that each one of us, dear young people, may give the Lord Jesus His rightful place. The Lord's coming is near. We only have a little time left. May we by His grace live the rest of our time for Him. And He'll bless you and make you a blessing.