Let us turn in our Bibles now to Genesis chapter 12, verses 10 through 20. That's page 19, starts there. Genesis chapter 12, verses 10 through 20. And let us read God's words together saying, Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, Indeed, I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. Therefore, it will happen when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, this is his wife, and they will kill me, but they will let you live. Please say, you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you. So it was when Abram came into Egypt that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful. The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house. He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys and camels. But the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. And 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, she is my sister. I might have taken her as my wife. Now, therefore, here is your wife. take her and go your way.' So Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had." That is the word of God. This, beloved brothers, was a test of faith the love of life. How much would Abram love life? That was the test of his faith. So beloved in the Lord, Abram succeeded in spreading the fragrance of his faith throughout the land of Canaan, from north to south. Right now he was living in the south. Even as he faced enemies, And he never stopped worshiping God. But even the strongest man has challenges in his life. And with all his faith, and with all his wisdom, his interaction with God, He then forgot who his God was, and he became overwhelmed like Peter by the winds and the waves, and he started to sink. Doubts crept into his heart. He doubted God could protect him and provide for him, and you will see today how God exposed Abram's lack of faith and his consequent failure. So you're learning from a negative example today. And of course, you will see the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus in keeping the covenant for you. Our headings are 2. Abraham's Flight and then 2. Abraham's Fault. Our goals are that you will learn to daily nourish your soul with God's promises of salvation and preservation, in order that you will remain faithful to the Lord and fulfill your rational or reasonable duties to Him. We foresee Abram's flight. Well, Abram's faith was tested in a hard way when a severe famine came on Canaan. And we know this was a severe famine because Canaan was known for being very flourishing along the Jordan Valley where the river would pass. There was lots of water. It was very green. It was a beautiful climate for things to grow. God had predicted it would be a good place to grow later on. So the valley was rich, and yet there was no food. God promised him the land, but he was not king. He had troubles from the Canaanites, and now he had this hard test. What am I doing here? Why did I leave my family to come here and starve? And Abraham became afraid. He feared he and his family would starve. And what did he do in response? He compromised and moved to Egypt for food. Now, he could not look to the north, because that's where most of the Canaanites lived. He couldn't look to the west, because that's where the Mediterranean Sea was. He couldn't look to the east, because that's where he came from. And even closer by were the Ammonites and the Moabites. So life wasn't good. So where did he look? Couldn't look north, south, sorry, north, east, west. He looked south. Where should he have looked? He should have looked up. That was his failure. He should have looked up. Instead, he thought, you know, the Nile seemed like a good place to go. Along the Nile River, there's flourishing land. The Nile Delta was known for producing excellent crops. In fact, Egypt was called the granary of the world. And when you have green land, you also have good meats because the animals would graze there and become rich. That's where Israel would live in Goshen near the Nile Delta later on. But the Egyptians were not a peaceful people, they were not a God-fearing people. In fact, they were related to the Canaanites. Remember, the original name for Egypt was Mitzrayim, which was one of the direct descendants of Ham, the wicked Ham. But Abraham sort of rationalized and said, yeah, I know they're not good people. I know they're bad. I know. And he obviously knew about their troubles. But he thought, I will go there on a temporary basis. That's the word. To stay there means to sojourn, temporary resident. And then when things got better, he would leave. But why did he think that? He thought that because, in his mind, God could not provide a beautiful table filled with food in the middle of the desert. But that was God's promise. And God had to remind people of that, that He could take care of them. He could provide for them. Even though it go through the valley of the shadow of death, we'll fear no evil. Why? Because God is with us. He prepares our tableware in the presence of our enemies. That's a direct rebuke that the psalmist gave to what Abram did. Now look in your notes, 1 Peter 1, verse 6 and 7. It says this, together, In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while. If need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ." So God was putting Abram through these tests. to purify him, ultimately to bless him. But Abram did not pray for help for his household. He thought he had to personally fix their troubles. He forgot that he was God's problem. He was God's child. That's what's expected. It was up to God to provide for him. He didn't get what he asked because, he didn't get what he wanted because he did not ask. In your sermon notes I used the example, you ever seen, you've seen Jemima running around here, you ever seen her look worried about what will be for dinner? You ever seen a little child worried? They just know it's dinnertime, there will be food. Why? Because they know they have a mother who can cook and she will make sure that they don't starve. And that's the kind of faith that Christians were expected to have, that Abraham, as good as he was in so many ways, this is where he fell. He forgot that his father loved him and would provide for him. What can we learn? First of all, those who doubt God controls all things, they then rob God of his praise. They then frustrate themselves. thinking they have to control all their circumstances, and then the third thing is that they make bad decisions. And this is illustrated for us, so use the example of those who suffer from obsessive compulsive disorders, OCD. They try to fight to control all things by themselves. It's a lack of faith. We can say it's mental, But the reality is that they're refusing to trust God and rest on His sovereignty. You see, that's what God expects us to do. Make reasonable efforts and rest in Him that He will take care of us. But those who suffer from OCD, they don't. And therefore, they don't receive that comfort. Second. The old saying goes, with Christ in the vessel, you can smile at the storm. Or put another way, when you have your troubles, look up. Look to the hills from whence comes my help. My help comes from myself because I am God. No, my help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. So even more personally now, number three. The fear of troubles, like losing your job, like losing a relationship, like losing your residency, like losing your faculties, your mind, or having to make major changes in your life can make you compromise. Some are afraid, for example, they have to return home, so they marry a non-believer for Canadian residency. That's a sin. Some commit adultery because they think, if I don't give in and commit adultery, I might lose that relationship. Some abandon the Sabbath because, I can get a job if I can abandon worship on Sunday. That's a compromise. And when you start to compromise, things fall apart. You make worse decisions. Spiritual lifestyle gets damaged. compromising, which is from, started with doubts, then would kill. It's true that many survive. You know, you make a bad mistake about marriage, and then you survive, but it's not a good life. You struggle in your soul. Struggle in your marriage, you struggle to raise children. Maybe you survive, but it's not the way God intends. Four. Jesus illustrated what happens to the one who doubts. Let's read Matthew 14, 29-31 together. So he said, come. And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried out saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him and said to him, oh, you of little faith, why do you doubt? See what doubt does. You look at the circumstances and you forget Christ. Five, the sins of the saints are written down for your admonition, not your admiration. And the saints did sin. I know the Muslims would say, they didn't sin, it was just a little mistake, and God ignores that. These are sins. These are deadly sins. that these men have committed. So be warned against these sins and confess them through Jesus Christ if you did. Let's move to Abram's fault. Abram's fault. He decided he was going to flee from where God had called him to go. He was going to go to Egypt for help. we now see his sin exposed. Well, the Egyptian men we know loved foreign women and focused heavily on beauty. The Egyptians were the earliest developers of hair removal for men and for women. Their men would often shave their heads because hair to them wasn't good, so they would have bald heads. They thought this was more beautiful. And they particularly loved the lighter-skinned women. Most Egyptians at that time were a rustic, blackish color. So the exotic women coming from overseas were more attractive to them. And Sarah, even though she was 65 at this time, still had much of her youthful beauty. And we know she didn't have any children. And she didn't have to raise any children. And you know, as a mother, how much those things wear on you when you have to deal with children, childbirth, and rearing of them. As we often say, they add years to your life, make you a lot older very quickly. The Egyptians chose beauty. over grace. Godly principles didn't matter. Whether the woman was godly, was she beautiful? In fact, the historian Piraeus records that the Egyptians would kill a man in a heartbeat to take his wife if she were beautiful and fair-skinned. And that's where Abram was taking his beautiful wife. Now, knowing Sarah was beautiful and the Egyptians would likely try to kill him to take her, Abram asked Sarah to lie and say that she was the sister of Abram. He was the brother in order to protect Abram. And he lied. because he was concealing part of the truth. Though Sarah was his half-sister, she was also his wife, and that was a close relation, and she should have said that. And in doing this, Abram, the godly sheep of God's flock, jumped into the slough of the pigs. The good apple tree started bearing apples with worms in them. He should have risked his life to keep his wife alive. But he asked his wife to risk her life to protect his life. Abram became like the chameleon who would change his colors to save his life. That's the test of faith. How much do you love your life? Would you compromise? And he did. Abram compromised in a terrible way. When the Egyptians saw that the light-skinned and beautiful Sarah was there, they took her to Pharaoh in order to ingratiate themselves to him. They hoped Pharaoh would marry her later. Now, she'd have to go through a period of waiting, sometimes up to a year, to make sure the woman had no diseases. And if Pharaoh didn't want her after that time, then he would give her to one of them, so they would have her as a wife. And Pharaoh, because that was so important to them, the beautiful woman, he then treated her well, and he treated her brother very well, giving him many animals. But what a horrible thing could have happened to her. She could have been corrupted. Thankfully, there was that period of waiting before she could be married to Pharaoh. But what a risk he took in sending his wife to protect his life. Literally, he prostituted his wife for his own benefit. This is the father of the faith, sinned in this way. He could have destroyed the line of promise. God said it's through you and through Sarah that Messiah would come, and in you all the nations of the earth would be blessed. And he ran that risk of corrupting that line. And consider how wrong Sarah was as well. This was a non-biblical submission and a breaking of the ninth command. Abram bore the bigger guilt, of course, because he was the head of the covenant family, but she was not an innocent bystander at all. These were horrible sins. because it was based on the fear of man and it was based upon expediency, doing what was convenient. She should have said, no way am I going to do such a wicked thing. That's what the godly wife should have done. Now this is like those who are often say, well, let's not go to worship so we can spend more time looking for the lost. We're going to go evangelizing. So God says, worship, and you should. Or the one who says, well, you know, if we go to the bar, we can identify with the people who are there, and then maybe we'll get to share the gospel with them. So they go to the bar and drink with the people there with the hope that they will be able to get them to be better. But you know, God ordains the goals and God ordains the means to those goals. You have to stick with those means. Theology and methodology are both controlled by God. We want to put it another way. Now what happened there? Pharaoh has the man's wife waiting to marry her. And then God played Pharaoh's house. Not with little punishments, but with severe plagues for having a stolen wife. You know, you are guilty if you have stolen possession. It doesn't matter if you know you were the one who stole it. But if you have stolen possession, you are guilty. And Pharaoh's household suffered. According to the Jews, they had some kind of ulcers that grew on their skin. See, Pharaoh had his sins too. He didn't make a covenant with his eyes not to look at a woman lustfully as Job did. But ignorance of what was taking place was not innocence. You have to know what's in your heart. You have to know what's around you, just like you were not to have stolen possessions in your house. And if he had married her, he would have been guilty of adultery. Because Sarai belonged to Abram. And yet, here's the wonderful thing. Now the story comes together. God overruled Pharaoh's sin to protect the line of promise. Abram exposed the line of promise to destruction. But God, in spite of Abram's sin, protected the line of promise. In some way, he spoke to Pharaoh. to stop him. Look at what Psalm 105 verse 14 says, together, he permitted no one to do them wrong. Yes, he rebuked kings for their sakes. And that's what he did. God went to Pharaoh somehow, maybe in a dream, and said, what you're doing is going to sentence you to death. So Abram didn't care. He didn't honor his wife by protecting her, which was breaking of the seventh commandment, but also the breaking of the fifth commandment. As a father over her, in that sense, he should have protected her and didn't. And then Pharaoh, of course, was doing the same thing. He was guilty as well. And all started from doubting whether God was able to protect him. The doubter almost destroyed his whole family. How humiliating for one of the patriarchs. The ruling fathers sinned in such a horrible way. But when God spoke to him, he knew who God was, just like God had spoken to Cyrus many years later and said, you send those people back. They're my people. And he was so afraid that he obeyed the God of heaven. That's how God spoke to Nebuchadnezzar. He got his act together. Similarly, God spoke to Pharaoh and said, send this man away, send this woman back. And you know what? In the meanwhile, this is why this is so remarkable. And Pharaoh said, take everything, go. Take all the animals, all the wealth you've acquired while you're here and go. He was going to go back, but he was going to go back in a rich way. Isn't this interesting? Because this is what happened later, right? When the children of Israel were leaving Egypt, God enriched them by the Egyptians. Did they deserve it? No. You could see how much they whined and complained when they were leaving. We want meat. We want vegetables. We want all the garlic and all the things they craved. Yet God enriched them to send them out just like God did here. See the wonder of God. So the line of promise could have been stopped, but God preserved it and God even enriched it. That's the God who controls all things. What can we learn here? First of all, when you take your eyes off of the Lord, you become directionless, and then you make bad decisions. You need to focus on where you're going, and the one who is guiding you, Jesus, is like that, that beacon on the hill, that lighthouse. You focus on him, you are going to be safe. You will make good decisions. because he will guide you. Second, beauty without goodness, as in Sarah's case, is like a gold ring in a pig's snout. The pig is going to go back to the mud, regardless of how you dress it up. And remember that. Don't be fooled by beauty. Let there be goodness that guides your action. Third, aberrant pleasures often lead to deadly plagues. These perversions, you see that, what Pharaoh was doing. They were going to kill a man to take his wife. That's what they enjoyed doing, killing men and taking their wives. If it was someone's sister or daughter, they will ask permission to marry. But they enjoyed that sick thing of killing a man and taking his wife. That's aberrant. That's what happens when you consider homosexuality. Look at all the plays that come with it. How can man live that way? It's life apart from God. Fourth, don't tell your children to lie in order to get in somewhere at a cheaper price. Don't lie to avoid shame. Don't lie to get ahead. If you lie about your Bible reading, you won't get the help you need from the Word of God. If you lie about your struggles, you won't get the help you need. You need to speak the truth, here's my struggle. That's one of the things I really do appreciate most of you. You have a struggle, it's easier to talk about that. I think that's a good thing. The last couple of weeks, at least five different people. And that's wonderful, because you're able to get help. But if you put on this facade, this pretense, you're not going to get the help you need. Five, the one who would not risk his life for his wife is not worthy of his wife. And Abram showed that at that point in his life. He was not willing to risk his life for his wife, wanted her to do it for him. Six, your sins will affect your spouse, your children, your church, your nation. Above all, your sins will hurt the Savior. Sins are never white lies or little mistakes as the Muslims say. Sins are deadly and they always affect other people. Seven, the rich exodus of Abram from Egypt and the rich exodus of Israel later during the time of Moses pictures your exodus from sin. It was intended to teach us that as well. Yes, we learn about the providence of God, we learn of God protecting the line of promise, but this was a beautiful picture of how God will lead us out and enrich us at the same time. When you leave the ways of the world, you don't come out in poverty. You come out rich. You have the riches of God in your bank. You're made to sit in heavenly places when you come out. And you know, there's another interesting thing when you think about it. Why did Jesus, as a child, have to go to Egypt and then be called out? because it was picturing you. You ran to Egypt. And there are more examples of this where God said to, had warned the Israelites before the fall in Assyria, captivity 722 BC, and again during the time of Jeremiah, and said, don't go to Egypt. But when Jesus came, As a child, he had to go to Egypt. And then it was out of Egypt I called my son. That's you. That was a picture of where you were. And Jesus is saying, don't stay there. Don't compromise. Come out from there. Come out to a place of safety. Isn't that beautiful? The picture is rich. One more lesson. You are rich. You're now rich, you're blessed, you've been saved by the blood of the Lamb. Don't compromise. You know, people compromise when they say, I've got to make more money, so I'll steal something or fudge on the numbers. I want that residency, so I'll marry someone who's not a believer. You have to realize you are already rich, wherever you are, you are rich. When you know how rich you are, you will live well. How do you know you're rich? Every time you read about the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, when you learn that His death was, your death was put on Him, and His life, His eternal life, the riches of His grace, His righteousness, all piled on you. You're covered with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So keep your eyes on the cross. Let that be in your memory always. First Peter chapter 2 verse 9 says, together but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Abram was a remarkable man of faith who left his family and friends and moved to a different country with many adversaries around. And he walked from north to south in the land without fear, spreading the fragrance of his faith. But then he took his eyes off of Jesus, and he started to doubt. His faith became weak. So he sank, and as he sank, he pulled his wife in, exposing his whole household to danger and disgrace and death. He doubted that God could provide food for him in Canaan and urged his wife to lie. Yet God preserved him and even enriched him. Abram's saving was God showing his faithfulness to the promise he made back in the garden to provide a savior of the world, even through Abram. So brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, no one is above sin. You can fall into sin. Consider the consequences then of your sin on your family and on your church and on your nation. Guard yourself. Guard your hearts. Hold on to the place of your calling. Stay in a faithful church. Nourish your faith. Keep your eyes on the bread of life. Eat of Him and live. Let nothing pull you away from Him. Let Him keep you. Let Him strengthen you. Remember, He said, I'm always with you. He's an ever-present aid in time of trouble. And keep your children here. Don't drag them away from church for any reason. Not for recreation, not for education. This is what they need more. This is meat for their souls. Don't focus too much on meat for the body. They need to be close to the Savior so they could eat of Him and live. And finally, if you've been longing for good spiritual waters, good nourishing food for your soul, the bread of life, only Jesus has them. Ask of Him. Ask Him to nourish your soul, to remove your sin, and make you one of His own. His body was broken and His blood was shed for life. Amen. Let's pray. Thank You, Heavenly Father, that You have given us a reminder today of how we must stay close to You, not try to flee, but rather be nourished by you, to keep her eyes on you, knowing you will take care of us. And we don't need to compromise with any of the things of this world that might pull us away. Help us not to look at the troubles that can make or take her eyes off of you, but know that you are the one who controls even the winds and the waves, as the disciples so poignantly described later. Even the winds and the waves obey you. And so, Lord, help us to stay in the light of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior. Keep us from compromise, holding fast that which is good. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.