Failure and Faithfulness

Deuteronomy 32: The Faithfulness and Justice of God

Please stand in honor of God's Word. Old Testament reading will be in Deuteronomy chapter 32. Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, like a gentle rain upon tender grass, and like showers upon the herb.

For I will proclaim the name of the Lord, ascribe greatness to our God. The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.

They have dealt corruptly with him. They are no longer his children, because they are blemished. They are a crooked and twisted generation. Thus do you repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people?

Is not he your father who created you, who made you and established you? Remember the days of old. Consider your years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you. Your elders, and they will tell you.

When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord's portion is his people.

Jacob, his allotted inheritance.

2 Thessalonians 3: Prayer for the Word and the Lord's Faithfulness

The New Testament reading is in 2 Thessalonians chapter three, verses one through five. It's page 990 in your pew Bible. Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you, and that we may be delivered from perverse and evil men, for not all have faith.

But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you, that you are doing and will continue to do what we command. And may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into steadfastness of Christ.

You may be seated.

Abraham's Call and the Beginning of the Sermon Series

Take your Bibles this morning and turn with me to Genesis chapter 12. I am in the pulpit today because Andrew is preaching at Redeemer in Arlington. And I'm continuing, you recall, maybe you don't recall, that when I preach on the second Sunday of the month, I'm doing a series on stories from the Old Testament.

And so that's where we are in Genesis 12, the story of Abraham. And before we look at that, let's pray and ask God that he'd open his word for us today. God of heaven, we've come to this moment of worship where we now sit and listen to you speak to us by your word.

Remind us, Father, that this is not just a human speaking, but this is one who ministers the very word of God, the very thoughts that you have, the very stories that you would have us to learn so that we would know how to live.

Bless our attempt at that today as we look at this story of Abraham. God, help us to learn so that we can change. In Jesus' name, amen. Genesis chapter 12, verse one, you follow as I read. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abram went as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran, and Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan.

When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem to the Oak of Morah. At that time, the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, to your offspring, I will give this land.

So he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, and there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord, and Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negev.

Now there was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai, his wife, I know that you're a woman beautiful in appearance, and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his wife.

Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake. When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful, and when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.

And for her sake, he dealt well with Abram, and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels. But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

So Pharaoh called Abram and said, what, what is this you have done to me? Why did you tell me that she, why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say she is my sister, so that I took her for my wife?

Now then, here is your wife, take her and go. And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had, and lot with him into the Negev.

Faith That Falters Under Pressure

Let's pray. Again, Father, we ask that you open the word to us now. In Jesus' name, amen. Many of us here remember Paul Savage, dear friend of ours. He died a few years ago of ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease.

But Paul was also a man of faith. He believed the promises of God, and that was particularly evident in the last months of his life. Because he believed that he was headed for glory, because he believed that he would really rejoice in the presence of Jesus, he lived differently.

In fact, I would tell you, he died differently. He let everyone know, I've made it my goal to finish well. I remember one Saturday, the youth group went there to work around the yard and to help him out, and he called them in, he gathered them around his chair as he sat in that chair, and he gathered them around.

He encouraged them that they needed to think about finishing well. He did not lose an ounce of joy in the whole ordeal. In fact, he kept soldiering on, and he continued to share the gospel and to encourage people who would come and visit him, all because he believed that God really meant it when he said, when you die in Christ, you're in the presence of the Lord.

But let's imagine for a moment that Paul did not have a vibrant faith. He was not living in the light of God's promises. Let's imagine that his faith faltered. That's not hard to do. You've seen other people falter in their faith, more to the point, you faltered in your faith.

We might have seen one who turned into a frightened, despairing, even angry man. A man who, instead of encouraging others, would refuse to see others. Maybe a weeping man who sits in his chair saying, why me?

Why is this happening to me? Well, in our text this morning, we have a case study on living by faith. Actually, actually, it's not a study on someone who's living by faith, but who, for the moment, falters in his faith.

Now, as I read the beginning of this chapter, our text is from verse 10 to the end of the chapter. As we looked at the beginning part of this chapter, we see the faith of Abraham. We see a tremendous faith.

We see a man who's living in Mesopotamia. And the Lord appears to him and says, Abram, you're mine now. I'm going to be your God, you'll be mine. And I'm making you a promise of land. And I want you to go to a land, a land he had never seen.

Just go there. And what did Abram do? He packed up everything and he went to Canaan. That is incredible faith. Just on the bare word of God, I'm promising you this, go, he went, he went to that land, okay?

In our text, though, you see how his faith falters for a moment and what happens because of it. He seems to forget those promises and he embarks on a course of action that reveals his lack of faith. Now, if you want to get the point of this text, you have to see that the main character here is not Abraham, but it's God.

He's the main character. He is the God who remains true and faithful to his promises. Now, what does God intend to do with this text? Here's what he intends to do. He intends to motivate you to live by faith, to help you to live by faith in the promises of God.

And as you read this story, two questions come to mind, two questions that we want to answer this morning. The first is this, what happens when you don't trust God? What happens when you don't live by faith in the promises of God?

Second question is, can you trust God? Can you live by faith? So those are the two questions we have before us. Now, the whole story of Abraham throughout the book of Genesis is propelled by Abraham's faith or lack of it.

And as you read the story of Abraham, you see his great faith and then you see him falter at times. And it's as if God takes him through a number of conflicts that test his faith. And that's the story of Abraham.

The Cost of Fear, Deception, and Unbelief

So here's the first question, what happens when you do not trust God? What happens when you don't trust God? What happens when you don't live by his promises? Verses 10 through 16, now there was a famine in the land.

So Abraham went down to Egypt to sojourn there for the famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai, his wife, I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his wife, then they will kill me, but they will let you live.

Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you and that my life may be spared for your sake. When Abraham entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful and when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house and for her sake, he dealt well with Abraham and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys and camels.

Here's the deal. Abraham by faith has entered the land, having come to Canaan, believing the promises of God, but he had hardly pitched his tent in that land of promise when he finds the land unable to support him and his little family.

What hope was there now for this great nation that God had promised? At the very beginning, the whole project seems to fall apart. He's in the promised land. God has made him these promises and now there's a famine.

They're going to starve. What's gonna happen to all the promises of God if we die? His faith is put to the test almost immediately and he falters and he heads for Egypt. Now, just before he gets into Egypt, he recognizes he's faced with an insurmountable problem.

He has a drop-dead gorgeous wife. That's an insurmountable problem, right? She's gorgeous. She's 65 years old and she is still unbelievably beautiful. And some Egyptian finding out that she's married is gonna kill Abraham just to get to her.

And if he dies, what happens to the promise of God? It's done, right? There's no great nation coming from him. He's dead, right? So he comes up with a plan. Look, we're gonna tell everyone you're my sister.

Now, listen up. I do not believe that Abraham was willing to sell Sarah's honor just to save his own skin. If he told everyone she was his sister, then any potential suitor would have to negotiate with him for her hand.

And maybe that would keep him alive. Maybe that would buy him some time to figure out what to do. I think that's what's going on. Think of it this way. Here's Abraham. If they know you're my wife, the only way to get you is to kill me.

But if they think you're my sister, then at least they'll have to negotiate with me. That may give us some time. If that threat appears, we do this, that may give us some time to figure out what to do.

I think that's what's going on. But then you see, he hits a snag he hadn't counted on. Someone gets interested in his wife who does not have to negotiate for anything because he's the most powerful man in the world at the time.

He doesn't have to negotiate with anybody. He takes what he wants. And sure enough, Abraham's entourage enters Egypt and some of Pharaoh's staffers see this woman. They report to Pharaoh, there is this gorgeous woman.

You need to have her. And so the ruler of Egypt just takes her and makes her part of his harem. With all his planning, with all his brilliant work, Abraham proves to be powerless. However, Pharaoh's not unreasonable.

He's not an unreasonable guy. He gives Abraham a dowry, as it's listed here in verse 16, right? He got tons of sheep and oxen and male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys and camels.

So he's not unreasonable. He gives him a dowry at least. Now, I don't know about you, but I can see Abraham at this point going, ah, how did we get to this point? How did we get here? This does not, this is not working according to plan, right?

You see, Abraham is brilliant as he in his planning lacks one essential quality. You know what it is? It's faith. Great brilliance, but he's lacking faith. Now, here's where you have to remember what God had promised him.

Look back at verses two and three and seven. Here are the promises that God made with Abraham. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Verse seven, to your offspring, I will give this land. So what did he promise him?

He promised him a great nation. He promised him a great name that will prove to be a blessing. He promised that he would be a channel of blessing to all the nations. He promised him the land of Canaan, and he had promised him honor and protection.

He had promised him honor and protection. Him who blesses you, I will bless. And him who dishonors you, I will curse. Even though Yahuwah had promised him that he would bless the blessers and curse those who cursed him or who dishonored him.

Listen, it's not like God saying, if they dishonor you, I'm gonna say shame on you. No, those who dishonor you, I'm going to curse. In other words, I will protect you. If anyone dishonors you, they'll have to deal with me.

You see, that's one of those promises. And you see, even though Yahuwah had promised these things, Abraham will manipulate and lie in order to accomplish his own safety and the safety of his wife. But Abram leaves Canaan and devises these schemes as if God had never promised any of it.

Or at least he's not believing it at the moment. Now notice what an absence of faith produces. Notice what an absence of faith produces. First of all, it produces a payoff. It produces a reward. You say, what?

Yeah, look at verse 13. Verse 13, Abram speaking. Say you are my sister that it may go well with me. Now drop down to verse 16. And for her sake, Pharaoh dealt well with Abraham. You know what comes sometimes with a lack of faith?

Reward, reward, payoff. It did go, here's the point. It did go well with Abram, but at what cost, right? Hey, it went well with him, but he lost his wife, right? There's no faith here. Here's what we need to see.

Here's what we need to see. Always remember this. The lack of faith leads to sin. The lack of faith leads to sin. So you go out in your backyard and you work up all the ground for your garden. But for some reason, you can't get to it.

And for some reason, you don't have a garden that summer. So that land, just that dirt just lies there, right? Right? You know that's not what happens. What happens? Weeds grow. That's always amazing to me.

Talk about the curse. You just leave it alone and what happens? Weeds grow. Well, when you do not live by faith, when you do not live with a vibrant trust in God, sin naturally grows up. Sin will naturally grow up.

Because Abram didn't live by faith, he harvests a boatload of sin. Do you see that? Notice. Fear of man. That's incompatible with trusting God. Lying. Thinking of himself above others. Putting other people in danger.

Silence when he should have spoken up. He should have said to Pharaoh, yes to Pharaoh, that's my wife. He didn't do that. There's the loss of his wife. There's no blessings on others, but rather affliction.

Instead of bringing blessing to the nation, he brings affliction. And then later on, as you know in the story, he brings rebuke on himself from a pagan king, thus obscuring the glory of the one true God.

All of that happens because of his lack of faith. Now, if that's what a lack of faith looks like, what would a life of faith look like in this instance with Abram? Abram would have been truthful about Sarah.

If he trusted God, he would have been truthful about Sarah. Then he would have had to depend on God to protect him. If Pharaoh would have left Abram and Sarah alone, and if he had blessed them in some way, God would have blessed Pharaoh.

But if Pharaoh would have made any moves towards Sarah, dishonoring Abram, he would have been cursed and Abram's family protected. And by the way, that seems impossible. Oh yeah, I'm gonna waltz into the land of the most powerful man in the world at the time, and I'm gonna tell him she's my wife, and you're gonna protect me.

Is that what I'm supposed to do? Now, what do you think? Here's the guy who has the resources at his hand. He's got assassins, he could just say, deal with that guy, right? He could have done that. And Abram's supposed to believe that God's gonna protect him.

That's right, because then we have to understand the essence of faith is believing God's promises when everything else looks impossible. It's taking God at his word when reality says something different.

That's the essence of faith. What does the lack of faith look like in your life? Let's just think about that. I'm sure you're sitting there thinking, let's not think about that, but let's do it anyway.

What does the lack of faith look like? Are you full of fear and untruth and deception? So you're working, wherever you're working, and you make a mistake. I remember doing this when I worked for Brock Bins.

I made a mistake that was gonna cost the company some money, and I could have not said anything, right? Why would you lie at that point? Why would you hide the truth? Because if you don't hide the truth, you lose your job, right?

But do you believe the promise of God when he says, I'll provide all that you need if you seek my kingdom and my righteousness? Do you believe that promise? You say, but if I own up to it, I may get fired.

Yeah, but God has promised that he'll take care of you if you seek his kingdom and his righteousness. What are you gonna do? See, the lack of faith leads to deception. The lack of faith may lead to disobedience and disrespect.

Some of you young people, some of you children are here thinking, my parents are the dumbest people in the world. They don't get it. They don't get me. How stupid can they be? You think I'm gonna obey them and respect them?

Forget it. Well, what are you forgetting? What are you forgetting at this point? Is God working for your good or is he not? Is he working for your good by giving you dumb parents? Absolutely. Okay? Yes, he is.

But see, you don't believe that. And so what do you do? Some of you may be struggling with envy and covetousness, even impurity. Because you don't see, you don't believe God's promise that he's working for your good even in your single state.

You see, you don't want to be in that state, but you forget that God's working for you. He's for you, not against you if you're single. You see, the lack of faith is at the root of sin. Take whatever sin you can name, trace it back to its root, and I believe you'll always find a lack of faith in the promises of God.

Unless faith grows, sin will blossom. Always remember that. Can I tell you something? When you're tempted to sin, one of the first things you need to ask yourself is, am I gonna believe the promise of that sin or am I gonna believe the promise of God?

It takes faith to grow. It takes faith to resist temptation and to grow in holiness. Unless faith grows, sin will blossom. Now this narrative, what we have to keep in mind is this narrative was first heard by the children of Israel as they were leaving Egypt and going to that promised land.

This was written, they were the first ones to hear this story, and they would have noticed some interesting parallels, such as, like them, like them, Abraham and Sarah came down to Egypt because of a famine.

How did Israel end up in Egypt? Because their ancestors came down to Egypt because of a famine. Like them, Sarah and Abraham were threatened in Egypt. Like them, the promised seed was in danger. If Sarah remained in Pharaoh's harem, the promised seed would not come.

For the Israelites who heard this story, the seed was endangered by the killing of the male babies. So they were in the same boat. Like them, God used a plague to deliver them. Abram and Sarah are delivered by what?

A plague. There were 10 plagues that delivered Israel. Like them, Sarah and Abram left with great wealth supplied by the Egyptians. And like them, Sarah and Abram were sent out of the land. All of those parallels, that's exactly what they experienced.

What's the point? Why did Moses purposely draw those parallels for them? Here's why. Although those events had happened 400 years earlier, although they had happened 400 years earlier, the same God could be trusted.

The same God could be trusted. Moses wrote this narrative to drive you to the second question. Can you trust God? Can you trust God? What do we find? Verse 17. But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarah, Abram's wife.

So Pharaoh called Abram and said, what is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say she's my sister so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here's your wife, take her and go.

And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. Well, God sends a plague or a sickness of some kind that overwhelms Pharaoh's household. Quite possibly, I don't know, but quite possibly he struck everyone in that household except Sarah, which might cause him to ask some questions.

What's going on here? And so she tells him, well, here's what's happened, here's the story. So Pharaoh summons Abram to him and rebukes him for what he had done. He then expels the family from his kingdom and sends an escort with him to make sure they leave.

Now what becomes obvious is that although Abram did not believe the promises of God, God remained faithful to the promises he had made. God remained faithful. Far from, far from safeguarding the promise, Abram's crafty strategy nearly destroyed the whole plan or it would appear that way.

Him trying to save the whole project could have destroyed it if God hadn't remained faithful to his promises. He was gone from the promised land. Sarah was lost to the Pharaoh's harem, looking like she would not then bring the promised seed.

And instead of blessing the nations, instead of being a channel of blessing to that nation, he became a channel of affliction to that nation. But look, our sin can never thwart God's gracious plan of salvation for us.

Always keep that in mind. Despite Abram's failure, God remains faithful to the promise of protection, right? Despite Abram's failure, God remains steadfast in accomplishing his purpose, that is blessing the nations, all the nations through his seed.

And who is that seed? Jesus, the blessing to all the nations. Have you ever thought this thought? Abram almost messed it up. So that we would not be here today. But God was not gonna be thwarted in his determination to save us.

And so he remained faithful to his promise. You can trust God because nothing's gonna keep him from fulfilling his plan. The God who called the universe into existence by the mere breath of his word will not be foiled by the bungling of his servants.

Circumstances, folly, and even sin cannot stand in the way of God's purpose to make Abram a great blessing to the nations. Do you ever think you've botched it so badly that God can never use you again?

Do you ever think God botched it so badly, or that you've botched it so badly that there's no hope for me? I'm just, I'm never gonna be useful again. Maybe you think that about at work, or maybe even with your children, or maybe you think you'll never be suitable for any kind of ministry, or you can never frustrate the grace of God.

He will remain true to his promises. So you say, Pastor Tim, so let me get this right. The lesson from this story is that be lazy. You can be lazy or fudge difficult situations, and God'll make sure everything works out.

Is that what it's about? No, not at all. The lesson is this. God's fame will be expressed to everyone around us when his people live by faith. When we live by faith, when we live like we really believe the promises of God, God's fame will explode.

God's fame will be seen. Like a horse trainer always brings a horse to the fence over, to the fence, over and over in order to get him to jump, right? That's what God does with Abraham. He keeps bringing him to the fence.

And as you read the story, he learns the lesson, and he becomes a man of great faith. And God does the same thing with you. He wants you to live by faith. Now here's the deal. We live in a gap. Get this in your mind.

We live in a gap. The gap between what God has promised and our reality. The gap between the promise and the reality. We're always living in the gap. If you tell the truth, if you tell the truth, here's the reality.

If you tell the truth, you're gonna lose your job. Here's the promise. I'll take care of you. You seek my kingdom and my righteousness, and I'll add everything on. I need to spend more time with my family, and they're promised me a promotion that'll take me away from my family.

Your family's important. There's great blessing in them. What are you gonna do? This marriage seems like it's gonna kill me. And Jesus says, obey me, and I'll give you abundant life. You're living in the gap.

The neighbors are always trying to take advantage of you. They're always doing things. They're trying to take advantage of you. But God says, peace can be yours if you return good for evil, if you do good to them, right?

Your body aches all the time with chronic illness, but God promises you joy as you focus on the reality of a state where there'll be no more pain and no more sickness and no more death. You see, we live in the gap, the reality and the promise.

But you know what? Someone else lived in the gap between promise and reality. The one who has promised all the nations as an inheritance came to the earth, and his own people did not receive him. The exalted son of man pictured sitting on the throne of judgment in Daniel chapter seven was himself judged by the Sanhedrin and condemned to death.

Unlike Abraham, who lied to save his life, Jesus told the truth and died. The one who promised to rule the nations with a rod of iron was scourged by the Romans. The only sinless one who ever lived was lifted up on the cross as a condemned criminal.

Jesus lived in the gap. He lived in the gap between the promises and the reality. And you gotta live by faith, trusting God's promises every day. And the only reason you can do that, the only reason you do that is because Jesus lived in the gap and died, believing the promises of God.

And because of that faithful death, you now have the power to live by faith. And you can count on the promises of God because he raised Jesus from the dead, guaranteeing everything that he had declared.

You can trust the God of Abraham because he's the God of Jesus. Father, thank you for this word from, this word from you that challenges us to live by faith. Oh God, for your fame to be known, we need to live by faith.

God, help us. Lord, help us to think carefully, clearly, concretely about the gap that we're living in now and the promises we need to believe. And God, help this congregation to be one where the people live by faith.

They believe the promises of God and live in light of those promises. Oh God, help us. Help us, I pray, to do that. We're living in the gap. Give us faith. Thank you for Jesus, who because he believed your promises to him, endured the cross and scorned its shame.

Thank you for a savior who has died to conquer sin that we might live by faith. And we pray this in his name, amen.