Abraham's Failure

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Colossians 3:16-17
• Hymn — Come, Ye Thankful People, Come
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 8, Section 1
• Member Reception — Baine Family, Smith Family, and Thagard Family
• Prayer
• Hymn — The Church's One Foundation
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer of Dedication
• Hymn — Grace Greater Than Our Sin
• Sermon
• Hymn — To You, O Lord, I Fly
• Benediction — Numbers 6:24-26

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Sermon Title: Abraham's Failure

Scripture: Genesis 12:10-20

I. Abram's Failure and His Presumptuous Prediction of the Future

• A. Abram, fearing for his life, instructs Sarai to say she is his sister so that he will be spared — a plan motivated by self-preservation rather than trust in God.

  1. Sarai is taken into Pharaoh's house and treated as his wife (Genesis 12:15, Genesis 12:19)
  2. Abram plays the "lesser of two evils," choosing the scenario where he lives and is enriched, while Sarai is given to Pharaoh

• B. This sin flows from a presumptuous certainty about the future — Abram acts as though he knows exactly what will happen and must manage the outcome himself.

  1. Fear of the future can paralyze faith even more than fear of man
  2. Media-induced anxiety today mirrors this dynamic, allowing fear rather than God to govern our actions

• C. This failure fits a recurring pattern in Genesis: a gracious call from God is followed almost immediately by a sinful fall.

  1. Adam receives dominion and blessing, then falls in Genesis 3
  2. Noah receives a renewed creation mandate, then falls in Genesis 9
  3. Isaac receives the covenant promise, then repeats this identical deception in Genesis 26:1-5
  4. The patriarchs are fallen, flawed heroes who point us to the only sinless one worthy of imitation — Jesus Christ

• D. The story of Reformed Theological Seminary illustrates the question this passage poses: How big is your God?

  1. Sam Patterson challenged Erskin Wells with that question when planning a new seminary with no funds, land, professors, or students
  2. The only certain thing in life is not death or taxes, but God himself
  3. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego model the right posture: God is able to deliver us, but even if he does not, he alone is worthy of trust (Daniel 3)

II. Abram's Failure and the Promised Offspring

• A. By handing Sarai to Pharaoh, Abram puts the covenant promise of Genesis 12:7 in jeopardy — the offspring through whom all nations would be blessed is threatened before it even begins.

• B. The potential mixing of the blessed line with the cursed line of Ham (Egypt) mirrors other dangerous minglings throughout Genesis.

  1. The sons of God with the daughters of men in Genesis 6 brings the flood
  2. Hagar, an Egyptian of Ham's line, is given to Abram and produces Ishmael
  3. Lot's daughters produce the Moabites and Ammonites, cursed in Deuteronomy 23

• C. Being unequally yoked carries serious generational consequences, not merely personal ones.

  1. 2 Corinthians 6:14 — "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers"
  2. The person you marry will inevitably shape your spiritual life and the spiritual lives of generations after you
  3. Genesis trains the people of God to think generationally, not merely individually

• D. The congregation's vow at a covenant child's baptism is an expression of this generational, Abrahamic family commitment — pledging to assist parents in the Christian nurture of their children.

• E. The bare promise of God — not past experiences, feelings, or grand displays — is what faith must lean on.

  1. William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armour: "Learn to lean more on the promise and less on the sensible expressions of God's love… but on the bare promises of God."
  2. Peter echoes the Abrahamic promise: "The promise is for you and your children and to all who are far off" (Acts 2:39)

III. Abram's Failure and the Preservation of God

• A. The account in Genesis 12:10-20 is a miniature, proto-Exodus that prefigures Israel's later deliverance from Egypt.

  1. Famine in Canaan drives the people of God to Egypt — in both Abram's story and in Jacob's
  2. God afflicts Pharaoh with plagues because of his mistreatment of God's people
  3. God's people exit Egypt with Egypt's possessions: Genesis 13:2 uses the same Hebrew words as Exodus 12 to describe the wealth gained

• B. God preserves Israel in Egypt for the same reason he preserved Abram — his covenant faithfulness to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

• C. The pattern continues in the life of Christ: Herod acts as a new Pharaoh, seeking to kill the promised offspring, and the holy family flees to Egypt.

  1. Matthew 2 fulfills Hosea 11:1 — "Out of Egypt I called my son"
  2. God again preserves and calls his promised one out of Egypt; the promised line is not extinguished

• D. Unlike Abram, Christ does not sell his bride into enemy hands to save his own skin — he lays down his life for her.

  1. When Pilate declares he has authority to release or crucify him (John 19:10), Christ does not offer his bride in exchange for his life
  2. Christ responds that Pilate has no authority except what has been given from above — only God is certain
  3. Christ cleaved to his bride all the way to the cross, which is why the gates of hell will never prevail against her (Matthew 16:18)
  4. The church is Christ's bride (Ephesians 5) and his children are those given to him by the Father before the foundation of the world — born again by the Spirit

• E. The closing application returns to the central question of the sermon: How big is your God, and how big are his promises to you in Christ?

  1. Are fear, anxiety, and present circumstances drowning out God's covenant promises?
  2. Rest in the sure promises of the sovereign, omnipotent God who purchased you with the blood of his Son and will never let you go