GENESIS 18 GOD WANTS TO BE YOUR FRIEND2021 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Genesis 18 God Wants To Be Your Friend

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 2021. Amen. Well, as we look at Genesis chapter 18 this morning, the title of the message is God wants to be your friend. God wants to be your friend.

And as we look at this example of Abraham, he is called throughout the scriptures, the friend of God. And here in Genesis chapter 18, we get to see a little bit of an example of how that developed, how that friendship developed, how that status of Abraham as a friend of God developed. And it sets up for us a good model for us to show us and remind us of the kind of relationship that

that God wants us to have with Him. And so Abraham is a model of faith in many ways. He is a model of many different things, but the focus that we'll consider this morning is that friendship model.

that he had with God and that God desired to have with him. And so, again, we're not going to look at the entire chapter in that every verse of the chapter, but looking at different pieces as we consider this friendship between the father and Abraham. The first thing we'll look at is here in verses 1 through 8. Here's point number one for today, and that is that God wants to spend time with you.

God wants to spend time with you. In verses 1 and 2, we see that the Lord appeared to Abraham. It says in verse 1, then the Lord appeared to him. Now, for us, in reading this, we know right from the beginning that the Lord appeared to Abraham. But in

We don't really know exactly what point Abraham knew that he was meeting with the Lord. Throughout the chapter, it becomes clear that he knows that he's meeting with the Lord, and it's possible that he knew immediately because it tells us in verse 2, when he sees these three people, in verse 2 it says, "...he lifted his eyes and looked. Behold, three men were standing by him, and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the ground."

He bowed himself to the ground, and that could be just a matter of, you know, custom and respect and showing hospitality. But the word bow down there, it also means to worship. And so it's possible that Abraham recognized right away because of his previous encounters with God, because of, you know, his experience with the Lord. He recognized that the Lord was there with him, and he goes and he bows down before the ground.

But what's interesting about this is, here's Abraham, he's hanging out in his tent in the cool of the day. I'm sorry, it's in the heat of the day, so he's hanging out, you know, trying to keep cool. And the entrance to the tent and under the tree, it would be a cool place for him to spend some time during the hottest part of the day. For those of you who are here at Living Water, you know, in person, outside, there is those days, right, the summer days, where underneath the tree, oh man, it was hot.

So cool, even though it's hot everywhere else, right? And you go under a canopy for service and it's hot, but you go under the tree and there's this cool breeze and it was just a nice refreshing place to be in the midst of a hot summer. In a similar way, he's there in this grove that he has been living in and he's relaxing and hanging out in the afternoon. And then these three visitors come by.

And we know it's the Lord. We know from the verses as it continues on into chapter 19, the other two are angels. So it's the Lord and two angels that show up to visit Abraham. And they're on a mission. They're headed towards Sodom and Gomorrah. And chapter 19 records that encounter and then, of course, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

But while that's important, and what makes this interesting to me is that they're on their way to Sodom and Gomorrah. They're on a mission to go deal with these cities that have been filled with wickedness and in rebellion against God. But on the way, they pass by Abraham's tent. And I'll just kind of say it plainly. God doesn't have to travel by foot.

The Lord here appears to Abraham, not because, well, he had to. There's no other route. He wanted to get there faster, but, oh man, we got to pass by Abraham's tent, and that's going to tie us up for a bit and take some time. No, the Lord is doing this. He's orchestrating this whole scene to have basically an afternoon with Abraham, to spend some time with Abraham. God is orchestrating all of these events for

to just spend a few hours together with Abraham and have a good meal with him. Here, God is giving Abraham an opportunity to invite him to stay. He goes by the tent. Now, if you were a traveler in those days and you wanted hospitality, that would be normal that you would go by the front entrance.

of the tent out there in the wilderness, and that would be the opportunity. But if you didn't want hospitality, you would go around the back of the tent. So, you know, it wouldn't be, you know, like, hey, we're trying to stop and hang out and have fellowship. That, no, we're on our way. You know, we got to keep going. And so here, this idea of these guys coming in front of Abraham's tent, it's a clear and deliberate move on God's part to say, Abraham, I'm giving you a chance to

to spend time with me. I want to spend time with you. That's why I'm coming here in this way. And I want to have you or give you the opportunity to invite me in. And so Abraham does that. He responds to this. He sees these guys and he immediately moves to them and says, hey, don't keep passing by. Hey, stop and spend some time here. Don't pass by your servant. In verse 4, he says, please let a little water be brought.

Let your feet be washed and you can rest yourself for a little bit and cool off under the tree. He goes on in verse 5 to say, look, I'll prepare some food for you. Now he calls it a morsel of bread there in verse 5. But as you see in the following verses, he really prepares a feast for these travelers. And again, here it gives us an indication that Abraham knew early on who these guests were and who he was entertaining.

In verse 6, it says that Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes. And Abraham ran to the herd and took a tender and good calf and gave it to the young man, and he hastened to prepare it. The household jumps into action. Abraham runs into the tent and says, Sarah, quick, make some bread.

Now, what's interesting is it tells us that they used three measures of fine meal. And three measures of fine meal, according to those who have studied these things and done the work of transferring, converting all of the measurements from the scriptures into our measurements today, three measures of fine meal works out to be about 20 quarts of flour.

It's a massive amount of flour, a massive amount of bread. They're not just making bread that could just barely provide for three guests, but they're making bread for a crowd. They're making a feast fit for a king as they prepare this meal for these travelers. Then Abraham runs to the herd and he gets a calf. And now they're going to...

butcher the calf and offer the calf as part of the meal. Again, it's a feast. It's not just a little thing. Hey, if me and my wife are cooking dinner and we want some meat in the dinner, a pound of ground beef is sufficient for the two of us. So maybe a pound and a half if we have a third visitor. But to cook a whole calf and have that, that's an abundance of food. Like

you know, way more than would be expected in those circumstances. And so it says in verse 8, he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared and set that before them and stood by them under the tree as they ate. And so all this preparation happens. Abraham brings the meal out to these guests and then he stands by as a host, as a waiter, you know, attending to their needs while they consume this food, while they enjoy this meal that has been prepared.

As I was reading through this week and considering this whole scenario and trying to kind of visualize the events unfolding in my head, I began to wonder, how long does it take for Abraham and Sarah to prepare this meal? How long does it take you?

If you're going to make a meal for the family, what kind of time do you put into that? Now, of course, you could just microwave a frozen dinner or something, or you could pull up DoorDash on your phone and have something delivered. But if you're going to go in the kitchen and make something, what kind of time does that require? Now, for me in the kitchen, I'm the slowest person the world has ever seen. You can ask my wife and she will testify to that.

It takes a while, though, even if you're experienced, to put together a meal. Well, I reached out to Harvey. He's the expert chef. I figured he would have the best insight into what kind of time this would require for this meal to be prepared. And so here's what he said. He said, I would say at least an hour, but probably a couple of hours.

He went on to say, for me to do something like that in the prime of my cooking, it would take more like four to six hours. So back in his prime days of cooking as a young chef, four to six hours to prepare this kind of meal. We don't know exactly how long it took Abraham and Sarah, but it's a good amount of time. It's an hour, two hours, maybe four or five hours. We don't know for sure, but we know that there is some hours involved. It's not minutes. It's not seconds.

but there's some hours that are involved here. Now, as I said, God doesn't have to travel by foot, right? As he's on his way to Sodom and Gomorrah, he doesn't have to travel this way. He doesn't have to come by Abraham's tent, but he does so deliberately to have this encounter with Abraham. And likewise, God doesn't have to wait around for food. God could have said, here's a feast, boom, and just created a feast there for Abraham to enjoy with him.

He doesn't have to wait around for food. Not only that, but you could also understand the Lord wasn't hungry. The angels who were with him, they didn't need nutrition. So what is this whole scene? And why is this all unfolding? Well, very simply, bringing it back to the point, we see that God wanted to spend time with Abraham, just like God wants to spend time with you.

And so, yes, he got down on foot and came by Abraham's tent. And he sat around for a couple hours while this feast was prepared. And then he consumed the feast while Abraham was there attending to him. Because God was looking for this occasion to be able to be in close proximity to Abraham, to be able to have conversation with Abraham, to be able to spend time with him.

The commentator F.B. Meyer says, Sometimes we forget that.

How much God really desires to have time with us. Sometimes we kind of lose sight of really the purposes and plans of God. That from the beginning, God's desire was to create human beings for the fact of fellowship.

for the opportunity of fellowship. He created us in his likeness, in his image, so that we could have that kind of fellowship and intimacy together for the very kind of relationship that he desires to have with us. And so here we see God orchestrating these events to spend some time with Abraham. He sits around for a few hours. That just kind of like boggles my mind. Like,

I don't know. I feel like if I was God, I'd be frustrated by how long it's taking. I'd be like, can I stir up the flame of the fire to cook the meat faster, to get this done faster? But he's not in a rush. He's made time in his schedule, as if he needs time in his schedule. But you get the point of what I'm saying, right? That God made this time. He created this opportunity for

Simply because he desired this time with Abraham and his family. God wants to spend time with you. He doesn't have to travel by foot. He doesn't have to wait around for food. But he did because he wanted that opportunity. He wanted that occasion.

You can see similar examples in the life of Christ, right? In Luke chapter 19, he's walking by the tree. He looks up at Zacchaeus and says, Zacchaeus, come down. I must stay at your house. I really want to just go hang out with you in your home. Or I was thinking about Jesus on the way to Galilee, but he went through Samaria in John chapter 4 and

Typically, the Jews would go around Samaria instead of going through Samaria. But in John chapter 4 verse 4, it says he needed to go through Samaria because there was a woman that he wanted to meet at the well. He wanted to have some time with this person that

that they would get to have some fellowship, that she would get to experience an encounter with the Lord. You can think about the time that Jesus spent with Mary and Martha and Lazarus, right? Those two sisters and the brother, that they had this fellowship with God. It is seen throughout the scriptures, throughout the examples in the Old Testament, throughout the example of the life of Jesus. God desires to be your friend. He wants to

be welcome in your home. He wants to have time and occasions of much time, hours and hours in one sitting to spend time with you, to talk with you, to hear from you. Pastor Tom Constable says, And so as we think about these things, I would encourage you

in two things. Number one, be looking for opportunities. You know, it would be easy for us in Abraham's shoes to say, it's hot. I'm not going to run around and prepare a meal in the middle of the heat of the day. You know, I'll just maybe, you know, freshen them up and send them on their way or pretend like I'm asleep and, you know, hopefully they won't notice that I saw them. And, you know, it would be easy for me in a similar situation to miss the opportunity to

Do you think God gives us similar opportunities to what he gave Abraham? Well, maybe the Lord's not appearing to us in a physical form as he did to Abraham here. But, you know, you think about Nathanael in John chapter 1, Jesus, as he is introduced to Nathanael, who becomes a disciple, he says, oh yeah, I know you. And Nathanael says, how do you know me? And he says, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.

And Nathanael, as he hears that, he says, oh my goodness, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. Now the occasion seems to be much more than just the fact that Jesus knew where he was, but he

It's possible that Nathanael was there having an encounter with God and an experience with the Lord. He was perhaps meditating on some things about the Messiah or about, you know, the things of God. And Jesus knew it. And so he makes reference to it because, well, he was there with Nathanael under the tree. In a similar way, do you think that God gives us opportunities where he just kind of shows up at our door and says,

and says, hey, I've got a few hours. You want to spend some time with me? That there's an opportunity here for you to have an encounter, an experience with God that is unusual, that is uncommon. I wonder if God gives us those opportunities. I wonder if we miss those opportunities because we're not looking for them. And so the first thing I would encourage you to do is be looking for opportunities. Secondly, I would encourage you to make some time, put in some significant fellowship time.

Now, this didn't happen every day for Abraham, right? This was an occasional thing. God would have these times where he would show up and spend some time with Abraham in similar ways. It wasn't, you know, not saying that your daily devotions have to be hours and hours like this, like preparing a feast. But although we have our daily devotions, we also need to have the times where

There's just some significant amount of time where there's several hours that are devoted to some time with the Lord. And maybe that's a walk or

you know, around the neighborhood or a walk or a hike or something where, you know, it's just an intentional fellowship with God, a time of prayer, a time of talking with the Lord about things and allowing Him to speak to us. Maybe it's a retreat of some kind or a conference, and we devote that time to go and dedicate ourselves to

spending time with the Lord. Maybe it's a special study in the scriptures, you know, and the Lord puts something upon your heart. There's an opportunity. He wants to show you himself by placing a certain subject upon your heart or mind and

It's really encouraging you to dig into the Word of God. Maybe there's a special time of prayer that the Lord wants you to just set aside and designate some time. And it doesn't have to be, this is what I'm going to do every day for the rest of my life. And it doesn't have to be, I'm going to do this once a week or once a month, right? But just...

As the Lord opens those doors, as you have that move upon your heart, that hint that God wants to have that time with you, well, make sure to break out that time and to spend time with the Lord. He wants to spend time with you because he wants to have that friendship with you. Well, we're going to move on to verses 9 through 15 and look at point number two, and that is that God wants to surprise you with blessings. God wants to surprise you with blessings.

Jumping into verse 9, it says, Here is their having this time of fellowship and friendship together.

The Lord asks Abraham, hey, where's Sarah? Is she around? And Abraham says, yeah, she's in the tent, the kind of customary place for her to be in an encounter like this. And so he says, you know, I've got something to tell you. I'm going to come back according to the time of life, in about a year or so, and Sarah, your wife, shall have a son. Now at this point, this is not new information.

Abraham and Sarah have known that God has promised them a son for many years by this point. It's not new information. They've known about this promise. They've known that God had said this, but a lot of time has passed. And from their perspective, by all appearances, it's too late for this to be fulfilled. Just physically, it's too late for this to be accomplished. And yet here the Lord says again, I'm going to come back next year and

And you're going to have a son. Now, just to kind of help us think through and put ourselves in their shoes for a moment, here's a quick look at some of the ages of Abraham and Sarah at different points throughout their life or at different points in the record here of Genesis. Back in Genesis chapter 12, we see that famous promise that was given to Abraham, that he would be the father to many nations.

It says in Genesis chapter 12, verse 2, I will make you a great nation. And so the direct promise of a son isn't there, but the implication is there in that he would have a multitude of descendants. At that point in Genesis chapter 12, as God gives him that promise, Abraham is 75 years old. And you can see that right there in the text in Genesis chapter 12.

Now, Abraham was 75 years old when he was given this promise, but Isaac isn't born until Genesis chapter 21 when Abraham is 100 years old. And so there's about 25 years between the promise and the fulfillment. But along the way, there's been some additional promises given. In Genesis chapter 15...

the Lord tells Abraham in verse 3 and 4 that he will have a son specifically. He says, So Abraham was concerned that his heir would be a servant in his household. But God says, no, I'm going to bring forth a son from your own body, and that's going to be your heir.

Well, in Genesis chapter 16, we mentioned that a little bit last Sunday, looking at the issue of Hagar and Ishmael and the attempt to fulfill this promise and bring forth an heir through Sarah's maidservant, Hagar. When Ishmael is born, Abraham is 86 years old.

So time has passed. They felt like God wasn't moving, and so they tried to implement this other plan for the fulfillment of the promise that God had given. Well, then in Genesis chapter 17, God gives the promise again. And again, it's clear and direct. Genesis chapter 17, verse 19, God says, "'Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son.'"

Sarah, your wife, will bear you a son. At that point in Genesis chapter 17, Abraham is 99 years old, which is probably the age he is in chapter 18 as well, what we're looking at in this passage. And so 99 years old, again, it's almost 25 years now that they've been waiting on this promise.

And so here in Genesis chapter 18, when God says, hey, I'm going to come back next year and you're going to have a son, Abraham is 99 years old. Sarah is 89 years old. And it's just really hard to believe. It's not new information, but, you know, it's been a long time. They've known about this for a long time and it hasn't even come close to being fulfilled. And so we go on into verse 12. It says, therefore, Sarah laughed within herself.

And so in response to this, Sarah is listening behind them in the tent. And in response to what the Lord is saying here, she laughs. Now we see a different occasion in Genesis chapter 17 where Abraham laughs at the message and the promise of the Lord. But their laughter seems to be a bit different here.

In Genesis chapter 17, the laughter of Abraham seems to be in amazement and wonder, like, oh my goodness, I just can't believe, God, you're really going to be so good in that way. But here, when Sarah laughs, as indicated by the response of the Lord, it seems that it's more, not in awe, but more in doubt. She laughed within herself. And can we blame her? We know that promises...

you know, will be fulfilled, but they don't know that yet. And they're living out this 25 years of waiting.

It's so easy for us to read through this and, you know, to not factor in, to not envision, you know, think about 25 years ago and where you were and what has God promised you and are you holding on to those promises and how hard is it to hold on when you don't see those promises fulfilled for 25 years? And so she is really discouraged and doubtful of the promise at this point.

Commentator Derek Kidner says, God's rebuke points to the latter, that Sarah was persisting in unbelief, not merely reacting in astonishment.

She wasn't just blown away. She wasn't just like, oh my goodness, I can't believe, you know, that's going to happen. But she was saying, yeah, right. It was a laughter of, yeah, right. That's not going to happen. That's never going to take place. It was a laughter of unbelief. But the account's not over yet. Don't be down on Sarah. In verse 13, the Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh? Saying, shall I surely bear a child since I am old?

He says in verse 14, is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time, I will return to you according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. The Lord says, why did Sarah laugh? Now it tells us she laughed within herself. She laughed quietly to herself. She didn't laugh out loud. It was internal, but the Lord knew because he knew her heart. And really, this is the whole point. Why does God ask questions? Hey, where is Sarah, your wife?

It's not for his benefit. He knew exactly where Sarah was. He knew exactly where Sarah was better than Abraham knew. But as the Lord says, hey, where is Sarah, your wife? Imagine Sarah in the tent. All of a sudden, she hears her name. You ever have that happen? You're tuned out. Other people are having a conversation. And all of a sudden, you hear your name. And it's like, whoa, whoa, what was that? What are you talking about? Here's Sarah now. The Lord's got her attention. Hey, she's going to bear a son.

And as she's listening now, she's attentive. She's like, no way, that's not going to happen. And so the Lord challenges her. Why did Sarah laugh? Again, he's asking not for his own information, not because he needs information, but he is walking Abraham and particularly Sarah here through a process to bring them to this position of faith. Is anything too hard for the Lord? That's what the Lord says in verse 14. Is anything too hard for the Lord?

Oh man, these promises, they seem like they're just never going to be fulfilled. They just seem like it's impossible now. It's way too late. It's been too long. Circumstances make it impossible. Is anything too hard for the Lord? What the Lord was doing here was bringing out and bringing to the surface this issue, this condition of unbelief in the heart of Sarah, that she might move to a position of belief in

and then experience the things that God had promised. You see, Sarah was instructed by this whole encounter. She laughed in that moment, and then she learned to believe. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 11, verse 11, By faith, Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed. And she bore a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.

She judged him faithful. Now, right before this conversation, she didn't judge him faithful. But as a result of this time with the Lord, and as God challenged her and said, hey, is there anything that's too hard for me? She began to reflect on who God is, the one who made the promise.

And because she had this opportunity to reflect on that, because God brought her to this place of understanding her position of unbelief and her need to understand and believe that nothing is too hard for the Lord, she began to judge him faithful who had promised. And by faith, she received the strength to conceive even when she was past age.

Looking at the example of Sarah here, again, I would remind you, God wants to surprise you with blessings. There's things that God wants to do in your life. And sometimes he needs to kind of stir up in these conversations that he has with us. Going back to point number one, spending time with him, sometimes is going to be uncomfortable because God is going to confront the unbelief in our hearts. But he does so not to rebuke us and, you know, leave us downcast on the floor, but to stir up so that we can then come to a position of faith and trust and

He works in our hearts and calls out issues of sin so that we can repent and be cleansed and move forward into the wonderful, exceeding, and excelling things that He wants to do for us. God wants to surprise you with blessings. He wants to do such things in your life that, well, if it were told you now, you wouldn't believe it. But the thing that we need to keep in mind with all of this is that it happens in the Lord's time.

We're so quick to want everything in the moment. It's really hard for us to think, yeah, you know what? Here's what I can't wait for 25 years from now, right? We don't usually think in those terms. And if there's something that we believe God wants to do or something that's upon our heart from the Lord, we're immediately looking for that to be resolved and fulfilled in the moment.

But many times, God's promises are fulfilled in a time frame that is not in our minds. God's promises are rarely fulfilled when we think they should be fulfilled. And sometimes the promise is fulfilled 25 years later. But listen, when the promise is finally fulfilled, the wait is always worth it. In those 25 years, as we're walking that journey, it doesn't feel like the wait is worth it. It feels like things would be so much better if it was just fulfilled already, if it was just done.

If God would already just, you know, give us the blessings. But the Lord walks us through this journey for our good. And in the end, we'll be able to say it was worth it. Yeah, it was 25 years of waiting for that promise, waiting for that surprise, waiting for that blessing. It was 25 years, but it was worth it. And I'm glad God did it that way. God wants to surprise you with blessings.

trust him and believe him. He knows what's best for you. He wants what's best for you, and he will work out what's best for you as you walk with him. Well, moving on to the remaining verses of the chapter. Again, we won't look at every verse, but here we get the third point for today, and that is that God wants you to learn about his nature.

God wants you to learn about his nature. Verse 16 says, Here, the three visitors are now about to move on.

The two angels are going to head down towards Sodom, and they're going to spend some time with Lot and his family. They're going to lead them out of the area, and then fire and brimstone are going to be rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah this next day. And so they're heading towards the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. But before that happens, Abraham is going to have a bit of a discussion with the Lord about that.

And here the Lord kind of includes us in some of the internal dialogue. It says, the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing? Shall I hide this from Abraham? Shall I hide our business, you know, why we're here and where we're going? Shall I hide that from Abraham? Now again, I would ask the question, why does God ask questions? It's never for his sake. It's always for us.

And so the Lord perhaps is speaking to the fellow angels out loud in front of Abraham to kind of, again, bring him along in this discussion. Once again, we see God is orchestrating this whole thing to give Abraham opportunities to engage with the Lord, to dialogue with the Lord, to talk with the Lord about the things that are going on. Because God wants Abraham to learn

about his nature, his character, how he is. In verse 20, the Lord fills Abraham in on the plan. The Lord said, "'Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to me. And if not, I will know.' Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood still before the Lord.'"

The Lord sends the two angels on their way, but he hangs back. Again, he's orchestrating this whole thing. He wants to spend some more time with Abraham, particularly talking about this plan of destruction for Sodom and Gomorrah. And so he's including Abraham in the discussion. He's including him in the plans and giving him insight into what is about to take place. Why? Does God need Abraham's counsel?

Abraham, you're very wise, and you know, I just want to get your opinion on this situation. No, of course not. God has all wisdom, and he knows what's best, but he is bringing Abraham into this so that he can teach Abraham about himself. And this is an aspect of the nature of God that Abraham needs to learn about and needs to discover in this conversation. Now,

As we go on into this conversation, this passage typically is looked at and we immediately see the subject of intercession. We see Abraham praying on behalf of others in Sodom and Gomorrah. And there is some great examples there and some important things to consider about intercession for us. But that's not the focus for me at this point. This time through, the Lord showed me a different perspective.

And that is that Abraham is learning about God's nature. He's learning about the righteousness of God, the justice of God. And this dialogue, this conversation is not a means of Abraham trying to persuade God to not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, but it's an exploration on Abraham's part of the nature of God and the character of God that is unfolding in this situation.

Check out verses 23 through 25. It says,

We see here that Abraham understands who he's talking to. He's talking to the judge of all the earth. And as the Lord includes him and shares with him his plans, look, the wickedness is great. These cities need to be destroyed. Abraham says, hmm, I understand the sin. I understand the wickedness. And I understand judging sin and wickedness. But I don't fully get this picture. I don't fully understand what you're saying.

This doesn't seem consistent with what I already know about you, Lord. This doesn't seem right. What if there are righteous people in the midst? It doesn't seem right for you to destroy them because you're destroying the wicked around them. And so Abraham is perplexed at this point. There is so much about God that is hard for us as human beings to understand. That's the way that it should be. God is infinite.

His ways are above our ways, as high as the heavens are above the earth, right? So his ways are always going to be perplexing and mysterious to us. We are finite in our minds and understanding. And yet at the same time, God is seeking to bring Abraham along to help him understand the situation.

And so again, he orchestrates this whole conversation. He sends the guys while he hangs back and talks with Abraham. He could have just departed, right? He could have not stopped by Abraham's tent in the first place. But no, he wanted Abraham to be part of this. He wants to help Abraham work through this really internal conflict. Because as judgment is executed, well, it is a shocking thing. It is a mysterious thing. It is a strange thing. But God arranges this conversation.

so that Abraham can understand what is going on and what part of God's nature and character is at play here. God's judgment many times can be a great mystery for people, even for believers who have known the Lord and walked with the Lord for a long time. Times of judgment or reading, you know, through passages of judgment in the scriptures can be so challenging and so confusing.

Or another common objection to the gospel and to God as a whole is, how could a God of love allow bad things and do these things and those kinds of things? It's perplexing for us. Many times we put ourselves in a place of, well, we think that we're more merciful and compassionate than God. And we need to understand that is not the case. Peter tells us in 2 Peter 3, verse 9,

God is not desiring to bring judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah. He's deleted up to this point as an opportunity of repentance, but there has been none. And so now righteousness needs to be accomplished, but he's not willing that any should perish.

We need to understand that God is always more concerned about people than we are. There is nobody that you care about that God cares about less than you care about them. Everybody that you care about, everybody that you're concerned about, God is more caring and more concerned about them than you will ever be. The closest people to you, the people that you love the most, God loves them more. He's not willing that any should perish.

Now, if we have not had these kinds of conversations with God, conversations about judgment, conversations about righteousness and wickedness and wrath and worked through these things, then we're not going to understand the judgments of God. If we haven't had these kinds of conversations with God about things that are difficult for us to understand, it's not just limited to the subject of judgment, but

Listen, if we don't have these kinds of conversations with God and work through some of these difficult and challenging things, we're not going to understand his blessings. We're not going to understand his wisdom. We're not going to understand his love. We're not going to understand his compassion. It requires these kinds of encounters with God where we wrestle through a subject, wrestle through a topic. And so Abraham hears about this judgment and says, well, let me throw out a scenario. What if there's 50 righteous?

I want to learn about you, God. What if there's 50 righteous? Then how do you handle this situation? God says, well, I won't destroy the city for 50 righteous. And the passage goes on. Abraham continues to say, well, okay, let me give you another thought. What if there's 45 righteous? Now, the fact that there's five people missing, you know, if there was 50 righteous, you won't destroy it, but

45, oh, you're missing five righteous people, so boom, you're destroyed. That doesn't seem right, God. Would you destroy the city if there was only 45 righteous? And God says, no, I won't destroy it if there's 45. And Abraham continues to whittle that number down, and God says, no, I won't destroy it for that many. And he gets down to 10, and God says, if there's 10 righteous people, I won't destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Through that, Abraham is uncovering and discovering the nature of God.

The righteousness of God, the justice of God, the mercy of God. He's understanding more about God as he walks through this conversation. Another quote from Derek Kidner, the commentator here. He says, it would be easy to say that this prayer comes near to haggling, but the right word is exploring. He's exploring the boundaries. He's exploring the nature and the character of God. He's uncovering who God is in the midst of this.

He's learning. He's asking questions. He's having discussion. You know, sometimes there's kind of like a negative perception about asking questions of God or asking God about things. Like, why would you do that, God? And of course, there is a danger in attacking God and believing that we know better than God. But at the same time, there is the opportunity to say to God, I don't understand. This doesn't seem consistent with who you are. Why did you allow that? Why are you doing this?

And it's not that we can demand answers from God, but listen, God wants you to learn about himself and what it is about his character and nature that allows for things, that accomplishes things, that does things. He wants you to discover more and more about him. And so we need to learn about his nature. We need to ask God's question, God questions. We need to

wrestle with challenging topics. There's no conversation that we should be afraid of having with God, that we can't have with God. Oh, that's too challenging. That's too difficult. We don't explore that subject. No, there's no conversation that we cannot have with God. There's no topic that we can't search the scriptures for and seek to understand God's view, God's perspective, and how God is in regards to that.

He wants us to know. He invites us to know. He orchestrates this whole situation so that Abraham can have this opportunity to know God a little bit better. God wants us to learn about his nature. Well, finally, we're just going to look at one verse here, backing up a little bit in the verses that we've been looking at. Just looking at verse 19, point number four is this. God wants you to help others walk with him. In verse 19, it says, For I have known him in order that he may command his children and his household after him.

that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him. This verse caught my attention as I was working through this passage in the reading as well as preparation for the service. God says, I have known him.

All of this talk that we've been having, Abraham being the friend of God, and the situation that God has orchestrated, and he's spent a lot of time with Abraham. I have known him. We've seen a bit of their relationship today. But then God goes on to say, for a reason. There's a purpose that I've revealed myself to Abraham to this degree. There's a purpose and a reason that I've had this time with him. Part of the reason that God revealed himself to Abraham is

was so that Abraham could pass it along to others. He says, I have known him, in verse 19, in order that, because I want this outcome, I have spent this time with Abraham in order that he may command his children and his household after him. I've invested this time in Abraham. I've invested this revelation in Abraham so that he could pass along this

the things that I am saying. Pass along his understanding of my character and nature. Pass along the things that have been declared by the Lord. He says that they may keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice. I've poured all of this into Abraham to help others around Abraham know what it means to walk with the Lord and learn how to do what's right and to seek him. He goes on to say at the end of verse 19 that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him.

Part of the way that God was going to fulfill all of the promises that he gave to Abraham was through the participation of Abraham, passing on to his family the things that God had shown him.

And so he made promises to Abraham, but he's employing Abraham as an agent of fulfillment in that as he teaches his children and his family to walk with the Lord and they go forward in those things that Abraham taught them, then they'll reach the end of that promise, the fulfillment of that promise that God had given to Abraham before.

And so you see that God is just working this in all different ways to know Abraham, for Abraham to know him, for Abraham to influence people around him, for the full blessings and promises to be in effect in Abraham's life. And this is an important aspect of walking with the Lord and knowing the Lord. God wants you to help others walk with him. He reveals himself to you for you because you need it, and he wants to have fellowship with you,

He wants that relationship with you. He wants you to know him, but also he reveals himself to you and pours into you so that then you might be an agent of his to impact people around you. We see this, of course, in the Great Commission. Jesus, after pouring so much time and teaching and everything into the disciples, then he says, now go and make disciples.

Matthew 28, 19, and 20. Go make disciples now. I've made you disciples. Now you go make other disciples. And those disciples, well, they should make disciples. And then those disciples should make disciples. And you and I today as disciples of Jesus should make disciples. It's part of the way that God works in us and through us. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 1 that God comforts us that we might comfort others who are in trouble.

The comfort that we receive from God, we receive from God because we need comfort, but we also receive comfort from God so that as others go through times of trouble, we are able to bring comfort because we ourselves have been comforted by God. God wants you to help others to walk with him. He wants you to make disciples, to help others to obey the commands of the Lord and walk with him.

He wants you to comfort others who are suffering and afflicted and going through difficulties. And you can pull from those things that God has revealed to you and shown you and ministered to your heart as you reach out to those around you who are going through difficulty. Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2, verse 2, See, there's this waterfall, this domino effect, right?

We're taught by the Lord, and we're instructed then to teach others. And they're taught by the Lord through us, and they're instructed to teach others. And God intends for that to continue to flow even today. God wants you to help others walk with him. He wants to be your friend.

He wants to have fellowship with you, to spend time with you, to reveal himself to you and show you things that are to come, to show you things that are important and special in his plans and purposes for you. He wants to surprise you with blessings and fulfill promises and do things that you would not believe if he were to tell you right now because, well, off in the distance, he's got some incredible things in store for you.

He wants you to learn about his nature. Hey, listen, there is the blessings and the promises. There's also a righteous aspect of God and judgment for sin. And those things are difficult, perhaps, for us to think through, to think about, to dwell on. But God wants us to work through those difficult subjects to learn more about his nature, to have a fuller perspective of

Not just eating all the cotton candy of the scriptures, right? Just all the fun and tasty stuff. But to understand the full nature of God. We need a full understanding of who God is and what he's like. And so he invites us in. He brings us into these conversations that we might understand him better. That we might work through these internal conflicts and come out the better for it. Knowing and being able to trust God.

for his goodness and mercy, even in the midst of judgment. And then God wants us to help others to walk with him. He wants us to turn around and pass that along. We've learned, we've grown, we've developed. Spending time with God. Listen, look for those opportunities.

Those opportunities to disciple, to engage with others, to pass along. And maybe it is to your family, like it was specific to Abraham for your children and their children to pass that along. Maybe it's a particular ministry, a particular friend or neighbor, but the Lord wants to use you to impact the life, the spiritual life and the walk of someone around you. And so let's do that. Let's be God's friends, spending time with him,

walking with him in faith and confidence of his promises, discovering and exploring his nature, the fullness of who he is, and ministering to the people around us that they might know him as well. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your desire to spend time with us. And I pray, God, that you would help us to

Be like Abraham, that we would have that eagerness, that as soon as we have the hint that you're there and you want to do something special, you want to speak to us or have a conversation, Lord, that you want to reveal yourself in some way, Lord, I pray that you would give us that eagerness to run to you, to bow down, Lord, that we would seek out those opportunities. And Lord, that we would give you a significant amount of time, Lord, that it wouldn't be some crazy thing for us to spend a couple hours with you.

Lord, that that would be part of our relationship with you, part of our friendship together. Help us, Lord, to know you, to hear from you, to receive from you. And Lord, all of the great and blessing things that you want to do in our lives, we thank you for that. Help us, Lord, to believe you, to trust you. When we can't see how anything good would ever come, Lord, would you engage with us in a dialogue that we might, like Sarah said,

Move from that place of unbelief to judging that you are faithful and trusting in you. Help us, God, to do that. Help us, Lord, to explore all of who you are, your full nature, your full character. You've revealed yourself abundantly through your scriptures. And so, Lord, may we search them. May we engage with you in hard conversations and difficult topics. Help us to understand you more and more, fuller and fuller.

And I pray, God, that you would empower us with your Holy Spirit, that we might be effective as your agents to minister to the world around us, that we would help them to know you, that we would draw them into that relationship with you, Lord, that they would be blessed and that you would fulfill your promises through our faithfulness to you. We pray this in Jesus' name. 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.