Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / February 10, 2021 | Chronological Bible Study with Patty Diliberto - Session 4: The Patriarchs, Part 2

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February 10, 2021 | Chronological Bible Study with Patty Diliberto - Session 4: The Patriarchs, Part 2 · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to Crono.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: This week we're going to look at continue to look at Abram and Sarai and pray with me as we ask God to bless our time.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for this time, for the for your word and what we learned from it.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: I ask you to just plant it deep inside of us today, God.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: We pray these things in the name of Jesus.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: So we saw some interesting things about Abram and Sarah last week, and we're going to continue, continue to see more.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: Let's review a couple of things that we learned and saw last week about him, though.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: First of all, we saw that God called Abraham to leave the land of Ur and of Mesopotamia and to travel to the promised land.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know where he was going, but at many significant places and times Abram stopped and built altars to God.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: He built an altar at Shechem and at Bethel.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: And at these altars he was learning how to approach God and worship him appropriately.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: We see that that after that he just took matters into his own hands and he went to Egypt.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: Before he enters Egypt, Abram again is motivated by fear, and he asks Sarah to say that she is his sister, which puts her in a dangerous position and it jeopardizes the promise.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: God supernaturally protects Sarai, which protects the promise, despite Abram's selfishness.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: When they got back from Egypt, Abram lived with Lot, came back with him, and their livestock were just too numerous.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: They had too many herds, too many people, and so they decided to split up and go in different directions.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: And we will see today how devastating that choice was, especially for Lot.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: And that brings us to the covenant that we kind of touched on last week.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: A covenant is a means to establish a binding relationship where none existed before, based on the faithfulness of a solemn vow.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: In our culture today, when two parties enter an agreement, a contract is drawn up and signed by both parties.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: But in Abram's time it was different.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: The Old Testament, the word for covenant in the Old Testament in the Hebrew is the word it means to cut.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: There were several kinds of covenants in ancient times.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: There was a unilateral covenant between unequal partners, like a king between his subjects, and there was also a bilateral contract or covenant which was established between equals, like a covenant between friends.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: The concept of covenant between God and his people is a central theme that runs throughout the entire Word of God.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: And as you read through the Old Testament, you're going to see that, and you can't help but see that God is a God of covenant.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: He is a God that is making, is characterized by covenantal love for us, for his people.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: So far in our Qurano study, we've seen the Noaic covenant.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: And what was the sign of that covenant?
3:24
SPEAKER_00: The rainbow.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: But they don't allow very much because these other nations turn to other gods besides God Yahweh.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't go well for them.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: God's favor is going to rest on the lineage of Abraham.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: The sign of the Abrahamic covenant was circumcision.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 15 describes this covenant.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: But Abram said, Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?
4:43
SPEAKER_00: So the Lord said to him, Bring me a heifer, a goat, a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two, and arranged the halves opposite each other with the b but the birds, however, he did not cut in half.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord said to him, Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, that they will be enslaved and mistreated there.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: We'll talk about that in a couple weeks.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: But when the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, To your descendants I give this land.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: God put Abram into a deep sleep, and as he slept, God's presence passed through these bloody pieces alone, indicating that the promise of God, the promises of God were unconditional, meaning not conditional on Abram's faithfulness, but on God's faithfulness.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: The book, Teaching the Heart of the Old Testament, has some really great things to say.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: And while this is a lengthy explanation, I feel like it's just so rich that we need to look at it.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: It says, in most translations we read, the Lord made a covenant, but in the Hebrew it literally says, the Lord cut a covenant.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: The reason this term was used is both shocking and powerful.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: In those days when people made a covenant, they would take animals and literally cut them into pieces and set the two pieces next to each other side by side.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: Then they would go for a covenant walk.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: They would pass between the pieces of the animal, and the symbolic meaning of this walk was, may this be my fate if I don't live up to the covenant, if I don't honor the covenant, if I am not faithful.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah 34, 18 says, Those who have violated my covenant, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: When people cut a covenant, when people cut a covenant, blood was shed.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: It was a way of saying, I take this very seriously.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: As we study God's covenant with Abraham, we need to notice who makes the covenant walk.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: God is the one who passes between the dead carcasses of the animals as if to say, I will keep my agreement with you, and if I don't, may I be like these dead animals.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: That's incredible.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: God makes the oath.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: In Abraham's day, when somebody violated a covenant, it was not voided.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: It was not ripped up.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: When somebody violated the covenant, there was specific consequences.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: And things became very unpleasant for the violator.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: In most cases, blood was shed.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: When we understand the cost of broken covenants in the Old Testament, we discover the power of Jesus' words when he said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: The old covenant had been broken by sinful human beings.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: The covenant was violated.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: Somebody had to pay.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, in essence, said, I'll pay.
8:59
SPEAKER_00: I'll suffer.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: I will pay the price that my children deserve.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: And then I will cut a new, unforgettable, unshakeable covenant with my blood.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: I will be cut.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: I will cut a covenant with my body.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: When we have this picture in mind, coming to the communion table takes on a whole new level of significance.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: We realize that the punishment we deserve was paid by Jesus.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that great?
9:35
SPEAKER_00: God cut a covenant with you and me through the body of his son on Calvary.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: It was a covenant that will never be forgotten, that is binding for all time.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: If you believe in Jesus Christ, God has credited it to you as righteousness, just like he did with Abraham.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: The book, The Unseen Realm, it says, salvation in the Old Testament meant love for Yahweh, God alone.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: One had to believe that Yahweh was the God of all gods, trusting that this Most High God had chosen covenant relationship with Israel to the detriment of all other nations.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of a hard concept, but it's a true one.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: When the law came some 400 years later, it was through the law that a person demonstrated their love and their loyalty for God.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: They weren't doing the law, keeping the law at first to save themselves, but to demonstrate their love and their loyalty.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: God establishes his covenant with Abram, and this covenant will never, ever be forgotten.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: It is unconditional, it is binding throughout all time.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: This covenant separates Abraham and all his descendants from all the other nations on the earth.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: This covenant is still in effect today.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: And it will always be.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: The people of Israel are still God's chosen people, and they will always be God's chosen people.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: But because of the covenant Christ made on the cross for us, every believer in Christ is also God's chosen people, part of that.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: And it's an everlasting covenant, it's binding for all eternity, and it is dependent on his faithfulness.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: It is so interesting to see this reference here that God makes for Israel's captivity and bondage in Egypt.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: I hope you caught that.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: Afterward, they did come out because God punished the Egyptians.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: They came out with many possessions when they left because they plundered the Israelites.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: Everything God tells Abram here when he's making this covenant comes true and happens.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: It was God's provision, protection, and preparation that took the sons of Egypt of Israel into Egypt, and it was his power, his provision, and his purpose that brought them out.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: God always has a purpose.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: Every detail has a purpose.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: And that brings us to Genesis 16, where we are going to see a compromise.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: We need to remember here that one of the consequences of Abram taking things into his own hands and going down to Egypt during the famine was that he came back with a handmaiden named Hagar.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: And so ten years since the promise of a son has been given, this account takes place.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 16, 1 through 2.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: Now Sarah, Abraham's wife, had borne him no children, but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: So she said to Abraham, The Lord has kept me from having children.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: Go sleep with my maidservant.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps I can build a family through her.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: Abraham agreed to what Sarah said.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: Another version says, Abraham listened to the voice of Sarah.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: Where else have we seen a man listening to the voice of his wife?
13:46
SPEAKER_00: Right?
13:47
SPEAKER_00: Adam and Eve.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: Eve looked with her eyes at the fruit.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: She desired it.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: It looked like a good thing, and so she ate it.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: Sarah ponders for ten years and decides that God must need her help because he hasn't provided for her.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: All that shows us is that we women tend to be controllers and fixers.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: That's part of our nature, is women, and it is also part of the curse.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: Abraham and Sarah result to a culturally accepted custom of their day when Sarah gives Hagar to Abraham, but in doing so, they failed to trust God once again.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: Dr.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: Constable in SonicLight.com says, People in Abraham's culture regarded a concubine as a secondary wife with some, but not all, of the rights and privileges of the primary wife.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: In effect, Abraham, Hagar became Abraham's concubine.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: Abraham and Sarah let their culture guide them rather than their God.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: You've read these verses, and so I will condense it.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: Hagar despises Sarai.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: Sarai tells Abram that he is responsible for the wrong she is suffering.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: Abram gives Sarah the right to handle this however she wants, and she sends Hagar away.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: And as she runs away from Sarai, she runs straight into God.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 16, 7.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?
15:36
SPEAKER_00: Again we see we see God asking a question in order to arise a confession in Hay in Hagar, like we saw with Adam and Eve.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: She says, I'm running away from my mistress Sarai.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: Then the angel of the Lord told her, Go back to your mistress and submit to her.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: The angel added, I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: The angel of the Lord also said to her, You are now pregnant, and you will give birth to a son.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: Notice what the angel of the Lord said to her.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: I will increase your descendants.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: Very interesting.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: Who's speaking here?
16:27
SPEAKER_00: The angel of the Lord.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: And he is telling her that he is going to do something that only God can do.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: This is very interesting.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: And we will look at this again in just a little bit.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: He goes on to say, He will be a wild donkey of a man, his hand will be against everyone, and everyone's hand against him.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: And he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her, You are the God who sees me.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: For she said, I have now seen the one who sees me.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: Hagar gives God one of his compound names, and it's Jehovah Roy, the God, the one who sees.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: The one who sees.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: We've already seen this in previous weeks that God sees, and what a comfort.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: Whatever your distressing situation is and might be, God sees.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: God didn't bless this, although he blessed Hagar.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: God saw Sarai's suffering with her state of infertility.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: God saw Hagar's suffering at the hands of Sarai.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure that Abram had to be suffering, living with the two of them, right?
18:02
SPEAKER_00: Another lesson we learn here is that when we go outside the will of God, suffering can and probably will be an outcome or a consequence.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: And one more thing I want to add the Arab people are Ishmael's descendants.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: Do they still live in hostility with all of their brothers?
18:22
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, they do.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: We come now to Genesis 17, where we will see a confirmation of the promise to Abraham.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: As I read through Genesis 17, 1 through 8, I want you to notice the word I.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: When Abram was ninety-nine years old, he the Lord appeared to him and said, I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: I will confirm my covenant between me and you, and will greatly increase your numbers.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: Abram fell face down, and God said to him, As for me, this is my covenant with you.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: You will be the father of many nations.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: No longer will you be called Abram, your name will be Abraham, for I have made you the father of many nations.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: I will make you very fruitful.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you, and I will be their God.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: Who is initiating and confirming this covenant?
19:50
SPEAKER_00: The great I am is doing this.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: This is his covenant.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: This is what he is committing himself to.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: Now I want you to notice the words you and your.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: Then God said to Abraham, As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: Every male among you shall be circumcised.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: For the generations to come, every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: Those who are not your offspring, whether born to your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: God also said to Abraham, As for your wife Sarai, you are no longer to call her Sarai.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: Her name will be Sarah.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: Kings of people will come from her.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: Abraham fell face down.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: He laughed and said to himself, Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old?
21:15
SPEAKER_00: Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?
21:19
SPEAKER_00: And Abraham said to God, If only Ishmael may live under your blessing.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: Then God said, Yes.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: But your wife Sarah will be bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: What we see is God committing himself, and then we see their responsibilities of the covenant, what they have to do.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: The covenant is going to cost the Israelites something.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Something would be cut.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: Specifically, the foreskin of the penis would be cut and it would be separated.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: Just like the animals that were cut and separated.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: So now the foreskin of every Hebrew boy and those born or bought would also be cut and separated.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: How interesting.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: In other words, there would be some skin in the game for Abraham and his descendants.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: I know it's a terrible pun.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: But it would also be very painful for them.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: And it would be a reminder.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: Going through that pain would be a reminder that they need to keep the covenant.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: Now here is the question: Was it circumcision that made Abraham right or righteous before God?
22:45
SPEAKER_00: Or was it Abraham's faith that made him righteous?
22:50
SPEAKER_00: In the New Testament book of Romans, the Apostle Paul has some very interesting insights into Abraham and circumcision that will answer that question.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: Romans 4.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: Whoops, going the wrong way.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: Romans 4, 9 through 24.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: We have been saying that Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: Under what circumstances was it credited?
23:15
SPEAKER_00: Was it after he was circumcised or before?
23:18
SPEAKER_00: It was not after, but before.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.
23:31
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring, not only to those who who are of the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: He is the father of us all.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: Sonic Light says, the Apostle Paul pointed out that when God declared Abraham righteous, the patriarch was uncircumcised.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: He was a virtual Jew.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: I mean Gentile.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: Gentile.
24:06
SPEAKER_00: Fourteen years later, Abraham underwent circumcision.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: Fourteen years later, his circumcision was a sign of what he already possessed.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: A sign of what he already possessed.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: Circumcision was secondary to faith.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: What Abraham did in trusting God is essentially what everyone must do.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: Don't you find that interesting?
24:29
SPEAKER_00: Circumcision was a sign of what he already possessed.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: A parallel for us believers in Christ could be baptism.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: When a believer is baptized, it's not for salvation, but it's a sign to the rest of the world to let them know of what we already possess, the faith that we already have in Jesus Christ.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: Abraham was a normal man.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: Abraham wasn't perfect, he was just called.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: He had flaws, and what were some of those flaws that we have already seen?
25:03
SPEAKER_00: He was full of fear.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: He was a schemer.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: He was selfish.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: He was deceptive.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: But if we only focus on the flaws, we miss some really important things and insights about Abraham.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: What did Abraham do right?
25:22
SPEAKER_00: He responded to God's call.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: He left the familiar when he left Ur in Mesopotania.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: He believed for a long time that the promise would come.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: He interceded for Lot, which we're going to see in a minute.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: He walked with God.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: He obeyed through circumcision.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: He was faithful to God.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: And he acted out of pure motives.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: We know that because when the king of Sodom wanted to give him the spoils from the victory over the kings that he went to rescue Lot from, he refused.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: And he said this: I have raised my hand to the Lord God, most high, creator of heaven and earth, and have taken an oath that I will accept nothing belonging to you.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: That is pure motives right there.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: We all have flaws.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: All of us.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: We all have good in us, and we do some things right.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: And that's great.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: Abraham is not any different than us, not any different than we are.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm so thankful that we see the good and the bad and the ugly in Abraham and Sarah because it helps me to realize that the good and the bad and the ugly that's in me is normal.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: Is normal.
26:45
SPEAKER_00: And that God still uses normal, flawed people.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: Because those are the only kind of people he has to work with.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: Normal, flawed individuals.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: What a comfort that is.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: Now we get to Genesis 18, where we are going to see the confidence of God in the character of Abraham.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: The Lord appeared to Abraham.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: While he was sitting at the entrance to the tent in the heat of the day, Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: We have to stop here for just a minute and we have to ask ourselves what the term the Lord means here.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: Three persons are standing here, and one of them is the Lord.
27:39
SPEAKER_00: This is a pre-incarnate theophany of Jesus Christ.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: The word theophany means visible manifestation of God in a form that people can see and recognize.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: This is the same thing.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: When we see the term angel of the Lord, we can know that this is a preincarnate theophany of Jesus Christ.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: Jesus in his preincarnate form is speaking to Abraham.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: He spoke to Hagar.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: We will see him continually speak and do things for Israel as we move forward.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: The Old Testament is full of pre-incarnate theophanies, and that is exactly what we are seeing.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: The Lord tells Abraham that by this time next year Sarah will have a baby, and she laughs and she denies that.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: Is anything too hard for the Lord?
29:00
SPEAKER_00: I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, I did not laugh.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Yes, you did laugh.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: She's arguing with God Almighty.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
29:15
SPEAKER_00: When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?
29:28
SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord said, The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: If not, I will know.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: Here we see Abraham as a persistent intercessor on Lot's behalf.
29:54
SPEAKER_00: Abraham is very cautious.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: He's very respectful in the way he approaches the Lord.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: He says, If there are forty-five righteous people, if there are 40, if there are 20, Lord, if there are ten righteous people, and the Lord says, If there are ten righteous people, I will not destroy the city.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: The angels go down to Sodom, but the Lord does not, and that is a lesson too.
30:25
SPEAKER_00: Even though Abraham intercedes for them, there are not ten righteous people in two entire cities.
30:34
SPEAKER_00: So God destroyed them.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: We saw the depth of depravity in chapter 18, and and it's clear, and we see the consequences of of of sin in chapter 19.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: I have to go back because I must have missed something, and it's not going back.
31:03
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
31:06
SPEAKER_00: The two angels arrived in Sodom, and Lot, who was sitting at the gate, at the gateway of the city, saw them and greeted them.
31:15
SPEAKER_00: He urges them to come to his house, and they do.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: But before they go to bed, all the men of the city surround the house, crying out for them to um to for the men to come out so that they can have sex with them.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: Lot went outside to meet with them and shut the door behind them and said, No, my friends, don't do this wicked thing.
31:44
SPEAKER_00: The men replied, This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge?
31:50
SPEAKER_00: Really?
31:52
SPEAKER_00: We'll treat you worse than them.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: And they kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break the door, down the door.
31:59
SPEAKER_00: Then the angels pull Lot back inside and they protect him and his family by striking all the men, young and old, with blindness.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: They tell Lot that the outcry to the Lord against his people is so great that he has sent them to destroy it.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, Hurry, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: What was the Lord?
32:44
SPEAKER_00: The Lord was merciful to them.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: Lot is a vivid example of living with a secular mindset, with a secular worldview.
32:54
SPEAKER_00: Lot began to think like those around him, and pretty soon his actions, he thought, and then his actions were like those around him.
33:04
SPEAKER_00: And when that happens, your feelings and your emotions are tied up in those things as well.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: I find it interesting that the men of the city say, this fellow came here as a foreigner, now he wants to play the judge.
33:18
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: How relevant is God's word?
33:21
SPEAKER_00: Because when we hear those same things today, don't we?
33:24
SPEAKER_00: Believers who stand against sin will always seem like they are judging or being intolerant to those who are living in sin and have a secular, godless mindset.
33:38
SPEAKER_00: We're always going to seem that way.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: But that shouldn't deter us.
33:43
SPEAKER_00: It didn't deter them.
33:46
SPEAKER_00: The next morning, Abraham goes to look at the valley toward Sodom and he sees the smoke rising from the ruins.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where the Lord had lived.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine how Abraham must have felt when he walked outside the next morning and saw all of that smoke and ruination?
34:13
SPEAKER_00: Think back with me for a minute.
34:16
SPEAKER_00: Why did Lot and Abraham have to separate in the first place?
34:20
SPEAKER_00: Because they had so many flocks and herds and people that the land wouldn't support both of them.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: They had to separate because of that.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: And now we see that Lot ends up with the clothes on his back and his two daughters.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: He has lost everything.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: Everything.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: All the blessings that God had given him, he has lost.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was so grievous that God did what he said he was going to do.
34:56
SPEAKER_00: And remember a lesson that we learned from the flood.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: God takes sin seriously.
35:07
SPEAKER_00: And one more lesson I want to tie in here.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: It would make Sodom and Gomorrah angry that they were judged if they could be angry at this time.
35:31
SPEAKER_00: We have things going on in this world that God needs to judge and bring to judgment.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: And that knowledge leads me to prayer for those wicked, evil things that are going on.
35:46
SPEAKER_00: And as you look around and you see the sin and the degradation of the entire world, let that lead you to intercessory prayer.
35:57
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't see it, ask God to open your eyes and then be willing to have your heart broken, broken for what is going on around the world.
36:10
SPEAKER_00: We live in a corrupt society, and we have to be interceding for those who are lost in that culture, just like Abraham did.
36:20
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what we see with Abraham.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: In chapter 20, we get to see how Abraham handles another stressful situation when we see the cover-up.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: We have to put this in context because once again, fear is hitting Abraham's heart.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: And even though he had met with the Lord in person and he had dialogued with him, still the cities had been destroyed.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: After they are destroyed, Abraham and Lot move on to Gerar, where he told everyone that Sarah was his sister.
36:54
SPEAKER_00: The king, Abimelech, sends for Sarah and takes her as his wife.
37:00
SPEAKER_00: But God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him, You are as good as dead, because of the woman you have taken, she is a married woman.
37:12
SPEAKER_00: Now Abimelech had not gone near her, so he said, Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation?
37:18
SPEAKER_00: Did he not say to me, She is my sister?
37:21
SPEAKER_00: And didn't she also say, He is my brother?
37:23
SPEAKER_00: I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands.
37:28
SPEAKER_00: Then God said to him in the dream, Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me.
37:38
SPEAKER_00: That is why I did not let you touch her.
37:40
SPEAKER_00: Now return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live.
37:47
SPEAKER_00: But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die.
37:53
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
37:54
SPEAKER_00: Abimelech called Abraham in in and asks him what his reasons were were for doing and deceiving him in this way, and Abraham gives him his lame excuses.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: Abraham, um Abimelech gives Abraham herds and flocks and silver and and all this stuff and tells him to leave.
38:13
SPEAKER_00: It's crazy how much how much silver and stuff he gets.
38:19
SPEAKER_00: Then Abraham prayed to God, and God heard, healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female slaves, so that they could have children again.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: For the Lord had kept all the women in Abimelech's household from conceiving because of Abraham's wife Sarah.
38:38
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: Again we see that stronghold of fear rear its ugly head in Abraham, and he turns to scheming instead of faith.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: And again we see how powerfully God protects Sarah.
38:52
SPEAKER_00: Again, amazing, isn't it?
38:54
SPEAKER_00: It's totally amazing.
38:56
SPEAKER_00: We see Sarah attracting attention at the age of 90.
39:00
SPEAKER_00: Sarah is 90 years old at this point.
39:04
SPEAKER_00: There is perceived danger, and that is what Abraham had, feared that he would be killed because of his beautiful 90-year-old wife.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: And then there is real danger.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Sarah was experiencing: personal danger and danger that the promise might be jeopardized because of Abraham's deception and his foolishness.
39:30
SPEAKER_00: Why was the threat from God to Abimelech so severe?
39:35
SPEAKER_00: Because the promise, because of the promise, it was too close to the time of when Sarah was going to conceive Isaac for anybody to touch Sarah.
39:43
SPEAKER_00: And so he has to supernaturally protect her.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: He had to move the heart of the king to protect his promises.
39:51
SPEAKER_00: God had changed Sarai's name.
39:54
SPEAKER_00: She was the daughter of promise.
39:57
SPEAKER_00: And the name Sarah means princess.
40:00
SPEAKER_00: She was a princess.
40:01
SPEAKER_00: You might not have noticed, but in verse 7, God called Abraham a prophet.
40:07
SPEAKER_00: And he said, My prophet is going to pray for you.
40:11
SPEAKER_00: He's not looking much like a prophet right now.
40:15
SPEAKER_00: But God calls him one.
40:18
SPEAKER_00: God calls us by who he has created us to be.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: Sarah is a princess, and Abraham is a prophet.
40:27
SPEAKER_00: That's comforting to us because it tells us that God looks beyond our sin or our failures or our scheming or fears and flaws.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: He looks beyond all of that and he calls forth things that are not as if they were.
40:47
SPEAKER_00: How cool.
42:45
SPEAKER_00: We see how long it took Abraham and Sarah to see the fulfillment of that promise that he gave them.
42:51
SPEAKER_00: 25 years.
42:52
SPEAKER_00: The promise was given when Abraham was 75 years old, and the fulfillment was received when he was 10 and Sarah was 90.
43:01
SPEAKER_00: Some of the things that we learn about God and man from these passages is God doesn't need our help, just our cooperation.
43:10
SPEAKER_00: God is merciful even when bringing judgment.
43:16
SPEAKER_00: At times, God must intervene to protect promises, and he has the power to do so.
43:24
SPEAKER_00: And God's people often respond to danger with deception.
43:29
SPEAKER_00: And intercession accomplishes more than we can ever know.
43:34
SPEAKER_00: Aren't those great things for us to see today?
43:37
SPEAKER_00: I hope that this has encouraged you and been a comfort to you.
43:41
SPEAKER_00: That it's built up your faith and your knowledge of God so that your heart can respond to Him with love.
43:49
SPEAKER_00: Pray with me.
43:50
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you so much for your word and for all of these things that we have seen today.
43:56
SPEAKER_00: Truly, God, let them really impact us so that we can have a different view of ourselves and a different view of you and see how great and how awesome you truly are.
44:10
SPEAKER_00: We thank you and we praise you in your mighty, powerful holy name.
44:15
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
44:17
SPEAKER_00: We'll see you next time.