Romans 4:16-17

If you understand the story of Abraham, you know that Abraham became the father of the faithful. Abraham was part of a process that God was working out. God involved him in that. Any of you who heard the Bible studies I gave on Abraham (I think there were 7 or 8 of them) understand that the Abraham at the beginning of God's calling was a far different man from the Abraham at the end of God's calling. We find Abraham in that span of time making quite a number of wrong choices, and yet he was a man of faith.

He did not understand everything that he did. Sometimes his lack of understanding and his concepts, misconcepts of time motivated him to do things, like lying about Sarah, like going down into Egypt when he did not have any reason to go down there. He did many things, but at the end Abraham was the father of the faithful. He succeeded because God was with him and Abraham allowed God to work within him.

God willed it, even as God has willed that you and I should be in His Kingdom, even as we just read there in Ephesians 1. But Abraham had to grow. He had to yield. He had to make use of his faith. By the way Abraham that conducted his life, God could very plainly see that this man was growing and that he was going to be a suitable example of the father of the faithful—somebody that we can look to as an example.