GENESIS 12-18 BE A CHILD OF ABRAHAM2015 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Genesis 12-18 Be A Child Of Abraham

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2015. Today we get to look at a great example of someone who trusts God. We're looking at the example of Abraham. He was a man of God. He was a man of faith and a man that God had promised great things to.

And as we look at Abraham as an example this morning, I want to encourage you to follow his example, or another way of putting that is, be a child of Abraham. Now, God did some pretty amazing things with Abraham because he took this old man who had no children, and then he used him

well, bring forth a nation, the nation of Israel. The descendants of Abraham are the Hebrews or the Israelites. The Jewish people are descendants of Abraham, but God late in Abraham's life began to do this work. And as a result of his encounter with God here in Genesis chapter 12, and the chapters we'll be looking at following,

We see that Abraham is known as the father of faith. He's kind of like, you know, not the first one who ever trusted God, but he's the model for us of what it means to have faith in God, to trust God, and to walk with him. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul and the teaching that is there give us some examples

many references back to Abraham as the example for us. He's not just the father of the Hebrew people or the nation of Israel, but he's the father of all who believe as God has called us to believe. For example, in Galatians chapter 3 verse 7, Paul says there, "...therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham."

Paul is making the point here for those who would trust in their biological connection to Abraham, their descendants of Abraham, and they would trust in that. And Paul says, you know, there's an aspect of blessing that comes to the descendants of Abraham. But when we're talking about the blessing of being a child of Abraham, the reality is not for those who are biologically descended necessarily, but those who are of faith.

are the real children of Abraham. Those who believe God like Abraham believed God, those are the children of Abraham. And so with this in mind, as we look at the example of Abraham, it's a call for us to be sons and daughters of faith, to be children of God in the same way that Abraham was by believing God and trusting him as he speaks to us.

And so we're going to look at a few examples of that in Abraham's life this morning, a few highlights from some of the things that we read this past week as we've been reading through the Bible in three years. And so we'll start here in Genesis chapter 12 for the first point. And the first thing I'd like to encourage you in, in order to be a child of Abraham or a child of faith, we need to obey God's instructions.

And as we look at verses 1 through 4 here in Genesis chapter 12, we see this instruction that is given to Abraham. In verse 1, God says, okay, Abraham, here's what I want you to do. Get out of your country. Get away from your family. Get away from your father's house and go to a land that I will show you. Here, God spoke to Abraham and he gave him some specific instructions.

But although he has specific instructions, God doesn't give him all the details about what he wants him to do. He doesn't give him the end result or the full picture, but he gives him some first steps to take. He needs to get up and start moving. He needs to get up and start going.

Now, God also gave a promise along with these instructions, and that's in verses two and three. He tells Abraham, I'm going to make you a great nation. You're going to become a multitude of people. And so from you, this nation will be established.

He says, I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing. And so I'm going to bless you, God promises. And not only that, but those who bless you, I'm going to bless them as well. And then at the end of verse three, he says, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And so you're going to be blessed, Abraham, as you obey this instruction that I have for you.

And those around you who are a blessing to you, those who are in agreement with you, they're going to be blessed too. And not only that, but all the families of the earth will be blessed as a result of you as you obey this instruction. There God's pointing out that the Savior, we now know his name is Jesus. The Savior would be a descendant of Abraham.

And so through Abraham, God was going to do this great work, establishing a nation, but also establishing salvation for all people. And so he gives this promise. You'll be a nation. You'll be blessed and you'll be a blessing to others. And also I'm going to protect you. He says, those who curse you, I'm going to curse them. I'm going to fight for you, Abraham. I'm going to protect you.

And so God gives Abraham this instruction along with these promises. And then in verse 4, it tells us that Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken to him. And Lot went with him. And Abraham was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. And so as Abraham receives this instruction, he packs up and he begins the move.

You can see it here on the map. Up in the top right is Haran. It's up in the north above the Euphrates River. And that's where Abraham was living as God gives him this instruction. And so he begins the journey south down to the land of Canaan.

Now, he doesn't know when he leaves, that's the ultimate destination. But as he begins to go, God shows him the way and leads him to this land and then tells him, this land I'm going to give to you and your descendants. I told you you're going to be a nation, and this is where I'm going to establish you as a nation. And so he makes this 400-mile journey from Haran to Canaan.

Pretty significant journey for them in those days. Of course, they didn't have vehicles or transportation like we do. And so it would have taken them a good bit of time to make their way down to the land of Canaan. But Abram does so. It tells us again in verse 4, So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him.

There's a lot of verses that are similar to this in the scriptures, and I always, it always causes me to stop and take notice. These kinds of statements are very interesting to me because, well, it just says, so Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken to him. And I begin to wonder, where's the negotiation? Because that's more what I'm familiar with. When God speaks to

And then I begin to negotiate. You ever experienced that? You ever tried to do that with God? Like, you know what God is saying, but you're trying to negotiate whether or not you want to do that, whether or not you're going to do that. Because a lot of times it is similar to what God has done with Abraham here.

He doesn't give all the details. And a lot of times we want all the details. Well, tell me about this and tell me about that and tell me what happens when I get around that corner. And then what if that happens? And we want to know all the details, the full blueprint when God says, you just need to get up and start going, start moving in the direction that I've called you to. Having been in ministry for a long time, having been a Christian for many years, I've observed that many times as believers,

It's not that we don't know what God is saying. There are times that we don't know what God is saying, but many times we do know what God is saying, but we're wrestling with whether or not we're going to do it. And maybe Abram wrestled a bit, but it's not recorded here. It tells us God gave him the instruction, and then in verse four, so Abram departed. He went and he did what God told him to do.

And it becomes a great example for us of faith. An important reminder for us to be children of Abraham. To follow this example as Abraham is the father of faith. Now faith, I like to define faith as obedience to God at his word. It's obedience to God at his word. And this is what Abraham is doing.

He hears from God. He has God's word, God's instruction, and then he obeys. Now, sometimes we think of faith and we think of it relating to the unknown. As Abraham set out from Haran, he didn't know the final destination. But his not knowing the final destination is not what makes this faith. And sometimes we get a little bit confused about that. We think that it's faith simply because we don't know what's going to happen.

But faith is not about not knowing what's going to happen. That may also be there. But faith is about responding and obeying God as he speaks. It's obedience to God at his word. And so as you and I would desire to be children of faith, that we would follow in Abraham's footsteps to be children of God who trust God, we need to follow this pattern. First of all, to hear from God.

And that's why we encourage and exhort so much for us as believers to be spending time regularly reading the word of God. Because we need to hear from God and God uses his word to speak to us.

And so we need to hear from God, not just generally, but sometimes specifically. And sometimes like Abraham, God will instruct us to pack up and move and go somewhere specific or go somewhere in general, and then he'll give us more direction as we go. But we need to respond as God speaks and be obedient to what he puts upon our hearts.

A lot of times we're not going to know the details. Maybe we'll have some of the promises that God gives us as we go, but regardless of whether we know the destination or we have it all figured out, to be a child of faith, to be a child of Abraham, we need to obey God's instruction. And so Abraham is a good example for us here, but he's not always a good example.

In the rest of chapter 12, which we won't read through, Abraham, as he gets down into the land of Canaan, he decides, you know what? It's not that good here because there's a famine. And so he moves then down into Egypt. And so he continues the journey south of Canaan and then goes over to Egypt. And he spends some time in Egypt before he returns to the land of Canaan. Now, he runs into trouble there in Egypt because...

he tells Sarah, his wife, to say that she is his sister. Now this was technically true. Sarah was a half-sister to Abraham, but he wanted her to withhold the fact that they were married because he was afraid of what they would encounter in Egypt.

He didn't know what kind of people they would be. And so perhaps they would kill him in order to get to her if they knew that they were married. And so he's trying to protect himself and thinking this is probably the best way to do it. So just say that you're my sister, he tells her.

So they go down to Egypt. They put out this story that she's his sister. And well, she is beautiful. And Pharaoh's men take notice of her. And so they don't get, like, Pharaoh doesn't bring her to be his wife, but he starts to work in that direction. And he brings her into his house. And as he brings her into his house, it tells us that the Lord plagues the house of Pharaoh. And there's destruction that's brought upon Pharaoh as a result of

And then God speaks to Pharaoh somehow. We don't know exactly how, but God tells Pharaoh, this is all happening because, well, this girl, Sarah, she's actually Abraham's wife. And Pharaoh kind of rebukes Abraham and says, why didn't you tell me that she was your wife? I might've married her and then it would have made things even worse. You should have told me that she was your wife and not your sister. And so Abraham here has a lapse of faith.

He tries to take matters into his own hands to protect himself. Now remember, as God sent him out, God gave him a promise of protection. If somebody curses you, I will curse them. I'll defend you, Abraham. But here Abraham takes these things into his own hands and figures out his own way to bring protection to him and Sarah. And so here we would look at this as a lapse of faith or a failure of his faith.

Now that brings us to Genesis chapter 13, where I have point number two. And that is, as we follow the example of Abraham, we need to call out to God after failure. Just like Abraham, we will have those times where we fail in the faith, where we fail in our trust of God. Even though maybe we started out well, hearing from God and beginning the journey with God, but then there comes a situation where

where we lapse, where we fail, where we falter in our faith. And what do we do? Well, although Abraham is not always a good example in that he also had failures in his faith, he is a good example of what to do after that. And he goes back and he calls out to God. Check out verse one. It says,

he and his wife and all that he had and lot with him to the south. And so he leaves Egypt after this bad situation. He goes back to Canaan, back this 225 mile journey to the land that God had promised him.

In verse 2, it tells us that Abraham was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. And so you see, God has already begun to fulfill the promise that he gave to Abraham in the last chapter, that Abraham would be blessed abundantly. And so he's very wealthy. He is blessed, just as God said that he would be. Well, then verse 3.

And he went on his journey from the south as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar which he had made there at first. And there Abraham called on the name of the Lord. Here is where we see Abraham as a great example for us of what to do after we've failed, what to do after we've fallen, after we've messed up.

We've faltered in our faith. We've gone the wrong direction. We've went down to Egypt when we weren't supposed to. Now what do we do? Well, Abraham goes back to the beginning. It tells us in verse 3, he goes back to the place where his tent had been at the beginning.

And then in verse 4, to the place of the altar which he had made there at first. You see the time references there? It's back to the beginning, back to what he did at first. He goes back to that original place and there he had built an altar where he called out to God, where he worshiped God and sought God.

And so after he's failed, he goes back to this place and begins once again to call out to God. I shared about this a couple of weeks ago as well from Genesis chapter three, that many times as believers, when we have sinned, when we have failed in some way,

We kind of put ourselves on time out as far as God is concerned. That we step back because we feel bad for what we've done and we feel bad about our failure. And so we withhold ourselves from prayer. We withhold ourselves from worship, from serving, from this relationship with God because we feel like, you know, well, we have to pay our dues, you know, be on time out, get through that, and then we can come back and

And it's a big mistake for us to do that. And that's not what God wants us to do. Abraham provides for us the right example. When we've fallen, when we've failed, we need to go back immediately to where we once were. Back to the altar, or for us, back to the cross. To worship God, to call out to God. It's very similar to what Jesus instructed the church of Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2.

Remember them, they had fallen away. They were busy in works, but they had lost their love of the Lord. And Jesus tells them in Revelation chapter two, verse five, he says, remember from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works. Go back and do what you did at first.

Go back to that altar that you set up. Go back to that place where you were seeking the Lord, where you were calling out to the Lord. That's what Abraham does. That's what the Lord would instruct us to do. Abraham had left his first love. He went to Egypt. He tried to do things in his own strength and power and wisdom, and he failed. It blew up in his face. So he goes back to the altar.

And he calls out to the Lord. He called on the name of the Lord there in Bethel. This is an example for us. And I would encourage you to be a child of Abraham in that way. Be a child of faith. Call out on the Lord whenever you failed. This takes faith. It requires faith. You have to really trust God that God will be merciful, that God will be gracious. And he promises that he will be.

But we have to come back to him. We have to return to the place where we began in our worship of the Lord. Now, God's put this on my heart this morning and a couple of weeks ago, I shared it. And so I want to make sure that this is clear. And I want to encourage you. God wants to speak to some people about this. Yes, you fail. Yes, you fall short. And yes, it causes some big problems and people are affected by it.

But we never get to the point where God stops calling us back to him. And the best thing for us to do is to return to the Lord and begin once again to worship him and walk with him. And the sooner we do that, the better. Stop putting yourself on timeout. Stop thinking that God's fed up or tired of forgiving you. Stop running away from God.

And understand that God is inviting you back. That's the beauty of the cross, that all sin is forgiven. God's not surprised by our failures. And so the sooner we get back to right where we need to be, to that place of worship, to that place of walking with God, the better it is for us and for everyone around us. And so call out to God after you've failed. God will receive you. He promises that he will.

Well, as we continue to look at the example of Abraham, we now move to Genesis chapter 14. And here in Genesis chapter 14, the third highlight that we'll look at is, well, Abraham gives back to God and again provides us a good example. Here in Genesis chapter 14, Abraham has had a great victory.

Because, well, there was a group of kings that invaded the area where, well, it was nearby Abraham, but it was where his nephew Lot was living. And so these kings invade the area. They conquer Sodom. They conquer the surrounding area. They take all the spoils, all the riches of those areas. And they're taking those back to their lands along with Lot, who is Abraham's nephew.

He was one of the captives that they took. And so Abraham leads a rescue mission. He puts together some forces from the servants of his own house. And he leads this attack to rescue Lot and bring back those who were taken captive. And as he goes out, he attacks these kings and he has victory. The kings are defeated before him.

And so he has this great victory. Now he's got all of the riches that they had taken throughout all of their invading of the different areas. And so he's bringing back all these riches. He's bringing back all those who were taken captive and bringing them back into the land. Well, on his way back, he encounters an interesting person named Melchizedek. Check out verse 18.

It says, Here we're introduced to this person named Melchizedek.

There's a lot of mystery around this person because, well, he's first introduced here without much introduction, but then we see him talked about later on in the book of Hebrews, where the author of Hebrews says, this guy Melchizedek is a picture of Jesus for a few reasons, but one of those reasons is that he is a priest as well as a king.

He's a priest that's different from the priesthood that was established under Moses because this was happening before Moses even was born. And so he's a priest of God. And the point that he goes on to make in Hebrews is that Jesus is a priest in that order, that type of priest that's outside of the priesthood that Moses established. And so he's a priest and a king just like Jesus.

But then also as he meets with Abraham after this battle, in verse 18, you see that he comes with bread and wine. These are communion elements. And so Melchizedek here is a picture of Jesus. Some would strongly suggest that Melchizedek is an appearance of Jesus, which is possible. At the very least, he's a picture of Jesus, right?

connecting with Abraham as he comes back from this victory. And so the Lord meets with Abraham as represented by Melchizedek. He's defeated the kings. He's had this great victory. He brings back this great treasure. And it tells us at the end of verse 20 that Abraham gave him, that's Melchizedek, a tithe of all. Now the word tithe, that means a tenth or 10%.

And so the spoils of war that Abraham recovered, 10% he gives to God represented by this person, Melchizedek. Now, if you're a little bit concerned, you can relax. We're not going to like take another offering or try to collect more money from you or anything like that, okay? This isn't about that. This is about you as a child of God, you as a child of Abraham, following the example of the father of faith.

And that is that when God, well, when he causes these great victories to take place in your life, it's appropriate for you to give back to God. It's appropriate for you to give back to God as he blesses you. This is talking about an abundance. You know, there's this gift that is given. There's this abundance that is poured out upon you. And as God does these works,

As you're walking with him, and sometimes you're going to fall, but you run back to him. You continue to walk with him and call out to him. And God is going to bless. He is going to work. And it is appropriate for you to give back to God as he does. It requires faith. Because, well, if you give back to God, well, then you're going to have to live on

less than if you had given, right? It requires faith. You're going to have to trust God to provide for you, but it's also appropriate for gratitude, for faith. It's appropriate to give back to God as he works these kinds of victories in your life. And so be a child of Abraham. Be a child of faith and trust God enough to give back to him as he blesses you.

Well, for the fourth point, we'll move on now to Genesis chapter 15. And here, as we look at the example of Abraham, we're encouraged to believe God, to believe God at his word. We'll start in verses, well, starting in verse one, it says, Verse two.

But Abram said, Lord God, what will you give me seeing I go childless and the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus? Then Abram said, look, you have given me no offspring. Indeed, one born in my house is my heir. So after this battle, as Abram continues to walk with God, God speaks to him again. And he says, Abram, you don't need to be concerned. I am your shield. You attack those kings and

They're probably not happy with you. Maybe some of the other people around aren't happy with you as a result. But Abraham, I'm your shield. I'm going to protect you. And also, I'm your exceedingly great reward. And Abraham is a little bit discouraged here. Maybe he's in a fit of depression at this time. And it's interesting how that often happens after great victories in our lives, that there's this discouragement that follows. And Abraham responds to the Lord and says, what will you give me?

What's the point, really, of you being my exceedingly great reward? What's the point of your blessings? What's the point of all this when I'm childless? He says, who am I going to pass this on to? I don't have any children to inherit all of these things that you've blessed me with. And so, yeah, you can protect it and keep me safe and all my possessions are safe and I'm blessed, but I don't have any children to pass that on to. So what's the point?

What's the value in that? He says, the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. Now, Eliezer was a servant of Abraham. And so he's saying, you know, this servant, I like him and everything, but you know, he's just going to get everything because I don't have an heir. I don't have a child to pass these things on to. He says in verse 3, look, you've given me no offspring. You've given me no children. And so

Abraham here is having this discussion with God, and this is good. He's being honest with God, and this is important for us to do. This is encouraged. Sometimes when we're discouraged or when we're confused, we're

We kind of feel like it's wrong to have these kinds of discussions with God, but God's able to handle these kinds of discussions. He's not so moody that you have to be worried about, you know, making him upset because you don't understand and you're discouraged. Abraham's being real with God. And he says, look, I mean, that's kind of a little bit informal there, a little bit like, hey, you remember you're talking to God, right? He says, look, you've given me no offspring.

It's good to have these honest conversations with God. Yeah, there is going to be times of discouragement. There is going to be these kinds of times where we don't understand and don't try to hide it and pretend like you're not feeling that way. Have this discussion with God. Get it out there. Talk to him about these things and allow God to minister to you.

Well, God responds in verse 4 and says, Here God responds. As Abraham opens up, he has this honest discussion with God and

God responds. And again, this is why we need to have these conversations with God, because God responds. Now, the response that God gives may not always be the thing that we want the most or that we like the best, but we can trust God is good and loves us. And so his response is good, whether we agree with it at the moment or not. For Abraham, God says,

Abraham, this servant, Eleazar, that's not going to be your heir. You're going to have a child. It's going to be a son from your own body. You're going to have a son. And then God gives him an incredible, crazy promise. He takes him outside of the tent in verse 5, and he says, look at the heavens. Now, you can maybe imagine that.

being out in the field, in the wilderness, at night, in those days, with no city lights, with nothing obstructing the view, how many stars could Abraham see as he looked up? A multitude of stars. I'm sure you've had those experiences, maybe being on the mountain or in the desert, and you look up, and it's amazing how many stars you can see. God says, look at those and try to count them. See if you can number them.

The point being, you can't. And he says, that's how your descendants shall be. Here you are, Abraham, thinking, oh, woe is me. I don't have any children. Protecting all these goods is worthless because I don't have anyone to pass it on to. But Abraham, your descendants are going to be as numerous as the stars of heaven. Now, as we consider these things this morning, of course,

You know, we kind of live more in city, and so we don't see as many stars. And this morning, as we're reading these things, we're inside, so we can't see the stars. But maybe we could count the popcorn on the ceiling, right? Think about the amount of points or the popcorns on the ceiling. And God would say, look at that. Count those if you can. That's how many descendants you're going to have. Now, remember this.

When God called Abraham out of Haran, back in Genesis chapter 12, it tells us he was 75 years old. We don't know exactly how much time has passed, but we know he's at least 75 years old. He's probably more around 80 years old at this point. And so here God tells this 80-year-old man, you're going to have descendants that are as numerous as the stars. You can imagine how impossible that would seem.

How ridiculous of a claim that would be. It would be as if, well, an 80-year-old person walked in here today and says, oh man, God just told me I'm going to have descendants as numerous as the stars. And you go, really? Well, how many kids do you have? I don't have any yet. It seems a little bit outlandish, right? It seems a little bit crazy, a little bit ridiculous. Not likely to come to pass. But notice what it says in verse 6.

It says, and he believed in the Lord and he accounted it to him for righteousness. Abraham believes God. As God gives him this promise, Abraham believes it. It's ridiculous. It's crazy. It seems impossible, but Abraham believes God. And then notice what it says. God accounted this to Abraham for righteousness.

Abraham was not righteous. That is, he wasn't perfect. We just saw one of his faults, his failures a few chapters ago. He had many more failures than that. He wasn't faultless. He wasn't sinless. He wasn't righteous. But God credited righteousness to Abraham's account because he believed God. And this is the way that God works.

This is why it's important to believe God, because none of us are righteous. And the only way for God to relate to us as righteous people is for us to believe God. Later on in Romans chapter 4, Paul the Apostle will use this verse here in Genesis chapter 15 to help us understand the gospel message is about believing God.

That is that righteousness cannot come by keeping the law. Righteousness cannot come by us doing good works. Righteousness cannot come by us giving some type of effort really diligently, really faithfully as best as we possibly can. Righteousness cannot be achieved. Righteousness must be accounted. That is that God credits us with righteousness when we believe.

And so what has God said? Well, we start with the gospel because, well, that's the beginning. That's where we need to start. The gospel is, here's what God says. God says, you and I, we are sinful because of our heritage, that is descendants of Adam and Eve. We have this sinful nature. And so from the very beginning of our life,

We are sinful. We disobey God. We rebel against God. That's what God says about us. Sometimes we try to persuade, you know, that that's not the case. So, you know, we're really good, you know, inside. We're really good people. It's just bad situations and circumstances. But God says, no, here's what I say. You are sinful and there's no escaping that. And so we need to start there and believe God.

But then we need to go on from that and to believe the next thing that God says. And that's what that God says, well, because you're sinful and because I love you, I've provided a savior, Jesus Christ, who is God, who became man to die upon the cross for sin. You can't earn your righteousness. You can't achieve it. But if you will believe that Jesus being God became man to die on the cross for your sins,

Well, I'll account you righteous and I'll deal with you and I'll treat you as if you had never sinned because you believe what I say. Now, sometimes we believe one part of what God says and then we divert from there. So maybe you believe that we are sinful, but then you try to resolve that sinfulness in some other way. This is

what religions are really all about, trying to make up for that sinfulness, trying to, well, it's a disregard of what God has said. Maybe believing part of it, maybe believing about the sin issue, the distance from God, but then trying to be reconciled to God through our own efforts, through our own strength, through our own disciplines or whatever. But here's what God says. God says, you can't ever get right with me. You can't ever be forgiven apart from

from Jesus Christ and believing in him. He's the salvation I've provided. He's the way, the truth, and the life. And so believe God about your sinful condition. Believe God about the salvation that he has provided, and he accounts it to you as righteousness. And you have then the hope of eternity, the promise of everlasting life, because the

As far as God's concerned, you're righteous because you believe him. Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. He believed God about this promise of this multitude of descendants. And you and I, we begin to believe God with the gospel message. Don't be mistaken or confused and think that that's all that believing God is about.

For us as believers, it begins with the gospel. That's where we start. But there's many more things that God says. There's many more promises that God speaks, both in his word and to us individually. And it's not just that we have that one-time experience, that conversion at one time, and then, well, that's all there is in regards to believing God. No, for the rest of our lives, we need to believe as God speaks.

As God reveals himself, as God reveals his will and his promises, we need to believe God. And as we do, God accounts it to us as righteousness. We can never earn it. We can't achieve it. But we receive the righteousness of Christ being applied to us when we believe God. And so Abraham believed God. He's the father of faith and the example for us to follow that we would believe God as well.

Well, for the final point, we'll jump over now to Genesis chapter 18. And here we see the example of Abraham. We need to follow and teach others to obey God. Here in Genesis chapter 18, the Lord appears to Abraham. The Lord is accompanied by two angels.

and he is there physically with Abraham. And so Abraham is there, he sees these three visitors, and he entertains them. He shows them hospitality. He makes them a meal, and he spends some time with them. At the conclusion of the meal, these two visitors that are accompanying the Lord are angels, and they are sent out down to Sodom.

because God's about to bring the judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah. Verse 16 of Genesis 18 says this, "'Then the men rose from there and looked towards Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them on the way. And the Lord said, "'Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing? Since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.'"

So the Lord has this discussion. He kind of talks to himself, not out of necessity, but so that we get some insight into why he is speaking to Abraham and revealing these things to Abraham. He's about to bring judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness, because of their rebellion against God. And so he reveals to Abraham what's about to happen.

And the verses that follow record for us Abraham's conversation with God. As he hears about the destruction because of the wickedness, Abraham says, well, what if there's 50 righteous there in Sodom? Would you still bring this judgment upon the city? And God says, no, if there were 50 righteous people there, I wouldn't bring the destruction.

And Abraham continues this discussion. Well, how about if there was only 45? You know, for five people, would you bring this destruction? If there was 45 righteous, would you destroy it? And God says, no. And Abraham continues to work his way down until finally he gets down to 10 people. If there's 10 righteous people, would you still destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? And God says, no, I won't do that.

And so these angels that were sent out, they actually go and they get Lot and his wife and his two daughters, and they bring him out of the city so that when the destruction comes upon Sodom and Gomorrah, they're not affected. Because while there wasn't 10 righteous in the city, there was just the one righteous man, Lot, and his family. And so God delivers them and brings them out before this destruction.

But as God is about to bring this destruction, he brings Abraham into the discussion. He gives him the heads up that this is about to happen. And I think verse 19, again, as God's talking to himself, not because he needs to, but to help us understand the reasoning, verse 19 packs some important truths for us to understand why God did what he did and what we can learn from it. Verse 19 says this.

God says, shall I hide this from Abraham? He's going to be a great nation. But more importantly, God says, I have known him. I've revealed myself to Abraham.

I've shown myself to him. And not only that, but it's for a specific purpose. He says, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord. God says, I've revealed myself to Abraham. I've known Abraham. I've walked with Abraham. I've taught to Abraham for a specific purpose so that then he would teach his children the

that he would instruct his house to keep my ways. Part of the reason why God appeared to Abraham and spoke to Abraham and revealed himself to Abraham was so that he would pass that on to his family. And then at the conclusion of verse 19, it says, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him.

So God says, I revealed myself to Abraham so that he would teach his children to walk in my ways so that then they could receive the blessings and the promises that I gave to Abraham. And so God gives us great insight into his reasoning behind this relationship that he has with Abraham.

So that Abraham would teach his children so that then his descendants would receive all the blessings and promises that God had spoken. And to this day, there is the nation of Israel, the descendants of Abraham. And they are still promised to be the recipients of these great things that God has in store because of this relationship. It started with God and Abraham and both Abraham believing God and being accredited to him as righteousness and

And he taught his descendants to follow after the Lord. And so they will still be the recipients of these promises that God has for them. But as God reveals this and shares these purposes that he had, it provides for us a great model, a great example. And I want to encourage you once again to be a child of Abraham. That is, God has known you.

He's revealed himself to you. He's worked in your life. He's taught you. He's spoken to you. But not just so that you could keep it all to yourself. He has done this work so that you can then pass it on to your children, to your household, to those around you. That they could receive the blessings that God has promised. That they could receive the gospel,

as well as everything else, all of the other promises that God gives. You know, we often talk about, as believers, we talk about a personal relationship with the Lord. I'm sure you've heard that, you're familiar with that. And as we talk about that, there is an importance of that personal relationship with the Lord. That is, each one of us individually has to have our own connection to God.

We have to have our own encounter with God. Nobody else can receive God's forgiveness for us. We can't be saved because, well, my wife is saved or my husband is saved or, you know,

My family member, you know, they're in the ministry. They're a pastor. And so I'm probably pretty good too. You know, it doesn't work that way. We each have to have our own response to God, our own faith in God and walk with God. It is personal in that sense. But don't confuse personal with private. That is, yes, you have your own personal relationship and God speaks to you and reveals things to you. He works in your life, but it's not personal.

for you to just keep all to yourself. And so you're like hiding behind like, okay, nobody can know what God's speaking to me. Nobody can know what God's saying to me. Nobody can know what God's working in my life. He doesn't reveal these things to us just for our own sake. He does it for us and we need it. We need to know God. We need these revelations and these promises and for him to work in this way. But listen, part of the reason why God works in your life is

Part of the reason why God speaks to you, part of the reason why God reveals himself to you is so that you can command your children, so that you can teach your household, so that you can pass on to others how to walk with the Lord, to keep the ways of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice. That's one of the reasons why God speaks to you. That's one of the reasons why God works that way in your life.

And so don't keep it quiet. Don't think of it as private. These are things that God does in you so that you can teach others, so that you can make disciples, that your family and that the people around you can be the recipients of all that God has promised.

And so as we look at Abraham in these different examples that we've looked at, we start out with the necessity, the need to obey God's instruction. God wants to speak to you. God is speaking to you. The question is, are you listening? Will you hear from God? And then when you hear from him, are you going to debate about whether or not you're going to do what he's called you to do or whether or not it's the right thing to do?

No, obey God's instruction. Have faith. Trust God and do what he's called you to do. Now, as you walk, you're going to mess up. There's going to be times of failure. You're going to have lapses of faith. You're going to have issues with sin. That's not a question. The only question is, how long is it going to take you to run back to the Lord, back to where you first began, back to the altar to worship God and call out to him once again? Call out to God after failure.

Now, as you walk with God, not only are you gonna have times of failure, but you're gonna have times of victory and blessing and abundance. And in those times, well, follow the example of Abraham and give back to God of the abundance that he gives to you. We also need to follow the example of Abraham and believe God, believing the gospel message and all the other promises and things that he speaks to us. Believe God. It's the only way to be righteous. But as God...

purifies you and does this work in you, don't keep it all to yourself. Teach your children how to walk with God in this way too. Teach your household how to hear from God and follow his instruction and run back to him after failure and give back to him when he blesses. Teach your children how to believe God that they could be accounted righteous. Maybe it's not your genetic children, but the people that God has placed in your life. Teach them to obey.

that they could be the recipients of all that God has for them. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word and the great example you have here for us in Abraham. Lord, as looking at him as the father of faith, I pray that you would help us to be children of Abraham, that we would trust you in the same way that he did. And Lord, we recognize as we look at Abraham's life, you didn't call him and choose him because he was super amazing.

But Lord, we recognize he's just like us. He had faults, he had failures, but Lord, you decided to show your mercy and grace to him. And so Lord, in a similar way, as you extend your mercy and grace to us, I pray that you would help us to respond, to hear your voice, to follow your instruction, to believe you at your word, and to do the things that you've called us to do.

Because there are great promises that you give for those who call out to you and follow after you. And so, Lord, help us to be recipients of those promises, of those blessings. I pray, Lord, for all the families that are represented here. And I pray that our families, Lord, would be recipients

of your righteousness and your goodness and the blessings that you have in store in eternity as a result of us hearing from you, walking with you, and then teaching others to do the same. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.