Today, tonight we're going to talk about the third dispensation. And you'll remember on the third day, the dry land appeared, Earth appeared and Earth produced. And it's suggested to us that this is an illustration of the beginning of the nation of Israel and that this third day has to do with God's chosen people. So I thought we would turn to chapter twelve of Genesis where all of this begins. We read the scriptures, we note in the beginning and ending of the first and second dispensation. Now here we have the chapter that deals with the beginning of the third dispensation. Now since our evenings are to a large extent, I trust anyhow, informative, I thought that our morning sessions ought to be a little more personal, personally challenging. So I'm going to read about Abraham. and see if we can't glean a lesson or two for our own lives from his life this is where the third dispensation began because of course Abraham was the father of Israel and that is the nation of Israel let's read just a few verses here chapter twelve and verse one 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, but bless thee, and curse him, but curse of 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 seventy and five years old when he departed out of Heron, and Abram took Sarah his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Heron, 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 unto the place of Sikkim, under the plain of Moray. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Under 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 Hayai 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. Now that's as far as we'll read for the moment. Now there would never have been, humanly speaking, any nation of Israel had not God seen in Abraham, whom he called the friend of God, a, shall I say, worthy, there are qualifications for that, would, of course, trojanitor for this chosen people. But he found Abraham the sort of man that he needed. Now, many months ago, Some of us were studying together in the summer time some Bible beginnings. Now we eventually came to this chapter for the beginning of the Hebrew nation. And that's the reason why we are back to it again, because it's the beginning of this third dispensation. Now if we can learn what kind of man Abram was, We will learn something of the kind of man or woman God expects us to be if we're going to be able to fulfill his plan to fit into his will to honor and to please him. Hence the study of this morning. I hope we're all of us going to be exercised in our hearts about our own lives. He says here, the Lord had said unto Abram, and the language is in the past, 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 verse four says, So Abram departed. Now God spoke to Abram at some point that he's in the past in verse one. Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Now, I'm quite sure that knowing what kind of man Abram was, it wasn't very much earlier than this. Because not only was Abram a man who obeyed, but he was a man who obeyed with alacrity. He did it readily, and he did it speedily. So God called this man, spoke to him, and Abram immediately listened and thereafter, and I'm sure, just as readily responded. Now, the first thing that God has said to Abram is this, get thee out of thy country. Now, that is a big command on God's pathway. So I ask a man to turn his back upon his country. Now there's many a missionary has grappled with that one. There's many a missionary who, having got to the point where he said, Lord, I want you to have your way in my life, was suddenly taken aback, startled, and scared to death when it became apparent to him, God was taking him at his word and saying, I want you to turn your back upon your country. Now there have been those. who received a missionary call and have been afraid to respond and have turned their back upon that call. And the rest of their lives, the rest of life was wasted for them, because if we miss the will of God at any point in our life, especially when that is irrevocable, then we are going to pay the price the rest of our lives because we turn aside from God's best. And the best that we can have thereafter is God's second best. Now Abram was not going to make that mistake. He was prepared to separate himself from his country. Now most of us are feeling, well, I'm long beyond the point where God is going to say to me, turn your back upon your country. Now there have been men and women, perhaps, as old as you, or maybe not quite as old, but approaching it, to whom God said, I want you to turn your back upon your senses. You read the missionary annals, and you'll find that sometimes God surprised older men with a missionary challenge like this. And I know that you've all known men and women who reached retirement age. and then decided at last they were free to go and use what skills they had out on the mission field to serve the Lord in carpentry, in plumbing, in some of these other things. And there are people on the mission field today who didn't go there until after their retirement. So you'd better be very careful when you say to the Lord, Lord, I want you to have all that there is of me. I willingly put all that I am and all that I have into your hand now don't say I didn't warn you we're going to come to Abram's age a little bit later on and it may shock you so here was the first part of God's challenge and call to Abram I want you to turn your back upon your country not a very easy challenge to take up now What God has in mind here is to separate Abram from his country. That word separation is an ugly word as far as some Christians are concerned. They're very much afraid of it. Very much afraid of it. Because it has the odor of having to give up. It has the odor of having to abandon. It has the odor of having to choose a path that is different from the path that your own heart would dictate. And get all down through time, not only to even, but to all of those who were numbered among these people. God has said, come out from among them and be separate, and touch not the unclean things. Separation is to be for the Christian a way of life. No, please let's get this. not separation from other Christians. We have to appreciate the common bond that unites us in Christ. You know, when I used to go to the meetings in Celtic in England, they had a big tent there that held eight thousand people. And always, every year when Celtic convened, there was this text at the entrance to the tent, all one in Christ. The call to separation is separation from the things that dishonor displeased God or that would be likely to impede us in our spiritual progress. Those are the things from which we are to be separated. Now, in this particular instance, God felt that God knew that Abram's country was no longer a help to Abram, and indeed he had other things in mind for him. And so he said, get thee out of thy country. But then he says, and from thy kindred. Now if the first was tough, the second was tougher, because here's a man that's not only got to turn his back upon his country, he's got to turn his back upon his family. And that is always difficult. Whether it is we are younger and the family is older, or we're older and the family is younger. You know, when people reach retirement age, one of the grave problems they have is, how can I move away when the grandchildren are here? Do you ever have that kind of a conflict, that kind of a problem? How can I do it? Why? It's because blood is thicker than water, and because families are precious and wonderful things. Wonderful, well, I suppose they need some homework there, but they're wonderful institutions and... A family experience is probably one of the most precious experiences that a human being knows. If we're a tall, normal people, then we love our families and our families love us. And Abram was a very normal man. And I'm sure he loved his kindred and his kindred loved him. But God said, you've not only got to turn your back upon your country, you've got to turn your back upon your kindred. My, that's a rough thing. Before Abraham is done, it will have cost him his home, it will have cost him his relatives, it will have cost him his close family of loved ones, it will have cost him his nephew Lot, it will have cost him his son Ishmael, it will have cost him his son Isaac, and it will have cost him Sarah his wife. Now, is the will of God ever worth a sacrifice? I know what you immediately say. Yes, indeed it is. There's nothing so precious or vital or important as the will of God. But by the same token you have a fervent hope that it won't get that quite as close home that God won't make three sort of demons upon you. But my mother used to say to me when I was younger, you're born and you're not buried that was her way of saying it hasn't happened yet but there's still plenty of time you know God has a way sometimes especially especially if we if we bestow inordinate affection upon things that stand between us and him Did you ever sing that hymn in which there's a verse and I forget how the hymn began? Whate'er that idol be, help me to tear it from thy throne and worship only thee. Now we don't worship wooden idols, we don't worship metal idols, we don't worship idols of stone, but we all of us know we sometimes have problems with idols in our hearts. And sometimes they are living. and we have to be very very careful that God doesn't step in if we allow an inordinate affection even for living idols to remove them or to remove us from them every man who receives the call of God to be separated is going to find himself with decisions that are far-reaching like this one of Abrams. I can think of missionary friends on the field who paid a very, very, very heavy price as far as their families were concerned. I think of one missionary who went to the field. Those of his children took to the Colossus on the field with a price he paid for serving the Lord under primitive conditions in the jungle. And we all know that just recently we celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the slaying of the five men in Alca country. Look at the costs to the wives of those missionaries, for instance. The work paid a great price when those five very outstanding young men were snatched away so suddenly by martyrdom. Part of the price. And yet no price that is paid is too great in order to know the accomplishment of the will of God in our lives. God says to Abram, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, and go into a land that I will show you. Now here was a man who was not only to turn his back on his country and upon his kindred and his family, but he was to go to some place he'd never been before, a place he knew nothing it's all about, a place in which he was going to be entirely cast upon God. It says, Now the Lord have said unto Abram, Do this. And verse four says, So Abram departs. I believe he counted the cost. I believe he examined the price. I believe he was aware of much of what it was going to cost. But he said, this is what God demands. How can I do otherwise than obey him? I think that probably every call of God to the believer involves being separated, making sacrifice, and then coming to the place where one is totally and absolutely dependent upon God. All of that was involved in God's challenge at the very beginning to age. But now let's go on and see what happens here. Abram departed, it says. Verse five, he took Sarah, and he took Lot, and all their substances they had gathered, and the souls they had gotten in Heron, and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan. They went forth to go into the land of Canaan. And Abram passed through the land under the place of Sikkim. Now, God said something to Abram. He said, verse two, I will make of thee a great nation. I want you to see how that having called and challenged Abram, God stands by him and says, now Abram, I am going to give to you my word. I'm going to make you a promise. Now again, Abram was not in that sense a favorite to God because every man who God challenges to him, God says, I'm going to give you my word, I'm going to make you a promise. In other words, when you and I are spoken to of God with regard to moves in our own lives for him, we always have his solemn word to stand by us and his promise that the way we go is going to turn out for our good and our blessing and the good and blessing of others. In other words, no matter what the cost may be, to do the will of God, we cannot do the will of God without winning and causing others to be profited in the process. In fact, there's no other way that we can make true success of our lives except to find the will of God, put ourselves in the center of the will of God, and do the will of God whatever it's cost. Here God makes a promise. to Abraham, and he says, I'm going to make of you a great nation. Now, what you can imagine, or you can appreciate, what a promise that was when you realize that when Abram left Ur of the Calvins, he was seventy-five years of age, and what is more, his wife was barren. Now here God is actually promising to Abram what is totally impossible, humanly speaking. Now that should encourage us when we think about our lives and we think about the will of God in our lives and we think about the cost of doing the will of God in our lives and we think about the promise that God makes to us of standing by us. to realize that in order to fulfill his word to Abram, God has to do the impossible. That's no problem with God. We've got all things to happen. But you know, it's a problem to us sometimes to believe that God can do the impossible. It really is. Because we are so human. And because we are so short-sighted. And because so often times, things that are material and right at hand loom so large we can't really see into far enough into the future to realize that God has a plan it takes time to work it out his time but as sure as he makes the promise to give his word he's going to keep it so here is a covenant made with Abram He says, I'm going to make of thee a great nation, and he promises him the impossible. Have you ever had a human being promise you the impossible? You didn't even know it was impossible then, but he proved to be impossible, and that promise was never yet. In fact, we are so skeptical and cynical in these days. We use a little pun which says promises are like pie crusts. They make you be broken. But of course, we know that Christians' promises shouldn't be like that, but sometimes we can't keep our word because we have such human limitations. But all of God's promises are in Christ, yea, and in him, amen. When God gives his word, there is no power in hell or on earth, or even in heaven, that can prevent God from keeping his word. Well, he made a promise to Abram and a promise to do the impossible. He was going to do the impossible. And history tells us that he did do the impossible. So here the old man with a wife who was barren is told, I will make a great nation. You know how old Sarah was when she had a first job? years of age I told you God did be impossible now he says to him verse two again I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee and make thy name great now here is a man whom God is deliberately making a pilgrim out of and a pilgrim well you know the difference between a pilgrim and a stranger A stranger is a man away from home, and a pilgrim is a man on his way home. That's the difference between a stranger and a pilgrim. And here you have a man who's a stranger because he's away from home. He's a pilgrim because he's on his way to a home. He doesn't even know. He's called a city whose builder and maker was God. So he's a stranger, he's a pilgrim. Who gets to know a stranger? Who gets to know a pilgrim? And yet God says, I'm going to make you a man great. That's another impossible thing under these circumstances. But that's the problem. We're all too often under the circumstance. I told the folk in the park here more than once I'm sure about the two men who met on the street corner. And one said to the other, how are you today? And the other one, and they were both Christians, said, I'm all right under the circumstances. First fellow wanted to know, what are you doing there? What are you doing there? We have no business ever as believers to be under the circumstances. That's why Paul said, forgetting the things that are behind and reaching forth under the things which are before, I pressed toward them up. He didn't submit to pressure. He did the pressing. I pressed toward them up. But what do we do? We submit to the pressure and we cave in. We're under the circumstances. Now here was a man in his point of his circumstances, which decreed he should remain for the rest of his life an unknown, God says, I'm going to make your name great. There's a second impossible part to his promise. But did God do it? You go to the Muslim, and he reveres the name of Abram. You go to the Jew, and he reveres the name of Abram. You go to the Christian, and of course he reveres the name of Abram. And Abram's name is known. Well, I was told to have did God honor his promise to Abram. I will make thy name great, of course he did. But in between these two, where he says, I will make thee a great nation, and I will make thy name great, he says, I will make thee a blessing. Thou shalt be a blessing. In fact, he said it in between those two, and he said it again at the end of the verse I will bless thee and thou shalt be a blessing here then is a man and he's become a wanderer according to the will of God and yet God says your wanderings are going to be so directed that you are going to not only be blessed in your wanderings but you are going to be made a blessing to others. Again, it didn't seem reasonable, but did God honor that promise? He is making of Abram as a result of this challenge an isolated old man. Get away from your country, get away from your kindred, make your way to a land I'll show you of, And in the meantime, he's isolated in his wanderings, and yet God says, I'm going to bless you, and I'm going to make you a blessing. We indeed have a God of the apostles. Did God honor that part of the promise? He certainly did. Now go a little further and see what he says in verse three. I will bless them the blessed three, and curse him the cursed version. Now when a man leaves his country, leaves his kindred, goes out with only his immediate family and he goes out into the wilderness, which is a dangerous place, he immediately becomes a prey. Don't you sometimes feel when there are no people around, a little bit scared? Because being isolated is a dangerous thing. We are made of prey to those that may have ulterior motives with regard to us. Yet here's the God of the impossible say to him, I'm going to protect you. In spite of your isolation and your wanderings and the fact that you don't belong here and you don't belong there, I'm going to bless him that blesses you and curse him that curses you. In other words, I'm going to be your protection. I'm going to make sure that you are looked after. And if there are those that oppose you, they're the ones who will pay the price. If there are those who help you, then in return, I will help you. I'm going to be your protection. And then he says also, in verse seven, take a look around, he said, The Lord appeared to Abram and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. I'm not only going to bring you into a land, but I'm going to give it to you and to your seed after this. Now a God who promises like that, promises the impossible, and is able to perform the impossible in... in keeping that promise, he's certainly a God we ought not to hesitate to trust. When Abram went out at God's call and accepted God's challenge, he did it only because he believed that God was both a God of the impossible and a God who technically was. But you know, I think that in the last five minutes, we ought to go a little further down this chapter. Because we sometimes have an idea that these Bible heroes, these men, who are so striking and wonderful that God puts them down to their stories down in His Word, in order to be a challenge to us, in order to say to us, be like these men, be willing to separate yourself and to go where God tells you whatever the cost. Be prepared if they got at his word because he doesn't say it. We're surprised when we find that these men had feet of clay. They were men like we are. And although Abraham was such a great man, the friend of God and the father of the nation of Israel, take a look and see what happened to this man. In verse four, we see how obedient he was. God spoke to him, and it says so, he departed. Verse four says he was seventy and five years old, so he is obviously entirely and totally willing to trust God in spite of his age and in spite of these very different circumstances. And then there's a little bit of language in verse five that I like. It says, they went forth to go, and into the land they came. Now, that seems to me to breathe a kind of pressing on and perseverance. They set forth to go, and they didn't stop until they arrived. That kind of determination is very, very commendable. And then you'll notice in verse seven and verse eight, he built an altar, and he called on the name of the Lord. So here he is. obviously a man of great devotion and there at Bethel which means the house of God he worshipped God but in these verses ten through twenty after all that and this makes an imposing beginning for chapter twelve it says in verse ten and there was a famine in the land and Abram went down his reaches now I wonder whether that famine in the land was a test on God's part. Now it wasn't really surprising that Abram went to Egypt because in Egypt there was a line of kings called the Hicksos and Abram was actually related to them. And going down to Egypt he's going down and he's going down to Egypt and he's going back again to his kingdom. perhaps more remote and distant members of the family, but nevertheless, back to his kindred. His kindred or the hiccups were related to him. And it's very striking that he says he went down. Now, read on again. Now he says, there was a famine in the land, verse ten. It came to pass that when he was come near to enter into Egypt, He said unto Pharaoh his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look at. The Egyptians are going to say, This is his wife, and they'll kill me, but they'll save you alive. This great man, Adam, who would have taken God at his word, who believes that God means what he says, when he says, I'll bless him that blesses you, and curse him that curse with you. He's getting scared. when he gets close to the border of Egypt. He's saying, now you're a very pretty woman, and because I'm married to you, they'll want you, and the only way they can get you is by putting me to death, they're going to kill me. Now here you see that even Abraham had his times of being scared. He had his times of being afraid. Even the best of men from time to time give way to the temptation. Now the fear of a man, the fear of man kept of a snare, the Bible says. So here is Abram already with his feet in the wrong direction. Now what he should have said when he said he suddenly realized what was happening was, we can't go any further. We mustn't cross the border. This is a position, we had a false position, we're putting ourselves into, we've got to trust God in the famine. The famine, I think, was a text for this man. But instead of expect God to provide for him in the famine, he said, we'll go to Egypt. But that wasn't the end. You go on a little bit further, and he says, verse thirteen, 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. Now you're my wife. But when they speak to you, just say that you're my sister. Now, Abram, what have I? And notice something here. Verse eleven of chapter twenty says, Abram said, because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place, and they will slay me for my wife's sake, and yet indeed she is my sister. She's the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. Now you can see she was his half-sister. He married his half-sister. So here is a man, and he's really compromising with truth. Now I know he wouldn't lie out there. But you know, every one of us from time to time is tempted to trifle with the truth. Even a great man like Abram did it. Oh, he paid the price. He certainly did. You'll see, it says in verse fourteen of our chapter again, and it came to pass that when Abram was come into Egypt, when he came into Egypt, the moment he crossed the border, he lost his separation. And that's a thing that a man of God cannot afford to do. And I must finish. Time is gone.